The Zimbabwe Times
By
Alisdair Budd
May 13, 2008
IT LOOKS like the Zanu-PF military junta is
not even going to bother trying
a run-off and are just going with a military
coup and violence.
If, as your newspaper reports, they are demanding that
the MDC lift
sanctions, then, since the sanctions don’t exist and have
nothing to do with
the MDC, this is an impossible
condition.
Therefore, they have no intention of actually holding another
election,
being intend to rule by decree and with the old cabinet, which
they have
already claimed is in power until the new President is
elected.
Also the travel ban and freezing of assets only effect senior
members of
Zanu-PF, so it seems they want their money back and to be able to
retire to
villas on the South of French.
There recent propaganda and
actions lead me to believe that he Joint
Operations Command (JOC) are on an
asset stripping exercise and are trying
to get as much money from what is
left of Zimbabwe as possible, and
deliberately trying to provoke a war,
again blaming the MDC and the whites
in the West.
Effectively they
will sit there, behind their walls, embezzling Zimbabwe’s
assets paying the
youth militia to do their dirty work, waiting for someone
to actually remove
them before they change.
They seem to have the delusion that they can
provoke a race war and suddenly
all the black African nations will rally to
their cause and then they can
live for ever, for they are living in the past
that died with Apartheid.
One (Good?) sign is that the normalisation of
the exchange rate indicates
that they are trying to get out of Zimbabwe.
Whilst the rate was fixed they
had a steady supply of money coming in but it
was pointless for selling
anything apart from each other or the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe. Now the
exchange rate is free they can get a decent price for
assets in Zimbabwe in
local currency and convert it at a lesser rate to
third parties, such as the
Chinese or South Africans.
The effect is
already being seen at Beitbridge where South Africans are
bartering for cars
etc with bottles of cooking oil, due to desperation but
also the ability to
change currency at a profitable rate, officially.
It seems Gono intends
the exchange rate normalisation not to allow imports
into Zimbabwe, but to
provide a market in order to allow the Zanu-PF pf and
the JOC officials to
get their assets sold (to mostly the Chinese) and then
move the money out of
Zimbabwe.
No doubt hanging onto the final moment and stripping as much as
they can to
the last until they nip on a “borrowed” Air Zimbabwe plane to
Malaysia and
join Mugabe at his holiday home there, with his alleged banking
privileges
at the Malaysian National Bank.
I wonder how much more
time Mbeki is going to buy them for their last thefts
and embezzlements.
http://zimbabwemetro.com
By Margaret Mutyambizi and Nkosilathi Ncube ⋅
May 12, 2008
Two MDC newly-elected MDC MPs were arrested on Monday. Heya
Shoko and Trevor
Saruwaka , who won Bikita West and Mutasa Central
respectively.
Shoko was picked up by three detectives from the CID and
took him away to an
undisclosed location. Saruwaka was arrested at a police
station and
detained,no reasons were given for their arrests.
MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the arrest of Shoko was part of a plan
by
the ruling party to initimidate its opponents ahead of the run-off
election,
the date of which has yet to be announced.
Late today,former Chitungwiza
mayor and newly elected Member of Parliament
for Chitungwiza South,Misheck
Shoko was also picked up by police who accused
him of planning to raid a
ZANU-PF youth militia base in Seke.
“Zanu-PF has adopted a strategy
targeting MDC activists and key players
ahead of the run-off,” said
Chamisa.
“In any event of violence real or imagined, they accuse the MDC
and arrest
our people. Yet when Zanu-PF beats up people, the police do not
do
anything.”
You Never saw Gukurahundi
In another
development the MDC councillor Ward Seven in Hwange has been
murdered. He
becomes the second councillor to be killed after Edith Rusere
an MDC
councillor from Sadza.
Bhekimpilo Weza, 29 the chairman of Kachechete
Ward three in the Hwange West
constituency narrated the ordeal, “As threats
of attack leaked to us, we
decided to sleep away from home.
After
some days, we returned only to find footprints in the yard and doors
wide
open and the houses ransacked,” he says.
Weza and his other MDC
supporters after hearing that the attacks were coming
to Victoria Falls and
Hwange. They took the threats seriously and bolted. “I
did not look back and
I immediately ran away leaving my wife and children
behind and I just do not
know their fate,” he said scratching the floor with
his right foot as tears
welled in his eyes.
Weza said they were told even before the elections
that they did not see the
‘Gukurahundi ‘ blood spills and now it is their
turn to see blood gushing
from a human body.
“They insist that if
they can get rid of MDC leaders first, then the people
will listen to them
in the impending presidential elections re-run. They
have told us that they
can’t give away power to the MDC.”
All this is happening as reports say
the delegation of six retired generals,
appointed by to investigate the
violence in Zimbabwe and assess the extent
of the army’s role in the
country’s politics began giving Mbeki feedback.
The generals were in
Zimbabwe in the past week and after a meeting with
Mbeki on Monday, a
presidential team of religious leaders said the generals,
who were part of a
larger South African mediation effort in Zimbabwe spoke
to victims of
violence.
This possibly was to first determine the extent and the role of the
Zimbabwean armed forces in the political violence.
At least 200
senior military commanders allegedly had been deployed since
early April in
charge of clusters of “war veterans”, apparently to
co-ordinate a campaign
of victimisation against the opposition supporters.
Gerald Harper also
contributed to this story,Contact the writers of this
story, at : harare@zimbabwemetro.com
SABC
May 13, 2008,
08:15
The African Development Bank says Zimbabwe has paid back $700
million in
arrears to the bank, despite vast economic problems at home. The
bank says
Zimbabwe managed the repayment on April 14.
This was
despite a string of negative economic factors in Zimbabwe like
hyperinflation - currently the world's highest at 165 000% - rising interest
rates and a surge in food prices. The African bank did not specify the total
amount Zimbabwe owes.
The ongoing uncertainty over the outcome of
Zimbabwe's disputed March 29
election has undermined hopes that the country
might soon be on the road to
economic recovery.
Meanwhile, the United
States pressed Zimbabwe yesterday to allow in large
numbers of Western
election monitors for a free and fair presidential
run-off and said
government attacks on the opposition must stop.
President Robert Mugabe,
a former guerrilla leader, has ruled Zimbabwe since
independence from
Britain in 1980. The West and rights groups accuse him of
human rights
violations and wrecking the economy, but he is viewed as an
independence
hero by many in Africa. – Additional reporting by Reuters.
Republic if Botswana
12 May,
2008
FRANCISTOWN -Problems in following announcement of presidential election
results has struck different chords on all citizens of Zimbabwe.
But
since one mans food is another mans poison, some have benefited from the
political strife while for others the fight to survive has seen them
trekking to other countries.
For 19 year old Easter Sibanda, his
future is uncertain.
At such a tender age, he has had to abandon school,
ditch his family,
traverse through thick forests at night, and sleep in a
police cell for the
first time so as to preserve his life.
When you
hear you are on the targeted list of Zimbabwean war veterans you
can not
afford to think twice. You run for your life, Sibanda says in an
interview
at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants.
His dreams of becoming
a successful farmer have been shattered by the latest
developments.
I
have always had a big interest in farming having been influenced by the
way
I grew up. Even at school my best subject was agriculture and I passed
it
with flying colours, says the young man from Plumtree, Zimbabwe.
Before
the presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe six weeks
ago,
Sibanda was a form three student at Mqokolweni High School in
Plumtree.
He used to spend his leisure time feeding his poultry, branding
cattle or
cultivating his small backyard vegetable garden.
Now the
fate of the fourth born in a five-sibling family is not clear.
Coming
from a family that was once successful in livestock farming, in a
country
that was once the breadbasket of Southern Africa, Sibanda has never
fathomed
his life outside agriculture.
We reared a sizeable herd of cattle at home
and I was the man in charge of
them. Through selling livestock to butcheries
in town we managed to put
bread on the table. And although it seldom rains
nowadays, we grew crops and
have managed to survive so far without spending
too much on buying food, he
says.
He is now in Francistown awaiting
the outcome of his application for refugee
status, while his farming
ambitions have now gone into oblivion.
We have always had hardships back
home but this time around it was just
unbearable, he says as he reminisces
events that led to his arrival in
Botswana.
In his own words, Sibanda
escaped political persecution by just a whisker.
He is an active youth of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and he believes he was
targeted by the ruling ZANU-PF militia in a post
election
crackdown.
What adds salt to injury is the fact that although he
registered for
elections, his name did not appear in the voters roll during
election time.
While MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled an unexpected
win over ZANU-PFs
Robert Mugabe during a presidential poll in March, a run
off is mandatory
because none of the two managed a fifty per cent
majority.
Indications are that a run off will not occur any time soon as
a senior
government minister has said on record that it may take up to a
year for a
run off to take place.
Now supporters of Mugabes party
want to reduce the oppositions numbers
through intimidation, torture and all
forms of persecution, the ambitious
farmer reasons.
Sibanda captures
vividly one incident during election campaigns when one of
the pro ZANU war
veterans warned him saying you think you are too clever,
you will go to the
grave with your wisdom soon.
However the last straw that broke the camels
back was on April 30th when a
friend leaked news to him that he was targeted
by war veterans.
I believed him because his father is a war veteran and
he is known for
terrorizing anti ZANU supporters.
The war veterans
had reportedly held a meeting where they compiled a list of
all those
considered sell outs. I did not even know when they were to
attack, Sibanda
says.
Three hours later Sibanda plus other four boys were on an uncertain
voyage
through the forest en route to Botswana.
We travelled the
whole night from Plumtree until we jumped the border fence
into Botswana. We
reached a village called Senyawe and presented ourselves
to the
police.
Sibanda sadly remembers his mother sobbing uncontrollably when he
broke the
leaked news that he was targeted.
But that was the best
thing I could do and mother understood the situation.
Once you are on their
list, you never know when they will strike.
Up to present day, Sibanda
does not know the condition of his mother and
younger sister plus the herd
of cattle they kept.
I have not managed to communicate with them yet, I
do not know whether war
veterans have killed them also, but I believe God
has protected them, he
says with hope.
All what Sibanda longs for
right now is to be declared a refugee and start
life afresh.
May be I
could go back to school and do my agriculture studies. I still
believe
farming has not eluded me completely. BOPA
New Zimbabwe
By
Lindie Whiz
Last updated: 05/13/2008 09:48:33
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert
Mugabe has 14 days from last Friday to call a
by-election for the
Pelandaba-Mpopoma House of Assembly seat, a judge ruled.
Justice Nicholas
Ndou ordered that a nomination court should receive names
of prospective
candidates in the constituency without delay.
The by-election was
triggered by the sudden death of incumbent MP Milford
Gwetu days before
voters went to the polls.
Justice Ndou’s ruling came after Bulawayo
lawyer Job Sibanda, running as an
independent, petitioned the court to
direct the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, the Chief Elections Officer and
President Mugabe to facilitate
the by-election, saying the delay was
unnecessary.
But after listening to arguments, Justice Ndou dismissed the
case against
the ZEC and Chief Elections Officer with costs, but upheld the
case against
Mugabe who is vested with the power to call elections by the
country’s
constitution.
Justice Ndou ordered that Mugabe “is directed
to take steps to publish in
the Government Gazette in the shortest possible
time, in not more than 14
days of this order, the sitting of the nomination
court in order to accept
nominations for the Pelandaba-Mpopoma parliamentary
constituency”.
Justice Ndou was not persuaded by Mugabe's lawyer Virginia
Mabhiza who told
the court the government had no money to fund the election.
At least two
other by elections are still outstanding in Redcliff and Gwanda
North where
candidates also died.
Wins for the opposition in those
seats will add to the MDC’s House of
Assembly majority where it currently
has a combined tally of 109 seats to
Zanu PF’s 97. The final seat is held by
independent Professor Jonathan Moyo
in the 210 member
chamber.
Mabhiza noted that although Mugabe appreciated that he had
contravened the
electoral laws of the country, there was "very little that
he could do"
because of the financial factor.
The Zimbabwe government
routinely ignores court orders, and it remains to be
seen if Mugabe will
defy Justice Ndou’s order which specifically demands
action from him.
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
06:08
A gang of about 14 Zanu PF thugs is terrorising the Marondera
North
area, particularly Mangwende Reserve.
It is led by Ward
Councillor Zira who lives on Oxford farm.
Others involved are war vets
Mabumu from Sussex farm and Karimanzira
from Somerset farm.
Every
3rd or 4th night they meet at 10pm and go on the rampage,
picking up about a
dozen youth from Oxford farm.
They target a particular MDC person on
every outing.
Last week they killed two people at Kadenga Growth
Point.
Yesterday they hijacked a farmer's vehicle, for use that night.
They
went to the house of the MDC chairman for St Paul's and woke him at
1am.
They burnt his house and beat him severely. It is not known whether or
not
he is dead.
Their modus operandi is to wear MDC T shirts.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 12 May 2008 16:15
ZCTU Leaders denied
bail.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders who were
arrested
on Thursday 8 May 2008, appeared in court today 12 May 2008 where
they were
denied bail.
Presiding Magistrate, Mariga reminded the
two ZCTU leaders to 23 May
2008. in her one sentence judgment, she said the
two were not suitable for
bail and they have to be in custody in the
interest of justice. ZCTU lawyer,
Aleck Muchandehama is in the meantime
making frantic efforts to lodge an
appeal aginst the judgment at the High
Court.
The ZCTU views the judgment as unprecedented and of
political nature
as the State had indicated prior to the judgment that it
would evoke certain
sections of the law that gives it power to override the
court’s decision in
the instances were the magistrate had given the ZCTU
leaders bails.
The state claimed that the two would abscond if
given bail, despite
the fact that they had voluntarily given themselves up
to the police. It
also claimed that they would commit similar cases and
threaten witnesses.
During the court hearing last Saturday, the
State prosecutor tried to
link the case to the current wave of political
violence in the country.
The two ZCTU leaders were arrested after
they presented themselves to
the police on Thursday 8 May 2008 where they
were initially interrogated for
more than six hours before charges were laid
against them. They had availed
themselves to the police after armed police
had visited their residences
searching for them.
The
allegations arise from speeches which the two made at this year’s
May Day
celebrations at Dzivaresekwa Stadium.
The leaders are currently
being held at Harare Remand Prison.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 12 May
2008 12:08
MOVEMENT for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai
is expected to
return to Harare on Monday to contest a run-off election amid
mounting
criticism of his decision to flee the beleaguered country while
thousands of
his supporters were being attacked and some killed.
Tsvangirai has chosen to contend the second round of elections after
previously saying he would not run again because he won the first vote
outright.
Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans would feel betrayed if he did
not run and
allowed Mugabe to become president again by default.
"I
shall return to Zimbabwe to begin a victory tour. Some might say
this term
'victory' is cold and callous, given the hardships endured by the
people.
But the people are victorious and they are being punished for their
victory," he said in Johannesburg, where he has spent much of the past six
weeks. "We must free ourselves from those who would steal victory from
fellow brothers and sisters by using guns, sticks and
screwdrivers,"
Tsvangirai made a number of demands that are unlikely to
be met,
including that the ballot be held within the next fortnight. The
government
has said it could take months.
The MDC leader has
switched his position several times on the issue of
a second round, after
claiming victory against Mugabe in the March 29 vote
with 50,3% of the vote.
The state-run election commission declared
Tsvangirai the winner with about
48% of the vote, to 43% for Mugabe, making
a run-off necessary as neither
won an outright majority.
Tsvangirai said his party had a difficult
decision to make over
whether to participate, given what it says was the
rigging of the first
round and the continuing violence against opposition
supporters.
He said the MDC feared he could lose because the ruling
Zanu-PF's
attacks on his supporters -- which have left more than 30 dead and
thousands
injured -- would prevent large numbers of people from voting and
discourage
many others.
The MDC appears to have finally decided
that it could not walk away
from the contest, not least because it would
make it appear Tsvangirai was
shying away from a one-on-one battle with
Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 12 May 2008 12:41
The MDC condemns the
continued arrests of civic society members,
lawyers, journalists and
students on trumped up charges by a regime that was
rejected by the people
on 29 March 2008.
These arrests are a brazen and desperate attempt
by the Zanu PF regime
to stifle efforts by the civic groups and the media in
exposing the abuse of
human rights in Zimbabwe.
In the last few
days, a number of prominent civic society members,
lawyers and journalists
have been arrested. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) President
Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington
Chibhebhe were arrested on
Thursday last week on allegations of
communicating falsehoods prejudicial to
the state and inciting public
violence during an address they made in
Dzivaresekwa, Harare on May Day.
Also last week the Editor of the
Standard newspaper, Davison Maruziva
was arrested for publishing an article
written by Professor Arthur
Mutambara. Although Maruziva was given a bail on
Friday, the ZCTU leaders
have been denied bail and are still languishing in
police custody
We do not believe in a partisan police force. The
MDC believes in a
professional police force that is not an appendage of any
political party.
The police force and other state security organs should not
be abused by and
misled by those that are trying to cling to power against
the wishes of the
people.
Across the country, Zanu PF continues
to maim and kill with impunity.
The regime's supporters are murdering MDC
members and the police are not
doing anything to stop this madness. So far,
27 MDC supporters have been
brutally murdered in the barbaric vengeance
being visited upon innocent
Zimbabweans for exercising their democratic
right to vote. Reports have been
made to the police but no arrests have been
made and the perpetrators are
still roaming freely and are continuing with
their barbaric acts against
humanity.
The crackdown on innocent
individuals and civic groups is evidence
that the regime is at the end of
its tether. The days of this military junta
are numbered. The people of
Zimbabwe will not be cowed into submission by a
regime they rejected on 29
March 2008. The people will triumph.
MDC Information and Publicity
Department
Nation News, Barbados
Published on:
5/13/08.
AT THE JUST concluded eleventh meeting of its Council for
Foreign and
Community Relations CARICOM released a two-paragraph "Statement
on
Zimbabwe".
It raises more questions than any intended
message of significance on the
political crisis in that African state
following its highly controversial
March 29 presidential and parliamentary
elections.
In fact, the statement's only relevance at this time is that
it coincided
with a decision by the leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, to participate, with "deep
reservations",
in a coming second run-off presidential election against
incumbent President
Robert Mugabe – the man at the centre of the crisis that
has brought to its
knees a once flourishing economy and proud
nation.
Amid the ongoing political violence highlighting a campaign of
gross human
rights violations against supporters of the MDC, which has
finally been
confirmed as having won the recent parliamentary election but,
controversially, said to have narrowly lost the required votes to avoid a
presidential run-off, CARICOM has now lamented in its May 9
statement:
"There continues to be great uncertainty about the electoral
process which
has not only been tainted by inordinate delays and grave
irregularities,
underlined by observers, but which is now further marred by
reports of
threats, intimidation and violence against opponents . . .
."
However well intended, the statement could cynically be dismissed by
those
who expected better, that CARICOM's foreign ministers seem to have
suddenly
awakened from a deep slumber and rushed to be engaged with one of
the major
political tragedies of Africa.
"Great uncertainties of the
electoral process"? "Reports of threats,
intimidation and violence against
opponents"? What a "discovery" by these
foreign ministers of
CARICOM!!
If the Community's foreign ministers expect to be applauded for
their
"expressed grave concern", then it suggests a surprising level of
unawareness on their part of the mood of the mass of Caribbean nationals
about the human tragedies in Zimbabwe while they engage in a very
disappointing words-game that point to a surprising timidity to tell it like
it is to Robert Mugabe.
We are aware of the limitations of a regional
movement like CARICOM to
influence a resolution of significance to the
Zimbabwean crisis.
However, there is also the awareness that CARICOM runs
the risk in
undermining its own integrity by its continuing failure to raise
a strong
moral voice, free from double-speak, against the acts of a
government that
make a travesty of democracy and rule of law – as in the
current case of
Zimbabwe under Mugabe's leadership.
New Zimbabwe
By Trudy
Stevenson
Last updated: 05/13/2008 10:41:27
“People get the government
they deserve.”
THIS is often quoted to explain why our governments are
generally pretty
awful, all over the world. The inference is that if people
were more careful
who they voted for, and if more people took the trouble to
vote in the first
place, we would not have such mediocre people in
government, and indeed
politicians would have to clean up their act and work
a lot harder than they
do.
Well, here we are in Zimbabwe in mid-May
2008, seven weeks after the
election, with no government at all, at least so
far as mandate from the
people is concerned. We have the former government
still supposedly in power
because of the delay in the presidential election
result, and we have at
least one party of the future government, the
legislature -- i.e. the MPs
and Senators – and nearly all the local
government councils, but they are
not doing anything!
Quite why this
is so baffles me, because they went to great lengths to get
elected. Now
that they are elected, you would think it might occur to
perhaps one or two
of them that they should DO something – speak to their
constituents, write
us a letter, send us an SMS, call us, or maybe just stop
over at a shopping
centre one day so we know they are still around.
But no, it appears that
they are all in hibernation (winter is certainly
approaching), or else the
MDC representatives have fled across the border to
join Morgan Tsvangirai. I
do not want to believe the latter, because I would
not like to think that
the electorate chose candidates who were ready to
abandon them as soon as
they were elected. So it must be the former: the
onset of winter has sent
them all into hibernation. Yet I do not recall the
previous lot of MPs
hibernating. On the contrary, a number of them were
visible and holding
meetings, writing articles, attending functions,
chatting to their
constituents over the weekend, etc, all year round.
What has happened? Is
the new lot of MDC reps so timid that they are afraid
of their own
constituents? Surely the odd threat from Augustine Chihuri or
even Robert
Mugabe cannot have frightened them all into silence and
invisibility? Surely
at least there is one WOMAN among them who has the
courage to start doing
the job she was elected to do?
Ah, perhaps that’s it – they don’t know
what they are supposed to do! But I
seem to remember reading one or two
manifestos and hearing a couple of
winning candidates state very
specifically what they intended to do if we
voted for them. So – what are
they waiting for?
If they are waiting for the outcome of the run-off of
the Presidential
election, that is madness, because that outcome might not
be with us for
several months yet. Anyway, do they really have to have a new
President in
power before they can start acting as people’s representatives
on the
ground? Surely not! Surely the very lack of a new President in power
is what
gives them even more responsibility than they would normally have to
talk to
their constituents and start trying to deal with their
issues?
Meanwhile, potholes deepen, garbage piles up, water and power
continue to be
cut, we still can’t find mealie-meal, sugar, cooking oil,
soap, or fuel
except on the black market, salaries become more and more
meaningless as our
money becomes more and more worthless, more and more
people are dying
needlessly of AIDS-related diseases, orphans are
increasing, doctors and
teachers are leaving, our schools and hospitals are
becoming hopeless
places – the list goes on and on and on.
And by the
way, who is paying for all the security forces who have been
manning ZEC
Command Centers throughout the country since a week before the
election and
are STILL THERE? The taxpayers, I presume – but has this
expenditure been
approved, and if so, by what authority? If not, what, if
anything, are the
new legislators doing about this? And how long are
taxpayers expected to
continue paying all these people to sit doing nothing
at these Command
Centers?
Do we have to wait for a new President before ANYTHING is done
about ANY of
this? Surely a group of 99 MDC MPs and several hundred
councilors could
between them think of something helpful to do to address at
least one of
these problems, even without a new President in
place?
Come on, new government! I believe Zimbabweans deserve better than
this. We
do not have the government we deserve simply because the one part
of that
new government which is now in place and has our mandate is not
doing its
job.
A bit of boldness, please, new government! Seven weeks
is long enough to
find your feet. Now we want some action!
Trudy
Stevenson is the former MP for Harare North
Monsters and Critics
May 13, 2008, 1:28 GMT
Abuja - The Nigerian
government called Monday for a large deployment of
African Union observers
to monitor run-off elections in Zimbabwe.
'There is need for many
observers from many African Union countries to
monitor the run-off
election,' Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe said in
Abuja.
'If
we have a large number of observers coming in to show solidarity but not
to
judge the Zimbabweans, that will help to avoid a breakdown of law and
order.'
Madueke said that Nigeria had been having discussions on the
issue with
South AfricaM President Thabo Mbeki and the Zimbabwean foreign
affairs
minister.
'During the discussions, Nigeria again stressed the
need for a peaceful
runoff and to assuage the fears of opposition party on a
violence-free and
fair re-run election in Zimbabwe,' Madueke said.
He
said that part of the discussions centred on the African Peer Review
Mechanism, adding that the fallout of any crisis in any African nation could
have ripple effects on the continent.
The Zimbabwean government, the
opposition party and the entire people of
Zimbabwe deserved a peaceful
transition from one election to another,
Madueke said.
He explained
that Nigeria did not get involved in the Zimbabwean situation
because it
believed that the South African Development Community (SADEC)
should be
given a free hand in the matter.
'Nigeria's position has been to allow
SADEC to handle the situation, and we
are satisfied with them, because at a
meeting in Zambia, all sides were
asked to respect the law,' Madueke
said.
'We felt it was counterproductive for Nigeria to get involved. That
we are
not running over all the place does not mean that we are indifferent
or
silent.'
He recalled the sacrifices that Nigeria had made in the
restoration of peace
and security in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia and
currently in Sudan's
western region of Darfur.
'Nigeria is the
largest contributor to peacekeeping on the continent. The
moral
responsibility is to urge Zimbabweans to respect their constitution
and
resort to due process in the election,' Maduekwe said.
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington,
D.C.
13 May 2008
Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) has
described as utterly foolish a pronouncement
by the government not to invite
western poll observers ahead of the election
run-off. The MDC said the
Robert Mugabe-led government is determined to use
foul means to thwart an
imminent opposition victory. This comes after
justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa reportedly said the government would not
invite election observers
from Western countries to monitor a presidential
run-off unless Western
sanctions against Zimbabwe are lifted.
Main
opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who claimed victory in the
March 29
elections, has said he would only be part of the run-off if
international
observers and media were given full access to ensure the vote
is free and
fair. Eliphas Mukonoweshuro is the international affairs
secretary of the
MDC. He tells reporter Peter Clottey from the capital,
Harare that the
government’s pronouncement is contemptible.
“The MDC position is quite
clear, we don’t control the legislative process
in the United States, in the
European Union or in any country whatsoever.
These countries make their own
determination as to whether they have a
friendship with Mr. Mugabe
government or not. So, in actual sense, Mr.
Chinamasa is being foolish by
telling us that we should tell the United
States or the European Union to
change their policies,” Mukonoweshuro noted.
He urged the international
community to increase scrutiny on the ruling
ZANU-PF party ahead of a
possible election run-off.
“The international community should watch the
government of Zimbabwe; they
should watch Mr. Mugabe and his associates.
They are saying they want free
and fair election. Free and a fair election
has to be observed by any friend
of Zimbabwe to get a ticket to come to this
country to witness the process.
The international community must now
question whether or not Mr. Mugabe and
his associates are interested in such
an election, which is free and fair
because Mr. Mugabe and his associates
are putting so many qualifications,
which make it very, very difficult for
anybody who is not a friend of
ZANU-PF to come to this country and observe
the election,” he said.
Mukonoweshuro condemned as nonsense speculations
of possible treason charges
against main opposition leader
Tsvangirai.
“Mr. Tsvangirai did not run away from Zimbabwe, Mr.
Tsvangirai was doing
diplomatic work abroad. He has not committed any crime
in Zimbabwe. He is as
far as we are concerned as MDC free to come back to
Zimbabwe. Of course if
anything should happen to Mr. Tsvangirai, if he is
arrested that should be
regarded by the international community as a crime
against a man leading a
political party doing everything that is possible to
facilitate the
democratic process,” Mukonoweshuro pointed out.
He
said demands by the MDC to have international observers ahead of the
elections run-off is in accordance with the promises made to the party by
the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“Mr. Tsvangirai is
not saying that in his own accord. Mr. Tsvangirai is
simply repeating the
assurances given to us by the Southern African
Development Community that
every step possible would be implemented to
ensure a free and fair election.
So, the people who must answer that is the
SADC to ensure that there are
free and fair elections in this country,” he
said.
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE, May 13, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - Professor
Jonathan Moyo has
lampooned his successor at the Ministry of Information,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu,
branding him as an incompetent government official
attempting to defend an
expired regime.
Moyo, who during his own
tenure as information minister defended Robert
Mugabe with amazing gusto,
said Ndlovu had a rudimentary appreciation of
issues and was a disgrace to
Zanu-PF.
“I think he is incompetent,” Moyo said. “He is a jolly good
fellow, and in
fact he is a distant relative of mine, an uncle of some sorts
because my
mother’s totem is Ndlovu. But, honestly speaking, he is
incompetent.”
Moyo, who was addressing a journalists’ roundtable in
Bulawayo on election
reporting last weekend, said if he was still in
government, he would have
resigned than be part of what he described as the
current charade.
He was referring to the post-election violence, the
prolonged election
results hold-up and subsequent refusal by the government
to announce the
presidential election runoff date after Mugabe lost the
presidential
election to MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
“I would not
be party to this kind of thing,” Moyo claimed. “Certainly I
would not have
defended this. This is a difficult situation. How can you run
an election
saying vote for an 84-year-old to rule for the next five years.
Even if you
are a rocket scientist, it would be impossible.”
Moyo said, contrary to a
widely held belief that he was fired by Mugabe, he
instead left Zanu-PF out
of his own volition.
“I submitted myself as an independent candidate (for
the Tsholotsho seat)
and I knew in Zanu-PF that was the end,” he
said.
He claimed he realized from June 2004 that Zanu-PF was a fast
sinking ship
with the way the constitution was being amended
willy-nilly.
“The fact that they could just change the constitution
worried me a lot,” he
said. “For instance, they would say ‘we want a woman
here (to be Vice
President), so Emmerson (Mnangagwa) if you want this post,
then you have to
change yourself to be a woman’.
“The whole thing was
a charade. They were making laws specifically for the
so-called Tsholotsho
people.”
Funny enough, said Moyo, the so-called palace coup plotters in
the
Tsholotsho saga, were now the very same people now running the show in
Zanu-PF and frantically defending Mugabe to stay on.
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who is said to be the head of the Joint Operations
Command (JOC)
and Patrick Chinamasa, one of the foremost Zanu-PF spokesmen
were in the
fore-front of the Tsholotsho affair.
“The one institution that is in
charge right now is the JOC,” Moyo said.
“But the people who are emerging as
torchbearers right now are the Mnangagwa
people.”
Moyo, who retained
his Tsholotsho parliamentary seat in the March 29 poll as
an independent
candidate, said there was an appalling lack of investigative
journalism in
Zimbabwe. He said with a ‘little digging’, journalists with a
nose for news
can unearth massive scandals in Zanu-PF, adding the
disintegrating former
ruling party was replete with earth-shattering
scandals.
“In fact
people like Geoff Nyarota say there has been no investigative
journalist in
Zimbabwe after him,” Moyo said. “I tend to agree with him.”
He rejected
as baseless allegations that he had fired investigative
journalists at ZBC
and Zimpapers when he took over the reins at the
information
ministry.
Moyo instead blamed former Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ)
chief executive
officer, now Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, for the
dismissal of the
workers. He said he picked up Gono for the ZBC
restructuring exercise, given
his success record in turning around CBZ into
a reputable financial
institution.
Moyo insisted Gono was responsible
for the restructuring exercise at ZBC
that resulted in the retrenchment of
more than 400 workers.
At Zimpapers, it was Tommy Sithole, he said. “You
may have a point about
people being fired,” a defiant Moyo said. “I do admit
that there were a lot
of people who were fired but I reject that these were
investigative
journalists,” he insisted. “There is no culture of
investigative journalism
in Zimbabwe.”
He said ZBC and Zimpapers had
a massive wage bill which was unsustainable.
He said “the majority of people
there were not professionals, but
girlfriends and relatives of politicians”,
who had no business being there.
“It was dirty job that needed someone to
do it,” Moyo said, “and I did it.”
As for The Daily News Moyo said it had
banned itself by failing to be duly
registered under the law. He partially
admitted that he was a bit vindictive
to the editorial team at the paper but
denied any involvement in the bombing
of the leading daily's printing
press.
Moyo, who now fiercely supports the MDC and its leader Morgan
Tsvangirai,
said Mugabe was better advised to concede and stand down than
participate in
a run off, which would only embarrass him. He said the “old
man” was getting
bad advice from his security service chiefs.
The
wily political science professor urged the MDC to demand that Parliament
convenes and resumes work immediately because parliamentarians were not
sworn in by the executive.
“Parliament swears itself in,” said Moyo.
“So the MDC, and indeed all MPs
and senators, need to approach the clerk of
Parliament and get on with the
business of the House.”
Moyo said
Mugabe would have to grapple with an MDC Speaker of Parliament, an
MDC chief
whip, adding the octogenarian leader could never survive a hostile
Parliament.
He added that there were 20 Zanu-PF MPs who had confirmed
that they were
ready to work with the MDC but could not cross the floor
because there would
have to be a by-election if they did.
Business Day
13 May 2008
IN
STRUGGLING to make sense of President Thabo Mbeki’s determined policy of
appeasement towards Robert Mugabe over the years, some analysts have
suggested it may have been motivated primarily by concern over the ripple
effect on the politics of the region if a labour-led party such as the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was allowed to turf out Zimbabwe’s
liberation movement-turned-government.
While this is almost certainly
simplistic, the inference that Mbeki did not
want South African labour
leaders getting ideas above their station in the
governing alliance is
not.
However, whether or not this was a factor even contributing to the
much-criticised “quiet diplomacy” approach, the strategy has clearly
failed — not only has the MDC won the Zimbabwean election despite having the
table tilted severely against it, but South African labour federation Cosatu
and ally the South African Communist Party (SACP) managed to achieve the
same end within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at
Polokwane.
While it is hard to imagine that an MDC government could be
anything other
than a vast improvement on Zanu (PF)’s legacy of
hyperinflation, corruption,
economic mismanagement and repression, the same
cannot necessarily be said
for the looming “leftist” era in SA. Mbeki’s
leadership of the ANC has left
much to be desired in many areas, not least
Zimbabwe, HIV, race relations,
the management of state institutions and
industrial policy. But the past
weekend’s summit between tripartite alliance
partners the ANC, SACP and
Cosatu did little to inspire confidence that the
new power brokers have much
to offer in the form of viable alternative
policies.
It is true Cosatu and the SACP have consistently adopted a far
more
pragmatic stance than the government on matters such as Zimbabwe and
HIV,
and while the summit identified a number of key challenges facing
society,
the proposed response was alarmingly short on detail. Criticising
Mbeki’s
eccentricities is easy compared with actually coming up with better
policy.
The ANC outside government is enjoying the best of both worlds,
blasting
Mbeki at every opportunity while avoiding responsibility for the
fine mess
he has got SA into in its name.
Little wonder the alliance
partners decided not to push for Mbeki’s removal
from office before his term
is complete — it suits them to go into next year’s
election without having
to identify too closely with the practical
implications of their more
blatantly populist proposals. Calling for the
removal of VAT on basic foods
is all very well, for instance, but there are
sound economic reasons this is
not the best means of easing the burden on
the poor, and they know
it.
Similarly, the summit’s call for land reform to be speeded up “so
that more
land can be made available for food production to ensure food
security” may
appeal to the masses but would have precisely the opposite
effect on food
security if the way the current land reform process is
unfolding is anything
to go by. And, rejecting Eskom’s request for a stiff
tariff increase without
coming up with practical suggestions for alternative
means of funding the
utility’s capacity expansion programme is simply
irresponsible. The power
crisis was caused by the dithering of the governing
alliance: the buck now
stops with that alliance.
Business Day
13 May 2008
Karima Brown
AS WHAT little remains of President Thabo Mbeki’s
legacy melts into thin
air, and his time in office draws to a close, a
friend quipped that it has
now become almost as difficult to find a
supporter of the man as it was to
find a supporter of the National Party
after 1994.
Mbeki is now well and truly yesterday’s man, reduced to
ridicule as the
public learns more and more about his machinations — even
outright lies — in
matters of state. Mbeki’s folly grows daily as we learn
how he sat on report
after report, be it on the crisis in Zimbabwe, the
Scorpions, or his
attempts to shield disgraced national police commissioner
Jackie Selebi.
Mbeki, once held up by so many as a man with vision and
integrity, has now
become an object of derision. It is ironic that the most
strident criticism
is coming from those among the chattering classes who
once believed he could
do no wrong.
How the wheel has
turned.
But no amount of finger-pointing, however gleeful, will address
the key
question of how to undo the mess. Moreover, any attempt to deal with
the
serious governance challenges is likely to be hobbled by Mbeki and his
crew
of diehards, who seem determined to continue as if Polokwane had never
happened.
The governance summit proposed by the African National
Congress (ANC)-led
alliance at the weekend is the first systematic attempt
to try to plan
beyond Mbeki on the part of the ANC and its allies. The South
African
Communist Party’s input around possible restructuring of key
government
departments and ministries, such as possibly splitting minerals
and energy
and land from agriculture, is certainly food for thought. So too
is the
proposal about the creation of a central planning ministry meant to
co-ordinate key strategic interventions aligning infrastructure, industrial
policy, energy policy, macroeconomic stability, safety and security and
international trade.
However, all of these proposals are premised
on the notion that the state
has the capacity to drive these initiatives,
when this is simply not the
case. The dearth of skills across provinces and
in the municipalities will
hamper efforts to reconfigure state departments,
never mind creating new
ones. The constitutional requirements on equity
employment also poses huge
challenges.
Many personnel managers are
not appointing key personnel because they can’t
find black candidates. This
often leads to inaction because performance
bonuses are tied to equity
targets. Thus managers will rather leave crucial
posts for engineers, water
sanitation managers and the like vacant than mess
with the point system on
equity. This has disastrous consequences for the
delivery of basic
services.
The proposed governance summit is a good idea, but there is a
danger it will
try to reinvent the wheel, and entertain all manner of policy
discussions
that will again serve only to delay service provision
.
Mbeki’s administration has proven how adept the government can be at
planning and not implementing. Project Consolidate, the intervention aimed
at throwing 136 underperforming municipalities a lifeline, is a case in
point. And if the party’s handling of the SABC board crisis is anything to
go by, the transition is not going to pretty. But the resolution of the SABC
debacle, which has its roots in the internal wrangling of the ruling party,
will be instructive. In many ways, the SABC drama is a microcosm of what is
happening in government departments in all three spheres as the Mbeki crowd
departs. As tempting as settling scores might be, it will serve no one’s
interests to use Mbeki’s departure as a way to deal deathblows to political
opponents.
All this will lead to is paralysis that results in
citizens getting the
short end of the stick. More importantly, it provides
an opportunity for
unprincipled types, of whom there are many in the new
crowd, to get their
hands on state largesse. The transition needs to be
managed with the aim of
undoing the shortcomings of Mbeki’s time in office
and making good on the
ANC’s promise of a better life for
all.
Brown is political editor.
The Sowetan
13 May 2008
Ido
Lekota
The DA yesterday added its voice to calls for President Thabo
Mbeki to step
down.
“The ANC and its allies might be
undecided on whether Mbeki should step
down, but for the DA the correct
course of action is obvious,” DA leader
Helen Zille said in a statement.
“Mbeki must go and he must go now.”
Her call comes amid reports that both
the SACP and Cosatu have called on
Mbeki to step down, accusing him of
mishandling the current energy problems,
the Zimbabwe crisis and the SABC
saga .
A motion presented at the three-day alliance summit calling for
Mbeki’s
removal did not pass.
It is reported that supporting the call
was businessman and ANC national
executive member Tokyo
Sexwale.
Sexwale was expressing concern about an unworkable transition in
which Mbeki
remained the country’s president even after losing the party’s
leadership to
Jacob Zuma in Polokwane.
Yesterday Zille said Mbeki had
interfered in key institutions that should be
independent from the ruling
party, such as the SABC and the National
Prosecuting Authority, for his own
political purposes.
“He is ultimately responsible for the power crisis
that threatens to bring
our economy to its knees; he has consistently denied
the gravity of national
crises such as HIV-Aids and crime; and he has
allowed President Robert
Mugabe to repeatedly steal elections in
Zimbabwe.”
Zille called for the immediate dissolution of Parliament and
the holding of
new elections.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 12 May 2008 08:13
President Thabo Mbeki’s role as a mediator in
the Zimbabwean crisis
took another knock yesterday after disclosures that he
ignored the advice of
two judges he commissioned to observe that country’s
2002 general elections,
writes Michael Bleby and Karima Brown in Business
Day, Johannesburg.
Mbeki commissioned judges Sisi Khampepe and
Dikgang Moseneke to
observe the controversial Zimbabwean election in 2002 —
which the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) still claims was
rigged.
On their return the judges wrote a scathing report on the
conduct of
the election and submitted it to Mbeki.
This was
despite the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the
government and the
Southern African Development Community giving a thumbs
up, saying the
election result “represented the will of the Zimbabwean
people”.
Their report detailed the constitutional changes made
by President
Robert Mugabe before the presidential election to give him
sweeping powers
to amend electoral laws.
It also said the
failure of that country’s legal system to permit a
valid challenge to the
results undermined these efforts.
The shortcomings in the 2002
election that returned Mugabe to power
included a failure to properly
constitute the Electoral Supervisory
Commission; a change in the Electoral
Act to give Mugabe, rather than
parliament, the authority to alter electoral
law; and the change of wording
in the Electoral Act to stymie challenges to
election findings.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai attempted to
nullify the changes that
Mugabe had made to s ection 158 of the Electoral
Act but the challenge was
thrown out by Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court a month
after the election.
Matthew Walton, a lawyer acting for the MDC in
SA, approached the
local courts demanding the report’s release.
But the MDC later said it had stopped the court action, out of respect
for
the South African government’s right to keep certain matters
private.
Neither Moseneke, now SA’s deputy chief justice, nor
Khampepe could be
reached for comment.
Walton said he had
written to Mbeki to request the report, but the
president’s legal adviser
had replied that it was never intended for
publication and could not be
released as it dealt with relations between
heads of state — exempting it
from SA’s Promotion of Access to Information
Act.
Adv Jeremy
Gauntlett, who represented the MDC in its challenge of the
2002 presidential
election, said of the report: “There is a second secret
Khampepe report. It
concerns a matter of no less importance: has Mugabe in
fact ruled Zimbabwe
for the past six years in a documented breach of the law
and his
electorate’s will?”
In an article written exclusively for Business
Day and published
elsewhere in the paper, Gauntlett said the tricks used in
the 2002 report
are likely to be used again in the presidential runoff
necessitated by the
lack of a clear winner in the March 29
elections.
The details of the report submitted to Mbeki six years
ago make it
almost impossible he is unaware of the deceptions and
illegalities
perpetrated by Mugabe to cling to power.
His
unwillingness to blow the whistle on Mugabe — which dates back
beyond the
2002 poll — is the reason Tsvangirai last month asked Mbeki to
step down as
the lead negotiator for the Southern African Development
Community’s
mediation efforts on Zimbabwe.
But while Tsvangirai has a difficult
relationship with Mbeki, behind
the scenes meetings between the MDC and
Mbeki are continuing.
Business Day understands that Mbeki, who
visited Mugabe last week to
resuscitate his mediation efforts, has been
engaging the MDC in behind the
scenes talks intended to break the political
impasse in Zimbabwe.