Extract from
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| Washington
File |
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10 June 2003
Transcript: State Department Noon Briefing, June 10, 2003
|
QUESTION: The
second's on Zimbabwe. The opposition leader Tsvangirai's
been jailed for a
month. Can you give us an update and maybe some
details on who you've been
talking to or what you -- how you'd
characterize how things are going
forward?
MR. REEKER: Well, as you know from statements we've made here,
from
other comments we've made for a long time, we deplore the
Government
of Zimbabwe's harassment and provocation of the political
opposition.
This is a time when a dialogue between the government and
opposition
is urgently needed and the government should immediately cease
its
assault on the opposition and pursue such a dialogue.
We are
deeply concerned about the ongoing detentions of Morgan
Tsvangirai and
Welshman Ncube, which are clearly intended to deny the
political opposition
its rights to freely express their views and
their right to peaceful
assembly. We note that the opposition leaders
have been accused of treason
for their efforts to organize peaceful
protests, and, in reality, the
violence and coercion that have been
propagated by the Mugabe
regime-threatened Zimbabwe have inflicted, as
anyone can see, overwhelming
hardship on the people. These have been
inflicted by the government and its
supporters and they have disrupted
civil society. They've devastated the
economy.
And the political opposition has simply sought to organize
peaceful
marches. We noted at that time last week when they attempted
to
organize such marches there were beatings of opposition
supporters.
Hundreds were arrested by Zimbabwe's security forces. And we, as
well
as other international observers, have called for urgent
dialogue
between the government and the opposition.
And it's time for
the government to think about the people of Zimbabwe
as well as the region
that this is affecting. Their continued
recalcitrance, I think, in the face
of the situation there represents,
really, a self-defeating repression of the
opposition, and this stands
in the way of a process forward to improve life
for Zimbabweans and to
put the country back on the course of democracy and
stability and
prosperity.
QUESTION: Phil, actually, I think that the
second guy was actually
released and the charges against him dropped, but you
don't --
MR. REEKER: I had not seen that. I think yesterday we noted the
arrest
-- that would be Mr. Ncube?
QUESTION: Yeah.
MR. REEKER:
Well, clearly, we think they should both be released and
these spurious
charges dropped and that practice should end.
QUESTION: Are you getting
the help that you need from the region to
solve this problem?
MR.
REEKER: Oh, we're in continuous contact with other countries in
the region
who clearly have an interest in seeing this situation
resolved and seeing
order and prosperity, democracy, stability
returned to Zimbabwe. This type of
situation, the rampant inflation,
the food shortages which have, in large
part, been caused by the
politicization food supplies by the government --
these are all things
that lead to instability throughout the region, and so
the countries
of the region have a real interest. We would think that
everybody
would want to support the Zimbabwean people in pursuing their
own
freedom, their own prosperity, and democracy will mean a lot for
the
whole region.
Zimbabwe should be a model, and it should be a
breadbasket for the
entire region. And all you have to do is look at the
situation there
and realize that Mugabe's government has led the country down
a
terrible path to ruin.
(Distributed by the
Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web
site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
Telegraph
Straw denies ignoring Zimbabwe crisis
By Michael Kallenbach,
Parliamentary Correspondent
(Filed: 11/06/2003)
The Government
yesterday acknowledged the pain and anger felt by people over
the situation
in Zimbabwe, but gave assurances that maximum pressure was
being put on
Robert Mugabe, the country's president.
Jack Straw, the Foreign
Secretary, told MPs that short of taking military
action, the Government was
doing what it could by exploring other avenues.
He said: "What we have done
is to secure sanctions by the Commonwealth,
sanctions by the European Union,
sanctions by the IMF and the increasing
international isolation of
Zimbabwe."
During a series of heated exchanges at Foreign Office
Questions, Michael
Ancram, the Tory foreign affairs spokesman, blamed the
Government for not
doing enough and said ministers were "walking on the other
side." He said
the policy of quiet diplomacy was "nothing more than a cover
for
appeasement".
Mr Ancram asked if the Foreign Secretary knew how
many people had been
murdered, tortured, imprisoned and beaten since he
endorsed South Africa's
policy of quiet diplomacy in May.
"In the last
week alone more than 800 people have been arrested, 400 treated
for injuries,
10 hospitalised, three on the critical list, two murdered and
the leader of
the opposition and his deputy arrested and charged with
treason.
"All
we have from you is more gestures and more platitudes. When will you
finally
accept that quiet diplomacy and dialogue are nothing more than a
cover for
appeasement and it encourages Mugabe to ratchet up his oppression
and is a
shameful betrayal of the suffering people of Zimbabwe."
Mr Straw asked Mr
Ancram: "So instead of ranting, tell me what you would do
in this
situation?"
Mr Ancram said: "We need to ask why, when we were so ready to
take effective
action against the abuse of human rights and ethnic cleansing
in the
Balkans, are we apparently paralysed in the face of similar atrocities
in
Zimbabwe.
"When will you go to the UN Security Council to seek a
resolution to
internationalise the crisis in Zimbabwe and put observers on
the ground. In
short, when will you stop walking by on the other
side?"
Mr Straw said he would go to the UN for a resolution, when he
believed he
could win one; it would be folly to go with the prospect of
failure.
"I'm not in the business of providing gratuitous victories to
President
Mugabe."
jang.com.pk Pakistan
How much will Zimbabweans
tolerate?
Perhaps the demonstrators were naive. Perhaps they
underestimated the old
dictator's determination to hang on to power. In any
case, the strikes and
protests called in Zimbabwe last week disrupted the
country and paralysed
the capital but did little to weaken President Mugabe's
grip on power or the
loyalty of his henchmen and police. By deploying troops
swiftly and in large
numbers and by encouraging them to use whatever force
was necessary --
beatings, water cannon, tear gas and firing above the crowd
-- Mr Mugabe
showed, if nothing else, that he has lost none of his powers
of
intimidation.
The situation in Zimbabwe is serious. But whether
this crisis is worse than
the last crisis remains unclear. The figures are
striking: inflation is
running at 269 per cent a year, unemployment has
reached 70 per cent, food,
medicine, fuel and even banknotes are in
critically short supply. In many
parts of the country, especially in areas
where support for the Movement for
Democratic Change is strong, food
shortages are so acute that many people
face the threat of starvation. Were
it not for the generous distribution of
international aid, thousands might
die. Zimbabwe is sinking into political
and economic ruin.
Yet somehow
life goes on. People scrape by, though business has come to a
standstill,
trade has almost ceased and almost all the achievements of a
once prosperous
economy -- schools, hospitals, transport and civil
administration -- are in
decay.
Zimbabweans are clearly suffering, but they have shown themselves
to be
extraordinarily able in finding ways to survive amid dreadful
conditions.
The breaking point is therefore hard to predict. Zimbabwe has
been
crisis-ridden for five years, yet Mr Mugabe is still able to reward
his
cronies, intimidate his opponents and rely on his "veterans" and the army
to
stay in power.
The only tactic available therefore to Mr Tsvangirai
and others outraged by
the theft of the 2000 presidential election is to step
up their call for
direct action and confrontation on the streets. Only by
making the country
ungovernable, they hope, is there any chance of turning Mr
Mugabe's key
supporters against him. So far it has not worked. But nor, for
years, did
the street demonstrations against another dictator have much
effect:
Slobodan Milosevic was able to deploy his police, divide his
opponents and
brand his enemies as traitors until, one day, Yugoslavia turned
against him.
The crucial difference is that Milosevic was under
continuous international
pressure. Mr Mugabe, by contrast, can count on the
pusillanimous refusal by
South Africa to confront him over his misrule, the
reluctance of other
Africans to criticise him, the indifference of much of
the world and the
disgraceful indulgence of countries which have still been
willing to allow
him a platform abroad.
Mr Tsvangirai has paid a high
price for his opposition. He is already facing
a charge of treason on
trumped-up accusations that he plotted Mr Mugabe's
death; he has now been
rearrested and charged with further treason in
instigating last week's
strikes. Both charges carry a possible death
penalty. His supporters have
been beaten, tortured and shot. His courage has
won him admirers throughout
Zimbabwe and in the West; it is his only
protection against officially
sanctioned assassination. And yet he is
willing to compromise if this will
help to remove Mr Mugabe. Until then, he
will keep up his lonely fight. Like
Nelson Mandela, he deserves, one day, to
win.
The Times, June 10,
2003
Reuters
Zimbabwean opposition leader in freedom bid
By Cris
Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is
making
a fresh bid for freedom after five days in detention over new charges
of
trying to overthrow President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai leads the
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and poses the biggest
challenge to embattled Mugabe's 23-year rule, which
has seen the once
prosperous nation descend into chaos since forceful land
seizures began in
2000.
In an opposition crackdown, Tsvangirai was arrested on Friday after
calling
a national strike last week that paralysed trade and industry -- even
though
heavy security and roaming gangs of pro-Mugabe youths effectively
thwarted
protests.
Tsvangirai was hauled before a court on Tuesday
under heavy guard to face
new charges of treason over the strike, and was
remanded in custody for a
month. His lawyers said they would request bail but
were forced to wait
until Wednesday.
The opposition leader, who was
not required to enter a plea, already faces a
possible death sentence for
treason in a separate trial on charges he and
two party officials plotted to
assassinate Mugabe.
One of his co-accused in that trial, MDC
Secretary-General Welshman Ncube,
was released from custody on Tuesday after
prosecutors dropped fresh treason
charges against him, his defence team
said.
Mugabe branded last week's protests an attempt to spark a coup
d'etat and
his security forces dispersed protesters with tear gas, water
cannon and
rifle butts.
The MDC says hundreds of people have been
arrested and others hurt in a
crackdown on opposition to Mugabe.
State
prosecutor Stephen Musona said Tsvangirai had been charged with
treason,
inciting public violence and contravening Zimbabwe's strict
internal security
laws.
The MDC has threatened new protests if the former trade union
leader is not
released soon.
Like several Western governments,
Tsvangirai and his MDC accuse Mugabe of
rigging his re-election last year.
The party called last week's protests a
"final push" against
Mugabe.
They say Mugabe has stepped up political repression and ruined
the economy
of Zimbabwe, which is grappling with food and fuel shortages,
soaring
inflation and rising unemployment.
But Mugabe says he will not
buckle in the face of the opposition challenge,
which he says is organised by
his enemies in London and Washington.
Britain and the United States have
led condemnation of Mugabe's government,
and particularly its policy of
seizing white-owned farms for distribution to
landless blacks.
Daily News
Spate of resignations hits Harare magistrates’
court
6/11/2003 8:47:06 AM (GMT +2)
Court
Reporter
FIVE magistrates or about half of the total compliment of
presiding
officers at the Harare Magistrates’ Court have resigned in protest
against
poor remuneration and conditions of service, it was learnt
yesterday.
The resignations, which The Daily News could not
yesterday confirm
with either the Ministry of Justice or the Chief
Magistrate, could severely
cripple the justice system already choked by a
huge backlog of cases because
of a shortage of magistrates
countrywide.
There are a total of 12 magistrates at Harare
magistrates’ court but
only seven are working there while four others are on
study leave at the
University of Zimbabwe and one is on suspension facing
corruption charges.
If the five magistrates who are said to have
handed in their
resignations leave there would be only one magistrate left to
man the
country’s biggest magisterial court.
“I am definitely going.
At the moment I am only here to serve my three
months notice,” one of the
magistrates who is leaving the judicial service
said yesterday.
Court officials also told this newspaper that the magistrates
were
disgruntled by their paltry salaries and wanted to leave.
“These people are actually serving their notices. They are complaining
that
their earnings are peanuts despite being highly qualified,” said
one
official, who spoke on condition he was not named.
Justice
permanent secretary David Mangota and chief magistrate Samuel
Kudya were not
available for comment, as they were said to be out of
their
offices.
Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal
and Parliamentary
Affairs yesterday said he was not aware of the spate of
resignations by the
magistrates.
“This is news to me, I know
nothing about this issue. Anyway, I am now
doing my own investigations,”
Chinamasa said.
In Bulawayo unconfirmed reports say two regional
magistrates tendered
their resignations from the magistrates’ courts in the
country’s second
largest city.
Two of the magistrates, who preferred
to remain anonymous, confirmed
that they were leaving at the end of
July.
“There is no way I can work for something like $160 000. This
is too
paltry and meagre that I cannot put all my hope on this meagre
salary,” one
of the magistrates said.
The sources said the spate of
resignations and the general shortage of
magistrates had adversely affected
the delivery of justice in the country,
which has a backlog of more than 60
000 cases countrywide.
Chief magistrate Kudya in April said the
backlog of cases kept rising
because there were about 59 magisterial posts
that were vacant throughout
the country.
Resignations as people
leave the service and long study leave for
others wishing to improve their
qualifications had only helped worsen the
situation, Kudya said.
By mid-March this year the backlog of criminal cases in Harare alone
stood at
3 200 while pending civil cases stood at 12 000.
Daily News
Police flouted procedure in Nkala murder suspect’s
arrest: defence
6/11/2003 8:47:39 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
ONE of the six opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party
activists accused of kidnapping and murdering Bulawayo war
veterans leader
Cain Nkala never gave a warned and cautioned statement to
police
investigating the case as is required under procedure, defence lawyers
said
in court yesterday.
Cross-examining police superintendent
Martin Matira, defence lawyer
Happias Zhou quizzed the police officer, who is
a State witness, whether
Army Zulu had been warned and cautioned before
giving a statement to the
police.
Matira told the court that he
was not directly involved in recording
the statement from Zulu but said
another policeman, a detective sergeant
Shumba, had taken down the statement
from Zulu.
But Zhou disputed Matira’s explanation, telling the
court that the
warned and cautioned statement, which police as a matter of
routine take
from any accused, was never recorded from Zulu.
According to the State, Zulu allegedly supplied the handcuffs that
were used
on Nkala by his murderers when they kidnapped him in November 2001
from his
home in Bulawayo.
Zhou also pointed out inconsistencies in the police’s
record of when
and why they arrested Zulu.
The Harare lawyer
pointed out that Matira had in his evidence-in-chief
said that Zulu had been
arrested solely in connection with the murder of
another ZANU PF activist,
Limukani Luphahla.
Luphahla was murdered two years ago in Lupane, a
few weeks before
Nkala was murdered.
Matira said it was the duty of
the police to investigate all leads and
bring the facts to the
courts.
Zhou also challenged the five different dates recorded by the
police
indicating when they arrested Zulu.
He said police
records initially showed that Zulu was arrested on 7
November 2001. But
according to Zhou, Matira had in his evidence-in-chief
indicated that the MDC
activist was arrested on 8 November.
The policeman then went on to
tell the court under cross-examination
that Zulu was arrested at midnight on
7-8 November.
Meanwhile, an entry in the police diary log indicated
that Zulu was
picked up by the police on 14 November. Yet another entry in
the police
diary shows Zulu’s date of arrest as 16 November. And Zulu himself
said he
was arrested on 9 November at about 4am.
Matira said there
were other police records to support his own version
of Zulu’s
arrest.
Asked if he was abandoning the contents of the police diary,
Matira
said he was not the one who had authored the diary.
He
said: “I am giving you the version I gave in my evidence-in-chief.”
Asked what Zulu had been interrogated for after he was arrested on
9
November, Matira said: “I assume it was the Lupane case.”
Zhou
said: “Your assumption is not correct. He was alleged to have
undergone
military training in South Africa. Would it surprise you to know
Army Zulu
was being asked where the MDC kept their arms of war?”
Matira said
that was not the feedback he got from the team that
interviewed
Zulu.
He said: “The feedback was that he was denying the charges in
the
Lupane case.”
Zhou told the court that Zulu was assaulted
and denied food for three
days by the police acting on Matira’s instructions.
Matira denied the
allegations.
The trial continues today.
Daily News
Crackdown could lead to violent
confrontation
6/11/2003 8:48:33 AM (GMT +2)
By
Luke Tamborinyoka Chief News Editor
THE government this week
intensified a crackdown to break the back of
the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party, but analysts
yesterday told The Daily News
that increased State repression could instead
nudge crisis-weary Zimbabwe
towards more violent confrontation.
Police earlier this week
arrested MDC secretary-general Welshman
Ncube, stepping up a countrywide
swoop to decapitate the opposition party
that has also seen its leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, and about 800 activists of
the party arrested in the last
10 days.
Tsvangirai and Ncube were slapped with fresh treason
charges for
allegedly calling for President Robert Mugabe’s unconstitutional
removal
from office.
The two opposition leaders are already
standing trial for treason for
allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe ahead
of last year’s presidential
ballot. The two, who face the death penalty if
convicted, deny the charges.
Human rights lawyer and political
commentator Brian Kagoro said the
ruthless clampdown on the MDC, which
followed mass protests organised by the
party that shut down Zimbabwe last
week, was meant to warn not only the
opposition party, but the entire nation
on the dire consequences of opposing
the government.
He said:
“All dictatorships want to create an impression among people
that all
struggle is futile, risky and reprehensible. The arrests are not a
message to
the MDC leadership, but to its supporters and the general
populace that if
government can clamp down on their leaders, it could do
more to
them.”
But Kagoro was quick to point out that the iron fist
flaunted by
Mugabe and his government could never quell public discontent
against his
rule fuelled by the economic crisis.
“When political
discontent is a result of social and economic malaise,
you cannot deal with
it by arresting political leaders because by so doing,
you create a vacuum
for new leaders to emerge who will radicalise the
strategy,” said Kagoro, who
is also co-
ordinator of Crisis in Zimbabwe, a coalition of
non-governmental
organisations, human rights and civic groups working to end
the country’s
deepening crisis.
The MDC, the most potent threat
yet to Mugabe and his administration
in 23 years, last week brought Zimbabwe
to a standstill in mass protests the
party said were aimed at forcing Mugabe
to resign or to concede he had
failed to run the country and agree to
negotiations with the opposition
party on a solution to a burgeoning
economic, social and political crisis
gripping the nation.
Most
Zimbabweans stayed away from work and business and industry shut
down across
the country in response to the MDC’s call for mass protests, but
anti-Mugabe
street marches the opposition had planned faltered in the face
of a massive
show of military force by the government.
Tsvangirai has been in
police custody since being arrested on Friday,
the last day of the mass
protests by his party. The opposition leader was
slapped with fresh treason
charges for allegedly calling for Mugabe’s
illegal ouster while addressing
MDC rallies last month. Party
secretary-general Ncube was also nabbed on
Monday for allegedly inciting
people to revolt against the government during
the week-long protests.
And Mugabe vowed to crush the opposition
telling South African public
television last weekend that he still had lots
of punch left in him while
the spokesman for Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party,
Nathan Shamuyarira,
ominously warned that the party was gearing up for the
final showdown with
the MDC over the protests.
But University of
Zimbabwe political scientist John Makumbe said the
harsh crackdown on the MDC
leadership and supporters would, in the face of
acute economic hardships,
never cow Zimbabweans into permanent docility, but
could instead prompt the
government’s opponents to adopt more radical and
confrontational strategies
leading to a more violent and bloody resolution
of the Zimbabwe
crisis.
Makumbe said the incarceration of Tsvangirai and his top
lieutenant
Ncube would not put the fear of God in Zimbabweans.
“What the government will reap out of this is a bad human rights
record, a
reified, respected and credible leadership of the MDC and an
emboldened
populace ready to defend its space,” he said.
Kagoro said Mugabe
and his government were better served addressing
the economic crisis
fuelling the anti-Mugabe sentiment on which
Tsvangirai and his MDC were
riding high.
He noted that white supremacist Ian Smith who ruled
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe
’s name before independence in 1980) had attempted using
force by detaining
nearly the entire leadership of the black nationalist
struggle including
Mugabe, but had ultimately failed to snuff out the quest
for independence.
Zimbabwe’s economy, in a free fall since 1999,
has in the last few
months gathered momentum towards total collapse.
Inflation shot up to an
all-time record high of 269,2 percent in April and
economic analysts say the
rate will hit 300 percent by August.
The
local Zimbabwe dollar, its value greatly reduced by ballooning
inflation, is
now also in short supply in a country where hard cash has been
in severe
scarcity for the last four years.
Fuel, food and essential drugs
remain in critical short supply because
the government does not have hard
cash to pay foreign suppliers, while
joblessness is beyond 70
percent.
Kagoro said: “The solution is simple in the present
political
scenario. Instead of arresting the leaders of the present struggle,
Mugabe
must arrest the declining economic malaise – or risk going down in
history
as the dictator who expedited his demise by emboldening people
towards
direct confrontation with his key pillars of strength – the police
and the
army.”
Daily News
State withdraws charges
6/11/2003 8:49:52
AM (GMT +2)
Own Correspondent
THE State yesterday
withdrew charges of contravening the draconian
Public Order and Security Act
against opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party legislator for
Masvingo Central Silas Mangono and 19
other activists of the party
yesterday.
The charges were withdrawn after the prosecution failed
to come up
with a trial date for the prosecution of the MDC members or to
produce a
line-up of the witnesses it intended to summon to court. Mangono
and his
colleagues were arrested during the mass job stayaway on 18 and 19
March
that was called by the MDC to register discontent against President
Robert
Mugabe and his government.
The mass protest crippled
business and industry across the country. It
was the State’s case that on 18
March Mangono and his group gathered along
Makuva Street in Masvingo’s
Mucheke high-density suburb from where they
proceeded around residential
areas in the city, waking up people and
allegedly forcing them to participate
in the job stayaway. The MDC activists
were spotted by thepolice and arrested
while allegedly participating in and
inciting others to take part in the mass
stayaway.
Daily News
7 MDC councillors hand themselves over
6/11/2003 8:50:20 AM (GMT +2)
From Chris Gande in
Bulawayo
SEVEN Bulawayo city councillors who are members of the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and wanted by police
yesterday handed
themselves over to the police who detained the councillors
for five hours
but later released them without pressing any
charges.
The seven councillors are Albert Mhlanga, Angilacala
Ndlovu, Albert
Ndlovu, David Ncube, Peter Mangena, Samuel Khumalo and
Alderman Charles
Mpofu.
They were questioned for more than five
hours and released after being
warned not to participate in any future mass
protests organised by their MDC
party.
Bulawayo Executive Mayor
and also a member of the opposition party,
Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, was briefly
detained by the police during the mass
protests called by the MDC last week
to press President Robert Mugabe to
step down or agree to negotiate with the
opposition party for a solution to
Zimbabwe’s deepening economic and
political crisis.
Mpofu had to scale the perimeter wall of his home
after police raided
his home as part of a campaign by a joint police and army
crackforce to
stifle the mass protests by arresting the MDC’s local
leadership and
activists.
The councillors said the police told
them that they were looking for
them, only to tell them they should appeal to
residents not to be violent
during stayaways in future.
However,
they said they found it strange that police should be looking
for them in the
middle of the night just to appeal to them to calm
down
residents.
Two of the councillors, Cornelius Dube and
Litshe Kheswa, were
arrested last week while the rest of the opposition
councillors had been on
the run from police.
The Bulawayo City
Council has 11 MDC councillors, 13 from Zanu PF and
three
independents.
The police allegedly told the councillors that they
were not
interested in questioning Stars Mathe-Thebe, the only female MDC
councillor,
because she is a woman.
The MDC councillors said
they decided to hand themselves over to the
police since they had not
committed a crime.
Another MDC councillor, Matson Hlalo, is already
facing charges under
the Public Order and Security Act for allegedly
organising the previous
stayaway on 18 and 19 March this year.
“We had been hounded out of our homes and are failing to perform
duties at
home and in the council,” said Mpofu.
Last week all the MDC
councillors failed to attend a council meeting
because of fear they would be
picked up by the police.
Mhlanga, who is also the MDC provincial
secretary, said he told the
police that he was not going to obey their order
because he had a right to
belong to the MDC.
“I told the police
that I cannot stop doing anything for my party
because I take instructions
from my bosses and not from the police,” he
said.
Daily News
Mobs destroy newspapers worth $1,6m
6/11/2003 8:50:55 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporters
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (Private) Limited (ANZ), publishers
of The
Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, last week lost about $1,6
million
after suspected ZANU PF youths and self-styled war veterans
destroyed copies
of the newspapers accusing them of backing mass protests
organised by the
opposition MDC last week.
ANZ Chief Executive Samuel Sipepa Nkomo
yesterday said 11 168 copies
of The Daily News alone were confiscated and
destroyed by hooligans, some of
whom also assaulted vendors of the
newspaper.
Nkomo said ANZ had filed reports with the police but
none of the
suspects, some of whom tore copies of ANZ newspapers in full view
of the
public, had to date been arrested.
“The institutions of
law enforcement have so far failed us,” said
Nkomo, whose titles have
survived countless attacks by pro-government and
ruling ZANU PF groups
uncomfortable at the newspapers’ robust and unbiased
coverage of national
events including maladministration by the government.
Nkomo said
the flagrant destruction of newspapers in open defiance of
the law was a
threat to Zimbabweans’ right to freedom of the Press and of
expression
guaranteed by the country’s Constitution.
He said: “We view this
situation as a calamity for Press freedom.
Quite clearly, in order for
freedom of expression to flourish there must be
a conducive
environment.
“The environment must be such that institutions such as
newspaper
businesses, like our own, which are fundamental to the freedom of
expression
equation, can function without criminal or political
interference.”
The destruction of ANZ newspapers is the latest in a
series of attacks
against the company’s titles in the last few years that
also saw its
printing press bombed by still unknown people two years ago.
Journalists
working for the newspaper group have also been beaten up and
attacked while
covering news.
Vendors selling The Daily News or
its sister publication, The Daily
News on Sunday, have also not been spared
from abuse and attack.
Nkomo said: “As a business, we feel very
vulnerable in this
environment because we are not being afforded the full
protection of the law
in going about our normal business
activity.”
Nkomo said a vibrant and progressive newspaper industry
could only
exist in an environment where the rule of law was impartially
enforced. He
said a police force and judicial system that supported
legitimate
journalistic and Press activity was critical to the advancement of
good
journalism in the country.
“What we witnessed last week was
the complete opposite of this. ANZ
could do nothing but watch helplessly as
criminals went openly about
destructive mission – thousands of copies of The
Daily News were destroyed
in broad daylight,” said the publishing
executive.
Ministry of Information permanent secretary George
Charamba in an
interview with this newspaper earlier on last week said that
the destruction
of ANZ newspapers showed that people were rejecting the
titles.
“I am making a valid editorial point. Readers are fed up
with your
paper, which is packed with news of the final push,” Charamba
said.
The Daily News is Zimbabwe’s largest circulating newspaper
and the
country’s only independent daily. The Daily News on Sunday, launched
last
month, is the latest title on Zimbabwe’s news stands and has been
gaining
popularity by the week.
In Mutare ZANU PF youths and war
veterans say they have banished The
Daily News from the city’s Dangamvura
high-density suburb because the
newspaper was too critical of the
government.
The paper’s circulation manager in the city, Martin
Zimudyi, said the
youths working in cahoots with war veterans were seizing
copies of the paper
and destroying them.
He said reports had been
made to the police but the law-enforcement
agents had so far failed to stop
the youths from their illegal activities.
A ZANU PF official in the
city, Charles Pemhenhayi, also denied that
youths aligned to the party were
destroying copies of the independent daily
paper.
Meanwhile
Reporters Without Borders, (RWB) an international Press
freedom group,
yesterday condemned the destruction of copies of The Daily
News by government
supporters.
RWB secretary-general Robert Menard said the climate of
repression and
lawlessness in which independent journalists were forced to
work under was
worsening.
“We deplore the physical attacks of
Daily News readers by ZANU PF
supporters despite that Section 20 of the
Zimbabwean Constitution guaranteed
freedom of opinion and expression,” Menard
said.
Daily News
Leader Page
Wanted: A state built on respect for
human dignity
6/11/2003 8:58:52 AM (GMT +2)
Fr
Oskar Wermter
WHEN her 42-year old son died in her little wooden
cabin in Joburg
Lines, the old woman did not know what to do. She had no
money to hire even
the cheapest undertaker. For two days she sat paralysed
with grief and fear
next to the dead body of her son whose wife had died
first.
Finally her church intervened. And the neighbours, almost as
poor as
the old widow, collected $ 5 000 for a coffin. On a grey, cold, windy
day,
we laid the father of two sobbing teenagers to rest.
Living
in those shacks is life-threatening. Just before Easter, the
Harare City
Council managed to remove most of our rubbish heaps, but now
they are growing
again. What is bad for humans is good for rats. They thrive
on refuse. And
carry dangerous diseases. They even nibble at people,
especially small
children.
That refuse collection has collapsed again has not by any
chance
something to do with the mayor’s suspension?
The wilful
destruction of the economy and collapse of administrative
structures,
overcrowding and unemployment, AIDS and TB, crime and violence
have hit those
people all at once.
Churches are pushing for dialogue between the
ruling party and the
opposition, for a total commitment by both parties to a
transparent and
all-inclusive process of dialogue without undue call for
preconditions.
Fine. If that were to succeed it would certainly be
a beginning and a
step in the right direction. But it would not be enough.
Political leaders
may eventually manage to strike some sort of compromise and
share the
national cake, or what is left of it, in line with the power and
influence
they currently wield.
But would such a deal take into
account at all the interests of the
people in those cardboard dwellings,
dirt-poor and powerless?
Would they not also need a place at the
conference table? Can we ever
leave politics to the politicians? Do we not
need a round table with room
for all groups of society, not just for
professional politicians?
The fundamental failure of the people
currently in power for the last
23 years is that they merely formed a regime,
but did not build a state.
They merely used the structures of the
state they inherited for their
own advantage, changing them here and there to
tighten their grip on power.
They occupied somebody else’s house, but were
unable to design and build a
new one themselves.
It will not be
enough merely to change the names on the doors in the
corridors of power. A
completely new house has to be built, not merely for
the new chefs, but for
the entire nation and all its various sections, with
doors and windows open
to the region and the continent as a whole, not shut
up by national
sovereignty.
The State is permanent, while governments come and go,
like lodgers.
The foundation of this house is the Constitution. Laying this
foundation
must involve all who will live in this house, not just the party
that wants
to occupy the top flat for some time to come.
All
players in society must sit at the round table to work out this
common
foundation on which all must agree, however much they may squabble
afterwards
over individual policies.
In the past we had to borrow somebody
else’s design. In the meantime
we have learnt from experience, unfortunately
mostly negative experience,
what a constitution must entail.
Never again do we want this country to be run like an infant school by
a
headmaster who believes in corporal punishment as the instrument to
enforce
his beloved discipline (actually his personal power).
Never
again do we want to concentrate unlimited power in the hands of
one person or
a small clique.
The constitutional device to ensure this is called
separation of
powers. We have now learnt from our own unfortunate, short
national history
why separation of powers must be the basic structure of our
Constitution.
The three arms of the State, government, Parliament
and law courts,
must control each other. No one arm has all the power. There
must be checks
and balances between the legislative, executive and judicative
powers of the
State.
There have been blood-thirsty despots in
the African past, tyrants who
could send people with a flip of their
fly-whisks to their deaths, just as
dictators were able to push
malfunctioning constitutional governments in
Europe aside.
But
limiting authority through sharing power is not a completely new
concept in
Africa. The chief had to listen to his counsellors, and he was
reminded by
the well-known saying Ishe vanhu (the chief is the people),
where his power
came from.
Since the party in power since independence has never
understood the
vital difference between the State, which is lasting, and the
government of
the day, which has “best before” stamped on it. A return to a
system whereby
a non-political President represents the State and a Prime
Minister
answerable to Parliament leads government, may be
indicated.
Such a President would personify the State and through
his presence
and personality enhance the common values that hold the nation
together. He
would be the Commander-in-Chief of police and army, and not an
Executive
President who, as a politician, is likely to misuse the armed
forces for
partisan political purposes.
The civil service would
be loyal to the President as the
representative of the State, not the head of
government. They would swear
loyalty to the State and its Constitution, not
to ever-changing party
regimes.
But even putting these various
constitutional devices in place will
not be enough to protect us against
despotism. All this remains mere paper
unless respect for the human person
created in the image of God, expressed
in a freedom charter of personal and
communal rights, becomes the one common
value we all internalise and make our
own.
“About 150 injured people were brought to the Avenues Clinic
between
last night and this night. I personally spoke to about seven of the
victims
before the riot police and other plainclothes details of the force
stormed
onto the hospital premises and into the wards, causing such a panic
as
patients, the injured and even hospital staff were scurrying in
different
directions for safety.
“Most of the victims are from
Highfield, Glen View, Dzivaresekwa and
Budiriro. In most situations the
groups of vigilantes beating up people
stormed into the victims’ houses at
night, dragged people out of bed and
beat them up.”This anonymous report
shows the utter contempt in which the
current regime holds human beings.
Respect for human dignity is unknown to
it. This must change radically and
fundamentally.
Fr Oskar Wermter is a Jesuit priest who writes on
social and political
issues.
Daily News
NOCZIM needs $3,6 billion to settle debt
6/11/2003 8:40:03 AM (GMT +2)
MacDonald Dzirutwe
THE State-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) plans
to
raise
$3,6 billion annually, or $300 million every month, from
motorists
until it clears its foreign and domestic debt, The Business Daily
has
established.
Sources close to the plan said the
government would introduce a $5 fee
for every litre of fuel sold by NOCZIM
and private companies, which would
come into effect as soon as private firms
began importing fuel into the
country.
They said $5 would be
added to the price of fuel sold by the
parastatal and private
companies.
The money raised will be used to retire NOCZIM’s foreign
debt, which
is owed to Libya’s oil company Tamoil Trading, and to make
repayments on $60
billion the parastatal is raising on the domestic market to
buy foreign
currency for fuel imports.
The national oil procurer
has so far raised $5 billion from petrofin
bills it floated in the market. It
was however not possible to ascertain the
parastatal’s total debt yesterday.
NOCZIM chief executive Webster
Muriritirwa was unavailable for comment on the
matter yesterday.
His secretary promised he would return calls from
this newspaper but
he had not done so at the time of going to press. But
sources privy to the
NOCZIM plan said a consortium of private fuel importers
had been tasked with
working out the logistics of how private firms would
import fuel to
alleviate Zimbabwe’s severe liquid energy crisis.
The consortium, which is represented by FSI Holdings, Caltex and
Comoil, has
agreed to the $5 levy, which would be passed on to motorists,
the sources
said. It was not possible to secure comment yesterday from
Caltex head Simba
Kambarami, who was said to be out of the office until next
Monday, while
representatives of FSI Holdings and Comoil were unreachable.
However, sources said representatives of the fuel importers’
consortium,
exporters, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Ministries of
Finance and of
Power and Energy Development had endorsed the NOCZIM plan at
a meeting held
on 2 June.
“The new price structures will see a $5 fee being
charged by NOCZIM on
every litre of fuel, which will basically amount to $300
million every month
that will go towards the repayment of debts,” a source
privy to the plan
told The Business Daily yesterday.
Private oil
companies have told the government that they will be able
to import fuel if
they can sell it at nearly $700 a litre, inclusive of the
$5 levy, which will
be reviewed every month in line with exchange rate
flactuations.
The 2 June meeting is said to have agreed that the private sector
would need
US$24 million (Z$19,776 billion) every month to import fuel.
Zimbabwe needs
to import 60 million litres of fuel every month at a cost of
US$40 million,
but serious foreign currency shortages have led to NOCZIM
managing to procure
less than half the domestic requirements since the end
of last
year.
The government has already attempted to levy motorists to
clear NOCZIM
’s debt, introducing a fuel levy in 2001 amounting to $7,69 a
litre. The
money raised was supposed to be for the amortisation of NOCZIM
debts,
estimated at $23 billion at one point.
Motorists opposed
the charge, saying they were being forced to
subsidise mismanagement at the
parastatal. The levy was abolished at the end
of last year.
Local analysts said motorists were likely to oppose the $5 fee on
fuel,
especially since it was not clear how long it would take to clear
NOCZIM’S
debt. They said the levy would further burden Zimbabweans. Kingdom
Financial
Holdings economist Witness Chinyama said: “It is now a burden to
the
motorists, worse still because we don’t know when it will end. It is as
if
they (motorists) are the only ones benefiting from the fuel.”
Daily News
Zimbabwe one of three countries with bleakest prospects
– survey
6/11/2003 8:42:00 AM (GMT +2)
Business
Reporter
ZIMBABWE has been named as one of three African countries
with the
bleakest economic prospects in the next five years, according to a
survey by
the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The survey was
conducted last month and polled 600 participants of the
WEF’s economic summit
in Durban, which begins today. Those polled were asked
to name countries with
the brightest and bleakest economic outlook in the
next five
years.
Zimbabwe was named along with Cote d’Ivoire and the
Democratic
Republic of the Congo as one of the African countries with a grim
economic
future.
As the African countries with the brightest
future over the next five
years, the participants singled out Angola,
Botswana and South Africa.
“South Africa, Angola and Botswana were
the stars. Zimbabwe, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d’Ivoire were
the three countries that
respondents felt had the bleakest future,” the
report on the business
confidence survey said.
In a statement,
the WEF said 80 percent of the participants, who
include global business and
civil society, however supported the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD) and were optimistic about
Africa’s recovery.
NEPAD is
the brainchild of Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa, which
seek to promote
economic and political reform on the continent. It is being
executed under
the auspices of the African Union, of which South African
President Thabo
Mbeki is chairman.
Zimbabwe is one of the African states that have yet
to endorse NEPAD’s
peer review mechanism, a critical component of the African
renaissance blue
print.
The pre-Durban summit poll discovered
that three-quarters of the
participants were critical of NEPAD’s
implementation and called for concrete
action. Meanwhile, local business
executives said Zimbabwe’s participation
at the Durban meeting was unlikely
to be overshadowed by Harare’s worsening
economic, social and political
problems.
Banker William Nyemba said NEPAD could significantly
benefit local
business.
Nyemba said the rapid expansion of
Zimbabwean businesses on the
continent gave local industries leverage and a
chance to harness commercial
opportunities through the NEPAD
project.
Nyemba, insisting business representatives would not delve
into
politics at the Durban summit, added that it was vital to “just attend
in
order to listen to what they (international community) say and ensure
that
we are not left out in whatever initiatives take place
worldwide”.
The government has also sent a delegation led by
Finance Minister
Hebert Murerwa.
Daily News
Feature
They are so right – fear can drive you
bananas
6/11/2003 8:45:35 AM (GMT +2)
IN the
end, there is nothing to fear but fear itself, even in
politics.
But politicians like President Robert Mugabe – being as mortal and
fallible
as the lonely vendor unable to sell his only cabbage at Mbare
Musika in
Harare and fearing his wife would kill him if he came home
empty-handed – are
just as likely to be driven bananas by a dose of real
fear. As potent as
confronting a young hungry lion in the middle of
Gonarezhou Game Park, in the
middle of the night, in the middle of winter.
So, Mugabe was
confronted by his worst enemy – fear or the MDC (for
him they are one and the
same thing) – from 2 June to 6 June.
How many would be headed for
State House? How would Chatunga react?
“Daddy, why are these people not
shouting the ZANU PF slogan? Why are they
so angry?”
Was the
President wondering if Ferdinand Marcos’ fate awaited him –
being driven out
of power by People Power? What would Grace Mugabe do with
her shoes? Donate
them to charity or take them with her as Imelda Marcos did
with
hers?
Mugabe daren’t contemplate a fate as ghastly or as chilling
as that of
his old ideological comrade-in-arms Nicolae Ceausescu.
By
the time he drove to Mashonaland West to speak at a rally of his
own
relatives, the fear had almost overwhelmed him.
He spoke with such
incredible levity, some listening to him on
television wondered if he had
taken a dangerous substance. Or had the fear
finally driven him
bananas?
He had not heard what some of the demonstrators had called
him as they
ran away from the soldiers and the policemen, or as they
sheltered in the
gutters, waiting for these agents of fear and terror, to
leave their
townships and return to their foul-smelling lairs.
If
Mugabe had heard what they called him, he would have cried an old
man’s tears
of rejection.
The MDC stayaway was no laughing matter, but Mugabe
laughed, which
made some people wonder even more about the effect of the fear
on his
psyche.
The sight of seven military vehicles outside
Makoni shopping centre in
Chitungwiza convinced me the government and the
people operating its
apparatus of fear and terror had succumbed to The Fear
of the Unknown.
The government media went absolutely berserk with
the fear. They
denied that which could not be denied, they created the
positive out of the
negative, they expropriated the true meaning of bad and
replaced it
unashamedly with good, they killed someone in their news
bulletins if that
someone had been killed by the MDC, or persons unknown.
They would pin any
crime on Morgan Tsvangirai – a friend wondered when they
would blame him for
the murder of John F Kennedy or Leon
Trotsky.
Who was really plagued with fear during the five days of
the mass
action? Tsvangirai was all over the country, addressing the rallies
that the
Public Order and Security Act would allow him to, without charging
him with
treason or falsehoods or putting the President’s name into
political
disrepute. Where was Mugabe? Mostly at State House or Munhumutapa
building,
meeting this or that dignitary. He did not join the mass action,
unless we
are being generous and saying that since the results of his day’s
labours
have hardly improved our livelihood one whit, he has been on a
stayaway for
a long time.
But seriously, any of his spokespeople
would be lying to us if they
told us he was not the least bit curious about
how the mass action was
proceeding. By now he cannot be one of the few
intelligent people left in
the country who would believe anything he hears on
his own radio or
television station.
Mugabe must have a hotline
to Nicholas Goche, the final boss of the
government’s spook agency. But is
Goche likely to come clean with him? Is he
likely to tell him that on the
first day of the mass action Harare resembled
something of a ghost town in
the Old West? That if you walked blindfolded in
the centre of Second Street
from one end to the other, the chances of being
warned off the road by the
blast of an angry motorist’s hooter were
almost zero?
Where had all the people gone?
There has always been the suspicion,
among Mugabe’s mildest critics,
that he has been ill-informed about many
things: his popularity with the
people, the state of the economy, the
corruption in high places and the
decline of the stature of the party he
leads among ordinary people.
Not many serious analysts have
swallowed this garbage. Mugabe knows
exactly what the people think. If he
didn’t, before February 2000, then
during that month the truth was revealed
to him, in its ugliest
manifestation: most people didn’t like
him.
His reaction to the rejection of a constitution in which he
had set
such great store had its own palpable ugliness.
“The people
have spoken and I respect their decision” or words to that
effect. We now
know that deep down inside his soul he was seething with
anger. How dare they
kick him in the teeth like that?
People who believe it is
unprofitable to dwell so much on the past in
politics may be the victims of
their own amnesia.
Politics teems with falsehoods, and the peddlers
of falsehoods are
princes and princesses, but they are the most dangerous and
the most
rapacious in that jungle, They will eat you alive if you are not
careful.
They will rob you blind too.
But if, once in a while,
you can scare the wits out of them, with a
strategy as consummate as the mass
action, then what a delicious sensation
of achievement!
Mugabe
and ZANU PF will insist that they were not frightened of the
mass action,
that they knew from the beginning that it would end with a
whimper and not
the roar of the conquering lion.They will tell you they knew
that at the end
of it all, it would not make a shred of difference to their
original plan of
action – to keep socking it to the masses with murder,
rape, price increases
and shortages of everything from matches to grinding
mills.
But your
huge consolation is that you saw the whites of their eyes as
the fear set
in.
You saw their gasp for breath as the shock of it hit them. You
saw
them go bananas as the fear overwhelmed them. You know you would like to
see
that spectacle again, again and again.You know it in your heart that
wiping
that arrogant smirk from their faces is one of the glorious sights you
would
like to see all over again. Taming the bully into a pussycat is
every
underdog’s dream. bsaidi@dailynews.co.zw
AfricaOnline
South Africa To Crack Down On Zimbabwe's Representation At A
Commonwealth
Meeting
Staff Reporter
Johannesburg 11 June 2003
A
Zimbabwe deleate attending a Commonwealth conference in definace of
the
organisations ban on her country has been threatened with eviction by
SA
government representatives.
JOHANNESBURG: The South African
government has decided to crack down on
Zimbabwean representation at this
week's Commonwealth Science Council in
Johannesburg.
The Commonwealth
has tough restrictions in place against Zimbabwe and the
country is banned
from all council participation. South African Arts,
Culture, Science and
Technology Minister Ben Ngubane says he will throw out
any Zimbabwean
government representative who attends tomorrow's meetings.
Zimbabwean
Minister Olivia Muchena says she will send her deputy to formal
events today
and tomorrow.
IOL
'Mugabe spat in Mbeki's face'
June
11 2003 at 03:16AM
By Jeremy
Michaels
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe had "spat in
President Thabo
Mbeki's face" by arresting opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and
secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
Speaking in the
National Assembly on Tuesday, Democratic Alliance
leader Tony Leon said Mbeki
had either misled himself or he was misleading
the country with his recent
statement that Zimbabwe's government and
opposition were engaging in
dialogue.
Leon noted that Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change had denied Mbeki's assertion that
they were talking,
despite the turmoil in that country.
"And yet
the president told parliament 'they are having a dialogue'.
Either he was
misled, or he was misleading the South African public."
'Either he was misled, or he was misleading the South
African
public'
Leon said Mugabe had launched a "decapitation
strike" against the MDC
leadership, just as the apartheid government used to
do when faced with mass
protests.
The DA leader repeated his
calls on the South African government to
introduce a "road map to democracy"
in Zimbabwe, similar to the latest
version of a peace plan for the Middle
East.
Mbeki last week shrugged off opposition charges that the
government's
"quiet diplomacy" strategy had failed to influence Mugabe,
suggesting
instead that he (Mbeki) remained optimistic about a negotiated
solution.
"The Zimbabweans are talking to one another, they are
negotiating, and
I'm quite certain that out of that process will come an
agreement that will
take the country forward."
Business Day
Our development path must take national interest into
account
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
THE
debate around human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and the political
conflict
between Zanu (PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
has
muddied the waters around a crucial concept of public life:
national
interest.
We saw the same concept being used by one nation
defying a legitimate body
of other nation states in the war against Iraq. It
is also raising its head
in the same nation's justification for its
involvement in the Middle East.
But what exactly is national
interest?
A nonacademic definition would be the process of harnessing the
resources
that a country (nation) has at its disposal for the common good of
its
people, its environment and the ultimate sustainability of that
nation
deployment of resources for the common good being the operative
word.
Machiavelli, as cited by Michael G Roskin in his 1994 PhD thesis,
is said to
have once declared: "You may have splendid moral goals, but
without
sufficient power and the willingness to use it, you will
accomplish
nothing." Machiavelli could not have known that in the 21st
century, the
capitalist economy would face a deep crisis of legitimacy, and
that on the
African continent, for many despots the only mode of survival
would be
through clinging to power by any means.
We need to take a
balanced view of Zimbabwe if a lasting peaceful solution
is to be attained
one that is in the best national interest of its people
and natural
resources.
Zanu (PF)'s tactics of clamping down on the opposition are
increasingly
comparable with those of a tyrant that once ruled SA, a force
and
dispensation that many in the corridors of business have amnesia
about.
The complexity in Zimbabwe lies in the fact that the Movement for
Democratic
Change like our Democratic Alliance and New National Party is part
of the
governance system of Zimbabwe, with seats in parliament and
significant
political equity in Harare and Bulawayo.
Tyranny is
tyranny. There is no excuse for the manner in which Zanu (PF)
uses state
power.
The key is to apply potential solutions that deliver sustainable
growth in a
balanced manner. The average Zimbabwean needs to know the power
of the
ballot will ensure that Zimbabwe's national interest is not
compromised by
party political and individual leaders' anxiety about their
own continued
enjoyment of luxury.
On the other hand, western
political powers and the business community
cannot carry on saying to both
our government and the Zimbabwean government
look out, your side of the boat
is leaking. All stakeholders must unpack
their baggage and create a platform
of meaningful engagement on these
matters.
Roskin, in his doctoral
study of national interest, says: "While not as
explicit as ideologies, the
culture, values and convictions of a country can
also warp definitions of the
national interest. Every country has national
values, but the statesperson
(head of state) who acts on them without
reference to the national interest
risks damaging the nation. Elites the top
or most influential people pay far
more attention to foreign affairs than
the public at large; therefore they
are instrumental in defining national
interests."
The question to be
raised about Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe is
particularly insightful
in respect of the position held by Roskin.
Besides the average
Zimbabwean, whose interests are at stake in Zimbabwe's
land reforms given
that a better approach, centred more on human rights,
could have been applied
and meaningful socioeconomic transformation? Is this
not the same Mugabe whom
Margaret Thatcher once described as a perfect
African gentleman?
The
same questions must be asked in SA. The slow pace of transformation of
the
economic sector and the types of funding formulae that black
entrepreneurs
are subjected to in black economic empowerment transactions
raise questions
about whether we are indeed on a correct path of
transforming our own
economy, in its best national interests. Or are the
invisible hands of the
elite steering this economy in their own best
interests?
Lessons from
north of the Limpopo suggest that we have a lot still to
achieve in our own
country to ensure that we create a genuine spirit of
growth and development.
If the 21year-olds of 1994 still find themselves
called a previously or
historically disadvantaged individual in the
corporate SA of 2015, a
"Zimbabwe" will be inevitable in our own back yard.
So, as we criticise
government's position on Zimbabwe and whether or not
quiet diplomacy is
working, we do need to stop and ponder because where do
Zimbabwean refugees
go for a new beginning?
It is to be hoped that we will all now say: "Ask
not what your country's
president can do for Zimbabwe, but put together your
wealth and brains and
offer some apolitical business solution to Zimbabwe."
After all, business is
supposed to be the most resilient part of civil
society isn't it?
Makwana is CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi SA.
Jun 11
2003 07:40:54:000AM Business Day 1st Edition