South African Facilitators Back In Zimbabwe As Power-Sharing Parties Miss Deadline

http://www1.voanews.com/

Facilitation team member Lindiwe Zulu, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Zuma,
told VOA that her team was in the Zimbabwean capital to take delivery of a
report by party negotiators detailing results of power-sharing talks

Ntungamili Nkomo & Patience Rusere | Washington 29 March 2010

A South African facilitation team was back in Zimbabwe Monday to resume work
with negotiators for ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change on
resolving differences over power-sharing amid concerns the talks may not
reach a successful conclusion by the deadline set by South African President
Jacob Zuma.

Facilitation team member Lindiwe Zulu, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Zuma,
told VOA that her team was in the Zimbabwean capital to take delivery of a
report by party negotiators detailing the results of the talks. If there are
unresolved issues, her team will press for results that are "acceptable" to
Mr. Zuma, she said.

Sources said chances of a breakthrough appeared slim despite Mr. Zuma's
announcement earlier this month that the parties had agreed a "package of
measures" that could be on rapidly implemented to resolve outstanding
issues. But last week President Robert Mugabe seemed to be disavowing the
Zuma-brokered agreement.

Reached by VOA, Economic Planning Minister Elton Mangoma, a negotiator for
the MDC formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, declined to
comment on the status of the talks, as did Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga
of the rival MDC formation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.

But Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, top negotiator for Mr. Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party, told Reuters that the parties had failed to meet President
Zuma's March 29 deadline after marathon meetings, and would continue their
discussions on Tuesday.

Political analyst Immanuel Hlabangana told VOA Studio 7 reporter Ntungamili
Nkomo that despite such setbacks, President Zuma would eventually obtain
binding concessions from ZANU-PF.

Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations, meanwhile, sought a meeting with
Mr. Zuma in his capacity Southern African Development Community mediator to
voice their concerns over an upsurge in violence and suggest ways to stop
the trend.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Chairman Macdonald Lewanika said civil society
feels the unity government is unable to provide protection against such
violence, so civic leaders must appeal to President Zuma.

Activists say incidents of violence have been on the rise along with
arbitrary arrests of members of the MDC, trade unionists, artists and rights
activists.

Lewanika told VOA Studio 7 reporter Patience Rusere that it is in Mr. Zuma's
interest to take concrete action to curb political violence with the World
Cup of Football coming up fast in South Africa.

Zim Journalist Summoned Over Chombo/Chiyangwa Land Stories

http://news.radiovop.com

30/03/2010 06:55:00

Harare, March 30, 2010 - Zimbabwean police have summoned a senior freelance
journalist Stanley Gama over a story published Sunday exposing massive
irregularities and corruption in the acquisition of land by Local Government
and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo and Phillip Chiyangwa,
President Robert Mugabe's nephew.

Gama wrote a story headlined Borrowdale land grab basing his article on a
report compiled by the Harare City Council's special investigations
committee which unmasked Chombo and flamboyant tycoon Chiyangwa as among
senior people who had irregularly acquired land from the municipality.

The special investigations committee's report on Harare's land sales, leases
and exchanges, covering the period October 2004 to December 2009, named
Chombo and Chiyangwa as some of the beneficiaries of land allegedly acquired
corruptly from the Harare City Council.

Chombo and Chiyangwa are among those wealthy Zimbabweans whose sources of
wealth are the subject of suspicion and controversy.

Gama was summoned by notorious Chief Superintendent Chrsipen Makedenge and
Detective Inspector Muchada who told him over his mobile phone that they
would want to question him about "something" which they couldn't divulge
over the phone.

Gama is expected to report to Harare Central Police Station in the company
of prominent media and human rights lawyer Selby Hwacha.

In January Makedenge hounded senior freelance journalist, Stanley Kwenda
after he allegedly issued death threats on him for exposing his abusive
relationship with his now deceased wife. Kwenda has since fled the country.
 

Zim no go area: German business group

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Own Correspondent Tuesday 30 March 2010

HARARE - A German business delegation has cancelled a visit to Zimbabwe, put
off by Harare's controversial plan to force foreign-owned firms to cede
controlling stake to local blacks.

The German African Business Association (GABA) said the trip had been called
off because Zimbabwe has become a "no go area" for foreign investors
following promulgation of the empowerment laws that give foreign-controlled
business up to 2015 to sell majority stake to indigenous Zimbabweans or face
punitive levies and taxes from the government.

"Under the current circumstances Zimbabwe is a 'no go' area for foreign
investment," said Andreas Wenzel regional manager for southern Africa for
the GABA that was helping organise the visit.

Wenzel held out hope that the delegation investors from Hamburg and the
German Southern African Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Johannesburg
could still come to Zimbabwe at a later stage this year but said this would
depend on the outcome of consultations within the Harare power-sharing
government over the empowerment laws.

Cancellation of the German visit comes a week after Norway announced that it
was putting on hold a US$1,5 million project to assist Zimbabwe's
agriculture sector because of the indigenisation law.

Zimbabwe Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere announced last month
that all foreign-owned businesses, including banks, mines and factories must
offload at least 51 percent of their shareholding to locals by March 2015.

Kasukuwere, a top loyalist of President Robert Mugabe, gave companies up to
the end of this month to submit to him plans showing how they will transfer
shareholding to black Zimbabweans.

The indigenisation rules have been a source of controversy and besides
rattling foreign investors have further divided Zimbabwe's shaky coalition
government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party pushing to have
the laws repealed or drastically changed.

While the coalition government has said it is reviewing the indigenisation
laws, Mugabe and his ZANU PF party - who still wield greater power in the
unity government - insist the empowerment drive must go ahead, ignoring
warnings that this could scare away foreign investors whose funds Zimbabwe
needs to rebuild its shattered economy.
Critics fear Mugabe's ZANU PF wants to press ahead with transferring
majority ownership of foreign-owned companies as part of a drive to reward
party loyalists with thriving businesses.  - ZimOnline

Tribunal potpones Zim farmers’ case

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Own Correspondent Tuesday 30 March 2010

HARARE – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal last
week postponed to a later date a contempt of court case raised by Zimbabwean
commercial farmers against President Robert Mugabe’s government.

The case was supposed to be heard last Wednesday but had to be postponed
after it was not put on the court's roll.

"We are extremely disappointed that the SADC Tribunal was unable to hear our
urgent application against the government of Zimbabwe," the Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) said. "We were also asking for an enforcement order from
the Tribunal that would have urged the SADC leaders to take measures that
might involve suspension or expulsion of Zimbabwe from SADC."

The suit – filed on February 12 by representatives of the Southern African
Commercial Farmers’ Alliance Zimbabwe, and commercial farmers Louis Fick,
Mike Campbell and Richard Etheredge, Ben Freeth and Namibian lawyer Norman
Tjombe – was an urgent application and should have been enrolled as such,
the CFU said.

"The application was therefore properly enrolled and should have been
heard," CFU said. "We have the utmost respect for the Tribunal and the
judges, and at no stage have we suggested that they were influenced by
anyone to remove our case from the roll."

Zimbabwe’s High Court in a ruling in January refused to enforce a Tribunal
judgment outlawing the country’s land reforms, while Mugabe has said the
regional court’s order to stop farm seizures and compensate white land
owners for lost property was “nonsensical and of no consequence”.

The Tribunal in November 2008 declared Mugabe’s land reform programme
discriminatory, racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty.

The Tribunal directed the Zimbabwe government not to seize land from the 79
farmers who had appealed to the Namibia-based court and said Harare must
compensate those it had already evicted from their farms.

Mugabe ignored the Tribunal ruling while his supporters have stepped up a
campaign to drive Zimbabwe’s few remaining white farmers off the land.

And Harare High Court Judge Bharat Patel in January ruled that Zimbabwe was
bound by rulings of the regional court but said the order on farm seizures
could not be implemented because it was against public policy.

Blocking the Tribunal order, Patel said its enforcement would effectively
undo Mugabe’s land reforms of the past decade, with all white farmers who
lost land expected to use the judgment to claim their properties back.

The Harare judge said this would require the government to evict tens of
thousands of black families resettled on farms seized from whites in order
to return the land to lawful owners, a move he described as a “political
enormity” with potential to cause upheaval in Zimbabwe.

The decade-long farm invasions which the 86-year-old Mugabe says were
necessary to ensure blacks also had access to arable land that they were
denied by previous white-led governments have been blamed for plunging
Zimbabwe into food shortages.

Once a net food exporter Zimbabwe has avoided mass starvation over the past
decade only because international relief agencies were quick to chip in with
food handouts. – ZimOnline

80 arrested in Masvingo gold rush

http://www.herald.co.zw

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

From George Maponga in Masvingo

Hundreds of fortune seekers from all over Masvingo have descended on
Kimberley and Kismet farms just outside the city following discovery of gold
deposits there.

The gold rush has raised fears of a spike in criminal activities as
witnessed in Chiadzwa following the discovery of diamonds in Manicaland.

Police had by yesterday arrested 80 illegal miners.

About 300 illegal panners are believed to be in the area that borders the
gold-rich Mushandike communal lands.

It has emerged that schoolchildren and teachers from nearby Chidzikwe School
at Kimberley Ranch have also jumped onto the bandwagon.

Acting Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Prosper
Mugauri yesterday confirmed the arrest of 80 illegal miners over the past
three days.

"We have arrested more than 70 illegal miners at Kimberley and Kismet farms
following the discovery of gold and we are going to continue with the raids
until sanity returns to the two areas.

"Police have also recovered an assortment of tools such as shovels, picks
and iron rods used by the panners," he said.

Two gold weighing scales used by gold buyers were also recovered in the
raids.

The illegal panning has raised fears of massive land degradation and the
destruction of crops at the two farms.

There are also genuine fears that criminal activities will become
commonplace if the rush is not checked.

The panners have become so daring as to challenge the police, who have on at
least one occasion been forced to fire teargas at them.

Last year, there was another rush in the Zouma area of Gutu that caused
extensive land degradation following the discovery of gold at a mine shaft
abandoned by a white farmer.

Earlier this year, scores of people descended on Chegutu in Mashonaland West
after a proposed vehicle service station site turned up to be rich in gold.

33 perish in road crashes

http://www.herald.co.zw/

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Herald Reporter-Mutare Bureau.

THIRTY-THREE people were killed and 19 others were seriously injured in
three separate road accidents in Honde Valley, Kwekwe and Bindura yesterday.

Fourteen farmers died early yesterday morning when the Bedford truck they
were travelling in overturned on the Selborne-Aberfoyle road in Honde
Valley.

In the afternoon, 10 people died - six of them on the spot - when a commuter
omnibus they were travelling in overturned along the Harare-Bindura Road.

Earlier in the day, nine passengers died when another kombi met the same
fate along the Harare-Gweru Road.

The accidents have been attributed to brake failure, speeding and tyre
bursts.

In the Honde Valley accident, 11 people were killed on the spot while three
died on admission to Hauna Hospital.

Seven of the injured were taken to Mutare General Hospital while one was
admitted at Hauna Hospital.

The lorry had 22 passengers on board.

National Traffic Police spokesperson Inspector Tigere Chigome said the
accident occurred at around 3am.

He said a few kilometres from its destination the lorry's brakes failed and
the driver lost control.

"The driver failed to negotiate a curve and the lorry veered off the road to
the right side and overturned," Insp Chigome said.

He said the farmers were likely to be coming from Mbare Musika in Harare
where they had sold their bananas.

When our Mutare Bureau visited the accident scene the wreckage was still
lying on its side.

A survivor, Admire Chidza (28) of Chavhanga in Honde Valley, said the truck's
brakes failed as they descended the treacherous road.

Speaking from his bed at Hauna Hospital, he said: "It (the truck) gained
speed and the driver tried to stop it by ramming into the roadside
embankment, but it flew into the air on impact before landing on its back.

"The driver and other passengers in the front seat were trapped and died on
the spot," Chidza said.

Manicaland Provincial Governor Christopher Mushohwe was expected to visit
the accident scene yesterday but this could not be confirmed at the time of
writing.

In the Kwekwe tragedy, Insp Chigome said the driver tried to overtake a
Tombs Motorways bus near the 236km peg along the Harare-Gweru Road.

There, however, was an oncoming vehicle that forced the kombi driver to
swerve to the left.

He lost control of the vehicle and it rolled several times, killing seven
passengers on the spot while two died on admission to Kwekwe Hospital.

Insp Chigome said the 11 injured - four of them seriously, including the
driver - were admitted at the same hospital.

In Bindura, Insp Chigome said six people died on the spot when the kombi
they were aboard flipped on the Harare-Bindura Road.

By yesterday evening, police had confirmed that another four passengers had
died in hospital.

Insp Chigome said the Toyota Hiace's right rear tyre burst resulting in the
vehicle overturning at around 3pm.

"We are still trying to ascertain the number of people who were injured
since they were taken to different hospitals in Glendale and Bindura," he
said.

Insp Chigome urged drivers to exercise caution, pointing out that police had
been deployed on all major roads ahead of the Easter holidays with all
unroadworthy vehicles being impounded.

Police recently acquired state-of-the-art speedtraps.

In July 2008, 14 farmers, including five family members, from Uzumba died
and six others were injured when their truck went off Nyaitenga River Bridge
near Nyadire Mission School, Mutoko.

The truck plunged into the river below.

The farmers were on their way to Mbare Musika. - Herald Reporter-Mutare
Bureau.

Zimbabwe Minister, Central Bank Governor Clash Over Indigenization Program

http://www1.voanews.com

Sources in the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe and news reports
said Reserve Bank Governor Gono has objected to the overall indigenization
approach which puts considerable economic power in Kasukuwere's hands

Gibbs Dube | Washington 29 March 2010

Zimbabwean Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Reserve Bank
Governor Gideon Gono have again clashed publicly over the proposed
indigenization of all firms worth more than US$500,000, with Kasukuwere
accusing Gono of coming out against the empowerment scheme in a bid to
remain politically relevant.

Sources in the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe and news reports
said Gono has objected to the overall approach of the indigenization scheme,
which puts considerable power in Kasukuwere's hands as to which companies
must cede control to blacks and which individuals will assume controlling
stakes. They said Kasukuwere is being pushed by top ZANU-PF officials with
their eyes on white-controlled companies.

Political analyst George Mkwananzi told VOA Studio 7 reporter Gibbs Dube
that the war of words between Kasukuwere and Gono signals deep policy
differences in ZANU-PF over how to carry out indigenization under the 2007
Indigenization and Empowerment Act.

VOA was unable to obtain comment from Gono or Kasukuwere on the reported
dispute.

Gono has been quoted as saying that the economy stands to suffer if the
indigenization allows white-owned firms to be seized in much the same manner
as white-owned commercial farms were taken over after 2000 under the
controversial land reform program.

"Anybody wanting to politic by suggesting that the governor is being too
emotional or that I am speaking against my principals is simply engaging in
a game of intellectual dishonesty and pettiness akin to siblings fighting
for their mother's attention," he said.

Kasukuwere, for his part, said Gono, described recently by a top ZANU-PF
official as "an attention-seeking lame-duck governor", was criticizing the
indigenization process in an effort to remain politically relevant amid
speculation he may be forced to step down.

Meanwhile, reports said Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Limited or Zimplats and
beverage manufacturer and distributor Delta Corporation have reported to the
Indigenization Ministry on their shareholding structure in compliance with
regulations promulgated last month.

Despite such moves, Bulawayo-based economist Eric Bloch said he doesn't
expect many companies to file such reports by an April 14 deadline.

Elsewhere, a delegation from the Youth League of the ruling African National
Congress of South Africa was due in Harare on Friday to gather facts about
the indigenization program.

Led by ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, the group was to meet with
its ZANU-PF counterparts and senior government officials including Youth and
Indigenization Minister Kasukuwere, according to spokeswoman Magdalene
Moonsamy.

Study Conducted in Zimbabwe Shows Benefit to HIV-Positive of Low-Cost Antibiotic

http://www1.voanews.com

Zimbabwean physician Joshua Sibanda said co-trimoxazole is already in wide
use in Zimbabwe, but the research is important because it has shown much
impact the drug can have when taken in conjunction with ARVs

Sandra Nyaira | Washington 29 March 2010

A study of HIV/AIDS patients in two African countries including Zimbabwe and
published in the British journal Lancet found the risk of death in the early
stages of the disease was much reduced if patients took a low-cost
antibiotic in addition to antiretroviral drugs.

VOA correspondent Michael Lipin in Washington reported on the study which
showed patients taking the drug, co-trimoxazole, in combination with ARVs,
had a 50 percent lower risk of death in the first 18 months.

Professor Diana Gibb of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council, a
co-author of the study, said: "We studied patients who were starting HIV
treatment and found that in the group that took co-trimoxazole alongside
ARVs, mortality was half what it was in the group which started on ARVs
alone."

"We know that ARVs on their own reduce HIV mortality by as much as 90
percent; what our study found was that the use of co-trimoxazole reduces it
further still," Gibb told VOA.

The study analyzed some 3,179 Ugandan and Zimbabwean participants in the
so-called Development of Antiretroviral Therapy in Africa trials conducted
by the Medical Research Council in the two countries for almost five years.
All participants involved had a CD4 blood cell count - a measure of immune
strength - below 200 at the start of the study.

The UN World Health Organization recommends co-trimoxazole prophylaxis for
all HIV-infected patients with a CD4 count below 350, especially in
resource-limited settings where bacterial infections and malaria are
commonplace in HIV-positive people.

The study found that the use of the antibiotic was inconsistent in Uganda
and Zimbabwe, usually "initiated or continued at discretion of the treating
clinician" despite the availability of the UN guidelines.

"Co-trimoxazole is very low-cost, it's generic and manufactured locally in
many African countries, so it is widely available and is already in wide use
as a treatment for infections such as pneumonia," Gibb said. "It's a pill a
day - just a few cents."

Zimbabwean physician Joshua Sibanda, who is based in South Africa, said the
antibiotic is already in wide use in Zimbabwe, but the research has shown
how effective the drug can be when taken in the early stages of AIDS.

Chairwoman Martha Tolana of the Zimbabwe Network for Positive Women told VOA
Studio 7 reporter Sandra Nyaira that the findings on the antibiotic's
effectiveness in reducing HIV mortality are very welcome to the many in the
country who are struggling with the disease.

National Aids Council Programs Manager Raymond Yekeye said using inexpensive
drugs along with antiretrovirals will help his organization to reduce the
number of deaths from AIDS.

Zesa fails to secure partners for power station development

http://www.herald.co.zw

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

By Tendai Mugabe

The country's power utility, Zesa Holdings is failing to secure serious
partners to develop two power stations worth US$3 billion that may help to
ease power woes bedevilling economic growth.

The two power stations, Batoka Hydro Power Station and the Gokwe North Power
Station all worth US$2,4 billion and US$1,6 billion, have remained a pipe
dream due to financial challenges.

If completed, the two power stations would have a capacity of producing more
than 2 000 megawatts capacity, which is adequate to sustain the country.

In an interview yesterday, Zesa Holdings chief executive Engineer Ben
Rafemoyo said the power utility was not getting fruitful deals from all
investors they have engaged to develop the two power stations.

"We don't want to give the nation false hope that we are about to sign any
deal for the development of the two power stations (Batoka and Gokwe power
stations). We have not yet signed any deal but discussions are still
underway with various foreign investors. However none of them has committed
to sign a deal.

"Until we sign a memorandum of understanding, that is when we are going to
say we are now making progress. We are still at the courtship stage where we
cannot promise much to the nation," he said.

Eng Rafemoyo said Government had however signed a number of agreements on
the development of mini hydro power stations across the country.

Eng Rafemoyo however said the stations would not provide power to the nation
hence the need to secure deals for major developments like the Batoka
project.

Asked on whether investors were scared to invest in the country, Eng
Rafemoyo said the country was coming from doldrums of economic meltdown and
some investors were not yet ready to take part in such huge projects.

"We cannot deny that we are coming from a background of economic problems.
As we move the recovery path, some investors are just waiting to see how
prepared are we to tackle our challenges.

"Investors at times also look other offers in the region which are more
palatable to them, but this is not today that we are setting stringent
conditions for investors," he said.

Eng Rafemoyo said the power utility was also mobilising making frantic
efforts to mobilise US$6 million to expand the Hwange Power Station with two
more generators.

Of the six generators at Hwange Power Station, only one is working and is
producing less than 200 megawatts.

It is understood that if fully funded, Hwange and Kariba power stations can
produce enough electricity for the country.

However the power utility is facing numerous challenges chief among them
being the shortage of funds.

Electricity consumers owe Zesa Holdings more than US$2 million in unpaid
dues a situation which is forcing the power utility to import power from the
region at costly charges.

Malema 'to learn' from Zimbabwe

http://www.timeslive.co.za

Mar 29, 2010 10:35 PM | By DOMINIC MAHLANGU

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema is off to Zimbabwe to learn from
President Robert Mugabe's nationalisation experience.

The league announced that Malema and eight colleagues will visit Zimbabwe on
Friday as part of their international "study-tour programme" to countries
"that have succeeded and failed" with nationalisation.

Other countries to be visited are China, Cuba, Chile, Zambia, and Botswana.

The league wants South Africa's mineral resources to be nationalised.

League spokesman Floyd Shivambu said Malema's team would pay a courtesy
visit to Mugabe during their three-day stay in Harare.

He said the group will look at all aspects of the Zimbabwean economy.

"The visit must not be seen as if we are going to be lectured, but as part
of the study tour programme of visiting countries that have succeeded or
failed with nationalisation. We will look at the good and the bad in all the
country's that we will be visiting," Shivambu said.

The league's call for the nationalisation of South Africa's mines has been
criticised by business, opposition parties and government ministers.

It has caused uncertainty among potential and current foreign investors,
resulting in President Jacob Zuma being forced to assure them that
nationalisation was not government policy.

Shivambu said that the visit to Zimbabwe would allow the league and its
Zanu-PF counterparts to share information on programmes intended to build a
better African continent

I’d rather go to jail - Malema

http://www.sowetan.co.za

30 March 2010
Ido Lekota

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema says he would rather go to jail than
stop singing liberation songs like Dubul’ ibhunu (kill the Boer).
“Apartheid took us to prison for singing these songs. If I am to be sent to
jail under the new democratic order for singing them – then so be it,” a
defiant Malema said yesterday.
On Friday the Johannesburg high court had ruled that the singing of Dubul’
ibhunu was unconstitutional and unlawful”.
In his ruling Judge Leon Halgryn said any person found singing the song
could face charges of incitement to murder.
The ruling follows Malema’s recent singing of the song while addressing
students at the University of Johannesburg.
Malema said the song was not about killing “any individuals but about
fighting the system of apartheid – which still persists even after the 1994
democratic elections”.
He accused the court of continuing to represent the interest of the ruling
class.
The application to the high court was brought by Willem Harmse, who
insinuated that Malema’s singing of the song in public had increased farm
murders.
The Freedom Front Plus has also laid a charge of incitement in the Equality
Court against Malema for singing the song. Malema is challenging the charge
.
Yesterday Malema also dismissed the ultimatum given by the Pan African Youth
Congress (Payco) that he should apologise by today or end up in the
mortuary.
“Payco and its mother body (the PAC) are dead organisations. I do not
apologise to ghosts,” Malema said.
Payco’s ultimatum came after Malema had accused the PAC of hijacking the
March 21 1960 anti-pass campaign. Malema accused PAC leader Robert Sobukwe,
who led the march in which 60 people were mowed down by apartheid security
forces, of acting irresponsibly by leading so many people to their death.
The ANC had planned to have its protest march on March 31 – but the PAC –
whose leaders had broken away from the ANC had organised their campaign on
March 21.
PAC president Letlapa Mphahlele said yesterday: “We understand the
frustrations of the youth wing. They are dealing with someone who rubbishes
everyone. ”
He said the PAC did not have a policy to kill anyone they disagreed with.
Azapo general secretary Strike Thokoane said Malema had gone “crazy and
needs to apologise”.

Reflections - ZimRights Exhibition - Photo story

Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
March 24, 2010

Zimrights planned to have a photo exhibition entitled Reflections. The purpose of this exhibition was to share photographs of the 2008 election period - including the violence of these elections and the economic hardships of these times - in order to remind Zimbabweans of where we have come from, and to prompt reflection on where we are going as a country.

The exhibition was scheduled to open on Wednesday 24 March at a Harare art gallery. By mid-day on Tuesday 23 March, the photographs were hung in the gallery and ready for the launch the next day.

But later that day, thse police came to the gallery about the exhibition. They arrested ZimRights director Okay Machisa and confiscated the pictures.

The next morning, the gallery was empty, and exhibition organisers didn't know whether they would be able to go ahead with their event. The Prime Minister was prepared to open the exhibition, pictures or no pictures.

Visit the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) fact sheet

Bridging the knowledge gap: Long walk to freedom

http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Mutumwa Mawere Tuesday 30 March 2010

OPINION: In 1995, Little Brown and Company published an autobiographical
work that began as scrapes of paper buried under the floor of former South
African President Mandela's prison cell with the title: "Long Walk of
Freedom."

In this book, Mandela describes his life journey. After all, life is nothing
but a journey that has to be travelled but whose true meaning is complicated
by the fact that humanity has not found an answer to its impermanence.

Although we are born equal, the journey of life takes us through different
addresses and each day of life brings with it its own surprises and reveals
opportunities that can defy human imagination and construction.

In coming up with the title of his autobiography, Mandela must have been
acutely cognisant of the fact that his personal journey was inextricably
linked with the journey of millions of South Africans who by law were
classified as second class citizens deserving inferior opportunities in life
and yet were endowed with the same inalienable right to liberty, justice and
freedom.

What is freedom without the means to enjoy it? When the book was published
in 1995, a year after Mandela's inauguration as the first President of a
democratic South Africa, could we safely conclude that freedom had arrived?
Was it a long march to freedom? Whose freedom was it?

Any society that exposes its citizens to long walks to freedom rather than
short walks to banks limits its own possibilities.

Africa's key brand ambassadors have acquired their fame primarily climbing
on the rough side of the mountain of opportunity often shackled in chains.

We all want to be inspired by the experiences of those we look up to and yet
the journey that brought freedom to many African states though necessary
produced leaders who were bruised in unnecessary battles.

In need freedom is latent. The majority of Africans are in need of what many
in developed countries often take for granted.

The success or failure of any struggle for emancipation must be measured in
terms of its impact on human development.

After the long march, the majority of the people remained in the valley of
despair and hopelessness.

Whose responsibility is or should it be to bring human freedom? Is freedom a
right?  What is the relationship, if any, between freedom and human
security?

Freedom is a fundamental right whose purpose is to promote and protect human
development.

Without it, human security cannot be guaranteed and the road to wealth and
prosperity is filled with roadblocks, potholes, and toll gates manned by
powerful people determined to slow the traffic.

What Mandela chose to describe as a long walk to freedom, produced an
outcome that allowed all South Africans of voting age to exercise their
power to govern through democratic means.

The power to govern is and should be a privilege granted to a people
citizens elect and can hold responsible for its use.

However, too often in many of our countries, the power to govern is easily
converted into a right like freedom by the privileged few who entry into the
journey of power ends is often characterised by an abrupt end to freedom.

In the case of South Africa, the last 16 years have produced four Presidents
and also witnessed the recall of a sitting President without using guns in
intermediating the power transfer process.

History has shown too often that absolute power causes impoverishment and
famine.

Although the freedom was meant to produce greater wealth and prosperity of
human development and of security from all forms of violence, regrettably
the long march did not end at an address that can hardly be described as a
freedom address.

Millions of Africans are still subjected to absolute privation, exposure,
famine, disease, torture, forced labour, mass murder, executions,
deportations, political violence, beatings and even war.

It is and should not be enough that a people have a right to be free.

In reviewing Mandela's journey it is easy to assign blame on him on the lack
of progress on many aspects of the human development story.

What should Mandela have done differently?  Is it fair to expect a single
individual to change the lives of many?

It is true that Mandela as a person has changed his address. He is now a
resident in areas that were restricted before the end to the journey to
freedom. The mere fact that he is now a resident of a suburb called Houghton
represents change.

Without freedom, he could only dream of calling Houghton a home. What is
important for all to learn is that even if Mandela had chosen to live in
Soweto, his pre-incarceration address, the fate of the majority of South
Africans would not have changed anyway.

With freedom, many have climbed the opportunity ladder while the majority
remain in the valley.

Some would call this a betrayal of the revolution forgetting that the
obligation of lifting one up the ladder lies and should lay with the
individual obviously with the support of his/her circle of friends, family
and colleagues.

Mandela's eyes will only allow him to see people who have access to him and
if he were to be asked, for example, to recommend an engineer, his memory
will only be able to pick names that he is familiar with.

With a population of about 48 million, it must be accepted that Mandela will
only be able to know a limited number of South Africans and yet they expect
him to know everything that is wrong and put a meaning to the concept of
freedom as if he was not fighting for his own personal freedom.

It is true that Mandela as a person has more choices than he had 20 years
ago but it would be wrong that to expect, for instance, his choices to
change the lives of all.

The struggle for independence was meant to remove all artificial and
man-made and non-market barriers created to block black human development.

The mere fact that Mandela became the first President of a democratic South
Africa represented change. After all a President is no more than a man/woman
of flesh.

He cannot and should not be expected to think for sovereign people and yet
many of us expect people in government to have more wisdom and time than we
all have to do the things that we must, should and can do for ourselves.

Mandela like many of his contemporaries has been occasionally accused of
betraying the revolution. Is it fair to have expected Mandela to bring the
kind of freedom that people expect?

Although freedom is desirable and necessary, it cannot out of itself make
people have the same access to justice and equity.

Freedom is by definition limited as a means to good ends such as the public
welfare, prosperity, peace, ethnic unity and/or national honour.

What lessons do we learn from Mandela's journey? We learn that no single
individual must and should be expected to bear the mantle to bring food to
the table, shelter and opportunities.

Freedom is only sweet if conditions exist for ordinary people to seize
opportunities to their own advantage and in doing so to the advantage of all
who benefit from transactions that are associated with human progress.

The people who blame leaders for lack of progress are the very people who do
not want leaders to have absolute power.

Absolute power requires the means to exercise it, and; if no one has
invested in the institutional arrangements to support dictatorship then
blame must be placed on the people whose silence and inaction causes tyranny
to exist and thrive.

The degrees of freedom are determined by our actions. There is no leader who
can cause followers to do that which is not in their own interest.

The human spirit is difficult to cage and the decolonisation project was
just one in many examples that demonstrate the power that lies in organised
people.

Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary outcomes not through the genius
of leaders but their own will to scale the moral mountain.

In making the observations above, one is not blind to the power that leaders
can possess in inspiring others to climb the mountain of opportunity.

Leaders can inspire only if they are also treated as human.  Any attempt to
treat leaders as superhuman is counterproductive.

Mandela, for example, can only fail because we have failed to do the things
that we want to do.

If our leaders behaved in a manner that fails to expose the power that the
people they govern want them to possess then there would be no need for
people to aspire to have useless power.

A good leader is one who acts like he is a superstar and yet for a leader to
be a superstar it would only be so because the people they govern choose to
be goal getters.

Freedom creates hope and hope makes all of us believe that tomorrow can be a
better day if we choose to act today.

Mandela was quick to point out that he was neither a saint nor prophet but
just another guy who could be in or out of power without entertaining the
feeling of indispensability.

Mandela's genius and legacy is that he knew when to let go and even when
tempted to remain in office he understood that what ultimately he was
fighting for is to making the statehouse a peoples' house rather than a
permanent address of leaders.

He could easily have fallen into the trap but South Africa was spared the
cost of enduring and sustaining leaders who believe that real change can
only emanate from their actions and choices instead of a product of the
choices of free people. - ZimOnline