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Election resources from Kubatana - 25 July 2013
Zimbabwe Election 2013
Resources
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Hot off the press
Zimbabwe
Election Ridiculousness
Check out a funny video by
Nigerian-British viral video-maker Ikenna Azuike that explains Zimbabwe’s
election ‘chaos’ in under two minutes. Use this link for some light relief
Did you
know
Since 15 July, ZTV's given Zanu PF
90 minutes (favourable) coverage, and MDC-T 10 minutes (mostly negative). Use
this link for the whole story
There is only one thing that stops Zimbabwe achieving its
potential: its politicians.
- Petina
Gappah
Election
Day declared a national holiday
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
SW Radio Africa
25
July 2013
Next week Wednesday has officially been declared a national
holiday, to give
Zimbabweans the chance to vote in the elections.
On
Thursday Robert Mugabe declared that Election Day will be a holiday, in
terms of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act.
The
declaration comes as the Constitutional Court is set to rule Friday
whether
or not those who failed to vote during the chaotic Special Vote
period, will
be given a second chance next Wednesday.
The Special Vote was marred by
serious problems, including the late delivery
of ballots and delays at
polling stations.
Almost half the number of people who applied to vote
early, because they are
meant to be on duty during the election, failed to
vote over the Special
Vote period.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) on Tuesday then filed an application
at the Constitutional Court,
looking to allow people another chance, despite
a clause in the Electoral
Act that prohibits this.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said the
matter will be heard on an urgent
basis on Friday.
Chegutu on lockdown as ZANU PF force people to
Mujuru’s rally
By Tichaona Sibanda
SW Radio
Africa
25 July 2013
The town of Chegutu was on virtual
lockdown on Thursday as ZANU PF supporters forced the closure of all shops,
market stalls and schools, forcing its inhabitants to attend a rally that was
addressed by Vice President Joice Mujuru.
Those who resisted being frog marched
to Pfupajena stadium were beaten up, some in full view of the police who turned
a blind eye to the orgy of violence that visited the town.
Charlton Hwende, the MDC-T
parliamentary candidate for Chegutu West, was advised not to campaign in the
constituency as ZANU PF youths were calling for his head.
Hwende told SW Radio Africa that last
week they had told the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the police about the
violence and intimidation by ZANU PF supporters, led by the candidate for the
area Dexter Nduna.
‘We warned ZEC that Nduna’ supporters
are compromising peace, security and harmonious co-existence of people in
Chegutu,’ Hwende said.
He however vowed that members of the
MDC family will no longer be intimidated by the former ruling party, saying gone
were the days when ZANU PF would instigate violence and intimidation during an
election to scare away members of their party.
Hwende stressed that they will no
longer be intimidated saying after suffering 33 years under ZANU PF they were
prepared to endure another 6 days of harassment.
‘We have endured 33 years of
dictatorship, endured 33 years of torture from ZANU PF, so another 6 days will
not kill us. We will be there on July 31st because people are determined to vote
Robert Mugabe out of power.
‘ZANU PF must not underestimate the
resilience of our people and surely they must not underestimate the
determination of our people to end this dictatorship,’ said
Hwende.
He regretted that anarchy is knocking
on the door of many constituencies around the country.
Former police spokesman Oliver
Mandipaka, the ZANU PF candidate for Buhera West, on Wednesday threatened to
shoot an MDC-T polling agent for allegedly pulling down his
posters.
Shame Masosa told us that he walking
to a party meeting when Mandipaka stopped his car near Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s homestead and threatened him with death.
‘He alleged that I was pulling down
his posters and demanded to know why I was wearing a party t-shirt. I thought I
was going to die but thank god he just got back to his car and drove off,’
Masosa said.
Mandipaka, who is using police
resources including vehicles for his campaign, is locking horns in the
constituency with Jaison Mateweu, the former organizing secretary of the MDC-T
UK.
In Zvimba West reports say that the
ZANU PF candidate Ziyambe Ziyambe is moving around the constituency
decampaigning the MDC-T candidate Paradzai Munangatire, by claiming that he had
resigned from contesting the seat.
Munangatire blasted Ziyambe for
spreading falsehoods, saying it is an indication that the ZANU PF man knows he’s
going to lose the poll.
‘If he’s certain of victory, he should
be articulating his polices and not lying to the people that I’m no longer
contesting him. It’s a shameful lie and he will be punished for that by the
electorate,’ Munangatire said.
There is also growing evidence that
ZANU PF is using coercion to get people to attend Mugabe’s rallies. In Masvingo
people were also forced to attend his rally at Mucheke
stadium.
Since Monday meetings were held in all
wards in the province, with just one message being circulated, that people must
attend Mugabe’s rally without fail. There were warnings that those who not
attending were MDC and would be dealt with after the
elections.
Teachers at some schools are being
forced to put on ZANU PF regalia when conducting their lessons. In other areas,
war vets are threatening villagers that they will be monitored throughout the
voting process to ensure that they do not vote for the MDC T.
We attend ZANU
(PF) rallies for T-shirts and protection
ZANU (PF) is moving
around with a green haulage truck to its rallies. The truck carries
the party’s regalia which are being distributed to the electorate at the
rallies. The people who
attend the ZANU (PF) rallies are as usual bussed from neighbouring areas of the
venue of the rallies.
Most people go there unwillingly. I
attended one of the rallies in Marondera on Monday (15 July) where I met with
several people who had been bussed in. They told me that they will continue to
attend the rallies but they will not vote for the aging ZANU (PF) leader Robert
Mugabe come the 31st of July.
“We are here to get the regalia and wear
it. We know that if we resist that will be the end of our lives. We are tired
of ZANU (PF) and its fake promises, “a young man of 24
said.
“If we do not attend ZANU (PF) rallies
they will dispossess us of our markets, that is why we are here. ZANU (PF) has
nothing to offer, they have failed. What they can do is to rig the election but
they will not win the hearts of the people. Not any more”, Joseph
said.
So Comrade President do not be shocked
come 4 or 5 August when the election results are
announced.
ZEC,
Security Sector Ties Big Threat to Free Zimbabwe
Polls
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
25.07.2013
HARARE — The Zimbabwe Democracy Institute
says the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission’s close ties to the country’s
security system and lack of
transparency in the production of the voters’
roll compromises the electoral
body’s ability to deliver a credible, free
and fair election.
Launching its report titled, ‘Electoral Battleground:
Voters roll rigmarole’,
ZDI chairperson Rashweat Mukundu, said production of
the voters roll must be
done in a transparent manner.
He said civil
society, local and international observers must be allowed to
observe how
the voters’ roll will be managed and deployed to polling
stations.
The 19-page report says the security sector is
systematically entrenched in
the country’s political life and is capable of
wreaking havoc.
Mukundu said the security sector poses a threat to
democratic electoral
processes in the country, adding that the transfer of
power could be a
problem if President Robert Mugabe loses the
election.
He explains it is important for the electoral body to spell out
the military’s
role in the July 31 elections.
The report also says
thousands of prospective voters, particularly in urban
areas, did not
register due to restrictive requirements and lack of
publicity of the
registration exercise.
The so-called aliens were also disenfranchised
because of confusing messages
on what was needed for them to register as
voters.
Mukundu said these and other factors point to an election which
won’t be
credible free and fair.
But American ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Bruce Wharton, told journalists in the
capital Thursday that people should
not prejudge the Zimbabwe elections.
He spoke after handing over $50,000
grants to communities in three
provinces. Mr. Wharton said he believes that
local, Southern African
Development Community and African Union observers
will be able to
sufficiently monitor the polls.
Zimbabweans go to the
polls next week to choose new leaders to replace the
uneasy government of
national unity but civil society and other political
parties doubt the
electoral commission can deliver given the chaos that
characterised last
week’s special voting for police officers and other
members of the uniformed
forces.
Political
intimidation rife in Mvurwi
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
MARGARET CHINOWAITA • 24 JULY 2013
8:59PM
MVURWI – Driving into the farming town of Mvurwi in Mashonaland
Central, one
could be forgiven for assuming that only one party is taking
part in the
elections end of this month.
Zanu PF posters were the
only ones visibly pasted on walls while MDC
formations’ posters are nowhere
to be seen.
It is less than two weeks towards elections and this scenario
is widespread.
Youth Agenda Trust, YAT coordinator for Mashonaland
Central Tonderai Samhu
and aspiring MDC candidate in Mazowe North
Constituency said they had pasted
posters for their candidates but these
were removed allegedly by members of
Zanu PF party.
He said the
situation is tense in Mvurwi as anyone suspected to be in the
opposition is
not being allowed to engage in any activities freely.
The assumption is
if a group wants to engage in any activity that involves a
number of people
then it is assumed to be MDC.
Recently, Youth Agenda Trust, YAT, a
grouping of young people that is
talking about peace and tolerance went to
Mvurwi with a programme to engage
youths in a soccer match were disrupted by
mobs in Zanu PF T-shirts and
caps.
In a move that has reminded
villagers in Mvurwi that a free and fair
election is still a pipe dream,
Zanu PF youths led by a retired soldier
disrupted a sports tournament that
was organised by YAT arguing that the
organisation is a front of
imperialists.
The soldier only identified as Chishaka formerly with the
presidential guard
in cahoots with a local farmer identified as Nhepera led
Zanu PF youths in a
door-to-door campaign warning villagers against
attending the YAT event and
threatening them with unspecified
action.
The group, which allegedly received logistical support from an
aspiring Zanu
PF MP, stormed Pembichase Farm located in Ward 26 of Mazowe
North
Constituency and ordered youths, some of whom had walked about 10 km
to the
venue, to abandon the Play Your Vote sports tournament.
The
group was supported by a number of policemen from the area who
threatened
the youths against defying the militia’s orders.
Samhu was taken for
questioning and threatened with death if he dared
organise a similar event
in the constituency.
Addressing youths who had braved the intimidation,
YAT coordinator Fortune
Nyamande challenged them to be resilient and turn
out in large numbers and
vote for progressive politicians.
He called
on young people to choose politicians who have sustainable
solutions to
their problems such as unemployment, basic education and health
facilities
and a government that respects fundamental freedoms as enshrined
in the new
Constitution.
On the sidelines of the tournament, the youths discussed
their right to
vote, issues around the secrecy of the ballot and provisions
of the new
Electoral Act.
Youths who attended the meeting received
T-shirts courtesy of Zimrights and
the Election Resource Centre and
newsletters from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights.
YAT maintains
that although Zanu PF has been telling anyone who cares to
listen that it is
ready for elections, it is evident that it wants to
conduct the polls under
an intimidating environment and steal the people’s
vote.
Zimbabwe
Rights Groups Fear for Media Freedom Before Election
http://www.voanews.com/
Anita
Powell
July 24, 2013
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s media landscape has
grown in the past year to
include several independent media groups that are
joining the powerful state
broadcaster in reporting on next week’s election.
But rights groups say they
are still seeing “low-level repression” of
journalists.
Rights groups and media watchers agree that Zimbabweans will
have more media
choices during this election than in previous
years.
But more, says the Committee to Protect Journalists, does not
necessarily
mean better.
In the past 18 months, the government has
licensed two new radio stations,
says CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Sue
Valentine. But, she said, those
voices are largely drowned out by state
media, which she said clearly favors
President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF
party. Mr. Mugabe will lead his party's
ticket on the July 31
election.
“So there are some chinks in the general armor of silence," she
said. "But
state media does remain dominant in terms of its reach around the
country.
... If the state broadcaster, if it were behaving according to
journalistic
ethics, if it were behaving more more like a public broadcaster
and offering
equal time or proportionate time to different parties, I think
then it would
not be a problem ... But it is because you have such a
slanted state media
that I think the problem exists.”
Mugabe, who is
89, has led Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980. He is
running again,
though a recently approved constitution limits him to just
two more
five-year terms.
The 2008 elections were marred by violence, which rights
groups largely
attributed to Mugabe’s security forces. Mugabe agreed to form
a
power-sharing government with the opposition; with this vote, he seeks to
free himself from that troubled pact.
Valentine said the group’s
concerns are not only about the government: she
cited reports of
intimidation and attacks by what appear to be opposition
supporters.
Human Rights Watch’s Africa Advocacy Director Tiseke
Kasambala said while
the media landscape does look better than it has in the
past, the rights
watchdog is still concerned. She echoed concerns the state
media reports
more on the ruling party than on the opposition, and said her
group had also
documented the opposition-linked attacks.
She also
said that years of intimidation and harassment have led many
independent
journalists to self-censor.
“While there has been an improvement in media
freedoms in the country, this
is not to say that concerns to not remain
around the ongoing low-level
repression and intimidation against
journalists, especially with restrictive
laws hanging over their heads,”
said Kasambala.
Valentine said the need for an unfettered media goes
beyond just one
election.
“Zimbabwe used to be a thriving economy, an
exporter of grain to the region,
and this has all disappeared over the last
10 years, tragically," she said.
"And a critical media that can be saying,
‘what has happened? Where is this
money going? How is our economy being
managed? What are the choices that
citizens have around them?"
She
said, "People do not have jobs, why is this the case?’ Those are the
kind of
questions that a critical media should be able to ask, and a
responsive
leader would want to hear, in order to address these things and
to govern in
the interests of citizens, as opposed to in the interests of
the
elite.”
Without many of those questions asked or answered elections will
proceed on
Wednesday.
Zanu
PF supporters threaten repeat of 2008 violence
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
July 25, 2013 in News,
Politics
AS general elections fast approach, Zanu PF is now employing
various
intimidation tactics in Manicaland province, where known
perpetrators of the
2008 poll violence are threatening to beat up or even
kill those who will
not vote for President Robert Mugabe in Wednesday
general polls.
Faith Zaba
In an interview with Zimbabwe
Independent today, MDC-T Manicaland provincial
chairman Julius Magarangoma
said Zanu PF supporters were threatening their
members with a repeat of the
2008 election violence, which occurred during
the presidential run-off
period, if Mugabe loses or if there is no outright
presidential
winner.
He said as the elections draw close, there are increasing levels
of
intimidation, particularly in rural areas, whose memories are of the
violence that rocked Zimbabwe in 2008 when hundreds of people were killed as
the military embarked on a violent election campaign to rescue Mugabe after
he lost the first round of polling, are still fresh.
“Intimidation
has intensified in the last three days. Zanu PF supporters are
going around
threatening people with violence. So far they are using people
who were
involved in the 2008 election violence,” Magarangoma said.
“They have
deployed the 2008 perpetrators of violence in Buhera and other
parts of
Manicaland. These people are known by the locals. All they do is
just walk
or drive around the constituencies or just hang around the
shopping centres.
Now people are scared that they are there to mete out
violence on the
locals.”
He added that: “People were being told that they will beat up
people during
the run-off, like they did in 2008, if they don’t vote
correctly and ensure
that Mugabe wins in the first round.”
In
addition, Magarangoma said MDC-T supporters were being arrested for
engaging
in door-to-door campaigns and toy-toying.
“We are not allowed to campaign
door-to-door and police are arresting our
members saying it is illegal. This
is just part of the intimidation tactics
being employed.”
This is
happening as Mugabe, who is desperate for legitimacy if he wins July
31
elections, has been preaching peace at all his rallies.
ZBC
refusing to screen MDC adverts because they are too powerful
http://www.insiderzim.com/
Thursday, 25
July 2013
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is refusing to screen two
Movement for
Democratic Change adverts, which the party has already paid
for, because
they are too powerful and the Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic
Front cannot match them.
The MDC said today the
adverts showed party president Morgan Tsvangirai and
Mai Tsvangirai with
their “incisive” messages on what the MDC will do when
it forms the next
government after winning the 31 July elections.
The party said it had
been told that the ZBC was waiting for ZANU-PF to make
counter adverts from
Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace before they can screen
the MDC
adverts.
In the MDC’s own words:
Thursday, 25 July
2013
ZBC fails to flight President and Mai Tsvangirai
adverts
State broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is
failing to
flight two MDC advertisements which show President Tsvangirai and
Mai
Tsvangirai calling on the people of Zimbabwe to vote for the MDC on 31
July.
Although the MDC has paid in full for the advertisements, the ZBC
is yet to
flight them raising concerns of the public broadcaster continued
disregard
of the Electoral Act that guides political advertising during
elections.
The two adverts in which President Tsvangirai appears with Mai
Tsvangirai
have incisive messages on what the MDC will do when it forms the
next
government after winning the 31 July elections.
The adverts
which ZBC are declining to flight are already on the MDC
website; – www.mdc.co.zw and Facebook page – zimbabwemdc
have since gone
viral.
Sources at the ZBC said senior management at
the station felt that the
messages on the adverts were too powerful and it
would be difficult for Zanu
PF match the MDC adverts and the station was now
waiting for Zanu PF to make
counter adverts from Robert Mugabe and his wife
Grace before the MDC adverts
could be screen on TV.
In her advert,
Mai Tsvangirai appears telling fellow Zimbabwean women that
she is aware of
their plight in sending children to school and having food
on the table, and
that is why she was appealing to vote for her husband,
President Tsvangirai
so that they can have a better life and real
transformation.
In
another advert, the couple is shown informing the people of Zimbabwe that
they deserve more and that in the next MDC government everything will be
possible.
TV
Viewers Dump ZBC
http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/
Ray Ndlovu 25 Jul 2013
DECADES of a monopoly and
partisan programming by the state-owned Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) has forced millions of television viewers to
look beyond the country’s
borders for an alternative source of broadcasting
content.
It would
appear that the entry of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
in 1999
onto the political stage might have forced ZBC to become rabid in
its
criticism of ZANU-PF’s rivals.
In a bid to deal with the new political
threat, ZANU-PF propagandists turned
to ZBC to do the party’s
bidding.
Dealing with the MDC’s rise meant tightening the grip on the
airwaves so
that the opposing views are shut out completely.It was, however,
the
ordinary TV viewers who suffered the most from the war, as politicians
battled to win the hearts and minds of the people.
The inception of
stringent media laws in 2002, such as the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act and tougher broadcasting laws was
the final straw.
It made it near impossible for the entry of divergent media
players.
Around the same time, government also attempted to shut out
external
influences from ZBC’s programming by advocating for “100 percent
local
content,” which became a buzzword at the time.
ZANU-PF jingles,
talk shows on farming and one-sided political programmes
bashing the West
and the MDC became the order of the day at ZBC.
Fed up by ZBC’s partisan
reportage and poor programming, viewers started
looking for
alternatives.
Initially, they found solace in Joy TV and Munhumutapa
Broadcasting, but
these channels did not last for long before the government
pulled the plug
on them.
But it was also not long before the free-to-air
channels craze hit Zimbabwe,
with viewers now being able to watch some of
South African Broadcasting
Corporation (SABC) channels from the comforts of
their homes.
Those who can afford, are subscribing to MultiChoice Zimbabwe,
which offers
its Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) at a cost of between
US$10 and US$75
per month.
Nearly all well-heeled members of the
Zimbabwean society subscribe to
MultiChoice, including government
ministers.
An independent survey conducted by the Zimbabwe All Media Products
Survey in
November 2011 established that the country has nearly three
million
free-to-air decoders, representative of nearly a quarter of the
national
population estimated at 12 million.
The free-to-air decoders,
despite their illegal transmission, offered an
alternative view in the
country. Programmes such as Generations, Muvhango
and Isidingo gained
cult-like following across the country.
Although, signal carrier Sentech
earlier this month cut off the SABC signal,
it seems ZBC’s excitement that
it would regain viewers who had dumped it for
years has been
short-lived.
Despite being a more expensive option, pay television is gaining
ground as
viewers do whatever it takes to avoid a return to
ZBC.
Officials at MultiChoice Zimbabwe say there has been an upsurge in new
subscribers.
Desperate viewers who have been missing out on their regular
SABC programmes
due to the signal cuts are turning to purchasing DSTV
decoders from South
Africa and registering them in that country, while
viewing from Zimbabwe.
The trend has been gaining ground and has seen
officials at MultiChoice
Zimbabwe distancing themselves from the illegal
practice.
It is, however, the launch of 1st TV last Friday on the free-to-air
decoders
that has piled pressure on ZBC.
Vivid Gwede, a political
commentator, said ZBC was bound to be affected by
the new station because of
its repulsive inclination to propaganda and overt
political bias to one
political voice and organisation.
“However, the impact of 1st TV will also
depend on how the new player will
handle itself and if it will prove to be a
real alternative to viewers,” he
said.
Rashweat Mukundu, the chairperson
of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, said
1st TV would “shake” up the
broadcasting sector in Zimbabwe.
“People will have access to an independent
voice and another voice different
from ZBC. The coming in of 1st TV is
manifestation of the media policy
failures of the State, which still
believes in this day and age of
technology that sovereignty is defined by a
geographic territory, which they
can close and open up as they wish. 1st TV
is proving a point on how
backward Zimbabwe’s media landscape is, moreso its
lack of promoting an open
broadcasting sector. If we had a genuine public
broadcaster as well as
multiple private television stations, then maybe 1st
TV would not have seen
light of day,” said Mukundu.
With less than a week
before voting in the do-or-die national elections, the
broadcast sector is
fast becoming a space that all political parties need in
order to reach out
to potential voters and their constituencies.
Nigel Mugamu, a social
commentator, said the launch of 1st TV just before
the elections meant
different things to the political parties.
“Any launch of any television
station will affect ZBC. People will
invariably compare the choices before
them. With more travel and exposure to
other television channels like SABC,
people understand value and have been
exposed to more quality and ZBC
lacks that element clearly.”
Mugabe threatens to behead
homosexuals
By Nomalanga Moyo
SW Radio
Africa
25 July 2013
President Robert Mugabe has yet again
revived his acerbic attacks on Zimbabwe’s gay community whom he called worse
than pigs and threatened to behead them.
Mugabe is a self-proclaimed homophobe
who in the past has labelled gay people “worse than pigs and dogs”, and
threatened them with severe punishment.
Mugabe’s latest threats were made in
Mutare where he was addressing a rally at the Aerodrome Ground on Tuesday,
according to a NewsDay report.
In the report, Mugabe is quoted
telling his followers that: “If you take men and lock them in a house for five
years and tell them to come up with two children and they fail to do that, then
we will chop off their heads.
“This thing (homosexuality) seeks to
destroy our lineage by saying John and John should wed, Maria and Maria should
wed. Imagine this son born out of an African father, (US President Barrack)
Obama says if you want aid, you should accept the homosexuality practice. Aah,
we will never do that.”
Homosexuals are generally regarded as
outlaws and frowned upon in Zimbabwe and across Africa where the practice goes
against conservative belief systems.
Regardless of any personal feelings
about homosexuality, a country’s leader should never call for violence against
any group or individual.
These unprovoked utterances by a Head
of State whose rallies have so far been immediately followed by a surge in
harassment of political opponents, are likely to spread fear and despondency
within the gay community.
In July, Mugabe attacked gay people
seven times at his rallies, prompting complaints from the Gays and Lesbians
Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ).
In a letter sent to the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission Wednesday, GALZ said its members are
concerned by Mugabe’s “continued use of hate speech”, which they say violates
their constitutional rights and freedoms.
“The Party president has made
statements that encourage violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community in Zimbabwe. In a number of instances, the President made
statements that are an indication of state sponsored homophobia of alarming
levels,” the letter reads in part.
The body says Mugabe used hate speech
during his addresses in Bondolphi College, Zimbabwe Grounds, Chikomba, Nzvimbo,
Marondera, Chitungwiza, Chinhoyi and in Mutare.
On June 6th, armed men
forced their way into, and ransacked, GALZ premises in an attack which the group
blames on the climate of fear, intolerance and hatred fanned by Mugabe’s
statements.
“GALZ notes with concern that ZANU
PF’s instruments of intimidation and electioneering, which include the subject
of gays, remains as strong as ever and is once again being used during its
campaign rallies.
“It has become customary for the
President to attempt to whip up a climate of hysterical homophobia against
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people before, during and after
elections,” the letter further notes.
The group further called on the
Commission to investigate Mugabe’s hate speech which they say, if unchecked,
will lead to the exclusion of gay people from electoral
processes.
South Africa based actor, human rights
activist Frank Malaba, said it was unfortunate that a country’s leader was
instigating violence against a section of the population.
Malaba said: “Mugabe should know that
his followers listen to him and so if he gives them the go-ahead to be violent
and to behead gay people, they will do that.
“Today it is gays and lesbians,
tomorrow it will be women, albinos, whites, and anyone Mugabe dislikes. This
should not be allowed in an independent country. The rights of citizens should
be protected and respected regardless of sexual orientation,” Malaba
added.
AU
‘happy’ with Zim election prep
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
SW Radio Africa
25
July 2013
The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, South
Africa’s
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has reportedly expressed optimism about
Zimbabwe’s
election next week.
Dlamini-Zuma arrived in Harare on
Wednesday to assess Zimbabwe’s
preparedness for the poll. According to the
Herald newspaper, the former
South African cabinet Minister said there was
not yet any cause for alarm.
“Siyayithola imbiko kulaba akade bafika.
Okwamanje kukahle imbiko
esiyitholayo ayikasenzi ukuthi sibenovalo kodwa
sifuna ukuzobona nje nathi
ukuthi kuqhubekani. (Those who came earlier said
all was well and as of now
everything is proceeding well. Nothing gives us
any cause for alarm),” she
said.
Dlamini-Zuma said the AU was being
briefed about the situation in the
country by a 10-member observer team that
has been in the country since July
15th.
“We are here as the African
Union observer mission, but, as you know, our
team has been here for quite
some time . . . they have been sending us
reports, so we are fairly
informed, but we felt that it was important to
come and see for ourselves
before the elections.”
The AU chief was set to give a media briefing on
Thursday evening, after
meeting with Robert Mugabe. But there is concern
that Dlamini-Zuma will not
speak out against Zimbabwe in any way. Back in
2003, when she was South
Africa Foreign Affairs Minister, she blatantly laid
out South Africa’s
position on Zimbabwe.
“The problem with you (the
press), is that you are waiting for one word –
condemnation of Zimbabwe. You
will never hear that. It is not going to
happen as long as this government
is in power,” she said in March 2003.
Dlamini-Zuma’s visit comes ahead of
the expected arrival of the head of the
AU observer mission, Nigeria’s
former president Olusegun Obasanjo. He is
only set to be in the country a
few days before the election, although
Dlamini-Zuma cast doubts about him
coming to Zimbabwe at all.
“I think he will come if he is allowed,” said
Dlamini-Zuma without
elaborating.
About 600 foreign election
observers, mainly from African bodies, have been
accredited to observe the
polls, while 6,000 local observers will also be
watching the vote. Zimbabwe
did not invite Western observer missions because
of the targeted sanctions
still in place against Robert Mugabe and some key
members of his
regime.
Zimbabwean journalist Mthulisi Mathuthu told SW Radio Africa
Thursday that
the role of the observers is merely technical, saying they
would have played
a more influential role if they had been in the country
earlier. He said
that ZANU PF has been busy planning how to rig the election
in Mugabe’s
favour, in such a way that it won’t be an obvious
plot.
“The problem is that they (the observers) are unlikely to see
anything that
they will be able to point to and say ‘this is how the
election was stolen’.
Because there has been a lot of intellectual effort
put into rigging, which
will leave people flabbergasted and they won’t know
what happened,” Mathuthu
said.
He added: “If they had arrived three
months earlier, they’d understand the
system. By this time, they’d be in a
position not to just be observers but
also investigators. As it is, there’s
nothing they can say.”
Calm
ahead of Zimbabwe vote
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Sapa | 25 July, 2013 16:43
No major
instances of violence and intimidation have been reported ahead of
next
week's elections in Zimbabwe, Deputy International Relations Minister
Ebrahim Ebrahim said on Thursday.
South Africa welcomed the fact
that the "overall atmosphere" in Zimbabwe was
calm ahead of the July 31
polls, he told reporters in Pretoria.
Ebrahim referred to the recent
Southern African Development Community Organ
Troika on Politics, Defence and
Security Co-operation, which was held in
Pretoria last weekend.
"On
the Republic of Zimbabwe, the summit was pleased to note that all the
political parties have committed themselves to ensuring that the forthcoming
elections are held in a peaceful environment," Ebrahim said.
"The
summit encouraged the government, all political parties and leaders to
continue with these commendable efforts which will help realise credible
elections."
The summit praised the Zimbabwean government for the
manner in which it
received observer missions.
About 600 foreign
election observers, mainly from African bodies, had been
accredited to
observe the polls, while 6 000 local observers would also be
watching the
vote.
"The success of the elections in Zimbabwe will contribute to an
improvement
in the regional political and security situation," Ebrahim
said.
"This will create positive conditions for socio-economic
development,
contributing to an improvement in the quality of life for the
people of
Zimbabwe and the region."
On the South Sudan, South Africa
was concerned about recent developments
which saw the vice-president removed
and the cabinet dissolved.
"South Africa calls for calm in the entire
South Sudan, especially among the
different communities, and urges all
communities to exercise restraint,"
Ebrahim said.
It was hoped the
situation would not compound problems between South Sudan
and
Sudan.
"South Africa calls on the leadership of South Sudan not to allow
the
dissolution of the cabinet to impact on the progress of the ongoing
negotiations with Sudan, as well as the progress recently achieved by South
Sudan in addressing her socio-economic challenges."
Zimbabwe
Secures Funds to Conduct General Election
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Thomas
Chiripasi
25.07.2013
HARARE — Finance Minister Tendai Biti says
government has secured enough
money to fund next week's elections but admits
treasury does not have any
money to pay civil servants who will conduct the
polls.
Presenting his Mid-term Fiscal Policy Review Statement at a news
conference
in Harare on Thursday, Biti refused to shed light on the source
of the funds
although he admitted that the money was internally
generated.
The finance minister said his department does not have “a
single coin to pay
officers who will conduct the elections countrywide on
July 31.”
Government had set a budget of $132 million to fund the polls
and extended a
begging bowl to the Southern African Development Community,
some individual
SADC countries, and the international community, including
the United
Nations, but the request found no takers.
At the same
time, Biti said in the event of a presidential runoff, Harare
will not be
able to fund the second round of voting because state coffers
are
empty.
President Robert Mugabe proclaimed September 11 as the runoff date
in the
event there is no outright winner in Wednesday's
elections.
Biti said authorities would not have been cracking their heads
over poll
funding had there been transparency in Marange diamond revenue
sale returns.
The caretaker finance minister last week said announced his
ministry was
investigating a case in which more than $400 million in diamond
money had
not been returned to treasury.
The minister said, “Not even
a dime of diamond revenue was remitted to the
national fiscus for the first
half of the year.”
He added that as a result of political uncertainty,
some companies were
closing shop while his ministry has revised downwards
economic growth
projections due to the underperformance of key sectors such
as agriculture
and mining.
The Mid-term Fiscal Review Statement was
supposed to be presented before
parliament but Biti could not do so
following the expiry of the life of the
seventh parliament.
In light
of next week's polls, Biti said he found it unnecessary to make any
key
economic interventions saying this will be done by a government that
will be
elected into office in Wednesday's polls.
Presidential
Race Tight, Heading for Run-off
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Gibbs
Dube
25.07.2013
WASHINGTON DC — Zimbabweans head to the polls next
Wednesday to elect a
president with no current clear front runner though
political commentators
and some ordinary people believe that the race is
between incumbent
President Robert Mugabe and bitter rival, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Others have not yet ruled out Industry Minister
Professor Welshman Ncube of
the other faction of the Movement for Democratic
Change.
Political commentators predict a tight race for Zimbabwe’s top
most public
position which has been occupied in the past 32 years by
President Mugabe, a
former freedom fighter.
Professor Shadreck Guto
of the University of South Africa believes that
President Mugabe has the
upper hand over Mr. Tsvangirai, Ncube and other
opponents though indications
are that there may be no outright winner.
“It does seem that
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party probably has the
edge given that it
controls the state machinery but also is able to use
threats if not direct
violence in some pockets of Zimbabwe,” says Guto.
He says Mr. Tsvangirai
has not been able to keep his party together and this
may have a devastating
effect on his poll numbers.
“That plays in the hands of Zanu PF and I
think because one of that one of
the splinter groups is said to have joined
another opposition party Zapu in
Matabeleland and therefore this will reduce
the number of votes for the
party led by Tsvangirai,” says
Guto.
Another political commentator, David Mogae, based in Johannesburg,
South
Africa, agrees, noting that results of the general election will be
largely
determined by ways in which the poll will be
conducted.
“Elections in Zimbabwe have been largely characterized by
violence and as
such the presidential election results hinge on the
electoral processes. And
at this stage it is difficult to predict the
outcome of the election,” says
Mogae.
Effie Dlela Ncube, chairman of
the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organizations concurs, noting
that no candidate will win by a clear
majority.
But some Zimbabweans,
who claim that they are not aligned to any party,
believe that Prime
Minister Tsvangirai will win the race while a few
non-profit organizations
have predicted a narrow win for Mr. Mugabe.
David Moyo of the Women in
Leadership Development says Mr. Tsvangirai will
be Zimbabwe’s next
president.
“I strongly believe that Tsvangirai will win the elections
judging by the
large crowd that turned up for his rally in Bulawayo,” says
Moyo.
Some Zimbabweans also say the presidential election outcome will be
determined by contents of party manifestos, past political party records and
bread and butter issues.
Bulawayo Agenda director, Thabani Nyoni, who
is also the spokesman for
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, says people will
vote on the basis of
socio-economic issues which will improve their standard
of living.
“Those turning out to vote will be looking for making a
difference. If it’s
(they are voting for) President Mugabe he will have to
demonstrate that he
will do something that he has not done I the past 32
years,” says Nyoni.
Indications are that political commentators and
members of the public
believe that Zapu chairman Dumiso Dabengwa and
independent candidate
Kisinoti Mukwazhe will not spring any surprises next
week.
In the first round of the 2008 presidential election, Mr.
Tsvangirai got
almost 1,195 562 million votes compared to President Mugabe’s
1,079 730
million.
The prime minister did not have an outright
majority to form the next
government. He dropped out of the second round
citing election violence.
Mugabe
can't win: Analysts
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
THELMA CHIKWANHA, POLITICAL EDITOR • 25 JULY 2013
1:43PM
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF are
heading for
defeat in the July 31 general election, according to political
analysts.
The
89-year-old Mugabe is looking to extend his 33-year rule in polls
scheduled
for next Wednesday, where he squares off with four challengers,
including
his long-time arch-rival and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Ibbo
Mandaza, director of Harare-based think-tank Sapes Trust told the Daily
News
yesterday that Mugabe faces defeat because he has since lost control of
the
rural communities where he previously enjoyed popular support.
“Zanu PF’s
social base which was the rural base has depleted over time
especially given
the socio-economic problems over the last 20 years,”
Mandaza
said.
“It is clear that these problems are daunting Mugabe and cannot be
solved
overnight.”
While the increasingly unpopular Mugabe was forced
on Wednesday to deny
accusations that he was attempting to steal the vote at
a Mutare rally,
Mandaza said the octogenarian’s rigging machinery would not
be able to help
him out this time as Zimbabweans were fully aware of the
machinations.
Mandaza said 60 percent of the newly-registered votes will
vote against him.
Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar General of Voters, told a
news conference this
week that 747 928FROM P1
new voters were registered
by the close of the voter registration exercise
that ended on July 9 and
that 6.4 million people are registered to vote on
July 31.
Mandaza
said Mugabe, the world’s second oldest head of State, will also be
weighed
down by his advanced age.
“There is no way Zimbabweans in their right
minds are going to vote for a
90-year-old president,” Mandaza
said.
“The age liability also exposes Zanu PF’s failure to deal with
succession,
let alone leadership renewal where we have a situation where an
89-year-old
is standing as presidential candidate in the wake of Kenya whose
president
(Uhuru Kenyatta) is 52 and Tanzania’s (president Jakaya) Kikwete
is 63. The
average age is about 57 years. Most post-liberation movements
have managed
succession well.”
Shakespear Hamauswa, a political
science lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe, also predicted a Mugabe
loss, saying Tsvangirai’s penetration into
Zanu PF strongholds was bound to
sway votes away from the Zanu PF strongman.
“In 2008, Tsvangirai polled
almost 50 percent of the same votes Mugabe
received in those provinces and
because of the new voters, Tsvangirai will
likely get more votes,” Hamauswa
said, adding Zanu PF retains control of
only three out of the country’s 10
provinces.
Hamauswa said Mugabe’s Zanu PF will also have to deal with
protest votes
from victims of the 2008 post-poll political
violence.
“People who were beaten up will seek revenge through the ballot
box. Those
who were beaten up and their relatives will engage in a protest
vote,”
Hamauswa said.
He added: “The youths which consist about 60
percent of the population will
not vote for him because they need change.
Mugabe is no longer in charge of
his own political party and the vigour he
had during his earlier days is no
longer there and everyone is talking about
change.”
However, Charity Manyeruke, another political scientist at the
University
of Zimbabwe, predicted a Mugabe win on the back of the youth
vote.
“He will win because he has the support of the youths owing to his
policies
like the land reform, indigenisation and economic empowerment which
have
benefited the youths which consists of the majority of the population
of the
country,” Manyeruke said.
“His age will not have any bearing
because people like a president who is
democratic, a shining star on the
continent who has stood against
neo-colonialism and
imperialism.”
Davison Gomo, an affirmative action activist, said the
people of Zimbabwe
had an emotional connection with Mugabe and Zanu
PF.
“Zanu PF is inextricably linked to the birth of a new and independent
Zimbabwean nation and that history is irremovable and wishing it away in
search of power, is political folly of the worst order,” Gomo said.
“It
is almost impossible to gain power by denying the role and importance of
the
liberation struggle and even going as far as to denigrate the war
veterans.”
Gomo said “there has been a relentless effort from
powerful European nations
and the USA supported by local political outfits
to bring about regime
change under the pretext that Zimbabwe is a failed
state.”
‘Miracle’ doctors set to arrive next week ahead of
free surgeries
By Alex
Bell
SW Radio Africa
25 July 2013
A team of doctors from an
international, charitable organization, are set to arrive in Zimbabwe next week,
ahead of a series of free facial reconstruction surgeries taking place in
Harare.
The team, from the US based Operation
of Hope venture, will be landing in Zimbabwe to prepare for the surgeries, which
will take place from August 5th to August 9th.
The surgeries are being offered free
of charge to children and adults with facial disfigurements like cleft lips and
cleft palates. All people need to do is organise to be at Harare Central
Hospital’s children’s ward on Sunday 4th August, for a pre-surgery
screening.
Operation of Hope is being assisted by
the local Zimbabwe Rotary Club, which is helping with logistics on the
ground.
Rotary’s Stewart Chipato told SW Radio
Africa on Thursday that word is spreading about the surgeries, and people across
Zimbabwe are expressing excitement about the life changing
opportunity.
Operation of Hope was last in Zimbabwe
in July 2012. During that visit, the team of international doctors and surgeons
performed 52 facial reconstructive operations.
The August mission will be the 13th
since Operation of Hope first started coming to Zimbabwe in 2006, and to date
more than 720 free surgeries have been performed in the
country.
The screening day starts at 8am on
August 4th at Harare Central Hospital. Potential patients are asked to bring all
pertinent medical records and information for the screening.
For more information See poster
Zimbabwe
mbira queen Chiwoniso Maraire dies
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Violet Gonda
SW Radio
Africa
26 July 2013
One of Zimbabwe’s most talented musicians,
Chiwoniso Maraire died at the
South Medical Hospital in Chitungwiza on
Wednesday evening. She was 37.
An accomplished singer, songwriter and
proponent of mbira music Chiwoniso
crossed all musical borders inspiring
young Zimbabweans to play the mbira in
a more modern and contemporary
way.
She collaborated with various musicians and artistes across the
world. As
well as producing several albums she also worked on soundtracks
for movies
and documentaries.
Above all, she was a revolutionary
mbira player whose music touched the
lives of millions of
Zimbabweans.
Chiwoniso’s former fiancé and business colleague, Farai Munro,
told SW Radio
Africa the singer had been in hospital for almost two
weeks.
“She got throat problem. She had a sore throat and it got worse
and worse…
apparently the diagnosis I heard is that she passed away from a
chronic case
of pneumonia,” Munro said.
He said ‘Chi’, as she was
affectionately known, was an inspiring and
powerful force within the music
fraternity. “Publically as an artist she
should definitely go down in the
history books as one of the legendary
talents we have produced, alongside
people like Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver
Mtukudzi.”
He said she also had
a deep social conscience and wasn’t in music just for
the money. “Music for
her was her career but she was always very conscious
in her songs. She
always made sure there were relevant social and political
messages.”
Munro was in the middle of recording an album with
Chiwoniso, which will be
released next year. He said: “She broke boundaries.
She just didn’t play
mbira. She did so many different collaborations from
hip-hop to jazz.
There has been an outpouring of tributes for the much-loved
songstress on
social forums.
Arts and entertainment critic Professor
Fred Zindi wrote on Facebook: “It is
with a heavy heart and deep sorrow that
I received the sad news of mbira
music icon and musician, Chiwoniso
Maraire’s death. She died on the 24th
July, 2013 aged 37. Her death has
robbed the music fraternity of a sincere,
creative, innovative, serious and
dedicated singer and performer who was
instrumental in bringing Zimbabwean
music to a higher level. Words cannot
adequately express how I feel about
the loss of such a talented musician and
friend as nothing can describe the
sadness and anguish that I am feeling. We
offer our sympathy, prayers and
compassion to her family and friends. Gone
too soon, the loss of her life
will impact on us forever. Mai Fambai
Zvakanaka. Mai
Tichazomuona!”
Trudy Stevenson, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Senegal, wrote
on Facebook:
“Devastated Chiwoniso Maraire! Spiritual voice of Zimbabwe We
were hoping to
bring her to Dakar Senegal to perform again with her friend
& colleague
Baaba Maal this year, to promote our beloved country. So
happy Baaba Maal
brought her onto stage HIFA2013 – as though it was already
written.”
Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi tweeted: “Very promising and
talented sister.
Death is a painful robber. RIP, you wrote your legacy. Till
we meet.”
Chiwoniso was the daughter of the late renowned Zimbabwean
mbira player and
teacher Dumisani Maraire. She leaves behind two daughters,
Chengeta and
Chiedza, who she had when she was married to legendary
Zimbabwean singer
Andy Brown who died last year.
Mourning The
Passing On, and Celebrating The Life of a Library and Peace Advocate,
Chiwoniso Maraire
http://www.zimeye.org/
By Letters to the Editor
Published: July 25,
2013
Zimbabwe: Chiwoniso Maraire’s Death Shakes
Zimbabwe
Editor,
Allow me space to mourn the death of a beloved
sister Choiwoniso Maraire,
while celebrating her life at the same
time.
Why does God take away our beloved ones when we want those most? I
am in a
state of shock, I cannot believe Chiwoniso is gone. Gone when I was
admiring
the relative peace and calm that I read about in the run up to the
Zimbabwean general election due within the next week? Gone when I was
expecting to dance to her song promoting school library development which I
hope will be launched in the next month or two.
I had all my life not
have had serious one-on-one communication with
Chiwoniso until this year. In
our exchanges, and from what I later read
about her in the media, I became
to admire her person much more than I had
done before. She was a selfless
woman, ready to contribute a hand when it
came to supporting a noble
cause.
I had hoped to meet Chiwoniso and thank her for her contribution
with other
musicians to the Zimbabwe Peace Caravan project musical album
produced as a
tool to help build peace in our communities. I had hoped I
would, during the
same encounter, congratulate her for being part of the
team of musicians
that won the United Nations World Tourism Organisation
assembly theme song
competition. While I had thanked her in emails and sms
messages for
accepting the Zimbabwe Rural Schools Library Trust (ZRSLT)’s
request for her
to contribute a song to the Trust’s yet to be released album
to spread the
message on the important role played by school libraries, I
was hoping to
thank her in person at our first encounter. The forthcoming
album, which
will have songs by various artists promoting school library
development, had
been a guarded secret, but I am compelled to let go, for
how else can I tell
the world about the good work that Chiwoniso was working
on until her
untimely death.
I grew up in a family where mbira was
played daily, that is why when I
thought of the idea for an album to promote
school library development, I
couldn’t avoid Chiwoniso, the Mbira Star as
she was popularly known, among
all other musicians. It took me a while to
get Chiwoniso’s contact details,
and I finally got her email address through
Tsungi Zvobgo, her manager.
Chiwoniso did not have any second thoughts when
we finally made contact.
“Warm greetings to you this afternoon”, she wrote
in an email to me on 12
May 2013.
“I would like to start off by
apologising for my delayed response to your
invitation, I was ill over the
last few weeks so work was set aside for a
bit. I’m very interested in this
project, have you already begun the
recording process, etc? What is it you
need me to do? Driden, please call me
direct on my number so that we can
discuss further. You can reach me on
mobile number …………. I don’t always have
access to a computer at this time,
so my phone is the best. I look forward
to hearing from you. Sincerely,
Chiwoniso Maraire”.
I called
Chiwoniso, and followed up the telephone conversation with an
email, to
which she responded on 13 May 2013:
“Hello Driden, Ok, so I shall wait to
hear from Marshall. I have Bcc’d my
close friend and co-creator Chirikure
Chirikure, whom I am sure you know is
a great writer and performer. We have
worked together for many years and my
intuition tells me his assistance,
should he have time, toward my
contribution to the recording will be of
great value. I would need to let
you know that my studio costs will need to
be covered, as I record either at
Monolio Studios in Hatfield, or MFD
Studios in Milton Park. I understand
about budget constraints, this is a
real issue in the economy we live in at
the moment, but please consider that
some of us are single mothers with two
children in high school who also need
books! Hahaha”.
This was the last email Chiwoniso wrote to me.
In
between my colleagues and I worked very hard to secure funding for the
production of the album. It was not easy, and we are still working on it.
There were trying times during this process, and the trying times are not
over. Some of my detractors labeled me and all my fellow trustees tribalists
without even caring to ask appropriate questions what our rural school
library initiative was all about, how far we had gone and which direction we
were taking, but relied on information posted on our website, which was
posted when we started operations. Such challenges are expected in life, but
one has to toughen up, endure and proceed in the intended
direction.
Earlier this week, a colleague in the trust emailed me to say
that a
potential sponsor who has shown interest in the initiative had asked
us for
a detailed budget for the project. I emailed the musicians involved
in this
project whose email accounts I have to update them on the latest
development, and followed the email with a brief text message asking them to
check their emails. I did not write my name as I assumed all the musicians
involved knew who I was given the subject under discussion and previous
communication we had had. I was a bit shocked with the response “Hi, who is
this?”. I responded giving my name and giving a bit more background hoping
that would refresh her memory, but did not get a response. Perhaps it was
her way of saying good bye to me? Perhaps she was in a state in which she
could not easily remember things? Perhaps it was a friend or relative who
replied to my message, and obviously did not know anything about my
communication with Chiwoniso since May 2013? My Chiwoniso is not there
anymore to answer my questions?
So gone is Chiwoniso, with all the
unrecorded artistic work that could have
helped spread the message about
school libraries. My hope is that she had
managed to collaborate with
Chirikure Chirikure and some of the wisdom she
would have given on this
noble venture has been captured.
I am down, feeling but enduring the pain
and anguish, but feel more
determined to carry on with the work that my
colleagues and I, Chiwoniso
included, had started to make difference in the
lives of the rural school
children of Zimbabwe who are the most deprived of
reading material. The
immediate challenge for me, and hopefully for my
colleagues in the Zimbabwe
Rural Schools Library Trust, is to complete the
album that Chiwoniso died
working towards. Sandra Ndebele-Sibindi, Jesse
O’Brien, Jeys Marabini,
Leonard Zhakata, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Oliver
Mtukudzi, Evans Farai
Mudzengerere, Faith Kunaka, Chirikure-Chirikure, and
unbeknown to you
Munashe Tanjani, and Tawanda Dhibhura (I suggested that
these two child
musicians be involved in the album after reading about their
work on
internet sites, but my colleagues in Zimbabwe are yet to locate
them)
Chiwoniso’s set example should save as a challenge to anyone who
wants to
see the lives of the underprivileged improved. Fellow Zimbabweans,
we the
country prepares for elections, try as hard as possible to maintain
the
peace that Chiwoniso sang about.
Heroine Chiwoniso, you made a
mark in my struggle, a struggle that will be
pursued until final victory!
You touched my life in a positive way. I will
always remember the good
things that you represented. Younger than I as you
may have been, I will
follow your footsteps.
May the Good Lord grant you eternal
peace.
Driden Kunaka
Donor and Trustee, ZRSLT
Zimbabwe
Trustee, ZRSLT New Zealand
Protest at Rigged
Elections - 31/07/2013
From the
Zimbabwe Vigil
Please come and join us at 12
noon on Wednesday 31st July (Election Day) outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy in London. We will be joined at 1 pm by Action for Southern Africa
(ACTSA) and the TUC and we plan to move to the South African High Commission at
2 pm.
The Vigil will be
demonstrating how Mugabe has rigged the poll to ensure that he remains in power
and we will be submitting a letter to President Zuma calling on him to arrange
new elections in keeping with the agreed road map and SADC
principles.
We
expect considerable press coverage on this crucial day. It’s important to tell
the world what is really going on in Zimbabwe.
For more information,
contact: Ephraim Tapa 07940 793 090, Fungayi Mabhunu 07746 552 597, Rose Benton
07970 996 003.
Zimbabwe Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Why the MDCs should form an electoral
pact
By Nomalanga Moyo
SW Radio
Africa
25 July 2013
Activism group Sokwanele has released
a document outlining why the two MDCs should have entered into an electoral pact
to minimise damage in next week’s poll.
The document acknowledges that the two
formations have ruled out a coalition going into the July 31st election, but
this document was presented to them to clarify how successful an electoral pact
could be, to prevent ZANU PF from winning seats by default.
If the two parties were to enter into
an electoral pact, they would avoid challenging each other in constituencies
where either of them is stronger than ZANU PF.
“Ideally the two formations could
agree not to challenge each other in the few constituencies where it may
significantly advantage ZANU PF,” the document says.
In this way, the two MDCs could see an
increase in parliamentary seats and a reduction in ZANU PF numbers.
For
example, if the MDCs had gone into a pact in 2008, they would have won the
Mutare South constituency that eventually went to ZANU PF due to vote splitting.
In that election, the result was: ZANU PF 7,606; MDC-T 5,705; MDC 2,089;
Independent 362.
The same is true of Lupane West: ZANU
PF 3,311; MDC 3,044; MDC-T 2,005. The figures clearly show that it would have
been to the advantage of both MDCs to allow the MDC to contest alone.
“So if
they could come up with a pact before July 31st to say they will not challenge
each other in constituencies of this nature, it will massively water down ZANU
PF’s influence in parliament,” said Crisis in Zim Coalition official Nixon
Nyikadzino.
Nyikadzino continued: “If that kind of
horsetrading was done, there will be 71 advantageous situations for the MDC-T,
and 12 for the MDC led by Welshman Ncube.
He added that the hurdle to such an
electoral pact was the selfish interests pursued by politicians, who view their
participation in politics as a career rather than a service.
Talks of a grand
coalition ahead of the elections had raised hopes that the days of ZANU PF
misrule could finally be over, but these were shattered when the two MDC
formations ruled out any merger.
The
Breadbasket Is Still a Basket Case
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
Zimbabwe is bouncing back from recent
history's most shocking economic
slump. Or is it?
BY MARIAN L. TUPY |
JULY 25, 2013
On July 31, 2013, Zimbabwe will hold regularly scheduled
parliamentary and
presidential elections, the first under its brand-new
constitution. Robert
Mugabe, the 89-year-old leader who transformed a
country once known as the
breadbasket of Africa into an African basket case,
hopes to extend his
33-year-long hold on power. But standing in his way is
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai is an imperfect
leader who has committed many strategic errors,
splintering the opposition
movement in the struggle against Mugabe. He is
also a man who, in defense of
freedom and democracy, has survived numerous
alleged assassination attempts,
and suffered both jail time and torture.
Importantly, Tsvangirai also
understands the need for economic freedom. He
knows that in order to
prosper, Zimbabwe will have to restore respect for
property rights, shut
down money-losing state-run enterprises, and
dramatically improve the
business environment. Zimbabwe could do much worse
than to elect him to the
presidency.
Zimbabwe experienced a miserable decade between 1998 and
2008. During that
time, its economy contracted at an annual rate of -6.09
percent. Next door,
in Botswana and Mozambique, annual economic growth rates
were 3.95 percent
and 4.94 percent respectively. Zimbabwe's per capita
income fell from $1,640
to $661. In contrast, incomes in Botswana increased
from $3,705 to $4,769.
In Mozambique they rose from $1,428 to $2,400. As a
consequence of economic
contraction, Zimbabwe's unemployment rate rose to an
estimated 94 percent in
2008. While Zimbabwe rebounded somewhat from the low
of 2008, its economy
was 36 percent smaller in 2012 than it had been in
1998. The United Nations'
Human Development Index (HDI) -- an approximate
measure of a standard of
living that is calculated on a scale from 0 to 1 --
saw Zimbabwe decline
from 0.376 in 2000 to 0.345 in 2008. The cholera
outbreak of 2008 that
afflicted thousands and killed hundreds of people
merely confirmed the
obvious: Zimbabwe was a failed
country.
While the immediate cause of Zimbabwe's economic implosion
was the violent
occupation and expropriation of white-owned commercial
farms, the roots of
the country's economic problems were political. Robert
Mugabe became prime
minister and, later, president of Zimbabwe in 1980. An
avowed communist,
Mugabe was explicitly committed to turning Zimbabwe into a
one-party Marxist
state. By defeating the white-minority rule in what was
once known as
Rhodesia, Mugabe came to see himself as the supreme leader and
his party,
the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), as the only
legitimate political
force in the country. Opposing Mugabe was Joshua Nkomo
and his Zimbabwe
African People's Union party (ZAPU). Thus, in 1983, Mugabe
unleashed the
Zimbabwean military on Nkomo's supporters. At least 20,000
people died in
that conflict. After the bloodletting, the ZAPU was forced to
merge with the
ZANU, forming the Zimbabwe African National Union --
Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF), and Nkomo became Zimbabwe's powerless vice
president.
There is little doubt that, as a liberator of the black
majority from white
rule, Mugabe enjoyed considerable popularity. Throughout
the 1980s and much
of the 1990s, Zimbabwe enjoyed relative stability; the
small, but
economically vital, population of white farmers and businessmen
flourished
unmolested. An important proviso of the entente between the white
minority
and the black government was that the former would eschew meddling
in
Zimbabwe's politics. The economy continued to grow, albeit at a slow pace
of
1.18 percent per year, and Zimbabwe's HDI score reached a high of 0.427
in
1990, similar to that of Rwanda and Ivory Coast today. By the late 1990s,
however, Mugabe's magic started to wear off. Slow growth, rising
unemployment, and corruption, which inevitably flows out of the exercise of
absolute power, set in. In 1997, Britain discontinued its financial aid to
Zimbabwe's land resettlement program, which bought white-owned farms and
distributed it to black Zimbabweans, sighting corrupt practices that
included awarding of the newly-acquired farms to Mugabe's cronies.
A
new anti-Mugabe coalition emerged in 1999. The Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) consisted of disaffected urbanites as well as black farm
workers. Importantly, it enjoyed the financial backing of white commercial
farmers. The latter grew alarmed at Mugabe's increasingly vitriolic verbal
attacks on the whites, whom the aging leader tried to scapegoat for
Zimbabwe's declining fortunes. The leader of the MDC was a one-time Mugabe
supporter and a ZANU-PF member, Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai was a popular and
powerful trade union leader who became disenchanted with Mugabe's one-man
rule as well as the corruption of the ZANU-PF party elite.
That year,
Tsvangirai led the opposition to a proposed new constitution that
would have
given Mugabe more power and extend his rule. Crucially, it would
have
legalized confiscation of white-owned land without compensation.
Zimbabwe's
economy relied heavily on the highly productive white-owned farms
for
domestic food supply as well as export revenue. Tsvangirai saw that by
expropriating the white farmers, Mugabe would undermine property rights and
ruin Zimbabwe's economy. The referendum on the new constitution took place
in February 2000; Mugabe's proposal was defeated by a 10-point
margin.
With his supremacy challenged and hold on power threatened,
Mugabe decided
to destroy the opposition. Even though the law prohibited
expropriation of
farmland without compensation, Mugabe green-lighted the
invasion of
white-owned farms by thousands of his war veterans. Many whites
were killed
or fled and hundreds of thousands of black farm workers became
destitute. He
then used the armed forces and the police to dislodge hundreds
of thousands
of MDC supporters from urban areas by bulldozing their
dwellings and chasing
them into the countryside. Last but not least, Mugabe
passed
"indigenization" legislation that requires foreign-owned businesses
to hand
over at least 50 percent of their shares to black
Zimbabweans.
The violent theft of white-owned commercial land had
predictable results.
Banks, which use land titles as collaterals when
extending credit to
farmers, were suddenly saddled with a lot of bad debt
and the financial
system froze. Most of the new occupants of the farmland
had no knowledge of
commercial farming and returned, in the best of cases,
to subsistence
farming. With much of the land uncultivated, agricultural
production
dwindled. Companies that processed packaged, and exported
agricultural
produce shut their gates. Zimbabwe's export earnings collapsed.
Widespread
shortages of imported goods, including food and clothing, quickly
followed
because of the lack of foreign currency.
Foreign direct
investment dropped from a high of $444 million in 1998 to a
low of $3.8
million in 2003. Since the start of the power-sharing agreement
and the
introduction of foreign currencies, foreign direct investment rose
and stood
at $400 million in 2011. With the election approaching, however,
foreign
investors have been growing increasingly jittery. Political
stability and
future of property rights, it must be expected, will go on
being of major
concern to any foreign companies looking at Zimbabwe as a
potential
investment opportunity.
With the tax revenue in a propitious decline, the
government decided to pay
its domestic and foreign creditors by unleashing
the printing presses. What
followed was the second greatest hyperinflation
in history. Professor Steve
Hanke of Johns Hopkins University estimated that
hyperinflation reached 90
sextillion percent in 2008, with prices doubling
every 24 hours. Only
postwar Hungary experienced a higher rate of inflation,
with prices doubling
every 16 hours. The public's confidence in the Zimbabwe
dollar evaporated.
With the people refusing to use the domestic currency,
the government was
forced to change course. The Zimbabwe dollar was
abolished and the people
were permitted to use whatever currency they
pleased. Today, the South
African rand and the American dollar are widely
used, though other
currencies, such as Botswana's pula, are also in
circulation.
Under pressure from economic collapse, hyperinflation,
Western sanctions
against the top ZANU-PF leadership and their commercial
interests, and
diplomatic maneuverings by the neighboring African countries,
Mugabe agreed
to share power with Tsvangirai, who became prime minister.
Tsvangirai's MDC
received half of the seats in the cabinet. The rest was
filled by members of
the ZANU-PF. Crucially, the 2008 power-sharing
agreement allowed the ZANU-PF
to maintain control over the military and
police. At previous elections,
Mugabe used both organizations to intimidate
human rights organizations,
journalists, and ordinary citizens.
The
ZANU-PF also retained control of the country's enormously valuable
natural
resources. The South African, Chinese, and Russian state-owned or
government-linked corporations have obtained valuable mineral concessions in
platinum, diamonds, gold, chrome, and nickel. Some of the profits from those
mining operations are channeled to the ZANU-PF, which uses the money to buy
the loyalty of the police and military. With billions of dollars at stake,
there is real danger that, should the ZANU-PF lose the elections, it will
use force to stay in power.
Meanwhile, the ministries controlled by
the MDC have seen some real
progress. Consider the Ministry of Education,
which is run by David Coltart,
an MDC politician. In 2008, prior to the
power sharing agreement, the
country saw only 28 full teaching days. The
teachers were on strike, because
they were paid in a worthless currency or
were not paid altogether. Some 98
percent of all schools were shut and
90,000 and exams from the previous year
were still unmarked.
There
was no money for education in the government's budget, and the
textbook-to-pupil ratio was 15-to-one. Coltart allowed parents to pay
performance incentives to teachers whose salaries, when they were paid, were
a measly $100 per month. Today, even the lowest paid Zimbabwean teacher can
expect to earn over $300. While it is not much -- a teacher in neighboring
South Africa has an average salary of $1,800 a month -- it is a great
improvement from 2008. The teachers returned to work. Coltart also set up an
education transition fund that allowed Western aid to bypass Zimbabwe's
government and help finance the education system directly. He broke up a
domestic textbook publishing cartel and held an international tender that
brought the cost of textbooks down to 70 cents from five dollars. Zimbabwe's
textbook-to-student ratio is now one-to-one, the best in
Africa.
Since the power-sharing agreement, Zimbabwe has experienced
relative
political stability. Not surprisingly, growth has picked up.
Between 2009
and 2012, economic growth has averaged over 7 percent and GDP
amounts to
just over $6 billion. Some of the growth, no doubt, simply
represents a
rebound from a thoroughly depressed state of affairs in the
preceding
decade.
But even though things are looking up, a
fundamental question lingers: Can
high growth be maintained as long as
Zimbabwe remains one of the least
economically free countries in the world?
In 2010, Zimbabwe came in 142nd
out of 144 countries surveyed in the Fraser
Institute's Economic Freedom of
the World report; in 2013, it came in 172nd
out of 185 countries surveyed in
the World Bank's Doing Business report;
132nd out of 144 countries surveyed
in the World Economic Forum's Global
Competitiveness Report, etc.
Craig Richardson, associate professor of
economics at Winston-Salem State
University in North Carolina, has recently
analyzed the sources of
Zimbabwe's economic growth in a 2013 Cato Institute
study entitled
"Zimbabwe: Why is One of the World's Least-Free Economies
Growing So Fast?"
According to Richardson, Zimbabwe's growth is largely
artificial, and he
gives three reasons why. First, two-thirds of Zimbabwe's
nominal GDP growth
was the result of increases in government expenditures,
augmented by
hundreds of millions of dollars in International Monetary Fund
grants and
Chinese loans. Second, rich Western countries dramatically
increased their
infusions of "off-budget" grants to Zimbabwe, and this
foreign aid now
accounts for nearly 9 percent of its GDP. Third, Zimbabwe's
economy is
becoming increasingly dependent on the production and export of
raw mineral
commodities, which have experienced rapid worldwide price
hikes.
In addition, Richardson has calculated that between 2008 and 2011,
for every
$1 paid off to international lenders, Zimbabwe took on an
additional $11 in
new debt.
That is not a solid base on which to
build long-term growth and prosperity.
What Zimbabwe desperately needs are
structural reforms including tax
simplification, labor and product markets
deregulation, and privatization of
loss-making state-owned enterprises.
Above all, the Zimbabweans need to find
a way to restore the rule of law and
a respect for property rights. For
decades, Zimbabwe's rulers have benefited
from government monopolies and
parastatals, sale of permits and licenses,
and outright theft and fraud. All
the while, the majority of the Zimbabwean
people are suffering. That is why
Mugabe's party can never be a reliable
partner in reforming the country's
economy. Only a clean break with the past
will return Zimbabwe on a path to
a sustained rate of high growth.
Poll dancing
http://www.economist.com/
Zimbabwe’s
vote
A long-delayed election now looks worryingly
hurried
Jul 27th 2013 | JOHANNESBURG |From the print edition
IF
TRAFFIC jams are any guide to vitality, then Harare is thriving. A local
politician in Zimbabwe’s capital complains that his commute used to last 20
minutes but now takes twice as long. As the country prepares for general and
presidential elections on July 31st, its economy is in better shape than
when it last went to the polls in March 2008. Then hyperinflation was raging
and goods were scarce. Now the shops are full and prices are
stable.
The poll offers the best chance yet of ousting Robert Mugabe and
his Zanu-PF
party after 33 years of misrule. But the odds would be shorter
if election
preparations had proceeded at the pace of Harare’s traffic.
Until a few
weeks ago it was thought elections would take place in September
to allow
time for more reforms. But Mr Mugabe wrong-footed the Southern
African
Development Community (SADC), a regional body charged with smoothing
the
path to elections, by decreeing an earlier date. An appeal to Zimbabwe’s
constitutional court to delay the vote by two weeks was struck down. A
rushed election will favour the incumbent.
Mr Mugabe’s main
challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the first round of the
previous
presidential contest despite blatant electoral trickery by Zanu-PF.
Mr
Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), also won a
majority in Zimbabwe’s 210-seat parliament. But weeks of post-election
violence which claimed the lives of around 200 MDC supporters persuaded Mr
Tsvangirai not to contest the second round.
A deal brokered by SADC
led to the creation of a coalition government with
Mr Mugabe as president
and Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister. A new
constitution was supposed to pave
the way for another election but
foot-dragging by Mr Mugabe delayed its
passage until March this year. The
cohabitation has been loveless, with
Zanu-PF the dominant partner. The MDC
is able to claim some credit for the
economy’s recovery: it supplied the
coalition’s finance minister, Tendai
Biti. But it was a switch to the US
dollar that provided stability. The
official change in January 2009 amounted
to belated recognition that the
local currency was worthless. “The dollar
chose Zimbabwe, not the other way
around,” says a Harare-based economist.
Having played along with the
SADC-sponsored reconciliation, Mr Mugabe has
now changed tack in a bid to
extend his presidency. He has made sure there
is not enough time to monitor
voter registration or put in place promised
changes that would give MDC
candidates access to the broadcast media
controlled by Zanu-PF. Mr
Tsvangirai has complained he is forced to fight an
“illegal” election. If
that seems defeatist, a senior MDC figure said the
grassroots think even an
unfair contest is winnable, so should be fought.
Not everything is
working out in the president’s favour. Early voting for
security officials
who will be on duty on election day was hampered by a
shortage of ballot
papers and other bungles. Though 63,000 regulars are
registered to vote,
only 37,000 could do so in time. The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission says they
should get a second chance on July 31st, but even that
looks doubtful. The
security forces are deemed more likely to vote for
Zanu-PF, the party that
controls them.
But incompetence will not always favour the opposition.
Even in the week
before the election an updated electoral roll is not ready.
Observers fear
it is bloated with the names of the deceased, leaving scope
for fraud. The
Research Advocacy Unit, an independent body based in Harare,
looked at the
rolls as they stood in June and found a number of
discrepancies. Young
voters were hugely under-recorded. The rolls contained
the names of over
100,000 voters aged 100 or older.
Lindiwe Zulu, a
senior adviser on Zimbabwe to Jacob Zuma, president of South
Africa, said on
July 18th that prospects for a well-run election were “not
looking good”.
That prompted vitriol from Mr Mugabe, who had already called
Ms Zulu a
“stupid, idiotic woman” and threatened to leave SADC if it tried
again to
force a delay to elections. Mr Zuma failed to defend her. After a
meeting of
SADC officials on July 20, he instead censured Ms Zulu for her
“regrettable”
comments.
Much depends on the line Mr Zuma takes in the next few weeks.
Officials from
rich countries are banned from monitoring Zimbabwe’s
elections, leaving
observers from SADC and the African Union as the main
external checks
against vote-rigging and strong-arm tactics by Zanu-PF
loyalists.
Domestically the Zimbabwe Election Support Network has 7,000
local
observers. The MDC will have polling agents at each station to report
local
results speedily by text message so any falsification at national
level can
be spotted.
Most independent observers reckon the MDC would
win a clean election, even
if the compromises of power have dulled some of
its shine in the past five
years. A recent survey by Williams and
Associates, an American polling firm,
suggests that Mr Tsvangirai would win
the presidency in the first round in a
fair fight. Intriguingly, almost
two-thirds of respondents thought Mr
Mugabe, who is 89, should make way for
a new Zanu-PF candidate, such as
Joyce Mujuru, his deputy.
But “Bob”,
as he is called by some fans, wants to hang on. His control of
the security
forces is an important factor. Memories of the violence in 2008
will make
some voters think twice about ticking the MDC box. The media are
partial to
Zanu-PF and have worked hard in recent years to smear its
opponents. The
state broadcaster is running Zanu-PF attack ads focusing on
Mr Tsvangirai’s
rather tangled love life, which depict him as a foolish and
heartless
womaniser. The MDC leader has overcome bigger obstacles in the
past. But he
will need help from Zimbabwe’s neighbours if he is at last to
push Mr Mugabe
from power.
Don’t let the crocodile cheat again
http://www.economist.com/
Zimbabwe’s
election
It is time for Africa’s
other leaders—especially Jacob Zuma—to hold Robert
Mugabe to account
Jul
27th 2013 |From the print edition
IT IS conceivable—and we would be naive
to put it more strongly—that Robert
Mugabe’s reign of 33 years may at last
be coming to an end. The evidence
suggests that if the general and
presidential elections due on July 31st
were tolerably free and fair, Morgan
Tsvangirai and his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) would wallop Mr
Mugabe and his thuggish, incompetent
and corrupt Zanu-PF.
Last time,
in 2008, the MDC won the parliamentary poll and Mr Tsvangirai
comfortably
defeated Mr Mugabe in the first round of the presidential race,
though
hamstrung by chicanery and violence. It was only after 200-odd MDC
campaigners had been murdered that Mr Tsvangirai opted out of the second
round, and even then Mr Mugabe was obliged to let Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC
join an awkward coalition government. This time, despite sporadic violence
by Zanu-PF and the efforts of the army, the police, the state-owned media,
the courts, the electoral commission and the registrar of the voters’ roll,
which are all in cahoots with Mr Mugabe and his party, the Zimbabwean people
have a chance, however slim, of booting out their ageing
despot.
Although opinion polls suggest Zanu-PF still has chunks of
support among the
rural poor, fear of speaking out against the government
probably understates
the opposition to Mr Mugabe. Most people seem keen to
get rid of him. He has
made a mockery of the unity government, flouting
every key clause in the
agreement that was supposed to underpin it. He has
refused to reform the
army or the security service, the courts and the
media, or to remove
repressive laws. Prominent MDC people are frequently
beaten up, put behind
bars and even murdered. Yet Mr Mugabe has retained his
vicious security
chiefs as well as the useless central bank governor who
presided over a
world-beating inflation rate in 2008. Some of the MDC’s
people proved to be
neither angels nor geniuses in government, but an
impressive MDC finance
minister is credited with steadying a dollarised
economy.
Mr Mugabe has for too long been protected by other Africans. But
hope is
rising that, even though he has refused to let in United Nations or
European
Union (EU) monitoring teams, those being deployed by the African
Union (AU)
and by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an
influential
15-country South African-led club, will be more robust than they
were last
time round (see article). The AU team is led by Olusegun Obasanjo,
a former
Nigerian president who still carries weight in Africa. SADC is
sending many
more watchers than before. Indeed, the biggest hope for Mr
Mugabe’s demise
is that South Africa under Jacob Zuma may at last have had
enough of the
reptilian 89-year-old.
Africa’s belated moment
Mr
Zuma’s task will be easy if Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC are allowed to win.
The victors would probably draw some of the least vile Zanu-PF types into a
unity government, though this time with the true winners properly in charge.
Mr Mugabe may well be gently put out to grass rather than into the
dock.
Sadly, the old man and his thugs will probably try to bludgeon
their way to
a bogus victory. If they do, America and the EU should renew
the targeted
sanctions against prominent people in the regime that they
largely lifted
earlier this year as a reward for Mr Mugabe’s belated
agreement to pave the
way to the election by amending the constitution. And
the rest of Africa
should join the condemnation. Africa’s standards of
governance have
generally been improving. It is high time its leaders,
especially Mr Zuma,
felt honour-bound to help erase this blot on their
continent.
Why
South Africa won't try tough love approach with Zimbabwe's Mugabe
http://www.csmonitor.com/
South
Africa is hoping to avoid further isolating Zimbabwe and repeating the
refugee crisis that followed the country's 2008 election.
By John
Campbell, Guest blogger / July 25, 2013
•A version of this post first
appeared on the blog Africa in Transition. The
views expressed are the
author's own.
It is no secret that Zimbabwe’s two days of early voting
for the country's
security forces on July 14-15 did not go well. Lindiwe
Zulu, former
ambassador to Brazil and current international relations
adviser to South
Africa president Jacob Zuma, had the temerity to say
so.
She commented publicly that the polling in the general election,
slated for
July 31, would be challenging. In response, Zimbabwean President
Robert
Mugabe, who previously called Ms. Zulu “an idiotic street woman,”
demanded
that President Zuma “stop this woman of [his] from speaking on
Zimbabwe.”
Whereupon President Zuma, through his spokesman, promptly
disavowed Zulu, as
did South Africa's governing African National
Congress.
Knuckling under to Mugabe recalls the Zuma government’s failure
to issue a
visa to the Dalai Lama for fear of offending the Chinese in 2011.
How do we
account for it?
Writing in the South African Daily
Maverick, Greg Nicolson provides one
credible explanation. Zuma has
consistently followed a “soft diplomacy”
approach to Mugabe, appeasing him
in public while (presumably) talking
sternly in private. The thrust of Mr.
Nicolson’s piece is that South Africa
and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) have failed to reform
Zimbabwe politics in the aftermath of
the 2008 post-elections bloodbath.
Looking toward the upcoming 2013
Zimbabwean elections, if South Africa and
SADC want to stay involved, they
know they will need to work with Mugabe.
So, he writes, “Lindiwe Zulu was
sacrificed on the altar of diplomacy.”
South Africa's official political
opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA),
sent election observers to
Zimbabwe for the special polling earlier this
month. Unsurprisingly, the
observers reported serious irregularities in the
polling, including the
police and the army campaigning for Mugabe’s ruling
ZANU PF party.
In
response, the DA argues that Zuma should abandon his diplomatic soft
approach: “It is clear that the South African government’s quiet diplomacy
has done nothing to curtail poor pre-election preparations and continued
aggression towards voters, especially in rural constituencies. It is now
time for President Zuma to consider a hard line approach," they
wrote.
What happens in Zimbabwe, of course, has consequences for
neighboring South
Africa. Not least because, if there is widespread violence
following the
upcoming elections, there could be a new refugee flow from
Zimbabwe to South
Africa. That's what happened after the last election, in
2008, helping to
trigger a wave of xenophobic attacks across South Africa.
Zuma,
Zanu and the simple truth
http://www.fm.co.za/
EDITORIAL:
Editorial | 25 July 2013
The
struggle of Zimbabwe was once a struggle for freedom. It is now, among
many
other things, a battle between the simple truth and the aggressive
lie.
In many ways, this is typical of failed states. The human
devastation
caused by the failure of the state sannot be endured or explaine
without an
increasingly shril dictator who is able to develop a form of
national false
consciousness. The result is a population which has, at least
partly,
seemingly succumbed to a state of something akin to mental
collapse
But to maintain this state of mental collapse, the remnants of
the failed
state must keep delivering its potion in increasingly powerful
jolts. It
must have horrible bogeymen to "pedestalise" and degrade; it must
have
righteous anger to vigorously cast about, preferably with a heavily
underlined subtext; and it must have someone to blame for the state it is in
other than, naturally, itself.
To everybody else, the simple truth is
obvious. As Hannah Arendt noted in
The Origins of Totalitarianism: "One of
the greatest advantages of the
totalitarian elites ... (is) to turn any
statement of fact into a question
of motive."
Consequently, it's
immensely depressing that President Jacob Zuma found it
necessary to upbraid
a member of not only his own delegation but also that
of the SA region for
stating the simple truth.
In doing so, he has become yet another victim
of the overweening disaster
that is modern Zimbabwe. The simple truth is
that Zimbabwe has been
devastated by economic policies so brainless any
informed person could
easily see their folly. Even if the destruction of the
economy were not
enough to demonstrate this simple truth, the fact that
Zimbabwe's economy
improved immediately when the country was forced to
depart from these
policies ought to demonstrate the point.
This was
obvious enough for Zuma himself on entering office. He
distinguished himself
from his predecessor by suggesting a "tougher line"
with originators of the
disaster on SA's border. At the time, ANC
secretary-general Gwede Mantashe
said Zuma would be "more vocal in terms of
what we see as deviant behaviour
by our neighbours".
Compare and contrast that statement to the one
released at the weekend in
which Zuma expressed regret about "unauthorised
statements" by an unnamed
member of the facilitation team. There are only
three people on the team:
Charles Nqakula, SA's high commissioner to
Mozambique; Zuma's spokesman Mac
Maharaj; and Lindiwe Zulu, his own foreign
affairs adviser.
The sin committed by Zulu was, of course, to state the
simple truth. In this
case it was that there appeared to be problems with
the early voting
process. The response, of course, was virulent. Robert
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's
89-year-old quasi-dictator who has ruled the country for
33 years, called
Zulu a "street woman" from SA who he said had tried to
block the holding of
polls by the end of July.
More ominously, he
actually threatened the Southern African Development
Community (SADC). "Let
it be known that we are in SADC voluntarily. If SADC
decides to do stupid
things, we can pull out."
As it happens, the real issue is transparent.
Because their own country has
been made uninhabitable, a large number of
Zimbabweans now live outside
Zimbabwe. They are, not surprisingly, generally
not Zanu-PF supporters.
Having been forced to allow these economic exiles
the right to vote,
Mugabe's strategy has been to try to force the elections
to happen as fast
as possible to make it difficult for them to cast their
ballots. The
strategy would be cunning if it weren't so transparent. But
it's entirely
consistent with Mugabe's modus operandi, which has been the
chief reason he
has been able to cling onto power.
That is depressing
enough. But for Zuma to choose to support Mugabe over his
own adviser is
doubly depressing. He was once an independent voice. But now
he is just
another Zanu-PF plaything. That, sadly, is the simple truth.
Analysis:
Maybe we expect too much from SADC on Zimbabwe
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/
SIMON ALLISON AFRICA 24
JUL 2013 01:39 (SOUTH AFRICA)
Every time Robert Mugabe says or does
something outrageous, critical eyes
are cast in the direction of SADC – who
are meant to be guaranteeing free
and fair elections, and shepherding in
genuine political reform. SIMON
ALLISON argues that, in a region where no
one likes to rock the boat, SADC
are more interested in maintaining the
status quo in Zimbabwe.
It’s rather touching, the faith that we put in
our regional body – even if
it is misplaced. In all the furore over Robert
Mugabe’s comments about that
“idiotic street woman” Lindiwe Zulu, and her
subsequent scolding from Jacob
Zuma, there has been plenty of debate about
the role of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), and whether
indulging Mugabe’s narcissism is
really the best way to guarantee free and
fair elections in Zimbabwe. There
has been rather less debate about whether
that’s what SADC really wants to
achieve.
The evidence does not
necessarily support this conclusion. SADC, remember,
is a representative
body, except it doesn’t represent the likes of you and
me. It represents
governments, specifically those of its 15 member states
(14, if you take
into acount Madagascar’s suspension) – and those
governments aren’t exactly
the most progressive or enlightened around. In
fact, with a couple of
notable exceptions, the record of SADC member states
for holding genuinely
competitive elections is dismal.
Think about it. In Angola, Jose Eduardo
dos Santos has held onto power since
1979 in what remains, effectively, a
one party state. Botswana has been
ruled by just one party since
independence, with no serious opposition –
this is also true for Mozambique,
Namibia and Tanzania. The last election in
the Democratic Republic of Congo
was highly problematic and clearly fixed,
at least in part. Swaziland is an
absolute monarchy, one of the last
remaining in the world. The ruling party
in the Seychelles seized power in a
coup in 1977 and created a one party
state; they haven’t lost an election,
or come close, since the return to
multiparty politics in the early 1990s.
And in South Africa, despite an
obvious commitment to the democratic
process, the ANC has strolled to
election victories in every national poll
since 1994. The party has no
experience, yet, of an opposition that poses a
genuine threat to its power,
or elections in which something other than a
two-thirds majority is at
stake.
That leaves Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius and Zambia as the only real
flag
bearers for the kind of oppositional democracy in which elections are
more
than just a rubber-stamping exercise, each having experienced at least
one
vote in which the people decided to install a new government – and were
allowed to do so.
Yet, despite this obvious lack of experience with
oppositional democracy,
SADC has taken the lead in facilitating and
overseeing Zimbabwe’s upcoming
elections. This is a bit like letting Kenny
Kunene run the gender
commission, or putting Lance Armstrong in charge of
drug testing at the Tour
de France. If we’re surprised when SADC leaders
aren’t falling over
themselves to criticize Zimbabwe’s chaotic poll
preparations, or elicit
guarantees that violence won’t be used, or publicly
investigate claims that
the vote has already been fixed in Zanu-PF’s favour
– well, that’s only
because we’ve forgotten who SADC really
represents.
Nonetheless, SADC’s leaders – Jacob Zuma chief among them, in
his role of
Facilitator – need Zimbabwe’s elections to go well. SADC has
invested just
about all of its political and diplomatic capital in
overseeing Zimbabwe’s
rehabilitation, and were instrumental in establishing
the government of
national unity which has just about kept Zimbabwe from
complete anarchy. The
interim government’s most notable achievement has been
rescuing the
Zimbabwean economy by replacing worthless Zim dollars with the
altogether
more reliable US dollars – an achievement for which SADC, by
laying the
groundwork, deserves some credit.
All this, however, will
have been for nothing if the elections are obviously
rigged or if there is a
return to the kind of post-election violence which
precipitated Zimbabwe’s
political crisis in 2008. Unless Zimbabwe pulls off
a credible election,
SADC will have failed spectacularly after five years of
assuring everyone
who asked that its ‘quiet diplomacy’ had everything under
control.
Credible, of course, does not mean free and fair. It does
not mean
transparent. As the 2011 elections in the DRC demonstrated, it’s a
term that
can incorporate a certain amount of ballot stuffing and its
converse, the
disappearance of votes; a certain amount of government
intimidation; and an
electoral commission that is far from
impartial.
These are all things we’re likely to see in Zimbabwe, given
the chaos in the
build-up to the polls and Zanu-PF’s tight control over the
key levers of
power: the electoral commission and the security forces. And
all will
mitigate in favour of another Robert Mugabe election victory,
thereby
preserving the status quo so beloved of SADC leaders, and, oddly,
decreasing
the chances of widespread violence, which is far more likely if
Mugabe loses
(as was the case after the first round of the election in
2008).
It’s a win-win situation for Mugabe and his fellow southern
African leaders,
who prize regional stability above all else. Zimbabwe’s
long-suffering
citizens have less to gain. DM
Zimbabwe elections:
Q&A
25 July 2013 Last
updated at 10:36 GMT
Mr Mugabe - who has
served as president since independence - is hoping for another
term
Zimbabweans go
to the polls on Wednesday to elect a president and parliament, in an election
that will mark the end of the troubled coalition government between veteran
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Mr Mugabe, leader of
Zanu-PF, is seeking to extend his 33-year rule. His main rival is Mr Tsvangirai,
who helped form the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999 and has been Mr
Mugabe's only credible challenger at the polls since independence in
1980.
The election will be
the first to be held under the new constitution approved in a referendum in
March this year. Parliamentary elections are to be held on the same
day.
What happened at the
last elections?
Morgan Tsvangirai has
promised to fix the economy if elected
Mr Tsvangirai won the
first round of the last presidential elections in 2008 but, according to
official results, not enough to win outright. He pulled out of the second round,
accusing pro-Mugabe militias of attacking his supporters.
Mr Mugabe went on to
win the run-off and under international pressure agreed a power-sharing deal
with Mr Tsvangirai, who became prime minister.
Mr Mugabe has made no
secret of his distaste for the arrangement and Mr Tsvangirai has complained of a
lack of co-operation in the coalition.
Who are the
candidates?
There are five
presidential candidates, with Mr Mugabe, 89, and Mr Tsvangirai, 61, being the
front-runners.
The other contenders
are Welshman Ncube, the current industry and commerce minister and leader of an
MDC breakaway party called MDC-Mutambara; Dumiso Dabengwa, leader of the
Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu), a former Zanu-PF rival that merged with
it in 1987 but broke away again in 2008, and Kisinoti Munodei Mukwazhe, who
represents the small Zimbabwe Development Party (ZDP).
Zimbabwe experienced a
boom after independence in 1980. But critics accuse Mr Mugabe of ruining one of
Africa's most promising economies by seizing white-owned farms and giving them
to landless blacks with little farming experience. Inflation reached an annual
rate of 250,000,000% in late 2008. An estimated two million Zimbabweans left to
seek work abroad.
Since the coalition
took over, hyperinflation has ended and the economy at least stabilised at an
annual average growth rate of about 5%, largely as a result of a 2009 decision
to allow the US dollar and South African rand to circulate instead of the
worthless Zimbabwe dollar.
But the economic bounce
from dollarisation has faded, with growth slowing to 4% last year and only a
modest 3% forecast for 2013. Dollarisation has also had downsides, making
Zimbabwean exports more expensive and thus keeping growth low by regional
standards.
According to Tony
Hawkins, business professor at the University of Zimbabwe, real incomes are
still lower than they were in the 1960s and 25% below their peaks of the
mid-1970s and late 1990s.
Widespread corruption
also remains a sore point, particularly in the crucial diamond export sector.
Last November, the campaign group Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) alleged that
at least $2bn (£1.3bn) worth of diamonds had been stolen from the Marange mines
to the benefit of officials, gem dealers and traders. Zimbabwean mining
officials denied the accusation.
Where do the parties
stand on the economy?
President Mugabe wants
black Zimbabweans to own more of the economy
Mr Mugabe has said that
his Zanu-PF party wants to push through its plans to increase black ownership of
the economy, in what is known as its indigenisation programme, and thus promote
growth. A 2010 law requires foreign firms to sell a majority stake to local
people.
Mr Tsvangirai is
promising that he will fix the continuing economic problems, clean up
corruption, revive industry and attract much-needed investment in order to
create jobs. He has also promised to promote transparency in the diamond mining
sector. He rejects indigenisation as a political gimmick and tantamount to
expropriation.
Elections are held
every five years by universal adult suffrage.
By 23 July, about 6.4
million voters had been registered, according to officials. Zimbabwe has a
population of some 13 million, according to the 2013 census.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) oversees the electoral process and demarcates constituency
boundaries. It is headed by Rita Makarau, a former Supreme Court
judge.
To be declared a
winner, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote. If no
candidate reaches this mark, a run-off will be held on 11
September.
Will the elections be
free and fair?
Opposition and rights
activists have expressed concern about the transparency of voter registration,
the possibility of intimidation and pro-Mugabe bias in the state
media.
Members of the security
forces voted last week amid logistical problems
A local campaign group,
the Research and Advocacy Unit, claimed in June that the voters' roll includes a
million people who are either dead or have left the country, as well as 116,000
people over the age of 100.
ZEC's deputy
chairwoman, Joyce Kazembe, has insisted the vote will "be credible, free and
fair".
Mr Mugabe has called
for peaceful conduct during and after the elections, and Mr Tsvangirai has also
expressed optimism, seeking to allay fears of a repeat of the violence that
marred the 2008 polls. However, violence continues to be reported across the
country.
Will there be
election observers?
Some 600 foreign
election observers - mainly from Africa - have been accredited to monitor the
polls. They will join about 6,000 local observers.
Zimbabwe did not invite
Western observer missions because of sanctions imposed on President Robert
Mugabe and his top officials for rights abuses.
Some observers have
voiced concern about the role of the security forces, alleging that Mr Mugabe
may be merely a figurehead for powerful generals running the country behind the
scenes.
New York-based campaign
groups Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that some security chiefs had
declared allegiance to Mr Mugabe ahead of the polls, casting doubt on their
impartiality.
In May, the
International Crisis Group think-tank said that the police chiefs "openly
support" Zanu-PF and frequently organise the harassment of opposition and
independent activists.
Radio is the main
source of information in Zimbabwe. The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC) has a near monopoly over both radio and television and has a
long history of supporting Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF.
Earlier this year the
police announced a ban on short-wave radios capable of receiving foreign
broadcasts, saying they were being used to communicate "hate speech" ahead of
the elections.
In addition, broadcasts
by overseas-based radio stations transmitting into Zimbabwe, such as the Voice
of America's Studio 7 and UK-based SW Radio Africa, have been
jammed.
The state-run
newspapers are tightly controlled by the Information Ministry. The private
press, which is relatively vigorous in its criticism of the government, has come
under severe pressure, and cover prices are beyond the reach of many
readers.
The internet is
considered to be nominally free from government interference, but it is
relatively expensive and prone to disruption because of power
cuts.
Zimbabwe has a
bicameral parliament consisting of a Senate and a House of
Assembly.
The 210 members of the
House of Assembly are elected by popular vote for a five-year
term.
In the 2008
parliamentary elections, the MDC won with 51% of votes over Zanu-PF's
45%.