• Arrest - personal story
• Should I support the stayaway or not?
• Some perspective
• Zvakwana Newsletter #31
• Nationwide Protest Marches Planned For Tomorrow
• JAG Open Letters Forum No.: 92
• Arrest of rights activists for feeding detainees
• Zvakwana Newsletter #32 - When push comes to shove
• Zimbabwe mass protest call
• European Parliament call to end Mugabe's regime
• Mogae urges Zimbabwe and MDC to reach compromise
• Why tough land grab laws now?
• Anti-Mugabe protest at Test match
• Zimbabwe Opposition Plans More Protests
• More protests loom
• Mbare mourners attacked
• Youths assault teachers
• Mutare MDC activists in court over mass action
• Mugabe dismisses protests as flop
• MDC rally cancelled
• Protesters detained in overcrowded cells
• The final nail on the economy
• Rambai makashinga, yes indeed
• IMF axe hovers over Zimbabwe

We all have a responsibility and that responsibility equates, in part, to
making sacrifices. Something that we all have to do when planning our
business. There are times when we have to expend more than we receive.

Investments have to be made that are costly in the short-term but beneficial
in the medium and long-term.

This is all calculated planning based on predictions and forecasts. These
are moves made to ensure the long-term future and viability of our
operations in order that we secure our businesses in a healthy state for a
return to normality when businesses can expand and vindicate past decisions.

This is a portrayal of a business perspective. What of the moral
responsibility? Is the business of business just business?

When Hitler invaded the rest of Europe, many businesses in the US turned a
blind eye and continued to make profits and benefited from the upturn, due
to purchases from Nazi Germany. This continued until the writing was clearly
on the wall. Those that waited this long had to then live with their
decisions.

How did they feel when the horror of the Holocaust became known? They had to
cope with this guilt for the rest of their lives. Even today legal action
continues against those businesses that supported Nazi Germany claiming that
it was just business.

Let's look a little closer at Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Look at the fallout
and the present status of "collaborators". The people of Iraq will never
forget those businesses that collaborated with the regime. Do you want to be
on the pack of cards?

How is the wind blowing in Zimbabwe right now? What is right and what is
wrong? What is done is done and history cannot be changed by rewriting it.

When you sit at home and ponder over the future now, more than ever, is a
time when we must study the present. Decisions made now will impact heavily
on your business and your moral conscience. God willing, you will have to
live with yourself more in the future than you do in the present.

Business expediency now can cost us our reputation, our respectability and
even our future.

This stayaway is not a five-day matter. It is part of an unstoppable process
and the shorter the process the better for business. It is a case of
investing in a short closure and making sacrifices now or risk being closed
forever.

Any businessman must now know that change is inevitable and that actively
participating will be the best investment you will ever make. Look around
you. There are many of your colleagues who are making a brave stand. Join
them! Share the experience and benefit from the security in numbers. You
will not be alone.

Although you may not be fully aware of the position on the ground, be
assured that there were tens of thousands who followed the call and sporadic
instances occurred right across the country but were brutally suppressed.
Many MPs were arrested on the first day, including Morgan Tsvangirai. Some
were detained, Job Sikhala among them. Previously tortured and detained, he
leads from the front. Are you?

Show courage and leadership to your workers. Now is the time to cement a
relationship that will secure their trust forever! Solidarity is a feature
of your association with your workforce that they will never forget.

Fellow Businessman,

Harare.

I cannot reproduce here all they have been saying about our predicament. But
one editorial should suffice. It comes from Business Day, a publication
whose owners have impeccable "struggle" credentials and who are unlikely
therefore to have any residual affection for the sort of interests we are
constantly being told predominate in the South African media. Published on
Tuesday, it reflects views broadly held in South African business and
political circles and therefore provides a useful insight into how others
see us.

'As predicted, President Robert Mugabe's response to the launch of a
week-long 'final push' mass action by the opposition yesterday was to send
in heavily armed riot police and the military to crush the peaceful street
demonstrations. Police began the day by incarcerating the leadership of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for supposedly organising
the demonstrations illegally, and then brutally set about stopping
opposition supporters from gathering, firing teargas, and in some cases live
ammunition, at thousands of protesters. Harare in particular was not a
pretty sight.

"But even as the geriatric dictator pursued these savage acts of
desperation, one thing was clear: he is no longer in charge. All the major
urban centres, such as Harare and the second city of Bulawayo, heeded
opposition calls and shut down completely. The moral of this sad saga:

Africa can choose to turn a blind eye to Harare's excesses, and Mugabe can
continue to persecute and even murder his opponents as he routinely does,
but all he is doing is merely postponing the inevitable - his
fast-approaching demise. For those who care to watch, the signs are ominous.

"Yet the end of Mugabe's era could be less chaotic, if only African leaders
had the political willpower to intervene decisively. With both Zimbabwe's
political and economic temperatures at their worst levels since the
country's independence in 1980, there could not be a better time to nudge
Mugabe in the right direction. As the country's leader, he needs Africa more
than MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai does. But such a prospect seems extremely
unlikely, with the African Union largely quiet on the issue, just like its
predecessor the Organisation of African Union, proving that it is nothing
more than an old boys' club where our leaders meet once a year to pat each
other on the back for their ability to hang on to power.And so to the
question: Can Pretoria fill this void and be expected to show some
leadership here?

"Hardly likely. SA's problems in Zimbabwe began when we endorsed the outcome
of last year's farcical presidential election. Despite the SA observer team
admitting in its report that tens of thousands of registered voters were
turned away 'because of administrative oversight' - clearly a result of
conscious, deliberate and well-planned government action presided over by
one of the contesting candidates (Mugabe) - the team still reached the
unbelievable conclusion that the election was basically free and fair.

"To this extent, and despite the faltering efforts Pretoria is currently
making to try to resolve the crisis, we have unfortunately always given the
impression that we in fact prefer dealing with the devil we know, Mugabe,
rather than the likes of Tsvangirai and the MDC. That cannot form the right
foundation for credible intervention.

"Buoyed by this apparent support from his peers, Mugabe continues in the
meantime resolutely to execute his own 'final annihilation', in the hope
that he can blow his opponents out of the political equation. This is why he
has routinely slapped treason charges on his challengers. Before Tsvangirai
was hauled before the courts, liberation icons such as former Zapu military
supremos Dumiso Dabengwa andLookout Masuku (both men were acquitted) and the
late Zanu Ndonga leader Ndabaningi Sithole (who was convicted and sentenced
to two years, but died before his appeal could be heard) also faced such
trumped-up charges.

"And yet, even as Mugabe continues to find his real enemies in white racists
in London and Pretoria, it is noteworthy that his predecessor as
illegitimate leader of the country - white minority leader Ian Smith - never
tried a black nationalist for treason during his time, even though the
repressive Law and Order (Maintenance) Act which Mugabe is using was enacted
then.

"Hold on as Zimbabwe implodes. Pretoria holds fast to the view that
Zimbabweans should solve their own problems. So now they are trying, do we
have the stomach for what is about to unfold?"

• Harare
  Mutare Road, Enterprise Road, Samora Machel Avenue, Domboshava Road, Sam Nujoma Road, Kind George Road, West Road, Leopold Takawira Road, Chiremeba Road, Seke Road, Rememberance Drive, Simon Mazorodze Road, Highfield Road, Lytton Road, Coventry Road, Douglas Road, Rotten Row, Rekai Tangwena, Mufakose Road, Bulawayo Road, Old Bulawayo Road/Kadoma Road
  
  Follow Julius Nyerere into Samora Machel and turn into 4^th Street to Africa Unity Square

• Chitungwiza
  March to Makoni Shops, the Town Centre and Huruyadzo Shopping Centre

• Bulawayo
  March to the City Hall. Use all available routes including Matopos Road, Khami Road, Plumtree Road, 6^th Avenue, Old Falls Road, Northend, Takawira and Jason Moyo Road.

• Mutare march to the Meikles Park
• Masvingo march to the Civic Centre
• Gweru march to the Civic Gardens
• Kwekwe march to the City Centre

• In other towns, march to your town centre

The media
Local, regional and international media have been alerted and will be there to record the march.

Work together
There is strength and courage in numbers:

Zvakwana street messages
Please remember that all of us as individuals can create messages of change and become a part of the freedom movement. When we do this we make more work for the illegitimate regime and its brutal police. We must rather have them scrubbing our paint off the streets than harassing innocent Zimbabweans.

Visit the Zvakwana website to read this and previous newsletters and information - www.zvakwana.org

Zvakwana Newsletter #32 - When push comes to shove
June 05, 2003 - Late Edition

Sheer relentlessness
Celebrated Indian author and social commentator Arundhati Roy has said that the only thing that should be globalised is dissent. Indeed, for progress to be made we need people willing to agitate and to demand justice and accountability. It is time for us to confront the illegitimate regime. To, as Roy says, "deprive it of oxygen". To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubborness, our courage, our joy, our brilliance, our restlessness.

And our sheer relentlessness.

Most successful stayaway ever
It has been evident that even by this fourth day of the Week of Action that Zimbabwe has closed down sending a clear message to the mugabe regime that we have the power and we are enough! The stayaway is culminating in a second attempt to gather Zimbabweans together to visibly show their support for democratic change. Thank you to store/business owners as well as Zimbabwean consumers who have shown tremendous resolve these last 4 days. Please read one of the many messages we have received:

Zvakwana, Sokwanele, Enough is Enough

Visit our website: www.zvakwana.org

BBC

 

Zimbabwe mass protest call

Many have been hurt during the protests The opposition has urged Zimbabweans to stage the biggest mass demonstrations in the country since independence to mark the end of their week-long series of protests. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told its supporters that Friday was "D-Day" and called on all Zimbabweans to take to the streets in their millions despite state repression. The five-day general protest called by the MDC was billed as an attempt to end President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian grip on power and address the country's deep political, economic and social crises. But planned street protests failed to take off as government security forces cracked down on opposition supporters. The MDC says that more than 500 of its supporters have been arrested since the start of the mass protests on Monday. Beatings At least two people died and many were left wounded by beatings blamed on government agents. Mugabe has defended the use of force on protesters Speaking on South Africa's SABC television news, President Mugabe defended the use of force by his security forces, saying they were doing their job of maintaining peace and stability. "We don't want to make our people suffer. We want our people to be free to express their free views," he said. "It is sad when we are forced as a government to use teargas against our own youth who are being misled, but we have to do it in the interests of peace and security," he said. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Mr Mugabe's comments were hypocritical. Speaking on South African television, Mr Tsvangirai said he believed there was an impasse in Zimbabwe, but that the MDC was engaged in "the last phase in the final push to bring the Zimbabwean government to negotiations". The High Court declared the MDC mass action illegal and warned that demonstrators would face "the full wrath of the law" if they defied the ban on the protests. Police say that at least 40 MDC youths were arrested at a Bulawayo house where, it is alleged that they were found manufacturing petrol bombs. A BBC reporter in Zimbabwe said that many schools have been closed and transport has been severely affected by the mass action. It is being reported that only 25% of shops and almost all banks were open on Thursday in Bulawayo, while in the capital, Harare most businesses remained closed, with less than half the shops open in the city centre. Police and the army continue to maintain a heavy presence, especially in the suburbs of Harare and military helicopters have been patrolling over the capital.

            Festus Mogae, the Botswana President, has urged Zimbabwean
government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to reach
a compromise on how to handle the worsening political and economic crisis
currently besetting the country.

            Mogae said this at the end of the three day state visit to
Botswana by Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. Fresh from an
intensive meeting with his Angolan counterpart Mogae expressed fears that
the Zimbabwean political turmoil could pose a serious security threat to his
country.

            Botswana is spending millions of rands in the repatriation
exercise of hundreds of Zimbabwean illegal immigrants, who continue to flood
into Botswana as a result of the deteriorating situation back home and now
the Botswana President has called on both sides to compromise.

            "In the final analysis they are only hurting themselves, strikes
and arrests are not going to lead them anywhere they will have to give and
take there has to be some compromise and its incumbent upon the Zimbabweans
for the sake of their children and for the sake of their country to
compromise," said Mogae.

            "The matter is of great concern to us and will make our efforts
to advice the opposition to abandon anti-government protests because its
through dialogue not force that their concerns could be addressed" the
Angolan President remarked.

            The two Heads of State also concluded a tripartite agreement for
the repatriation of over a thousand Angolan refugees currently kept in
Botswana detention camps.

Story filed: 11:39 Thursday 5th June 2003

Zimbabwe's opposition says it will try again on Friday to demonstrate in the
capital and other key areas against the rule of President Robert Mugabe. A
nationwide strike by the opposition has paralyzed much of Zimbabwe's
business life and led to a violent crackdown by government security forces.

Opposition member of parliament Tendai Biti, who was arrested Monday at a
protest in the capital, says he saw almost 100 people in cells at Harare
Central Police Station, who had been assaulted by the security forces this
week.

According to Mr. Biti, he was one of only five people in the cells who was
not assaulted. He was released on bail on Wednesday night, after being
charged with violating Zimbabwe's security laws.

The legislator said he would be back on the streets on Friday, even though
he expected a fresh round of state-sponsored violence and arrests.

Mr. Biti said the Movement for Democratic Change had to continue to push
forward, and had gained important experience this week. He said no one in
Zimbabwe had ever before tried to peacefully manage the politics of change,
and that the MDC had learned important lessons, despite the violence.

Doctors working on injured people this week said one clinic alone had
treated more than 80 people. A doctor who asked not to be named said the
nature of the injuries this week were the most serious he had seen in three
years of unrest.

And opposition officials say hundreds of other people had been assaulted
this week, but had not gone to hospitals or clinics for treatment.

Friday is the last day of the opposition's week of protests. Before they
began, President Robert Mugabe vowed he would crush them. Opposition leaders
concede that, so far, this is a promise the president has succeeded in
carrying out.

      By Sydney Masamvu Assistant Editor

      THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will continue
after the end of this week's mass action to stage anti-government protests
until President Robert Mugabe, viewed as a stumbling block to a negotiated
political settlement in Zimbabwe, agrees to dialogue, it was learnt
yesterday.

      Mass action called by the MDC will end today with street
demonstrations around the country.

      The leadership of the opposition party is expected to meet tomorrow to
review this week's mass action and decide on the next phase of the protests.

      MDC insiders, however, told The Daily News that the party planned to
continue with action to press Mugabe to bring the ruling ZANU PF to the
negotiating table.

      MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai would, however, not disclose the party's
plans yesterday, saying he would issue a statement tomorrow.

      But party insiders said the opposition believed it would make more
headway if it dealt with a ZANU PF that did not have Mugabe at the helm.

      "Ever since efforts to stage dialogue to find resolutions were
initiated almost a year ago, Mugabe has without doubt proved to be the
stumbling block, throwing spanners at any given turn," a senior official in
the party said.

      "In fact, if Mugabe was out of the equation, there would be greater
rapprochement between the two parties and a better chance to break the
impasse. The problem is Mugabe's intransigence, which defies national and
international opinion."

      The officials said this week's mass action had made clear Mugabe's
"last pillars" of support and the MDC was working on comprehensive measures
to deal with them. They, however, did not indicate what measures the
opposition party was planning to take.

      MDC officials said further protests in the "final push" to bring
Mugabe to the negotiating table would be organised from Monday and would
take into consideration the response of the State.

      "More actions will be organised and some will be carried out
unannounced. We will not tire until Mugabe is brought to the negotiating
table," one official said.

      He said today's demonstrations were aimed at ending this week's mass
action on a high note and drive the people's message home to Mugabe.
      The official said: "We will drive the message home tomorrow and
Zimbabweans should exercise their rights. We want to end the demonstrations
on a high note and we will do just that.

      "Over the past week, the MDC has demonstrated that it has the support
of the people and Mugabe is only left with pockets of military support. But
those pockets will crumble soon."

      State security forces ruthlessly put down anti-government
demonstrations that had been scheduled to take place on Monday.

      The police and army, using batons and tear-gas, prevented protesters
from marching to designated points in urban areas around Zimbabwe on Monday.
State security agents are also said to have fired live bullets in some
areas.

      The government this week said it had to use force against
demonstrators to prevent anarchy and chaos in the country.

      Meanwhile, most parts of Zimbabwe were calm yesterday as the mass
action drew to a close, but MDC officials accused State security agents and
ZANU PF youths of continuing to arrest and assault members of the public.

      According to the MDC, about 100 people have received medical attention
since Tuesday for injuries allegedly inflicted by State security agents.

      Pearson Mungofa, the Highfield Member of Parliament (MDC), said five
party supporters from his constituency were detained in hospital, with three
of them in critical condition.

      "We have information showing that ZANU PF youths have been supplied
with army and police uniforms and are also responsible for trekking down and
assaulting our party supporters," he said.

      The MDC says several of its members have also been arrested during
night raids at their homes.

      The party also said ZANU PF youths were confiscating red
paraphernalia, such as hats and T-shirts, from members of the public in
Harare and Chitungwiza. Red is the MDC's signature colour.

      ZANU PF youths bussed in from rural and peri-urban areas near Harare
to assist the police and army in crushing the MDC mass action were also seen
assaulting people passing near the ZANU PF headquarters.

      In Bulawayo, a further 40 MDC youth members were arrested and their
whereabouts were unknown by late yesterday.

      An unknown number of people in Bulawayo were also picked up from their
homes in the early hours of yesterday.

      The city of Bulawayo was quiet, with some businesses remaining closed
yesterday. However, the army and police continued to force businesses to
open.

      In Mutare, Gweru and Masvingo, business had returned to normal with
most shops and banks operating and schools conducting classes.

      Staff Reporter

      SUSPECTED ruling ZANU PF supporters in Harare's Mbare high-density
suburb allegedly went on the rampage yesterday attacking and injuring
mourners who had gathered for the funeral wake of Tichaona Kaguru, an
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) official allegedly murdered
earlier this week by State security agents.

      The late Kaguru, who was a member of the MDC's Mbare district
executive committee, was on Tuesday night allegedly abducted together with a
Mbare councillor, Sydney Mazaranhanga, by security agents who brutally
assaulted them before dumping them at Chikurubi Prison camp.

      He later died at the prison's hospital, where nurses had reportedly
refused to treat him. Mazaranhanga survived the attack.

      Kaguru's brother, Kunaka, said a group of about 50 suspected ZANU PF
supporters yesterday afternoon stormed the Kaguru home and randomly attacked
people gathered there to console the family.

      Kunaka told The Daily News: "We were just about to have our lunch when
they arrived. They ordered everyone to lie down and began stoning us. They
then moved into the house and assaulted us with bricks, stones and sticks.

      "People fled in different directions while others were injured in the
melee. I have never before seen any sane people attacking mourners, all in a
bid to please their political paymasters."

      Kunaka said they had reported the attack to Mbare police.

      However, the police yesterday refused to speak to this newspaper about
the attack on the Mbare mourners. Kunaka said the people who attacked his
family belonged to a ZANU PF vigilante group called Chipangano, accused of
terrorising supporters of the MDC in Mbare. ZANU PF denies links to the
terror group.

      Members of Chipangano stormed the Kaguru home soon after MDC
legislator for Mbare, Tichaona Munyanyi, had left the home. They demanded to
know why Munyanyi had visited the family.

      Kunaka, who incurred injuries to the head during the attack and was
treated at the Avenues clinic, said the family was by late yesterday
afternoon still trying to locate the late Kaguru's widow, Nyarai, who had
not been seen after escaping the attackers through the window.

      Kaguru's mother-in-law, Winnet Dzumbunu, also sustained injuries
during the attack.

      Meanwhile an official of the Harare municiality's Fire and Ambulance
Department yesterday confirmed Kaguru's death.

      "Yes we are the ones who confirmed him dead. We received a call to
attend to him and Councillor Mazaranhanga but we arrived there (at
Chikurubi) 20 minutes after the call," the official said.

      "We assess the patients before we ferry them but there was no response
from Kaguru. There was no heartbeat so we handed him over to the police,"
the department said in response to queries from this newspaper.

      The police had refused to confirm or deny whether the MDC official was
dead or not.

      The Zimbabwe Defence Forces, some of whose men allegedly took part in
the murder of Kaguru, would also not speak on the matter, referring all
questions to the police whom they said were commanding the operation to
quell mass demonstrations called by the MDC this week.

      But Kunaka said the police had finally told the family that the body
of their deceased relative was now being kept at mortuary at the government'
s Parirenyatwa Hospital.

      Staff Reporter

      FOUR teachers at Harare's Glen Norah Two High School were yesterday
rushed to Harare Central Hospital for treatment after they were severely
assaulted by suspected ruling ZANU PF party youths for allegedly not
conducting lessons.

      The youths, who threatened to camp at the school to ensure teachers
were taking pupils for lessons, approached the school's headmaster Steven
Chizanga yesterday morning, demanding to know why some pupils were playing
outside on the school grounds instead of being in class.

      The rowdy youths, some of whom were armed with batons, then allegedly
beat up Chizanga and two other teachers.

      One of the teachers sustained serious wounds on the head, while the
other had a swollen leg as a result of the beatingsThe marauding youths, who
according to witnesses are former students of the school, then went to the
nearby Kudakwashe Primary School where they severely assaulted the
headmaster.

      A teacher at Glen Norah Two School told The Daily News: "After the
group had talked to the headmaster, he came to us explaining about the
presence of the youths. It could not make sense to us to say we were not
teaching because we had reported for work.

      "At any given time some pupils must either be in the playgrounds or in
classrooms.

      "So to say that we were not teaching because some pupils were playing
outside the classrooms does not make sense.

      "As we were talking to Mr Chizanga these youths came to the staff room
and there was pandemonium as the youths started beating us up with batons
and fists."

      When The Daily News crew arrived at the school police vehicles were
seen leaving the school with one of the youths in handcuffs.

      Officers at Glen Norah Police Station said they had launched a hunt
for the other youths suspected to have taken part in the attack on the
teachers.

      Several schools in Harare and across the country have stayed closed
for most of this week fearing pupils could get caught up in the crossfire in
the event of violence breaking out between opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and ZANU PF supporters.

      MDC-organised mass demonstrations brought Zimbabwe to a standstill for
most of this week as Zimbabweans stayed at home to show their anger at the
government's management of the country.

      The government and ZANU PF have been pressuring private businesses,
schools, banks and shops to open for business in a bid to foil the MDC
national stayaway.

      Earlier this week the Ministry of Education threatened school
authorities who closed their schools during the mass action with severe
disciplinary measures, while officials at the Ministry of Industry and
Commerce said they were taking an audit of companies that had not opened for
business with a view to withdraw their operating licences.

      From Our Correspondent in Mutare

      Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) chairman for
Manicaland province Timothy Mubhawu and 27 other officials of the party
yesterday appeared in court here facing charges of breaching the Public
Order and Security Act.

      Magistrate Milton Serima remanded Mubhawu to 19 June, on a bail of $10
000. The MDC official, who was arrested for allegedly taking part in the
mass protest organised this week by the opposition party, had been in police
custody since last Sunday.

      Mubhawu's driver, Chimbanda Chirwa, and 20 other MDC officials were
also released on $10 000 bail each.

      The MDC activists were ordered to report once every week to their
nearest police stations until their case was finalised by the court.

      The State opposed bail for Mubhawu and his officials, saying the
activists could abscond since they were facing a serious charge. All of them
did not own houses in Mutare and lived in rented accommodation.

      Mutare lawyers Chris Ndlovu and Trust Maanda, representing the MDC
officials, told the court that it would be unfair to deny the group bail
because the offence they were charged with was not as serious as the State
was alleging.

      "The charge is trivial, petty and weak as earlier stated. The
alternative charge under the Miscellaneous Offences Act calls for a fine and
our clients can admit to the charge and pay the fine and leave," Maanda
said.

      "There is no likelihood that our clients could abscond, nothing was
damaged and no one was injured during the commission of the offence," he
said.
      Maanda said he did not expect the court to take politics into
consideration when making a ruling.

      Two more MDC activists in Harare, Energy Gombiro and Nhamo Gauti, were
remanded out of custody on $20 000 bail each when they appeared before
magistrate Garikayi Churu.

      The two were also asked to report at the Law and Order Section at
Harare Central Police Station every Monday.

      Prosecutor Mehluli Tshuma told the court that Gombiro, Gauti and other
members of the opposition party who are still at large went to Hatcliffe
Primary School on Tuesday this week and ordered the headmaster of the school
to dismiss pupils from the school, so that they could take part in mass
demonstrations organised by the opposition party this week.

      The two and their alleged accomplices allegedly threatened the school
headmaster with unspecified action if he failed to comply with their order.

      The school official complied and released the pupils as instructed.

      The headmaster immediately reported the incident to the police when
Gombiro, Gauti and others left the school.

      According to the State, upon their arrest the two were found with two
red whistles, one black whistle, a banner with the portrait of President
Robert Mugabe inscribed Zvakwana, which in English means "it's enough".

      In an unrelated matter, the trial of Chitungwiza faith healer Godfrey
Nzira, who is facing assault charges, was yesterday postponed to 26 June.

      Nzira and two members of his church, Samson Gadza and Robson Govere,
are charged with assaulting fellow worshipper Coleta Colleen Mulandeni with
booted feet and clenched fists.

      Mulandeni sustained serious injuries from the assault by the three.

      President Robert Mugabe said this week opposition strikes designed to
bring him down had failed and defended his government's use of force to
silence protesters.

      Several more shops, banks and factories in the capital Harare opened
for business yesterday after having stayed closed since Monday despite
threats by the government to crack down on businesses involved in the
largest protests yet to target the veteran leader.

      "It is sad when we are forced as (a) government to have to use teargas
against our own youth who are being misled. But we have to do it in the
interest of peace. But we don't want to make our people suffer," Mugabe said
in a television interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

      "We suffered enough during colonial times and (now) we want our people
to be free, express their free views and feel that the country belongs to
them, that they have a stake," he added.

      Asked how the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had
fared in trying to dislodge him through the protests, Mugabe replied: "It
has been a crushing reverse."

      The MDC, which called the protests in a "final push" to topple the
79-year-old leader, said one man had died from injuries sustained on Monday
when riot police and army units swooped in to crush marches.

      MDC activist Tichaona Kaguru died in a Harare hospital after he and a
colleague were assaulted and tortured, one of several MDC supporters
allegedly brutalised during Monday's crackdown, the party said in a
statement.

      "The MDC unreservedly condemns such acts of violence by the police and
army, especially after the Minister of Home Affairs promised that the police
would not interfere with peaceful marches," the party said.

      Police, who have reported between 250 to 300 arrests this week, said
they were not aware of Kaguru's death, but said a man had been stoned to
death by MDC supporters.

      The MDC launched this week's protests saying Mugabe in power since
independence from Britain in 1980 had disastrously mismanaged Zimbabwe's
economy while engaging in increased political repression.

      Mugabe said that in launching the protests, the MDC had ignored advice
from the leaders of Nigeria and South Africa, who were trying to arrange
talks between the MDC and Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party.

      "Their appeal to the MDC not to resort to mass action, not to resort
to violence has not yielded fruit. We asked them to continue to appeal to
(the MDC)," Mugabe said.

      Separately, Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge attacked last
weekend's Group of Eight (G8) summit in Evian, France, for its criticism of
Mugabe's handling of the protests.

      "It is regrettable that the G8 summit has seen it fit to criticise the
government's efforts to maintain law and order while deliberately ignoring
the illegal act of the MDC. This exposes the hypocrisy and double standards
of these external financiers and handlers of the MDC," Mudenge said.

      State radio reported government agents were auditing which businesses
were closed on Wednesday, and would begin procedures to strip them of their
licences.

      In the second city of Bulawayo, residents said officials had forced
some banks to open but normal economic activity had ground to a halt. Reuter

      Staff Reporter

      POLICE in Chinhoyi on Wednesday prohibited an opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) rally that was scheduled for tomorrow at Chinhoyi
Stadium, citing security concerns, the opposition party's chairman for
Mashonaland West province, Silas Matamisa, said yesterday. Matamisa said
that the police had initially sanctioned the rally but backtracked on the
decision on Wednesday.

      "The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, had
been scheduled to speak at the rally," Matamisa said.

      Other speakers that had been lined up for the rally were Welshman
Ncube, the MDC secretary-general, and his deputy, Gift Chimanikire.

      "The police told me that they had cancelled the rally as they feared
for the security of the people and also that the MDC had this week organised
a mass action," Matamisa said. Matamisa and five other MDC supporters in
Chinhoyi were arrested on Monday as police intensified their move to crush
the opposition-sanctioned five-day mass protests.

      They were, however, released after two days. Chinhoyi police could not
be reached for comment on the matter.

      Staff Reporter

      SPOT checks by human rights lawyers at police stations where people
detained during this week's mass action are being kept have revealed that
the protesters are being exposed to squalid conditions and detained longer
than the 48 hours allowed by Zimbabwe's Constitution, it was learnt
yesterday.

      More than 200 people have been arrested around the country since the
start on Monday of anti-government protests called by the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.

      Arnold Tsunga, director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR), yesterday said his organisation had sent out its members to carry
out random checks at police stations to examine the conditions under which
the detainees were being held and how they were being treated.

      He said most of those arrested were being exposed to "extremely
squalid conditions" in police cells.

      "We will always, if it is within our means, try to ensure that the
policing that is being done during this civic action is in accordance with
the law, both in terms of domestic as well as international obligations that
the police have to comply with," Tsunga said.

      He said 165 human rights lawyers countrywide were handling "hundreds
of cases" involving members of the public who had been arrested by the
police and detained in cells beyond the constitutional 48 hours.

      In a statement yesterday, the ZLHR said: "Most specifically, the cells
are overcrowded and in most instances with 40 inmates in a cell designed to
accommodate six inmates. Some sewers are blocked and urine, water and other
human waste finds itself into the cells, like at Goromonzi Police Station,
which Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights visited to do a random spot check."

      The ZLHR said there were several reports of torture, violence and
intimidation of members of the public by State security agents.

      The organisation said it had also received confirmed reports from
around the country of lawyers who had been abused for representing clients
detained during the mass action.

      According to the ZLHR, two Gweru lawyers, Reginald Chidawanyika and
Dumisani Kufaruwenga, were on Monday manhandled by a police detective (name
supplied), who grabbed them and "pulled them out of the charge office".

      The two had gone to a police station to interview 11 of their detained
clients.

      "(The detective) manhandled Kufaruwenga by the jersey and pushed his
back against the wall in front of their clients and their relatives," the
ZLHR said in its statement. "When the lawyers tried to raise a complaint
with (a named female detective inspector), they were advised that they
deserved what they got because they were not human beings," the statement
added.

      The human rights lawyers' organisation said the police denied lawyers
access to their clients during the week.

      Many of the clients subsequently chose to pay admission of guilt fines
under the Miscellaneous Offences Act, to secure their delayed release from
custody.
      "The law enforcement agents have fallen into the error of arresting
first before investigations, in contravention of constitutional and other
legislative safeguards preventing such action," the ZLHR said.

      "The police are not co-operating with the lawyers with the normal
excuse by the officers in charge of the police stations where people are
detained being that they are merely providing accommodation to the detainees
at the requests of the police law and order section."

      THE government's forcible opening of companies heeding the opposition
mass action to stay shut this week and threats to deregister these firms
could be the final nail on an economy already on the brink of total
collapse.

      When the dust of the harsh clampdown on the mass action and on these
companies has settled down, the cost of the government's high-handedness
will only then unfold, and many in the administration could have a rude
awakening.

      Some of these companies, no doubt, will vote with their feet and quit
a country which was already strangling their operations through a mix of
skewed economic policies and semi-permanent shortages of fuel and foreign
currency.

      That these firms had soldiered on in the face of these difficulties
was probably because they felt that Zimbabwe's crisis could be overcome
sooner rather than later and, in the case of exporters, they had orders from
clients to meet, lest they were penalised heavily for defaulting.

      In the aftermath of the crackdown on companies a Cabinet minister even
went further to say the government will cancel the work permits of
expatriates employed by these firms most foreign-owned groups are likely to
reconsider their continued presence in Zimbabwe.

      When that happens, not only will the government be battling with
runaway stagflation the chief threat to the administration's hold on power
but it will be facing a near-collapse of its income in the form of corporate
and individual taxes.

      Which means that the government, for so long known for its propensity
to spend money it does not have, will now be unable to fund many of its
grandiose pet projects and meet the high bills of keeping the boys happy in
their jobs.

      That is when President Robert Mugabe's revolution will really begin to
unravel, undermined by the very same policies and acts which the President
holds dear.

      Luckily for the besieged companies, the economic and political
landscape in neighbouring countries is so bright and green that they will be
welcomed with open palms many have already left Zimbabwe.

      After all, it is these companies indeed the private sector which are
the locomotives of economic growth and prosperity, which Zimbabwe
desperately needs.

      But in line with the government's now-too-familiar policies of
antagonising possible partners of social, political and economic
development, the government has once again found it necessary in its
struggle to retain power at any cost to get tough with the wealth-creators.

      It is not the companies which will be the eventual losers in this
high-stakes game, but the government itself, Zimbabwe and its people.

      The government's fervent belief that it can go it alone and survive a
policy propelled and nurtured by misplaced bravado and hardline nationalism
will surely run its course, with predictable consequences.

      What the government consistently fails to understand is that
international capital does not really need Zimbabwe, but the reverse is
true.

      It is this failure to grasp basics by those in charge of Zimbabwe
which has led to the country's endemic crises that now sadly threaten to
tear it apart.

      Any student of economics knows that in the current one-sided
international trade regime, Third World countries are virtually under
economic sanctions from the powerful industrialised nations anyway because
of the patently unfair trade rules that are framed and policed by the rich
North.

      Not that these terms set by the North should not be challenged by the
poor South in order to create fairer and better trading terms, but that
empty bravado alone pushed to the limit for its own sake by the have-nots,
is tantamount to political and economic suicide.

      By Magari Mandebvu

      On Monday morning a number of Harare streets were littered with more
paper than usual.

      On examining them, I saw that many were coloured leaflets carrying the
following messages, but with no name of the printer or publisher.

      I would like to analyse these messages, to see if any readers can help
figure out where they came from. I will take each line of the message and
offer a few thoughts:

      NO TO MASS ACTION
      This was the first line, which makes it sound as if it comes from
those who have been bombarding us with this kind of stuff on radio, TV and
in their newspapers, or from some unknown body who want to stay "neutral".

      NO TO VIOLENCE
      This contradicts the first.

      As we have seen, almost all the violence this week, as usual, has been
directed against the supporters of mass action. It doesn't make sense if the
same people are saying "No to mass action" and "No to violence".

      I am puzzled.

      I am more puzzled because things have not changed overnight.

      When I picked up that leaflet, I had just witnessed considerable
violence by riot police against students on the University of Zimbabwe
campus and the streets around it.

      This included a group of riot police dragging eight or so students,
who were tied or handcuffed together, along the road, beating them on their
backs with batons as they went.

      That is just one example of the violence we have been observing
increasingly over the past three years, 95 percent or so of it coming from
one side.

      Taking these two first lines together, I am reminded of the confused
thinking and sloppy production of that "commercial" which I hear has now
been withdrawn from the propaganda slots on TV.

      There, we see a short clip of Morgan Tsvangirai warning the regime to
go peacefully or be removed by force, followed by shots of destruction in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) can't have very many members, and a few seconds of film taken
during the food riots in 1998, before the MDC was formed.

      What is the connection? Or is some subtle person at ZTV trying to keep
before our minds the thought of who it is who claim to have degrees in
violence and to stir us up against them?

      NO TO BRITISH PUPPETS
      Who will disagree with this? But where are these puppets? Who imagines
there are so many of them around that they spend a lot of scarce money on
printing coloured fliers to say this?

      NO TO RHODESIAN SELL-OUTS
      An excellent sentiment, but where are these Rhodesian sell-outs? Has
someone been asleep for 20 years and suddenly woken up without noticing
anything that has happened in the interval? Well, I did say in an earlier
article that the people who started the so-called Third Chimurenga seemed to
have fallen asleep for 20 years instead of organising a serious land reform
in 1980 . . . but after that disaster, haven't they noticed yet that things
have changed during their slumber?

      NO TO THE MDC
      I don't know how many political parties there are in this country at
the moment, but I can only think of one that would say this just now. In
fact, they seem to do it as a kind of campaign for the MDC, because they are
out to convince us that everyone who opposes them must be MDC.

      Psychiatrists have a name for this attitude that "everyone is ganging
up against me". They call it paranoia and I very nearly used it to describe
a lesser chef a few years ago.

      I heard him accuse a guest in his house of being "the enemy", and this
"because you chaired that NCA (National Constitutional Assembly) meeting".

      At that time the NCA was the label they put on everyone they felt was
ganging up on them.

      Of course, his statement was no more accurate than most of the
imaginings of the paranoid. In fact, the meeting he referred to was not an
NCA meeting and his guest had not been in the chair, as he would have known
if he had read the advert for it in that week's Sunday Mail.

      ZVAKWANA
      Indeed. It is.

      ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
      Twenty-three years of arrogance from our "liberators", three years of
terror, leading to a wrecked economy; no wonder people are on the streets to
protest, I thought.

      STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS
      Our right to vote for the representatives we choose, our right to eat,
our right to sleep in peace in our own beds, our right to walk through the
streets without being harassed and assaulted . . . these seem to be among
the rights people are standing up for by staying away from work and by
marching where they can get away with it.

      LET THE WORKERS GO TO WORK
      Where? Seven years of ESAP reduced industry from producing 27 percent
of our GDP to a mere 14 percent, costing us a lot of jobs.

      Then, since 1997, we have seen at least half the remaining companies
close. Maybe the writer was protesting about the British High Commission
refusing visas to so many people who want to go and work there.

      LET THE CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL AND LET THE BANKS AND BUSINESSES REMAIN
OPEN
      Even children going to school have been assaulted by men in uniform.

      They will go to school if this stops. As for businesses staying open,
reread the previous paragraph.

      RAMBAI MAKASHINGA!

      Yes, indeed. They can torture us, they can shoot us, they can tear-gas
us, but "a people united can never be defeated".

      Magari Mandebvu writes on social and political issues

      By MacDonald Dzirutwe Business Editor

      FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Herbert Murerwa is in
Washington this week to try and avert the suspension of Zimbabwe's voting
rights in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which could culminate in
the country's expulsion from the Bretton Woods institution, The Business
Daily has established.

      The IMF's executive board is expected to discuss a report on Zimbabwe
later today, and is supposed to also consider the possibility of suspending
the southern African country's voting rights because of non-payment of debt
arrears.

      If Zimbabwe loses its voting rights, this could be the beginning of a
process that could lead to the country being expelled from the IMF, which
has already suspended financial aid.

      The suspension of balance of payments support has worsened Zimbabwe's
economic crisis, manifested in soaring inflation, severe hard cash
shortages, record unemployment and unprecedented company closures.

      Murerwa is said to have left the country last week to attend a meeting
of the African Development Bank (ADB) in Addis Ababa, which ended on
Wednesday, before proceeding to Washington.

      Sources said Murerwa had been dispatched to Washington by the Harare
authorities to try and plead for more time to settle Zimbabwe's outstanding
arrears and impress on the IMF that Zimbabwe needs more time for its
National Economic Revival Programme (NERP) to work.

      NERP, launched in February this year, is an economic recovery
blueprint that emphasises the agricultural sector as the engine that will
drive recovery.
      But the sector, the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy, has been hard hit
by a controversial government land reform programme that has cut production
by more than half in the past year.

      "The minister is in Washington and he will try to convince the fund
that Zimbabwe needs more time to work out its NERP programme for the
economic turnaround," a government official told The Business Daily.

      "I think the government is doing all it can under the prevailing
circumstances to resolve the economic problems," the official added.

      Finance secretary Nicholas Ncube yesterday however denied that Murerwa
was in Washington, saying the minister had only attended the ADB summit in
Ethiopia and was expected back in the country next week.

      Ncube said the Zimbabwean government had made its responses to the IMF
and was expecting a favourable outcome from the board discussions today.

      "We have made our responses to the Fund and we hope that the board
will have a resolution that is favourable to us," Ncube said.

      "As you are aware, our responses are based on the NERP, which is the
foundation for the recovery of our economy."

      IMF resident representative in Zimbabwe Gerry Johnson said although
there was no rule to bar governments from sending officials to attend board
discussions, it was standard procedure that governments were represented by
a member on the board.

      Johnson said it was unusual for the Zimbabwean government to send an
official to be present at the discussions.

      "It is rather unusual for the government to send the minister (of
finance) to attend the meeting," said Johnson.

      "Although there are no rules stopping a government from sending its
people, the normal thing is that a government has a representative on the
Fund."
      Zimbabwe's arrears to the IMF leapt nine percent last month to US$305
million at a time the government is battling to pay quarterly payments of
US$1,5 million to the Fund.

      Although Zimbabwe is scheduled to pay US$28,53 million to the IMF this
year and another US$24,07 million in 2004, analysts yesterday said it was
unlikely Harare would be able to meet its commitments because of the country
's severe hard cash crisis.

      The foreign currency shortages have been worsened by the flight of
foreign investor capital from Zimbabwe and the suspension of aid by
international donors and multilateral backers of the country's economic
reforms.

      Withdrawal of its voting rights would mean Zimbabwe would not vote on
key decisions relating to IMF business.

      Zimbabwe first incurred arrears to the Fund in February 2001 and the
country was declared ineligible to use IMF general resources on 24 September
2001. It was also removed from the list of countries eligible to borrow
under the IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility.