The Sunday Times
March 2, 2008
Christina Lamb
MONEY that is being used to prop up President
Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime,
keep his military onside and win over voters
in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s
elections this month is being printed by a
German company.
With inflation topping 100,000% and the highest value 10m
Zimbabwe dollar
note worth just 20p, heavily guarded planeloads of banknotes
are flying into
Harare almost every day to keep up with the
demand.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Times show the Munich company
Giesecke &
Devrient (G&D) is receiving more than €500,000 (£382,000)
a week for
delivering bank notes at the astonishing rate of Z$170 trillion a
week.
“The regime is surviving by printing money,” said Martin Rupiya,
professor
of war and security studies at the University of Zimbabwe. “At
this stage
there is no other way.”
According to a source at the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, G&D delivers 432,000
sheets of banknotes every
week to Fidelity printers in Harare, where they
are stamped with the
denomination. Each sheet contains 40 notes and the
current production is
entirely in Z$10m notes.
Last week some of this money was used to award
huge pay rises to the army in
an apparent move to buy their loyalty ahead of
the presidential and
parliamentary elections on March 29. Teachers belonging
to a union
supportive of the government were also given large
sums.
Soldiers received windfalls of between Z$1.2 billion for privates
and Z$3
billion for officers, while teachers received Z$500m on average.
Those
belonging to the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, which
criticises
Mugabe, were excluded.
“Mugabe is giving soldiers a lot of
money as a way of buying allegiance,”
said Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive
union’s general secretary. “Mugabe is
planning to rig the elections in March
because he must win at all costs. He,
however, believes that we teachers do
not deserve increased salaries because
he says we are agents of regime
change.”
Last month Z$1 trillion was set aside for managing so-called war
veterans
“for the purpose of elections”. Mugabe has long used the war vets
to
intimidate voters.
“G&D are literally bankrolling the regime,”
said a Zimbabwean banker who
could not be named for fear of reprisals.
“These notes are being used to buy
votes, to purchase foreign exchange to
import electricity and vehicles to
keep their regime going, and to fund the
import of Chinese water cannons and
police equipment to keep us
intimidated.
“They are profiting from evil and should be named and
shamed.”
G&D’s involvement is embarrassing for the German government
which has been
one of the most vocal supporters of European Union sanctions
against members
of the Mugabe regime. Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a
tough stance on
Zimbabwe, speaking out at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon
last December to
insist that the world cannot stand by while “human rights
are trampled
underfoot”.
Asked about the company, a German foreign
ministry spokesman said: “It’s
their economic decision. According to current
EU sanctions, the government
does not have any legal basis to take
action.”
G&D, the world’s second biggest printer of banknotes, is a
secretive
company. An official at the Dubai office, which oversees its sales
to
Africa, confirmed that the government of Zimbabwe was a long-standing
client
but refused to give details. The headquarters in Munich was no more
forthcoming. “The printing of banknotes is a very confidential matter,” said
Daniela Gaigl, a company spokeswoman. “We don’t comment on any issuing
authority.”
The Sunday Times has established that G&D has been
printing the country’s
notes since the breakaway Rhodesian regime of Ian
Smith in the 1970s when
Britain declared sanctions. After British officers
intercepted a
consignment, G&D secretly shipped three machines to set up
a printing press
in the bowels of the Reserve Bank.
These have since
been moved to a heavily guarded facility at Msasa in the
industrial area of
Harare.
The official value of the Zimbabwe dollar is fixed at 30,000 to
the US
dollar. But traders, businessmen, fuel vendors and even nationalised
companies such as Air Zimbabwe use black market rates to set their prices.
Last week, within just seven days, the Zim dollar depreciated from 12m to
24m to the US dollar.
Prices in shops rocketed as traders struggled
to make money to cover
replacement costs. In a Spar supermarket in central
Harare, sardines rose
from Z$15m per can on Tuesday to Z$30m on Wednesday
while the cost of a
single lavatory roll rose from Z$5m to Z$8m.
“We
have the world’s first million-dollar banana,” joked one woman
shopper.
The economic crisis is not the only reason that the forthcoming
elections
may be the toughest faced by Mugabe. The president, who turned 84
on
February 21 and has been in power since 1980, is facing an unexpected
challenge from within his own ruling party, Zanu-PF.
The candidacy of
Simba Makoni, his former finance minister, has breathed
life into a campaign
in which people had been resigned to the likelihood
that Mugabe would once
again defeat Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the
main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC).
An MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara has
thrown its support behind Makoni.
“Mugabe goes into these elections the
weakest he has ever been,” said
Gugulethu Moyo, a Zimbabwean lawyer for the
International Bar Association.
“Makoni’s candidacy has exposed huge fissures
in Zanu-PF.”
While Makoni claims to have widespread support within the
ruling party, few
well-known Zanu-PF figures have publicly expressed
support. But yesterday,
Dumiso Dabengwa, a senior politburo member, threw
his weight behind Makoni.
“We urged him to come clean and take the burden
and we will give him the
necessary facilitation and support,” he told
business leaders.
Makoni’s supporters are widely believed to include the
powerful former army
chief General Solomon Mujuru, whose wife Joyce is
Mugabe’s deputy.
Zimbabwean media have reported that Mujuru is under
surveillance and his
companies under investigation.
Some fear that
Makoni may divide the opposition. A fourth candidate has also
emerged in the
form of Langton Towungana, a little-known independent, who is
nevertheless
receiving widespread coverage on state television.
Few believe the
elections will be free and fair. Negotiations to try to
achieve this, led by
Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s president, have collapsed.
In an open letter,
James McGee, the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, warned of
“ominous signs” such
as inadequate preparation, voter confusion,
registration irregularities and
ongoing violence.
Additional reporting: Nicola Smith in
Dusseldorf
Making of Makoni
- Simba Makoni, Mugabe’s strongest
challenger, knows Britain well; he
studied chemistry at Leeds University and
Leicester Polytechnic
- Youngest member of Mugabe’s first government in
1980
- Dismissed as chief executive of Zimpapers, which controls the
Herald, in
1994 after clashes with editor close to Mugabe
- Reemerged
as finance minister in 2000
- Resigned in 2002 after Mugabe refused to
devalue currency
- Announced last month he was fighting Mugabe for
presidency after weeks of
denying it
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - Zanu PF politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa
yesterday ended
speculation of his links to former finance minister Simba
Makoni when he
joined him at the high table at a rally in White City
Stadium.
Dabengwa, a former Home Affairs minister and Zipra
intelligence chief
during the liberation struggle was unveiled at the
official launch of Makoni's
campaign, as one of a number of key Zanu PF
heavyweights backing him, in his
challenge to replace Robert Mugabe as
president.
The war hero was joined at the table by the former
Speaker of
Parliament, Cyril Ndebele, a highly respected lawyer who featured
in the
talks which finally led to the Lancaster House
agreement.
A number of former senior ZIPRA commanders stood in
solidarity with
the civilians.
Their virtual defection from
Mugabe's splintering Zanu PF sounded the
beginning of a death knell to the
Unity Accord between PF Zapu and Zanu PF.
The former Zipra
commanders included Roma Nyathi, a deputy to the late
commander of ZIPRA,
Lookout Masuku.
Nyathi is co-ordinating Makoni's presidential election
campaign in
Matabeleland.
Observers cite Dabengwa's defection
as effectively delivering a share
of the crucial Matabeleland vote to Makoni
in the 29 March election.
Makoni, whose defection shocked Mugabe
into resorting to foul
language, has emerged as the 84-year-old veteran
politician's main
challenger, along with the MDC's Morgan
Tsvangirai.
"The media has been coming up with all kinds of
speculation and
mistruths about where I stand, the latest being The
Chronicle," Dabengwa
told a well- attended meeting of business leaders ahead
of the rally at the
stadium. "I have never responded to any of the
allegations.
"I am doing it today the 1st of March in launching
this
Kusile/Mavambo/Dawn, Simba Makoni campaign."
Dabengwa said
for a long time he had tried to work with fellow
politburo members to
facilitate a "smooth transition" after realising that
the Zanu PF leadership
"was getting old". Dabengwa is 69.
He said one such discussion was
in Cape Town, where he met Patrick
Chinamasa, the Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs minister and Makoni
and they agreed that it had become
urgent to replace the aging leadership.
But their efforts came to
nothing, frustrated by Mugabe's
unwillingness to give way.
Dabengwa said Mugabe had betrayed the trust of his colleagues after
making a
u-turn on his pledge to retire after encouraging them to openly
discuss his
succession.
"It's not regime change, it's leadership change," he
said. "We are
saying they have played their role and we wish to thank them
for what they
have done for the country and it's now time they gave way to
new leadership,
that is up to the challenges facing the
country."
He said they had tried to "drum up the message" to Mugabe
during the
Zanu PF special congress in December, which endorsed him as the
party's
presidential candidate.
Dabengwa said: "We were
defeated and ended up with a presidential
candidate we felt should be
replaced. We came up with this rescue operation,
to say we could not have
our leadership failing to the likes of Tsvangirai,
which will see us going
back to the Zambian situation where out of
desperation they replaced Kenneth
Kaunda with Frederick Chiluba."
Mugabe, facing probably his
greatest electoral challenge since
independence says Makoni is a "political
prostitute", who would lose the
election because he did not have a
party.
But Dabengwa said they would not respond to the "insults"
because it
would be disrespectful to "answer back an old man".
Dabengwa refused to accept any government appointment after he lost
his in
the 2000 parliamentary elections to Gibson Sibanda, the pro-Senate
MDC's
vice-president.
Last year, he reportedly questioned the way Mugabe
was endorsed as the
party's candidate, which he felt violated the Zanu PF
constitution.
During the Gukurahundi military campaign that claimed
the lives of
more than 20 000 civilians in Matabeleland and the Midlands,
Dabengwa was
jailed on trumped up treason charges.
He has
criticised the 1987 Unity Accord, saying it favoured the
original Zanu PF
and has called for compensation for the survivors of the
20 000
victims.
"After we vote Makoni in on 29 March, I will retire to
write the
correct history of Zimbabwe, which I feel is distorted," Dabengwa
said.
"Ibbo Mandaza once approached me with the idea of a book and I told
him I
had to first ensure that the problems facing the country were sorted
out for
the benefit of the future generations."
Meanwhile,
Makoni officially kicked off his campaign for the
presidency with at the
well-attended rally at White City Stadium, where
Makoni again called on Zanu
PF members backing him to come out in the open.
"We have welcomed
and appreciated the Professor Arthur Mutambara's MDC's
endorsement of our
candidature and we are appealing to those in Zanu PF and
Tsvangirai's MDC
who have done so to support the independent candidate," he
said amid
applause.
Makoni, accompanied by his wife, Chipo, said his campaign
would not
dwell on "trivialities" such as discussing personalities and
insults but
would articulate plans to "help Zimbabweans" out of the economic
problems.
About 4 000 people braced the afternoon rains to attend
the rally,
which was incident-free.
Makoni swept into Bulawayo
on Friday morning, touring bus terminuses
and the high-density
suburbs.
He visited the National University of Science and
Technology where a
group of the infamous Green Bombers had been deployed to
allegedly disrupt
his tour.
But the youths dispersed after he
arrived late.
Zim Standard
By Vusumuzi
Sifile
THERE was celebration, jubilation and entertainment at State
House on
16 February when President Robert Mugabe held a reception for 481
students
bound for South African universities under the Presidential
Scholarship
Programme.
In the past, beneficiaries were sent
only to Fort Hare University,
Mugabe's alma mater.
But the
programme has been expanded to include Rhodes, KwaZulu Natal,
Witwatersrand,
Venda, Nelson delaolitan, Johannesburg, Cape Peninsula and
Walter Sisulu
universities.
While the government has expanded the presidential
scholarship
programme, it has ironically slashed financial support to
students at local
institutions.
Local students now feel the
government has sacrificed them for the
sake of pleasing a few
not-so-deserving students.
In the view of the disaffected students
the government should improve
the education delivery system at home, rather
than expanding what they
describe as the "flawed Mugabe scholarship
programme".
On Wednesday, the Zimbabwe National Students Union
(ZINASU) issued a
communiqué calling on South Africa "to immediately revoke
students' visas of
all the children of the ruling Zanu PF elite who are
currently studying in
South Africa".
"The majority of the
beneficiaries, if not all, are kids, friends and
relatives of Zanu PF's top
officials," said the communiqué.
"The money used to finance 481
students heading for South Africa
should have been used productively to
improve on education systems in the
country for the benefit of the majority.
We condemn, in the strongest of
terms, the use of state resources for
patronage purposes."
Among other things, ZINASU said the money used
for the programme could
have paid local lecturers, some of whom are leaving
tertiary institutions to
seek greener pastures. Charity begins at home, they
maintain. Interestingly,
The Standard understands Zimbabwean lecturers form
a good proportion of the
faculty at most of the institutions to which the
government is sending the
scholarship beneficiaries.
"To the
receiving country, South Africa, President (Thabo) Mbeki and
President
(Jacob) Zuma. we urge you to deport all students studying on
Zimbabwe state
resources and have them taste their father's medicine. They
must go through
the suffering and pain of studying at a Zimbabwe tertiary
state institution
together with us."
The co-ordinator of the scholarship programme,
Chris Mushohwe, was
said to be out of his office.
While the
students who received scholarships have already left for
their different
programmes with everything they needed, students at tertiary
institutions
back home are not sure what the future holds for them.
All State
universities recently hiked fees, landing some students'
parents with $1.4
billion-a-semester bills. This could prejudice a good
number of qualified
students.
At the Midlands State University (MSU), the second
semester for the
2007/2008 academic year, scheduled to have begun last
Monday, has been
postponed to 7 April because of the harmonised elections
due on 29 March.
The fees have also gone up.
At the University
of Zimbabwe (UZ), students said they were not even
sure if the campus would
re-open as scheduled. The new semester was
initially scheduled to begin on
31 March, but has now been delayed by a week
to 7 April.
Two
weeks ago, the institution advertised for 138 academic posts, but
students
believe the number is far too short for what the institution needs,
to
function effectively.
At least 51 of the advertised posts are in
the College of Health
Sciences, which comprises the Department of Medicine,
Medical Laboratory
Sciences, Medical Microbiology, Anaesthesia and Critical
Care Medicine,
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rehabilitation, and
Pharmacy.
This has forced the university to rely mostly on private
doctors for
tuition.
According to UZ students' leaders, at the
close of the last semester
the university was operating with about 400
lecturers, a discrepancy of 800.
For the better part of last year,
the few lecturers who remained were
on strike.
Lovemore
Chinoputsa, ZINASU's secretary-general, said under the
current
circumstances, it would be pointless for the UZ to re-open.
"At the
moment the university has no capacity to effectively execute
its duties," he
said.
He is also the president of the UZ Students Executive Council
(SEC).
"This is a disservice to the students and the people of
Zimbabwe," he
said. "It is disheartening to note that the current government
continues to
renege on its responsibility of ensuring quality tertiary
education."
Two weeks ago, students petitioned the Minister of
Higher and Tertiary
Education, Stan Mudenge, to urgently address the
malaise, demanding "a sound
Education Policy that provides for a sustainable
growth".
Mudenge on Wednesday said they were not sidelining
students at local
institutions.
"At the moment, they are on
vacation," said Mudenge. "They will see
what we are doing for them when they
open for the new semester. They should
wait and see what we are doing to
address their present plight and situation
when they open."
ZINASU leaders have in the past told The Standard most attempts to
engage
Mudenge's ministry on their grievances had not been fruitful.
The
minister said "the students have absolutely every right to come to
me if
they have any complaints".
One of the few reputable lecturers still
teaching at the UZ, Professor
John Makumbe, said it was becoming more and
more difficult for the UZ to
"execute its mandate".
"Most of
the heads of departments are largely acting people," said
Makumbe. "The
situation is so grim, I doubt if some departments will be able
to function
when we open. The major reason for all this is just poor pay.
Presently, I
think we have a vacancy rate of 60% to 70%, and that is
non-viable. The
university cannot execute its mandate under the current
set-up. The current
situation is not good for the education system."
At the National
University of Science and Technology (NUST) in
Bulawayo the situation is
said to be "very critical". This has resulted in a
number of departments
being run by people without doctorates.
"Most senior lecturers are
leaving, and junior lecturers who are
seconded for staff development
fellowships have been reluctant to come
back," said a NUST
official.
"The major problem is money. Even the ones who remain are
always on
strike. They are as good as if they were not there. People are
disgruntled
over salaries and poor working conditions."
Tertiary education in Zimbabwe was once ranked among the best in
Africa, but
growing dissatisfaction among professionals and under funding
have seen
standards nose-diving.
The government no longer supports students
through grants and loans,
as it did only a few years ago.
The
charity has gone out of the government's soul, say analysts.
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - A drive by security agents to take over tourist
facilities
in Matabeleland North has sparked fears this might cost the
ruling party
votes in this month's elections.
Since last year
the Central Intelligence Organisation and the police
have taken over three
farms with prime tourist facilities in the province in
controversial
circumstances.
The latest to be taken over is the Chiefs' Lodge in
the rich hunting
area of Ntabazinduna, where early last month armed CIO
operatives seized the
keys to chalets and offices from the owners at
gunpoint.
This reportedly angered Zanu PF heavyweights, especially
after
allegations the CIO operatives harassed a former aide to the late Vice
President Joshua Nkomo, Stanley Wolfenden.
He is also related
to the owners of the lodge.
The CIO took over Induba Lodges whose
ownership was being contested by
publisher-turned-politician Ibbo
Mandaza.
He is now co-ordinating independent presidential candidate,
Simba
Makoni's campaign.
Another facility, Portwe Estates in
Bubi District, was taken over by
armed police last year from a commercial
farmer, David Joubert.
Floyd Ambrose, who has been running the
Chiefs' Lodge since 2004 when
its previous owner was forced to flee the
violent land invasions, alleged
the CIO took over the facility on 12
February.
"On 12 February, Mr Tachivei and Makoni from the
President's Office,
who were armed, arrived at the lodge and took the keys
to all the chalets,
which I don't think was right as we live in the property
and this is further
raising suspicion on the matter."
But the
CIO were forced to return the keys two days later, after
Matabeleland North
governor, Sithokozile Mathuthu's intervention.
Operations have not
resumed as eight armed CIO officers were deployed
to guard the property. "We
have eight armed operatives and an endless number
of vehicles driving into
the lodge on unknown business," Ambrose said.
Wolfenden, a former
ZIPRA combatant, said after they took over the
lodge, the CIO called him at
his Nyamandlovu base, demanding he should
report to Magnet House, the CIO
headquarters in Bulawayo"within five
minutes".
Nyamandlovu is 40
km from Bulawayo.
"They asked me about my relationship with Dumiso
Dabengwa, John Nkomo
and Joseph Msika, before releasing me," Wolfenden
said. "This is not what
we fought for and I warned them to stop harassing
me because this is not the
way a government is supposed to
operate."
Matabeleland North provincial lands officer, Christopher
Dube, told
The Standard the Matabeleland North lands' committee had
allocated the lodge
to the President's Office.
"It was agreed
by the lands' office that it should be allocated to the
OPC (Office of the
President)," he said. "There were deliberations between
the OPC and the
occupants on an exit plan, which I was not part of."
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE, VUSUMUZI
SIFILE & NQOBANI
NDLOVU
ZANU PF has stepped up violence
and intimidation against opposition
supporters ahead of this month's polls,
virtually shutting out the
possibility of a free and fair election, The
Standard can report.
Reports of violence, threats by security
chiefs against legitimate
protest and directives on how uniformed officers
should vote all disregard
the SADC guidelines on how elections should be
conducted.
Zanu PF's complaints to the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) on
remarks made by an opposition spokesman about lessons
from Kenya compound an
already flawed process. The Standard has also learnt
that the election
management body's limited capacity to publicise
constituency boundaries, the
list of candidates, and the wards in which
voting will take place will
conspire to create a highly uneven electoral
field.
Since the beginning of the year, the opposition MDC says it
has
recorded over 100 cases of torture, assault and intimidation of its
supporters by State security forces and Zanu PF youth militia.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said unless Zanu PF and state security
forces stopped this culture of violence, the elections would result in
another disputed outcome.
"This on-going violence undermines
the credibility of the whole
electoral process," he said. "Our supporters
have been running away from the
rural areas, especially over the past few
weeks."
Adding to the concerns over a flawed electoral process, the
ZEC has
said it will not give the date the results of the 29 March poll will
be
announced on because it feared that might spark post-election
violence.
Analysts have said there are fears that if the elections
were rigged -
as they believe is widely suspected by opposition parties and
civic groups
to be the case - there might be a "Kenya-style" spontaneous
outbreak of
violence.
Police Commissioner-General Augustine
Chihuri has threatened the use
of firearms to quell protests.
But Professor Eldred Masunungure of the Mass Public Opinion Institute
(MPOI)
said the effect of the threat by ZEC to the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network over voter education, when ZEC does not have the capacity to educate
voters, "bodes very poorly" for the freeness and fairness of the elections.
MPOI's survey, he said, had found that 75% of the people surveyed had not
received any voter education from the ZEC.
He said police
threats against legitimate protest limited the space
for competition and was
a "damnation on the freeness and fairness of the
polls and the conduct of
the electoral process".
On the complaint by Patrick Chinamasa to
the ZEC over statements by
the opposition MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa on
the consequences of electoral
fraud, Masunungure believes these could be a
signal for a major clampdown on
opposition forces and civil society
organisations deemed to be appendages of
the opposition.
"It is
a pretext of something being planned and the effect of curbing
freedom of
expression will have a bearing on the freeness and fairness of
the
elections," he said.
Shupikai Mashereni, the ZEC spokesperson, last
week said the
commission would not announce a date when the results would be
finalized and
released.
"This is because we don't want to be
accused of rigging elections if
we release the results earlier or later than
the estimated date.
"Doing so might also spark post-election
violence, similar to that
experienced in Kenya should the results not favour
the majority."
The ZEC, which took more than a week to release the
official list of
successful election candidates, has dismissed claims it
faces serious
logistical problems.
Noel Kututwa, the
chairperson of the ZESN described as "dangerous and
intimidatory" utternaces
by service chiefs. "It's a coup, basically. It is
not the role of the police
or army to issue statements like that. They are
there basically to defend
the country and uphold the Constitution. Their
allegiance is to the country
and not to individuals."
Prisons chief Ret Major-General Paradzayi
Zimondi said he would not
salute Morgan Tsvangirai or Simba Makoni should
they win on March 29.
The pronouncements, Kututwa said, did not
give civil society the
impression that Zimbabwe will have a free and fair
election. "There's just
no confidence."
Observers say the same
confusion encountered at nomination courts
could spill into the
elections.
Since 2000 Zanu PF has been accused of stealing
elections when it
faced a strong challenge from the MDC.
Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri said the police, known
for their
violent suppression of anti-government protests, would not
hesitate to use
force, including firearms, against "mischief makers" during
the election
period.
President Robert Mugabe has in the past pledged to "bash"
any
anti-government protesters.
Chamisa said the violence was
countrywide, citing reports from the
Midlands and Banket in Mashonaland
West.
Two weeks ago more than 10 MDC officials were detained
for organising
a rally at Renco Mine in Masvingo South. In Mbare, two MDC
members were
beaten up and detained briefly at Stodart Police
Station.
Three days before the MDC 2008 campaign launch in Mutare,
said the
report, military police picked up three people queuing at a city
bank,
accusing them of discussing politics. They were beaten up and later
released.
None of the incidents could be independently
confirmed
The Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe (CCZ) said
state-sponsored attacks on
opposition members and civil society indicated a
political environment that
could not produce a democratic electoral
outcome.
"In this regard, the 29 March 2008 elections will be held
in a
repressive environment replete with intimidation and organised violence
and
will simply become a regular self-legitimating ritual by the government
of
Zimbabwe," said CCZ spokesperson McDonald Lewanika.
He urged
Zanu PF to dismantle the infrastructure of violence such as
the youth
militia and make a political commitment to stop violence.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
AMERICAN civil rights leader Reverend Dr Elbert Ranson
last week
called on Zimbabweans to remain steadfast and continue fighting
for change.
Ranson travels the world delivering motivational
lectures on the role
that faith-based communities can play in social
change.
He was speaking at an awards ceremony in Harare organised
by the
Christian Alliance to honour four outstanding human rights
activists.
Ranson said "fighting and peaceful protests" paid off
for Americans as
they now all have equal opportunities in life.
He encouraged Zimbabweans to continue fighting against an "unjust
system".
Ranson said: "I have come to inspire this great nation
to know that
God lives in men and women and God loves his followers and He
will prevail
to the end. I come with a great optimism and I know this land
with be free
because God prevails.
"I am living testimony to
tell this. I have seen the dungeons of
Alabama; I have been mistreated,
disrespected. I have given you a capsule
account of our civil rights
movement which was inspired by Christian values
and I have confidence that
the church can play a part in social change so
don't give up."
Ranson bases his teachings on his experience as an aide to the civil
rights
leader Martin Luther King, Jnr, who fought for the civil rights of
African
Americans in the 1950s and 60s.
He said when the time was ripe God
would deliver the people of
Zimbabwe from bondage.
The former
aide to the 1964 Nobel Peace Laureate, assassinated in 1968
gave touching
testimonies of the African American struggle against
discrimination and
racism.
He gave accounts of the famous Montgomery bus boycott that
lasted for
almost a year as African Americans protested against
discrimination on
buses.
Ranson, guest of honour at the
ceremony, presented awards to four
human rights activists, three of them
Zimbabweans.
The four were honoured because of their "consistency
in the promotion
of Peace and Justice in Zimbabwe and the
region".
They are Father Nigel Johnson, the founder of Radio
Dialogue in
Bulawayo, Joice Dube, director of Southern African Women's
Institute for
Migration in South Africa (SAWIMA), and Anglican Bishop
Sebastian Bakare.
The other winner, Bishop Paul Verryn of the
Methodist Church in South
Africa, was honoured in his absence.
Bishop Verryn has come under fire from South African authorities for
accommodating destitute Zimbabwean asylum seekers and economic refugees at
his church.
In his acceptance speech Bishop Bakare said
Zimbabwe was a nation
living in fear and bondage but said by "God's grace"
the country would be
free again.
He said: "We are experiencing
chaos in the country which is promoting
anarchy. The environment of
lawlessness is destroying us, we are not yet a
nation but we will be a
nation soon."
Bakare was honoured for being one of the first people
to call for
talks between the MDC and Zanu PF after the disputed 2005
election.
Dube of SAWIMA said she was dedicating her award to all
those
Zimbabweans who had died trying to cross the crocodile-infested
Limpopo
River to South Africa in search of a better life.
She
said: "This award goes out to all the men and women who have died
in search
of a better life in South Africa for themselves and their
families.
"Those who died in the Limpopo, those who have been
shot by border
patrol officers and farmers - this award is for all these
unfortunate men
and women of Zimbabwe. One day you will come back home and
your spirits will
rest."
Dube was honoured for devoting her
life to the fight for the rights of
asylum seekers and economic refugees in
South Africa.
She provides food for some who are destitute and are
housed at Bishop
Verryn's Methodist Church in South Africa.
Father Johnson, the founder of Radio Dialogue, said the award came to
him as
"a surprise" but vowed to continue working towards a better
Zimbabwe.
He said what he despised most was the abuse of power by
those who had
it.
"What I can't stand are people who want to
abuse power, power gained
from wealth, education or wherever," he said.
"Those in positions of power
should use that power to lift up the little
people in society and make the
world a better place."
Zim Standard
By John
Mokwetsi
UNITED States Republican presidential hopeful Mike
Huckabee has
centred his campaign strategy on Christian doctrine in the
on-going race to
represent his party in the presidential
election.
He has denounced abortion rights, declaring he was
"taking Jesus as He
is to the people as they are".
The media
love him. They say he might become the second preacher
president of the US
after twentieth president James Garfield.
Closer to home, Langton
Towungana, 41, the unknown independent
presidential candidate in the make or
break harmonized elections on 29
March, might be taking a leaf from former
Arkansas Governor Huckabee, even
if, it turns out, he does not know him
enough to be aware of the
similarities between them.
Other
candidates are President Robert Mugabe, former Finance Minister
Simba Makoni
and the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
"I am not a politician,"
Towungana told The Standard from his Victoria
Falls base. "Politics cannot
run Zimbabwe. Rather, I am a man of God and
only He can bring us the relief
we seek."
Towungana, who would not disclose the church he belongs
to, said he
was not holding any rallies or meetings because he fears the
"wrath of the
militia that beats up people".
He said: "God is
in charge of my campaign and the media is another
platform for my messages.
Have you ever asked yourself why an unknown is
among the known? This is God
at play. I am a replica of the biblical Moses
and my role is to rescue the
children ofIsrael from Egypt."
To the question, "Won't you become a
full-fledged politician once you
are elected president?" he
said:
"Gradually, I might become a politician and my cabinet will
be of
politicians as well, but I am not a politician."
But has
the father of two ever voted in any national election before,
given that he
says he has never belonged to any political party?
Towungana
replies with an emphatic "Yes" but goes on to speak in
riddles: "We trusted
Zanu PF once and I used to vote for them but I never
belonged to the party
because I am a man of God."
Towungana claims to be a retailer,
miller and tourist entrepreneur. He
said his milling business is at Jambezi
Centre in Victoria Falls while he
transports tourists to different places
around the resort town.
On the loyalty and support of the people of
the high-density area of
Mkhosana in Victoria Falls where he lives,
Towungana speaks like a potential
voter.
He said: "People are
confused. There is Simba Makoni, who is from the
system and then there is
that Morgan Tsvangirai whose party has split. So,
it's difficult to note
what voters here are thinking. Time will tell."
He switches to
Tsvangirai's rally in Mutare, which he says he
witnessed on his way to his
"real" home in Rusape.
"That is an example of what rallies can do.
The violence was bad.
Tsvangirai appears to have people but he is always
losing and we cannot keep
on saying the elections are being rigged. We do
not have proof. It is all
speculation although there is a grain of truth in
it. Tsvangirai should look
at the reasons his party is not
winning."
But who really is this political greenhorn?
Married to Emilia Fusire, Towungana says he is not inspired by anyone
in
Zimbabwe or beyond its borders.
He attended St Peter's in Nyazura
and St Joseph's in Rusape, for his
primary and secondary education
respectively.
He pursued his "A" levels with Rapid Results College
and then
proceeded to study for a Diploma in Computer Studies and another
one in
Surveying.
He says he is a devout Christian and like
Huckabee does not have a
clear policy on how he will lure the non-Christian
voters.
"I am not going to say I will win but God is in charge and
I am only
answering his call as revealed to me in 2003. What was revealed to
me is
known by my pastor and myself. And because the church is victimized in
this
country I will not reveal the name of the pastor and the church," he
said,
with finality.
Zim Standard
BY SANDRA
MANDIZVIDZA
THE sky-rocketing cost of goods and services has
resulted in schools
demanding top-up fees, barely a month before the first
term closes.
The Standard last week learnt that most schools,
especially boarding
schools, are demanding top up fees to restock pantries
emptied by galloping
inflation.
At a world-beating inflation
record of 100 580.2%, Gideon Gono's No. 1
enemy has made long-term planning
an impossible task for most schools, not
to mention business and
industry.
Some boarding schools have threatened to send children
back home to
collect the fees, it emerged last week.
One parent
with a child at Uzumba High School in Murehwa district said
they were told
to pay the top-up fees or the school would hire a bus to send
their children
back home.
"How can top-up fees be more than the initial fees?" she
asked. "We
were told to pay at least $300 million for the first term in
top-up fees."
At the beginning of the term they paid under $150
million.
Parents with children at Gutu High School were topping up
by at least
$800 million.
Boarding schools said they were
surviving on tight budgets and were
finding it difficult to meet food
requirements and the cost of other
services such as water and
electricity.
But parents are complaining over the massive hikes,
saying most of
them could not afford the new fees.
Parents are
particularly distressed because the new fees
structure comes less than
a month before the term closes.
The headmaster of a boarding school
in Masvingo said most of the
school budget was being spent on food. "Almost
three quarters of our budget
covers daily expenditure such as buying maize
meal, beans, meat, bread, milk
and cooking oil - there is little left for
maintaining the school," he said.
The headmaster, who cannot be
identified under the ministry's rules,
said the fees were normal under the
present circumstances.
"We are now being forced to come up with a
supplementary budget
because the prices of all commodities are going up
almost every day."
The Minister of Education, Sport and Culture,
Aeneas Chigwedere said
it was illegal for schools to increase fees without
the approval of his
ministry and the National Incomes and Pricing Commission
(NIPC).
"In terms of the Education Act, no school, without the
authority of
the parents, the NIPC, and the ministry is allowed to increase
fees," he
said. "If the schools are doing it without our knowledge it is
illegal and
we are going to deal with them."
The NIPC chairman,
Goodwills Masimirembwa who advocated the 600%
increase in school fees at the
beginning of this term could not be reached
for comment.
The
fee hikes come at a time of unprecedented price increases for most
basic
commodities and services.
What frustrates parents is they pay
exorbitant school fees while there
are no teachers in most
schools.
On Friday teachers went on a full-scale strike for a
minimum monthly
salary of $3.5 billion backdated to February.
Chigwedere on Friday said he was not aware of the strike, as he had
not been
informed officially.
"I only read about the strike in the
newspaper. I am yet to receive a
report from my permanent secretary, Stephen
Mahere."
Zim Standard
BY GODFREY
MUTIMBA
MASVINGO - THE Steelmakers plant here is on the verge
of closure,
having retrenched over 200 workers since the beginning of the
year,
according to documents seen by The Standard.
The
Indian-owned company has faced serious viability problems related
to the
national economic malaise.
The company had become the "positive
face" of the Masvingo industrial
site after opening a huge plant two years
ago.
But today, plagued by a host of problems, among them failing
to pay
its employees and depleted production levels, that face is looking
decidedly
scarred and battered.
The documents show that about
200 employees were retrenched by 14
February this year, out of a 500-strong
labour force in December last year.
Of that number, 22 were from
the human resources department, 16 from
the roads, 15 from quality control,
and 14 from electrical departments while
the construction department lost
60.
The documents show the mechanical department was downsized from
36 to
less than 20, while the stores and marketing departments were left
with only
one employee.
Sources close to the company's
management said its problems were
aggravated by the breakdown of a plant
which processes sponge iron from iron
ore late last year.
It is
said the company needs huge amounts of foreign currency to
import new parts
for the plant but due to low productivity and the shortage
of foreign
currency in the country, that has not been possible.
According to
an official, the company was considering closing down the
Masvingo plant,
with the likelihood of the remaining 300 workers losing
their jobs by June
this year.
A number of managerial employees would be transferred to
Redcliff and
Kwekwe.
Steelmakers has other plants in Redcliff,
Gweru, Chiredzi, and Harare,
among several others in the
country.
Efforts to obtain an official comment from the company
were
unsuccessful at the time of going to press.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Production at one of Zimbabwe's largest sugar
producing
companies, Triangle Limited, went down by about 25% last year
owing to the
harsh operating environment.
This resulted in the
South African-owned company registering an R8
million loss during the last
financial year.
In a statement accompanying its financial results
for the year ending
31 December 2007, Triangle Limited's parent SA company
Tongaat Hulett, said
production at its Zimbabwean plant went down to 193 000
tonnes from the
previous year's 240 000 tonnes.
It said as a
result, "total profits from the company were reduced from
the 2006 figure of
R62 million to R53 million last year".
Tongaat Hulett also owns
another sugar producing company, Hippo
Valley. "In 2007, under extremely
difficult circumstances, sugar production
was 349 000 tonnes (including 156
000 tonnes from Hippo Valley) Triangle
produced 240 000 tonnes in
2006.
"The business is presently contending, inter alia, with the
extreme
effects of hyper-inflation, a distorted low domestic sugar price,
exchange
rate movements and foreign currency shortages in Zimbabwe," it
said.
Most Zimbabwe industries last year recorded a huge drop in
production
owing to the harsh economic climate, with inflation at over 100
000%.
Last year, the country experienced severe sugar shortages
owing to
power outages and foreign currency shortages.
Zim Standard
BY
NDAMU SANDU
IN the run-up to the 1992 United States
presidential elections, George
Bush Snr was riding on the crest of a wave of
a successful foreign policy:
the end of the Cold War and victory in the
Persian Gulf War.
The foreign policy successes had put Bush ahead
of rivals Bill Clinton
and Texas businessman Ross Perot.
Clinton's campaign strategist James Carville took advantage of the
recession
in the country to whip up public anger against Bush.
His phrase
"It's the economy, stupid", initially hung at Clinton's
Little Rock
headquarters, became a rallying cry and portrayed Bush as
"overly focused on
foreign policy".
That was the fatal blow to Bush's chances and the
Clinton juggernaut
rolled on to the White House.
Thousands of
kilometres away and 16 years later, a once prosperous
African state, now
virtually on its uppers, goes to the polls with weary,
battered citizens
limping to the elections, the most significant since
independence in
1980.
President Robert Mugabe faces off with his erstwhile
colleague Dr
Simba Makoni, perennial rival MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
unknown
Langton Towungana for the highest office in the land.
Analysts say the declining economy will be central in the election
campaign
as it affects most of the population, except the privileged few.
"The economy is the number one dispute for this electorate," said Dr
Daniel
Ndlela, an independent economist. "Eight years in a row of negative
growth:
for the ruling party it will be 'vote us into power and we will
finish you
off'."
He says no government, having brought down such misery on
the people,
cannot with good conscience, stand in front of the people with a
straight
face and say: Vote for us."
"To do what? To inflict
more damage on the economy, on the people?"
said the Zimconsult
boss.
Zimbabwe is in the seventh month of hyperinflation, in what
analysts
say is a symbol of a failed state.
High inflation, at
100 580.2% as of January, is the highest in the
world and has reduced
citizens to penury.
The crisis has led many companies to downsize
and retrench staff, as
industries face raw material and foreign currency
shortages.
Four out five people are out of work.
Health and education have all but crumbled.
Analysts agree the
economy must be a central theme in this election,
as it pits the
opposition's offensive against the government's defensive in
the crucial
plebiscite for the hearts and minds of the electorate.
"The economy
still remains the central issue," said Eldred
Masunungure, a political
scientist. "For the government, it is their
Achilles Heel."
"Zanu PF has to defend its economic proposals to mend or turn around
the
economy."
Masunungure, a lecturer in political science at the
University of
Zimbabwe, said for the economic issue to be a central theme in
the campaign
depends on how the opposition packages its
manifesto.
"The opposition focuses more on human rights and
governance. To the
ordinary Zimbabwean those things are secondary," he
said.
He says the economic crisis makes Zanu PF vulnerable to MDC
attacks.
As for Makoni, Masunugure says, he will be weak in
condemning the
government's economic policies since he was once part of the
regime.
Mugabe launched his campaign in Beitbridge last Saturday,
with an
attack on Makoni and Tsvangirai as "a frog and puppet" respectively.
He
preached of sovereignty in what Masunungure says is a futile attempt to
distract the population from the economic crisis.
Ndlela says:
"You cannot talk of sovereignty when you cannot feed your
own people. Before
1999 we were more sovereign than we are today."
The electorate see
the 29 March polls as a chance to vote for someone
who can offer them hope
for the future.
"I will vote for a candidate who offers me a better
future," said
Vincent Chidatsi a Juice cards vendor along Kwame Nkurumah
Avenue in Harare.
Analysts say the economy had immobilized the
electorate to the extent
they were being manipulated by the
rulers.
"When you see hungry people going into a 'million march',
it tells you
they are being manipulated," said Ndlela.
Masunungure says the situation is ripe to invoke Carville campaign
slogan,
"It's the economy, stupid." But he warned that the situation in the
United
States in 1992 is slightly different from the Zimbabwe experience of
2008
He says the economic crisis has been with the population
for close to
10 years but Zimbabweans have been able "to navigate and
negotiate the
economic crisis to make a living".
They might
still not view the economy as the key election issue.
Zim Standard
In this Question and Answer interview with The Standard (TS), Simba
Makoni (SM)
speaks on his presidential campaign. Excerpts:
TS: How far have you gone with the campaign?
SM: First, the
reality...the campaign has started slowly because we
came into this late...
because we don't have a party. We have a team of
volunteers who believe in
the vision and ideal. There is a shortage of
paper, shortage of material for
the T-shirts. Sometimes not even coal to
fire boilers for factories. So, it
started slowly but it is picking up. By
the beginning of next week, we will
be communicating and circulating among
the people which we haven't been
doing physically and personally, other than
through newspapers and the media
which have been the main method of
communication. But while I confess we are
not as visible as we should be, we
will be shortly and we will be
circulating among people and communicate our
messages. The response has been
overwhelming...Messages are still pouring
in. Sometimes people just present
themselves and say we have come from
Tsholotsho, we have come from Chipinge,
and we have come from Chirumhanzu.
We want to collect material to go and
campaign with.
TS: And then about the alliances, we understand that
you have an
informal alliance with Arthur Mutambara and you are also working
on having
another one with Morgan Tsvangirai. Are there any ideological
problems
especially with the Morgan Tsvangirai formation?
SM: I
am an independent candidate... so how can you be an independent
and be in an
alliance at the same time? But I also want us to understand
that I am
offering a national platform. We want a new direction for our
country, we
want a better life for our people and I made a commitment to the
people of
Zimbabwe at my launch... that when I get elected as President of
this
country we will set up a national authority that will harness
representatives of all key national constituencies. So that means I am in
alliance with the whole of Zimbabwe.
TS: Can you explain how
you can be an independent and at the same time
be in alliance?
SM: Because I am in alliance with the whole nation, that is why I am
saying
you must understand we are not about compartments, and paddocks and
little
groups, I am in alliance with the whole nation. I am for the people
of
Zimbabwe.
TS: You don't say you are in agreement with Tsvangirai
and Mutambara.
You are saying if there are other Zimbabweans that want to be
in alliance
with you it doesn't have to be formal?
SM: No. I am
with the people and for the people and I know the people
are in Zanu PF, the
people are in MDC, the people are in other formations,
the people are in
churches, the people are in industry, the people are in
trade unions, the
people are women, the people are youths, the people are
ex- combatants, the
people are farmers, they are industrialists. I am in
alliance with all those
and that's why I am an independent candidate. Don't
paddock me; don't fence
me into little groups because I am bigger than
little groups. Sorry I am not
bigger than little groups, I am more than
little groups.
TS:
What it means is that you are not going out and say Tsvangirai let's
agree.
You are just appealing to ordinary Zimbabweans?
SM: Everyone is
ordinary shamwari. I am very ordinary. There are some
people who think they
are not ordinary but everyone is ordinary.
TS: The rural vote is
said to be Zanu PF's hunting ground. That's
where Zanu PF draws its support
and you say it's clearly a perception of the
media?
SM: I think
I want to keep emphasizing that I want to persuade our
people from putting
us into little groups and paddocks. The rural people
have no sugar, so do
the urban people, so do the peri-urban people. The
rural people have no
cooking oil. They have no candles; they have no bars of
soap. What you don't
find in an urban supermarket, you won't find in a rural
trading store. So
why do you want to distinguish between the experience of
the rural people
from the experiences of the urban people and vice versa?
What we are
enduring in Zimbabwe is a nationwide experience of fear. The
rural people
are more fearful than or as fearful as the urban people, of
privation or
deprivation. The rural people are more deprived than the urban
people... The
extent of suffering among the rural people is worse than that
of urban
people; so we won't devise a different strategy for the urban
people from
that of rural people because it would be exactly dividing our
people. What
we are offering is a vision for the Zimbabwe of tomorrow and
that Zimbabwe
of tomorrow is as rural as it is urban. The food crisis
touches all
Zimbabweans, the crisis of education and health is of all
Zimbabweans...jobs...potholes. I plead with our people to resist the
temptation of being placed in paddocks. We are one people with one
experience and what I am proposing is one future, one brighter future for
one people.
TS: Suppose you are elected president on 29 March
(Makoni interjects:
it's not suppose. It's when I am elected) when you are
elected president
what will you do in the first 100 days in
office?
SM: We have a framework for the initial task. When we
outlined the
elements of the manifesto we highlighted key areas that we must
deal with.
We must deal with the food crisis, we must deal with the energy
crisis, and
we must deal with crisis of production. We must lay the
groundwork to get
Zimbabwe working again. So we must set up the national
authority... that is
the first action.
TS: National
authority... what is this animal called national
authority?
SM:
This animal is that authority, the entity, the government that
will take
Zimbabwe into Mavambo. So we must constitute the government but
composed of
representatives of all national constituencies.
TS: In other words
you are saying you are setting up a government of
national
unity?
SM: I am calling it a national authority, those are the
words I found
appropriate. You can call it a unity government. Someone else
says are you
talking of a government of national unity. A rose by any name
still smells
like a rose. So let's not get bogged down in
vocabulary...
TS: So in simple terms you are saying you have a
government with MDC,
Zanu, independents?
SM: The constitution
prescribes who is coming into government. They
have to be elected
representatives. So from the elected representatives with
the mandate of our
people for being elected we will constitute a national
authority. On 30
March in accordance with the existing constitution the
executive must be
constituted out of elected representatives and those
elected representatives
will be from Zanu PF, from MDC, from Independents
and any others who are
contesting...
TS: Suppose you are asked to prioritise what they
will do in the first
day: is it the constitution or the
economy?
SM: The crisis. I have already enumerated the food crisis,
the energy
crisis, the water crisis and sanitation, potholes, medicines in
hospitals.
It's horrendous that babies should be dying in the antenatal
units because
ZESA has switched off the hospital, well not quite that ZESA
has switched
off the hospital but the hospital had been switched off. I am
sure ZESA are
not doing it deliberately. We must solve those crises and get
life for
Zimbabweans to be normal again. That they can go into a supermarket
and buy
milk and cereals and vegetables. We will have an immediate crisis
plan and
then we roll out a short term, medium term and long term plan for
getting
our country back to normal, getting it back to work
again.
TS: Roughly how many years do you think are required to
bring Zimbabwe
where it was?
SM: It would presumptuous of me. I
don't think we just want to bring
Zimbabwe to where it was. That would be
such a limited vision. This is the
21st century. We want to get Zimbabwe to
the 21st century to be an equal
player in the global village. Just getting
back to 1996 is not a vision for
me, it's not an ambition. But obviously you
can't do all these at once that's
why we will have a phased programme. First
deal with the crisis of everyday
life and I enumerated. But I must also
underline that I am not the person to
be doing this. Our rallying call for
re-engagement, for national
re-engagement is to get Zimbabweans to do things
for themselves. It would be
very arrogant and presumptuous for me to say I
am doing this. It won't be
different from those who are saying: you sit
under the tree and wait for us
to give you schools and boreholes and
medicine, that's the antithesis of
what I am proposing for our
people...
TS: There are Zimbabwean businesspeople who were hounded
out of
country for one reason or the other; do you have plans to bring them
back?
SM: We have plans to get Zimbabwe working again and that
means
capturing all the resources and capacity that Zimbabwe has. But the
question
has been posed which authorities have refrained from responding to:
If these
people committed a crime why are they not brought to the due
process of law
to answer for their crimes?
TS: And how about
re-engaging the IMF and World Bank.
SM: This country will be back
in the international arena, taking our
rightful place in the global
village... Zimbabwe needs to be at one with the
rest of the world, not apart
from the world... We don't want to put
ourselves in little
cells.
Zim Standard
Comment
At a time of extreme hardship, the ruling party and the government
have
chosen to demonstrate just how concerned they are about the rest of
us.
From Wednesday last week Zanu PF members, drawn from throughout the
country,
trooped into the capital just to observe their leader launch the
party's
election manifesto. Yet a drive along the main highways throughout
the
country will show ordinary people who have spent days hoping to catch a
lift
with passing motorists due to the current fuel crisis.
More than
a week ago, the ruling party again commandeered transport, and
people from
various provinces were ferried to the southern border town of
Beitbridge for
President Robert Mugabe's 84th birthday celebrations. Scarce
resources were
committed to feasting for one day when people in the two
Matabeleland
provinces speak of a maize-meal crisis that threatens lives.
They
travelled to Beitbridge via Bulawayo because the Masvingo-Beitbridge
highway
is in an atrocious state due to neglect. Yet this is a major artery
feeding
transport to neighbouring countries to the north and north east. It
is also
used by tourists visiting the country from the south.
Zimbabwe claims it
is preparing for the 2010 world soccer cup, which South
Africa will be
hosting. Anyone who has been to our southern neighbour will
be impressed by
the level of preparations. Zimbabwe's pledges to gear itself
for the soccer
extravaganza are embarrassingly hollow. The commitment made
to spruce up
Beitbridge in the short time left before the World Cup
demonstrates the
ruling party takes Zimbabweans for morons, incapable of
subjecting their
statements to the test.
There is no reason why the party's provincial
leadership could not have been
given the Zanu PF election manifesto for
distribution in their provinces. It
would have been less expensive. But the
ruling party is so reckless because
no one holds it accountable. Sometimes
they mistake Zimbabwe for their own
personal property. That is why service
chiefs can threaten voters as if they
are only allowed to conform to the
ruling party's wishes.
The threats - as those made by the same security
chiefs during the run up to
the 2002 presidential elections - are a
dangerous development, designed to
whip everyone into supporting and voting
for Zanu PF. Essentially they seek
to subvert the right of the people to
vote the way they wish.
Zanu PF has had 28 years to demonstrate what it
is capable of doing but all
it can offer are promises. Its campaign promises
issues for which it has a
record of uninterrupted failure.
But as in
2002, the threats are significant if only because they are
indicative of the
level of panic within the ruling party and its admission
of having failed to
deliver on its promises for nearly three decades.
Very often it is argued
that the opposition has failed. It's time this
argument was revisited: It is
the people who have failed the opposition in
this country. Each one of us
has relatives in the rural areas - Zanu PF's
assumed stronghold. It is time
each and every one of us helped to empower
those ourside the towns and
cities to make decisions that will take this
country out of the present
crisis. We live this crisis, but more importantly
we recognise the
architects of the crisis. It is time we gave them their
marching orders - in
the greater interests of this country.
Zimbabwe does not deserve what
Zanu PF has done to it and it does not need
salutes from the party's
delinquent dependants.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by Bill
saidi
HOW I would love to be a fly on the wall as Nathan
Shamuyarira, with
an old man's triumphant "Whoopee"! puts a full stop on the
last sentence of
his much-anticipated biography of Robert
Mugabe.
It's been in the works for years. Last year, at a reception
in Harare,
I asked him how far he had gone with his potential masterpiece,
about this
former teacher who has spent nearly 30 years turning a country,
once called
a "gem", into a pariah poorhouse.
Incidentally, I
wonder if Mugabe's "kitchen cabinet" pays attention to
events elsewhere in
the world, except London and Washington.
Do they know that Mwai
Kibaki and Raila Odinga ended their feud with
the aid of Kofi Annan who
could have helped Zimbabwe to an era of sunshine,
if he had been encouraged?
But Mugabe only encourages people who idolise him
He didn't
encourage Ben Mkapa either and Mkapa was with Annan in
Nairobi, helping to
end a quarrel which cost more than 1 000 lives.
It makes you wonder
why Mugabe prefers Thabo Mbeki as mediator.
I know many people
would be surprised if Shamuyarira's work turned out
to be as sanitized as
James Boswell's book on Samuel Johnson.
Boswell wrote so glowingly
of Johnson, the author of the first
Dictionary of the English Language, it
was said if it wasn't for him, few
would ever have recognised Johnson as the
titan of English literature that
he was made out to be.
Shamuyarira has not been a starry-eyed Mugabe admirer. Unlike many
political
zombies who spout Mugabe praises at the drop of a cockerel's
feather, he
would not shout a slogan to the heavens that no man ever lived
who did more
for Zimbabwe than Gushungo.
He once left Zanu PF. He has not
apologised for his sortie into the
Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe
(Frolizi). Others there included George
Nyandoro and James Chikerema, who I
first met in 1957, before the Southern
Rhodesia African National Congress
was formed the same year.
For me, they epitomised that
extraordinary selflessness which
distinguishes heroes from
charlatans.
Joshua Nkomo was the president, Chikerema his deputy
and Nyandoro
secretary-general. Paul Mushonga, owner of the Highfield shop
where most of
the ANC plan was hatched, was a high-ranking
official.
It would be a number of years before Mugabe featured in
the
nationalist hierarchy.
Yet today hardly anything can be
recalled of the past without his name
being trotted out. No one disputes his
heroism, although reading Edgar
Tekere's ruminations, perhaps we should be
wary before swallowing all the
garbage from the Mugabe-niks.
Today, as he prepares to throw his last political dice, it is not
premature,
presumptuous or prurient to speculate on his legacy.
How will
Zimbabwe remember him? What will be his legacy to this great
country?
It's a great country, never mind what an absolute mess
they have made
of it. They can pretend all they want, but a country with an
inflation rate
of 100 000% is a bloody mess, in any language.
Or will people remember how he reminisced on his 84th birthday, on his
television network, about R S Garfield Todd, an education pioneer at Dadaya
and one of the few prime ministers of Southern Rhodesia backed by The
African Daily News in an election, of which Shamuyarira was editor at the
time?
Although he lost to the white supremacists in 1958, Todd
remained
intensely disgusted with racism.
We now know why the
government stripped him of his Zimbabwean
citizenship: Mugabe just didn't
like the man.
The body language he used in the interview on TV
suggested he would
have loved to punch him to a pulp. His account of how he
and Todd interacted
at Dadaya was filled with cruel, crude
humour.
Perhaps he didn't like Todd for having remarked about him
(Mugabe),
according to Judith Todd's autobiography, Through the Darkness: A
Life in
Zimbabwe.
What I cannot forgive is how many people he
has corrupted.
Mugabe spent many years in jail during the struggle,
before he and
Tekere were helped to cross into Mozambique by Chief Rekayi
Tangwena. All
this was after 1958, the year Todd lost to Edgar
Whitehead.
But from what Mugabe said, you would think he blamed
Todd for all his
tribulations. Certainly, not many Zimbabweans harbour such
rancour towards
Todd.
In her book, Judith Todd tells this story
after her father's death in
2002:
"Some months later, walking
through Bulawayo, I met Teacher Moyo, who
was still elated by the
circumstances of father's funeral. 'It was a
wonderful occasion,' he said.
'We saw friends there we hadn't met for years.
It was more like a wedding
than a funeral. We sang all the way home.'"
Mugabe's legacy won't
feature much singing. There will probably be
more wailing and gnashing of
teeth.
* saidib@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
reflections with Dr Alex
T Magaisa
WHEN President Robert Mugabe took office as the first
Prime Minister
of newly independent Zimbabwe in 1980, amid the wild scenes
of euphoria,
there also emerged a dangerous, but largely unnoticed
phenomenon. It is the
problem of the "tyranny of the majority", which
manifested itself in severe
deprivation of political space for those outside
the framework of Zanu PF
politics.
The trouble now, is that
there is a very real risk of this happening
again after 29 March, unless the
winner of the election genuinely commits to
a more inclusive structure of
government, at least whilst working on
damage-limitation efforts to solve
the economic malaise and constitutional
shortcomings. Perhaps little change
is to be expected of Mugabe, who, unless
there is a sea change in approach,
is likely to continue with the current
system that has largely been
exclusionary.
There is a perception in opposition circles that
there will be no
room, in a new dispensation, for anything or anyone that is
Zanu PF-related.
Given the poverty brought onto the people by this party's
policies over the
last 28 years, this perception is perhaps understandable.
But it is neither
realistic nor practical.
No country can
operate properly if every time there is a change of
government, there is a
complete removal of those aligned to or related to
the outgoing party.
Certainly those in key positions may find their
positions to be untenable
given the different ideas and policies they will
be required to implement.
But there will, surely, be others who may be
prepared to adapt and go with
the flow. Some continuity in personnel may be
necessary and indeed,
unavoidable, in running of the affairs of the state.
But there is
another reason for more inclusiveness.
Today's Zimbabwe is probably
more polarised than in 1980. A key
challenge will be to mitigate the effects
of a culture of intolerance that
has plagued parts of Zimbabwean society. No
one among the political players
is entirely innocent. The ruling party is
intolerant of the opposition and
similarly the opposition seems to be
intolerant of not just the ruling party
but also, worryingly, alternatives
to their own views. This culture of
intolerance now extends beyond the
leaders to the ranks of ordinary members
of society. There is a certain
irony in this that those claiming to be
leading the fight for freedom of
expression, become very uncomfortable with
any expression that conflicts
with their own.
But the dangers of this culture of intolerance are
more easily
manifested when the majority is intolerant of the minority. In
this
relentless march towards realising the will of the majority, there is a
risk
of overlooking that democracy should, of necessity, also take into
account
the interests of the minority. It is far too easy, as we have learnt
from
our history, and the histories of other nations, to not only ignore but
also
to bludgeon, conquer and batter into submission the minorities. This
may
even be celebrated as the manifestation of the will of the majority. In
addition to its ability to give effect to the will of the majority, a mature
democracy must surely pass the test on how it treats the
minorities.
Most Zimbabweans who now find themselves in the
Diaspora may overlook
the fact that many of their compatriots from the
Southern and Western parts
of the country (Matabeleland) discovered the
Diaspora long before them. In
many cases, it was because they were
marginalised by virtue of being a
political minority. But then the political
majority, who only discovered
hardships much later in the 1990s, did not bat
an eyelid for those souls.
They were the majority who were least affected by
those difficulties visited
upon their compatriots. They were either
blissfully ignorant or did not care
or both. But there was an insidious form
of a "tyranny of the majority" at
that time.
It does not help
that our political system is based on the
"winner-takes-all" principle. It
establishes the basis of the exclusionary
politics that we have experienced
since independence. It is, in many ways, a
continuation of the colonial era
politics which effectively excluded the
majority of the people from the
electoral process and governance.
But this exclusionary effect also
has implications for stability,
security and the protection of human rights.
Upon assumption of power,
Mugabe retained the colonial era security
legislation and emergency laws
ostensibly because of security threats, real
or imaginary. It did not matter
that he and his comrades had been imprisoned
and thwarted in their
liberation efforts under the same laws. As such there
are no real guarantees
that a new government post-29 March will dispense
with the current set of
security laws. They may well claim, as Mugabe did in
1980, that there exist
security threats and hence the need to maintain
order.
Such fears could be mitigated, however, not by retaining
draconian
laws and use of force, but by creating a more inclusive system of
government
which does not totally close spaces for the losers. This is
particularly
important in a country where restoration of stability is of
paramount
importance so that that focus can be placed on constitutional
reform and
economic regeneration - the two key issues that are so vital to
Zimbabweans
right now. In forming a government, the winner of the
Presidential election
is not barred from appointing persons from other
parties.
Sometimes we look up to the older, perhaps more mature
democracies,
like the US and in Western Europe and it is easy to overlook
the fact that
their systems have been built over time, chiselled and
nurtured for many
years, to be where they are, and still they are imperfect.
But at least they
have developed in-built mechanisms, which remain work in
progress, to more
effectively deal with interests of political
minorities.
Here Churchill's words on democracy as a system of
government assume
even greater significance. He said "democracy is the worst
form of
government except for all those others that have been tried". We too
need to
understand the complexities of our polities and the peculiarities of
our
societies. These features may imply that we need to take different
routes in
how we organise ourselves politically in order to achieve the
objectives of
stability, tolerance and economic development.
The problem of creating a tyranny of the majority was famously
recognised
way back in 1787 by James Madison, one of America's Founding
Fathers in the
essay Federalist No. 10, a reference point for constitutional
jurists.
Madison articulated the problem of factions that results within a
direct
democracy and the risk that if left unchecked, the majority faction
could
work in ways that are detrimental to the minorities and the aggregate
interest of the society as a whole. Events in many small African countries,
with their colonially linear demarcated boundaries bear testimony to this
assertion. The small democracies are uncertain, shaky, short-lived and often
end up in sordid violence, as events in Kenya evidence.
Madison
thought that smaller democracies suffered more from the
problem of the
majority faction since it means that passions and interests
more easily
spread to a greater number of people who can form a majority,
and enact
their will without hardship through the so-called democratic
government.
Madison thought that the effects of this problem could be
mitigated by,
among other things, creating a system of checks and balances,
which still
forms a key part of the American constitutional system. That is
not to
suggest that it is perfect; rather it serves to indicate that this
problem
of a tyranny of the majority is not new to us and needs to be
properly
accounted for.
One way of course is to have an overhaul of the
constitutional
framework, an argument valiantly pursued by many Zimbabweans
in the last
decade. This is why constitutional reform should form one of the
first
projects in the aftermath of the 29 March elections.
* Dr
Magaisa is based at The University of Kent Law School and can be
contacted
at a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk or wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zim Standard
sundayview
JOSE is my brother's son. He came to stay with his
people a few years
ago. In tow, he brought with him two wives and two
children. He had "grown
up" with his mother's people in Zaka. His mother
never lived with my
brother. We learnt that the uncles decided to send him
to his people because
he had become a nuisance. Who would want to look after
a man in his 20s with
two wives and two kids?
Notwithstanding
his nefarious tendencies, he actually has remained
very respectful towards
me, despite my strong criticism of his conduct,
especially political. When
sober, he looks troubled, when drunk only a
mother can stand
him.
The home that was torched is in fact a single hut. But a man's
home is
his castle, no matter the size. He has two wives and two children.
When I
last saw him in August last year, the wives appeared to be
expecting.
When I read your online edition of the 17 February 2007
about his
predicament and the fact that a retired military man had allegedly
been
employed to cause this man a destruction of his homestead, I ached. I
imagined Jose's bright daughter, his desolate wives and the contrasting
satisfaction of the entire village and beyond.
Jose came into
the village late. Since then, he has been a sore thumb.
Many dares, both
formal and informal, were held to discuss his expulsion
from the
village.
Many have been hurt over his flagrant disregard of human
decency and
his violent support of Zanu PF. He arrived as a foreigner and
his lack of
decency confirmed it.
His tragedy is a broad
indictment of Zimbabwean politics, and so is
his existence. His burnt-out
home lies some 50 or 100m from my own house. I
would have been one of the
first to offer water to put out the fire. For
Jose does not even have a well
at his home. But I know that many in the
village wished worse had
happened.
Many in the villages across our beautiful country have
seen this
political road before. Politicians with political ambitions come
and hire
jobless youths to cause mayhem and ensure that they win. After
these
"victories", the youths are dumped. The promises of jobs are never
fulfilled. The many litres of opaque liquor bought during the campaign have
long converted to urea and have irrigated the bushes.
Jose does
not even have a Blair toilet at his home.
My brother's son is a
poor man. He is an easy gullible tool. He had
reportedly been campaigning
for Dr Paul Chimedza before Gutu South's gender
was declared by Zanu PF. He
is hired precisely because he is naïve, poor and
a downright ruffian. He has
no clue about much that happens in the world
beyond his
horizon.
He is like many others that Zanu PF politicians hire and
use with
great impunity. At every election, they return to be used again and
again,
all for an effort from which they gain nothing. They are the foot
soldiers
of the rich and powerful. Nobody who uses them really knows or
cares about
their daily plight. They struggle to eke out a
living.
Until he received the peanuts and decided to free himself
from the
scourge, no politician had an interest in where he lived. Someone
ought to
have felt the embarrassment of torching the lonely hut at his home.
A home
without even a chicken! But no, politicians have no
heart.
Mai Mahofa's husband and accomplices will have to answer
questions
about their alleged conduct. But for many back home, it's "ndomene
haichemedzi". The young man brought these troubles upon himself. He allowed
himself to be condomised by politicians. Used every time and immediately
thrown away to wallow once again in poverty. The real pawns of the game of
rural politics!
Sekuru Ngwena's son ironically named
Tafirenyika was in Jose's
position for many years. He was used in the same
way. A loving soul found
him work in Gweru. When he visited home around the
2005 elections, he
surprised everyone by his recantation. "Never again!" he
said.
I am somewhat in an awkward position about the protagonists
in the
fight for the constituency known as Gutu South. Jose is my brother's
son.
Mai Mahofa is my friend's mother. The Mukonoweshuro family is revered
in my
area because one of them was a good headmaster at Bako School.
How Makoni can help
Simba Makoni professes to want to free Zimbabwe from
the
tyrannical rule of Mugabe. If he really has the interests of the people
of
Zimbabwe at heart he would evaluate the effect of standing for President
in
these elections.
It will be near impossible for Makoni to reach the
rural voters. The
areas are vast, the road networks are in a shocking state,
time is very
short, he will not be able to access enough cash or fuel given
the economic
constraints, the police will take up loads of his time, and MDC
is well
known, these among just a few of the problems he will
encounter.
If he really wants to help Zimbabweans attain their
freedom from
dictatorship he would bow out gracefully now, throw his weight
behind MDC
and leave the fight to the two contestants - Morgan Tsvangirai
and Robert
Mugabe.
I implore Makoni and his backers to put
their political aspirations on
hold and concentrate on the main hurdle of
unseating Mugabe.
A McCormick
Highlands,
Harare
-------------
Students 'guided by principles'
SINCE its foundation in 1989 and formalization in 1997, the Zimbabwe
National Students Union ZINASU has remained consistent and resolute to its
primary calling for being - that is to create a representative platform of
engagement with key stakeholders such as the government, college and
university authorities on issues concerning students.
It has
remained our concern that students receive a decent education.
This includes
up-to-standard learning, teaching and research facilities, a
sound students
funding package that allows a conducive learning environment
and a
sustainably growing economy with vast employment and business
opportunities.
Stories from our brothers and sisters who went
through Zimbabwe's
decent tertiary education during the 1980s to the late
1990s used to
motivate and rejuvenate students' struggles with hope and
anticipation of
enjoying the same.
Alas, not with this stubborn
government of (President) Robert Mugabe.
Students' hopes and anticipation
has turned into dismay and hatred. Poor
decisions and misprioritisation of
state resources has led to the collapse
of social services, education and
health.
This was actually the beginning of a road map to our
liberation: in
September 1999 the labour movement and the students' union
founded a
political party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
The people shall govern; the time and the need had come to evict
Mugabe and
his cronies from office.
In the March 2002 Presidential elections,
the MDC won overwhelmingly:
oh yes, it did! Indeed we needed a sustainable
post-election strategy.
Restless Arthur Mutambara is a laughing
stock. One wonders how many
positions he has declared since his entry into
national politics and one
must continue to wonder if he has a position at
all.
For the record, there was never a split in the MDC: actually a
few
individuals left the MDC. Our party has grown from strength to strength,
has
stood the test of time, and is ready for office.
We shall
not discuss further those who finish all the water reserves
and later see
the need to start searching for more. The students' union
makes no apology
with regards to its allegiance and alliance to any process
that champions
student interests. We remain guided by our own founding
principles and
values during these trying times.
Clever Bere
President, Zimbabwe
National Students Union
Harare
-----------------
Beware crooked estate agents
THANK you for a wonderful paper which is miles ahead of all these
pseudo-online Zim journalists which rush to copy and paste what others
report.
lt's refreshing to read you every week. Let me digress
and use this
platform to expose a scam on land, involving one firm of estate
agents which
fleeces people of their hard- earned cash for a Glen View 1
Extension scheme
which never seems to take off the ground.
They
sell you a stand and promise you that building would start within
two
months. But then you wait forever. Once you have paid up they ignore
your
inquiries.
l understand it's an indigenous-run company. So perhaps
they have Zanu
PF protection to cheat people. Everybody looking forward to
being a landlord
should avoid this estate agent like the
plague.
Tamirira Taneta
Dorchester,
UK
---------------
Mobilising for action
CAN this be
forwarded to someone in the MDC.
A number of people are appointed
for each high-density suburb.
These people in each suburb are
alerted that mass action is to take
place. They go to each house and wake up
all the adult occupants, except for
one (one adult is left at each house to
look after the children).
As these people leave their premises they
are instructed to move to
other houses to wake up and instruct those
occupants, as they have been
instructed to do. The people tasked to wake up
others should operate in
pairs.
All these people then make
their way into town, to a given meeting
point eg Unity Square.
Zulu2
UK
-----------------
Defrauded by sim
card-selling internetsite ABOUT two months ago, I was
going through
Zimbabwean news websites when I came across yeszim.com. I
clicked on the
link to see what they were about. I learnt they were selling
products
including Econet Buddie SIM cards.
I was interested in purchasing
the SIM card for a family member in
Zimbabwe. One morning early on 18
February 2008, I bought an Econet Buddie
SIM card. After the purchase I
called yeszim.com. It was 10AM in the UK. I
was on hold for half an hour
after which I hung up.
A relative in Zimbabwe was to receive a text
message with the voucher
for that SIM card. Two days later I called the UK
based yeszim Ltd in an
effort to speak to their customer service department.
I needed to find out
when the SIM card would be delivered. I was at this
point getting frustrated
and decided to email them because each time I
called, I was on hold for far
too long.
I became suspicious of
them when each time I would be the first one in
line, yet I would be on hold
for over half an hour. I knew there was a
battle ahead of me so I sent an
email telling yeszim Ltd what was coming to
them. I waited over 24 hours for
their response but never heard a word from
them.
I then called
their payment gateway company, PayPal, and detailed my
account. PayPal told
me that they were going to be on yeszim's tail until
the money was refunded.
Two days later I got an email from PayPal informing
me that they had taken
care of the "fraud case".
Anyone who wants to check this for
themselves can do so by calling a
number on the yeszim Ltd web site at http://www.yes-zim.com. You will
notice,
however, that the voice instructions on that recording appear to be
that of
an English man. It appears to me that someone out there is trying to
take
advantage of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. Be careful! They try to fit
in
where they don't for as long as they see an opportunity to make
money.
I can share my case with anyone interested as I have an
email from
PayPal. I can also help anyone who may have fallen victim on how
to file a
claim with PayPal, their payment gateway company. You can also
visit PayPal's
web site at http://www.paypal.com for instructions on how
to file a claim.
Don't be a victim of circumstances. Together we
can fight cyber crime.
Amos Chivaro
ChivaroA@aol.com.
California
| ||
| ||
Robert Mugabe’s formative years were spent as the fatherless, friendless favourite of a cold, religious mother, writes Heidi Holland in her new book.
Robert Mugabe’s only surviving brother, Donato, (now deceased) is sitting on an upturned plastic milk crate on the veranda of his house at Kutama, about 100km southwest of Harare, the village where he and his siblings were born and where Donato has remained all his life.
He is a large, white-haired man with a lot of laughter lines on his face, but he looks decidedly wary on this occasion.
He and his wife, Evelyn, invite me indoors reluctantly. Huddled together on the sofa, they are silent and unblinking.
I am acutely aware that few, if any, journalists have been to talk to Donato before me, possibly because we were collectively not interested enough to uncover Mugabe’s ancestry in earlier years when the going was good, but later on because it’s dangerous to ask leading questions in Zimbabwe, let alone to walk into the middle of the terrorised country’s first family.
Donato begins by telling me that for some years during his schooling at Kutama, Robert Mugabe lived with his maternal grandparents “so that he could be watched carefully by them”, he says.
“He was a good boy and he loved to play tennis at school. That was what he did besides reading. He passed teacher training in 1942 but he did not show off.
“He was quiet and never harsh to anyone. He was always determined. Whatever he wants to do, he can do.
“He never recognised the word ‘no’; it was not in his language. He went to Ghana for teacher training and sent letters to our mother.”
His wife says something to him in Shona and he suddenly bellows: “Sally came from Ghana.”
Looking delighted at the thought of his late sister-in-law, his eyes stare into space again for a while.
“She was a lovely person. It was a happy marriage,” he remembers. “It was a happy time in Zimbabwe.”
When I mention Grace, Mugabe’s second wife, Donato nods sagely, offering no comment at first.
“She gave him children,” he says on reflection, nodding slowly .
Behind the sofa is the large official portrait of Mugabe that hangs in government offices and most public spaces in Zimbabwe.
Alongside the couple on a table is a framed, unsmiling photograph of Bona, the president’s late mother, her unusually elongated head wrapped in a scarf that typifies the attire of local rural women.
Robert Mugabe adored his mother. He attended Mass with her every day and twice on Sundays in the years following the deaths of two of his older siblings.
Both of the dead children were boys. One of them, Michael, was the acknowledged family favourite, loved by everyone in the village, not only the Mugabes.
Donato’s description of Michael’s cause of death as “something he ate” is typical of the bare details on offer, not only because the man sitting in front of me does not entirely trust me with his story but because, in the ’20s, life at Kutama was austere. People endured, they fell ill, and they died.
Donato, who was christened Dhonandho and called Donald at school, does not remember how or why Raphael, the second son of the family, died.
Their father, Gabriel, left home after Michael’s death, says Donato. “He went to live in Bulawayo, where he could get work, and he remarried there. He was a very good carpenter. Robert remained cross with him because he would never help us with our schooling. He came back later with three children, and died at Kutama.”
That was a lot of loss for Bona to bear. After her husband left, she became depressed by all accounts. She could not cope alone.
Robert, although only 10 at the time, stepped into the breach.
Suddenly the oldest child, he became his mother’s favourite.
It was he who set about trying to restore the light in her eyes, to be what she wanted him to be.
He could not forgive his father the hurt he had inflicted because Robert’s life was so difficult in Gabriel’s absence.
“The other children used to tease him and he became lonely. He didn’t seem to care, but maybe he did,” muses Donato.
“Our mother protected Robert from everyone, especially me, but he himself did not fight. Our (half) sister Bridget was the one who fought with me. She was the strongest one — never Robert. She had the courage of a man, not like him.”
The Catholic head at Kutama was an Irish priest, Father Jerome O’Hea, a gifted teacher and an exceptional man.
He soon noticed the solemn, talented Robert Mugabe and began to nurture him as a scholar and a credit to St Francis Xavier.
Donato remembers Robert “hanging around” outside the priest’s classroom, ever eager to help the man (who had probably become a substitute father) by carrying his books or cleaning the blackboard.
Unlike the happy-go-lucky Donato, Robert’s childhood had effectively ended when his brothers died and his father left home.
He found solace from the pressures of Bona’s disappointment and expectations in books, not in other children.
An introspective child who may have been neglected in babyhood by a burdened mother and therefore failed to develop confidence in himself, Robert began to adopt a lofty attitude towards his siblings and fellow students.
As Bona’s special one in the family and an increasing favourite among teachers in the classroom, he focused all his energy on being “a good boy”.
“Robert was always a loner,” recalls Donato. “He was a person who was not interested in having many friends. His books were his only friends. I was the opposite, talking to everybody and even fighting with some of them. I could run fast but Robert could not, he was lazy, just reading all the time.
“When he went to herd cattle because our grandfather told him to go out into the fields, he would take his book. He held the book in one hand and the whip in the other. It was a strange thing for all of us to see. When the cattle were settled, he would sometimes sit in the shade under the trees.
“Sometimes, if our grandfather asked him to get something for supper, he would catch many birds, especially doves. He would cut sticks, tie them with grass and put some soft leaves inside with some seeds. This nest he would put near the river and wait quietly, reading his book.
“When the birds came to drink water, he could catch them. He was the only one who could get the birds because he could sit very quietly and that’s why grandfather said it was his job.”
Robert was different from his siblings in other ways, too.
He loved to be at school even when his brothers and sisters were home playing.
Their house was so close to St Francis Xavier College that he could come and go as he pleased.
“He used to be very serious and not always happy,” recalls Donato. “He seemed to have matters to think about.”
Then came the prestigious endorsement of Robert’s scholarly efforts that was to have profound implications not only for his life but for the future of the country he would lead to disaster six decades later.
“Our mother explained to us that Father O’Hea had told her that Robert was going to be an important somebody, a leader .
“Our mother believed Father O’Hea had brought this message from God; she took it very seriously. When the food was short she would say, ‘Give it to Robert.’ But he would refuse and say he didn’t want to eat.
“A doctor (academic) from Salisbury (Harare) came to talk to Robert about his lessons. We laughed at him because he was so serious, until he became cross. Then our mother told us to leave him alone. She believed he was a holy child and she wanted him to become a priest.”
Father O’Hea went out of his way to help the shy child he described as having “unusual gravitas”.
With “an exceptional mind and an exceptional heart”, the boy merited extraordinary attention, he believed.
Promoted to the next class as soon as he could hold his own, Robert was always younger and physically smaller than his contemporaries.
His greatest desire was to please his mother and to earn praise from Father O’Hea.
However, the favouritism of two such important adults in a tight community made him increasingly the butt of jokes among his peers, including his brothers and sisters.
As the children teased him mercilessly, Robert became defiant and presumably angry.
With his reputation for cowardice well established, he was constantly mocked for having his nose in a book by the village children who had not scored highly enough for ongoing study.
As he grew up, Robert got his sense of who he was from Bona, a cold, stern nun of a mother.
She left him in no doubt that he was to be the achiever who rose above everyone else; the leader chosen by God himself.
She may also have viewed him as a substitute for her own failure to serve the church as she and her parents had intended.
Aloneness and the inability to co-operate are the dominant features in all the descriptions of Mugabe’s childhood.
Considering all the available evidence, Mugabe seems to have been driven from very early on by a determination to show those who scorned him and his books, who called him a mummy’s boy and a coward, that he was, nevertheless, the king of the castle — and that they would all have to acknowledge it sooner or later.
Instead of seeing their taunts accurately as sibling rivalry and jealousy from less-accomplished classmates, Robert seems to have felt persecuted, bitterly resenting the failure of everyone around him to appreciate his difficult role in a fatherless family.
“He said he did not have time to play and we always laughed when he said big stuff about himself,” admits Donato.
What the young Robert achieved by single-mindedly pursuing his studies at school, and for years after he left Kutama, was truly remarkable.
To become one of the most erudite Africans in the country from the humblest of beginnings — with no electric light to switch on at home and read by, seldom enough food to eat, and little support except from those whose ambitions robbed him of childish things — was a triumph of discipline over adversity in the classic Jesuit style.
Against the odds, the angry little boy with no friends did become the king of the castle.
But Robert’s diligence was also his way of coping with a universe he believed to be against him.
Despite periods of contentment, he was to be consumed by distrust for the rest of his life.