Zim Independent
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe and his Tanzanian counterpart Jikaya Kikwete
yesterday held critical
talks at State House in search of an urgent
resolution of the rapidly
deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe as
international pressure mounts on
Mugabe to quit.
While Mugabe was meeting with Kikwete, US Assistant
Secretary of State
for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Barry Lowenkron
was headed for Addis
Ababa for emergency talks on the situation in Zimbabwe
with an African Union
(AU) team.
US ambassador to the AU Cindy
Courville was expected to be part of the
talks. AU chairman John Kufour has
already said the situation in Zimbabwe is
"embarrassing". The US was
yesterday lobbying the UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva to adopt a strong
stance on Mugabe following nearly a week of
state-sponsored violence in
Zimbabwe.
The Mugabe/Kikwete meeting, which is part of a broad Sadc
initiative
to resolve the Zimababwe crisis, came against a background of
international
outrage at brutal police assaults on opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) leaders for defying a ban on political rallies on
Sunday.
Sadc is keen to secure a Mugabe exit settlement in Zimbabwe
ahead of
the regional summit in Zambia in August. The Zambian foreign
minister last
week said the region could no longer ignore the Zimbabwean
issue. President
Levy Mwanawasa said he was gravely concerned about
Zimbabwe's problems.
But Mugabe, in a typical show of defiance
yesterday after meeting
Kikwete, said those complaining about attacks on MDC
leaders could "go
hang".
"It's the West as usual . . . when
they criticise the government
trying to prevent violence and punish the
perpetrators of that violence, we
take the position that they can go hang."
Mugabe claimed those beaten by
police were resisting arrest.
MDC officials reacted with anger to Mugabe's remarks.
"He is lying
to himself and no one even in Zanu PF still believes him.
He can no longer
fool anyone either in the region or internationally," said
Tendai Biti,
secretary-general of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC.
Tsvangirai's
spokesman, William Bango, dismissed Mugabe's assertion,
saying: "We were
inside the police station and ordered to sit in an area
between the main
building and police cells when scores of police pounced on
us beating
everyone up. How can Mugabe say we were resisting arrest when we
were
already inside a police enclosure?"
Bango said Tsvangirai could not
have resisted arrest when he had gone
to the police station on his own to
check on his colleagues.
The Mugabe/Kikwete meeting came as South
Africa stepped up efforts to
tackle the Zimbabwe crisis after a period of
disengagement from the issue.
President Thabo Mbeki recently met with Mugabe
in Ghana where he is said to
have tried to revive talks by pointing out his
grave concerns about the
situation in Zimbabwe.
Official
sources said Kikwete, who currently chairs the Southern
African Development
Community organ on politics, defence and security,
openly told Mugabe the
situation in Zimbabwe was worrying regional and
international leaders and
needed urgent attention.
"Kikwete was here to tell Mugabe that
world leaders are now fed up
with him and he must shape up or ship out," the
sources said. "Mugabe was
very shaken by the world reaction to the assaults
on MDC officials, but he
is putting on a brave face."
Kikwete
confirmed he discussed the Zimbabwe crisis with Mugabe and
they reached a
solution on the way forward. While it was not possible to
confirm what the
"way forward" was, sources said Kikwete has of late been
trying to secure an
agreement with Mugabe over how he could be eased out of
power without
causing mayhem.
It was said Kikwete told Mugabe that Western
leaders were getting
increasingly impatient over his continued controversial
rule.
"I came to brief the president on my visit to Europe and
discussions
that always cropped up on the situation in Zimbabwe," Kikwete
said. "There
are so many issues we discussed and we agreed on the way
forward on a number
of issues. Give us time."
Last month
Kikwete sent his country's Director of Intelligence
Services, Rashid Othman,
to talk with Zimbabwe's senior government officials
and Central Intelligence
Organisation chiefs on how to resolve the country's
crisis.
Othman is a close ally of Kikwete and took over the spy job in August
last
year. Othman's trip was meant to lay the basis for the meeting between
Mugabe and Kikwete, although Tanzania claimed it was a routine trip around
Sadc.
Mugabe and Kikwete recently held talks about Zimbabwe on
the sidelines
of an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the ANC's acting chief whip, Andries Nel, has
tabled a
motion in parliament in Cape Town noting with concern the current
situation
in Zimbabwe, including reports of alleged assaults on opposition
leaders
while in police custody and calling on all stakeholders in Zimbabwe
to
respect and uphold the constitution and the laws of the land and to
safeguard the rights of all citizens. It called for a thorough investigation
of the assaults. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
DETAILS of President Robert Mugabe's latest plan for
joint
presidential and parliamentary elections next year emerged this week
after
it became clear he has been defeated over his unpopular 2010 poll
proposal.
Sources said Mugabe was now determined to go for combined
elections on
or before March next year as part of his new survival strategy
following the
collapse of his 2010 plan that was blocked by Zanu PF
heavyweights led by
politburo member, retired army commander General Solomon
Mujuru.
Mugabe three weeks ago said in a ZBC interview Mujuru's
wife,
Vice-President Joice Mujuru, had lost the plot by joining forces with
people
who want to oust him. He said Mujuru had dashed her prospects to take
over
from him.
This angered the Mujuru faction, which has
threatened to fight back
with a vengeance, reports say. The situation is
likely to get more explosive
after Mugabe said he wants to cling to power
for another five years.
The sources said Mujuru was so upset by
Mugabe's remarks that she
contemplated resigning but her husband stopped her
as he wants to fight it
out. The mood in the Mujuru camp is one of defiance,
even though insiders
say they failed to confront Mugabe at last week's
politburo meeting.
The sources said Mugabe was forging ahead with
his new plan in the
midst of intensifying Zanu PF infighting. They said
Mugabe recently met with
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Zanu PF
legal affairs secretary
Emerson Mnangagwa to discuss the latest election
agenda.
Chinamasa is Mugabe's point man on electoral laws and
constitutional
amendments. Mnangagwa, whom Mugabe recently spoke about in
glowing terms, is
involved as the party's legal affairs
specialist.
The sources said Mugabe told Chinamasa and Mnangagwa
that he wants to
stand for re-election next year and needed mechanisms in
place for the
election. The two ministers are said to have been shocked
because they had
expected Mugabe to quit, but had to proceed with the
assignment all the
same.
The new plan, which will come via
Constitutional Amendment Number 18,
involves reducing the presidential term
from six to five years - which will
take Mugabe to 2013 when he will be 89 -
increasing the number of MPs in the
House of Assembly and senators in the
Upper Chamber.
It is said the expansion of parliament will allow
Mugabe to
accommodate more of his cronies in the patronage system and
consolidate his
insecure regime.
Under this plan, which will be
sweetened through the introduction of
the proposed Human Rights Commission,
parliament will be dissolved by Mugabe
to facilitate the joint elections.
However, parliament can resist this
through a two-thirds majority and
impeach the president.
This means Mugabe will also have a daunting
task of convincing Zanu PF
MPs to accept an early election next year instead
of 2010. Checks with a
number of MPs this week revealed resistance to this
design. Most MPs are
afraid of losing their seats and think it would be
unwise for them to
contest the election under current
conditions.
Mugabe apparently wants joint elections because they
will stake the
MPs' and his own fortunes at the same time. This will force
MPs to campaign
for him even though they may be opposed to his candidacy
because they would
share his fate.
Sources said Mugabe fears he
will lose if he fights the presidential
poll alone because disgruntled party
officials, such as those in the Mujuru
camp, will not campaign for him. Zanu
PF members know that it will be very
difficult if not impossible for Mugabe
to win without the party machinery
fully behind him in current social and
economic conditions.
Mugabe scraped through in 2002 after narrowly
beating MDC candidate
Morgan Tsvangirai by 400 000 votes in the disputed
election largely run by
soldiers and in which polling stations were reduced
in towns to block
opposition supporters from casting their ballots.
Political violence and
intimidation were rife nationwide. Tsvangirai alleged
vote-rigging but
unsuccessfully contested the result in the
courts.
Sources said Mujuru's camp would oppose the new proposals
by Mugabe
who last week expressed doubts while he was in Namibia whether MPs
will
support that plan. Most MPs interviewed said they would
not.
The defiance of MPs would leave Mugabe facing resistance
similar to
what he came across when he proposed the 2010 plan.
The 2010 proposal - which may still be revived after a Zanu PF central
committee meeting later this month - was shot down at the party's Goromonzi
conference in December where Mugabe and allies were stopped in their tracks
through an internal party revolt.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
THE Zimbabwe Republic Police crackdown intensified this
week following
the arrest and assaults on about 50 opposition leaders on
their way to a
Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting organised by the
Christian Alliance at
Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare, last
Sunday.
Despite having the opposition leaders in custody, police
remained on a
warpath, arbitrarily arresting and threatening opposition
party supporters
and members of civic groups allegedly for inciting
demonstrations.
Reports from nearly all provinces show increasing
repression with
police on high alert to thwart any demonstration. The
renewed crackdown this
week resulted in more than 100 trade unionists,
student activists and
opposition supporters being arrested throughout the
country.
* Former Daily News chief executive and now MDC Tsvangirai
faction
national executive member Sam Nkomo became the latest victim of the
round-up. Nkomo, a former Zapu leader and brother of the Zanu PF chairman
John Nkomo, was on Wednesday arrested by police in Bulawayo. He was arrested
together with 19 others at the MDC offices. Yesterday afternoon Nkomo and
the rest of the group were still detained at Bulawayo central police station
without charge.
* Gweru executive mayor, Sesel Zvidzai, was
arrested on Tuesday for
embarking on a demonstration in solidarity with
arrested detainees and the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign. The mayor was arrested
together with 10 other MDC
supporters.
* Police in Kwekwe have
also arrested 10 activists who were
demonstrating against the beatings of
Save Zimbabwe Campaign activists and
supporters.
* On Tuesday
in Mutare the police arrested 140 MDC activists including
the entire
Manicaland provincial executive who were detained at Mutare
central police
station. Their crime was holding a peaceful march demanding
the release of
Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders. They were also
protesting the
shooting of Gift Tandare in Harare on Sunday.
* In Harare the
crackdown continued on Wednesday as police raided
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU) offices in the morning and
many of the staff were
held against their will inside the building.
Later that morning
police surrounded Harvest House, MDC headquarters,
hours after the state
released Tsvangirai and other prominent political and
civil society arrested
last Sunday. Heavily armed riot police were deployed
at Harvest House for
three hours in anticipation of an upsurge of protests.
* Five
activists - three student leaders and two Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition
secretariat members - were arrested at Rotten Row Courts on
Wednesday for
standing in solidarity with the detained Save Zimbabwe
Campaign
leaders.
Zim Independent
Lucia Makamure
HUMAN rights lawyers will today
institute lawsuits on behalf of Save
Zimbabwe Campaign officials who were
assaulted while in police custody
following a foiled attempt to attend a
prayer rally.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) will
institute the civil
suit for general damages, pain, disfigurement and loss
of amenities of life
on behalf of the Movement for Democracy Change (MDC)
leadership and other
pro-democracy civic groups as a result of the assault
they suffered when
they were in police custody.
ZLHR clients,
including MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were arrested on
Sunday in Highfield
when police called off a planned prayer meeting
organised by the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign - a coalition of civic groups, trade
unions and student
unions.
Police brutally assaulted those arrested while they were in
detention.
"This is the intention of those who were injured to
institute a
lawsuit against the Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi, the
police
commissioner Augustine Chihuri, and other senior and junior police
officers
in their personal capacity in terms of the State Liabilities Act,"
a lawyer
with ZLHR, Andrew Makoni, said.
"There is actually a
group of lawyers which include lawyers from ZLHR
and others in private
practice who are working on the lawsuit and by
tomorrow (Friday) we should
have instituted the lawsuit", said Makoni.
Individuals or groups
intending to institute lawsuits against them,
according to the State
Liabilities Act should give government officials a
60-day
notice.
Among the 50 who were arrested and assaulted were
Tsvangirai, who is
among those still detained in hospital.
Arthur Mutambara, leader of the MDC pro-senate faction, St Mary's MP
Job
Sikhala, Mike Davies, chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents
Association, Madock Chivasa, spokesperson for the National Constitutional
Assembly and Gladys Hlatshwayo, information officer for the Crisis
Coalition, were also hospitalised.
Lovemore Madhuku suffered a
broken arm and head injuries because of
the assault while Grace Kwinjeh's
ear was perforated and a piece of it was
cut off after a sharp object
pierced her.
The assaults have since received condemnation from the
international
community and the government has tried to justify the assaults
by blaming
the main opposition MDC for using violence to achieve its
goals.
Zim Independent
THE
opposition MDC will hold another gathering with the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign,
other stakeholders and diplomats today at the NCA offices in
Harare despite
mounting pressure from government on its leadership.
The MDC/Save
Zimbabwe Campaign joint press conference, scheduled for
11:00 this morning,
is meant to update diplomats, the press and other
stakeholders on last
Sunday's events.
Sources said opposition activists and MDC leaders
are expected to give
personal testimonies of what they went through in
police custody. Diplomatic
sources confirmed they had been invited and would
attend the press
conference.
"We will definitely attend the
press conference to get a first hand
appreciation of what happened," a
diplomat said.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa confirmed the joint
press conference
under the Save Zimbabwe Campaign auspices to update people
on events since
Sunday's arrests.
"It will be a press
conference that will be attended by the MDC
leadership, victims of last
Sunday's violence and other stakeholders under
the Save Zimbabwe Campaign,"
Chamisa said. "Morgan Tsvangirai's presence
will depend on his
condition."
He said the meeting was also intended to thank the
people of Zimbabwe
for their support and to dispel falsehoods spread by the
state media.
"All the victims will be there to narrate their ordeal
one by one,"
Chamisa said. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube /Pindai Dube
THE Tsholotsho powerplay plot is back
to haunt the ruling Zanu PF
after it emerged that the party leadership has
ordered fresh elections in
two provinces that initially backed Emerson
Mnangagwa for the vice-president's
post.
This week it emerged
that Zanu PF national commissar, Elliot Manyika,
had ordered that the
provincial executive committees for Bulawayo and
Masvingo provinces be
dissolved and elections be conducted in the last
weekend of
April.
It also emerged that there was a bitter struggle between the
Mnangagwa
and the Solomon Mujuru camps to take control of the two provinces
ahead of
the Zanu PF conference where delegates will elect a candidate to
replace
President Robert Mugabe.
Sources said indications on
the ground showed that presidential
elections will go ahead in 2008 and not
in 2010 and each of the contesting
camps was anxious to control most
provinces ahead of the party conference at
the end of the year.
"There will be fresh elections in four or five provinces in the
country
before the end of the year and those mandated to reform the party
are now
restructuring the party to their camp's advantage. But this will
create
problems in future," said a party source in Bulawayo.
It also
emerged that a party delegation from Bulawayo met with
President Mugabe on
the sidelines of his birthday party celebrations in
Gweru and pleaded with
him to order fresh elections in Bulawayo.
President Mugabe is said
to have ordered Manyika to call for fresh
elections urgently.
Zanu PF's deputy national commissar, Richard Ndlovu, confirmed that
Bulawayo
and Masvingo provincial committees had been ordered to prepare for
fresh
elections.
"The elections in the two provinces will go ahead during
the last
weekend of April," said Ndlovu. "Elections will be held in Masvingo
on April
28 while those in Bulawayo will be held in April 29. There is
nothing
sinister about this since these were not substantive committees but
interim
committees," Ndlovu said.
He however was not
forthcoming with information on whether elections
would be held in other
provinces where the provincial chairmen were
suspended together with the
Masvingo and Bulawayo provincial leaders.
The party chairman for
Masvingo province, Samuel Mumbengegwi, was
livid when contacted on whether
he will contest the April elections.
"It's a lie," Mumbengegwi
said. "There are no provincial elections in
Masvingo and this has got
nothing to do with you. What business do you have
over who contests what
positions in Masvingo? You Independent (newspaper)
people are
mischievous."
When it was put to him that Ndlovu had confirmed that
elections would
be held in Masvingo, Mumbengegwi angrily charged that this
reporter should
then get all comments on the matter from
Ndlovu.
The dissolution of the two provinces is seen as part of the
ongoing
power struggles in the party.
Zanu PF Bulawayo
provincial spokesperson, Effort Nkomo, confirmed that
Manyika wrote to the
province ordering new elections but said the province
had written back
seeking an explanation why the party was calling for early
elections.
The term of office of the two provinces was expected
to expire in
2009.
Zim Independent
Pindai
Dube
GOVERNMENT has been charged with contempt of court after
officials in
the Ministry of Mines including the late deputy minister Tinos
Rusere
assisted a local businessman to illegally take over a gold mine from
a
registered mining company in Masvingo.
Although Mines
minister Amos Midzi is cited as a respondent in the
case in his official
capacity, affidavits lodged with the High Court
indicated it was the late
Rusere who last year helped Fred Moyo of Larmona
Enterprises to evict
Knobthorn Mining Company from Lennox Mine in violation
of a court order. In
a ruling made last month, Bulawayo High Court Judge,
Justice Nicholas Ndou,
found Midzi, Masvingo mining commissioner a Mr
Wekwete, Moyo and three other
respondents guilty of contempt of court.
In addition, Moyo was
ordered to vacate the mine immediately and also
to pay Knobthorn $2 million
"per day calculated from 24 November to the date
on which the mine is
delivered" or face imprisonment.
This followed an urgent High Court
chamber application by Khobthorn
through lawyer Josephat Tshuma of Webb, Low
& Barry contesting its eviction
last year from Lennox Mine by Moyo's
Larmona Enterprises with the help of
Rusere, Wekwete, the mining
commissioner and F Furusa, the regional mining
engineer.
In the
application, Larmona Enterprises, Moyo who is the company's
director,
Wekwete, Furusa, the officer in charge of Mashava police station,
and Midzi,
in his official capacity, were cited as the first, second, third,
fourth,
fifth and sixth respondents respectively.
Justice Ndou declared the
six "to be in contempt of the order of this
Honourable Court.in evicting
applicant from Lennox Mine without an order
from the High
Court".
The eviction was carried out despite a relief by High Court
Judge
Francis Bere on July 20 last year "ordering the respondents not to
evict the
applicant from Lennox Mine save by reason of the order by a
Court".
Ndou added: "First and second respondents be and are hereby
ordered to
pay to applicant the sum of $2 million per day calculated from
the 24th of
December 2006 to the date on which the mine is delivered to
applicant,
inclusive.
"Second respondent be and is hereby
committed to jail for a period of
one day for each day that he fails to
deliver up the mine to the applicant
from the day following that on which
the applicant was served at the offices
of Mwonzora & Associates to the
day on which it is delivered up, inclusive."
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's unexpected remarks
that he will contest the
2008 presidential election have raised a challenge
to opposition candidates.
Mugabe last week told the Southern Times,
a newspaper set up by the
governments of Namibia and Zimbabwe, he was
prepared to fight the
presidential election "if the party says
so".
But the question in most voters' minds now would be whether or
not the
MDC candidate - if not candidates - is ready to take on Mugabe who
has shown
willingness to use all sorts of methods to retain
power.
Events this week provided further evidence Mugabe would do
anything to
hang on to power. A check on the political record would show
Zanu PF
believes Mugabe has to win elections by hook or by
crook.
Against this background, are MDC contestants sufficiently
prepared to
confront Mugabe head-on in the election?
At the
moment, unless things change as they might, the two MDC
factions led by
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara appear to work at
cross-purposes at a
time when unity is a precious commodity.
Attempts to unite the
camps have so far failed, leaving Mugabe with an
added advantage over his
rivals. The MDC disunity is a political windfall
for Mugabe.
Observers have rightly been asking whether Tsvangirai or Mutambara,
individually or collectively, would defeat Mugabe if the poll goes ahead in
March next year. While it is generally agreed that Mugabe is much weaker now
than ever before given internal rivalries and an economy in free-fall, it is
also true to say that opposition leaders are weaker compared to him in a
number of respects.
Mugabe is under siege on many fronts. The
collapsing economy is blamed
on mismanagement by his regime while internal
wrangling in Zanu PF has
created serious fault lines in the party. Mugabe is
isolated inside his
party and internationally.
However, he has
the state machinery on his side. He also has a lot of
resources at his
disposal to prop up his rule, the sort of things Tsvangirai
and Mutambara
can only dream of.
Tsvangirai is battling to re-establish himself
as the undisputable
leading opposition politician after the split of his
party in 2005. While he
has in a way managed to reclaim that mantle, the
reality on the ground is
that without a united opposition front behind him,
his prospects diminish
compared to 2002 when he was undisputed leader of the
anti-Mugabe forces.
The MDC vote will certainly be divided, even
though Tsvangirai may win
the bigger stake. Every vote counts in the
presidential election.
Mutambara is likely to pick up some votes in
constituencies where his
faction has solid support and this will split the
opposition total.
Mutambara is weaker than Tsvangirai because he has no
established power
base. The performance of Mutambara's faction in two
by-elections has left
many asking if he would make an impact at all in major
elections, but the
point is the MDC needs a sole candidate and every vote it
can get to beat
Mugabe.
Jacob Mafume, Crisis Coalition
coordinator, said the opposition has to
contend with so many barriers in
elections that they can ill-afford more
problems, especially of their own
making.
"They have to deal with vote-rigging, political violence,
lack of
resources, partisan electoral institutions, and a hostile state
media," he
said.
"They need to put emphasis on a new
constitution to level the playing
field and intensify outreach programmes to
win the rural electorate."
However, the odds against Mugabe are
also heavy. He will enter the
election knowing very well that over and above
MDC candidates, he will have
to fight the economic meltdown which has also
become the greatest threat to
his rule with his traditional supporters -
civil servants, the army and the
rural populace - reeling from the
consequences of his failed policies.
The general public is
frustrated by current economic hardships.
Mugabe will also vividly
remember the 2000 constitutional referendum
and the bruising 2002
presidential election which he won narrowly amid
charges of
vote-rigging.
But unless the MDC has a new viable strategy of
fighting the election,
it would be very difficult for its candidates to win
so long as they are
divided.
While the MDC performed well in
the 2000 and 2002 elections, observers
say that its strategies have been at
best questionable, at worst hopeless.
The MDC seemingly got it wrong at the
strategic level from the beginning.
The MDC, working with allies
like the National Constitutional Assembly
and the labour movement, opposed
and defeated a government-sponsored draft
constitution which - as some now
believe - would have changed the political
landscape.
Some
analysts say if that draft constitution - which would have
significantly
reduced Mugabe's executive power, introduced a new system of
parliamentary
representation and a prime minister - had been adopted, the
situation could
be very different.
They say Mugabe would have been defeated at the
polls way back in 2002
and Zanu PF's parliamentary majority would have been
either reduced or the
party would also have been defeated.
Those who differ claim that the referendum defeat of government
boosted the
morale of the MDC, but alerted Mugabe to imminent danger.
The MDC
also made another strategic mistake after the disputed 2002
presidential
election, analysts say. Instead of mobilising against Mugabe,
the party
chose to feebly complain when voters were ready to take to the
streets to
protest what they considered a stolen election.
In 2003 the MDC
also failed to capitalise on the momentum built after
a five-day stayaway
which left government powerless in the face of open
nationwide
defiance.
The MDC did not seize the political initiative to bring
government to
its knees by failing to follow through a process which people
had supported
en masse. It also failed to oppose Operation
Murambatsvina.
As if that was not enough, the MDC in 2005 finally
lost the plot when
it bought into a Zanu PF agenda of senate elections hook,
line and sinker.
This led to the party's split and subsequently the cold war
between the
factions. Now the party is seemingly unable to reverse the
damage. The
question then is how ready is Tsvangirai, Mutambara or both
jointly to fight
Mugabe in next year's election?
Only time will
tell whether the two factions put the country's
interests before their own
futile quarrel.
Zim Independent
By Jonathan
Moyo
ALTHOUGH President Robert Mugabe has of late been
displaying bravado
by ruthlessly attacking in public some Zanu PF contenders
for his 27-year
tainted rule, such as Joice Mujuru, and unleashing violence
against
opposition politicians in police cells, while giving the impression
he is
still like an invincible lion, the inescapable home truth visible to
all and
sundry is that he is now behaving like a cornered rat whose quandary
is that
every escape route it tries is a dead-end.
This became
clear after his astonishing yet revealing indication last
week that he is
set to dissolve parliament in the next few months to enable
him to yet again
stand for re-election under controversial circumstances
that are certain to
widen and deepen Zanu PF divisions. At best, the
threatened dissolution of
parliament which has angered Zanu PF MPs is
designed to give Mugabe assured
campaign assistance from the ruling party's
parliamentary hopefuls who would
be forced to support his divisive candidacy
in joint presidential and
parliamentary elections he wants to call well
before the expiry of his
current term in March 2008.
But there could be another sinister
agenda to resuscitate Mugabe's
dead 2010 plan.
In effect,
Mugabe does not want to be succeeded by anybody. Zanu PF
factional leaders
who imagine that they are Mugabe's preferred successors
are living in a
fools' paradise because Mugabe does not want any successor.
This is because
in his book there will never be a vacancy for the presidency
as a long as he
is alive.
Witness how, because he has no shame in putting himself
above
Zimbabwe, Mugabe has become so determined to play all sorts of dirty
games
in his shocking quest to find any pretext to justify his ambition to
remain
in office and rule for life. As a result, his public pronouncements
have
become an embarrassing tale of flip-flops.
In December
2004 he was settling to retire in 2008 while publicly
putting his weight
behind Joice Mujuru as his designated successor whom he
had clumsily imposed
on the hierarchy of Zanu PF and government against laid
down rules and
procedures and to the detriment of the democratic process
inside the ruling
party.
But by December 2006 at the Zanu PF annual conference in
Goromonzi the
same Mugabe had changed tack as he was now bad-mouthing Mujuru
and asking
for a two-year extension of his rule under a deceitful plan to
harmonise
presidential and parliamentary elections in 2010.
Come March 2007, against the background of a decisive rejection by his
own
party of his sinister 2010 plan, Mugabe is now asking for a fresh and
full
presidential term while threatening to cause chaos and mayhem in Zanu
PF by
dissolving parliament in what is an utterly reckless pursuit of power
for
its own sake.
Besides his personal and maybe family interest, there
is no
ideological content, no policy thrust and no enduring national agenda
or
principle behind Mugabe's latest bid to extend and further entrench his
rule
through a self-indulgent re-election campaign that would require a
premature
and ill-advised dissolution of parliament. Even the usual
anti-Blair
gibberish would not do because Tony Blair is leaving office this
July.
And the notion that the defence of Zimbabwe's sovereignty or
land
reform is possible only if Mugabe is in office is now a silly joke that
is
not funny. What everyone can now see and understand is that Zimbabwe is
doomed as long as Mugabe remains in office. This is not a realisation of
people who hate him but people who love Zimbabwe more and who want to put
their country first and above any individual.
Yet Mugabe's
indication that he will now seek re-election is revealing
and most welcome
in so far as it validates the fact which he has thus far
strenuously denied
that his earlier plan to scrap the 2008 presidential
election under the
pretext of harmonising parliamentary and presidential
polls in 2010 was
indeed designed to extend and entrench his rule via the
backdoor.
What is now clear is that Mugabe believes he needs
not two but at
least five more years in power which he hopes will translate
into a lifetime
of his rule to secure immunity from likely prosecution for
his alleged human
rights violations and other indiscretions.
What this means is that, along with some of his Zanu PF succession
contenders who think they are his preferred choice, Mugabe is also now
living in a fools' paradise since he apparently does not realise that he has
put himself in an untenable lose-lose situation whether it's heads or tails,
given that what most people in and outside Zanu PF now want is for him to
retire in the national interest.
Mugabe's determination to
remain in office until death do him part is
apparently driven by a fatal
combination of old age, his unquenchable thirst
for power, his having a
young wife with young children and his getting
sycophantic advice from
unscrupulous politicians, incompetent bureaucrats
and delinquent
propagandists all influenced by insecure and increasingly
nervous
securocrats who are better informed about political developments on
the
ground and who can see that Mugabe's empire is crumbling.
It is
notable that, unlike the dead 2010 proposal which was initially
championed
by Nathan Shamuyarira who is now conspicuous by his silence on
all major
issues, Mugabe's latest bid to extend his rule by standing for
re-election
did not emanate from Zanu PF structures but came direct from his
embattled
office using the government-controlled media. This is because the
desperate
bid does not have structural or political support within Zanu PF.
There are some roving Zanu PF political schemers who fancy themselves
as
kingmakers and who have been hoping and jumping from one faction to
another
since 2004 and who now, because they are still shopping around
either for a
leader or a factional home within the ruling party, are
encouraging Mugabe
to stand for re-election with the promise of their
campaign support. These
schemers are using their alleged support for Mugabe
as a convenient weapon
to block the presumed political interests of Joice
Mujuru, Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Gideon Gono.
Among these Zanu PF schemers are the
likes of Elliot Manyika, Nicholas
Goche, Sydney Sekeramayi, Oppah
Muchinguri, Saviour Kasukuwere and Patrick
Chinamasa who, by virtue of his
ministerial portfolio, is drafting the legal
instrument to facilitate
Mugabe's re-election bid that would include the
unpopular dissolution of
parliament.
Most of them want Mugabe to stay for their own
self-interest, not
because they think that he is a good leader.
As influential leaders of the Zanu PF youth and women's leagues
respectively, Kasukuwere and Muchinguri are key to Mugabe's controversial
re-election bid and they are expected to provide powerful endorsements from
their leagues. But their tasks will be more than a tall order because the
majority of the youth and women in Zanu PF are saying they have had enough
of Mugabe whom they accuse of failing to turn around the economy which has
become Mugabe's effective opposition.
Against this backdrop, it
appears that Mugabe's bid to seek
re-election is intended as a ploy to
regain lost political leverage in the
negotiation stakes for his failed 2010
plan which he hopes to resuscitate
through the bid. His strategy is to
threaten to dissolve parliament in order
to render every Zanu PF politician
currently in public office as politically
insecure and vulnerable as he
himself has become.
Mugabe's hope is that by spreading his
political insecurity to make it
a shared threat within the leadership of his
party, Zanu PF critics of his
2010 plan would be forced to rethink their
opposition purely for reasons of
safeguarding their own positions which are
now in jeopardy as a result of
Mugabe's re-election bid.
But
Mugabe is in a zero sum quandary. What complicates the game plan
for him to
the point of being left behaving like a cornered rat, despite his
roaring
posture of a lion, is that, whether it's about his wish for a
two-year
extension of his rule under his old 2010 plan or his quest for a
fresh and
full presidential term under his new 2008 re-election bid that
would be
preceded by the unpopular dissolution of parliament, there is one
irreversible constant: the growing chorus within Zanu PF's rank and file for
him to retire now as a statesman or face the inevitability of a humiliating
exit at the polls, as happened to Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia, or worse, be
thrown out through chaos and mayhem, as happened to Mobutu Sese Seko in
Zaire.
* Professor Jonathan Moyo is independent MP for
Tsholotsho.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
IF President Robert Mugabe stands and wins next
year's election,
prospects of an economic recovery will be
bleak.
Mugabe last week announced his intention to stay in power at
the same
time that the Central Statistical Office was releasing new figures
which
showed a major surge in inflation to 1 729%, up from 1 593%, proving
that
Zimbabweans have more horrors in store.
It is generally
agreed by observers that the first major step towards
economic revival is
Mugabe's exit followed by a comprehensive package of
reforms supported by
the international community.
If Mugabe hangs on to power there is
no realistic possibility of an
economic recovery programme which will have a
buy-in from stakeholders or
international goodwill.
Each day
Mugabe spends in power makes the situation worse. He is seen
as by far the
biggest obstacle to inter-party dialogue urgently needed to
resolve the
current political deadlock and diplomatic engagement with the
international
community necessary for economic revival.
Although the problem is
not Mugabe per se, the problem is that he has
now come to personify
Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis. It is
therefore reasonable to say
his continued stay in power makes it extremely
difficult to address the
prevailing problems.
Many a stakeholder in the economy including
Reserve Bank governor,
Gideon Gono, would by now have realised that no
matter how well-intentioned
and hardworking they could be, under Mugabe,
their efforts are simply doomed
to fail. The extent to which Mugabe has
become part of the economic problems
makes it impossible for him to be part
of the solution.
His rule has spawned one of the biggest economic
calamities in
post-colonial Africa which is made dramatic by the fact that
Zimbabwe in
1980 was the most industrialised country in sub-Saharan Africa
outside South
Africa. A glance at all economic indicators bears testimony to
this
assessment.
The country had a wide range of manufacturing
industries, a
sophisticated agricultural system, thriving service sector, an
abundance of
natural resources, a fairly educated population, good
infrastructure and a
functioning financial services sector. This made the
economy the second
largest in the region.
But all this has
changed.
We now have a de-industrialising economy characterised by
inflation
close to 2 000%. The standard of living has gone down to the
levels of 1953,
according to the Economist Intelligence Unit
(EIU).
Interest rates, currently the highest in the world, are
bleeding
businesses while eight in every 10 economically active people are
unemployed. Companies are shutting down at alarming rates while those still
surviving are operating far below capacity with very slim possibilities of
them avoiding collapse.
Basic services, education, health,
water, housing and the road
infrastructure have collapsed. Even though
Mugabe claims that the land
redistribution exercise was one of his major
success stories, by all
accounts the programme has been a huge failure. It
has only succeeded in
ruining agriculture and thus spawning food
shortages.
At its conference in Esigodini two years ago, Zanu PF
admitted that
the new farmers were failing to produce. Six land audits
initiated by Mugabe
himself have all proven the land reform was chaotic,
marred by corruption,
capacity under-utilisation and misuse of
farms.
The Zimbabwe dollar has of late been tumbling relentlessly
on the
parallel market, now trading at $15 000 to the US dollar due to lack
of
exports and balance of payments support.
It has become
evident that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will
not bail out
Zimbabwe as long as Mugabe remains in power. Mugabe has
persistently ignored
IMF's recommendations for "fundamental structural
reforms", including public
enterprise and civil service reforms, stronger
property rights and
improvements in governance.
Last month the IMF indicated it was not
convinced that Zimbabwe had
taken any steps to resuscitate its ailing
economy by refusing to lift
sanctions on Harare, further isolating the
country from the international
community. The IMF recently said while
Zimbabwe's debts continued to mount,
authorities have continued to be
indifferent to the economic situation.
The IMF expressed "deep
concern over the deteriorating economic and
social conditions", saying it
was dismayed the authorities were not taking
the situation
seriously.
Angered by this, Mugabe re-launched his old attack,
saying he did not
need IMF help even though the situation on the ground
clearly indicates the
country does.
Mugabe's announcement that
he wants to extend his power would have
sent alarm bells ringing in the
business sector because they have been
banking on his departure for them to
start rebuilding their companies, most
of which are tottering on the brink
of collapse. Contrary to their hopes,
Mugabe is now planning to stay put
until 2014.
"There are very few companies that can survive for
another five years
under Mugabe's regime. Almost all of his policies from
price controls to
exchange rate management are hurting us," said a chief
executive of a listed
company.
"Each day we have to grapple
with his hostile policies that seem to
intensify in their meanness and
flip-flop nature at every turn," he said.
That Mugabe has nothing
new to offer is shown by the fact that his 10
economic turnaround programmes
for the past 27 years have failed. These
include the Growth with Equity
(1981), Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme (1991), Poverty Alleviation
Action Programme (1994), Zimbabwe
Programme for Economic and Social
Transformation (1996-2000) and the
Zimbabwe Millennium Economic Recovery
Programme (2001).
Over the past six years Mugabe has tried but
failed to turn around the
economy with policies that include the Ten Point
Plan (2002), the National
Economic Revival Programme: Measures to Address
the Current Challenges
(2003); and Zimbabwe: Towards Sustained Economic
Growth - Macro-Economic
Policy Framework for 2005-2006. The National
Economic Development Priority
Programme, lauded as the solution last year,
has collapsed in spectacular
style.
"Mugabe's policies are the
chief causes of the current mess in the
economy," said John Robertson, an
economic commentator. "This country will
continue to be in crisis as long as
Mugabe refuses to let go of power. There
is no sign that he will change from
his destructive course," Robertson said.
So irrelevant is Mugabe to
the needs of the day that he does not even
have the spine to name and shame
corrupt officials in his party who are
involved in mineral smuggling and
other dirty deals. All he could say was
that he was aware of such characters
in the party's leadership.
The worst aspect of the problem is that
he knows he has no solutions
to offer but is intent upon punishing his
critics and clinging to office.
Zim Independent
GOVERNMENT'S campaign of political repression which resulted in brutal
attacks on dozens of the main opposition MDC leaders in police custody has
backfired and exploded in President Robert Mugabe's face.
With
the state unable to prosecute badly injured MDC leaders - even on
trumped-up
charges - pressure is mounting for Mugabe to quit or embark on
major reforms
that will convince Zimbabweans and the rest of the world that
he is serious
about ending the current crisis.
Mugabe has never been so roundly
condemned or put under such scrutiny
by angry world leaders. From the United
Nations, African Union, individual
African leaders, the United States,
European Union, neighbours such as South
Africa and Zambia, to international
human rights groups and local civic
organisations, the message was the same:
this is unacceptable.
Government and police reactions simply made
the situation worse. They
failed to explain their actions, except through a
clumsy propaganda spin
which tried to present victims of state-sponsored
violence as perpetrators.
It convinced nobody.
The political
scene was more than sombre during the week. Television
images of battered
MDC leaders shown around the world triggered the current
torrent of global
outrage over the vicious assaults, especially on key MDC
faction leader
Morgan Tsvangirai who was widely feared to have sustained a
skull fracture
due to beatings in police custody.
As more information about the
injuries filtered out, it became clear
that the police brutality would
worsen international indignation and
compound Mugabe's
isolation.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's
office said the
attacks on opposition leaders "violate the basic democratic
right of
citizens to engage in peaceful assembly", while the German
presidency of the
European Union (EU) condemned the "ongoing violent
suppression of the
freedom of opinion and of assembly".
In
Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour,
called on
Zimbabwe to launch a full investigation into the violent arrests.
"This form of repression and intimidation of a peaceful assembly is
unacceptable, and the loss of life makes this even more disturbing," Arbour
said. "I urge the Zimbabwean authorities to ensure an immediate, impartial
and comprehensive investigation into these events."
US
Secretary of State Condo-leezza Rice upped the ante by demanding
the
immediate release of the MDC leaders. Rice said Mugabe's regime was
"ruthless and repressive". She said the US administration held Mugabe
directly responsible for the brutality. Rice has in the past said Zimbabwe
was an outpost of tyranny.
US Ambassador to South Africa Eric
Bost said in Pretoria that he was
"very disappointed" by the lack of
reaction from Sadc. However, South Africa's
deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs Aziz Pahad asked Zimbabwe to respect the
rights of opposition
leaders and the rule of law.
Britain's Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, Lord
Triesman said: "Mugabe has resorted to further
violence and intimidation,
clinging to power as Zimbabwe crumbles around
him."
British MPs
said it was about time the Zimbabwe issue was referred to
the UN Security
Council for action. In Canberra, Australian Foreign minister
Alexander
Downer said Mugabe's "brutal suppression" showed his desperation
to stay in
power. "The fact is the situation in Zimbabwe is going from awful
to
catastrophic," Downer said.
Canadian Foreign minister Peter MacKay
said: "Canada condemns the
government of Zimbabwe's continued disregard for
democratic principles and
fundamental freedoms, such as the right to
assembly and association, and its
increasingly violent repression of its
citizens."
New Zealand and Sweden added their voices, saying
government actions
were appalling.
Ghanaian President and
African Union chairman John Kufuor said the
Zimbabwean situation was
embarrassing to the continent. He said what was
happening in Zimbabwe was
making the AU uncomfortable."We want accountable
government. We want
multi-party democracy," Kufuor said in remarks likely to
infuriate Mugabe. -
Staff Writers.
Zim Independent
THE
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) has said
MDC
leaders and activists sustained serious injuries after their assaults by
the
police.
"The injuries we have documented were consistent with
beatings with
blunt objects heavy enough to cause the following: fractures
to hands, arms
and legs on five individuals including Lovemore Madhuku with
a fractured
ulna. Three of these, Elton Mangoma, Sekai Holland and Morgan
Tsvangirai
sustained multiple fractures," the group said.
"Severe, extensive and multiple soft tissue injuries to their backs,
shoulders, arms, buttocks and thighs on 14 individuals. Head injuries on
three individuals, Nelson Chamisa, Tsvangirai and Madhuku with the latter
two sustaining deep lacerations to the scalp. A possibly ruptured bowel in
one individual due to severe blunt trauma to the abdomen. A split right ear
lobe sustained by Grace Kwinjeh."
It said prolonged detention
without accessing medical treatment
resulted in severe haemorrhaging by
Tsvangirai leading to severe anaemia
which warranted a blood
transfusion.
"Injuries sustained by Holland were also worsened by
denial of timely
access to medical treatment which led to an infection of
deep soft tissue in
her left leg," ZADHR said.
"Denial of
access to treatment in another individual suffering from
hypertension could
lead to angina. Further tests are currently being carried
out to determine
the fuller extent of injuries in several of those currently
admitted. Some
will require surgical procedures as part of their treatment.
Holland has
already undergone a surgical fixation of the fracture in her
left
ankle."
Two individuals hospitalised were admitted due to
conditions resulting
from poor conditions of detention with severe diarrhoea
in one victim and
extensive and severe flea bites on another. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
TALKS between the central bank and tobacco
growers this week faltered
after the Reserve Bank insisted it would not
budge in response to growers'
demands for a special exchange
rate.
Growers insisted they would not sell their crops until the
central
bank granted them a special exchange rate, saying the fixed rate of
$250 to
the US dollar would precipitate significant losses on their
operations.
Tobacco growers are demanding a special review of the
exchange rate to
$500 to the US unit and a price of at least US$4 per kg to
maintain
viability and enable them to remain operational next season. The
average
price last year was US$1,99 per kg.
The impasse between
the central bank and growers had forced the
Tobacco Industry Marketing Board
(TIMB) to reschedule the opening of tobacco
auction floors, which should
have opened on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe Growers Trust president Lovegot
Tendengu said floors would
remain closed until a favourable package between
the two parties was
reached.
"Tobacco farmers want a better
exchange rate and selling prices.
Floors would remain closed until an
agreement between the two parties is
reached. Farmers want rates that would
enable them to have another crop next
season but the Reserve Bank has not
been forthcoming," Tendengu said.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers
Association (ZTGA) president, Julius Ngorima,
said the central bank was
adamant it would not cave in to growers demands
for a special exchange rate
dispensation.
"Nothing concrete has come out of the meetings held
so far," Ngorima
said.
He indicated that in the absence of a
review of the exchange rate,
growers were proposing that the central bank
reviews the 15% foreign
currency retention by tobacco growers to
50%.
The central bank last year announced that tobacco farmers
would retain
15% of their earnings in foreign currency in special zero
balance accounts
with authorised dealers.
Officials from TIMB
said yesterday negotiations between farmers and
the central bank were still
on.
Floors would only open after the two parties reached an
agreement and
tobacco growers accepted to sell, the official
said.
"Farmers would be advised when a new date has been set, but
if
deliveries continue to increase, sales might resume," the official
said.
Sources said Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono was cagey on
meeting
growers' demands as that would open the floodgates for more demands
from
other industrial sectors for special exchange rate terms.
"The governor said he would not give any sector a special exchange
rate as
it would promote multiple exchange rates. Sectors such as gold would
be
knocking on his doors if tobacco farmers' requests are met," a central
bank
official said.
About 80 million kg of tobacco are expected to go
under the hammer
this season, from 55,5 million kg sold last
year.
Tobacco production in Zimbabwe has been declining over the
years from
a peak of 236,13 million kgs in 2000 to the current levels due to
shortage
of inputs and recurrent droughts, a fixed exchange rate and low
prices.
In 2001 about 202 million kgs went under the hammer while
165,84
million kgs, 81,81milion kgs and 69 million kgs were sold in 2002,
2003 and
2004 respectively.
A total of 73,3 million kg and 55,5
million kgs was sold in 2005 and
2006 respectively.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
ZIMBABWE'S foreign currency market was this
week struck by a fresh
wave of turbulence as the local unit plummeted to a
low of $17 500 to the
greenback on the parallel market on renewed buying
pressure.
It emerged yesterday that the parallel market had
developed into two
levels, one a lower tier dealing with cash-to-cash
transactions, usually
involving small volumes and unsophisticated dealers,
and another a higher
tier involving the banking sector for huge transactions
on behalf of the
central bank, state enterprises and
government.
Market sources said government was on Wednesday on the
market looking
for US$1 million for unspecified commitments.
At
least two financial institutions had been given the mandate to
scout for the
foreign currency on a strapped market.
"They are looking for US$1
million in cash," a market source
indicated. "We don't know why they want it
in cash - maybe someone wants his
money in cash because of the government's
increased default risk."
Authorised dealers with the central bank's
mandate were paying a huge
premium on the prevailing parallel market rates,
and were making payments
through the real time gross settlement (RTGS)
system into the accounts of
selling corporate institutions and
individuals.
The dollar hit $12 000 against the benchmark greenback
on the second
tier parallel market, with the British pound fetching between
$22 000 and
$25 000 and the South African rand buying $1 700.
The local unit was at $17 500 to the greenback on the first tier
market,
with the pound and rand rates revolving around the benchmark US
dollar
rate.
Businessdigest reported last week that the central bank was
"the
mystery mover" on the market as it had been buying aggressively from
the
parallel market to raise cash for unspecified commitments.
The local unit was last week at $9 500 to the greenback on the
cash-to-cash
market, and at $17 500 against the British pound, and between
$1 300 and $1
350 to the South African rand.
Zimbabwe is currently battling an
acute foreign currency shortage that
has stoked severe fuel shortages and
disrupted normal economic activities.
Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono in January refused to devalue the
local unit, saying devaluation was
unlikely to result in "planeloads" of
foreign currency into the country.
Eight devaluations since he assumed
office had failed to give any spark to
the distressed foreign currency
market, he said.
He kept the
rate fixed at $250 to the benchmark US unit, the rate he
had fixed in July
from $101 to the US unit.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
INDIAN steel giant, Global
Steel Holdings, exposed Ziscosteel to
costly litigation after cancelling
several contracts between the
Redcliff-based steelmaker and its service
providers, businessdigest
established from parliamentary
documents.
A parliamentary portfolio committee on foreign affairs,
industry and
international trade said in a damning report that Global
Steel's actions had
been detrimental to Ziscosteel's operational
viability.
While noting that there had been some positive
developments emanating
from the Indian steel company's management at
Ziscosteel, the report said
documentary evidence had revealed that Global
Steel "made some arrangements
that were detrimental to Ziscosteel whilst it
was in control".
"It appointed Stem Cor of South Africa to be the
sole buying and
selling agent of all Ziscosteel products, and existing
contracts were
cancelled. This kind of arrangement was bound to have
conflict of interest,"
the committee noted.
The report noted
that the cancellation of contracts had been
arbitrary, resulting in some of
the parties like China's Shougang suing
Ziscosteel and demanding
payments.
Shougang, which was offering Ziscosteel with "operating
knowledge and
experience", had a contract with Ziscosteel valued at US$2,6
million.
Other companies whose contracts were cancelled by Global
Steel include
Morewear (coal wagons supply); Reclamation Group (for
technical services);
and another company listed as Reclamation and MMC2
which supplied Ziscosteel
with unspecified products and bought from the
steelmaker pool iron.
During Global Steel's tenure, the committee
noted that the Indian
group had entered into a purchase agreement with its
customer, Stemcor,
which had the potential for "cross indebtedness and
disputes between
Ziscosteel, Global Steel and Stemcor since purchases done
on behalf of
Ziscosteel had no exchange control authority".
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
THE African Development Bank
(ADB), which terminated financial aid to
Zimbabwe because of a worsening
credit rating, this week received a plea for
economic support from President
Robert Mugabe's embattled government
desperate to restore confidence in the
faltering economy.
Zimbabwe urgently requires offshore support to
prop up its foreign
missions as well as pay for critical food imports to
curtail millions from
starving due to poor harvests.
Sources
indicated that Finance minister Samuel Mumbengegwi pleaded
with a
seven-member ADB delegation that came into the country this week for
financial support.
The ADB delegation, which was led by
executive secretary general
Abraham Kukuri, had visited the country for
routine consultations with
Zimbabwe's government. Zimbabwe is a member of
the ADB.
Sources in the business community, who had also been
consulted by the
ADB team, said government had outlined the problems facing
the country and
that prospects for economic recovery depended on support
from friendly
institutions like the ADB.
Industry had supported
government in its plea for financial support.
A source in the
business community said the ADB had indicated that it
was looking at the
possibility of re-engaging Zimbabwe.
ADB has previously expressed
grave concerns over the non-payment of
debts by Zimbabwe, a situation that
could affect possibilities of fresh
support.
Zimbabwe had
outstanding arrears to ADB amounting to US$300 million by
the end of
2005.
Mumbengegwi confirmed he had met the ADB delegation but
refused to
reveal the nature of their discussions.
"It is just
part of their annual visit to member countries",
Mumbengegwi told
businessdigest.
"There were no specific issues to discuss but they
were assessing the
situation in a member country. The delegation had been to
other countries
like Zambia. They wanted to get a feel of the situation in a
member
country", he said.
Analysts said prospects for new
funding would depend on government
adopting comprehensive economic and
political reforms backed by the West and
international lenders like the
International Monetary Fund which cut off
financial support to Zimbabwe
after the country accumulated arrears to the
Bretton Woods institution's
general resources account in 2001.
Zimbabwe also has outstanding
arrears with the World Bank, the
European Investment Bank and several other
international and regional
lending institutions.
An ADB
economist, Stephen Owusu, who visited Zimbabwe early last year,
said while
Zimbabwes's debt to the institution "had reached alarming
levels", the bank
was willing to explore avenues of normalising relations
and cooperation with
Zimbabwe to solve the economic crisis.
Owusu met government and
other stakeholders in the business community
as part of the consultative
process that was aimed at collecting social and
economic
information.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
FUEL supplies this week began dwindling on drying
foreign currency
supplies on the thriving parallel market from where the
central bank has
been aggressively buying over the past four
weeks.
Dealers said fuel importers were finding it difficult to
compete with
the central bank - which was said to have been joined by
several
parastatals - in the hunt for foreign cash on the parallel
market.
The dealers said government had authorised power utility
Zesa and Air
Zimbabwe to scout for forex on the parallel
market.
The two institutions, together with the central bank which
is said to
have splurged huge sums to buy "all the foreign currency in the
economy",
were said to be the prime movers of parallel market
rates.
Fuel dealers said the highly volatile parallel market rate
was
creating costing problems for the commodity; rates were moving daily but
fuel adjustments to match the changing exchange rates were meeting
resistance on the market.
Major oil companies confirmed
problems related to the cost of
importing fuel, saying weakening of the
Zimbabwe dollar on the parallel
market was creating pricing
problems.
Importers cited the crush of the local unit to the US
dollar on the
parallel market to reduced supplies of fuel.
Parallel market dealers were quoting the Zimbabwe dollar at $12 500 to
the
US unit and at as high as $17 000 to the greenback for large volumes on
Thursday morning, as foreign currency shortages escalated.
Fuel
was selling at over $11 000 at most pump stations.
A number of fuel
stations in Harare said they had not received
supplies of either petrol or
diesel over the past two days.
Fuel prices have surged by over 100%
in the past two weeks, a
situation that has triggered a wave of massive
price increases for goods and
services.
A litre of petrol and
diesel, which cost between $4 500 and $5 000 a
fortnight ago, now costs over
$11 000 per litre.
Government last year gazetted the prices for
petrol and diesel at $335
and $320 but dealers have ignored these
unrealistic prices because of the
cost of foreign currency sourced from the
parallel market.
Government has not given fuel importers foreign
currency for fuel
imports from the official foreign currency market, where
the rate remains
fixed at $250 to the US dollar.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
FINANCE minister Samuel Mumbengegwi this week
surprised legislators
when he refused to tell a parliamentary portfolio
committee the source of
the foreign currency government used to import 400
000 metric tonnes of
maize to feed millions of starving
Zimbabweans.
There is widespread concern that the foreign currency
could have been
bought on the illegal parallel foreign currency
market.
It was not immediately clear if this was the reason for the
budget,
finance and economic development committee's interrogation of
Mumbengegwi to
establish the source of the foreign currency.
Businessdigest reported last week that the central bank was
aggressively
buying foreign currency from the parallel market, pushing up
rates in the
process.
A hostile Mumbengegwi shot down the committee's questions,
saying it
was improper for a country under undeclared sanctions to reveal
its sources
of foreign cash.
"For a country facing economic
sanctions, it would be very unwise for
me to tell you the source of the
foreign currency," he said.
"I am not talking about perceptions.
The EU (European Union) has
extended its sanctions against Zimbabwe. The US
has renewed sanctions
against us. These are not perceived perceptions but
reality. We are in an
economic warfare here, not perceptions," he
said.
He was apparently referring to targeted sanctions imposed by
the West
on President Mugabe and members of the regime, which have been
blamed by
government for the escalating economic crisis in the
country.
Mumbengegwi remained unmoved even when MPs charged that he
was trying
to conceal information from the public.
"I am
withholding nothing from you. I am telling you what I should. I
will tell
you all I know within my limits. I cannot tell you how and where
we got the
money. But last week I was running around looking for money. I
found the
food and it is coming. We have secured 400 000 metric tonnes of
maize," he
said.
He indicated, however, that the country had vast mineral
resources and
the MPs were ignorant of that fact, but did not explain if the
foreign
currency had been secured from their exploitation.
Mumbengegwi told the committee, headed by Zanu PF legislator for
Guruve
North, David Butau, that while there had been an increase in foreign
currency inflows through money transfer agencies, government had not
benefited from the inflows.
Most of the money, he said, had
found its way into the parallel
market.
Butau ordered
Mumbengegwi to be serious, saying they were discussing
critical economic
issues concerning the welfare of people, to which
Mumbengegwi responded by
saying the committee did not have to embarrass him.
Responding to
questions over his role in the country's economic
revival programme since he
became Finance minister in February, Mumbengegwi
said he would say nothing
because he could trigger speculative behaviour on
the market if he disclosed
his ministry's strategy in dealing with the
economic crisis.
"I
feel constrained to say what new systems I will implement. It does
not make
economic sense for me to say specific issues of what I want to do.
Look at
what happened when the governor (Gideon Gono) announced his
proposals for
the social contract," Mumbengegwi said.
Zim Independent
By Anthony Harrisson
WHILST President Robert
Mugabe presided over the establishment of a
viable African country with a
relatively strong economy and standard of
living (he is to be congratulated
for that), in his declining years his
actions seem to suggest he is intent
on destroying everything, reverting to
the Stone Age.
Only four
actions have destroyed his previously good name. Firstly, he
sought to
destroy the economy by taking over white-owned farms, giving them
either to
bands of war veterans with no experience of farming or to his
cronies.
Farming production, once the engine of the economy, is
now laughable.
Mugabe should have re-distributed the land through better
planning,
education and co-operation with previous owners in
training.
He chose not to, either because he did not see the
dangers of a failed
agricultural sector, or because he didn't
care.
Secondly, his policy of slum clearance within the cities has
created
poverty on a wide scale. There were better ways this could have been
achieved.
His actions appear to indicate his intent was
political rather than
anything else. It is pretty close to ethnic
cleansing.
His restriction of the opposition parties, newspapers
and general
disregard for the law have allowed his excesses to evade the
spotlight in
the same way they would have in a proper
democracy.
Robert Mugabe, a man many thought they would remember
for achieving
great things during the early years of his rule, has presided
over
destruction of the economy, impoverishment of the populace, and usurped
the
legal framework for his own ends.
After his departure,
Zimbabwe will take decades to recover and even
then, recovery will be
reliant on the support of nations Mugabe has insulted
and
shunned.
The future cannot get any bleaker while Mugabe still
rules, and it
will barely improve once he is gone. Such is the shameful
state in which
Mugabe has placed this country.
* Anthony
Harrisson can be contacted through abharrisson @yahoo.co.uk
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
TIME is fast running out for the opposition to
reunite and form a
formidable political force against Zanu PF in the light
of President Robert
Mugabe's declaration that he wants to stand in the
presidential election
next year.
While Mugabe's recent
statement unravelled the 2010 extension project
that was creaking from
opposition by contestants to his throne at the
Goromonzi conference, it
places greater urgency on the opposition's
reunification process that has so
far failed to meet its March 1 deadline.
Morgan Tsvangirai's
faction spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, last week
admitted unity talks had
stalled.
"We are waiting for the committee to report back to the
executive and
the national council and we will see what their findings are,"
Chamisa told
the Zimbabwe Independent.
Analysts say there is a
better chance for reunification now following
the arrest of Tsvangirai and
his rival Arthur Mutambara last Sunday while on
their way to a joint prayer
rally in Highfield. But it would take one of the
leaders to be more
magnanimous and make a bold step to announce a concrete
unity plan, analysts
say.
"It would be better now to unite after Sunday's events. But I
don't
think the two formations will unite immediately," says John Makumbe, a
political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.
Makumbe said
the Save Zimbabwe Campaign could take charge to urge
unity between the two
opposition MDC factions led by Tsvangirai and
Mutambara.
"The
coalition is likely to bring the two MDC formations together and
in
Mutambara's view this should be possible," Makumbe said, adding that the
issue was more urgent now than ever.
If elections are held
without a new constitution, Makumbe said, the
opposition faces a greater
risk that the poll will be a repeat of the 2002
poll. He said unity would
entail a daunting reconfiguration of both
formations' structures from the
grassroots level up to the executive.
Together, with the
collaboration of civic groups, they can defer
elections until a new
constitution is in place and still hold elections next
year, he
said.
"As long as there is national consensus, the elections can be
deferred
to allow proper arrangement of the elections under a new
constitutional
dispensation," Mutambara said at the launch of his wing's
defiance campaign.
Makumbe said elections in 2008 without a new
constitution must be
stopped at all costs.
"It won't change
anything," he said.
But if the way secretary-general of the
Mutambara-led Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) formation, Welshman
Ncube, reacted to earlier
prospects of unity reflects the party's position,
the prospects are very
slim.
And if responses by the national
chairman of the Tsvangirai-led MDC,
Isaac Matongo, are any harbinger, the
prospects are even slimmer!
"You cannot expect me to sit and
discuss unity with Sam Sipepa Nkomo
whom we discarded from our structures.
Tsvangirai has to be more serious
than that," Ncube said on the prospects of
a reunification.
Equally dismissive was the response by Matongo to
reunification: "We
are the MDC and have always stated categorically that the
door is always
open for our former colleagues who want to rejoin
us."
Matongo suspects the media is anxious to set an agenda. "The
talk
about unity is a media agenda," he says.
A recent report
by the International Crisis Group (ICG) - a
Brussels-based think tank - says
the MDC would greatly benefit from
reconciliation to salvage its domestic
and international image which has
suffered since the October 12 2005
split.
The MDC was badly but not irreparably damaged when it split
into two
factions over participation in senatorial elections, analysts
say.
Mutambara is reported to have said: "There is no alternative
to all
democratic forces working together to bring about democratic
change."
Yet Tsvangirai sees unity in a different light. He says
his party
believes in unity of purpose.
"There is the mistaken
belief that the burden of responsibility in
resolving the national crisis is
the so-called disunity in the opposition.
We believe our focus on unity of
purpose is more important," he says.
The ICG report says personal
friction remains the key obstacle to
reunification.
Officials
who were elevated to higher echelons of the party after the
split could be
feeling threatened by loss of status in the event of
re-unification.
Tsvangirai officials say, according to ICG
analysts, reunification
would not be a problem if Ncube was out of the
equation.
Both sets of leaders have recently indicated they can at
least still
work together towards the common objectives of restoring
democracy and
ending Mugabe's rule.
"I think the two factions
have signed a code of conduct that seems to
working," Makumbe said, citing
Sunday's events as a confluence of the two
formations' defiance campaign as
an example.
He said the Save Zimbabwe Campaign would have to
sustain the civil
disobedience campaign that has shown that the people are
willing to repeat
the event on a weekly basis.
The ICG says so
far most leaders are saying the right thing.
"While elections are
an important form of struggle, they are not the
only form. We will defeat
this regime through a multi-pronged approach,"
David Coltart, the Mutambara
faction's secretary for legal affairs, said.
Tendai Biti, the
secretary-general of the Tsvangirai faction, agreed
the party should support
all positive efforts at opposing the government
instead of trying to
identify a single method.
Tsvangirai has often drawn similarities
between the 1963 split in Zapu
to the current MDC schism.
"We
want unity of purpose not just unity for the sake of it,"
Tsvangirai said
explaining that Zapu and Zanu faced a common enemy but their
joint efforts
still achieved the goal.
The two MDC formations could take some
comfort in the realisation that
they could have helped stop Mugabe's 2010
project in its tracks through
their launch of a defiance campaign and could
achieve even more by courting
disaffected members of the ruling Zanu PF
party opposed to Mugabe standing
for re-election on their side.
But what remains is setting the groundwork for free elections in order
to
restore the opposition status to its pre-split strength.
Zim Independent
By
Morgan Tsvangirai
The following is Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai's address to the Annual Foreign
Correspondents Dinner in
Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday last
week.
I UNDERSTAND you had invited the governor of the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe to be with you at this important occasion today. I present
myself
to all of you as a representative of a battered nation: a nation
bleeding
from a dysfunctional political system, with a people reeling under
the
weight of a criminal state; a nation under a dictatorship that has
defied
local and international advice on universal principles of governance,
and
respect for individual and property rights.
I lay myself
before you as a leader of a people under siege from a
dictatorship that has
adopted a lone warrior mentality in the conduct of
international relations
to defend its waning political power base.
I am here this evening
with a firm conviction that open debate and
discussion about Zimbabwe's
national affairs is healthy for democracy and
for our own humanity as
Zimbabweans.
I further submit myself to all of you as a leader of
the MDC, a symbol
of a post-liberation alternative seeking a new epoch whose
signposts for
national advancement are being spearheaded by broad social
movements. The
MDC assumed guardianship of the hopes and aspirations of
ordinary people; it
is an idea whose time has come.
Recent
events and developments point to an inevitable collapse of the
criminal
regime. Widespread pressure for change has seen the virtual
imposition of a
state of emergency across the country. Meetings and all
forms of political
gatherings have been banned - and usually that signals
the last kick of a
dying administration.
We are in a hard transition, both political
and generational. Our
founding fathers have lost focus and are failing to
establish a legacy our
people shall respect and cherish. They can't even
give way to their own
people in Zanu PF, nor can they allow a free and fair
vote to enable
Zimbabweans to look for alternatives.
Zimbabweans are a peace-loving people. That they have avoided an armed
conflict, as is normal throughout Africa, to resolve the crisis shows their
maturity and firm belief in an orderly transition.
In the MDC,
our proposals for a lasting resolution of the national
crisis are fast
becoming the only acceptable avenue for a soft-landing. We
have to save
Zimbabwe through stakeholder dialogue, a confidence-building
transitional
window, a people-driven constitution and free and fair
elections - a process
now accepted by other Zimbabwe watchers like the
International Crisis Group
as the only way out of the current stalemate.
The odds against us
in this struggle may be daunting. But I am fully
convinced that we shall
triumph. It is common cause that the regime in
Harare has failed during the
past 27 years. The high levels of
marginalisation, discrimination and
retribution are clear to all, including
open reverse racism.
The biggest challenge facing a new Zimbabwe shall be the development
of a
diverse nation in which a person's ancestry shall never be seen in
political
terms as a source of friction and discrimination.
Across the racial
and ethnic divide, access to our birthright and to
our national resources
has been severely restricted by the criminal regime
in Harare, using an
outdated and opportunistic form of nationalism grounded
in the
militarisation of civilian governance institutions and corruption.
The new Zimbabwe before my eyes is a country an MDC government shall
expose
to a rigorous programme of national healing and national integration
before
it can take off in earnest. The wounds are too deep. Our people need
to
speak out and express themselves out of the present racial and ethnic
fragments to a distinct nation.
In my vision, no single social
or political grouping must be permitted
to dominate any other. We have
committed ourselves to a complicated,
post-colonial struggle for freedom,
justice and democracy in a continent
still trying to come to terms with a
realisation that black-on-black
oppression exists. In a new Zimbabwe,
everyone must be free to be different.
We have to eliminate the
current misery and mistrust, and the sense of
betrayal; and to enable the
women, men and children of Zimbabwe to
experience a changed political
dispensation. We need to develop a culture of
openness and accountability in
public affairs.
Our economic programmes shall be anchored on an
unfettered and
non-negotiable respect for the rule of law, respect for
private initiative
and property rights, equity and equal access to national
opportunities. We
fully recognise the depth of our current democratic crisis
and the harm that
has been caused to our society.
We pledge to
undo the social fragmentation and economic disarray that
has cast such a
long and dark shadow over the basic dignity of our people.
Our economic
programme shall emphasise stabilisation and food security as
national
emergencies.
As a priority, we shall set free land ownership from
the current
emotional trap and allow this finite resource to perform as an
economic
asset through a serious revival of commercial
agriculture.
Zimbabweans are aware that a piece of land requires a
balanced mixture
of science, capital and expertise in order to make sense.
Access to land and
land use patterns shall draw lessons from the chaos we
have experienced. We
shall balance our business needs, our environmental
concerns and the need
for fairness and equity in our land
policy.
We desire a new Zimbabwe that realises its inter-dependence
on a
global culture and a moral ethic that upholds the sanctity of life, the
indispensable place of a human being in a nation and the centrality of the
rule of law to an individual's sustenance.
Zimbabwe shall
require a massive injection of international capital,
either through direct
foreign investment or partnerships and basic therapy
normally associated
with emerging democracies.
As a product of civil society, I respect
the place of social movements
to any nation's quest for advancement. We
value the voices from labour and
business; we value a free press; we believe
in justice and fair play. We
listen. We value our basic and non-negotiable
freedoms and rights, guided by
the ideals of the liberation
struggle.
Such a background commits us to the desire to end all
forms of
oppression and discrimination, in pursuit of a society based on
equality,
cultural advancement and national prosperity.
We
subscribe to the principle of sustainable development grounded in
prosperity, quality of life and community stability. Our social agenda
starts and ends with our social democracy thrust.
In the new
Zimbabwe, my role shall demand a speedy implementation of
my contract with
the people. The people demand the establishment of
irreversible institutions
of governance to safeguard their freedoms.
I am determined to
oversee an essential transitional process whose
thrust shall see the
critical building blocks for a society whose main
institutions shall protect
everybody - from a peasant to a president.
We must end our pariah
status; inspire investor confidence; and
implore on our neighbours in the
Sadc region to assist us to rejoin the
family of nations.
Our
behaviour shall be critical to the process. We have to abandon the
present
lone warrior mentality that has weakened us substantially. We know
that
Zimbabwe needs the world. We shall engage all nations that share
universal
norms and standards on the dignity of the human being and quality
life.
As we navigate through a delicate transition to a new
Zimbabwe, much
depends on the support we draw from our neighbours in the
Sadc region. The
people stand ready to avoid a violent end to the regime in
Harare.
The coalition of forces that sustained the regime in Harare
over the
past 27 years, once cemented by force and material inducements, has
virtually collapsed.
It is doubtful whether Robert Mugabe will
be able to reconstruct a
consensus, even if he tries to use the old
carrot-and-stick strategy. As the
warring factions inside Zanu PF continue
to tear each other apart, the
country might gradually move towards a power
vacuum which, as you know, in
other countries, such a vacuum has led to
adventurism and disaster.
Sadc is thus implored to maintain a keen
eye on the situation in
Zimbabwe, more than at any other time. Mugabe's
primary concern now is
simply to manage factions which no longer share a
common set of interests.
In turn the factions themselves have abandoned any
hope of achieving a
consensus or compromise. They are now involved in a
dog-eat-dog political
game. As a people, we need an exit strategy from this
trap before it is too
late.
Zim Independent
By Pedzisai
Ruhanya
ON Sunday March 11 2007, the day scheduled for the Save
Zimbabwe
Campaign prayer rally, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai was dressed in a khaki pair of trousers and a cowboy
hat.
His colleague in the opposition Arthur Mutambara, also of the
MDC, was
clad in a black outfit, while Lovemore Madhuku of the National
Constitutional Assembly was in his usual simple dress reminiscent of a
tested and tried revolutionary cadre.
Their faces displayed
determination - all ready to assert and defend
Zimbabwe's civil and
political space and ultimately to prevent the return of
Rhodesia, a project
that President Robert Mugabe is fighting hard to impose
on this once
independent state.
At first I saw Mutambara along Harare's Central
Avenue and I wondered
what he was up to given his dressing but when I came
across Tsvangirai,
Madhuku, Morgan Changamire, Nelson Chamisa, Elias
Mudzuri, Grace Kwinje and
Sekai Holland, among others, I then realised that
the project of national
redemption was gathering momentum.
On
that day, there was no talk of factions in the MDC. Tsvangirai,
Mutambara,
Madhuku, Mike Davies and others greeted each other and talked
briefly at
some place in Kambuzuma before they proceeded to Highfield, venue
of the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer rally.
They discussed the national
question and the strategies to resolve the
twin crisis of governance and
legitimacy that Zimbabwe has been grappling
with for the last seven years.
They also chatted about how they were to
reach the venue of the prayer
meeting given that there were police
roadblocks at 50-metre intervals along
the way. They all agreed not to
succumb to political intimidation even it
meant being arrested and tortured
which prophetically happened.
Without saying much, I could see that all the leaders were
pre-occupied with
the urgent need to unite oppositional and pro-democracy
forces, to stop
infighting, to respect each other and define a common
national agenda that
encompasses the overhaul of the governance structure in
Zimbabwe leading to
free and fair elections under a new constitutional and
democratic
framework.
What I observed is that Zimbabwe's oppositional and
pro-democracy
forces have managed to define a common strategy and are clear
that they have
to confront the current political repression organised by
Mugabe and his
regime.
These empirical political gestures by
Tsvangirai, Mutambara, Madhuku,
civic society leaders, the church leadership
and others should not be taken
for granted because if the kind of common
cause and agenda that I witnessed
on Sunday were to be taken down to the
grassroots and unify these political
formations then this country could be
closer to the resolution of the
crisis.
What is also crucial
about the Save Zimbabwe Campaign grouping is that
Zimbabweans in their
oppositional and civic differences have come to an
agreement that they need
each other's efforts and they should not invest
their energies and resources
in confronting each other but the regime which
is the source of the national
crisis.
This coming together takes me back to the liberation
struggle where
various political formations such as Zanu and Zapu despite
their differences
were able to define the national question and fought
alongside each other
against the Rhodesian regime and brought about
Independence in 1980.
It is critical that those who want this
country to gain Independence
from the native imperialism that Mugabe is
presiding over should not
celebrate infighting but should constructively
differ while understanding
the broader national goals that this country
needs united efforts to deal
with Mugabe's political project of privatising
national affairs.
But beyond the critical political gestures and
the unity in action
that Tsvangirai, Mutambara, Madhuku, the church leaders
and civic society
have shown to their fellow Zimbabweans, their followers
and others who
support the resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe, this
understanding should
be based on sincerity, respect and should be sustained
until this country is
free from Mugabe's dictatorship.
Tsvangirai's attire was prophetic about events that followed his
brutalisation by the regime's thugs, so was Madhuku's while Mutambara's
black outfit summed up the events of Sunday March 11 2007. It was a Black
Sunday.
A life was lost through police murder while several
leaders and
activists were tortured while in police custody contrary to the
provisions
of the law and international human rights statutes governing the
treatment
of detainees.
What I witnessed on Sunday was the
behaviour of a criminal state that
sends thugs to violate its citizens'
constitutional rights to freedoms of
assembly, expression and association
without shame.
I saw undisputed violation of life integrity rights,
in the form of
state-sponsored torture, extra-judicial killing, political
imprisonment and
disappearance, organised by a government that purports to
have liberated
this country from a racist colonial regime.
The
fatal shooting of MDC activist Gift Tandare in Highfield for
allegedly being
a ringleader of legitimate protesters is defined as
extra-judicial killing
at law. Being a ringleader is not criminal warranting
death outside judicial
proceedings. The imprisonment and denial of legal
representation to arrested
people is an affront to the promotion of
democratic governance in
Zimbabwe.
My understanding of a democracy is a system of governance
in which the
governors or rulers, in this case the regime of Mugabe are held
accountable
for their actions in the public realm by citizens, acting
indirectly through
competition and co-operation of their elected
representatives.
If Mugabe's government argues that it is an
elected regime then there
was nothing criminal about Tambare leading people
to protest against the
regime. There would be nothing wrong in Zimbabweans
demanding political
accountability from a legitimately elected government.
Consequently there
would be no need for the government to ban political
expression, assembly
and the right to organise.
In a functional
democracy, it has been argued that the fear of leaders
not to get
re-elected, or even to be pushed out of power before the end of
their
constitutionally defined terms shapes the way they treat their
citizens.
Under these circumstances, elected leaders do not send thugs
masquerading as
the police to assault opposition leaders and prevent
peaceful
protests.
These elected leaders would also not create extra-legal
bodies such as
the Border Gezi youth militia to violate citizens' rights.
They would not
use the army to prevent peaceful expression and newspapers
would not be
banned.
Under these circumstances, it becomes
clear in my view that the
current regime in Zimbabwe does not meet the
criterion discussed because it
does not bother to listen to the views of
those that elect it. This gives
credence to the widely held view that this
regime is an illegitimate one. It
does not bother about political persuasion
but its administration of
national affairs is premised on political
coercion.
In a democracy, when the political leadership is held
accountable for
their action, they are far more likely to use non-violent
tools to pursue
their goals than if this kind of public control did not
exist.
The events of Sunday March 11 2007 where the Zanu PF
government
criminalised political activities, tortured detainees, denied
detainees
access to food, legal representation and the general disregard of
the norms
and values governing democratic administration has proved beyond
any
reasonable doubt that Mugabe has taken this country back to the days of
Rhodesia and has now become an undoubted native imperialist and
colonialist.
Under Rhodesia, extra-judicial killings were the order
of the day and
Mugabe's government has been doing the same through the
murders of Tichaona
Chiminya, Talent Mabika, former MDC MP for Lupane David
Mpala and lately
Gift Tandare.
Political detainees were
numerous under Ian Smith and today several
people languish in prisons
without trial under Mugabe. The way out of this
madness should be clear to
Mugabe just as it was clear to Smith.
The people have a legitimate
right to liberate themselves from
colonial bondage be it foreign or native
as personified by Mugabe's regime.
These are not political hallucinations
but surely as the sun rises from the
east, this country will be free one
day.
* Pedzisai Ruhanya is a human rights researcher.
Zim Independent
Comment
ZIMBABWE'S rulers this week attempted to justify their violent
crackdown
against the opposition by claiming the MDC and its civic allies
were
planning mass protests for which the scheduled prayer meeting was
merely a
ruse.
Even if it were true that opposition leaders planned to carry
out a
more militant protest, what justification can there be for the vicious
assaults that took place against the individuals concerned while in police
detention? They were brutally beaten, denied access to their lawyers, and
denied medical attention or sustenance.
What we have here is a
rogue regime where the police have become the
agency of state violence
against opposition and civic supporters whose only
offence has been to
protest against the rapidly deteriorating conditions
that persistent
misgovernance and repression have spawned.
The attacks on Morgan
Tsvangirai and his supporters were so severe and
so evident that even the
supine South African authorities were stirred into
action, urging Zimbabwe
"to ensure the rule of law, including respect for
the rights of all
Zimbabweans and leaders of various political parties" is
upheld.
British ambassador Andrew Pocock's description of
police treatment of
detainees as "ghastly" and "barbaric" was nearer the
mark.
But however you look at it, this was a lawless episode in
which
fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly were crushed
by
police who ignored a court order two weeks ago to allow an MDC rally to
proceed. They exceeded their authority by banning rallies in whole swathes
of Harare, and then on Sunday used unprecedented force to break up a
peaceful demonstration before it could proceed, in the process shooting dead
an opposition supporter.
In pursuing this course of action the
Zimbabwe government has placed
itself in breach of constitutional rights,
abused the provisions of the
Public Order and Security Act, and ignored
international conventions to
which it is a signatory.
Torture
is outlawed under a number of international conventions to
which Zimbabwe is
a party. This was not a casual or spontaneous beating the
opposition leaders
were treated to. It was a systematic and vicious assault.
The extent of
their injuries bears testimony to that.
Civil society is not
altogether powerless in this situation. The
victims of the assaults must
have some idea of the perpetrators. When they
are able, they should sit
down, compare notes and prosecute those
responsible for violating the Police
Act. Whatever happened to the Police
Service Charter?
The same
goes for those politicians giving the orders. If this
opportunity is missed
the public will be less sympathetic the next time. The
state criminals
responsible for violence, including Joseph Mwale and his
colleagues
instrumental in the deaths of farmers and opposition activists
since 2000,
need to be brought to justice.
The United Nations has for too long
lent legitimacy to the police by
assigning them peace-keeping missions
abroad. Remarks by the new UN
secretary-general are welcome. But he needs to
do more than express his
abhorrence at events in Harare. It should now occur
to the UN that it has
been recruiting officers for UN duties from the ranks
of torturers who
should be tried under international law.
This
is not about revenge but elementary justice. Tsvangirai and his
fellow
victims of police violence, some of them prominent lawyers, need to
keep a
record of what transpired this week. In that way, the perpetrators of
state
violence will know they are accountable for their actions.
Generally a culture of arbitrary arrest, torture and impunity has
crept into
our law-enforcement agencies. In the circumstances, ruling
politicians must
not complain when the international community reacts with
understandable
disgust.
The noose is clearly tightening and the attacks on the MDC
and civic
leaderships have both exposed the insecurity felt by the regime
and boosted
the prospects of unity in the opposition.
The
public will be quick to forgive nearly two years of squabbling if
the
opposition can now show true leadership. They have this week undergone a
baptism of fire. It was a terrible fate at the hands of a cruel regime. But
the future is theirs, not the cowards who currently abuse power. They need
to act wisely - above all in unison - while they enjoy national and
international sympathy.
They need to seize the
moment.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Joram Nyathi
IF the National Vision
bishops were accused of being too close to
President Mugabe, the ICG report
is guilty of going to the other extreme. If
the bishops were guilty of
giving Mugabe a lifeline, the ICG is equally
guilty of a false
deconstruction of Mugabe.
Both have not achieved their ends - the
bishops because a vision is
essentially a dream still to be acted on, the
ICG because of a false premise
about Mugabe's exit.
For
purposes of space, I will leave out the problematic structure of
the ICG
report - Zimbabwe: An end to the stalemate - to focus on its
contents -its
weaknesses and false assumptions.
It opens its Executive Summary by
claiming "a realistic chance has at
last begun to appear in the past few
months to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis,
by retirement of President Robert
Mugabe, a power-sharing transitional
government, a new constitution and
elections".
Would a foreign reader be wrong to assume that Mugabe
had retired and
we were in a process of reconstruction when the truth is
that Mugabe is
still president and the real bloody fight lies ahead? Their
first
recommendation is also foreign-based. They say Zanu PF should not
extend
Mugabe's term but "support Sadc-led negotiations to implement an exit
strategy for him". Shouldn't it be Sadc supporting local initiatives, or is
this an admission that opposition forces are unable to spearhead such a
process?
What I found extreme about the ICG report was the
direct taunting of
Mugabe by suggesting that an exit package is being worked
out for him so
that Zimbabwe can quickly re-establish relations with the
West and the
Commonwealth. What is the point of this
provocation?
While Mugabe's party may be riven by factions, this is
a proposal that
makes it even more difficult for so-called Zanu PF moderates
or Sadc leaders
to approach him without being accused of advancing a dirty
agenda. It is an
agenda crafted in a way which ensures it is a stillbirth
and therefore of no
use to Zimbabweans.
The ICG states that the
MDC is "prepared to negotiate an end to the
crisis, accept a power-sharing
agreement and support constitutional
reforms - if Zanu PF delivers Mugabe's
exit".
This is to stand logic on its head. Shouldn't it be the
dominant party
saying it is prepared to negotiate? What are the MDC's other
options, as the
ICG admits that the party has limited "organisational
capacity and
resources"? This analytical sloppiness leads to the next error
about the MDC
accepting "a power-sharing agreement". Is that what the people
said? What is
the MDC's claim to that power-sharing deal? I thought the idea
of a
"stalemate" was an acceptance that the opposition was in a weak
position to
set terms. Zanu PF's problem is one of legitimacy at home and
abroad, not
one of numbers to change the constitution.
If the
Zanu PF factions can get rid of Mugabe on their own, which they
want and can
do, then they don't need the MDC. Morgan Tsvangirai admits as
much when he
warns that Zanu PF infighting is creating "a power vacuum" that
could lead
"to dangerous adventurism", implying the MDC is not ready to fill
that
vacuum.
The report admits that Zanu PF sees the MDC weaker as a
divided party.
This point takes us to a nebulous phrase about a "new
constitution". This is
supposed to guarantee free and fair elections if
there are foreign
observers. The ICG puts itself in an invidious trap here
in which an
election won by Zanu PF must be rejected outright while that won
by the
opposition is invariably free and fair. This is gratuitous
opportunism, no
more than wishful thinking, because politics is more
complex.
Talking of Zanu PF moderates, the ICG makes the point that
Solomon
Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa want Mugabe out for purely personal
reasons -
their businesses are hurting from lack of Western investment. So
how do
their personal commercial interests qualify them to be national
leaders?
Well, their background.
The ICG commits the sin of
linking future leaders to the military
establishment. Is this an attempt to
nurture a culture of warlordism? What
are the military leaders who back
either Mujuru or Mnangagwa supposed to do
should their candidate loses an
election?
What bothers me is that it is taken as a given that one
must have the
support of the military without resolving the contradiction
with the
democratic imperative and civilian administration it rests on.
Where does
that leave opposition leaders like Tsvangirai who have no
military
background but are popular?
The ICG proceeds from
there to give us sanitised criteria by which
future leaders are judged by
their inaction. All aspiring Zanu PF candidates
are said to "have dark spots
on their records". Simba Makoni's sin is that
he is not doing anything to
stop Zanu PF's damaging economic policies;
Gideon Gono is guilty of
defending these policies while Mnangagwa's "dark
spot" is his failure to
provide houses for Murambatsvina victims. What about
Gukurahundi?
Who is responsible for this Martian version of
history? So democracy
needs no more than a few lies about our past for it to
work!
What values does the MDC share with Zanu PF? This leads to a
fallacy
in which opposition to Mugabe equates to democracy, hence vague
phrases
about a "restoration of" or "return to democracy". When did we part
company
with it? Is democracy the same thing as majority rule? If so, how is
this
different from periodic, ritualistic elections held since 1980 which
have
led us to where we are today? At what point did we enter a
dictatorship?
Finally, I still insist that a "new constitution" is
no use if it
doesn't enshrine in it the values and principles encapsulated
in the
National Vision document affirming the dignity and equality of man
before
God and the law.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent
Kahiya
WHAT government sets the police to bludgeon the official
opposition
leader and still claim to be democratic?
This is the
same government that tries to pitch itself as a victim of
international
conspiracy when there is worldwide condemnation of its
brutality. If any of
President Mugabe's praise singers doubted the
callousness of his regime, our
dear leader this week overdid himself to
prove that he rules the roost in
the stakes of notoriety.
Pictures of the face of Morgan Tsvangirai,
the bruised limbs of Grace
Kwinjeh and dozens of other opposition supporters
were this week flighted
around the world.
The ghastly images
were splashed on the Internet, on news pages and
were aired on television
stations together with unapologetic comments
supporting the
barbarism.
Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi was on national
television on
Tuesday brandishing a sharp-edged tool in a vainglorious bid
to convince us
that the MDC was a violent party.
Zanu PF has
done everything in its power this week to tell the world
that it is a
murderous regime that will not hesitate to pull the trigger on
civilians to
keep Mugabe in power.
The police have justified the shooting of an
NCA activist on Sunday
"because he appeared to be the ringleader". The
government has done well to
confirm President Mugabe's Defence Forces Day
speech last August when he
threatened those wanting to take his
throne.
"We want to remind those who might harbour any plans of
turning
against the government: be warned, we have armed men and women who
can pull
the trigger," he said. His men and women indeed pulled the trigger
to murder
NCA activist Gift Tandare and injured several others on
Sunday.
If anything, this Zanu PF-crafted repression has boosted
opposition
ranks. It has lifted Tsvangirai to the pedestal of greater
importance than
before police gave him a swollen face and a fractured skull.
Victims often
get more followers than villains.
But Zanu PF
appears to believe that this is how a democratic
government conducts itself.
To justify state brutality, ZBC this week found
a group of women, supposedly
attacked by MDC supporters in Waterfalls, to
show their tiny bruises and to
denounce the opposition. They all called for
government to deal with the
perpetrators.
There were more statements of solidarity with state
violence from a
group of clergymen who denounced the violence but
conveniently forgot to
mention the death of Tandare and the torture of
opposition leaders by the
police.
But this PR project will have
no impact whatsoever on the soiled image
of Mugabe and his party. The
pictures of violence inflicted on the MDC
leadership and NCA chair Lovemore
Madhuku, and news of Tandare's death, is
the big Zimbabwean story today. It
is a story of tyranny, repression and
intolerance.
This is the
news that went to Zimbabwe's tourist source-markets in
Asia and Europe.
Cable TV delivered the pictures to the lounges of potential
investors whom
central bank governor Gideon Gono has spent a fortune trying
to lure to
Zimbabwe.
For a long time, there have been shrill complaints from
government
spin doctors that Mugabe and his cronies are victims of
demonisation by
hostile foreign and local press.
But there has
always been evidence that the Zanu PF government is the
architect of our
misery. It has authored, directed and starred in violent
plots which it
expects the media to report as national achievements. But the
media is much
wiser than that.
The violent conduct of the police on Sunday is the
latest episode in
this drama. Shockingly, still the Zanu PF government
expected to get a good
press from this butchery of civilians, to the extent
that its information
handlers appeared surprised by international
condemnation raining down on
the country.
Condemnation has not
only come from vocal "Western detractors", but
also from the United Nations,
and South Africa which ironically was this
week battling to protect Zimbabwe
from being placed on the UN Security
Council Agenda.
South
Africa currently holds the presidency of the Security Council
but will be
handing it over to Britain next month. This is likely to
increase the heat
on our blundering leaders who for too long believed they
had the Sadc region
behind them.
Sadc's silly strategy of sanitising the tyranny of
Mugabe's government
is evaporating in the heat of Mugabe's repression, hence
the guarded
comments on Zimbabwe but definitely no toadying flattery. Those
days are
over.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WHY is Information minister Sikanyiso Ndlovu
making such a fool of
himself? Every time he opens his mouth he sounds like
Jonathan Moyo on a bad
day prior to 2005.
Moyo has since
improved. Ndlovu hasn't. He rants and raves as if he
has somebody he needs
to impress.
Contrary to the assertions of the International Crisis
Group that
sanctions had divided Zimbabweans, they were more united than
before, he
asserted last week.
A few days later hundreds were
arrested as youths fought running
battles with police on the streets of
Harare's townships. They were united
against tyranny.
The ICG
was urging people to rise against government "in order to
institute a stooge
imperialist megaphone government" which the MDC and NCA
chairman Lovemore
Madhuku were working on without the mandate of the
Zimbabwean people, he
fatuously stated.
What mandate does Ndlovu have? Who elected him to
office? Here is a
minister who has been rejected in every democratic contest
since 2000 but
sits in parliament courtesy of his patron, who by the way
promised in 2004
not to appoint unelected MPs to cabinet. Compare Madhuku's
bravery at the
weekend with Ndlovu singing for his supper.
Ndlovu should be careful. He may get away with bombastic behaviour at
the
Bulawayo Press Club, but in Harare it doesn't wash. As an unelected MP
he
evidently feels a need to impress his boss. But nobody else is impressed.
He
should shut up until he has something intelligent to say - which is
obviously not just yet!
Muckraker's attention has been
drawn to a claim by William Nhara's
lawyers that their client was the
"shadow MP for Harare Central".
Muckraker has been battling for a
number of years with the media habit
of referring to MDC MPs as "shadow
ministers". This is a British tradition
that simply looks pretentious in our
scheme of things. Renson Gasela, for
instance, is billed by his party as the
"shadow Minister of Agriculture".
But we have never heard of a
shadow MP. Nhara lost the contest for
Harare Central. He is not a shadow MP
because no such creature exists!
Those who suspected Bishop
Trevor Manhanga was closer to the regime
than was healthy for a Pentecostal
minister will have had those suspicions
confirmed by a letter in the
Johannesburg Sunday Times last weekend.
The newspaper's editor
Mondli Makanya is an articulate and
well-informed observer of this country's
affairs having lived and worked
here over several years. Therefore when he
called on the South African
authorities last weekend to adopt a more helpful
approach to the crisis
unfolding north of the Limpopo his voice carried
considerable weight.
But Manhanga has foolishly chosen to pick a
fight with him. Using
arguments that the Office of the President would
applaud, Manhanga says that
while "we have made grave errors in the manner
in which we have managed our
affairs, we must not underplay the role played
by powerful outside forces
whose interests were threatened by events around
the land redistribution
exercise".
So a brutal and lawless
assault on law-abiding farmers and their
workers by thugs directed by a
regime avenging electoral losses can be
justified in terms of "outside
forces"? And this from a church minister!
He warns South Africans
that Zimbabwe's land-grab was a Sunday school
picnic compared to what will
transpire in their country.
This disingenuous argument presupposes
that Zimbabwe's land
occupations in 2000 were spontaneous when even an
apologetic bishop should
by now know something of the role of the state in
masterminding the attacks
on the farms. What about the police, does he think
they stood there with
arms folded of their own accord?
And
Manhanga's defence of Zimbabwe's intervention in the Congo will
win him
approval in the circles he clearly aspires to.
Those who are
working with him in the "Zimbabwe We Want" campaign had
better beware. Apart
from a scrupulously non-specific statement by his
Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe issued under the authority of the
Ecumenical Peace Initiative,
Manhanga appears not to have noticed the police
assaults on trade union
leaders last year and on MDC officials last week.
Instead of declaring his
opposition to state brutality Manhanga, it would
seem, is more comfortable
telling editors that "we liberated ourselves
through a protracted armed
struggle the likes of which many south of the
border have never
experienced".
This was in response to Makanya's claim that
Zimbabweans were docile
and needed external support.
"We do not
need anyone to help us along," Manhanga insists.
Let's hope the US
embassy notes the contents of Manhanga's letter. For
some reason he is held
in high regard there. Here is a bishop who watches
while his own people are
crushed but wants South Africans to know that
Zimbabwe can solve its own
problems without their help. Whose agenda is
this? And how would South
Africa have managed without external help?
State warns MDC
against lawlessness", the Herald reported on Tuesday.
Why does the
paper think all its readers are morons? Footage of Morgan
Tsvangirai two
weeks ago showing a police officer his High Court order
permitting him to
hold a rally was beamed around the world. The police chose
to ignore that
order. They then attacked people gathering to attend the
rally. Last weekend
they assaulted MDC and civic leaders while in detention.
That is
lawlessness by any definition. So was their refusal last
weekend to allow
lawyers access to the detainees. Why did the lawyers have
to go to court to
obtain something they were entitled to? As for the Herald's
front page pic
of two riot policemen with bandaged heads, the Herald missed
an obvious
heading: "Boot on the other foot now". Instead they headed it
"Assaulted
cops recovering at Support Unit Camp Hospital".
Anyway, we are sure
the nation's sympathies go out to the two brave
young men and that the
public will take every opportunity to show the police
how highly regarded
they are.
We were interested to note, by the way, that Police
Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri is not allowed to speak to foreign diplomats
based here
without the permission of his political masters.
The Business Herald recently reported that the government was trying
to lure
Qatar Airways into landing in Harare because the Victoria Falls
airport
runway was too short. The airline, one of the biggest in the Middle
East,
had been due to open its service to Zimbabwe this month.
The Herald
reported that Qatar "flies an all Airbus fleet comprising,
among other
Boeing aircraft (sic) 16 Airbus A300-200, 11 Airbus A320-200,
and nine
Airbus A300-600R."
No aviation specialists on the staff, evidently!
But the point is,
this is a huge operator. At the 2005 Paris Airshow it
ordered 60 Airbus
A350s and 20 Boeing 777s. There was thus a big opportunity
for Vic Falls to
benefit from direct flights. But all Transport and
Communications minister
Christopher Mushohwe could say was: "Qatar could
have started flying into
Zimbabwe if Victoria Falls airport had facilities
to accommodate bigger
aircraft."
But it doesn't. And none have
been provided.
Instead, government has offered Qatar free rerouting
for its
passengers from Harare to Vic Falls.
Mushohwe evidently
knows nothing about the aviation business. Vic
Falls offered an attractive
prospect for Qatar. Harare doesn't. And no
passenger likes to change
aircraft unless they absolutely have to. The
lengthening of Vic Falls runway
would have paid for itself within a couple
of years. But government has been
spending money on other things.
By the way, we hate to rain on the
ZTA's parade for 2010, but does
Karikoga Kaseke and his Zanu PF-aligned team
really think tourists will want
to come to Zimbabwe when their newspapers
back home are full of stories of
arrests and assaults by police on trade
unionists and civic activists? If
this is the face of repression today you
can imagine what it will look like
three years hence! And will there be any
bread?
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
ALTHOUGH, as a general
rule, I have relatively little regard for
politicians (of any political
persuasion), inevitably there are some
exceptions.
Regrettably,
most politicians and especially so in Zimbabwe, are
dogmatically obdurate in
the pursuit of their political objectives, are
driven primarily by
self-interest, and are extremely infrequently in any
friendly relationships
with veracity, reality and integrity.
I have long thought one of
the exceptions to be Vice-President Joseph
Msika for, although one must
inevitably have reservations and concerns as to
his political colleagues and
associates (or, at the least, many of them),
nevertheless he has long
demonstrated very real motivation for the best
interests of his constituents
(the people of Zimbabwe), to national
development and advancement, to good
ethics, and transparent fulfillment of
his mandates.
It was
therefore that reports of some of his advice to last week's
inaugural
workshop for rural and district councillors from Matabeleland
North and
South, Midlands and Masvingo, held in Bulawayo, were distressing,
although
others of his comments were indisputably well-founded.
He should be
unhesitatingly commended for his advice to councillors
that they should
properly acquaint themselves with the various legislation
that governs their
duties, and should have regard for people's views on
tangible and
sustainable projects for the benefit of their communities.
Of
particular merit was his statement that it was incumbent upon them
"to be
endowed with virtues of integrity, honesty, accountability,
selflessness and
cadreship" if they were "to succeed in delivery of adequate
and first-class
service to the common people".
However, he also said that "we
deliberately adopted the decentralised
form of government in order to bring
the lot of our people as close as is
practicable to the decision-making
process."
He continued that "the hallmark of good corporate
governance dictates
that communities should actively participate in
generating solutions to the
challenges facing them and setting up their own
priorities with regard to
projects and programme implementation in their own
localities".
Such "decentralisation" may be the theoretical
philosophy of
government, but the practice and realities are diametrically
at variance
with the theories.
In Zimbabwe, decentralisation
has been, and is, minimal and, in most
instances, naught but a façade. Any
decisions of substance are made in the
capital city, at best by central
government as a whole, and more often than
not by the upper echelons of the
politically-empowered.
Democratic decision-making is a rarity,
individual communities'
interests are secondary or disregarded in such
decision-making, and
authoritarianism is the usual order of the day.
Governmental policies are
founded upon, and pursued, by authoritarian
dictate and regulation,
excessive prescription and direction, interminable
and excessive controls,
and highly-centralised governmental excesses of will
and decree.
Although the vice-president is probably a genuine
proponent of
decentralisation, and that in consequence of the façade of
decentralisation
structures that characterise the Zimbabwean governmental
framework,
inclusive of underlying allegedly provincial, rural and urban
local
government administrations, he presumably believes in the existence of
the
decentralisation he espouses, the harsh facts are that all issues of
import
are subject to intense centralised determinations and controls, all
too
often through the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and Urban
Development, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, but often also through the
Ministry of Energy and Power Development, and the Ministry of Water
Resources and Infrastructure Development.
It must be assumed
that it is on the strength of his good faith, but
regrettably misguided
belief that such decentralisation exists, that the
vice-president has been
"hoodwinked" into supporting the intended Zimbabwe
National Water Authority
(Zinwa) expropriation of the city of Bulawayo's
water supply
services.
He informed the rural district councillors that those
services would
"eventually be returned to the local authorities, if we are
to follow local
authority policies and principles".
He
emphasised that water delivery, sewerage and roads in cities and
towns would
always remain the responsibility of local authorities, and he
contended that
the takeover of water reticulation services in towns and
cities by Zinwa was
not intended to be on a permanent basis, but is "only to
assist the local
authorities to overcome current operational challenges in
the provision of
water".
In fact, despite the continuing insistence of the Minister
of Water
Resources and Infrastructure Development, Engineer Munacho Mutezo,
and of
Zinwa, that the decision that Zinwa shall take over all of the city
of
Bulawayo's water supply services was irrevocable, and will be
determinedly
implemented, Vice-President Msika said that "the truth is water
delivery,
sewerage, roads in your town will always remain the responsibility
of the
local authorities".
However, he did qualify this by
adding that whilst water management
would be taken "for some time" it would
eventually be returned to the local
authority.
At the same
workshop, Mutezo claimed that the takeover of the water
supply services was
not meant to prejudice local authorities of their
assets, but was instead
aimed at enhancing efficient water supply delivery,
as local authorities
were (he claimed) failing to meet the demand due to
growth in population and
other commitments, and because in the past few
years, water and sewerage
services had been deteriorating in nearly all
towns across the
country.
These statements were blatant insults to the intellect of
the audience
and the populace.
How on earth can the transferal
of water supply services to Zinwa
rationally be expected to yield
improvements when that body's track record
of ill-performance is
viewed?
On all available reports, Zinwa has been incapable of
addressing the
needs of Victoria Falls, of Kariba, and of Harare, among
others. It has the
repute of having released millions of litres of effluent
into Harare's
principal supply rivers, and hence into its main dam, very
possibly being
the primary cause of the cholera outbreak which has
reportedly already
occasioned 12 deaths!
Despite being provided
massive funding by the city of Bulawayo to
refurbish supply resources at the
Nyamandlovu aquifer, it has failed to
provide the anticipated supplies from
that source. It has done nothing to
enhance availability of water to
Bulawayo from the Mtshabezi and other dams.
And this is the body that is
supposed to improve the efficiency of water
supply to Bulawayo's
residents?
The mind boggles at the thought and the declared intents
defy all
credence.
Admittedly, the water supply circumstances
of Bulawayo are parlous,
primarily due to adverse climatic conditions which
were not pre-empted by
necessary central government development of required
water collection,
conservation and enhancement resources, notwithstanding
endless urgings and
pleadings of the local authority.
They have
been worsened by the ageing infrastructure, not fully
maintained and
refurbished due to funding constraints and, to a significant
extent, those
constraints are also attributable to central government, its
record of
timeous settlement of debt to the local authority being abysmal.
But although Bulawayo's water supply problems are necessarily of very
great
concern, and in need of urgent redress, it is inconceivable that Zinwa
can
be an effective path to that redress. If anything, it can only
reasonably be
expected that, if past performance of government in general,
and of Zinwa in
particular is a guide, the intended takeover can only
grievously exacerbate
the situation.
Of course, this could well play into government's
hands, for a
by-product consequence of the takeover would be to further
impoverish the
city of Bulawayo.
As a result, other services
would unavoidably decline despite the
intense municipal efforts to the
contrary, and ultimately government could
use that as a ploy to dislodge the
city council, which is primarily
comprised of political opponents of the
ruling party, and replace it with a
commission appointed by the Minister of
Local Government, Public Works and
Urban Development, to mismanage the city
of Bulawayo as effectively as has
done that which dominates the city of
Harare.
Government would win threefold: enhancing revenues of the
indigent
Zinwa, ousting its political opposition in Bulawayo, and enabling
authoritarian control of Zimbabwe's second-largest city.
As
said before, all Bulawayo must unite to resist government's
unacceptable,
potentially disastrous intents, and those resisting must
include the city of
Bulawayo, all in commerce and in industry in the city,
the Matabeleland
Council for Tourism, the Bulawayo and District Publicity
Association, the
Bulawayo United Residents' Association, the
non-governmental organisations
active in the city, all the city's residents,
its members of parliament, the
governor of metropolitan Bulawayo, and
Vice-President Msika whose oft proven
concern for the well-being of others
must once again come to the fore,
overriding all else.
Unity can overcome government's ill-conceived,
potentially evil
intents, even if that unity must encompass recourse to the
protections
accorded by law, by resorting to appropriate legal actions to
frustrate the
intents of Minister Mutezo, and of Zinwa.
Probe cops' assault of activists
THE International Bar Association (IBA)'s Human Rights Institute
expresses
shock and dismay in response to the brutal police action on
protesters in
Zimbabwe, which resulted in one death and arrests of more than
100
opposition members last weekend.
Following a three-month ban on
political rallies and protests recently
imposed by the government, police
responded violently to a public gathering
held in Highfield on
Sunday.
The police reportedly fired on protesters resulting in the
death of
Gift Tandare, a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, and
injuring
many others.
The leader of the Movement for Democratic
Change, Morgan Tsvangirai
and other activists were arrested.
The IBA is extremely concerned about reports that Tsvangirai and other
opposition leaders were beaten up by police and held without access to their
lawyers.
The IBA is opposed to any form of police brutality and
torture, and
calls on the Zimbabwe government to take immediate action to
investigate
these serious allegations and to make accountable those
responsible.
The IBA continues to oppose the ban on protests which
breaches
international and regional human rights law and the Constitution of
Zimbabwe.
The IBA also condemns any denial of detainees' rights
of access to
lawyers and calls for the activists to be charged legitimately
or released
immediately.
The IBA further calls for a public
inquiry into the police force's
response to the meeting and the
constitutionality of the three-month ban on
public rallies.
The
government of Zimbabwe continues to disregard its obligations to
protect the
human rights of its citizens.
Action must be taken to bring to
account those state agents at all
levels responsible for crimes against
persons legitimately exercising their
fundamental right to free
assembly.
International Bar
Association.
--------
Manheru's obsession with trivialities
plumbs new depths
IT was interesting reading petty Nathaniel Manheru
seething with anger
over what he thinks represents attempts by Britain and
the US to re-colonise
Zimbabwe.
The tide of irritation against
his increasingly isolated and cornered
superior seems to gain momentum
despite his long hate editorials directed at
nearly everyone
else.
For fear of being part of the suffering many, Manheru wants
us to
believe that our problems will be over as soon as Ambassadors
Christopher
Dell and Andrew Pocock complete their terms of office in
Harare.
Did he not sing the same tune when Sir Brian Donnelly was
in the
country?
Quack the same mantra he did when Rod Pullen
and Sweden's Kristina
Svensson spoke against abrogation of the rights of
citizens?
Has the economy improved since their
departure?
Taurai Mfowabo,
Harare.
----------------
Activists' attack a blow to bridge-building
efforts
By Sten Rylander
COMING into the
packed chamber at Rotten Row Magistrates' Court
on Tuesday afternoon:some 30
detained activists, having committed the
"crime" of fighting for democracy
and human rights and of praying for
Zimbabwe; men and women, old and young,
blacks and white;
most of them seriously beaten up and
tortured; even the women
beaten up and abused; one of the detainees on the
chamber floor, having
passed out because of the pains, shock and strains;
priests and church
persons mingling with dedicated and committed defence
lawyers intensely
fighting for the rights of the detainees; a small but
important victory -
all detainees are allowed to go for urgent medical
treatment at the Avenues
Clinic; herded up and sitting on the floor outside
the chamber waiting for
transport; when staggering out in the sunshine - led
by Morgan Tsvangirai
and Lovemore Madhuku, both heavily bruised and roughed
up but still somehow
unbroken - the detainees are met by concerned
supporters; spontaneously
people start singing Nkosi Sikelela; a magic
moment that I will not forget.
Is it an evil
dream?
Have I been through this before somewhere
else?
Are we reliving the time of struggling against
apartheid South
Africa in the 1980s?
How is it possible
that these disgusting police actions can take
place in free and independent
Zimbabwe?
How is it possible to defend these senseless
actions which are
being condemned by a whole world?
How
can we get on with true bridge-building and constructive
efforts which can
help heal the wounds of this great nation?
* Sten Rylander is
Ambassador of Sweden in Zimbabwe.