Zim Independent

The best thing to happen to Zimbabwe
By Rejoice Ngwenya

MOROKA village, a few minutes’ drive into Botswana from Ramokgwebane border post, is only termed a village because it is under the administration of a kgotla run by Headman Jakalasi.

My grandfathers and uncles have been citizens of that village since the early fifties. Only in 1979, the eight-kilometre stretch from Francistown was a dusty track patronised by old 404s and donkey-drawn scotch-carts. On either side of this ancient highway, one would see fragile pole- and-mud huts strewn over wide areas of semi-arid terrain, occasionally punctuated by under-developed maize and sorghum crops. Large herds of cattle and well-fed donkeys were a common sight across the roads, posing a deadly hazard to unsuspecting motorists from the “wealthy” Rhodesian side.

Today, the reverse is true. This past holiday season, my nocturnal encounter with the village was an astounding revelation. It was like driving through Warren Park in its early days — scattered but well-built brick-under-tile houses with electric lights flickering defiantly from fascia boards. By the time I got to my uncle’s house, I had already been treated to a spectacle of a well-stocked supermarket, satellite dishes and running water in homes of what may be termed “messengers” in Harare.

Rural electrification at its best! I agonised over how long the Zanu PF government had promised to tar the road from Chachacha via Tongogara to my primeval Mudzengi village kwaNhema, in Shurugwi.

Time-warped electoral promises have pacified villagers since 1980, who probably by now struggle to find transport to the provincial hospital — simply because bus companies are tired of risking their hard-won assets on the rugged roads of rural areas. Perhaps the only thing that illuminates these forgotten places is either a solitary light from the chief’s bedroom — a symbol of our government’s “highly successful” rural electrification programme — or tungsten lamps dangling from verandahs of bottle stores at “growth points” — Zanu PF’s euphemism for glorified tuckshops. What a joke!

It turns out that Moroka village is one example of how public accountability, democracy and respect for citizens combine to form a potent potion of economic development. Mind you, I have not even mentioned anything of Lobatse, Mahalapye and Gaborone.

When cross-border travellers comment on how the South African police and their Tswana counterparts abuse Zimbabweans, I usually chip in with a very simple analysis. In our own country, citizens are arrested, charged, convicted and then brought to court to formalise the process. They are sometimes incarcerated for months on end in remand prison without being brought to trial.

I also remind the critics of the Tswana and South African justice systems that in our country, we need permission from local police to express public opinion, hold meetings and distribute political messages. We cannot appear on television or talk on radio unless we sing praises of the government.

In fact, if we so much as venture to criticise the president, there is a suitable charge for that too. Therefore the burning question is: if our own government or system is so spiteful of human rights, why should Tswanas and South Africans respect us? Who will respect you if you do not respect yourself?

My submission is that all that glitters in Botswana is in fact not just diamonds, but a high degree of accountability, respect for citizens’ rights, political sanity, tolerance and good old love for other people. The vengeance and ridicule characterised by our own political discourse is alien to Botswana. I know it not from speculation, but through direct experience.

On their television, members of different political parties discuss openly. At bars, they share jokes, beer and sarcasm. They display their party livery without fear — which I cannot say of Zimbabweans in Mashonaland Central where Zanu PF warlords mention words like enemy, no-go area, destruction etc — words that have no space in the vocabulary of civilised democracies.

I am sure that many of our brothers, sisters and mothers who I saw standing in the blazing sun at the border post in Plumtree are Zanu PF supporters. I salute their business acumen, but would echo the conscience of a Tswana immigration officer who, when there is a problem in their documentation, would shout: “Go back to your country and work there. Isn’t it you who say President Robert Mugabe is the best thing that ever happened to Zimbabwe? So what do you want here? Buyela kogae! Go back to your country.” A harsh reality.

The bare facts are that where a government is accountable, responsible and democratic, the gains are massive. Firstly, everyone wants to invest in that country. This creates more jobs and a higher sense of individual security. Secondly, markets and monetary “emotions” remain bullish and consumers keep spending, resulting in higher everything — per capita gross domestic product, foreign reserves, standards of life.

In our case, we border-jump because the risk of being caught and whipped at the kgotla is less threatening than being perpetual social rejects at home. In its own ugly way, we deserve a whipping, because we play ball in the

wrong camp — a hostile corner.

I would really care less if this talk sounds like from one whose self-esteem is well below sea level. I represent five million plus Zimbabweans citizens who either have no jobs at homes or clean pigsties and old people’s homes in Pholokwane and Leytonstone. If you do not agree, that is entirely your prerogative.

Zimbabwe right now is at the bottom of the competitive rung while Botswana is flying high. For some reason, Sir Seretse Khama left a legacy of decency that has had a domino effect on his successors. In one way, the bloodless transition from being a British protectorate to an independent republic paid dividends, unlike our own version of outright military conquest that left nationalists with a hangover for haematoid murals on the front doors of political competitors.

Both Zimbabwe and Botswana are in the fast lanes, but while ours is towards destination self-immolation, theirs is towards stardom. We have a choice to stand and watch, or slow down and learn.

Ngwenya is a Harare-based marketing executive.

 

 

Populist policy takes gloss off education
By Ray Matikinye

HOW Zimbabwean secondary school students pass their School Certificate or General Certificate of Education Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations at the end of each year in some of Bulawayo’s working-class suburbs could easily be compared to trying to mount a galloping horse with one’s arm tied behind their back.

The problem is not much of student-to-teacher ratio brought about by a phenomenal expansion of schools which is routinely touted by the Zanu PF government as one of its major success over the past 25 years. Neither is it due to lack of professionalism or low morale among teachers over dispiriting working conditions and low pay, but something more daunting.

Hard-pressed parents of high school students in Bulawayo’s working class suburbs are not pouring honey on books like Jews of the ghetto used to do so that their children appreciate learning is sweet. Neither is the government pouring money on textbooks to spice up students’ education and allow them to learn more effectively.

Students are forced to go to great lengths to complete each assignment given by their teachers due to a critical shortage of textbooks. The high cost of imported textbooks spawned by a steep depreciation of the Zimbabwean dollar against major international currencies has nettled poor and middle-class parents alike. It is now commonplace to come across a class of 40 pupils sharing only five prescribed textbooks in Zimbabwe’s urban and rural secondary schools.

“We have devised a cluster system where five or more pupils who live near each other share a prescribed textbook on a rotational basis,” says Magadelene Ngwenyama, a teacher at a school in one of Bulawayo’s working class suburbs of Luveve.

Sharing textbooks among so many students also diminishes a book’s lifespan.

Like other high schools, students living in the same section of the working class suburbs share a single textbook to do their homework. Teachers cannot copy a whole lesson involving a lot of figures and tables on a single chalkboard they also share with another class and still give instructions in an allotted 35-minute lesson.

“That is impossible,” Ngwenyama, who teaches accounting, says, adding: “The school managed to buy only two prescribed textbooks this term because parents resist levy increases proposed by the school committee to raise enough money to augment textbook stocks.

“It is so frustrating to both the teacher and the students,” she says with a sigh of resignation.

A skewed populist policy grounded on putting a lid over levy and fee increases by the ruling Zanu PF government to endear itself with the electorate mismatched by dwindling resource allocation threatens to unhinge an erstwhile praiseworthy effort by the state.

The Education Sport and Culture ministry gives schools grants for textbooks from its budget allocation each year but the cost of replacing torn ones has risen dramatically over the years, forcing at least five pupils to share one textbook. Parents and guardians have to buy textbooks at enormous cost as well.

“School textbooks and exercise books are expensive for us that depend on a monthly pension,” bemoaned 70-year old pensioner Trynes Sibindi, who fends for his two grandsons at high school that were bequeathed to him by a son who died three years ago.

But parents seem to have found a good bedfellow in Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere who has rebuked school committees and headmasters for raising levies and fees to meet escalating administration costs without his ministry’s consent.

Last year the ministry suspended several headmasters and ordered some schools to close for ignoring a ministry directive not to increase fees or levies.

Others, particularly white-dominated schools, were penalised and accused of attempting to maintain elitism. Concerned parents, keen to give their children the best education they can, took the ministry to court over the issue.

For instance, a single set of imported, prescribed textbook costs almost half the monthly salary of a general worker and unless parents scour used textbook vendor stalls littered along the city’s pavements, there is little hope for them to buy new ones. Some enterprising parents have tried to photocopy textbooks but still the costs for doing so are prohibitive.

“We charge $75 000 levy for a term and are the cheapest,” says a bursar at Magwegwe secondary school who refused to be identified. “Others such as Sikhulile in the same suburb charge $300 000,” she added.

A term’s levy charged at Magwegwe secondary school is half the price of a literature textbook such as Shakespeare’s Macbeth or Twelfth Night and a third of the price charged for a Thomas Hardy paperback, Far From the Madding Crowd.

Ngwenyama says: “Our job as teachers is like bricklayers expected to construct a house without being given the bricks.”

But despite all the shortcomings in the administration of education,

Zimbabwe’s education is highly rated in the Sadc region, attracting students from almost all neighbouring countries each year, although critics say this is more for what the education used to be than for what it is now.

In addition to the debilitating and morale-sapping shortage of textbooks, Zimbabwe has lost thousands of its trained teachers and other professionals to neighbouring countries while general school infrastructure is collapsing.

Ruling in MaFuyane inquest set for today
Loughty Dube

THE ruling on the inquest into the death of Johanna MaFuyane, the wife of the late national hero and veteran politician Joshua Nkomo, is expected to be made public today (Friday) amid allegations that her death was not due to natural causes.

Coroner and provincial magistrate for Bulawayo, John Masimba, is expected to hand down the judgement having gathered evidence from 11 witnesses during the inquest last year. This followed a request by the Nkomo family for an inquest after suspecting foul play in events surrounding her death.

Ten witnesses including the late MaFuyane’s personal bodyguards, state security agents and doctors who attended to her when she was taken to hospital testified in a case that has been before the courts for the last 14 months.

Nicholas Collen Shava, MaFuyane’s driver and a key witness in the case, died before testifying at the inquest. Doctors who testified in the case include Etwell Mari, Stanford Mathe and Chandisaita Tarumbwa.

The ruling in the case was supposed to be made last week but public prosecutor Bongani Walter Dube told the court that the ruling would be made today as court transcribers had taken too long to transcribe the record of the court proceedings.

“The delay in coming up with the judgement in this case was due to the fact that transcribers working on recording and transcribing court proceedings took long and this did not give the magistrate enough time to write his judgement,” Dube said.

He said the process was now completed and the presiding magistrate was ready to make his ruling.

MaFuyane died at the Roman Catholic-run Mater Dei hospital in Bulawayo after she collapsed at her Matsheumhlophe home on June 3 2003. She was declared a national heroine and buried at Heroes Acre.

Dr Mari, who attended to her when she was brought into hospital, told the court that she did not have a heartbeat and her eyes were fixed when she arrived at the hospital suggesting that she could have been dead on arrival.

In a letter written to the courts by MaFuyane’s eldest daughter, Thandiwe, on July 4 2003 seeking an inquest into her mother’s death, the Nkomo family says they were worried by the “grey areas” in the matter.

A summary of a sudden death report in the possession of the Independent indicates that she died of asphyxiation, due to the forcing of large amounts of water down her throat.

EU hunts for Mugabe treasures
Gift Phiri

WITH less than eight weeks to go before the European Union reviews its targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his officials, investigators in Britain and the United States are working flat out to track assets held by those under review.

The Zimbabwe Independent heard this week that the Jersey Financial Services Commission, in conjunction with the Joint Financial Crimes Unit, has intensified its search for funds that could be held in offshore accounts by Mugabe and his cronies in the Channel Island.

Financial investigators believe members of Zanu PF have used proceeds from 25 years’ access to the national treasury to buy houses and other real estate in the UK, the US and elsewhere.

While the investigators have revealed that proof of ownership has probably been hidden several layers deep beneath “shell corporations” and intermediaries, the investigators think the expertise and records exist to make tracking possible.

The commission on its website has listed Mugabe, his wife Grace, and 95 ministers and advisers as “politically exposed persons” who require scrutiny by banks to ensure there was no “reputational risk” to the institutions.

“Politically exposed persons” are identified with what the commission calls “potentate risk”, a term given to the risk associated with providing financial and business services to officials of countries tainted by “corruption, bribery, scandals and scams”.

“President Mugabe and his associates clearly fit the definition of a ‘politically exposed person’ as defined in the commission’s guidance issued in the Anti-Money Laundering Guidance Update,” the commission said.

The Independent understands that as yet, no-one has been able to quantify the scale of the assets in question, and some may be a great deal more difficult to locate than others.

The commission, which regulates Jersey’s 250 trust companies, 150 investment firms, 70 banks and 30 fund administrators, said financial institutions should “review files” to determine whether any links existed with the listed individuals.

Jersey is a self-governing British dependency, which has grown to become prosperous because of “offshore” bank accounts held there.

EU and US officials have of late been intensifying the trawling of financial institutions for possible holdings by political and military leaders of the Zimbabwean regime.

But the commission seems doubtful.

“We have no reason to suppose Jersey is being used for this.”

But it also said: “Nevertheless, regulated institutions should review their files to determine whether or not they have any connection with any of the named individuals. They will then wish to satisfy themselves that they know the customers concerned and have taken any appropriate action to address any reputational risks that may arise.”

UN food agency puts Zimbabwe on high priority
Godfrey Marawanyika

THE Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) has placed Zimbabwe on the high priority list. The country needs urgent food assistance to save 5,8 million people from starvation, the network says.

In its latest report released on Wednesday, the United Nations forecasting arm classified Zimbabwe amongst priority nations such as Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The report said in Somalia there were about 1,8 million people in need of food, Eritrea, 2,2 million and Ethiopia 8,2 million.

“Staple food availability is declining as market prices continue to rise,” the report said.

On Zimbabwe it said: “High inflation and the Grain Marketing Board monopoly are exacerbating the situation. While cereals are still available in urban areas, continuing erosion of real incomes makes them unaffordable to many.”

Although Zimbabwe officially says that it no longer requires food assistance, the UN has constantly said that the country is in need of food aid.

“Zimbabwe has imposed restrictive trade barriers that make both formal and informal trade unattractive to most traders,” the report said.

The Grain Marketing Board was faced with logistical problems and was unable to supply the country with maize, Fewsnet said.

“As a result, the GMB has had to ration supplies, leading to widespread scarcities, a booming black market and high retail prices that are beyond the reach of some Zimbabweans,” it said.

Last month Fewsnet said maize prices on the parallel markets continued to rise, limiting the ability of deficit households to buy enough food to satisfy their needs. It warned that levels of malnutrition were expected to rise between January and March.

“In most urban centres staple cereals continue to be available. But a smaller proportion of urban households are able to purchase sufficient food due to the continued erosion of real incomes,” Fewsnet said.

“Food-insecure households in both urban and rural areas are responding through reducing their consumption. Over time, levels of malnutrition and related diseases are expected to rise, peaking in the January to March 2005 period.”

Fewsnet said its targeted feeding programmes currently allowed by government could not adequately address the food insecurity problem facing both urban and rural communities in Zimbabwe.

“The humanitarian community in Zimbabwe needs to find fresh ideas, palatable to both the government of Zimbabwe and the donor community, to expand the limited working space in which they are currently forced to operate,” the report said.

MDC prepares dossier for Sadc troika
Staff Writer

THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said yesterday it had prepared a dossier to be submitted to a Southern African Development Community (Sadc) delegation which was expected in the country last night.

The Sadc delegation of lawyers from South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia — countries which form the regional body’s troika for politics, defence and security that monitor elections — is due to assess whether Zimbabwe is complying with election guidelines adopted in Mauritius last August.

The troika’s chairman is President Thabo Mbeki who has been at the forefront of resolving Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis.Mbeki and other Sadc leaders are racing against time to ensure Zimbabwe holds a free and fair election in March.

The Sadc team is scheduled to examine Zimbabwe’s electoral laws and institutions to see if they have been sufficiently adapted to facilitate a free and fair election. Some Sadc countries want the United Nations to be involved in Zimbabwe’s election.

Sadc leaders are anxious for Harare to comply with the regional bloc’s principles governing democratic elections in the region.

The Sadc protocol stipulates that member states should hold regular, free and fair elections.

It encourages the establishment of “all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel” as well as competent legal entities to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising.

The Sadc protocol also demands that for elections to succeed political and civil liberties such as freedom of assembly and expression must be upheld. Parties should also be given equal access to the public media to campaign.

Member states are encouraged to prevent electoral fraud and cheating.

Zimbabwe has enacted two new laws in a bid to comply with the Sadc rules.

A purportedly independent commission has been set up. Voting will be done in one day instead of two and the counting of votes will be done at polling centres.

However, the MDC says the electoral reforms are cosmetic and piecemeal. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been travelling in Africa and Europe to mobilise the international community to bring pressure to bear on Zimbabwe to hold a genuine election.

The MDC’s dossier says the legal framework and political environment are hostile to a free and fair poll.

MDC legal affairs secretary David Coltart said the dossier would be submitted to the Sadc team so it could understand the situation on the ground.

“We have a comprehensive document which we will submit to them on the current situation,” he said.

The dossier says the environment is not conducive for free and fair elections. It cites a series of legal and political factors that would make it impossible for Zimbabwe to hold a legitimate election.

The MDC document says laws such as the Public Order and Security Act, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and Broadcasting Services Act were restrictive.

It also says political intolerance and violence were still high, while political and civil liberties were being curtailed. The dossier indicates that repression and human rights abuses would militate against a free and fair election.

Is it Bush, Blair or Mugabe?

OPPRESSIVE, dictatorial, autocratic, despotic, authoritarian, totalitarian, cruel, repressive, brutal, tyrannical, lawless, bloodletting, restrictive and intolerant.

The list can go on and on.

Do these words describe George W Bush’s Republican party, Tony Blair’s Labour party or Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF?

I wish Information minister Jonathan Moyo was ready to answer but pity he is wallowing in the mire!

Tjiliwa wa Lugondo,

Plumtree.

Advice for Streak

WHILST I look forward to the return of Heath Streak and the other so-called rebels into the Zimbabwe Cricket fold, I would urge them to think very seriously about the timing of their comeback.

I suggest that if they do come to some form of agreement with the ZC, they only make themselves available after the Zimbabwe Cricket tour to South Africa. Should four, five or however many are chosen, play against the Proteas, they will be in a no-win situation as it is highly unlikely that any of them will shine against a strong South African side, particularly after having not played regular first-class cricket for almost a year now.

Any Zimbabwean test team, irrespective of the make-up will more likely than not, be thrashed by the South Africans. This being the case, it will give ample ammunition to Peter Chingoka, Ozias Bvute and the local media to say: “You see we should have stuck with the youngsters who at least beat Bangladesh in the One-Day Internationals and who are gaining experience game after game rather than having these rebels back who perform no better.”

Conveniently forgetting the difference in strength between Bangladesh and the Proteas, let the youngsters pit themselves against our neighbours to the south in the Tests and ODIs and only then can the cricket fraternity gauge how far they have come in terms of experience.

Trevor Blyth,

Harare.

Time to reward MDC

WHILE the state media may want to downplay the achievements made by MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai during his trips abroad, the truth is that he and his delegation have covered a lot of ground.

Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa was recently quoted by a local weekly calling for UN involvement in the forthcoming Zimbabwean parliamentary election by sending monitors and observers. It is crucial that the UN intervenes as Zimbabwe under President Mugabe has never held free and fair elections.

There were acts of violence against PF Zapu members in 1985. In 1990 Patrick Kombayi, then a Zimbabwe Unity Movement (Zum) official, was almost shot dead by the late vice-president Simon Muzenda’s bodyguard.

The culprit was convicted and sentenced by the courts only to be pardoned by President Mugabe.

Many Zanu PF parliamentarians walked their way to parliament over dead bodies.

A good number of results for the 2000 parliamentary election were nullified

by the High Court because there was evidence that Zanu PF candidates had used violence to steal the election — evidence that the elections were not free and fair.

Had it not been for the Supreme Court, which made sure that the appeals against the nullifications were put on hold, some of the Zanu PF MPs who lost cases in the High Court could have lost their seats.

The above analysis is just to prove the point that there have never been free and fair elections under President Mugabe in Zimbabwe, contrary to what he and Zanu PF may want the world to believe. That is the reason why the MDC president, the entire MDC leadership and all the progressive forces of Zimbabwe should try their best to educate Sadc, Africa and the international community on the reality regarding the state of democracy in Zimbabwe.

If the truth be told, it is the MDC which has to be credited with peace prevailing in the country. Had it not been for the position taken by the party leadership that the party would not participate in the 2005 parliamentary election if Sadc guidelines on elections are not adhered to, hundreds of people opposed to Zanu PF could have been murdered by now.

This happened in the 2000 parliamentary election, in the 2002 presidential election and in most of the parliamentary by-elections held after 2000. Zanu PF tried in vain to contain its sponsored thugs for fear that its violent nature would be exposed to the world.

Peace-loving Zimbabweans should in turn reward the MDC for its stance which has seen the reduction of violence by voting for its candidates in the March election should the party finally agree to take part.

If the MDC is able to contain violence before it assumes power, Zimbabweans are guaranteed of peace with an MDC government in charge.

Development only takes place in a peaceful environment and that is the reason why all peace-loving Zimbabweans should rally behind the MDC.

While the party should continue to prepare for the election, a decision on whether to participate or not should only be made just before the sitting of the nomination court.

If the decision is made before a careful analysis is made, Zanu PF will resort to violence and the electorate will be confused if the MDC withdraws its participation after initially making a commitment to participate.

I also call on the UN secretary- general Kofi Annan to seriously consider the Zambian president’s advice and assemble monitors and observers for the forthcoming election.

Mwanawasa is closer to Zimbabwe and it is apparent he knows what the environment in Zimbabwe is like.

Benjamin Chitate,

Harare.

How we can tackle corruption

I ADDRESS this letter and appeal to you (the editor) in as much as I do to every Zimbabwean across all political, social or religious divides, to look critically at corruption in this country in the same way the world should have looked at the Tsunami effects had we been forewarned of its coming.

 It’s not Zimbabwean by origin as Zimbabweans have naturally and culturally been a very honest people. It’s foreign culture and let’s know who is bringing it to fight it. Some of those we call friends may not be true friends, but the worms;

 It has killed all our societal values from the core;

 It has pervaded deeply all our lives economically, socially, politically and religiously and is about to explode;

 It’s no longer a cancer in government, private sector, Zanu PF/MDC, etc, but in us all;

 It’s the reason why we cannot unite as Zimbabweans as it has brought economic hardships and consequently the political divide;

 Whoever our true enemy is, is using this strategy to keep us down, out of international focus (economic development), divided and draining our resources;

 It’s the reason why our productive sectors and capacity have collapsed as everyone is discouraged from working hard where others make quick bucks without a sweat;

 It’s the reason behind inflation as our productive sector has been killed and our foreign currency drained, paying for the huge corruption commissions in forex;

 It’s the reason for service provision collapse in both government and private sectors as solutions provided under corruption are no genuine solutions but bubble-gum cover-ups;

 It’s the reason for retrenchments as orgnisations are robbed of both solutions, time, confidence and zeal on the part of the innocent workers, their hard-earned money, etc;

 Perpetrators of corrupt deals usually resign after ruining companies and leave innocent workers to face the bubble-gum solution without enough funding;

 Payments for these deals are being made into foreign currency accounts (FCAs) in the form of holidays and school fees payments abroad, vehicle purchases, etc which are generally luxuries to the beneficiary and rarely come back to build the country;

 It erodes all sense, objectivity and rationale in the way organisations are run;

 Innocent workers and the general citizenry witness corruption as it is committed but keep quiet due to fear, non-concern and ignorance of the effect on them;

 We can go on, but all we are highlighting is look out for it.

Now that everyone (the government, private sector, war veterans, who have always been against corruption from what I know of true war veterans), war collaborators, the two political parties and general public in the country are ready to fight this worm, let’s all rally together as Team Zimbabwe to fight our common enemy.

Part of our strategy can be:

 To establish an anti-corruption levy (hoping it will not be corruptly abused) in every company or organisation to reward the fighters;

 Establish a column in every publication to expose the scourge daily (please editors!);

 Reward adequately the judiciary, police (law enforcers) and everyone to minimise temptations;

 To use this as the key campaign theme for all aspiring candidates across the political divide in the coming election. This will scare away corrupt candidates from whichever party;

 Security organs to put up alert access points countrywide to receive and respond to information on corruption;

 Let’s talk about it everywhere, homes, churches, on the roads, workplaces.

Sendekera Murambatsvina,

Harare.

Stand up to this evil

JANUARY 24 was the anniversary of the freeing of prisoners from Auschwitz concentration camp where one-and-a-half million Jews were slaughtered.

The United Nations honoured the day. Secretary-general Kofi Annan told the world that evil can only prosper when good people remain silent. I have not heard him say much about Zimbabwe!

Human rights activist and Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel addressed the UN with a heart-rending account and plea to the world to ensure that evil is never allowed to prosper.

It made me ashamed that President Mugabe likened himself to Adolf Hitler who was responsible for this greatest atrocity ever committed.

As he continued with his speech, I became sick that I was a Zimbabwean, a people who cannot stand up to a dictatorship that kills and tortures its citizens. I became revolted at the Zanu PF cadres, police and civil servants who carry out the wishes of a leadership that employs evil ways to stay in power.

Wiesel told us that the inmates at Auschwitz were not elated when they saw their saviours. They felt they had been tortured as much by the world that stood by and did nothing as by their tormentors. It is up to everyone of us to stand up to evil, whether we are Zimbabwean, Zanu PF or not.

Only when we do this can the world be a better place for our children.

A McCormick,

Harare.