The Zimbabwe Situation

Cayeux was born in Lancaster but spent only a year in England before moving to Zimbabwe with his English mother and South African father.
Both his parents have lost their jobs in the troubled nation and Cayeux admits he feels the pressure of trying to support them.
"Sometimes I use it to my advantage and sometimes it does affect me," said Cayeux, who now lives in Johannesburg in South Africa. "I try to send them money back whenever I can.
"My mother used to run a petrol station but there is no fuel in the country and my dad used to be an electrician but he lost his job as there are a lot of companies closing down.
"I have thought about claiming English nationality because it is embarrassing to say you are from Zimbabwe sometimes but if it wasn't for living in Zimbabwe I wouldn't have been able to play golf.
"There used to be a great junior programme there, supported by Nick Price, and it's a shame it's gone the way it has."

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New Zimbabwe Zimbabwe death toll rises from slum blitz By Staff Reporter Last updated: 07/27/2005 04:11:31 THE death toll in Zimbabwe's slum blitz rose this week when a man died at a transit camp in Tsholotsho, the area's Member of Parliament said Tuesday. Police say only five people have died during the operation code-named Operation Murambatsvina, but human rights groups say the death toll is much higher. The destruction of urban houses deemed illegal by the government was recently condemned by the United Nations as a "disastrous venture". UN secretary general Kofi Annan is expected in Zimbabwe sometime next month for discussions with President Robert Mugabe on helping the displaced. Tsholotsho MP Professor Jonathan Moyo identified the dead man as Lucas Luphahla. His age was not given. "He died on Sunday night and his family is working on the funeral arrangements," Moyo said. The United Nations estimates that some 700 000 people had lost either their homes or their livelihoods in the operation which the Zimbabwe government insists was targeting illegality in urban housing. "The government forced these people out of Bulawayo and they were just dumped in Tsholotsho and told to go and stay with their relatives, or establish their own rural homes. "But when many went to their villages they found they were either not welcome, their relatives had relocated or were dead. Others just found relatives unwilling to take them back, as you know the social conditions in Zimbabwe are very difficult at the moment," Moyo said. No comment was immediately available from police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena on Tuesday afternoon. Although the Zimbabwe government has declared a halt to the demolitions, the UN said Monday that the displacements were continuing, citing the case of Porter Farm, just outside Harare. Opposition officials say the government has also been sending some of the displaced people back to their rubble after the situation in the transit camps became a "health disaster". The government has told those returning to their former "structures" to apply for council permission to construct houses within the next 12 months.

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Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe Govt to fund rural projects: Minister From Our Correspondent in Mutare issue date :2005-Jul-27 MINISTER of Rural Housing and Social Amenities, Emmerson Mnangagwa said his newly formed ministry is yet to get resources to spearhead rural projects and was pinning hopes on next month's supplementary budget. Answering questions from traditional leaders attending the chiefs' national conference in Mutare at the weekend, Mnangagwa said the ministry expected to be allocated funds by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa when he tables a supplementary budget in Parliament on August 4 to undertake rural projects. "Despite this scenario (current lack of resources), there is going to be enough funds in the forthcoming supplementary budget," Mnangagwa said. "We assure you that government is committed to improving the living conditions of chiefs and the rural folk. That's why government has established this ministry." He said the government was determined to enhance socio-economic development in rural areas to thank the people for re-electing Zanu PF in last March's general election. "Money will be made available. It is now time to plough back to the rural folk for their unwavering support for Zanu PF as evidenced by their overwhelming voting for the party in the March 31 general elections," the minister said. areas at the expense of rural areas. We now want to support rural areas to consolidate our support base."

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Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe Zinatha unhappy with definition of witchcraft The Daily Mirror Reporter issue date :2005-Jul-27 THE Zimbabwe National Association of Traditional Healers has said it is not happy with the definition of witchcraft in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act of 2004, and wants it amended. Zinatha president, Gordon Chavhunduka said that his association would soon be lobbying the government to amend the definition. "While we applaud the government for accepting the existence of witchcraft, we are not happy with the definition of witchcraft in the Act as is not adequate," he said. Chavhunduka said in terms of the Act, a witch is someone who uses non-natural means to cause death or injury to or disease or disability in any person. He said this was not correct, as there were people that could use natural powers to do the same things the Act said could only be done using non-natural means. Parliament last year passed the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act to re-enact, amend, modify or repeal the non-statutory Roman-Dutch criminal law in force and as modified in Zimbabwe since 1891. In addition, the Code incorporated several existing statutory crimes through either amending or repealing the statutes containing them. A few crimes were also created to bring the criminal law up to date with modern developments, such as those concerned with computer crime. Clauses 97 to 102 of the Act superceded the Witchcraft Suppression Act and reformed the criminal law on this subject. When the Europeans colonised Zimbabwe in the 1890s, they sought to suppress belief in witchcraft by making it a criminal offence for someone to accuse another of practising it. The Europeans viewed the belief as a barbaric one, which could not be supported by scientific fact. Following the attainment of independence, there has been relentless pressure on the black government to accept the existence of the practice, culminating in the amendment to the law. While the new law discourages the act of witch hunting, it does not punish the mere profession of witch finding. It also does not make a person criminally liable for simply accusing another of engaging in witchcraft practices, if the accuser has reasonable grounds to suspect the other of engaging in such practices. Clause 101 restates the common law rule that a genuine belief in witchcraft does not excuse, but may mitigate, a criminal charge of murdering or assaulting someone believed to be a witch.

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The Times

When aid is appeasement
A bailout for Mugabe is the last thing Zimbabwe needs

Three weeks ago Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, flew to Gleneagles and signed a pledge with the world’s richest nations to foster good governance in Africa in return for an historic increase in aid to its poorest countries. He is now preparing a big financial bailout of his own — for Zimbabwe, where government-sponsored thugs continue to terrorise those suspected of supporting President Robert Mugabe’s opponent in this spring’s elections, and bulldozers continue to flatten their homes.
Mr Mbeki’s public rationale is one of engagement. “We don’t want Zimbabwe collapsing next door,” he said recently. He also, rightly, expressed concern for “the broad interests of all Zimbabweans”, as distinct from those of the venal clique that has prospered so indefensibly during Mr Mugabe’s 26 years in power. Mr Mbeki’s anxiety is warranted: no economy exports crime, dependency and chaos more efficiently than an imploding one. But even South Africa, acting on its own, can do little to prevent the implosion. While officials in Pretoria are hoping to shoulder Zimbabwean debt worth $300 million, their counterparts in Harare say they need $1 billion for emergency food and energy imports alone. The help that Mr Mbeki can offer pales beside the $50 billion package hammered out at the G8 summit, even allowing for delays in delivery and the competing demands of the rest of the continent. The only obstacle to Zimbabwe ’s inclusion on the list of G8 beneficiaries is Mr Mugabe himself, and Mr Mbeki’s vaunted “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe, far from helping ordinary Zimbabweans by easing their tyrant out of power, is prolonging their agony by helping him. It is short-sighted appeasement, and against the spirit of everything Mr Mbeki endorsed at Gleneagles. If he wants to keep the regional leadership role he enjoyed there, it must stop.

Mr Mugabe does not seem to have been chastened by his international pariah status. He promised a free and fair election but delivered systematic intimidation of his brave opponents in the Movement for Democratic Change. He hinted that his campaigns of forced relocation might relax, but “Operation Drive Out Trash” continues unabated. A report by the UN last week estimated that this egregious punishment of suspected MDC supporters has left 700,000 homeless so far. About 20,000 more lived in slum dwellings destroyed in the past few days, and riot police have been beating those refusing to leave.
The IMF must decide this month whether or not to expel Zimbabwe from its club of eligible borrowers. It should do so rather than let Mr Mugabe claim to have called its bluff. Unfortunately he has already found an alternative source of aid in China. Beijing, which will do deals with anyone, is using Zimbabwe to trumpet its own axiom of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. For Zimbabwe’s neighbours and traditional partners this is not an option. They should, indeed, “ engage”, but with the moderates who must shape the future of this misruled country.

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Operation ‘Murambabtsvina’ (Drive out Trash) is Crime Humanity

Please publish this letter to on behalf of the voiceless, suffering oppressed people of Zimbabwe.

Operation ‘Murambabtsvina is barbaric, savagery, inhuman act which is a crime against humanity. Mugabe’s Z.A.NU. (P.F.) regime is responsible for the suffering and chaotic situation prevailing in Zimbabwe and should be brought to account by the Security Council urgently! The International Court of Justice should show that it has teeth. The wicked and conscienceless Z.A.N.U/ Mugabe regime is continuing demotlitions rudely defying better judgment of the Highest World Body UN after it sent an envoy to investigate. The regime even has the courage to say the report is biased as if they expected the sane world to endorse madness as vision. Mugabe will not stop until he is stopped. The Chinese support Mugabe for their selfish expansionist reasons but they don’t care for the suffering of Zimbabwean people. Zimbabweans advise them to leave Zhimbabwe alone if they support dictatorship.

Mugabe rigged the elections Zimbabwean. Now people are paying heavily for not supporting him and forcing him to do the dishonorable thing to maintain power. Mugabe is angry with the people and is very dangerous at the moment. His Chinese friends are supplying him with weapons of mass destruction. Already members of the opposition are being poisoned. Food distribution is being politicized. Operation Murambatsvina is the second major operation clearly abusing human rights that the world is treating with kid gloves. In the eighties Operation Gukurahundi massacred thousands in Matabeleland but nothing was done. If he is not stopped we will see another tragic Operation. Already Murambatsvina has deadly after effects that will continue to wipe out the population to 6 million approved by Didimus Mutasa because Mugabe vowed that Tsvangirai should never ever rule Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans want freedom to choose whom they want but Mugabe believes he should decide because he owns Zimbabwe and he can eliminate dissenting voices and poor people he calls Tsvina/Trash which disgusts him.

Tibaijuka’s report clearly confirmed what the civic society and everyone else is at pains to alert the insensive world to plight disempowered people in Zimbabwe. Nobody is above the law, we are all people. Can we honestly sacrifice lives of all the young people whose lives have been disrupted no school,-no home,-no food, no medical care? How many people are going to die in the after effects of the ill advised Operation Murambavanhu (anti people). I say punish the perpetrators of human crimes once and for all. That will teach lessons to other dictators and their misguided admirers.

There is nothing charitable about Operation Murambatsvina. Z.A.N.U. (P.F.) treats human life cheaply as trash to be discarded. What Zimbabweans need is freedom. Leadership in Zimbabwe’s major institutions is fielded with incompetent Z.A.N.U. (P.F.) Party faithful are paid tax payer‘s money to keep power in the hands of the ruling party. Z.A.N.U ism is cancerous. It doesn’t matter whether people suffer. Elections have no meaning because Z.A.N.U. (P.F.) does not allow people any choice. War veterans have been used to suppress the very people who supported them during the war. Patriotism means supporting the ruling party to misgovern. During the war it was “Iwe neni tine basa rekusunungura Zimbabwe-You and I have a duty to liberate Zimbabwe”. Now Zimbabwe is their country. They can violate wantonly both national and international law. Our African brothers are pathetic. They don’t care about the Zimbabweans. They think that Mugabe is a god and Z.A.N.U (P.F.) supporters are Zimbabweans.

Takamboreva

DIV>

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