International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: March 30,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's ruling party on Friday
endorsed President
Robert Mugabe as its candidate for presidential elections
to be held next
year.
ZANU-PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said that
a meeting of the party's
central committee had backed Mugabe, 83, as
candidate for the 2008
elections.
He told state television that the
meeting had proposed advancing
parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2010,
by two years to coincide with
the presidential poll.
The decision
followed an emergency southern African summit Thursday which
gave its public
backing to Mugabe despite international criticism about the
clampdown on
opposition supporters.
Mugabe appeared jubilant, surrounded by cheering
supporters in traditional
costumes, according to footage of the 145-member
congress screened by
television.
Following a meeting of the top-level
politburo earlier this week, the
83-year-old leader said he was willing to
stand in the elections for a
further six year term if nominated. He has been
the country's only leader
since independence from Britain in 1980.
In an
opening address to the 245 member committee, Mugabe urged the party
leadership to resolve its differences amicably and without resorting to the
courts or the media, state radio reported.
Tensions in the ruling
Zanu-PF party have reportedly risen because of rival
factions competing over
the succession issue and the disastrous state of the
Zimbabwean economy. The
government came in for sustained international
criticism following the
brutal clampdown earlier this month on opposition
activists.
Zimbabwe's neighbors have been pushed to take the lead on
pressuring Mugabe,
but an emergency summit of southern African leaders on
Thursday ended with a
call to work with him.
In the final communique,
the summit appealed "for the lifting of all forms
of sanctions against
Zimbabwe." It also appointed as mediator South African
President Thabo Mbeki
- who has advocated "quiet diplomacy" over
confrontation to move Zimbabwe's
factions toward dialogue and reform.
Former colonial power Britain and
other Western nations have imposed
targeted sanctions, including asset
freezes and a travel ban on Mugabe and
more than 100 of his top associates.
They argue targeted sanctions do not
hurt most Zimbabweans.
Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete, chairman of the regional bloc, said the
summit
decided "to promote dialogue of the parties in Zimbabwe. There is no
replacement to that."
State radio, the official voice of Mugabe's
government, described the
outcome of the summit as "a huge milestone for
Zimbabwe."
The radio said Mugabe's detractors at home and abroad - who
had called for
Mugabe to be censured and given a deadline to stand down -
were left with
"their tails between their legs."
"The African leaders
failed to be manipulated," it said.
In his speech to the central
committee, Mugabe reiterated longstanding
accusations that foreign
governments - notably Britain - were funding the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change. And he renewed warnings to
western ambassadors who have
criticized the government that they risked
expulsion if they interfered in
Zimbabwe's internal affairs.
The state-owned Herald newspaper said Mugabe
briefed the other southern
African leaders on what it called a "terror
campaign" by the main opposition
party, and that the summit "stood firmly
behind" Mugabe's government.
The Movement for Democratic Change party
accused Mugabe's government of
trying to demonize its critics by fabricating
allegations of an armed terror
campaign. Nine of its activists were charged
Thursday with attempted murder
in connection with a string of fire bombings,
illegal possession of a
firearm and of explosives, according to their
lawyer.
The Herald said that, arriving at Harare International Airport
upon his
return from the summit, Mugabe said African leaders urged the
Zimbabwean
opposition to desist from violence and to recognize him and his
government
"as he was legitimately re-elected by the people of Zimbabwe in
2002."
The trade union movement has called for a mass stay away from work
next
Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the economic meltdown, official
inflation, fueled by high level
corruption and black market dealing, is
1,700 percent, the highest in the
world.
News.com.au
March
31, 2007 02:23am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
ZIMBABWE
President Robert Mugabe said Friday that he had acknowledged to his
fellow
African leaders that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been
assaulted,
but said he deserved it.
"Yes, I told them he was beaten but he asked for
it," Mr Mugabe told
supporters the day after returning from a regional
summit in Tanzania.
"We got full backing, not even one criticised our
actions," the veteran
president continued.
"There is no country in
SADC (the Southern African Development Community)
that can stand up and say
Zimbabwe has faulted.
"SADC does not do that, it is not a court but an
organisation of 14
countries that cooperates with each other and supports
each other."
Mr Tsvangirai's arrest and subsequent assault on March 11
while trying to
attend an anti-government rally was widely condemned by the
West but the
SADC summit, which was meant to address the crisis in Zimbabwe,
ended up
with a statement of "solidarity" with the 83-year-old Mr Mugabe's
Government.
International Herald Tribune
By Michael Wines Published: March 30, 2007
HARARE,
Zimbabwe: To those who ask how long President Robert Mugabe can
remain in
control of Zimbabwe, given its wildfire inflation, the growing
desperation
of average people and the opposition's increasingly open hatred
of the
government, a former member of that government has an answer: longer
than
one might think.
"He will not go," said the former official, who was once
a loyal lieutenant
in Parliament and remains a member of Mugabe's governing
party. "Everyone
wants him to go. In the party everyone wants him to be
gone. But who will
stand against him? He is too powerful.
"You put my
name in your newspaper and I am dead. That is how powerful he
is."
There is a potent whiff of Potemkin in Zimbabwe
now.
Mugabe, the nation's only leader since white rule ended 27 years
ago, boasts
that he has crushed his critics and will ride popular adulation
to a new
term as president next year.
But his bravado is belied by
everyday scenes here: The 13 Chinese-made water
cannon that encircled the
soccer match on Sunday between Zimbabwe and
Morocco, poised to put down
rioting; the warnings on state radio to "leave
politics to the politicians";
the crackdown in urban slums, where the police
break up gatherings of more
than four or five people and arrest anyone who
is spotted carrying gasoline,
apparently fearing that it may be used in
firebombs.
Among political
analysts and dissidents alike, Mugabe's situation is reduced
to a single
buzzword: endgame.
He presides over a nation crushed by inflation of
about 1,700 percent a
year. People revile him, his party grasps for a way to
force him from office
and even his southern African neighbors, long his
enablers, are meeting with
him in Tanzania this week, hoping to ease him
into retirement, many analysts
say.
Yet it is unclear how easily
anyone could pry loose Mugabe's grip on power.
In interviews here,
politicians aligned with the government, opposition
leaders, an army
deserter and a former police official all described a
rising tide of
unhappiness in the political and security organs that sustain
his
rule.
Many acknowledged the possibility of his departure, but none said
the
opposition or elements of Mugabe's own government had the will or
ability to
topple him - at least for now.
The governing bodies of the
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
are expected to endorse
Mugabe's bid to run again for president at meetings
on Friday, despite deep
dissatisfaction with his rule. Nor do the police and
military appear to be
abandoning him, even though conditions are so bad that
soldiers must buy
light bulbs for their own barracks.
"Most of the police I interact with,
they hate the government," said the
former police official, who recently
left his post. "But they will carry out
orders, most of them. I think the
police are loyal."
The source of the president's longevity is no secret.
The former police
official and others described a system of perquisites that
keeps government
officials and political allies personally beholden to
Mugabe and an arsenal
of threats and reprisals that keeps potential
dissenters from acting on
their desires.
Mugabe long ago won the
loyalty of a powerful force - the guerrillas who
fought in Zimbabwe's
liberation struggle in the 1970s - by granting them
huge pension bonuses
and, in 2000, allowing them to seize the nation's best
farmland from white
commercial farmers.
Since then, the veterans have become a rogue force in
Zimbabwean politics,
staging raids on the homes of opponents and beating and
intimidating them,
according to human rights groups and critics of the
government.
But the land seizures served another purpose as well.
Countless officials in
the government, Parliament, the judiciary, the
military and the police have
been given their own farms as a reward for
their loyalty - and stand to lose
their land should they stray.
The
village headmen and other traditional leaders in Zimbabwe's rural areas
have
vehicles, courtesy of the government. So do all ranking police and
military
officers. Crossing Mugabe would mean the loss of those and other
perks.
One 23-year-old Zimbabwean fled last year with nine other
conscripts from
Unit 21, an army barracks in Mutoka, about 145 kilometers,
or 90 miles,
outside Harare. "I decided to quit because of the situation -
money,
transport costs, working conditions," he said.
"There was a
shortage of food, even of mealie meal," the ground corn that is
Zimbabwe's
food staple, he said.
"But the top officer," a lieutenant general, "has
kids. They don't pay
school fees. He has a car. He has free fuel. He has a
farm. And sometimes,
when we didn't have anything to do, we were taken to
his farm to do work. I
did plowing."
Such grievances, combined with
miserable pay, have pushed military
desertions and police resignations to
record levels, people in all camps
here said. But, they continued, new
recruits are not disaffected and, in a
nation where 8 in 10 workers are
jobless, are desperate to hold on to even a
meager paycheck.
Two
weeks ago, police officers rounded up scores of opposition protesters
who
sought to hold a banned meeting and beat them severely, sending many to
hospitals. For their work, the former police official said, the officers
were paid bonuses of 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars a day, or about
$5.
This week, the police detained Morgan Tsvangirai, a prominent
opposition
leader, yet again; he was released on Thursday.
Virtually
every Zimbabwean interviewed suggested that Mugabe's authority
might in fact
be a fiction that would fold in the face of a real public
challenge or a
revolt in his party. The police and the military would not
flinch at gunning
down 200 demonstrators if ordered, they said; shooting at
10,000 might be
another matter.
"Maybe if people demonstrate for real, showing that they
are angry, the
soldiers will have a chance to turn against the government,"
the army
deserter said, echoing others. "But people fear too
much."
So do the rank and file of Mugabe's ruling party.
"He has
files on everyone," the former member of Parliament said, "and if
anyone
expresses dissent, those files come out. 'You did this, or you did
that,'
and you are ruined - just like that."
He chuckled. "Maybe something
unnatural will happen," he said. "Maybe a bomb
will fall from the
sky."
BBC
30 March 2007, 03:43 GMT 04:43 UK
By Peter Greste
BBC
News, Dar es Salaam
Before the summit of 14 of southern
Africa's leaders opened,
Zimbabwe's critics had hoped that at the very least
Robert Mugabe would get
a private dressing-down as well as a few pointed
public rebukes.
But when he left smiling for reporters it was clear
that his
colleagues had done nothing of the sort.
We still do
not know what transpired behind the hotel's gilded doors,
but the final
communiqué gave no sense of urgency or pressure.
What it did offer
was South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, as a
facilitator for talks
between Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and
President Mugabe's government.
The summit chairman, Tanzania's
President Jakaya Kikwete, said that
that decision alone was a
breakthrough.
He described it as a landmark and to be fair, it
is a departure from
the deeply-held principle of non-interference in the
internal affairs of
member states here.
The final communiqué
also called for a study group to look at
Zimbabwe's plunging economy and
come up with ways to help. It urged the West
to end economic sanctions and
engage diplomatically.
But the communiqué was also significant for
what it left out.
It said nothing about timelines or dates, it gave
no benchmarks for
progress and said nothing about what might happen if Mr
Mbeki's talks fail.
Regional strife
Yet the urgency is
real. Zimbabwe's economy has already plunged
through the floor, with
inflation now over 1,700% and eight out of 10
workers without a
job.
The government security services have taken to beating
opposition
supporters and accusing MDC activists of fire-bombing police
stations and
preparing for guerrilla war.
In that environment
it is hard to see what middle ground there might
be for Mr Mbeki's
negotiations, but it might all be academic if he does not
move
fast.
Few people believe Zimbabwe is going to plunge into civil war
next
week or next month, but it is heading in that direction.
Without urgent and dramatic action, it is not just Zimbabwe that is in
danger of slipping into conflict.
The country's neighbours,
South Africa chief amongst them, would
probably have to deal with a flood of
impoverished and desperate refugees,
and any violence could well follow
close behind.
So self-interest alone would seem to inspire more
robust action.
Yet the region's leaders have decided that the
greater priority is to
stick together rather than to risk internal
dissent.
Overall, these measures will disappoint those who had
hoped to see
southern African leaders discipline Robert Mugabe for the
recent political
crackdown on opposition protests.
It also
defied those who suggested that for their own sakes the 13
leaders would
ramp up their efforts to avoid the regional crisis that civil
war would
inevitably provoke.
The Guardian
Once again
southern Africa's leaders have pulled their punches over
Zimbabwe's crisis.
Yet Robert Mugabe is looking increasingly shaky.
Adam
Roberts
A critical moment: president Robert Mugabe at this week's
summit in Dar es
Salaam.
Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty
Images.
Zimbabwe's embattled and ageing president, Robert Mugabe, rushed off
this
week to a meeting of southern African leaders to discuss the dreadful
condition of his country. After ordering his police to beat up the main
opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, earlier this month, he has been
cracking down with energy befitting a younger man on anyone who dares speak
out against repression.
Mr Mugabe's message to the rest of the region
is that the violence in
Zimbabwe is all the fault of the opposition. Some
fellow presidents,
perhaps, may now grumble that Mr Mugabe's misrule is
giving the southern bit
of Africa (which is otherwise rather peaceful and
prosperous at the moment)
a bad name. But, as we note in the Economist this
week, don't expect much
public criticism of the elder statesman - Mr Mugabe
is 83 - however often
his opponents have their skulls cracked.
It's
true that Zambia's president, Levy Mwanawasa, has likened Zimbabwe to
the
foundering Titanic. And one or two minor politicians in South Africa and
Mozambique have muttered that until Mr Mugabe is finally shoved out of
office, there is no chance of tackling the human and economic disaster of
Zimbabwe. But the main concern of South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, is
to preserve quiet diplomacy, which means trying ineffectually to find a
graceful exit for Mr Mugabe, without letting Mr Tsvangirai take
over.
South Africa alone among foreign countries has the means to
influence Mr
Mugabe and, perhaps, to get him out of office. Of course, the
big neighbour
cannot simply order regime change: America's failed efforts to
get change in
Cuba, or China's in North Korea, or the EU towards Belarus,
are testimony to
the difficulties of tackling troublesome little
dictatorships in your
backyard.
But the chances are that Mr Mbeki, if
he chose to do so, could persuade the
rest of Africa's leaders, along with
influential politicians within
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF, to turn against
the increasingly isolated old
man. Yet South Africa is loth to do so if that
means Mr Tsvangirai, a former
trade union leader, ousting Mr Mugabe's
independence party. That has too
scary resonances for Mr Mbeki's ruling
African National Congress, which
worries about a serious opposition emerging
one day from the trade union
ranks in South Africa.
Yet, there is
still hope that Mr Mugabe may go soon. Change will come not
from the
opposition, nor from the neighbourhood, but from within the ruling
party.
Last week in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, I was struck by how many
little
things are changing. The state-controlled press is not so fawning
towards
the president these days: many articles describe the misery of
ordinary life
and even dare to suggest that it is time for Mr Mugabe to hang
up his boots.
Such a thing would not have been seen even two years ago.
Politicians
closely connected to the ruling party told me bluntly that Mr
Mugabe has
become a feeble old man, a liability for the country and the
party, who must
not be allowed to run in next year's presidential election.
It is clear that
"big men" in the ruling party are worried that more
economic collapse may
hurt their own business empires. When Mr Mugabe no
longer serves the
self-interest of the powerful players around him, even he
will not be able
to hang on.
For the Economist's full briefing on Zimbabwe this week, see
here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
streathamite
Comment
No. 503680
March 30 12:32
GBR
the author has not acquainted
himself with the rather large gap between
public rhetoric and private
reality in Southern African politics.
in public, Mbeki, Mwanamasa, guebuza et
al will close up and present a
united, rocklike face before those dam'
Europeans. In private, you can
guarantee Mugabe will have been told - in no
uncertain terms - that it's
over. Mbeki doesn't want turmoil on the northern
border preventing him from
his aim of turning RSA into the regional
superpower (only african rival;
Nigeria); and the rest have had quite enough
of turmoil. Wars in this part
of the world have a tradition od spilling over
borders; THAT is the thing
they wish most of all to avoid.
But spot-on as
to the internal situation; I think ZANU-PF now sees the Old
Man as a
liability, to the point where a palace coup now seems
inevitable.
Naco
Comment No. 503734
March 30
12:54
GBR
Streatham...
I agree with you in most things, but not
when you say wars in this region
have a history of spilling over.In fact,
that last major war in the SADC
region(pronounced Sadec was in Angola in the
Mid 90's, and it didn't spill
over to other countries.The last major war
before that was the Mozambique
civil war and the Zimbabwean and SA
liberations struggle, if you could call
the latter a war.In general, the
region rarely gets into armed
confrontation, the reason why Zimbabwe is very
unlikely to experience civil
war itself.I believe that except one Kingdom,
all the countries in the
region are democracies.And then there is
Zimbabwe.
ridaghaffari
Comment No. 503768
March 30
13:07
PAK
What is happening in Zimbabwe is an attempt to strangle an
independent state
whose leadership - I admit it's not perfect - has dared to
challenge the
Washington Consensus and implement land reforms, in a
continent where
country after country including South Africa and Nigeria has
paid the price
of kowtowing to imperialism and neoliberalism.Mugabe is no
Hugo Chavez but
he is one of only a handful of world leaders willing to
challenge
imperialism and refuse to sell out the freedom his people won
after a bloody
struggle in 1980.Both Britain and the US want to impose a
client regime in
Harare by either pitting potential ZANU-PF turncoats
against Mugabe or
bringing in Tsvirangai, who is well-known as a sympathizer
of the free
market and accepting aid from NGOs like the Soros Foundation and
USAID,
which are the same organizations which ushered in the drab colour
revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kirghizistan.Tsvirangai's profile as a
"dissident" has been overblown by the docile British media.He is no
different from his other African cousins like Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Mbeki
&
Co.Also, imperialism is doing its best to divide the Africans by
pressurizing docile "good" Africans like Mbeki and Mkapa of Tanzania to push
Mugabe out.
Robert Mugabe is the last embodiment of African leaders
who were/are truly
faithful to the idea of "Africa for the Africans".He had
very few
opportunities after independence in 1980 to really lead Zimbabwe as
an
independent, anti-imperialist state but to his credit, he did not
sell-out
to imperialism like many of the successors of his generation have
in places
like South Africa, Ghana, Mali, Uganda,Senegal and Guinea.If you
think that
just by getting rid of Mugabe, a democracy will be installed in
Zimbabwe at
the point of a bayonet, you are wrong.Just look at Iraq, Saddam
wasn't a
great democrat but at least he emancipated Iraqi women, and gave
Iraqis free
health and education, and Iraq was an independent state unlike
other Arab
states.Mugabe won't be bought like Gaddafi and Rawlings
shamelessly were.He
will remain true to his ideals of pan-African
nationalism.It is a shame that
he is surrounded by African states who all do
the bidding of Washington,
Paris or London, as the case maybe and don't look
after African interests.
itstrueekse
Comment No.
503799
March 30 13:18
I have to declare some considerable interest
here: I am an ex Rhodie (I
chose to be one having emigrated from the UK)and
now I live in South Africa.
When confronted with my implicit, if not
actually explicit, support for the
apartheid regime I always said 'this is
for South Africans to sort out - I
am an expatriate here and I don't believe
I have the right to tell the
citizens of this country how to go about their
business'. Call it a cop-out
if you will, but exactly the same situation now
exists in Zimbabwe - we
can't engineer regime-change, only the Zimbabweans
can do that, and their
right to do so should not be usurped by any or all of
their neighbours. By
all means outsiders should put the pressure on, as was
the case for South
Africa and which helped the Nats and the ANC to sit down
and agree the route
to real democracy (whatever that is supposed to be). Not
until Mugabe and
his successor come to the table will Zimbabwe's woes cease
to get any worse,
and this is what the SADEC leaders have to force onto the
old man if they
can. You may not have covered the latest story that
Zimbabweans have
threatened to disrupt the world cup in 2010. Now there is a
seriously
important reason for this business to be sorted
out!
AnneH
Comment No. 503849
March 30
13:35
NOR
The problems Zimbabwe are facing today are the result of
historical
injustices, regional inertia and, by far most importantly,
internal economic
mismanagment and political repression. To paint Mr Mugabe
as some sort of
lonely hero facing a western conspiracy against his country
is an insult to
the many Zimbabweans who have seen their political freedoms,
economic
livelihoods and personal health crumble under his rule. Adam
Roberts is
right: the main problem Zimbabwe faces today is an ageing
dictator afraid to
let go. This does not mean that things will inevitably
get better when he
leaves, but it does mean that they will certainly not get
better as long as
he stays on.
Jamozki
Comment No.
503871
March 30 13:42
USA
ridaghaffari, your utter nonsense has
no place here. Are you seriously
trying to tell me that Mugabe's disastrous
economic policies are all due to
him refusing to "sell out" to the west? I
won't even begin to go into the
reasons that your train of thought in all
this is so flawed, as quite simply
there is not enough space here for it.
All I can say is that idiots like you
go on about "Africa for Africans" etc
when these kind of policies bring
nothing but disaster. The fact is that
Mugabe has brought ruin and
devastation to his people and his country. He
has brought a thriving economy
to it's knees and yet you would have us
believe it's all the fault of the US
and Britain? What planet do you
actually live on ridaghaffari? Utter
moron...
cameron3
Comment
No. 503897
March 30 13:50
Quite simply, Mbeki would love to start
seizing farms too and end up
decimating the country's agricultural sector.
He wholeheartedy agrees with
Mugabe's policies and for purely ideological
reasons, would like to follow
suit as soon as is opportune. I think many
have real difficulty
understanding just how entrenched amongst Africa's
elite is the view that
all their problems are somehow related to some
distant colonial past whose
legacy they need to destroy before they can move
on. Feeding their own
people and preventing HIV are really secondary
concerns of theirs. It's all
very well to stick your fingers up at the West
and call Tony Blair 'gay'
like a gibbering madman, but the kind of disdain
Mugabe and his cronies have
shown their own people is truly evil. May he
choke on his own vom.
jackzilroy
Comment No.
504003
March 30 14:22
GBR
I hope the Zimbabwean opposition have
compiled long lists of names of people
who have been supporting Mugabe. And
I hope they take a leaf out of Franco's
book and put them all up against a
wall, or if that would be too ballsy,
then at least see that they start
disappearing.
Minesaguinness
Comment No. 504025
March 30
14:30
Mugabe's land reform/grab was unleashed in order to retain power,
following
his defeat in the 2000 constitutional vote and other protests from
his
erstwhile strongest supporters, the war vets. His fear of eventually
ending
up in the Hague for his atrocities in Matabeleland was the driving
force,
not to right a colonial wrong. The beneficiaries of the land
redistribution
have been his Zanu-PF cronies, not the landless majority. As
well as
destroying the mainstay of the economy, agriculture (tobacco
production down
from 2 million tonnes to 60 thousand tonnes), hundreds of
thousands of black
farm workers have been displaced in addition to losing
the expertise of the
white farmers to the region.
Mbeki's silence on
the issue is deafening.
Mugabe is seen as a hero by many rank-and-file in the
ANC,
and they are Mbeki's base. His calling for the targetted sanctions to be
lifted is ridiculous (they only apply to Mugabe and his cohorts), as is
Mugabe's claim that the sanctions are the reason for Zimbabwe's economic
collapse.
Mugabe and Zanu-PF inherited a jewel of a country,
but
they treated it as the spoils of war,
they have raped and degraded it and its
people.
Those whoe support them should hang their heads in
shame.
tarinuk
Comment No. 504081
March 30
14:51
GBR
ridaghaffari are you currently residing in an igloo on Mars
perhaps?
Dakard
Comment No. 504184
March 30
15:25
NOR
JackZilroy, do you really believe that Mbeki wants to do the
same as Mugabi
and turn SA's economy to shit? Many West African leaders have
been saying
for years now that to continue blaming the past for the present
ills of the
continent is pointless and wrong. So not all of Africa's elites
are still
blaming the past. Yet to deny any responsibility for the
inadequate systems
we left in place is also wrong.
As others have said,
until those around him start to see their fortunes in
down instead of up,
Mugabe will not be removed. And Mbeki will not speak out
against someone who
he still sees as a victor against white rule.
SeerTaak
Comment No.
504193
March 30 15:30
GBR
streathamite:"the author has not
acquainted himself with the rather large
gap between public rhetoric and
private reality in Southern African
politics."
I agree there is a
large gap, but I doubt it often works in favour of the
politicians.
streathamite:"in public, Mbeki, Mwanamasa, guebuza et al
will close up and
present a united, rocklike face before those dam'
Europeans. In private, you
can guarantee Mugabe will have been told - in no
uncertain terms - that it's
over."
Why can you guarantee that? Why
would you even think that? Mbeki, like
Mandela, has shown consistent support
for other totalitarian governments and
clearly their own political views are
not that far removed from Mugabe or
Saddam or Castro. So why would you think
any such thing? More likely they
tell Black South Africans what they think
they want to hear (Mugabe is a
hero and Whitey deserves it) while telling
White South Africans what they
think they want to hear (we cannot break
ranks but we are deeply concerned
and are working hard in private to bring
about a face-saving change) while
telling Mugabe something like the Truth
(we are with you Comrade).
streathamite:"Mbeki doesn't want turmoil on
the northern border preventing
him from his aim of turning RSA into the
regional superpower (only african
rival; Nigeria)"
Actually Mbeki
inherited the position of regional superpower from the
Whites. No other
power in Africa can challenge RSA.
streathamite:"Wars in this part of the
world have a tradition od spilling
over borders; THAT is the thing they wish
most of all to avoid."
Although Zimbabwe looks like spilling over as it
is. First it was soldiers
in Congo and now it is Angolans in
Zimbabwe.
streathamite:"I think ZANU-PF now sees the Old Man as a
liability, to the
point where a palace coup now seems inevitable."
I
agree. The only thing that Marxist Leninist tend to agree on is the
importance of power. Mugabe is coming to the point where he threatens the
Party.
sebuksa
Comment No. 504246
March 30
15:50
GBR
I can see the point ridaghaffari is trying to make. We have
seen from Iraq,
countries that have relative stability under dictator
control do tend to
fall apart when the dictators have been removed. This is
not the case
however with Zimbabwe, the country is already in a state of
turmoil and yes
Mubabe might argue that this is for freedom of hid people,
but he is not the
one that is having to live in poverty and he has the
luxury of being
protected from the daily violence that people in Zimbabwe
have to endure.
sheeptaco
Comment No. 504247
March 30
15:50
CHE
Strange to see Mugabe being treated like a poster boy. It is
interesting to
wonder where people who bandy about words like imperialists
and
neoliberalism actually live. No doubt, safely bedded down in sound
countries
that they would consider imperialist, neoliberal and all other
pejorative
terms a sour person can spew forth.
If Africa is for
Africans could these anti-imperialists ask themselves what
millions of
Africans are doing residing anywhere but in their own
anti-imperialist
countries and why. These millions who experienced
colonialism/imperialism
drifted everywhere else except Mugabe's country
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe
despite his anti-West, anti-white government attracted no one, not
even the
most virulent and anyone who had the good sense to leave did and
that
included 2 million desperate black Zimbabweans.
Diseased minds see
imperialists and neoliberalism everywhere. Suffice it to
say that millions
did not feel the need to emigrate under imperialist rule
when there was such
a thing.
OldGray
Comment No. 504287
March 30
16:07
USA
Am I the only one who has noticed (sheeptaco you do too.)
that almost none
of those who extole the virtues of countries like Cuba, N.
Korea, Iran,
Zimbabwe... ever seem to emigrate to those lands of justice,
prosperity, and
bliss for all. Strangely they reside in the UK or the US or
a similar land
of imperialists, capitalist pigs, and warmongers. Talk is
cheap. If you
really want to see people vote, don't listen to them talk,
watch their feet.
Does anyone migrate from the US or UK to
Zimbabwe?
Kogilan
Comment No. 504310
March 30
16:17
CAN
I don't understand the reticence of South Africa's Mbeki and
others. When
The ANC called on Britain and the US to renounce its links with
apartheid
South Africa the standard answer was that the Brits and Yanks
could exercise
a moderating influence over the Afrikaners, etc etc. In other
words the
Whites could never quite get themselves to oppose the South
African Whites.
How times have NOT changed. Now Blacks cannot bring
themselves to criticise
Blacks (except for the great Tutu). This hypocrisy
is at the root of so much
that is wrong with Africa. Look where it was. Look
where it is. A once
fertile and rich continent where Africans still scrabble
for a living
despite enormous wealth. African political leaders have taken
to corrupt
practices with a vengeance. Sorry: African leadership is shallow
and without
integrity. For once they cannot blame the US and Europe. Mugabe
is a
disgrace. those who support his regime are tainted. It is time for
Africans
to deal with their own shortcomings
honestly.
Waspy
Comment No. 504322
March 30
16:23
BHS
ridaghaffari: "Robert Mugabe is the last embodiment of
African leaders who
were/are truly faithful to the idea of "Africa for the
Africans"
-----------------------------------
Would you also be
supportive of a European leader who had a stated policy of
'Europe for
Europeans'?
TheFamousEccles
Comment No. 504368
March 30
16:45
USA
If you want to see Mbeki sping into dramatic action, just
tell him that
Mugabe is really Ian Smith in disguise. Hypocricy
rules!
Uhuru
Comment No. 504418
March 30
17:03
IND
People are being too hard on "ridaghaffari". It is true that
Zimbabwe's
current woes are the fault of the West. Mugabe has tried as hard
as he can
to get his economy working again but the West just won't give him
a chance.
And the truth, OldGray, is that North Korea really isn't that bad.
Sure
there are occasional food shortages but again, have you thought why
that
might be? There's an emabargo on North Korea. The West simply won't
give
that place a chance either. Same goes for Cuba. And I fear for Chavez
in
Venezuala. Just watch the U.S. tighten the screws there over the next
couple
of years. At the moment Venezuala is booming and the powers that be
in some
Western Capitals don't like that so they will plot to ruin the
economy. It's
exactly what happened in Zimbabwe. Through the 80s and 90s the
country
prospered under Mugabe. But when the great leader started to speak
out
against Washington and B-Liar in London, then things started to go bad.
Have
you noticed that?
streathamite
Comment No.
504494
March 30 17:35
GBR
OldGray - am i the only one to have
noticed that you ain't the sharpest tool
in the box?
NO-ONE is saying
that Cuba is paradise on earth - what progressives will do
is stand up for
her right to decide her own course, free from interference
by a certain
superpower which is rather too fond of global bullying.
SeerTaak said
"Why
can you guarantee that? Why would you even think that?"
one word; STABILITY.
the SA economy is brittle, and over-dependent on
mining. a totally imploded
zim will not only cause SA a huge illegal
immigrant problem 9the border is
virtually impossible to secure totally) but
will inevitable affect the SA
one adversely. Equally, SA is a multi-ethnic
nation, certainly not free of
intertribal strife, and such volatility could
have serious spinoffs.
and
this goes for africa's richest economy. imagine how much worse it would
be
for zambia or botswana.
"Mbeki, like Mandela, has shown consistent support
for other totalitarian
governments"
he owes a debt to Mugabe and ZANu
which he has to be seen to repay, but
beyond that his position on zimbabwe
is usually silence. he is caught
between not being seen to sell out someone
with a glorious anti-imperialist
past - and not being seen as dodgy on human
rights. he's in a bind.
and sorry, but you're wrong. He has NOT shown support
to ANY other
authoritarian regime (which is the word you want - zim is NOPT
a
totalitarian state, in the sense that the 3rd Reich or soviet russia
were).
"and clearly their own political views are not that far removed
from Mugabe
or Saddam or Castro."
There is a world of difference between
each of these leaders and if you do
not know that difference you're in no
fit state to comment.
and again, you are wrong. Mbeki has 100% democratic and
progressive history
and views, albeit in a very paternalistic way (and with
the exception of
AIDS, on which issue he is simply an ignoramus). Not one
bit of
state-sponsored HR erosion has gone on inside RSA borders during his
time in
office.
In fact, the arrival of full democracy in RSA in 1994 saw
the constitution
tightened and strengthened considerably, and in general the
ANC have
generally played it straight, above and beyond the usual
posturing.
francaise
Comment No.
504534
March 30 17:58
FRA
humbug is now unofficially the
dominant commen global policy - pace
zimbabwe, the un response to the
iran/uk dispute, the palestinian/israeli
crisis, the joke that is the new
"power-sharing agreement" in ulster, pfi,
ppp, the IT con on the nhs etc. et
al, ad infinitum absurdio
SeerTaak
Comment No. 504537
March
30 17:59
GBR
TheFamousEccles:"If you want to see Mbeki sping into
dramatic action, just
tell him that Mugabe is really Ian Smith in disguise.
Hypocricy rules!"
If only Smith had known - he could have dressed like a
Black and White
Minstrel! Would anyone have cared about Rhodesian human
rights if the
government was African? I think not.
Uhuru:"People are
being too hard on "ridaghaffari". It is true that
Zimbabwe's current woes
are the fault of the West. Mugabe has tried as hard
as he can to get his
economy working again but the West just won't give him
a chance. And the
truth, OldGray, is that North Korea really isn't that bad.
Sure there are
occasional food shortages but again, have you thought why
that might be?
There's an emabargo on North Korea. The West simply won't
give that place a
chance either. Same goes for Cuba. And I fear for Chavez
in Venezuala. Just
watch the U.S. tighten the screws there over the next
couple of years. At
the moment Venezuala is booming and the powers that be
in some Western
Capitals don't like that so they will plot to ruin the
economy. It's exactly
what happened in Zimbabwe. Through the 80s and 90s the
country prospered
under Mugabe. But when the great leader started to speak
out against
Washington and B-Liar in London, then things started to go bad.
Have you
noticed that?"
Wonderful. What a brilliant piece of satire. There's an
embargo on North
Korea? By whom exactly? Surely we all support saving North
Koreans from
being exploited by international monopoly
capitalism?
streathamite:"NO-ONE is saying that Cuba is paradise on earth
- what
progressives will do is stand up for her right to decide her own
course,
free from interference by a certain superpower which is rather too
fond of
global bullying."
I think that you will find many
"progressives" will say that Cuba is as
close as Latin America gets to a
paradise. They want more than for Cuba to
be allowed to decide her own
course - although of course, that is precisely
what America is allowing them
to do.
streathamite:"one word; STABILITY. the SA economy is brittle, and
over-dependent on mining. a totally imploded zim will not only cause SA a
huge illegal immigrant problem 9the border is virtually impossible to secure
totally) but will inevitable affect the SA one adversely."
South
Africa has a massive illegal immigrant problem - some three million
Zimbabweans. Not that there is a lot of signs they care about the quality of
life down in the ex-Townships or among Blacks in general. However more
worrying for them would be the idea that the international community might
hold *them* responsible if they get away with holding Mugabe responsible.
Don't want to set that sort of precedent.
streathamite:"Equally, SA
is a multi-ethnic nation, certainly not free of
intertribal strife, and such
volatility could have serious spinoffs."
All of which would strengthen
the ANC as they could impose martial law or
the
like.
streathamite:"he owes a debt to Mugabe and ZANu which he has to be
seen to
repay, but beyond that his position on zimbabwe is usually silence.
he is
caught between not being seen to sell out someone with a glorious
anti-imperialist past - and not being seen as dodgy on human rights. he's in
a bind."
No he is not. He has simply chosen to put politics before
humanity. He is a
friend of The People, but not
people.
streathamite:"and sorry, but you're wrong. He has NOT shown
support to ANY
other authoritarian regime (which is the word you want - zim
is NOPT a
totalitarian state, in the sense that the 3rd Reich or soviet
russia were)."
That is utterly not true. Mandela has frequently spoken in
support of
Castro, Qaddafi and Saddam. Zimbabwe cannot get away with being
totalitarian
I suppose, and for a long time did not need to as ZANU won
elections. But I
would say while it is not as totalitarian as the USSR, it
is more so than
Nazi Germany which was not very
totalitarian.
streathamite:"There is a world of difference between each
of these leaders
and if you do not know that difference you're in no fit
state to comment."
Oh really? Do tell. What is the difference between the
"former" Marxist
Leninists in the ANC and in Cuba? I agree Saddam was in a
proto-Fascist
Party but one that took a lot of advice from the USSR, copied
many of its
structures, and given that they are all "former" now, I think
there is a
great deal in common between them all.
streathamite:"Mbeki
has 100% democratic and progressive history and views,
albeit in a very
paternalistic way (and with the exception of AIDS, on which
issue he is
simply an ignoramus)."
I agree totally with that - but according to what
the Left means by
democratic and progress (ie
Marxist).
streathamite:"Not one bit of state-sponsored HR erosion has
gone on inside
RSA borders during his time in office."
Apart from the
end of independence in the civil service, and the repression
or buying off
of political alternatives.
Waspy
Comment No.
504561
March 30 18:08
BHS
Uhuru: "Through the 80s and 90s the
country prospered under Mugabe. But when
the great leader started to speak
out against Washington and B-Liar in
London, then things started to go bad.
Have you noticed that?"
------------------------------------
The
economy didn't decline because he spoke out against Britain and the
US.
It declined partly because of his involvement in the war in the
Congo.
The economy then really went into a nos dive when he seized the
land of
white farmers who were a major source of foreign currency earnings
in
Zimbabwe.
When that sector of the economy collapsed they ran into
huge current account
deficits which sparked a major rise in
inflation.
It's almost entirely Mugabe's fault so don't put this on the
West.
This is what started the
collapse:
===========================================
In the middle of
Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis since independence in
1980, President
Robert Mugabe's government is reported to be spending
millions of dollars
each month on the war.
Zimbabwe does not share a common boundary with the
DR Congo, and is under no
strategic threat from within the
country.
Instead, there are signs that Harare is pouring money into
the war with the
hope of reaping longer-term financial rewards from its
relationship with DR
Congo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/611898.stm
===========================================
This
is what made it fall even
further:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gideon Gono, the
governor of the central reserve bank, appeared to
acknowledge that his
nation had been shattered by Mr Mugabe's "land reform
programme".
According to the state-owned Herald newspaper, Mr Gono
also acknowledged
that the lack of food production had led to food imports
gobbling up foreign
currency reserves desperately needed for fuel and spare
parts for machinery.
advertisement
Mr Gono told a panel of MPs in
Harare that many black farmers, including
politicians, who resettled on
former white-owned farms, were failing to
produce food.
"There are
some people who have become professional land occupiers,
vandalising
equipment and moving from one farm to another," Mr Gono told a
parliamentary
committee on home affairs.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/01/wzim01.xml
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
IbnHaldun
Comment
No. 504586
March 30 18:24
It appears that human rights violation
is allowed when the violator is of
the right ethnicity (as is the case of
Darfur).
It is difficult to understand how some people still view the "new"
South
Africa's as a moral compass.
FLYSWATTER
Comment No.
504590
March 30 18:27
SEN
Adam Roberts claims that Mugabe
ordered the Zimbabwe police to 'beat up
Tsvangirai'. This is just
amusing--because I just don't think Mugabe gets
involved in the minor
details of police work.
But the question remains: why are the Western
media spending so much time on
a small African country? The answer is
simple! It's because Mugabe--pushed
by the war veterans--decided to reverse
the British colonial policy of
massive land theft--in colonial Zimbabwe. Idi
Amin burst onto the pages of
the Western media for the same reason: he chose
to reverse British colonial
policy in the same arrogant high-handed way the
British colonial government
implemented it.
That's exactly what
happens when ordinary mortals--in the guise of any of
those silly and
pompous European colonial governments--foolishly believe
that they are a cut
above their fellow humans. Things must indeed be
desperate when in order to
save what's left of their faces they have to rely
on Tshombe-like figures
like faux Captain Morgan Tsvangirai.
bigjake
Comment No.
504686
March 30 19:21
GBR
Mugabe is a vicious, murdering,
tyrannical pig of a man.Excuses don't cut
the mustard;he does'nt give a
solitary F... about his people,his orders are
responsible for the deaths of
thousands of men women and children.He is a
scumbag of the first rank.
No
leader of men with any humanity and sand in his soul behaves like Mugabe.
It
is high time he was'nt here.
bigjake
Comment No.
504687
March 30 19:21
GBR
Mugabe is a vicious, murdering,
tyrannical pig of a man.Excuses don't cut
the mustard;he does'nt give a
solitary F... about his people,his orders are
responsible for the deaths of
thousands of men women and children.He is a
scumbag of the first rank.
No
leader of men with any humanity and sand in his soul behaves like Mugabe.
It
is high time he was'nt here.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs -
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Date: 30 Mar
2007
DAR ES SALAAM, 30
March 2007 (IRIN) - Analysts have dismissed a regional
summit called to
discuss the situation in Zimbabwe as a "non-event" after
leaders at the
two-day Southern African Development Community (SADC)
extraordinary summit
in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, resolved to
curb political
confrontation in the country ahead of next year's elections.
Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete, who heads SADC's security arm, told a
press
conference late on Thursday that the summit had asked South African
President Thabo Mbeki to lead the task of promoting dialogue between
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
The summit followed running battles between
pro-democracy activists and the
police in Zimbabwe, in which an opposition
supporter was shot dead by
police, and opposition leaders, including Morgan
Tsvangirai of the MDC, were
arrested and allegedly beaten in custody earlier
this month. Major news
channels across the world have shown images of their
injuries.
Zimbabwe has been simmering for the past two months, but the
situation has
taken a violent turn since the police imposed a ban on
political rallies in
February. Strikes and protests to highlight the
worsening economic situation
have now given way to bombings of police
stations, a passenger train and a
supermarket, among other targets across
the country.
"You have the opposition complaining of infringement on
their rights, and on
the other hand the government accusing the opposition
of violence and
disobedience of the law," said Kikwete. "The situation is
not good both ways
and SADC has decided to act."
John Makumbe, a
Zimbabwe-based political analyst, commented: "The outcome of
the summit was
quite disappointing for the people of Zimbabwe. There was no
mention of
human rights abuse by the state machinery, let alone any
condemnation. The
appointment of Mbeki, who has already failed to make any
headway with his
approach of 'quiet diplomacy' over the past six years,
amounts to
nothing."
Deputy chair of the SADC, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa,
recently broke
ranks with the regional body to admit that "quiet diplomacy
has failed to
help solve the political chaos and economic meltdown in
Zimbabwe", and even
likened the country to "a sinking Titanic, whose
passengers are jumping out
in a bid to save their lives."
Brian
Raftopoulos, a Zimbabwean academic and African affairs specialist at
the
South Africa-based Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, said he was
"not surprised" that the regional leaders had chosen solidarity over any
rebuke. "By attempting to show solidarity at any cost, SADC has sent a wrong
message by showing disregard to human rights abuses, which will have
negative consequences for democracy in the region."
He pointed out
there was no timetable announced for the dialogue process,
nor "do we know
how different the mediation process is going to be from the
last
time."
Mediation fatigue
Mbeki indicated in 2006 that he had grown
increasingly weary of trying to
resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis. He told
the South African Broadcasting
Corporation that in 2004 his 'quiet
diplomacy' policy towards Zimbabwe had
almost resulted in a deal between the
ruling ZANU-PF and the MDC on a new
constitution.
"They were actually
involved in negotiating a new constitution for Zimbabwe,
and they ...
completed it ... they gave me a copy initialled by everybody
... so we
thought the next step then must be to say, 'where do we take this
process?'.
But then ... new problems arose among themselves. So we watch the
situation
and, to the extent that we can help in future, we will," Mbeki
said.
"They asked us to assist, to mend relations among themselves.
It didn't
work. We tried to intervene but I think the rupture had gone too
far," he
added.
Last year Benjamin Mkapa, a former Tanzanian head of
state, was asked by
regional leaders to help find a solution to the divide
between Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe and an opposition that rejects
the legitimacy of his
government. Mkapa took over from former Mozambican
president Joaquim
Chissano, and Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo, among
others, who have all
failed to make headway in promoting dialogue in
Zimbabwe over the past few
years.
The SADC's executive secretary,
Tomaz Salamao, has been asked to undertake a
study on the economic situation
in Zimbabwe and propose measures for how the
regional body can help the
country recover.
Kikwete said the SADC was also appealing to the
international community to
lift sanctions and accommodate Zimbabwe, instead
of isolating the country.
"Diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe, the
European Community and the
United States are not healthy," he said. The
meeting also reiterated that
Britain should honour its compensation
obligations regarding land reforms,
made at the Lancaster House
constitutional conference that culminated in
Zimbabwe's independence in
1980.
Zimbabwe's chaotic fast-track land reform programme, launched in
2000,
nationalised all agricultural land and then leased around 4,000
previously
white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks for 99 years. The
programme,
condemned by Western governments for its forced evictions,
slashed the
country's foreign exchange earnings and helped trigger the
current economic
crisis.
The Zimbabwean government has maintained
that it is unable to compensate
former commercial farmers for the land
because it does not have the money,
but that it will pay for improvements on
the land, such as dams and other
infrastructure.
UN appeals for
funds
Rashid Khalikov, New York Director of the United Nations Office for
the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, appealed to the Security Council
on
Thursday for more funds to help Zimbabwe meet the challenges posed by a
'triple threat' of food insecurity combined with a high incidence of
HIV/AIDS and declining social services.
Aid agencies estimate that
1.8 million metric tonnes of maize are needed to
feed the people of
Zimbabwe, yet this year's harvest will only provide
300,000mt.
Although the country's authorities have announced that an
additional 400,000
metric tons of maize will be distributed, "the current
economic situation
and the level of currency reserves gives us some cause
for concern as to the
ability of the government to bring this food in, and
distribute it in a
timely manner", Khalikov told reporters after the
closed-door meeting.
Around 1.8 million Zimbabweans, or 18 percent of the
population, have
HIV/AIDS, but only 50,000 have access to antiretroviral
therapy treatment
when at least 350,000 must be treated to contain the
disease, he pointed
out. The government has made a commitment to increase
the number of people
receiving treatment, but "there is a lot of concern
over the capacity of the
government, and the health services are in quite
poor shape", he said.
Khalikov said he told the 15-member Security
Council that of the $240
million needed to meet humanitarian needs in
Zimbabwe, only 13 percent had
been contributed, and most of it has been
channelled into the food sector.
As a result, "education, water and
sanitation, and health have not been
properly covered, therefore, the United
Nations is not in a position to
provide assistance to the population of
Zimbabwe in a comprehensive way".
He added that the government's urban
eviction campaign (Operation
Murambatsvina, 'Clean Out Trash', in 2005) and
land-reform programmes had
"exacerbated the situation on the ground, and
makes the position of those
who are most vulnerable even more
difficult".
The Zimbabwean government has requested that a joint
assessment by the UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN World Food
Programme be
undertaken to determine the exact food needs of the country,
and then to
fashion a response to the problem.
Khalikov said this
assessment would most likely be carried out in April and
May.
Catholic World News
Harare, Mar. 30, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Catholic bishops of
Zimbabwe
have condemned their country's "overtly corrupt leadership" in a
strongly
worded pastoral letter.
The bishops' statement, which
will be released officially on April 5--
Holy Thursday-- appeals for "peace
and restraint" in public protests, and an
"unambiguous No to power through
violence, oppression, and intimidation."
Without naming particular officials
or endorsing any particular political
action, the bishops make a devastating
critique of the regime headed by
President Robert Mugabe.
"The
people of Zimbabwe are suffering," the bishops say in opening
their letter.
"Our country is in deep crisis."
That crisis, the bishops observe
in their detailed analysis, includes
pervasive poverty, ubiquitous public
corruption, and a complete breakdown in
the country's systems of health,
education, public services, and
transportation. A land-reform program
enriched the elite while failing to
help the poor, and thousands of families
remain homeless after evictions
that were carried out with "inexcusable
violence." The country's
unemployment rate is an astonishing 80% and
inflation is running at 1,600%,
creating an economic disaster that "has made
the life of ordinary
Zimbabweans unbearable."
The bishops note
that Christians are prominent members of all the
country's political
factions, and engage in the brutality that has marked
recent political
struggles. After joining for the Eucharistic celebration on
Sunday, the
bishops say, "the next day, outside the church, a few steps
away, Christian
state agents, policemen, and soldiers assault and beat
peaceful, unarmed
demonstrators and torture detainees." Denouncing this
"unacceptable reality
on the ground," the bishops demand that Christians
bring their public
behavior into line with their professed beliefs.
The young people
of Zimbabwe, the bishops complained, "see their
leaders habitually engaging
in acts and words which are hateful,
disrespectful, racist, corrupt,
lawless, unjust, greedy, dishonest and
violent in order to cling to the
privileges of power and wealth." True
reform is impossible, they write, as
long as the political elite clings to
power and privilege at the expense of
the common good.
In their unsparing criticism of the regime, the
bishops conclude that
the wealthy white colonial settlers who once exploited
the people of the
nation then known as Rhodesia have been replaced by a new
black elite
equally bent on exploitation. "None of the unjust and oppressive
security
laws of the Rhodesian state have been repealed; in fact, they have
been
reinforced by even more repressive legislation," the bishops
charge.
Concentrating their fire particularly on the government
that has used
arrests, beatings, and intimidation to crush political
opponents, the
bishops write: "It almost appears as though someone sat down
with the
Declaration of Human Rights and deliberately scrubbed out each in
turn."
monsters and critics
Mar 30, 2007, 10:15 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - A senior
opposition official in Zimbabwe said Friday
there was lots of dishonesty at
this week's summit of regional leaders that
appeared to endorse President
Robert Mugabe's latest controversial clampdown
on his opponents.
'In
our view there was lots of dishonesty in Tanzania,' said Tendai Biti,
the
secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led
by
Morgan Tsvangirai.
'We're not disappointed. We didn't expect they'd do
anything meaningful and
they haven't done anything meaningful,' he told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
in a telephone interview.
At the end of a
hastily-convened two-day summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
leaders from the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) reaffirmed
their solidarity
with Mugabe's government and called for the lifting of
British, US and EU
sanctions.
There had been hopes that the leaders might express some
criticism of recent
rights abuses in Zimbabwe, which have seen the beatings
and arrest of top
opposition officials.
Instead the leaders said
merely that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa
should try to engage the
government and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) in
talks.
Its nothing new. We've been on that road before, Biti said,
pointing out
that Mbeki was part of an ineffective Commonwealth troika on
Zimbabwe
appointed in 2002, that also included Australian Prime Minister
John Howard
and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Biti said the
SADC leaders had made a dishonest prognosis of a sick person
by saying
Zimbabwe's problems were a result of targeted sanctions against
the
government and wrangles over land with former colonial power Britain
'Its
about lack of democratic space, human rights abuses, thuggery. Its
about
Robert Mugabe, a tyrant,' he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
The Australian
From
correspondents in Harare
March 31, 2007
THE Zimbabwean opposition party
the Movement for Democratic Change has
denounced overnight the prospect of
veteran President Robert Mugabe standing
for re-election next year, calling
it a "tragedy" for the country.
"This is a tragedy for the country. This
country will not move so long as
Mugabe is there," the party's secretary
general Tendai Biti said overnight
"It's also a shame on Mugabe's
part.
After mismanaging the country for 27 years he now wants to stand
for another
five years," he said.
Mr Biti was reacting after Mr
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party endorsed the
83-year-old as its candidate in
next year's presidential elections.
ZANU-PF earlier approved plans for a
constitutional amendment which would
reduce the presidential term from the
current six to five years.
The MDC has already indicated that it will not
field a candidate against Mr
Mugabe whom it accuses of having rigged the
last elections in 2002.
Monsters and Critics
Mar 30, 2007, 7:03 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's
police chief Augustine Chihuri has accused
Western countries of being behind
a recent spate of petrol bombings in the
country, reports said
Friday.
'There are some political forces bent on trying to cause disorder
in the
country and engage in acts of terrorism in the name of democracy,'
Chihuri
was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Herald
newspaper.
'It is simply the Western world in the midst of supporting and
sustaining
these acts of terrorism,' said the police chief, an open
supporter of
President Robert Mugabe and his party.
There have been
at least nine petrol-bomb attacks over the past two weeks.
The authorities
blame the attacks on democratic resistance committees they
say have been set
up by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Earlier this week at least 35 MDC activists including a member
of the
party's national executive committee were picked up by police for
alleged
involvement in the attacks.
The MDC says the petrol bombings,
which have targeted police stations, a
passenger train, petrol tankers and a
supermarket, are the work of state
agents bent on tarnishing the
opposition's image.
'The political machinations are tailor-made to court
international sympathy
and justify the continued receipt of undeserved donor
funds by the willing
perpetrators of the thuggish activities,' Chihuri
said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
New Era (Windhoek)
OPINION
March
30, 2007
Posted to the web March 30, 2007
Kae
Matundu-Tjiparuro
Windhoek
You may think this is shooting the
messenger. Yes, why not shoot the
messenger if he/she is not playing by the
rulebook.
Our messenger in this case seemed little disposed to all of the
aforementioned thus inviting some calculated missiles. I am referring to the
recent theatrical display by the Zimbabwe ambassador.
In her
defence of her motherland, she gave a new meaning to diplomatic
acumen by
attempting to discolour the picture emerging from her country.
Discolour is
being mild and in keeping in mould with the diplomatic and
dignified status
of diplomacy, although the ambassador seemed to care little
with this
code.
Somehow, she seemed out of tune with the reality or should one say
the hard
facts of the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe. She tried to make
us
believe that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, as bruised and battered as he appeared in pictures emerging from
the country, was not beaten. There could not have been any question that he
was beaten. The only question was by whom? Yet the ambassador wanted us to
believe otherwise. I know it's her duty to defend her country through thick
and thin but when such defence borders on hoodwinking, she is doing the
country she is loyal to and serving dutifully more harm than good. One would
have thought spin-doctoring is part of the diplomatic
sophistry.
Either she did not have full information as to what may have
happened or was
happening at the time or in the event she could have done
her job properly
if she had dared to wait on more information. No comment,
especially when
someone does not have enough information to authoritatively
clarify a
situation is a perfect excuse in public relations, and I don't see
why it
should be an exception in diplomatic circles.
Meanwhile, I
could not understand the hasty expectation on the Namibian
Government to
join wildcat public condemnations of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a
friendly and
sisterly/brotherly nation to Namibia. Namibia thus has to its
disposal the
necessary diplomatic channels through which it can friendlily
advise
Zimbabwe rather than shouting condemnations.
And I am sure at every
available occasion Namibia must have communicated to
her sister-country its
concern about the prevalent situation. Allow me to
quote from the Founding
President a few weeks after he had assumed office:
"In the field of foreign
policy, Government will plan a constructive role in
order to reduce tension
in the world's hot spots and to promote
international cooperation and
dialogue My Government, through its membership
of the UN, the Non-Aligned
Movement, OAU and the Commonwealth will
contribute its quota, however
insignificant to the promotion of world peace
and security."
I am
sure this remains the cornerstone of Namibia's engagement on the
international level. May I add to this the Southern African Development
Community (SADC). Our President is currently in Tanzania among others to
attend to the simmering situation in Zimbabwe. The rest I must say is
axiomatic.
One thing must however be clear, and I am sure the
Government is aware of
that. What is happening in Zimbabwe definitely cannot
be in the interest of
Zimbabwe, let alone Namibia and the Southern Africa
Development Community
(SADC), or the continent at large. Zimbabwe's friends
have a duty not only
to impress this upon their friend but to constructively
help the Zimbabwean
people to extricate themselves from the retrogressive
situation prevailing
in the country.
With hindsight, one may have an
understanding for the restlessness and
uneasiness among domestic
stakeholders with the perceived Government's
silence on the matter. They may
not have been informed of what the
Government's thinking is about the
Zimbabwean situation. For that one can
only blame the Government and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "In a
democracy, citizens have a right to be
informed of issues that affect the
nation, in domestic and international
affairs. In particular, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs must both inform and
educate public opinion about
developments abroad affecting the country,"
reads a paragraph from a rough
draft Namibian Foreign Policy. I don't know
to what extent this paragraph
has been incorporated into our current Foreign
Policy?
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Everyone agrees that what Zimbabwe needs is competent
administration, but
few would concur with Robert Mugabe that only he has
those skills.
By Joseph Sithole in Harare (AR No. 106,
30-Mar-07)
When Zimbabwe began its steep slide into economic and
political crisis,
President Robert Mugabe declared that nobody could have
managed the economy
better than he had done.
He might as well have
said nobody had ruled Zimbabwe better than he had - if
only because he has
been its sole leader for the 27 years since the end of
settler rule in 1980.
Thus, responsibility for the disastrous state of the
economy has to rest
squarely with him.
President Mugabe appears to believe his leadership is
essential to the
country's economic and political well-being. At the
national assembly of the
Women's League of the ruling ZANU-PF on March 24,
he asserted that it was
Britain that set up the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, MDC, in
order "to protect their interests that were
threatened by the land
reclamation exercise". For that reason, he said, the
MDC would never rule
Zimbabwe as long as he was alive.
"We fought for
this country and its resources will remain ours forever. I
have 83 years of
struggle, experience and resilience and I cannot be pushed
over. and I have
seen it all. It is my country that I fought and struggled
for, and here I
shall die," he declared to wild applause.
A political analyst who teaches
at a Zimbabwean university commented, "If we
didn't know Mugabe well enough,
we would accept the views of those who say
these are the empty words of an
old man. Unfortunately, Mugabe believes
every word he says. He believes he
is qualified to rule until death. He sees
it as an entitlement."
He
seems to believe that in the armed struggle of the Seventies, it was he
who
single-handedly liberated his country from colonial bondage. Without his
presence at the helm, he believes Zimbabwe would slide back into colonial
hands.
And just as he sees himself as indispensable, he is dismissive
of those
around him, including his own ZANU-PF. Just last year he said he
would not
leave the presidency as long as the party was "a
shambles".
There is a double message here. First, the threat of
recolonisation has an
immediate appeal to older Zimbabweans who experienced
colonial rule and the
pain of the liberation war first-hand, especially in
rural areas. No one
would want to experience such violence again.
The
other point is that anyone in ZANU-PF who has designs on the leadership
must
wait until the day the party regains stability and Mugabe can finally
relinquish power. This is a ploy the president used as early as 2002, when
he said he would leave office as soon as land reform was
complete.
But this position of strength looks as if it is coming to an
end, as
resistance begins to stiffen inside the ruling party as well as
outside it.
His disastrous management of the economy has helped to build
that
opposition.
The late Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere described
Zimbabwe as a "jewel of
Africa". At independence, Mugabe inherited a country
with a strong currency,
yet today it takes more than 20,000 Zimbabwean
dollars to buy one US dollar.
Annual inflation is 1,700 per cent and rising,
unemployment is around 80 per
cent, and average life expectancy had
plummeted from around 60 years at
independence to about 35.
Seven
years ago, Zimbabwe was able to feed itself and still export surplus
maize
to the region. Today there are clinics with no medicine, and pupils
are
dropping out of school either because parents can't afford the fees or
because the children are starving.
Yet it was Mugabe who as prime
minister expanded primary education and made
it free for everyone, and
opened health clinics in every district. But it is
evident now that these
good intentions were not backed up by a concern for
managerial competence in
his administration.
After independence, ZANU-PF soon forgot about its
socialist "Leadership
Code", according to which senior party officials were
expected to declare
their assets and income sources. Mugabe allowed
corruption to flourish by
failing to ensure officials were prosecuted even
when they were named in
official investigations.
The same happened
with ill-planned and violently executed land revolution
launched in 2000,
which highlighted the fact that astute management was not
a feature of
Mugabe's political projects. Experienced commercial farmers
were chased out
of their flourishing enterprises, to be replaced by party
cronies who saw
the farm seizures as an opportunity to become fabulously
wealthy without
breaking a sweat.
Despite ordering seven land audits so far to see who
owns what property,
Mugabe has not acted on their findings, which reveal
that ministers, local
officials and members of the security forces acquired
more than one farm
each, in breach of the policy's stated goal of fair land
re-destribution.
Similarly, Mugabe has proved unwilling or incapable of
acting against senior
officials who have been accused of illegally dealing
in precious minerals.
There are police reports showing that the president
knows who is involved,
but beyond empty threats, he has done
nothing.
"The evidence is there that Mugabe is a poor manager," said
another analyst
based in the country. "If he had left office in 1990, when
the economy and
education were still functioning, his legacy would be
unrivalled.
"Unfortunately, he allowed power to go to his head and
believes nobody can
do better. The result is a disaster that will take
decades to repair."
The analyst said it was difficult for anybody within
the system to openly
challenge Mugabe for the presidency, because all
potential leaders are his
creations and are therefore
compromised.
"Most senior ZANU-PF officials are beneficiaries of Mugabe's
patronage. He
made them who they are," he said.
The analyst said
there were nevertheless officials who would be able to work
in collaboration
with current opposition members so secure the transition.
"There are many
people who can do better, but we have to get Mugabe out of
the way first.
After all, at independence nobody had any experience in
governance. What is
needed for new leaders to emerge is an orderly
transition and transfer of
power," he said.
"What is the point of the opposition starting all over
again when there is a
lot of talent to tap into? "We need the best [people]
for the leader to
succeed.
"Mugabe believes he is the best. And the
results are there for all to see."
Joseph Sithole is a pseudonym used by
a reporter in Zimbabwe.
IOL
March
30 2007 at 04:02PM
The Southern African Development Community's
(SADC) decision to
appoint President Thabo Mbeki as mediator in Zimbabwe was
both lauded and
ridiculed on Friday.
"The Inkatha Freedom Party
welcomes SADC's decision to call on
President Thabo Mbeki to lead efforts to
promote discussions between rival
political parties in Zimbabwe," IFP
spokesperson Ben Skosana said in a
statement.
The party had
recently called for an honest broker, such as Mbeki, to
organise all
relevant factions in Zimbabwe to start negotiating.
"We are
therefore extremely pleased that the IFP's suggestions were
echoed by SADC,
and we hope to see constructive talks between Zanu-PF and
the o opposition
MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), so that democracy in
one of the most
troubled countries on the African continent can be
restored," Skosana
said.
However, the Democratic Alliance's (DA) Joe
Seremane sounded a
different note.
"Once again South Africa and
the SADC have been taken hostage by
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF," he
said in another statement.
Instead of taking action on the massive
human rights violations in
Zimbabwe, the SADC leaders decided to call for a
lowering of sanctions in
what could possibly be interpreted as open support
of the Mugabe regime.
The leaders at the summit should have called
for smart sanctions
against Mugabe, his wife and members of his government,
such as a travel ban
within the SADC, and the freezing of all their
externally held assets.
This call should have been led by Mbeki, as
an acknowledgement of the
vicious poverty, deprivation and human rights
abuses that the people of
Zimbabwe were suffering as a direct result of the
actions of Mugabe and his
government's policies, Seremane said.
"Calling on President Mbeki to be the mediator between Zanu-PF and the
MDC
is pointless.
"President Mbeki has already been called upon to be
the point-man in
negotiations in Zimbabwe, and he has achieved
nothing."
This was because Mbeki's policy choices with regard to
Zimbabwe were
fundamentally flawed.
"If they were not flawed
the situation there would have improved. It
has not. The problem is the
process, not the individuals running it."
A further indictment of
the SADC meeting was its utter failure to
address, to even mention, the
attacks on the democratically elected
opposition party members, who were
assaulted by government forces.
SADC's statement that "the
extraordinary summit reaffirms their
solidarity with the government and the
people of Zimbabwe", was highly
revealing, because the people of Zimbabwe
were effectively at war with their
government; they were not one and the
same.
"This suggests that the Zimbabwean government and its
president
behaved in a legitimate manner. This is totally
unacceptable."
History would severely judge all the leaders who
showed solidarity
with Mugabe and Zanu-PF at the expense of the basic human
rights of ordinary
Zimbabweans, Seremane said. - Sapa
SABC
March 30,
2007, 19:00
President Thabo Mbeki says South Africa and the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC) are better positioned to deal with the
situation in
Zimbabwe. This follows the SADC meeting held in Tanzania
yesterday to
discuss the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki says it
will be wrong for the various political parties in Zimbabwe to
attach
conditions for the commencement of discussions between themselves. In
an
interview with the SABC, Mbeki spoke about the willingness of the
Zimbabwean
government and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to find a
solution
to a deepening economic and political crisis.
Mbeki remains confident his
efforts in Zimbabwe will yield progress, and
once again dismissed criticism
of his preference for dialogue. "Both MDC
groups - the one led by
Tsvangirai, and the other by Mutambara - have not
complained to us. Mugabe
and Zanu-PF have not complained..." said Mbeki.
At the summit, SADC
leaders called for sanctions to be lifted against
Harare. That in stark
contrast to Western powers demanding tougher action.
"As a region we are
quite convinced that the only way to solve the problem
is the direction we
have taken," said Mbeki.
MDC faction wants Mugabe out
But the road to
peace will not be without challenges. The MDC faction led by
Morgan
Tsvangirai has already warned it will not enter into dialogue with
Zanu-PF
if Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, remains a part of the
political
equation.
Mbeki has warned against such pre-conditions. "If people have
issues to
raise, they should raise it in the context of discussion," said
Mbeki.
Mbeki's efforts alone will not be enough. He will need the
unqualified
support of both parties, and that leaves little room for the
confrontationist rhetoric that has defined relations recently.
By Violet Gonda
30 March 2007
Southern African heads of
state have been heavily criticised for blindly
backing Robert Mugabe at a
summit in Tanzania, despite international
condemnation over the rights
abuses in Zimbabwe. European Union legislator
Geoffrey Van Orden said it was
a step in the right direction that regional
leaders even had a summit at
which they discussed the Zimbabwe crisis, "but
the outcome has been perhaps
predictable and rather disappointing."
After being briefed by Mugabe himself
on the current political developments
in Zimbabwe, the leaders of the
Southern African Development Community
appealed for the lifting of
'sanctions' against members of the regime. They
also appealed to Britain to
honour what they said were it's compensation
obligations with regard to land
reform made at Lancaster House and appointed
South African leader Thabo
Mbeki as the point man to bring the stakeholders
to the negotiating table.
This despite Mbeki's dismal track record with his
'quiet diplomacy' that has
had no effect.
Van Orden said the summit was a great opportunity for
Zimbabwe's neighbours
to tell Mugabe to stop brutalising his own people and
come to terms with the
opposition. When asked if he saw the European Union
lifting the targeted
sanctions, the British MEP responded by saying; "We
never want sanctions
against anyone or any group of individuals or indeed
any country. The whole
issue of sanctions is to encourage change and once
that change has happened
of course the sanctions can be lifted. That is very
clear."
He added: "What needs to happen is that Mugabe needs to step aside
and have
proper free and fair elections in Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean
people need to
be freed from this tyrannical rule. These are the steps that
need to be
taken and sanctions can end, after all the sanctions are not
aimed at the
Zimbabwean people. They are aimed at Mugabe and his close group
of henchmen,
you know, all 130 of them."
It had been hoped that the
African leaders were finally going to censure 83
year old Mugabe, but
observers say the SADC communiqué clearly shows that
they are still siding
with Mugabe.
Van Orden also said the appeal by the summit heads to Britain to
honour its
land compensation obligations was misleading, as the United
Kingdom has
always been willing to assist with the land reform programme
under proper
conditions. He said: "That money has always been on the table
there is no
question about that. What we are not going to do is hand over
money to
Mugabe for him to deepen his brutality."
The Dar-es-Salaam SADC
Summit had met to discuss the political, economic and
security situation in
the region, with special focus on the situations in
Lesotho, Democratic
Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Media
Alert
29 March 2007
Freelance Journalist
Arrested
Frank Chikowore, a freelance journalist, was on
28 March 2007 arrested in
Harare when the police cordoned off the central
business district and raided
the offices of the opposition MDC at Harvest
House in the Zimbabwean
capital.
Chikowore is in police
custody at Harare Central Police Station where he is
being held together
with 35 MDC supporters who were arrested following the
police raid on
Harvest House. Chikowore was arrested while covering the
police actions
during which they searched the MDC offices.
Lawyers representing
Chikowore and the MDC supporters said they were now
considering filing for
an urgent High Court order as the police were denying
them access to their
clients.
End
For any questions, queries or
comments, please contact:
Nyasha Nyakunu
Research and
Information Officer
Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe
84
McChlery Ave
Eastlea
P.O Box HR 8113
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax: 263
4 776165 / 746838
Cell: 263 11 602 448
Email:misa@mweb.co.zw
Website:
www.misazim.co.zw
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
At
least 45 members of the MDC secretariat arrested during a mid afternoon
raid
at the party's headquarters in Harare Wednesday have been granted bail
by a
Harare magistrate.
Magistrate William Bhila granted the group $50,000 bail
each , except for
12 others, facing allegations of bombing police
camps.
The State case is that the group was part of Democratic Resistance
Committees that the MDC has formed to destabilize the country ahead of the
2008 presidential elections.
Police armed with teargas canisters, rubber
and wooden buttons and AK 47s
invaded Harvest House, the MDC headquarters
along Nelson Mandela avenue in
Harare and dispersed every one attending the
press conference. At least two
journalists are among those
arrested.
Meanwhile Therersa Makone was granted bail this morning after she
appeared
in court together with three others abducted at their
homes.
Piniel Denga and Ian Makone, who were arrested together with Ms
makone,
were expected to appear in court later today.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
30 March 2007
Police in Harare on Friday failed to
comply with a High court order to take
all those arrested in the latest
crackdown to court by 2pm, the MDC
reported. The number of those in police
cells is estimated to be above 200.
Jessie Majome, the MDC's deputy
secretary for Legal Affairs, said they don't
know the exact number of people
who have been abducted by the security
forces, adding that only a handful
were taken to court Friday while the rest
are still being detained. High
court Judge Joseph Musakwa ruled in an urgent
hearing Friday that police
should ensure every detainee arrested during the
crackdown must be taken to
court by 2pm.
'Only high profile activists of the MDC have managed to
appear in court and
about 5 have been taken to hospital suffering from
injuries inflicted in
police cells. This is a justice system that is failing
to serve any purpose.
The police can't cope, court officials can't,
everything is just crumbling,'
Majome said.
She said nine of of their
activists have already been charged with attempted
murder in connection with
a string of alleged fire bombings, illegal
possession of a firearm and of
explosives, charges the MDC insist were
invented in an attempt to demonise
their party.
'We sincerely don't know how many have been abducted but
reports we are
getting say among the detainees are MDC employees, students,
members of
civic groups and leaders of the Combined Harare Residents
Association. To
make matters worse, the detainees are not getting any food,'
Majome said.
Meanwhile Human rights Watch has released a statement
accusing Mugabe's
regime of permitting security forces to commit serious
abuses with impunity,
against opposition activists and ordinary Zimbabweans
alike.
Tiseke Kasambala, an official with Human Rights Watch, said the
country's
security forces have been responsible for arbitrary arrests and
detentions
and beatings of opposition MDC supporters, civil society
activists, and the
general public.
Kasambala who was in Zimbabwe
compiling cases of abuses said what she saw
shocked her. She told Newsreel
the government has intensified its brutal
suppression of its own citizens in
an effort to crush all forms of dissent.
'Witnesses and victims we
interviewed told us that security agents have been
patrolling many high
density suburbs, randomly and viciously beating people
in the streets,
shopping malls, in bars and beer halls. Security agents are
also going
house-to-house beating people with batons, stealing possessions
and accusing
them of supporting the opposition. The terror caused by the
police has
forced many families in the affected areas into a self-imposed
curfew after
dark,' said Kasambala.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Reuters
Fri 30 Mar 2007, 9:16
GMT
By Tim Cocks
KAMPALA, March 30 (Reuters) - At a rally
denouncing a government raid on
Uganda's High Court, a lawyer beaten by
security men during the invasion
held aloft his bloodstained shirt as
colleagues shook their heads in disgust
and anger.
Kiyimba Mutale
suffered head wounds during an hours-long siege at the court
on March 1
aimed at re-arresting bailed treason suspects.
At the rally two weeks
later, he defiantly addressed colleagues who walked
off the job in support
of judges who went on strike in protest at the
raid -- stopping court
business and shaking the east African country's
authorities.
"We are
descending into a situation with no rule of law," Mutale told
Reuters.
"Government is holding legal institutions in disdain whenever they
make
judgements against it."
But Africa's judiciary are fighting back. On a
continent where successive
waves of rule by colonisers then African
strongmen have limited their
authority, courts are trying to assert their
independence and stand up
against what they say is a catalogue of abuses by
autocrats.
"There are rules to the game and if they do not stick by those
rules, people
get hurt," James Ogoola, a top Ugandan judge known for his
caustic criticism
of official wrongdoing, told Reuters in a warning to the
government.
In Zimbabwe, where a crackdown on opposition gatherings has
sparked
international outrage, the High Court there issued several rulings
against
President Robert Mugabe, including one ordering security forces to
allow a
rally.
When Mugabe defied the ruling, the court ordered
opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai freed and for police to release the body
of an activist killed by
the security forces.
In Nigeria, a court
ruled against attempts by President Olusegun Obasanjo to
stop Vice President
Atiku Abubakar running in next month's presidential
polls -- although the
electoral commission ignored the ruling. Abubakar has
appealed.
Courts there also overturned three illegal impeachments of
state governors
by the executive.
Lawyers' associations are
optimistic African courts can make a difference by
taking such
stands.
"In Africa, lack of respect for and political interference with
judiciary
continue to (be) challenges. ... Strong judges ... can serve as a
push back
to interference," the American Bar Association writes on its Web
site.
LAW AS THE ENEMY
Analysts say at the heart of this
conflict is a distrust of laws inherited
from former European
colonisers.
"The rule of law has been seen as the enemy, as rule of the
colonial
oppressor," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human
Rights Watch.
"To reverse that entrenchment, African leaders started a
deterioration of
(it)."
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has
defended the High Court siege, but
promised to investigate alleged
abuses.
Not all attempts to hobble courts are as explicit as those in
Uganda, a
nation with a violent, coup-laden past.
"Countries like
Uganda have a history of using the military to get power,"
said Anne
Muthoni, judicial reform officer at the International Commission
of Jurists'
Kenyan branch.
"Somewhere like Kenya, there isn't such blatant
undermining of the rule of
law. It is more subtle," Muthoni
said.
"Ministers (in Kenya) sometimes openly disobey a court order and no
one can
stop them," Muthoni said. "In these cases you need the public to
speak out."
Judicial appointments themselves are often politically
motivated, despite
constitutional checks.
In 2003, shortly after
President Mwai Kibaki's election, he suspended 17
members of Kenya's High
Court bench on corruption allegations, but Muthoni
said this was largely a
purging of judges loyal to the previous regime.
In the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, a five-year war left courts at the
mercy of President
Joseph Kabila.
"All the judges in the Supreme Court were named by Kabila
and many decisions
(have been) favourable to him," said Jason Stearns,
International Crisis
Group's central Africa analyst.
These include
denying amnesty for men implicated in killing his father and
rejecting
opposition complaints of voting fraud.
Africa's history is full of
martyrs to the cause of judicial independence.
Benedicto Kiwanuka, chief
justice under Uganda's late former dictator Idi
Amin, was murdered by Amin's
henchmen in 1972 for repeatedly refusing to
bend the law.
In 1996,
Judge Kabazo Chanda ruled against Zambia's parliament imprisoning
two
editors on an independent daily. Then-President Frederick Chiluba
removed
him a year later.
Yet in a continent beset by such conflicts, President
Thabo Mbeki has set
South Africa apart from many peers by frequently bowing
to judicial
decisions, such as a 2003 ruling ordering the government to
distribute
anti-retroviral drugs to AIDS victims.
"The constitutional
court has often ruled against (the ruling party). They
might complain, but
they accept," Takirambudde said. (Additional reporting
by Joe Bavier in
Kinshasa and Lagos and Johannesburg bureaux)
Monsters and Critics
Mar 30, 2007, 8:39 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - The
Zimbabwe government is about to increase the price
of bread in a move that
will stir unease among burdened consumers, the
official New Ziana news
agency reported Friday.
Bread is supposed to be sold at 825 Zimbabwe
dollars per loaf, more than 3
US at official rates of exchange but only a
few cents at widely-used
parallel market rates.
Standard loaves have
all but disappeared from shop shelves in the past
fortnight. Bakers complain
the cost of inputs has rocketed.
Now only so-called fancy loaves are
being sold, at prices ranging from
5,000 - 7,000 Zimbabwe dollars. Bakers
say it costs more than 5,500 Zimbabwe
dollars to produce one loaf, without
taking into account rising transport
costs.
That means a domestic
worker whose government-approved monthly salary is
12,500 Zimbabwe dollars
can only afford two loaves of bread per month.
Industry and Trade
Minister Obert Mpofu said the official prices
stabilization committee was
looking at submissions from bakers before
announcing the new bread price,
New Ziana reports.
'We are monitoring developments in the market and we
will actually be giving
our position as soon as the committee finishes
looking at the proposals,'
the minister said.
Bakers complain that by
the time the government announces the new prices,
they would have been
eroded by inflation, according to Bakers' Association
of Zimbabwe vice
chairman Vincent Mangoma.
Annual inflation is currently running at more
than 1,729 per cent.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Wheels24
30/03/2007 10:04
Amid reports
that Renault plans to produce its budget Logan in South Africa,
one Chinese
manufacturer has now released its plans to assemble its range to
passenger
cars in Zimbabwe.
Few details have been offered, though new manufacturer
Paddy has announced
the crippled Zimbabwe features prominently in its plans
to expand outside of
its native market into the lucrative sub-saharan
market.
Zimbabwe has been earmarked for its close proximity to South
Africa, which
has already been identified as a key component to the Paddy
expansion plan,
its low cost of employment given high unemployment levels,
and the recent
absence of any recognised homologation standards.
More
details are expected to be released shortly.
The Herald
(Harare)
March 30, 2007
Posted to the web March 30,
2007
Harare
A power failure at the Darwendale raw water pump
station yesterday adversely
affected purification at Morton Jaffray Water
Treatment Plant, resulting in
reduced supplies to the city's
reservoirs.
The reservoirs fell to critical levels but the Zimbabwe
National Water
Authority pledged to restore uninterrupted supplies in all
areas by the end
of today .
Yesterday northern and eastern
suburbs, among them Msasa Park, and Hatfield
in the south were cut off but
supplies would begin today.
Hogerty Hill and Philadelphia, which were dry
for the whole of yesterday,
were expected to start getting supplies last
night.
Zinwa reported that levels in the Alex Park reservoir were
satisfactory,
allowing pumping to Highlands, Philadelphia and Hatcliffe.
Pumping from the
reservoir was briefly disrupted after another power failure
hit the
reservoir pumping station.
Letombo reservoirs remained
critical at 15 percent full, but pumping to
Donnybrook was in
progress.
According to the daily Harare water status report, the
Darwendale raw water
pump station suffered a three-hour power failure
between 3am and 6am
yesterday.
"Because of the power failure, we were
operating with four big, one medium
and one small pump from 0325hrs to
0425hrs, then three big, and one small
pump from 0425hrs to 0635hrs," the
report said.
Two other big pumps were later re-introduced at
0635hrs.
Maintenance work at pump stations, water mains and sewers
continued
yesterday but was affected by the shortage of critical resources
such as
transport and spare parts.
Zinwa reported that blocked sewers
and spillages in high-density areas of
Mbare, Budiriro and Glen View had
been attended to.
"We have managed to clear most of the blocked sewers
and spillages in
Chitungwiza," read the report.
However, The Herald
was inundated with calls from St Mary's residents
complaining of blockages
with sewage spilling into households.
Monsters and Critics
Mar 30, 2007, 14:39 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - Huge
power cuts are looming this Easter in Zimbabwe as
the authorities shut down
a key hydropower station for maintenance, reports
said Friday.
Power
utility ZESA Holdings is due to shut down Kariba hydropower station on
April
8 to allow experts to carry out checks on Kariba Dam wall, state
broadcaster
Newsnet said on its website.
The power station usually generates more
than 700 megawatts of power and is
Zimbabwes main source of
locally-generated electricity.
The power utility was still coming up with
other contingency measures to
cushion up business and other such services
that cannot afford to close even
during holidays, Newsnet reported ZESA
spokesman James Maridadi as saying.
It was not immediately clear how long
the station will be shut for.
Zimbabwe's power supply has been shaky for
months, with industry complaining
it has been crippled by frequent
blackouts.
ZESA wants to up its tariffs to be able to recoup costs and
maintain
infrastructure but the authorities fearful of rising
dissatisfaction among
Zimbabweans have so far not been willing to allow big
price hikes.
Kariba is on the Zambezi River along Zimbabwe's northern
border with Zambia.
A power station on the Zambian side of the dam is also
due to shut down on
the same day, the report said.
Zimbabwe
reportedly imports up to 1,000 megawatts of power from surrounding
countries
a situation that has left it vulnerable to a projected regional
power
shortage this year.
It also has a few coal-fired power stations, which
have been hit by
breakdowns and coal shortages.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
30 Mar 2007 15:20:56
GMT
Source: Reuters
HARARE, March 30 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main labour
union said on Friday it
would go ahead with a job boycott next week but said
there would be no
street marches for fear of possible violent official
reprisals.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said the majority
of its
affiliate unions had backed the April 3-4 stay away because President
Robert
Mugabe's government had not complied with demands to improve workers'
conditions.
The workers want a minimum wage of 1 million Zimbabwe
dollars ($4,000 on the
official market but worth $50 on the black market)
and for the government to
resolve an economic meltdown and increase access
to anti-retroviral drugs.
Police last September thwarted a planned
peaceful protest by the ZCTU and
arrested its leaders and a dozen workers,
who said they were beaten and
injured while in police custody.
Police
also moved to stop an opposition rally this month, arresting and
allegedly
beating several opposition leaders in a move which drew widespread
international condemnation.
"Considering the current environment, the
ZCTU is saying people have to stay
at home, stay indoors (because) it has to
be as peaceful as possible," ZCTU
president Lovemore Matombo told
journalists, acknowledging fears of a
government crackdown.
Analysts
say the ZCTU's calls for strikes over labour and social issues in
recent
years have largely failed due to government intimidation and workers'
fears
of losing their jobs in a country that has an 80 percent unemployment
rate.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of damaging economic crisis, which
has seen
inflation pass 1,700 percent, unemployment rocketing to 80 percent
and
worsened shortages of foreign currency and food.
Matombo said the
ZCTU would be carrying out work stayaways every three
months if workers'
concerns were not addressed.
The government has since last month imposed
bans on protests and rallies
across much of Harare after police clashed with
opposition supporters.
We are starving; we will eat
your teargas. - Zimbabwe National Students
Union
The Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) has resolved that:
All workers be mobilised to stay
away from work from 3 to 4 April 2007
National actions will be called for
after every three months and they will
be incremental until the situation
improves
Poverty. Hyperinflation. Oppression. Unemployment. Failure of basic
services.
Show your disagreement with how our country is being
mismanaged and SUPPORT
the ZCTU and STAY AWAY ON 3 and 4 April 2007
Read
the ZCTU communique about the stay away on
http://www.zctu.co.zw/html/stmts/21906.shtm
or contact them for more
information, on email info@zctu.co.zw or phone +263-4-794702/42 or
+263-4-702517.
Lobby your friends and colleagues - forward this email on
to them.
Let the workers organise. Let the toilers assemble. Let their
crystallized
voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges.
Let all
thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labour is the
future of
Zimbabwe.
ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE
28th March 2007
TRAGEDY IN
HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
On Saturday, 24th March 2007, two tourists were
killed by a young elephant
bull in musth. The tourists were part of a group
who were walking with a
game guide inside Hwange National Park.
During
the walk, the young bull charged the group. The guide was knocked
over after
discharging his rifle but he was unable to stop the elephant.
We would
like to offer our deepest sympathies to the friends and family of
the
deceased and to warn anybody planning a trip to Hwange National Park to
exercise extreme caution whilst in the presence of elephants.
The
elephants in Hwange do not have a peaceful existence. They have become
increasingly skittish around humans because they associate them with gunfire
due to subsistence poaching, commercial poaching (for ivory) and the fact
that Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa where shooting game for weekly
rations is legal. The recent removal of 12 juveniles from their herds for
use in the tourist industry and elephants being trapped in wire snares
doesn't help their mood either. Professional hunters and elephant
researchers have stated that it is not usual for an elephant to charge and
kill humans for no reason.
A recent newspaper article stated
"Zimbabwe plans to cull its growing
elephant population to limit damage to
the environment and reduce conflict
with humans". It went on to say that the
elephant population has grown to
over 100 000, more than twice the carrying
capacity of 45 000.
We don't believe anyone really knows how many
elephants there are in
Zimbabwe. Research has revealed that in Hwange
National Park, where there is
the highest concentration of elephants in the
country, the elephant
population fluctuates between 25 000 in a dry year and
45 000 in a wet year.
It is very difficult to ascertain the number of
elephants we have in Zimbawe
because they migrate between the neighbouring
countries in search of water.
An interesting point is that according to a
census conducted in Hwange
National Park in 2001, which was an extremely wet
year, it was estimated
that there were 45 000 elephants in the park and a
similar figure was
estimated in 2006, another wet year. This suggests that
the population
growth has stopped because the figure for 2006 should have
been in the
region of 54 000, based on a 3.7% growth rate per annum. Even
so, it cannot
be concluded that there are 45 000 elephants in Hwange
National Park because
the estimates during the drier years were between 25
000 and 30 000.
With regard to elephant influence on other large
herbivores, even though
most herbivore populations have declined in parallel
to the increase in the
elephant population, research has been carried out
and no drastic change in
the vegetation structure at the landscape level
could be identified. A
paper has been published (Valiex et al.2007 in J
Trop Ecol) that shows 2
vegetation structure maps of a study area in Hwange
National Park. The first
map shows the vegetation structure for the period
1979-1984 when there were
approximately 13 000 elephants in the park and the
second shows the
vegetation structure for the period 1999-2005 when the
elephant population
had increased to approximately 35 000. It is quite clear
even to the layman
that the changes in the vegetation structure are minimal.
If anyone would
like further clarification or to see these maps, please
email
mvaleix@yahoo.fr.
The
Zimbabwean authorities' reasons for wanting to cull are:
The elephant
population has "grown" to over 100 000 - but there are
indications that it
is not growing at all in Hwange National Park and can
they prove there are
over 100 000 elephants? If the population in Hwange
hasn't grown, then how
can we assume that it has grown elsewhere? Despite
poaching and other
disturbances, the elephants in Hwange are probably safer
than anywhere
else.
The elephants are damaging the environment - but research has been
carried
out that shows that the presence of large numbers of elephants in a
specific
area over a 20 year period does not cause any drastic identifiable
changes
in vegetation structure.
There are increasing incidences of
elephants attacking humans - but if the
elephants were allowed to enjoy a
peaceful existence and had not been given
a reason to fear humans, they
would not be acting in this abnormal manner.
If the authorities persist in
claiming that there is a "population
explosion" of elephants in Zimbabwe,
surely culling isn't the only way of
solving the problem. There are areas in
Zimbabwe such as the Umfurudzi
Wilderness where some of them could be moved
to. Contraception is also an
option. We believe that culling will only
worsen the problem of the
elephants' aggressive behaviour towards humans
because it involves gunfire
and trauma. Elephants targeted for a cull could
conceivably communicate
their trauma to other elephants within a 50km
radius. It has been
scientifically proven that they are capable of doing
this. If this happened,
they would be extremely dangerous to
humans.
Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force
Tel: 263 4 336710
Fax/Tel: 263 4
339065
Mobile: 263 11 603 213
Email:galorand@mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zimbabwe-art.com
Website:
www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
The Economist
Robert Mugabe
Mar 29th
2007 | HARARE
From The Economist print edition
Zimbabwe's despotic
leader, a man of puzzlingly different identities, is a
past master at
holding on
IN AN African village, everyone is expected to work. From an early
age
children are taken to the fields and told to carry water or to hunt.
Eight
decades ago, when the land that is now Zimbabwe was run by British
settlers,
one small boy chose to toil for his family by taking on solitary
tasks. Sent
to herd cows, he would avoid other children and tramp off to
isolated
grazing spots. He would not scrap with the other boys, a
traditional way of
passing the time.
This weakling did not even play
at hunting. Instead he would weave dry grass
and reeds into small nets,
stuffing them with feathers and moss. He would
set his traps by a river and
then wait for hours, resting with a book in the
shade of a tree. Eventually
he would snare a small bird or two, providing a
tiny bit of protein for the
family pot. None of this made him popular. He
was bookish, a swot and very
close to his mother. His father, a carpenter,
had disappeared
early.
Remarkably little is known about Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the
man who has
ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades and has led it, in that
time, from
impressive success to the most dramatic peacetime collapse of any
country
since Weimar Germany. Today Mr Mugabe is a near-parody of an African
dictator. He sports a Hitleresque moustache. He waves his fists at campaign
rallies, runs into crowds punching the air and spits personal abuse at his
opponents. But his rivals and enemies have regularly underestimated him;
and, in doing so, have made it all the harder to get him out of
office.
His secret police, the much-feared Central Intelligence
Organisation,
spreads dread in the cities, especially the poorer townships,
after dark.
Early in March his goons hammered the country's opposition
leader, a doughty
but dull former trade-union leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
almost to death,
provoking intense condemnation at home and abroad, but also
successfully
intimidating ordinary people. A gardener in Budiriro township
near Harare
describes how security men have harassed residents to stop
street protests,
even battering a pregnant woman until she lost her baby. On
March 28th
police again arrested Mr Tsvangirai.
The attacks on Mr
Tsvangirai have improved his public standing-just as Mr
Mugabe burnished
his, long ago, by going to prison while fighting for an end
to white rule.
But another refrain did the rounds in Harare last week: if
the leader of the
opposition cannot guard himself, how can he protect his
ordinary supporters
if they dare to protest?
Young men are beaten regularly by police with
truncheons known as
knobkerries, long synonymous with repression in this
part of the world. On
March 27th a trade-union meeting in Mutare, in the
east of the country, was
stormed and broken up by police who claimed it was
being held without
permission. In the parks of Harare, groups of sullen
security men with
shotguns, rifles and riot gear can be seen lurking in the
bushes. According
to Chris Maroleng of the Institute for Security Studies, a
South African
research outfit, Mr Mugabe "has emptied out the state and
filled it with the
military". He may yet preserve his tottering regime by
brute force alone.
Mr Mugabe is certainly willing to resort to force when
cornered. But as long
as the deft bird-catcher has other choices, he is
probably clever enough to
limit the violence. Though widely hated, he has a
gift for making people do
as he says. For roughly a decade pundits have
predicted his imminent
departure from office-forced out by elections, a
referendum, political
protest. But each time Mr Mugabe has held
on.
Many Zimbabweans, paradoxically, both despise and admire him.
Charismatic,
well-educated and genuinely clever, he is not merely a thuggish
clown like
Uganda's Idi Amin. His commitment to improving schools for all
Zimbabweans
is widely known. Less noted is his personal role in doing so:
even as
president, the former schoolteacher took time to give lessons to
staff at
State House, teaching some who have since become ministers. Though
the
country is ruined, Zimbabwe's streets still throng with boys and girls
in
neat school uniforms.
Yoga and sadza
Mr Mugabe is also a shrewd
performer, switching from Shona to English to
send different messages to
different audiences. He exploits foreign
condemnation of his rule so
effectively that Britain's government,
especially, now rarely comments on
Zimbabwe. His playground jibes against
the foreign leaders he
dislikes-Britain's Tony Blair is "a boy in short
trousers"-provoke laughter
even among the hungry who want to see him gone.
Next month his government
plans to set up a 24-hour propaganda station,
News24, to counter "negative
publicity" from the West. "Nothing frightens
me," said Mr Mugabe at a
meeting in Harare on March 23rd. "I make a stand
and stand on principle here
where I was born, here where I grew up, here
where I fought and here where I
shall die."
At 83 he still works punishing hours, rarely returning from
the office until
late evening, and is sharper minded than most, perhaps all,
of his many
opponents. He is said to rise before dawn, well before the rest
of his young
family, and to start the day with yoga exercises. He is frugal,
typically
taking no breakfast but sipping tea throughout the day. His
doctors say he
is in formidable good health.
Heidi Holland, the
author of a forthcoming book, "Dinner with Mugabe", who
has interviewed many
relatives and colleagues of the president, sees him as
sprightly and canny.
Whenever possible he eats sadza-the local maize
porridge-with a relish of
vegetables, usually with his hands in the
traditional way of the Shona
people. Unlike many African dictators, with
their fierce appetites for
booze, meat and women, Zimbabwe's leader is
teetotal, a near-vegetarian and
by all accounts faithful to Grace, his young
second wife. His tailor notes
that Mr Mugabe's measurements (he likes vents
at the sides of his jackets
and cannot abide double-breasted suits) have not
altered in 20
years.
Yet the old man seems to be ever more isolated. Just as the boy
had few
friends, argues Ms Holland, the president has grown increasingly
lonely. His
first wife, Sally, a Ghanaian, was probably his closest friend
and adviser.
Former ministers recall how Mr Mugabe, when mulling a tricky
problem, would
announce "I'll ask Sally", and the matter would be postponed
until he had.
Some date the beginning of Mr Mugabe's misrule, and the
collapse of
Zimbabwe, to her death in 1992, and his marriage to Grace, a
former
secretary, whose main preoccupation is shopping.
Certainly the
president has grown touchy as the years have passed. One
former cabinet
minister, Jonathan Moyo, describes how Mr Mugabe fell into a
fierce sulk
after rivals suggested he quit, in 2006. For days the president
refused even
to meet any of his ministers and broke his silence only after
his priest
intervened. Others confirm his eerie ability to exert a "silent
power":
refusing, for example, to say a word in one-on-one meetings, to the
deep
consternation of the other party.
Today it seems that his isolation is
growing, especially within the ruling
Zanu-PF party. In December Mr Mugabe
tried to convince his party to postpone
next year's presidential elections
until 2010, but the idea was not received
with great enthusiasm, and the
decision was delayed until a meeting of party
leaders that is taking place
this week. His one-time protégé, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who was so close to the
president that he earned the moniker "Son
of God", is thought to be plotting
with Solomon Mujuru, the former head of
the army and husband of the current
vice-president, to persuade Mr Mugabe to
go. Both men have fallen out of
favour with the president, and the country's
economic meltdown is hurting
their vast business interests. They are said to
be talking not only to each
other, but also to Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC),
though Mr Mugabe has sidelined many rivals before.
And neither man, if he
were to become Zimbabwe's leader, would be likely to
be any less dreadful
for the country.
An English gentleman
The time may have come when Mr
Mugabe's great age-the average Zimbabwean
woman can expect to die at just
34, the average man at 37-is a liability.
Usually in Africa age is treated
with enormous respect. Yet some now
describe the president with open scorn.
"It is time for the madala to go,"
says a resident of one township beside
Harare, contemptuously using the
Shona term for an old man. Mr Moyo snorts
that "over the past few years
Mugabe has lost his skills. Many are now
saying this guy is a victim of old
age."
But pinning down Mr Mugabe
and assessing his weakness has proved remarkably
difficult over the years.
The man is constantly able to reinvent himself. He
is part African populist,
prepared to snatch agricultural land from
commercial farmers-and thereby
destroying one of Africa's most successful
economies-yet part Anglophile
gentleman. Though neither the Zimbabwean
leader, nor Britain's government,
is particularly keen to admit it, Mr
Mugabe is in large part the product of
Western, especially British, values.
He dresses in Western suits and
reads the foreign press regularly, though
almost never the local papers. One
close observer says he is often seen with
The Economist. Despite his
diatribes against imperialists, he has an almost
fawning respect for British
tradition. Visitors, including his tailor, are
almost always offered a cup
of tea. When Mr Mugabe entertained foreign
journalists after the elections
in 2005, he posed between two (rather tatty)
stuffed lions at his
colonial-era pile, as servants padded around with trays
in the background.
He takes pains to instil good manners in his young
children, explaining that
these are the manners of British royalty.
It is commonly said that Mr
Mugabe can appear to be more English than the
English. He loves cricket, and
has long been the patron of the Zimbabwe
Cricket Union. Until targeted
sanctions prevented him doing so, his
favourite pastime was to travel to
London. At the end of white rule in 1980
he formed relatively close
relationships with the British officials who
oversaw the transition,
sensibly agreeing not to throw the white farmers
out. When some of the
farmers, in the late 1990s, started supporting
Zimbabwe's opposition, Mr
Mugabe felt betrayed by London.
If his identity is hard to pin down, his
fears and hopes are easier to read.
His greatest concern would seem to be
avoiding an ignominious end while
protecting his family. It is telling how
Mr Mugabe has dealt with his
predecessor, Ian Smith, the leader of white
Rhodesia. He had strong reasons,
both personal and political, for disliking
him. He was imprisoned by the
Smith regime, and was said to be particularly
distraught when Mr Smith
denied him permission to attend the funeral of his
first son, who died at
the age of four.
A degree in violence
Mr
Mugabe is certainly still extremely bitter about this period. When asked
in
2001 if he recognised that Zimbabweans were suffering because of his
rule,
he growled back that he had been jailed by Mr Smith and "we suffered
more
under the British." Yet the cantankerous Mr Smith, who kept up his
verbal
attacks on Mr Mugabe for years, was never touched or encouraged to
leave
(though he voluntarily retired to South Africa a year or so ago).
Perhaps
Mr Mugabe considered his white predecessor a spent force; more
serious
opponents were put down brutally. Even if Mr Mugabe treated Mr Smith
gingerly, he has the blood of many others on his hands. He once boasted
that, in addition to his seven academic degrees, he had a "degree in
violence". Rival leaders in the independence movement died mysteriously as
Mr Mugabe took charge, one in a car crash but (some said) riddled with
bullets. An opposition newspaper saw its printing press blown up and
journalists tortured. Young opponents of the regime have been dragged to
camps where women are raped and men are beaten.
One particular
concern of Zimbabwe's leader is that he may face prosecution
for overseeing
the massacre of thousands of villagers by North
Korean-trained soldiers in
Matabeleland, in the south-west of the country,
in the early 1980s. A bill
calling for a new inquest into the Gukurahundi,
as the killings were known
(it means "the early rain that washes away the
chaff"), is about to be
introduced into parliament.
The opposition MDC, if it ever rules alone or
in coalition (at the moment,
it is too broke and divided even to organise
mass protests), says it would
not call on the state to try Mr Mugabe for
these killings. But it wants
either a private prosecution or a case brought
in an international court.
Many other instances of state-sanctioned murder
and torture might be
examined too, including those strange deaths of Mr
Mugabe's rivals at the
time of independence. Loss of immunity is one of the
main costs, to him, of
losing power; he could probably not be persuaded to
go unless some
comfortable deal for him was worked out in
advance.
Yet he may be eased out eventually, not least because his
African neighbours
are increasingly embarrassed by him. The arrest and
beating of opposition
leaders has made it difficult for the region's leaders
to sit on their
hands. At an emergency meeting of the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) this week, Zimbabwe was back at centre-stage.
President Levy
Mwanawasa of Zambia has put the matter bluntly: he compared
Zimbabwe to the
foundering of the Titanic, and said that quiet diplomacy had
failed.
But African leaders are unlikely to get out their megaphones.
Their mumbling
and conciliation have continued. Only a few weeks ago, Mr
Mugabe landed a
power deal with Namibia that should help ease Zimbabwe's
crippling power
cuts. He also paid a recent visit to oil-rich Equatorial
Guinea, which seems
happy to assist. Angola has been rumoured to be ready to
send paramilitaries
to help retrain the Zimbabwean police, although both
sides have now denied
this.
So Mr Mugabe, for all his flaws, can
still count on his anti-colonial
credits across the region. Most important,
he can still count on them in
South Africa, though his relations with the
ruling African National Congress
are as sour as can be. He derides South
Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki,
whom he sees as a grey, cautious upstart
(and who is a generation younger).
Repeatedly Mr Mbeki has tried to broker
talks between the opposition and the
ruling party on power-sharing in
Zimbabwe, while failing to offer any
threats if Mr Mugabe does not agree.
When Zimbabwe faced expulsion from the
IMF, South Africa offered to help if
the regime cleaned up its political and
economic act. It was snubbed, and
the central bank mopped up all the foreign
exchange it could find to pay the
IMF.
All in all, Mr Mbeki has been left looking foolish and powerless.
Today
South Africa provides Mr Mugabe with the most effective international
cover
for his misrule, in part because Mr Mbeki, seeing in Zimbabwe a mirror
of
his own country, dreads the idea of a trade-union leader overturning the
rule of an independence party.
The star and the sun
A more
important relationship, however, may have been with Nelson Mandela.
Some
date the start of Mr Mugabe's misrule to the emergence of his rival as
the
great independence hero of Africa. Until Mr Mandela left his apartheid
prison, in 1990, Mr Mugabe could do no wrong. He was feted as an
anti-apartheid leader, a man who reconciled different races and presided
over a shining economy. Mr Mugabe was the star of the region, but then the
sun rose.
Mr Mandela promptly stole all his attention; South Africa's
vastly bigger
economy drew investment, press coverage, foreign plaudits. To
Mr Mugabe's
evident personal dismay, Zimbabwe was cast into the shade. Mr
Mandela's
biographer describes Mr Mugabe twitching with distaste and
annoyance when
the two men met, shortly after the South African won his
freedom.
No love is lost between the two elder statesmen. Just as Mr
Mandela emerged
as the voice of reconciliation and modernity in Africa, Mr
Mugabe reverted
to populism, land-grabs and bashing foreigners. It is quite
possible that Mr
Mugabe, increasingly bitter, dreams of holding on to power
long enough to
see the back of some of his foreign rivals. He would love to
be in office
when (in the middle of the year, most probably) Mr Blair
resigns. Mr Mbeki
has only a couple of years to go. Mr Mandela's health is
fading fast.
BBC
30 March 2007, 07:23 GMT 08:23 UK
By Joseph Winter
BBC
News
It has been an open secret in Zimbabwe for many years that
Emmerson
Mnangagwa would like to succeed Robert Mugabe as
president.
And Mr Mugabe has been almost toying with his emotions - one
day
promoting him to senior positions in both the ruling Zanu-PF party and
the
government, raising speculation that Mr Mnangagwa is the "heir apparent"
but
later demoting him, after he possibly displayed his ambitions a bit too
openly.
He helped direct Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence
and later became
the country's spymaster during the 1980s civil
conflict.
He is currently minister of rural housing, a relative
backwater after
spells as minister of national security and speaker of
parliament.
In 2005, he also lost his post as Zanu-PF secretary for
administration, which had enabled him to place his supporters in key party
positions.
This followed reports that Mr Mnangagwa, 60, had
been campaigning too
hard for the post of vice-president, backed by his
close ally, former
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.
Mr
Mugabe sacked Mr Moyo from both party and government but Mr
Mnangagwa seems
to be back in the president's good books.
The president has instead
reportedly become alarmed at the activities
of Joyce Mujuru, who got the
vice-president's job, and her powerful husband,
former army chief Solomon
Mujuru.
Congo connection
Before his 2005 demotion, Mr
Mnangagwa was seen as "the architect of
the commercial activities of
Zanu-PF", according to a UN report in 2001.
This largely related to
the operations of the Zimbabwean army and
businessmen in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Zimbabwean troops intervened on the DR Congo
conflict on the side of
the government and, like other countries, it was
accused of using the
conflict to loot some of its rich natural resources,
such as diamonds, gold
and other minerals.
But despite his
money-raising role, Mr Mnangagwa, a lawyer who grew up
in Zambia, is not
well-loved by the rank and file of his own party.
One veteran of
Zimbabwe's war of independence, who worked with him for
many years, puts it
simply: "He's a very cruel man, very cruel."
Another Zanu-PF
official poses an interesting question when asked
about Mr Mnangagwa's
prospects: "You think Mugabe is bad but have you
thought that whoever comes
after him could be even worse?"
The opposition candidate who
defeated Mr Mnangagwa in the 2000
parliamentary campaign in Kwekwe Central,
Blessing Chebundo, would also
agree that his rival is not a man of
peace.
During a bitter campaign, Mr Chibundo escaped death by a
whisker when
the Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with
petrol were
unable to light a match.
Atrocities
Mr
Mnangagwa's fearsome reputation was made during the civil war which
broke
out after independence between Mugabe's Zanu party and the Zapu of
Joshua
Nkomo.
As National Security Minister, Mr Mnangagwa was in charge of
the
Central Intelligence Organisation, CIO, which worked hand in glove with
the
army to suppress Zapu.
Thousands of innocent civilians -
mainly ethnic Ndebeles, seen as Zapu
supporters - were killed before the two
parties merged to form Zanu-PF.
Among countless other atrocities,
villagers were forced at gun-point
to dance on the freshly-dug graves of
their relatives and chant pro-Mugabe
slogans.
Despite the 1987
Unity Accord, the wounds are still painful and many
party officials, not to
mention voters, in Matabeleland would be reluctant
to support a Mnangagwa
presidential campaign.
School of Ideology
Mr
Mnangagwa, though does enjoy the support of many of the war
veterans who led
the campaign of violence against the white farmers and the
opposition from
2000.
They remember him as one of the men who, following his
military
training in China and Egypt, directed the 1970s fight for
independence.
He also attended the School of Ideology, run by the
Chinese Communist
Party.
On his official profile, Mr Mnangagwa
says he was the victim of state
violence after being arrested by the
white-minority government in the former
Rhodesia in 1965, after he helped
blow up a train near Fort Victoria (now
Masvingo).
"He was
tortured severely resulting in him losing his sense of hearing
in one ear,"
the profile says.
"Part of the torture techniques involved being
hanged with his feet on
the ceiling and the head down. The severity of the
torture made him
unconscious for days."
As he was under 21 at
the time, he was not executed but instead
sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
He was born in the central region of Zvishavane and is from
the
Karanga sub-group of Zimbabwe's majority Shonas.
The
Karangas are the largest Shona group and some feel it is their
turn for
power, following 27 years of domination by Mr Mugabe's Zezuru
group.
From BBC News, 30 March
By
Joseph Winter
Solomon Mujuru is a former army chief, often seen as
Zimbabwe's
"king-maker". But after spending more than a decade wielding
power from the
shadows, he may be about to emerge once more into public life
- possibly as
president, or maybe as "first man". His wife, Joyce Mujuru, is
vice-president - the first woman to hold such a high-ranking role in
Zimbabwe. If Mr Mujuru wants to combine power with relative anonymity, he
may opt to back his wife for the top job - a scenario which many people
would interpret as him pulling the real strings. But Mrs Mujuru has -
wisely - denied having any presidential ambitions. Solomon Mujuru was the
director of Robert Mugabe's guerrilla forces during the 1970s war of
independence, which ended white minority rule. Using his "nom de guerre",
Rex Nhongo, he is also said to have played a key role in Mr Mugabe's rise to
the top of the Zanu party. Following independence, he carried on doing
pretty much the same job - as army chief, becoming a general. He was also
elected MP for the north-eastern Chikomba constituency, before leaving
public life in 1995 to concentrate on his business interests. But he has
always kept his senior role in the ruling Zanu PF party, where the real
power resides. This could give him some say in how and when Mr Mugabe leaves
office.
But despite his long and close ties to Mr Mugabe, he
reportedly over-stepped
the mark in recent days, meeting the US and UK
ambassadors to Zimbabwe. Even
worse treachery - in Mr Mugabe's eyes - would
be confirmation of reports
that Mr Mujuru had met opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, possible to
discuss a government of national unity for the
post-Mugabe era. Mr Mugabe
has always portrayed himself as still fighting
the colonial struggle -
against the west. He was widely believed to be
referring to Mr Mujuru when
he said there had been "an insidious dimension
where ambitious leaders have
been cutting deals with the British and
Americans". "The whole succession
debate has given imperialism hope for
re-entry. Since when have the British,
the Americans, been friends of Zanu
PF?" he asked. This was a pretty severe
put-down for the Mujurus, who come
from the same Zezuru branch of Zimbabwe's
majority Shona group as Mr
Mugabe.
It might suit Mr Mujuru to remain behind the scenes. "He
leads a very
private life," one Zanu PF insider told the BBC News website.
There are very
few photos of him around. Mrs Mujuru, 51, on the other hand,
has remained in
cabinet ever since 1980, when she was its youngest member.
She left school
at the age of 18 to join the war of independence and adopted
the name Teurai
Ropa (Spill Blood), before marrying Solomon Mujuru in 1977.
She claims to
have shot down a Rhodesian helicopter with the machine-gun of
a dying
comrade and was later promoted to commander. After spending her
youth
fighting the war, she obtained secondary school qualifications and a
degree
while in government. Before becoming vice-president, she was best
known for
blocking a bid to set up Zimbabwe's first mobile phone network in
the early
1990s. This was seen as not only a money-earner but a threat to
the
government's control of information. As information minister, she
managed to
thwart Econet long enough for Telecel, part-owned by her husband,
to set up.
She was also one of the biggest beneficiaries of a scheme set up
to pay
compensation to those injured during the war of independence. The
scheme
paid out huge amounts of public money - one of the sparks for
Zimbabwe's
subsequent economic collapse.
The Mujurus are accused
of taking over at least one of the farms seized from
their white owners in
recent years. Guy Watson-Smith has taken Mr Mujuru to
court to seek
compensation after his farm was invaded by ruling party
supporters. He says
the famous couple are living on the 3,500-acre Alamein
farm, 45 miles south
of Harare. He says the infrastructure alone was worth
some $2.5m. He won a
court order in December 2001 but is still trying to get
either the money or
the farm. Emmerson Mnangagwa is the other man seen as a
possible Zanu PF
successor to Mr Mugabe. He and the Mujurus have been
business, as well as
political, rivals for more than a decade after Mr
Mnangagwa blocked Mr
Mujuru's bid to take over the huge Zimasco chrome
smelting operation. Mr
Mujuru is also a share-holder in the River Ranch
diamond mine.
Business Day
30 March 2007
Adam
Habib
--------------------------------------------------------------------
IT IS often said that you can never take anything for granted in
politics.
No one can attest to the truth of this better than SA's foreign
policy
officials. The country's tenure in the United Nations (UN) Security
Council
began in January with much promise, as both foreign policy officials
and the
domestic media hailed SA's temporary ascension to the UN's most
significant
decision-making body. Yet, within a month of joining, the
foreign policy
establishment has come under severe criticism, not only from
western
governments, but also from the domestic and international media, and
increasingly strident academics and political
commentators.
The turning point was SA's vote preventing
the increasingly
repressive situation in Burma from being put on the agenda
of the security
council. Criticism was again raised when UN ambassador
Dumisani Kumalo
initially objected to the council being briefed on recent
developments in
Zimbabwe, and when he tried to significantly amend the
sanctions package
against Iran for its refusal to terminate its nuclear
enrichment programme.
Critics cannot understand how SA can,
given its history, take
such a stance. Its conduct in all three cases is
seen as antidemocratic and
in support of autocratic regimes. The claim by
South African officials that
they are merely honouring the rules and
processes of the UN is not taken
seriously. It is interpreted as a technical
smokescreen to justify its
subversion of political
principle.
But should one really be so dismissive of SA's
reasoning? Is
there not a need for the UN's rules to be observed and its
structures used
for the purposes for which they were intended? And is this
respect for rules
and processes not part of the struggle to advance
democracy itself?
SA's foreign policy establishment
clearly believes so. And its
reasoning deserves to be heard. One of the
biggest problems for countries in
the developing world is the undemocratic
character of the global order. This
has not only created conditions in which
rivalry among great powers has
undermined the prospects for security and
freedom in large parts of the
developing world, but it has also
significantly compromised the development
agenda of these
countries.
Changing this situation is necessary if stability,
freedom and
development are to be realised.
How to do
this has become one of the overriding priorities of SA's
foreign policy. One
of the strategies developed has been to pursue
multilateralism. In the South
African foreign policy establishment's
perspective, the only way a
developing country at the bottom of the African
continent can advance a
developmental and democratic agenda is through
strategic alliances and the
use of international institutions to constrain
great-power
behaviour.
But for these institutions to be used for this
purpose, they
have to be legitimised and their rules need to be respected.
Moreover, they
cannot be simply manipulated by great powers and used in ways
that suit only
their purposes. This is precisely what has always occurred,
but has become
even more blatant in recent years. The US and the UK use the
UN when they
can get their way, and act unilaterally when they do not. When
countries are
brought to the security council for violations of their
citizens' rights,
they are selectively chosen. Burma and Zimbabwe are chosen
because its suits
US and European interests. When countries such as Israel
and Pakistan commit
such atrocities, they are not hauled in front of the
council because they
are in alliance with the US in the war against
terror.
This outrageous manipulation of multilateral
institutions
constitutes a greater threat to international security,
development and
democracy. And it is essential that a plan be developed to
address this. So
when SA demands respect for the rules and processes of the
UN, it should not
be ridiculed. Rather it should be celebrated and supported
by all those
interested in democracy and a more just global
order.
The real problem, however, is that both sides seem
to be making
a tradeoff between two necessary struggles in the advance of
democracy. The
South African foreign policy establishment seems to be
prioritising the
reform of the international order, and ignoring the
struggle for democratic
rights in national contexts. Its critics, on the
other hand, prioritise
national struggles and seem sanguine about the
democratisation of the
international forums. Neither position is reasonable.
Both struggles need to
be waged simultaneously.
How
is this to be done? First, it is legitimate for the South
African government
to insist that the Burmese and Zimbabwean questions are
not put on the
agenda of the security council, because they do not
immediately constitute
threats to international peace. But they should take
the lead in making sure
they are placed on the agenda of the Human Rights
Council, and they should
provide leadership for international action to be
taken against regimes that
violate the rights of their citizens.
Some of the
critical responses need also to be subjected to
critical review. The more
hysterical emotional responses do very little to
advance the struggle for
democracy, in particular because they often
simplify and obfuscate the real
issue. Critics must make sure that in their
haste to fly the flag of
democracy, they do not simply direct it to
countries in the south, but also
to those such as the US, whose actions are
undermining freedom and democracy
across the globe.
They must make sure that they do not become
the unwitting
soldiers of democracy for the neo-cons in Washington. After
all, the path to
hell is often paved with good
intentions.
Habib is executive director of the Human
Sciences Research
Council's Democracy & Governance Programme. He writes
in his personal
capacity.