The Inaugural Address by the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Morgan Tsvangirai, to the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/3500

Mr. Speaker Sir, Vice Presidents, Deputy Prime Ministers, Honourable
Members;

Thank you for this opportunity to address this, the Seventh Parliament of
Zimbabwe, which I trust will be amongst the most cooperative, bold and
decisive in our country's history.

This address to Parliament will outline the legislative vision as embodied
in the Global Political Agreement and will later be following its
presentation to, and approval by, Cabinet and the Council of Ministers.

In the short life of our new Transitional Inclusive Government, I have been
encouraged by the enormous support and cooperation I have received and
witnessed at the parliamentary, ministerial, executive and civil service
levels. If this spirit of teamwork continues, and I have no reason to doubt
that it will not, then together we can rebuild our nation and restore
Zimbabwe to its proud place in the family of nations.

The signing of the Global Political Agreement on 15 September 2008,
signified the soft landing of the Zimbabwe crisis and the commencement of a
process that is irreversible and will lead to a new constitution and free
and fair elections. It signified the acceptance of the reality that violence
has no part to play in our political culture and it signified that the voice
of the people can not be silenced indefinitely.

In this new Transitional Inclusive Government executive authority rests with
the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. As Prime Minister, I am
responsible for overseeing the formulation of government policies and to
ensure that the policies so formulated are implemented by the entirety of
government.

Mr. Speaker Sir, each one of us here today can be justly proud that we have
been chosen by our respective communities in our great country, to represent
their interests and to translate their hopes and dreams into policy that
will make a positive, tangible and sustainable difference to the lives of
those whose trust we have won.

This is not a responsibility to be taken lightly and I know that you will
commit yourselves to ensuring that you are conversant with the duties that
you swore to uphold when you took your seat in this Parliament.

I know that in this House, there are many interests represented, many views
held and many political opinions expressed as to the best way forward for
our nation.

While I welcome this diversity and the robust debate that results from it,
we must always remember that we are united by the principles contained
within the GPA, which has now been given legal form through Constitutional
Amendment No. 19. This Agreement provides a solid and irrefutable framework
for the task that we have to do in the legislature and the leadership role
we have chosen to accept for our people.

The leaders of the three parties represented here, have committed themselves
and their members to adhere to the letter and spirit of the GPA and on this
there can be no difference, dissent or debate.

Parliament has been committed to implementing the clauses of the GPA and
abiding by the Constitution of Zimbabwe. There is no room in this House, in
this Government or in this country, for any individuals or groups that wish
to prevent progress and keep us mired in the poverty and misery that have
come to represent life in Zimbabwe.

Such is the scale of the task ahead, such is the work that we have to do,
such is the support that we shall require from the people, that on this we
must be united, we must work together and we must put the interests of our
nation and our people above all party political considerations.

This is what the GPA asks of each one of us - this is what we, as your
leadership, have agreed to - and this is what shall be done.

__________________

Mr. Speaker Sir, there can be no viable, permanent or sustainable solution
to the problems facing Zimbabwe without the promotion of the people's
freedoms. These freedoms form the bedrock of any democracy and the
foundation upon which all development builds. This is recognized within the
GPA both via the diversity of freedoms it incorporates and the emphasis it
places upon them.

Therefore, during the course of this Parliament a new Constitution will be
written. While Parliament will initiate this process, it must be driven by
all stakeholders and owned by the people of Zimbabwe. The people will have
the final say on its validity, both in terms of process and content, in a
referendum that will be held upon its completion.

This new Constitution will be a truly Zimbabwean product, reflecting our
history, our diverse cultures our respect for one another and our desire to
live free from persecution or fear.

However, there is much work for us to do in promoting freedoms while this
Constitutional process is underway.

Firstly, we must lead by example and the GPA commits all political parties
to respect and uphold the Constitution and other laws of the land and to the
principles of the Rule of Law. In doing this, we must bring to an end the
culture of entitlement and impunity that has blighted our country's recent
history. As leaders we will abide by the rule of law and submit ourselves to
the people for free, fair and transparent election at regular intervals. If
we break the law or lose the support of the people then we do not deserve to
represent them and cannot be members of this House.

With the formation of this Transitional Inclusive Government, all
Zimbabweans are now able to propagate their political views and canvass for
support, free of harassment and intimidation.

The right to freedom of association and assembly are enshrined in the GPA.
It commits the police and other law enforcement agencies to conduct
themselves in accordance with the law and to observe and uphold the rule of
law. The government will therefore undertake training programmes aimed at
empowering these arms of government in the understanding and application of
human rights and the rule of law, particularly as it relates to freedoms of
association and assembly.

Our citizens have the right to express their views to us their leadership.
Therefore, the days of the police wantonly and violently breaking up
peaceful demonstrations and gatherings and needlessly imprisoning innocent
Zimbabweans must now come to an end. In future such activities could bring
the threat of prosecution not only on those arresting or interfering with
such activities but also on those that ordered such interference and
arrests. Command responsibility is a concept we must address and embrace.

No society can be free, or hope to prosper, without freedom of expression
and communication. This too is recognised within the GPA by ensuring that
the government immediately processes all applications for re-registration
and registration of media houses in terms of both the Broadcasting Services
Act as well as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Those wishing to practise journalism must be able to do so without being
prohibited by unnecessary restrictions or exorbitant fees.

In addition, steps will be taken to ensure that the public media provides
balanced and fair coverage to all political parties for their legitimate
political activities.

All public and private media must refrain from using abusive language that
may incite hostility, political intolerance and ethnic hatred or that
unfairly undermines political parties and other organisations.

Once an open and free media environment has been achieved, there will be no
need for Zimbabwean radio stations to be based abroad and I would encourage
those running and working for such stations to return home and help us build
a truly free and open communication network in Zimbabwe.

Such concepts of freedom are not foreign to our culture or our continent,
nor are they imposed upon us by outsiders. Evidence of this is clear to see
in our neighbouring countries where the rights of the people are defended
vigorously, where political parties are free to campaign and where there is
a healthy choice of radio and television stations and newspapers to choose
from.

Therefore, the GPA only encourages us to strive and implement the attributes
that exist in our regional African societies.

Naturally, I could not talk about freedoms without referring to those
individuals who continue to languish in prison on seriously contested
allegations. Their guilt or innocence is not for us to decide but it is a
hallowed principle of our law that one is innocent until proven guilty.
These detainees are being punished before they have been convicted. If
indeed there is sufficient evidence supporting the allegations against them
their respective trials must be given precedence in the national interest.
Let a court decide their fate.

The fact that some of these individuals have been incarcerated for months
without trial smacks of political persecution. This will not be tolerated
under our new Government. Justice must be done and must be seen to be done
now.

This issue of justice is not just related to people's freedoms alone but
goes to the very root of the economic recovery programme that this
government intends to implement. As proud as we are as nation, the fact of
the matter is that we need regional and international financial aid to pull
our country back from the economic abyss on which we are poised.

No donor country or institution is going to offer any meaningful assistance
unless our new government projects a positive new image. Brutal suppression,
wanton arrests and political persecution impede our ability to rebuild our
economy, to generate wealth for all, to rebuild our hospitals and schools
and to put a currency of value into our savings accounts.

Thus, those who continue to perpetuate the culture of impunity are
sabotaging the chances of all Zimbabweans to move towards prosperity and
freedom from hunger and poverty.

Not only are they sabotaging these prospects, but they are also going
against the letter and the spirit of the GPA. President Mugabe, Deputy Prime
Minister Mutambara and I, have pledged to work together to implement a full
and comprehensive economic programme to resuscitate Zimbabwe's economy by
addressing urgently the issues of production, food security, poverty and
unemployment and the challenges of high inflation, interest rates and the
exchange rate.

Mr. Speaker Sir, our economic recovery is also dependent on attracting back
to Zimbabwe the millions of our talented and skilled brothers and sisters
who fled the turmoil to seek sanctuary and better economic prospects abroad.
In getting them to return and join us in rebuilding our nation, adherence to
the rule of law and the implementation of sound economic policies are
essential.

As part of this process, the Government will establish a National Economic
Council comprising representatives of all economic sectors and civic society
in Zimbabwe. With the economy, like the other sectors covered by the GPA, no
top-down directives can help solve our problems. Only through engaging with
all stakeholders, by taking advice, learning about the issues and
understanding the complexities of the challenges we face can we hope to
formulate policies that will truly address our economic woes.

In this we have already made a positive start. The open use of multiple
currencies has removed a major distortion from our economy and allowed the
market to dictate a more realistic price for goods and services. In
addition, the achievement by the Ministry of Finance to pay a first round of
allowances to the civil service has eased the harsh conditions under which
these vital employees were living and simultaneously provided a much need
stimulus to our economy.

Mr. Speaker Sir, a government that cares about business has no business
being in business. Rather, its role is to ensure that an enabling
environment exists, albeit regulated, that allows the market to dictate
prices for all goods and services without underplaying the developmental
role of the state. In turn, business must acknowledge its own
responsibilities to pay taxes, provide acceptable employment conditions and
to invest in the growth of our nation.

For our nation to grow, we must ensure that we utilise its natural resources
as sustainably and productively as possible.

Today, our mines are operating at a fraction of their potential, employing a
fraction of the workforce they should and producing a fraction of the
revenue they could. During the life of this parliament, we will put in place
firm policy directions to revitalise our mining sector so that it can
contribute to our economic growth and social recovery.

Mr. Speaker Sir, in the life of this parliament we can make a significant,
positive impact on people's lives if we stay true to the principles to which
we have committed ourselves because our people are hard working and educated
and our country is well endowed with minerals and fertile soils.

However, the economy of Zimbabwe cannot grow and flourish if we are unable
to provide basic services to our citizens. A productive nation is a healthy
nation and this government will, as a priority, ensure that our health
system receives the resources it needs in order to provide the level of
preventative and curative care that all Zimbabweans deserve.

I fear that all of us here today, have lost friends and relatives needlessly
due to the appalling standards to which our health system has been allowed
to decline. I was shocked by my visit to Harare Central Hospital last week
and the conditions that prevail there and throughout the country.

I was embarrassed by the fact that as a nation we could let such
institutions decline while spending large amounts of money on non-productive
incentives for less valuable sectors of the economy. At the same time, I was
enormously proud of the spirit, resilience and dedication of the health
staff that have struggled to provide the best care possible despite the
absence of equipment, medicines, even light bulbs and functioning ablutions.

Our children have been similarly neglected in that we have scared away our
teachers through persecution and wages that fell far below the poverty datum
line, while simultaneously neglecting to maintain our educational
facilities, provide text books or even mark the exams of those children
still able to go to school.

Education is a priority of this government and I commend the work already
undertaken by the relevant ministries in these sectors to get an
understanding of what is required and set about finding resources and
implementing policies that are both practical and viable.

Indeed, like our economic recovery programmes, we cannot hope to restore
basic services without working hand in hand with consumer groups, resident's
associations and civil society as a whole. Forming strong partnerships with
these key stakeholders is essential if we are to rebuild our nation through
the development of sustainable policies for implementation.

I also welcome the moves by those ministries involved in overseeing the
operations of our utility companies to rationalise pricing structures and
implement a short-term moratorium on disconnections to protect the consumer
while realistic pricing structures, in line with regional norms, are
established and implemented. I believe that Zimbabweans will accept these
new rates if they are accompanied by an improvement in the quality and
reliability of the services for which they pay. This government will strive
to find a balance between affordability and viability.

Mr. Speaker Sir, in the same way that this government intends to restore
basic services, so we shall restore our country's ability to meet our basic
food requirements. Like the mining sector, our agriculture sector has been
the victim of negative policy interventions and distortion.

In addition, the collapse of our agricultural production is clear evidence
of what can happen to a vital sector of our economy when the rule of law is
substituted for the rule of lawlessness.

A viable land acquisition and distribution process is essential to redress
the racist land ownership patterns established during the colonial era.

As flawed as the recent process of land redistribution has been, this
government does not intend to reverse it, but rather to institute measures
that will once again see our agricultural sector becoming the jewel of
Southern Africa. To achieve this we need to address the issue of land
utilisation above all else.

We must halt the wanton disruptions of productive farming activities that
are continuing as I speak. Already our food production for the coming season
is going to be less than that of last year's abysmal season. Those that
believe that they can move onto a viable farm and steal the crops that are
about to be harvested are wrong. In our culture, as in our law, you cannot
reap what you have not sown. In addition, those that are undertaking these
activities are threatening seasonal crop production to the value of over
US$150 million - money that our economy desperately needs.

In the GPA we have committed ourselves and our parties to recognising that
all land is used productively in the interests of all the people of
Zimbabwe. A farm is a business that should provide food for our nation,
revenue to our economy and employment for our people.

In line with this, your new Government has committed to, amongst other
things:

  a.. conduct a comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land audit,
during the tenure of this Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, for the purpose of
establishing accountability and eliminating multiple farm ownerships.
  b.. ensure that all Zimbabweans who are eligible to be allocated land and
who apply for it shall be considered for allocation of land irrespective of
race, gender, religion, ethnicity or political affiliation;
  c.. ensure security of tenure to all land holders.
  d.. work together to secure international support and finance for the land
reform programme in terms of compensation for the former land owners and
support for new farmers.
This process will go a long way to healing our agricultural sector which in
turn will be restored to its vital role in the economy and future of our
great nation.

However, we cannot hope to progress without looking at healing our nation as
whole. For too long, Zimbabwe has been infected by the diseases of mindless
political violence, intolerance and persecution. Millions of Zimbabweans in
every community have been affected, which is a fact that is once again
recognised and addressed by the GPA.

We all have a role to play in healing our nation. However, we cannot hope to
undertake such a vital task if we do not first acknowledge the causes and
impacts of this disease in an open, honest and transparent manner.

National healing is not an event, it is a process that must be supported by
all Zimbabweans and every community represented in our nation. The treatment
that has been prescribed by the GPA rests on the foundations of equality,
regional growth and development and an environment of tolerance and respect
among Zimbabweans such that all citizens are treated with dignity and
decency irrespective of age, gender, race, ethnicity, place of origin or
political affiliation.

Due to the importance of this process and to ensure that it is encouraged
and supported, the three main political parties in Zimbabwe have each
appointed a Minister of State whose sole responsibility is to oversee the
mechanisms and procedures through which we can begin to heal our ravaged
nation.

This process is not about retribution, instead it is about regeneration,
restoration and rehabilitation and it must have both the grassroots and
leadership buy-in and support.

Only through beginning the process of healing our nation can we move towards
regaining our rightful place in the family of nations.

While in recent years, it is a fact that the relationship between Zimbabwe
and the international donor community has deteriorated, it must also be
recognised that this community has not abandoned the population of Zimbabwe,
remaining significantly involved in responding to the ongoing humanitarian
crisis.

We also have to recognise that Trade relations, particularly with the EU
have not been the subject of any restriction. We have signed an interim
Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU at the end of 2007, and we are
party to the ongoing negotiations leading towards a full Trade Agreement.

What we need is to fully re-establish relationships with the international
donor community, which will be respectful of our sovereignty, not a
relationship essentially based on humanitarian assistance.

We are grateful for the support that this new government has received
already from the international community but we recognize that the onus is
upon us, as citizens of this nation, to lay the foundation for greater
international support, cooperation and integration.

By working together to promote freedoms at home and ensuring that we abide
by the international treaties and conventions that we have ratified as a
country, this would lead to our acceptance by the international community as
a country and as individuals in the family of nations.

I therefore urge the international community to recognize our efforts, and
to note the progress that we make in this regard, and to match our progress
by moving towards the removal of restrictive measures.

Mr. Speaker Sir, addressing the humanitarian crisis remains a focus of this
government. I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Deputy Prime
Minister Khupe as the Humanitarian Coordinator in the Prime Minister's
office. She will liaise with all stake holders in order to compliment the
ongoing coordination efforts and ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness
of our humanitarian response.

Mr. Speaker Sir, we have much work to do but I know that we are up to the
challenge of honouring the letter and spirit of the GPA and ensuring that we
as individuals and as a Government abide by the rule of law and the
Constitution of Zimbabwe.

In this we also have a duty to ensure that all State institutions discharge
their duties impartially, that laws and regulations governing state organs
and institutions are strictly adhered to and those violating them be
penalised without fear or favour and that recruitment policies and practices
be conducted in a manner that ensures that no political or other form of
favouritism is practised.

In this, and in ensuring that all persons are adequately protected within
the laws of the country, we have an opportunity to implement Security Reform
Legislation to enshrine our police as protectors of the rights of the people
and our armed forces as the protectors of our nation.

The first step of this process has already been taken with the passing of
the National Security Council Bill which is now law.

Mr. Speaker Sir, we also have an opportunity to distinguish ourselves as
leaders, not just through the policies we develop and legislation we pass,
but also through the ways in which we conduct ourselves as the elected
representatives of the people.

As a start, I request Mr. Speaker Sir, that you ensure that the mechanism
for the declaration of assets by Honourable Members is enforced.

Going forward, we need to buttress this by additional measures at executive
level to strengthen the fight against corruption through increased
accountability and transparency by all members of our Government.

In addition to requiring Members to declare their income, liabilities and
assets and it would serve as a valuable framework to guide us in the
execution of our duties.

Mr. Speaker Sir, our new government will be open and transparent. We must
ensure that there is clear distinction between the role of the various
political parties and the role of the government. Similarly, we must
acknowledge and enforce the defined separation of powers between this
Parliament and the Executive.

Mr. Speaker Sir, our government cannot fulfill its mandate without respect
and a spirit of cooperation between Ministers and Parliament, both of which
must work together to ensure the needs of the people are addressed.
Therefore I urge all Ministers, in the spirit of openness and transparency,
to actively participate in Parliamentary Question Time and to work with the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committees once they have been constituted.

Also, in this spirit of openness, today we are launching the Prime Minister's
website that will not only serve to keep the people informed about the
activities of our government, but will also provide an interactive forum for
the people to participate and contribute to the affairs of government. The
address of this website is www.zimbabweprimeminister.org.

Mr. Speaker Sir, we must now work together to formulate our legislative
agenda. Those ministries which govern legislation that may be affected by
the GPA and Constitutional Amendment No. 19 should work on reviewing these
laws for presentation to cabinet. The first step in this process will be the
ministerial retreat to be held next week where such reviews can be discussed
in a spirit of cooperation and inclusiveness.

Mr. Speaker Sir, our nation and our peoples have paid the price for the
political differences that have divided us for too long. Now that we have
formed this Transitional Inclusive Government, we all have the opportunity
to put the needs of the people above our own, to put the development of our
nation above party differences and to look the future rather than live in
the past.

Mr. Speaker Sir, Honourable Members, together we can work for the betterment
of Zimbabwe, the growth of our nation and the honour of our people.

God Bless our beloved Zimbabwe and its people. God bless Africa.

I thank you.

Via MDC Press Release

This entry was posted by Sokwanele on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 3:35 pm.

Bennett's release imminent as Mutare magistrate agrees to free him

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Violet Gonda
4 March 2008

A Mutare magistrate has agreed to accept Roy Bennett's bail payment. By
around 7pm (Zimbabwe time) Bennett's lawyers and the MDC leadership in
Manicaland were waiting outside Mutare remand prison for his release.

There was confusion on Wednesday when it had been reported that the MDC
official would remain in a Mutare prison after the Attorney General's office
appealed to the country's highest court to deny him bail.

State prosecutor Chris Mutangadura said the MDC official 'posed a flight
risk' and therefore Bennett should remain behind bars until the Supreme
Court ruled on the appeal.

However the defence team said the AG's appeal was purely academic as it was
filed beyond the seven day limit they had to appeal. Lawyer Trust Maanda
said the continued detention of his client was "unlawful now, no matter how
many attempts they make for appeals because they are already out of time."

Maanda said the presiding magistrate had at first instructed the clerk of
court not to receive the payment as the magistrate said it was premature to
post bail, since the prosecutors had filed an application in the Supreme
Court.

But Maanda said that if the magistrate tried to stop the clerk from dealing
with the bail payment it would have amounted to interference with the High
Court decision.
Roy Bennett was arrested on February 13th on his way to South Africa where
he has been living in exile with his family. He was charged with terrorism.
Meanwhile the MDC supporters arrested in Nyanga on Friday were released
Tuesday evening. 150 people had originally been arrested after they had gone
to reclaim their livestock, taken during the election period last year. By
Tuesday the number had been reduced to 86 people in custody. Maanda, who
also represented them, said they were released on free bail.

Zimbabwe Supreme Court to rule Thursday on Bennett bail

Africa News
Mar 4, 2009, 18:00 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court

said late Wednesday that a judge will issue a ruling Thursday on the case of
whether senior opposition poltician Roy Bennett can be released on bail.

The court said Judge Paddington Garwe would rule on whether to allow the
state to appeal against a bail ruling for Bennett, Zimbabwes deputy minister
designate and a member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

State counsel Chris Mutangadura said his side had been asked 'to make more
submissions' in the case.

Bennett who is being held in Mutare about 300 kilometres east of Harare, is
facing charges of terrorism, sabotage and banditry. He was arrested on
February 13 at a small airport outside Harare as he was leaving the country
for South Africa.

He was granted bail on 2,000 US dollars by a High Court judge last week, but
the state challenged the order, requesting seven days to decide to appeal
against the ruling. The state contends that Bennett might try to flee the
country.

Bennett's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said: 'He ought to be free by now. This is
a political case and everybody needs to cover their backs.'

Mtetwa said the judge had requested the state to make more submissions which
they would have to respond to before he makes a ruling, but the ruling was
expected before the end of the day Thursday.

Farmers slam 'ludicrous' court decision to nullify SADC tribunal ruling

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Alex Bell
04 March 2009

Justice for Agriculture (JAG) has slammed as 'ludicrous' the High Court's
decision to nullify the SADC Tribunal ruling which said the country's white
farmers have clear legal title to their land.

The Zimbabwe High Court ruling on Tuesday came after Chegutu farmer Richard
Etheredge took the President of the Senate, Edna Madzongwe, to court,
seeking to have her removed from his Stockdale Farm.  She was 'allocated'
his farm by the government under the land reform programme. But High Court
Judge Anne-Mary Gowora dismissed the order sought by Etheredge with costs,
in a ruling that dealt with, among other issues, the applicability of the
decisions of the SADC Tribunal to Zimbabwe. Justice Gowora ruled that the
Tribunal's decisions and rulings do not apply and cannot be enforced in
Zimbabwe, unless Parliament ratifies the protocol that set up the tribunal.

JAG's John Worsley-Worswick on Wednesday called the High Court's ruling "a
true reflection on the complete breakdown of governance and adherence to the
rule of law that exists in Zimbabwe now." He argued the ruling is clearly an
"attempt by the government to fast-track land seizures," and explained the
UN Security Council should now get involved.

"If SADC turns a blind eye to its laws being flouted, then this will fast
become an international issue," Worsley-Worswick explained. "It should then
be taken to the UN security council who need to make sure that law returns
to Zimbabwe."

SADC meanwhile has remained completely silent about the resurgence of land
invasions, and the Tribunal is yet to comment on the nullification of its
ruling. Tribunal President Justice Luis Mondlane, last year ruled that
Zimbabwe's white farmers had a clear legal title to remain on their farms
and ordered the Zimbabwe government to "take all measures to protect the
possessions and ownership" of the farmers' land. Mondlane also ruled that
those who lost their farms during the land reform programme should receive
fair compensation from the government.

"No actions may be taken by insurgents and others to interfere with or
disturb the peaceful activities of [the farmers]," Mondlane said in his
ruling.

This ruling in favour of the 78 farmers who filed the test case came as a
victory for those still being threatened with land seizures, as the ruling
was meant to protect them all against eviction and invasions in the future.

However, the ruling itself has long since been ignored in Zimbabwe with a
recent wave of fresh invasions that have already seen almost 80 farms being
seized and more than 100 farmers facing prosecution. At the same time at
least 50 farms are confirmed to be under siege by lawless thugs - with the
farm owners facing possible violent eviction.

The offensive against the farmers started just days before Morgan Tsvangirai
was sworn in as Prime Minister last month and pressure on farmers to vacate
their land has been increasing ever since. Many farmers have now been forced
into hiding as the campaign continues - a clear violation of the unity deal
between the MDC and ZANU PF, which calls for the return of the rule of law
and also says that farmers should be encouraged to produce food.

Mugabe meanwhile has condoned the continued invasions, declaring during an
address to supporters at his lavish birthday celebration on Saturday that
the land seizures would continue. Reports suggest that Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai confronted Mugabe about the comments during a meeting on Monday,
but so far no assurances have been made by the government that the campaign
against the farmers will be dealt with. The Minister of Lands and Rural
Resettlement, Dr Herbert Murerwa, has instead dismissed the reports that
fresh farm invasions are in fact taking place. Dr Murerwa was speaking to
Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail and said the ministry had not received any reports of
farm invasions. He reportedly argued that if there were any invasions in the
country, the ministry would "gather the necessary facts before resolving the
issues."

Mugabe himself has also dismissed the SADC Tribunal's influence and
protection of farmers, declaring during his birthday speech that SADC had no
right to interfere with Zimbabwean land issues.

Zimbabwe Accuses Governments of Demonizing Its Human Rights Record

http://www.voanews.com


By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
04 March 2009

Zimbabwe's justice minister has accused powerful countries of unfairly
singling out his country for alleged serious and systematic violations of
human rights. In a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the minister
denounced governments for demonizing Zimbabwe's record.

Zimbabwe's minister of justice and legal affairs did not mince his words. In
a short, strident address, the minister, Patrick Antony Chinamasa, attacked
what he called rampant politicization by certain governments.

He accused so-called powerful states of demonizing a selective group of
countries for alleged human rights abuse even though their own records were
far from perfect.

"My country has too often been the target of condemnation and shaming on
matters of human rights at the hands of a few members of the United Nations
who have sought to achieve other ends through the artifice of human rights.
We have heard them this week and we have heard them over the past several
years. Our response is that we are no worse than other States. We shall
endeavor to improve," he said.

The U.N. Human Rights Office has condemned Zimbabwe for the harassment,
intimidation and imprisonment of political opponents. It has criticized the
government for illegally appropriating the farms of white owners. It has
deplored the impoverishment of Zimbabwe's population and the collapse of the
country's socio-economic structures, which have resulted in a run-away
cholera epidemic.

Minister Chinamasa accused the U.N. High Commissioner's Office of trying to
undermine his country's political and judicial system.

He acknowledged Zimbabwe is not without blemishes on human rights issues.
But, said his government was concerned by what he called the selectivity,
partiality, bias and politicization shown by the U.N. Office. He added his
country is not the only violator.

"And, yet the Office decides to name and shame only some," he said. "Lack of
mention of sanctions that have brought a lot of suffering on Zimbabwe's
people baffles us. We are not saying be silent if you see us not promoting
and respecting and protecting human rights. We are only saying we need to
hear you loud and clear on all without favor and in respect of human rights
violations."

Following this plea, the minister of justice said his government will
cooperate with the Human Rights Office and will honor a request by the High
Commissioner to visit his country in the near future.

He noted things are moving forward in Zimbabwe with the government of
national unity in place. He said his government deserves the support of all,
instead of the unrelenting attempts from some quarters to undermine it.

Fate of Zimbabwe central bank governor key to aid

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL3122584

Wed Mar 4, 2009 7:23am EST

-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-

* Western donors seek removal of Gono to resume aid

* Gono will not go without power struggle

* Face-saving formula may be possible

-<>-<>-<>-<>-

By Michael Georgy

JOHANNESBURG, March 4

(Reuters)

Western donors who see the removal of Zimbabwe's central bank governor as a
key condition for resuming aid can expect a messy power struggle that could
further delay moves to rescue the ruined country.

The new unity administration will depend heavily on foreign cash to rebuild
an economy that critics says President Robert Mugabe and his central bank
governor, Gideon Gono, have brought to its knees through reckless policies.

Western countries are looking for signs that Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, Mugabe's old foe, has managed to put control of the economy
under new Finance Minister Tendai Biti, also from the opposition, before
letting funds flow.

"A prior condition is of course Tendai Biti getting rid of Gideon Gono and
creating economic space for this to happen," said one senior Western
diplomat. "As and when it does happen we will help."

Gono's term has spanned the collapse of once-prosperous Zimbabwe, now short
of basic goods and with an inflation rate of 231 million percent - according
to the last published figures but believed to be far higher.

Tsvangirai has said it would cost as much as $ 5 billion to repair the
economy.

Mugabe's very close ally is unlikely to go without a fight, however,
especially as the president manoeuvres to gain an upper hand for his ZANU-PF
party in the new government. Mugabe re-appointed Gono last November for
another five-year term.

"I think pushing Gono out will be difficult, as the move would significantly
undermine a pillar of ZANU-PF's staying power," said Mark Schroeder,
southern Africa analyst at global intelligence company Stratfor.

"Control over the reserve bank provides the Mugabe regime access to their
own revenue streams and crucial foreign exchange."

Western donors want the creation of a democratic government and bold
economic reforms such as reversing nationalisation policies before making
any serious financial commitments.

Other demands include guarantees of human rights, the release of political
prisoners and a free press.

SENSITIVE

Dealing with Gono's fate may be far more sensitive because ZANU-PF
hardliners and army generals have a big interest in keeping him, analysts
say.

Control over the man with the purse strings is crucial to their survival,
especially if Mugabe decides to moderate his position to get the new
coalition moving - something that could itself take a long time to happen
judging by the political war of attrition before the power-sharing deal last
September.

"If money is going to be going in suitcases direct from the reserve bank to
various Mugabe loyalists, bypassing the Ministry of Finance, then the deal
does not have any substance. Gono is absolutely critical," said Ross
Herbert, senior Africa researcher at the South African Institute of
International Affairs.

Knox Chitiyo, head of the Africa programme at the Royal United Services
Institute in London, said investors may be able to live with Gono for now,
under the right circumstances.

"I don't think it's cut and dried that Gono has to go before investors come
over. I think people would like him to go," he said.

"But if there is evidence that there is a working relationship and that it's
the finance minister who is in charge of Zimbabwe's finances, even the
Western countries, from what we hear on the ground, would be willing to
engage."

BIBLE

But personal animosity could worsen the struggle between Finance Minister
Biti and Gono, who often quotes the Bible in his policy speeches. Biti and
other critics have called Gono an "economic terrorist".

Tensions within the coalition government have already arisen over the arrest
of a senior official in Tsvangirai's MDC, seen by many analysts as an early
attempt by Mugabe to see how far he can push Tsvangirai.

Mugabe shows no sign of being ready to relax a hold on power he has held
since independence from Britain in 1980.

"Mugabe is going to try to hold onto his man (Gono) as much as he can
because I don't think he wants to create an impression that the men and
women who have been with him through thick and thin are expendable," said
John Makumbe, a Harare political commentator and outspoken Mugabe critic.

Some analysts said that the answer could be a face-saving formula that keeps
Gono in place but with limited powers. But that would depend very much on
the relationship between Tsvangirai and Mugabe.

"He said to me once you know Mugabe is like his father. He is intractable.
He is old. He is grumpy. Everything has to be done a certain way," said
Tsvangirai biographer Sarah Hudleston. "I think they may be beginning to
understand each other more....I think he would rather try to get Mugabe on
his side. Because Mugabe on his side is much better than having him on the
other side of the fence."

Zimbabwe Inclusive Government Watch : Issue 3

Sokwanele - Enough is Enough - Zimbabwe
PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY

Zimbabwe Inclusive Government Watch : Issue 3
Sokwanele : 4 March 2009

On 11 February at a ceremony at State House in Harare, presided over by President Robert Mugabe, the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the two Deputy Prime Ministers, Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara, were sworn in.

Learning resumes at Zimbabwean schools

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=4324

by Patricia Mpofu Wednesday 04 March 2009

HARARE

Learning resumed this week at schools across Zimbabwe as teachers heeded
calls by the new unity government to return to work after several months
striking for more pay and better working conditions.

Education Minister David Coltart, who met teachers' unions immediately after
he was appointed to his new job last month to persuade them to call off the
strike and give the government time to raise funds to pay their members,
said only a few schools in remote rural areas were yet to resume teaching,
blaming this on poor communication.

"There are some few schools in rural areas that are still to open due to
communication problems with head office but this is being addressed,"
Coltart said. "It's a slow process but our officers on the ground are
attending to it."

Coltart, who openly told union leaders when he met them that the government
was broke and that he would need time to approach international agencies for
help to pay teachers, praised the unions for agreeing to call off the
strike.

He said he would be meeting union leaders on Thursday to review the
situation.

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (PUTZ), the two unions for teachers in the country, said their
members had agreed to give the new administration the benefit of doubt by
returning to work while the government looked for resources to improve
salaries and service conditions.

"Teachers are back countrywide although we still have teachers that are
battling to cash their vouchers so that they can raise the money to go back
to their work stations," said Sifiso Ndlovu, the chief executive officer of
ZIMTA.

PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe described the situation at schools
as "back to normal" but said the union was unhappy that returning teachers
were being asked to resubmit CVs, birth certificates and other documents as
if they were reapplying for their old jobs.

"Although the situation has returned to normal with the bulk of teachers
returning to work, we are disturbed by new demands that teachers should
submit CVs, birth certificates and testimonial letters," said Majongwe.

The PTUZ official said the union would raise the matter with Coltart when
they meet this week.

Very little learning took place at public schools in 2008 as teachers spent
the better part of the year striking for more pay or sitting at home because
they could not afford bus fare to work on their meagre salaries.

The government had to postpone the beginning of the first term of this year
by two weeks because public examinations written last year had not been
marked after teachers boycotted the exercise.

The first term that should have begun on January 13 was rescheduled to start
on January 27 but schools remained closed as teachers refused to report for
duty.

A unity government between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara has pledged to get teachers, doctors,
nurses and all civil servants back at work as part of a drive to get
Zimbabwe functioning again and on the road to recovery.

Last week the government paid every civil servant US$ 100 living allowance,
keeping a promise to reward public workers in hard cash.

However analysts say the Harare administration's ability to get Zimbabwe
functioning again hinges on its ability to raise financial support from rich
Western countries that have however said they will not immediately help
until they are convinced Mugabe is committed to genuinely share power with
Tsvangirai.

ZimOnline

Three student leaders arrested at Bindura University demo

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Lance Guma
04 March 2009

Three student leaders were arrested by police, following an impromptu
demonstration by students at the Bindura University of Science Education on
Wednesday. According to Blessing Vava, the spokesman for the Zimbabwe
National Students Union, students arrived on campus in the morning to find
gates at the institution locked. Security guards were only allowing in the
students who had paid their campus fees. Within minutes students had
mobilized themselves inside and outside the campus to demonstrate against
the move and also denounce the fee reductions announced by the Ministry of
Higher Education as inadequate.

Vava told Newsreel that despite the fee reductions the new figures were
considerably higher than the money earned by their parents. Students clashed
with campus security guards as they made their feelings known. The
university Vice-Chancellor Professor Katsvanga appeared to have left his
office to address the students, but as it turned out he merely accompanied
police to pinpoint the alleged ring leaders of the demonstration. As a
result student leaders Respect Ndanga, Innocent Kapoya and Kelvin Veremu
were arrested and taken to Bindura's central police station.

Under new fee structures students at polytechnics will pay each term:
US$100 - was US$200 for a national certificate.
US$150 - was US$500 for a national diploma.
US$200 - was US$600 for a higher national diploma.
US$350 - was US$1200 for a Bachelor of Technology degree
US$150 - was US$500  for a teacher training diploma
US$300 - was US$800 for arts humanities and social science
US$350 - was US$1200 for hard sciences and engineering
US$400 - was US$1600 for medicine and veterinary science

Vava said they have since requested a meeting with government officials to
discuss the new fees announced Wednesday.

Zimbabwe Education in Desperate Circumstances

http://www.voanews.com


By Delia Robertson
Johannesburg
04 March 2009

Like everything else in Zimbabwe, education has felt the impact of the
crisis of government under President Robert Mugabe and of an economy
contracting at a record rate. The advent of the unity government has
revealed the scale of devastation in a sector that is key to the country.

When newly appointed Minister of Education David Coltart reported for duty
three weeks ago, he was greeted by an astonishing scene.

"I arrived at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education, which is an
18-story building in Harare," said Coltart."The ministry takes up the entire
building, and on the ground floor, I was met with the sight of Ministry of
Education ladies with buckets of water on their heads, preparing to take the
lift up, to as high as the 18th floor, because the building has been without
water for well over six months."

It cost $800 to repair the pump that now brings water to toilets and water
faucets in the building.

For Coltart, one of 16 ministers from the combined Movement for Democratic
Change [MDC] serving in the new government, the un-repaired water pump has
become emblematic of the skewed priorities of Mr. Mugabe's government, and
of the degradation of the education system in the past decade.

"So, it is a profoundly shocking environment and a tragedy really, because,
if you think of what ironically Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF did to boost
education in the 1980s, in the 1990s, and we really have regressed to a
situation, which sees our education system probably in a worse condition
since before independence," Coltart said.

After taking power in 1980, Mr. Mugabe put education at the top of his
government's list of priorities, spending 25% of the national budget on
education during that decade. Money was spent to build schools and train
teachers who were well paid.

Zimbabwe's literacy rate was soon the highest in sub-Saharan Africa at 96%,
and its education system was held out as an example to the rest of the
continent.

But from the early 1990s, the government spent less and less on education,
so that by 2006 expenditure on education was only 13% of the national
budget. By that time hyper-inflation had begun to bite, and diplomatic
sources say that, in 2008, the value of government spending per child was
equivalent to just 18-cents.

Coltart says the cumulative effects of all this have left schools in a
deplorable state.

"I am told that virtually all the rural schools are closed, and most of the
urban schools are closed, and even if they were open and we had teachers
trying to teach, the vast majority of schools do not have desks, they do not
have text books, chalk, exercise books. The buildings are in a state of
almost complete disrepair," he said.

The impact on teachers has also been severe. Their once competitive salaries
are now virtually worthless, eroded by stagnation and inflation officially
pegged at around 231-million percent. In early 2008, teachers went on
strike, but many teachers were simply unable to afford to go to work because
their monthly pay was less than the bus fare for the same period.

Last month, newly appointed Finance Minister Tendai Biti agreed to pay
public servants, including teachers, a monthly allowance of $100 in foreign
currency. And Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Coltart each met with
teachers' unions to try and persuade them to end the strike and bring their
members back into the classrooms.

They agreed to do so, but Ofwald Madziva of the Progressive Teachers Union
tells VOA they expect the government to address their salary demands soon.

"And, as a union, we have given the government up to around end of April to
really move in a more practical fashion and see to it that there is a
resolution to the salary dispute between teachers and government. And, if
they don't respond favorably by the 30th of April, we certainly are going
back to the combative mode and go for another strike action," Madziva said.

The problem for Coltart is how to fund teachers' demands, and to do that he
needs to know how many teachers he has. But he found department records in a
chaotic state.

 "One of the things that shocked me was that we don't have a computerized
database, so our records are antiquated to put it mildly," said Coltart.

In the past year, many teachers left Zimbabwe - mostly for jobs in South
Africa and Botswana. Coltart says has set up a team to find out how many
teachers Zimbabwe now has, but believes the number to be less than
50-percent of a full complement of 140,000.

"I suspect that we have probably got about 60-thousand teachers on our
books - you know lawfully and officially," he said.

The unions have agreed to cooperate with Coltart to produce an audit of
teachers; and Coltart has already appealed to western donor countries for
more than $400-million in assistance to stabilize education in Zimbabwe over
the next six months.

"But that gives you some idea of the extent of the crisis; almost half a
billion dollars is required just to stabilize the education system at this
juncture," Coltart said.

Coltart adds that to get education back to its former glory in Zimbabwe will
take one billion dollars a year, money he says will be hard to find.

Diplomatic sources confirm that existing policies toward providing funding
to Zimbabwe have not changed. Countries like the United States will continue
to fund humanitarian programs, but will not bail out the unity government,
nor offer development assistance until all abductees are released, progress
is made toward restoring the rule of law, and a comprehensive macro-economic
policy framework is worked out.

Zimbabwe has also appealed to the Southern Africa Development Community for
$2 billion in emergency assistance funding. SADC plans a summit this month
to discuss Zimbabwe's needs, and may adopt a plan to fund at least part of
that.

But Coltart acknowledges handouts are not a long-term solution and that,
before too long, Zimbabwe will have to take significant steps to get its
economy up and running again. He notes that if the mining and agricultural
sectors could be re-invigorated, it would go a long way toward achieving
that goal.

Senior police officer 'disappears' with Bennett's passpor

t
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=5353&cat=1

Roy Bennett.

By a Correspondent

LAWYERS representing incarcerated top MDC official, Roy Bennett, in Mutare
have accused the police of frustrating efforts to have the junior minister
designate released on bail.

The lawyers say a senior police officer, Superintendent James Sipo Makone,
the investigating officer, has apparently disappeared with Bennett's
passport.

Trust Maanda said this was a deliberate attempt to frustrate Bennett's
ability to comply with bail conditions imposed by the High Court last week.

Justice Tedious Karwi last week granted Bennett bail but the Attorney
General's office immediately launched an appeal against the ruling.

Bennett is still languishing in remand prison because the AG's office has
seven days in which to note their appeal. The seven day period elapses today
(Tuesday).

He will appear on Thursday at the magistrate courts' for further remand.

But his lawyers say should the AG's office lose their appeal Bennett may not
get his freedom because he will fail to comply with bail conditions.

The High Court ordered Bennett to surrender his passport, deposit US$ 2000,
report twice to the police and not to interfere with witnesses.

"We are afraid the (police) are finding ways to delay Bennett's release
unnecessarily," Maanda told journalists in this eastern border city, 265km
east of the capital, Harare.

"They want to frustrate his ability to comply with bail conditions."

Maanda said should the AG's office fail to succeed in their appeal Bennett
will remain incarcerated because his passport is not available.

"Superintendent Makone took Bennett's passport and has disappeared with it,"
Maanda said. "But we have launched a man-hunt for the police officer.

He was transferred to Bindura but he is not there."

He said efforts to locate Superintendent Makone have been unsuccessful.
There was no immediate comment from the police.

Bennett, appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture, faces charges of
terrorism, sabotage, banditry or insurgency. He denies the charges saying
they are politically motivated.

He was due to be sworn in as a junior minister in an inclusive government
but failed because he was in custody.

Zimbabwe asks for $2B amid more political problems

   http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk


Wednesday, 04 March 2009
HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe in a published interview
rejected demands that he should dismiss two discredited officials, while the
Zimbabwean government on Thursday asked its neighbors for a $2 billion loan
package to aid its collapsed economy.

In the interview with the state Herald newspaper to mark his 85th
birthday, Mugabe refused to cede to demands by the Movement for Democratic
Change to dismiss central bank governor Gideon Gono and attorney general
Johannes Tomana.
"I don't see any reason why those people should go and they will not
go," Mugabe said in the interview. Gono is widely blamed forZimbabwe's
economic meltdown and hyperinflation of 231 million percent, and Tomana
stands accused of blocking the release of political prisoners.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's request for a $2 billion loan to salvage its
collapsed economy and infrastructure was expected to dominate a two-day
conference of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in
Cape Town, South Africa.
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told South African
radiothat Zimbabwe wanted about $1 billion to kickstart retail and other
sectors, and the rest to help reopen schools and restore health and
municipal services.
An estimated two-thirds of Zimbabweans are in need of food aid and a
cholera epidemic has sickened more than 80,000 people and killed more than
3,800 since August.
But South Africa has only limited resources to help its troubled
neighbor, as it is heading into recession. Other southern African countries
are also reeling from the global economic downturn, and there is skepticism
about how Zimbabwe would use the money.
The head of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, said
Zimbabwe also must settle its existing debt before it could expect huge
foreign aid.
"It is important not to jump off the bridge before there is enough
water under it," he told reporters in Cape Town. He said Harare owed the
African Development Bank nearly $460 million. "That has to be fixed before
we do anything else," he said.
He said Zimbabwe's debt to the international community was about $5
billion and by next year would be closer to $6 billion.
"What is owed to the international financial institutions must be
settled in advance, before we move in. That can be done fairly quickly. It
is complex, but its not undoable," Kaberuka said.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a leader of the former
opposition, headed the country's large delegation seeking to convince other
SADC countries of Zimbabwe's commitment to economic reform.
But there are doubts about how much control Biti and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai will have over the nation's finances given the power of
central bank chief Gono, who was reappointed last year by Mugabe for a
second five-year term in office.
Uncertainty has been heightened by an upsurge in reported "invasions"
of white-owned farms. Mike Campbell, one of 78 white farmers who petitioned
a regional court to overturn farm eviction laws, left his farm for security
reasons Wednesday after they were threatened by a group led by a nephew of a
longtime Mugabe loyalist.
The militants gave Campbell 10 minutes to pack and leave his house,
said his son-in-law Ben Freeth.
"They said they did not care about the law or the police," Freeth
said.
Justice for Agriculture, a farmers' support group, has reported at
least 40 of the nation's few remaining white farmers have been forced off
their land since January.
Tsvangirai on Wednesday cited the campaign against farms as evidence
of continuing lawlessness. He faces increasing pressure from his supporters,
who say it was a mistake to agree to govern alongside Mugabe.
The Movement for Democratic Change said its executive committee would
meet Friday to discuss concerns including Mugabe's unilateral appointment of
his cronies for senior civil service jobs, the "irregular appointments" of
the attorney-general and the Reserve Bank chief, and the continued detention
of its senior party official Roy Bennett and human rights activists on
"trumped-up charges."
Women of Zimbabwe Unite said five of its supporters remained in police
custody for a second day. Riot police singing "we want war" arrested the
four women and one man Wednesday as they staged a peaceful demonstration
outside the Education Ministry to press for the reopening of schools.
Women of Zimbabwe Unite leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu
appeared in a magistrates' courtin the city of Bulawayo on charges of
breaching the peace. The case was adjourned until March 5 despite appeals
for it to be dropped.
  Associated Press

Daily cholera update and alerts, 03 Mar 2009

 Full_Report (pdf* format - 188.8 Kbytes)

* Please note that daily information collection is a challenge due to communication and staff constraints. On-going data cleaning may result in an increase or decrease in the numbers. Any change will then be explained.

** Daily information on new deaths should not imply that these deaths occurred in cases reported that day. Therefore daily CFRs >100% may occasionally result

A. Highlights of the day:

- 394 cases and 6 deaths added today (in comparison 1569 cases and 12 deaths yesterday)

- 69.5 % of the districts affected have reported today (41 out of 59 affected districts)

- 90.3 % of districts reported to be affected (56 districts/62)

- Cumulative Institutional Case Fatality Rate 1.8.%

- Daily Institutional Case Fatality Rate 0.6 %

- Denotifications: Mutasa 2 cases, Chipinge 2 deaths

- Reclassification of deaths in Makonde( 1 death moved from community to institutional)

86 MDC Activists Freed

http://www.radiovop.com

NYANGA, March 4 2009 - A Nyanga magistrate on Tuesday granted free
bail to 86 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters who were arrested
and detained for allegedly repossessing some of their belongings which were
forcibly seized by some ZANU PF supporters.

They were remanded to May 14.

During the run up and the period after the March 2008 parliamentary
and presidential elections and the sham June presidential elections some
ZANU PF supporters went on a violent campaign confiscating and seizing some
MDC supporters belongings ranging from livestock to food stuffs and torching
their homes.

The ZANU PF members accused the MDC supporters of selling out by
backing the MDC party led by former trade union leader and now Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The ZANU PF members also accused the MDC
sympathizers of working with Zimbabwe's erstwhile colonizer Britain to
unseat President Robert Mugabe's administration from power.

But following the swearing in of Tsvangirai as the country's Prime
Minister early last month under a power sharing agreement signed last
September the MDC supporters went on a restitution exercise and repossessing
their belongings including livestock from some known ZANU PF members.

But the police punished them, arresting them for committing extortion.

Cases of restitution are on the increase in Zimbabwe as the MDC
supporters who were deprived of their possessions embark on an exercise to
reclaim their property. In Mutoko police recently arrested 82 people on
charges of robbery and stock theft after they went on an exercise to recover
their belongings. In Mbare the police also arrested several MDC members for
similar offences.

Angry Workers Set Sugarcane Ablaze

http://www.radiovop.com

CHIREDZI, March 4 2009 - Hundreds of disgruntled workers who did not
receive their salaries since December last year at two giant sugar milling
companies in the country, Triangle and Hippo Valley Estate set over 10
hectares of sugarcane ablaze on Monday, the second time in two months.

In January, plantation workers set ablaze more than 11 hectares
demanding to be given groceries as part of salaries.

The workers, mainly cane cutters have been on strike for more than a
month now and have been demanding salaries in foreign currency. Workers are
demanding that the least paid worker must get USd 103 per month. On top of
salaries, workers demand to be given mealie-meal, sugar, salt and cooking
oil every month.

The President of the Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Workers' Union (ZIMIWU),
Edmore Hwarare said:  "We were almost finalizing on how we are going to pay
our members.

It is now worrying that ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress Of Trade Unions) is
inciting these workers to burn sugarcane. The situation is very bad."

However the workers denied they were incited by ZCTU.

"We can not wait for ZCTU or any other organization to come and incite
us. We are not happy because we need money to survive. Since December, we
have never received any meaningful salaries," said one of the workers who
refused to be named.

Sources said management at Hippo Valley had a marathon of meetings on
Tuesday to address the plight of workers.

Woman of Terror - (Jestina Mukoko - Portrait of an alleged 'Terrorist')

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19242&Itemid=109

Tuesday, 03 March 2009

Jestina Mukoko: Portrait of a 'Terrorist'

by Rashweat Mukundu

Portrait of a terrorist became one of the most controversial documentary
characterisation of President Robert Mugabe by the BBC at the advent of
Zimbabwe's independence. Mugabe was, then, in his heydays as a liberation
hero.

The characterisation, to many, was supposedly misplaced as it sought to
fulfil a long held view of Mugabe by his detractors. In other words, the
framing of his persona only went as far as fulfilling preconceived views of
Mugabe as a blood thirst if not crazed Marxist. The realities of the
immediate post independent 1980 however showed a wholly different Mugabe.

One who strode the western capitals, riding the Queen's horse drawn
carriage, and winning awards and recognition world wide. Discussion on this
characterisation today might be as controversial as when it was first put
out into the public arena. Many who thought otherwise then, might as well be
convinced the other way, now. This however is not the subject of my writing.

This week we saw another 'terrorist' being granted bail and freedom after
three months of torture. This is a 'terrorist' with a difference, one wholly
created by President Robert Mugabe's government out of the blue and to serve
political ends. For those who have read Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the earth
(Pitfalls of National Consciousness), Jestina's travails might aid a better
understanding of the psychology of the post independent African nation
state. Especially the behaviour of a visionless and clueless leadership, one
that seeks power for its sake. Fanon explains in vivid language how the
formerly oppressed outdo the former oppressor at oppressing, the majority of
people.

Jestina Mukoko is free at last, but battered to breaking point. Jestina was
a legend in broadcasting in Zimbabwe the time I was growing up. She remained
one in civic society. More so because many others were not prepared to do
the work she was doing. Talking openly about the violence in Zimbabwe. She
today, by a twist, not of fate, but of deliberate planning, became one such
victim of this state orchestrated violence. Having had the chance to work
with her and the group of civic activists in the Zimbabwe Peace Project
(ZPP), the organisation that she leads, one is left wondering how on earth
such a grouping can, of all things, be accused of terrorism. The grouping
involves old men and women, who at some point, I struggled with the whole
day, discussing how to compile reports on politically motivated violence,
identify and talk to ring leaders from all parties, and act as peacemakers.

These are men and women, who in the best of times would rather concern
themselves with their farming, their goats and cattle and in the wildest of
dreams, hold a gun. Jestina humbled herself to work with the so called
ordinary women and men and ZPP never conducted business in the cover of
darkness but what ever activities ZPP carried out where out in the open.

Their reports and work accessible to all who wanted to see. Their office out
in the open. Apart from vile sadism one cannot put any explanation to the
three months of torture, denial of freedom that she went through. We had
senior government officials, the likes of AG Johannes Tomana, portray
Jestina as one of the most dangerous persons in Zimbabwe, a terrorist. I
dare say Jestina has never held a gun in her hand, and I bet she does not
know the shape of a grenade.

In the struggle over meaning making and making the stupid sound sensible and
common sensical, the world terrorism is unfortunately accorded a new meaning
by the Zimbabwe government, to mean anyone who opposes its policies. A
terrorist in Zimbabwe is either an opposition supporter, a human rights
activists or a white farmer. The skills in torture and propaganda that the
Mugabe government learnt in Ian Smith's jail are being put to good use,
albeit against their own citizens. Whatever the freedom that Jestina might
have now, will not take away the scars that she physically and emotionally
will live with for the rest of her life. This trauma has not only been
confined to her but her family and colleagues. It seems within ZANU PFs
scheme of things the message has hit home. What more ace is there to play
now and who is next?

We can only wonder.

Reuben Barwe "goes to town, panel-beating" Robert Mugabe birthday address

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/1737.html

03 March, 2009 10:27:00 admin

-<>-<>-<>-

Reuben Barwe on Monday night defended Robert Mugabe's utterances that he
would not honour the Southern African Development Community Land Tribunal
Hearing for Zimbabwean white commercial farmers to return to their farms.

"The Western media are at it again, they are going on to misquote the
President for statements he did not make. Today they have reported that the
president has ordered that the remaining white farmers should vacate the
farms. Last year they reported that the President had said there is no
cholera in the country", said Reuben Barwe.

President Mugabe clearly stressed in Chinhoyi last weekend, that white
farmers who were granted permission by the courts to reoccupy the farms they
lost during the controversial land reform programme and have since come back
to the said farm should vacate those farms.

"Those white farmers who had their land taken for resettlement by the state
and have reoccupied them should vacate those farms, they should vacate those
farms," said President Mugabe in his speech during his lavish 85th birth day
celebrations in Chinhoyi on Saturday.

The state controlled Television station went on to repeat the President's
whole birthday celebrations speech.

Retired Judge Smith got It horribly wrong on the appointment of Permanent Secretaries

http://www.zimdiaspora.com

Business, Education & Opinion

By Kudzai Rangarirai

I have just read the interview Retired Judge Justice Smith had with Swradio's
Violet Gonda.

This interview has been quoted in various online publications and was in
today's Zimbabwe Herald. When I saw the interview being carried in the
Herald, I got worried and thought it necessary to correct some of the
learned Judge's remarks soonest. The main question put across to the learned
Judge during the interview was whether the appointment of Permanent
Secretaries by President Mugabe was constitutional in the current
dispensation.

In his response, the learned Rtd Judge, quoting the Zimbabwe Constitution
extensively, authoritatively asserts that what President Mugabe did was
perfectly constitutional and legal.

It was not constitutional. It would seem the Rtd Judge was basing his
answers on the old Constitution because a quick perusal of the Zimbabwean
Constitution as amended by Amendment 19, would have revealed that the
leadership in Government, comprising the President, Vice-Presidents, Prime
Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers will consult and agree on senior
government appointments prior to their appointment. These senior positions
include Permanent Secretaries and Ambassodors.

The correct current position regarding the workings of the new animal is
found in Schedule 8 of the Zimbabwe Constitution.

It is further explicitly stated at the beginning of Schedule 8 that this
Schedule shall prevail notwithstanding anything contrary in this
Constitution.

This, therefore means that as long as this marriage is still subsisting,
Schedule 8 will be our bible.

Hope this will help.

Editors note; Kudzai Ranga is a solicitor based in Oxford, UK

Mugabe Beneficiary of Gono's Selective Prosecution For Externalisation?

 
http://changezimbabwe.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2003&Itemid=2

Written by Mutumwa Mawere

Tuesday, 03 March 2009

In this piece by Africa Resources Limited chairman, Mutumwa Mawere, he asks
where Robert Mugabe, on his Zimbabwe dollar salary as President of Zimbabwe,
obtained the money to pay for a flat for his daughter, her friends and
bodyguards in the posh part of Hong Kong. Mawere calls on the Inclusive
Government to compel state actors to disclose their assets and liabilities.

James Makamba was first victim of detention-without-bail decree aimed at
fighting corruption. Gono (r) was the enforcer.

By Mutumwa Mawere

-<>-<>-...-<>-<>-

A property in an exclusive residential complex in Hong Kong came to light
during a Sunday Times investigation into President Mugabe's external assets.

The identity of the property only became public during the recent visit of
the President's wife, Grace, in which a scuffle allegedly occurred with a
photographer of the newspaper outside a hotel near the university where
their daughter, Bona, has been studying under a different name.

Until February 27, 2009, when President Mugabe clarified during an interview
that he did not own the property, it was widely reported that he had
purchased the house. He, however, confirmed that he was simply renting the
property for his daughter.

President Mugabe said: "We are paying rent. After they finish we will have
nothing to do with that property at all. What do I do with a house in Hong
Kong, really?

We just want accommodation for our daughter and her friends."

It is significant that President Mugabe confirmed that his daughter was
studying in a foreign country and that a house had been secured for her and
a bodyguard with all expenses payable in foreign currency.

President Mugabe is a servant of the people of Zimbabwe and has been
employed in the same position for the last 29 years. His income like that of
the majority of Zimbabweans until recently was paid in local currency.

Residents like President Mugabe were restricted in how much foreign currency
they could externalize and all dealings in foreign currency had to be
processed through authorized dealers.

When Gono was appointed as Governor in December 2003, a new crime called
externalization was introduced into the Zimbabwean statutes.

It was President Mugabe who in February 2004 after the arrest of Mr. James
Makamba on allegations of externalization that issued a decree allowing for
the detention of suspects without bail for up to four weeks for political
and economic offenses.

The decree was promulgated without the knowledge of parliament using the
state of emergency powers.

The decree whose first victim was Makamba was officially aimed at fighting
corruption, money laundering and other economic offenses.

President Mugabe's order gave the police the power to detain suspects for
seven days without evidence of a crime and a further 21 days after showing
enough proof to justify court proceedings.

Mr. Makamba was arrested on February 7, 2004 for alleged illegal currency
deals and the High Court refused him bail under the decree.

Minister Chinamasa justified the decree at the time by saying that it was
aimed at helping police save time and frequent court appearances in
connection with a growing number of economic crimes.

Makamba was charged with 22 counts of externalizing foreign currency and if
President Mugabe were an ordinary citizen he no doubt would have been
suspect by merely admitting that he had foreign rental obligations without
showing the source of funds.

In response to the questions about the arrest, acquittal and re-arrest of
Makamba on allegations of externalization, Mr. Wayne Bvudzijena of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) had this to say about the attitude of the
police to economic crimes:

"The police would like to assure the public that the force is determined to
ruthlessly deal with all forms of economic deviancy and we continue to
appeal to the public to supply us with information as regards such crimes."

Mr. Muderedi, a businessman, was also arrested on similar charges. The
former Minister of Finance, Dr. Chris Kuruneri, also became a victim of the
same law when like the case with President Mugabe; properties owned by Dr.
Kuruneri in Cape Town were exposed in the media.

He was arrested in April 2004 and faced counts of breaching Zimbabwe
Exchange Control laws by allegedly transferring US$ 500,000, 37,000 British
pounds, 30,000 euros and 1.2 million South African to buy and renovate an
eight-bedroomed house.

President Mugabe has confirmed that he has been paying the rent for his
daughter's house and, therefore, such confirmation would constitute an
admission of guilt under the laws of Zimbabwe.

One would assume that the source of funds for the rent is income earned in
Zimbabwe in lieu of the services rendered by the President to the
government.

Kuruneri like many businessmen was arrested at the height of the government's
anti-corruption crusade. Kuruneri was acquitted after spending more than a
year in a remand jail and 10 appeals for bail.

The revelation by the President that he has external obligations would
ordinarily raise a host of legal and political issues about equal treatment
under the law.

However, the law that applies to other people, for example, Makamba,
Kuruneri and etc apparently do not apply to President Mugabe.

The accidental discovery of President Mugabe's financial links with Hong
Kong should open a new conversation on the absurdity and hypocrisy of Gono's
selective targeting of people on allegations of externalization fully
knowing that the same conduct is the order of business for other state
actors.

In the interests of transparency and good governance, I do hope that the
inclusive government will put in place measures to compel state actors to
disclose their assets and liabilities.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 March 2009 )

Voices from Zimbabwe

Blood, land and sanctions - part 1

http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/column/comment/70-comment/626-blood-land-and-sanctions--part-1

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 20:10

By Mahmood Mamdani

In this four-part series, renowned Ugandan scholar Professor Mahmood Mamdani
examines the historical causes of Zimbabwe's political crisis.

It is hard to think of a figure more reviled in the west than Robert Mugabe.
Liberal and conservative commentators alike portray him as a brutal
dictator, and blame him for Zimbabwe's descent into hyperinflation and
poverty. The seizure of white-owned farms by his black supporters has been
depicted as a form of thuggery, and as a cause of the country's declining
production, as if these lands were doomed by black ownership. Sanctions have
been imposed, and opposition groups funded with the explicit aim of
unseating him.

There is no denying Mugabe's authoritarianism, or his willingness to
tolerate and even encourage the violent behaviour of his supporters. His
policies have helped lay waste the country's economy, though sanctions have
played no small part, while his refusal to share power with the country's
growing opposition movement, much of it based in the trade unions, has led
to a bitter impasse. This view of Zimbabwe's crisis can be found everywhere,
from the Economist and the Financial Times to the Guardian and the New
Statesman, but it gives us little sense of how Mugabe has managed to
survive. For he has ruled not only by coercion but by consent, and his land
reform measures, however harsh, have won him considerable popularity, not
just in Zimbabwe but throughout southern Africa. In any case, the
preoccupation with his character does little to illuminate the
socio-historical issues involved.

Many have compared Mugabe to Idi Amin and the land expropriation in Zimbabwe
to the Asian expulsion in Uganda. The comparison isn't entirely off the
mark. I was one of the 70,000 people of South Asian descent booted out by
Idi Amin in 1972; I returned to Uganda in 1979. My abiding recollection of
my first few months back is that no one I met opposed Amin's expulsion of
'Asians'. Most merely said: 'It was bad the way he did it.' The same is
likely to be said of the land transfers in Zimbabwe.

What distinguishes Mugabe and Amin from other authoritarian rulers is not
their demagoguery but the fact that they projected themselves as champions
of mass justice and successfully rallied those to whom justice had been
denied by the colonial system. Not surprisingly, the justice dispensed by
these demagogues mirrored the racialised injustice of the colonial system.
In 1979 I began to realise that whatever they made of Amin's brutality, the
Ugandan people experienced the Asian expulsion of 1972 - and not the formal
handover in 1962 - as the dawn of true independence. The people of Zimbabwe
are likely to remember 2000-3 as the end of the settler colonial era. Any
assessment of contemporary Zimbabwe needs to begin with this sobering fact.

Though widespread grievance over the theft of land - a process begun in 1889
and completed in the 1950s - fuelled the guerrilla struggle against the
regime of Ian Smith, whose Rhodesian Front opposed black majority rule, the
matter was never properly addressed when Britain came back into the picture
to effect a constitutional transition to independence under majority rule.
Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, but the social realities of the
newly independent state remained embedded in an earlier historical period:
some 6000 white farmers owned 15.5 million hectares of prime land, 39 per
cent of the land in the country, while about 4.5 million farmers (a million
households) in 'communal areas' were left to subsist on 16.4 million
hectares of the most arid land, to which they'd been removed or confined by
a century of colonial rule. In the middle were 8500 small-scale black
farmers on about 1.4 million hectares of land.

This was not a sustainable arrangement in a country whose independence had
been secured at the end of a long armed struggle supported by a land-hungry
population. But the agreement that Britain drafted at Lancaster House in
1979 - and that the settlers eagerly backed - didn't seem to take into
account the kind of transition that would be necessary to secure a stable
social order. Two of its provisions, one economic and the other political,
reflected this short-termism: one called for land transfers on a 'willing
buyer, willing seller' basis, with the British funding the scheme; the other
reserved 20 per cent of seats in the House of Assembly for whites - 3 per
cent of the population - giving the settler community an effective veto over
any amendment to the Lancaster House terms. This was qualified majority rule
at best. Both provisions had a time limit: 1990 for land transfers based on
the market principle, and 1987 for the settler minority to set limits on
majority rule. The deal sustained illusions among the settlers that what
they had failed to achieve by UDI - Smith's 1965 declaration of independence
from the UK - and force of arms, they could now achieve through support from
a government of 'kith and kin' (as Smith called it) in Britain. In reality,
however, the agreement drew a line under settler privilege.

President Mugabe

The inadequacy of the Lancaster House provisions for the decolonisation of
land ensured that it remained the focus of politics in independent Zimbabwe.

The course of land relations and land reform in Zimbabwe has over the years
been meticulously documented by Sam Moyo, a professor who directs the
African Institute of Agrarian Studies in Harare.

Transfers during the first decade of independence were so minimal that they
increased rather than appeased land hunger.

The new regime in Harare, installed in 1980 and led by Mugabe and his party,
Zanu, called for the purchase of eight million hectares to resettle 162,000
land-poor farming households from communal areas. But the ban on compulsory
purchase drove up land prices and encouraged white farmers to sell only the
worst land. As the decade drew to a close, only 58,000 families had been
resettled on three million hectares of land. No more than 19 per cent of the
land acquired between 1980 and 1992 was of prime agricultural value.

As the 1980s wore on, land transfers actually declined, dropping from
430,000 hectares per annum during the first half of the decade to 75,000
hectares during the second. The greater land hunger became, the more often
invasions were mounted; in response, Mugabe created local 'squatter control'
units in 1985, and they were soon evicting squatters in droves. At this
point Zimbabwean law still defined a squatter in racial terms, as 'an
African whose house happens to be situated in an area which has been
declared European or is set apart for some other reason'. By 1990, 40 per
cent of the rural population was said to be landless or affected by the
landlessness of dependent relations.

When the Lancaster House Agreement's rules on land transfer expired in 1990,
the pressure to take direct action was intensified by two very different
developments: an IMF structural adjustment programme, and recurrent drought.
Peasant production, which had been a meagre 8 per cent of marketed output at
independence in 1980, and had shot up to 45 per cent by 1985, declined as a
result of the programme. Trade-union analysts pointed out that annual
employment growth also fell from 2.4 per cent in the late 1980s to 1.55 per
cent in the period 1991-97. The percentage of households living in poverty
throughout the country increased by 14 per cent in five years. There was now
widespread squatting on all types of land, from communal areas to state
land, commercial farms (mainly growing tobacco), resettlement areas and
urban sites.

The demand for land reform came from two powerful groups at extreme ends of
the social spectrum yet both firmly in Mugabe's camp: the veterans of the
liberation war and the small but growing number of indigenous businesses,
hitherto the main beneficiaries of independence under majority rule. At the
end of the liberation war in 1980, 20,000 guerrillas had been incorporated
into the national army and other state organisations, and the rest - about
45,000 - had had to fend for themselves. They found it difficult to survive
without land or a job, which is why land occupations began in the
countryside soon after independence.

Mugabe and the Zanu leaders tended at first to dismiss complaints from
veterans as expressions of resentment on the part of the rival liberation
movement, Joshua Nkomo's Zapu, which had been marginalised in 1980. But
after Zanu and Zapu signed a unity accord in 1987, former fighters from both
groups became involved in land agitation. Their most significant joint
initiative was to form a welfare organisation, the Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) in 1988, which called for
pensions to be paid and land redistributed. It soon gained a large
membership drawn from most sections of Zimbabwean society and from the two
ethnic groups - the Shona majority and the Ndebele - which had defined Zanu
and Zapu respectively. Its members, about 200,000 of them, came from a
variety of classes, employed and unemployed, urban and rural, with positions
in different branches of the state and party and the private sector.
Although their strength lay in the countryside, the war vets formed the only
alliance that was both independent of Mugabe and Zanu-PF, and could claim to
have national support, giving them a decisive advantage over the better
organised but urban-based trade-union federation in the power struggle that
would shortly tear the country apart.

War vets were among the first targets of structural adjustment, when its
effects began to be felt in 1991. Entire departments and ministries that had
been heavily staffed by ex-combatants were disbanded and the stage set for a
series of high-profile confrontations between veterans and government.
Mugabe accused the vets of being 'armchair critics' at the inaugural
conference of the ZNLWVA in April 1992; they went on to organise street
demonstrations, lock top government and party officials in their offices,
interrupt Mugabe's Heroes' Day speech in 1997, intervene in court sessions
and besiege the State House.

Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the departments
of anthropology, political science and international affairs at Columbia
University. This article first appeared in the London Review of Books; it is
published by The Independent with his permission.

Blood, land and sanctions - part 2

http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/column/comment/70-comment/663-blood-land-and-sanctions--part-2

Wednesday, 04 March 2009 12:16

By Mahmood Mamdani

In the second of this four-part series, renowned Ugandan scholar Professor
Mahmood Mamdani examines the historical causes of Zimbabwe's crisis

After the Lancaster House Agreement had expired, the government tried to
occupy the middle ground by shifting from the 'willing buyer, willing seller'
formula with a new law, the Land Acquisition Act of 1992, which gave the
state powers of compulsory purchase, though landowners retained the right to
challenge the price set and to receive prompt compensation. By the late
1990s, market-led land transfers had dwindled to a trickle. So had British
contributions to the fund set up to pay landowners, with a mere £44 million
paid out between 1980 and 1992, much less than anticipated at Lancaster
House.

When New Labour took over in 1997, Clare Short, the minister for
international development, claimed that since neither she nor her colleagues
came from the landed class in Britain - 'my own origins are Irish and as you
know we were colonised not colonisers,' she wrote to the Zimbabwean minister
of agriculture and land - they could not be held responsible for what
Britain had done in colonial Rhodesia.

This effective default coincided with a rise inside Zimbabwe of demands for
compulsory acquisition. Veterans led land occupations at Svosve and
Goromonzi in 1997, clashing with Mugabe and Zanu-PF. They were joined by
local chiefs and party leaders, peasants and spirit mediums (who had played
a key role in the liberation war against Ian Smith). The next year, a wave
of co-ordinated land occupations swept across the country, with veterans
receiving critical support from the Indigenous Business Development Centre
(IBDC), an affirmative action lobby set up in 1988 by members of the new
black bourgeoisie. From now on, two very different elements huddled under
the war vets' banner: the landless victims of settler colonialism and the
elite beneficiaries of the end of settler rule.

It was largely for his own purposes, but also as a response to pressure from
squatters, occupiers and their local leaders, as well as from sections of
the new black elite, that in 1999 Mugabe decided to revise the constitution
drafted at Lancaster House. Two major changes were envisaged: one would
allow him to stay in power for two more terms and would ensure immunity from
prosecution for political and military leaders accused of committing crimes
while in office; the other would empower the government to seize land from
white farmers without compensation, which was held to be the responsibility
of Britain. The proposals were put to a referendum in February 2000 and
defeated: 45.3 per cent of voters were in favour. But only a little more
than 20 per cent of the electorate had cast a vote. The urban centres of
Harare and Bulawayo were three to one against adoption; voting in the
countryside was marked by large-scale abstentions. Post-colonial Zimbabwe
had reached a turning point.Very early on, the colonial bureaucracy had
translated the ethnic mosaic of the country into an administrative map in
such a way as to allow minimum co-operation and maximum competition between
different ethnic groups and areas, ensuring among other things that labour
for mining, manufacture and service was not recruited from areas where
peasants were needed on large farms or plantations. These areas, as it
happened, were mainly Shona and so, unsurprisingly, when the trade-union
movement developed in Rhodesia, its leaders were mostly Ndebele, and had few
links with the Shona leadership of the peasant-based liberation movement
(Mugabe belongs to the Shona majority). I remember listening to the minister
of labour in Harare in 1981 complain that workers had failed to support the
nationalist movement. When I suggested that it might be useful to turn the
proposition around and ask why the nationalist movement had failed to
organise support among workers, there was silence.

The Shona-Ndebele divide so conspicuous in the two guerrilla movements
produced great tension after independence between the mainly Shona
government and the mainly Ndebele labour movement, with Mugabe's ferocious
repression in Ndebele areas in 1986 remaining the bloodiest phase in
post-independence Zimbabwean history. The slaughter in Matabeleland was
followed by a 'reconciliation' that paved the way for a unity government in
1987, but Zanu-PF leaders thereafter suspected all protest - from whatever
source - of concealing an Ndebele agenda.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, formed in 1981 with the blessing of
the government, had by the end of the decade distanced itself from its Zanu
patrons, purged internal corruption and elected an independent leadership.
In the 1990s it spearheaded the national agitation against Structural
Adjustment and the one-party state that acquiesced in it. Yet its
organisation in the countryside was confined to workers on commercial farms.
The ZCTU had at first been an umbrella body for private sector unions. The
spectacular growth of ZCTU, its organisation of public sector workers, has
been written about by two Zimbabwean social historians, Brian Raftapolous
and Ian Phimister. After independence, workers in the rapidly Africanised
public sector had retained close links to the government. But this began to
change when the Structural Adjustment Programme led to public sector job
losses and many African workers - especially veterans - were dismissed. When
government workers came out on strike in 1996, the ZCTU was able to
establish a base in the public sector. A general strike in 1997 and mass
stay-aways the following year set the trade unions against the government.
Civil servants - including teachers and health workers - who had declared
allegiance to the ruling party and the state now began to affiliate to the
ZCTU. In 1998, it organised a National Constituent Assembly, with the
participation of civic, NGO and churchgrps.

By the time Mugabe put forward amendments to the Lancaster House
constitution, an impressive alliance of forces - not only trade unions,
churches, civic and NGO groups, but white farmers and Western governments -
was arrayed for battle. The Movement for Democratic Change was formed a few
months before the 2000 referendum, to campaign for a 'no' vote. The
coalition was diverse, containing, on the one hand, public sector workers
trying to roll back the tide of Structural Adjustment; on the other,
uncompromising free-marketeers such as Eddie Cross, the MDC secretary of
economic affairs and a senior figure in the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries, who was intent on privatising almost everything, including
education.

The veterans reacted to the defeat of the constitutional proposals by
launching land occupations in Masvingo province. This prompted a split in
the ruling party. With Mugabe out of the country, the acting president,
Joseph Msika, told the police to torch the new squatter shacks. This was
consistent with Zanu-PF policy: in the early days, Mugabe had been praised
as a 'conciliator' by the international community for ensuring the security
and property of those whites who remained in Zimbabwe, and evicting black
squatters. Two decades later the position had changed: the support of the
whites was no longer so important to Mugabe, and he was under enormous
pressure from the veterans. With much to gain from casting his lot in with
the rural insurgency, he returned from his trip and announced that there
would be no government evictions. As land occupations spread to every
province - 800 farms were occupied at the height of the protests - the split
in the government and party hierarchy deepened. Inevitable tension between
the executive and the judiciary undermined the rule of law; the executive
sacked a number of judges, replacing them with others more sympathetic to
land reform, and enacted pro-squatter legislation.

'Fast-track' land reform was now underway. The types of land that would be
acquired compulsorily were specified by the government: unused or
underutilised land, land owned by absentees or people with several farms;
land above a certain area (determined by region) and land contiguous with
communal areas. The white owners of around 2900 commercial farms listed for
compulsory acquisition and redistribution were given 90 days to move out.
Government directives specified that 'owners of farms marked for
redistribution will be compensated for improvements made on the land, but
not for the land itself, as this land was stolen from the original owners in
the colonial era.'

The closing date for 'fast-track' land acquisition - August 2002 - came and
went, but occupations continued unimpeded until mid-2003, and on a
diminished scale for a year or so after that. Chiefs fought for land for
their constituents and for themselves, and so did their counterparts in the
state bureaucracy and the private sector. In Matabeleland, a minority of
pro-MDC chiefs were sceptical of land reform, but later submitted claims.
The black elite made a brazen land grab in direct contravention of the 'one
person, one farm' policy, provoking a hue and cry in society at large and
within the ruling party; the government set up a presidential commission to
determine the facts. Crucially, in 2005 the government passed an amendment
declaring all agricultural land to be state land. Land was seized from
nearly 4000 white farmers and redistributed: 72,000 large farmers received
2.19 million hectares and 127,000 smallholders received 4.23 million
hectares.

Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the departments
of anthropology, political science and international affairs at Columbia
University. This article first appeared in the London Review of Books; it is
published by The Independent with his permission.

PEACE WATCH of 4th March 2009 [Bail Offer for 13 Political Detainees]