The Telegraph, UK
By David Blair in
Johannesburg
(Filed:
16/05/2006)
President Robert Mugabe began a new
onslaught on
Zimbabwe's poor yesterday when his regime announced that more
than 10,000
street children and vagrants had been "rounded up" in
Harare.
Police described their latest assault on the
capital's
poverty-stricken street dwellers, codenamed Operation Round Up, as
a
crime-fighting measure.
Last year they bulldozed
thousands of "illegal structures"
in the poorest townships, leaving 700,000
people without homes or
livelihoods.
The
new operation appears aimed at those cast on to the
streets by the earlier
demolitions.
A total of 10,244 "vagrants, street kids,
touts and other
disorderly elements" have been detained, according to The
Herald, the
country's official daily newspaper.
Assistant Commissioner Munyaradzi Musariri said they would
be "relocated" to
their "homes" in rural areas. "As police, we will not rest
until there is
sanity in the streets and the operation is continuing," he
said.
He said nothing about what would become of
street children
with no rural homes to go to.
In
the past, Mr Mugabe's regime has swept people off the
pavements, forcibly
loading them on to lorries, before dumping them in
remote areas with no
support. Police officers routinely assault and rob
detainees.
Many of those caught by the swoop will
be victims of the
spiralling economic crisis. Inflation is at 1,043 per cent
- the highest
rate in the world - and one third of the economy has been
wiped out in the
past six years.
Harare and the
second city, Bulawayo, are the strongholds
of Zimbabwe's opposition and
82-year-old Mr Mugabe views urban dwellers with
deep
suspicion.
Clearing the townships and relocating their
inhabitants to
rural areas, where the ruling Zanu-PF party is dominant, are
central goals
of his regime.
This week marks the
first anniversary of the onset of the
township demolitions, which the regime
codenamed Operation Drive Out the
Rubbish.
Mr
Mugabe publicly turned down an offer of tents from the
United Nations,
thereby condemning countless families to sleeping in the
open
air.
Today the victims of this purge are clustered on
the
fringes of townships across Harare and every other
city.
The regime pledged to build new houses to replace
those it
had demolished. But this promise has been broken and few new homes
completed.
The authorities kept no record of those
who were left
destitute by the demolitions. There is therefore no way of
identifying the
right people to be given new houses - even if enough were
built.
Economic collapse is rapidly impoverishing every
strata of
society, save for the corrupt elite around Mr Mugabe. Critics say
police
operations targeted on the urban poor make the crisis even
worse.
Reuters
Mon 15 May
2006 9:03 PM ET
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE, May 16 (Reuters) -
Remia Sangano has no illusions about the
three-roomed brick house she used
to live in, but it was home and she misses
it.
"It was tiny, we had
no electricity, but it was the nicest house I have ever
lived in. Certainly
a lot better than this," she says, pointing to the house
Zimbabwe's
authorities are building for her -- as yet just a roofless little
room.
Sangano's home in the Porta Farm settlement on the outskirts of
Zimbabwe's
capital Harare was knocked down as part of President Robert
Mugabe's
fiercely criticised operation to clear urban slums and shantytowns,
launched
last May.
Zimbabwean police ordered her grandson to demolish
their home and he did,
smashing the walls with a pick as Sangano looked on
in horror.
A year later, Sangano and her four grandchildren, whose
parents died of
AIDS, live under a plastic tent, still waiting to move into
the replacement
house promised under a state rebuilding exercise that
critics say has taken
too long.
"We don't know when the new house
will be complete, but it looks like we
will be spending a second winter out
in the cold," Sangano told Reuters.
She was speaking on Hopley Estate,
where the Zimbabwean army is building
houses for those left homeless by last
year's operation, which the
government dubbed "Operation Murambatsvina", the
local Shona word for
"reject filth".
The United Nations says some
700,000 people lost their homes or their
livelihoods when police bulldozed
slums and what it called illegal
structures in Harare and other towns.
Sometimes, residents were ordered to
knock down their own homes.
A
U.N. report said another 2.4 million were affected by what it called a
"disastrous venture."
Mugabe said the aim was to root out illegal
trade in scant basic
commodities, but critics said the demolitions were part
of a political
campaign against the largely urban supporters of the main
opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
"LIVE WELL"
Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most
promising economies, is sinking ever
deeper into economic crisis with
inflation above 1,000 percent, food and
fuel shortages and rising
unemployment.
The crisis has hobbled the rebuilding exercise -- known as
Garikai/Hlalani
Kuhle, or Live Well -- as bricks and other construction
materials have
become scarce and expensive.
Rights groups say the
bulk of those left homeless last year are still
without permanent
housing.
Criticism over the snail-paced rehousing scheme, especially in
Harare, has
come even from ruling ZANU-PF party officials who backed
Mugabe's government
over the crackdown, despite widespread condemnation at
home and abroad.
"We thought by now we would have about 200 houses ready
for occupation. For
example in (the central city) Gweru two-thirds of the
houses constructed are
now occupied. What is stalling completion of the
houses in Harare?" asked
ZANU-PF legislator Margaret Zinyemba during a tour
of building sites.
"We are now worried that all this project will come to
is just slabs."
Colonel Kallisto Gwanetsa, the army officer in charge of
the Hopley project,
says his team has set up over 1,000 housing structures
but only about 200
are near completion.
"The problem we had here is
that there was no infrastructure in place when
we came. We struggled to buy
bricks because of rising costs. We ended up
deciding to mould our own
bricks," says Gwanetsa.
HEALTH RISKS
Zimbabweans liken the
wave of demolitions to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami,
in terms of the
devastation caused. The MDC has recorded a song with the
same title, hitting
out at an operation it said was meant to erode its
support base.
The
MDC says the delays in rehousing those left homeless add weight to its
contention that the programme was badly planned.
"We are not against
the clean-up exercise per say, but what we are saying is
that the government
should have built new houses first, before demolishing
the old ones. The
whole thing was done in reverse," said Innocent Gonese, an
opposition
legislator who sits on a parliamentary committee on housing.
Critics also
say some government officials have hijacked the exercise,
snapping up houses
meant for the homeless.
For the thousands of families left in the cold,
the fast approaching winter
is not the only concern.
Aid group
Medecins Sans Frontieres says communicable diseases, especially
tuberculosis
and cholera, are wreaking havoc among people at Hopley, who
have limited
access to clean water and toilets.
Sexually transmitted diseases have
also flourished in a country where an
estimated 3,000 people are said to die
from HIV/AIDS each week.
The Combined Harare Residents Association says
about 150 victims of the
crackdown, whose home industries were demolished in
the city's Glen Norah
township, now live on a riverbank in the city,
drinking contaminated water.
"This lifestyle goes on unabated yet the
government of Zimbabwe has told the
whole world that Operation Murambatsvina
victims have been assisted with
shelter and food," it says.
"These
people have lost hope and pray that the government allocates them
land to
build their houses."
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
OPPOSITION MDC President,
Morgan Tsvangirai, is expected in the United
Kingdom at the end of May, the
UK province announced today.
Chairman Washington Ali said Tsvangirai,
whose visit comes
hard-on-the-heels of the tour of Europe by Professor
Arthur Mutambara's MDC
camp, is meant to afford the MDC leader an
opportunity to meet with the
party's structures and those who support the
party's efforts in trying to
dislodge the Zanu PF government from
power.
Tsvangirai, who arrives on the 27th of May, will be
accompanied on his
sojourn by former Chimanimani MP and MDC treasurer, Roy
Bennett and Grace
Kwinjeh, the party's deputy Secretary for International
Relations.
"The purpose of this visit is to meet the UK structures,
friends of
Zimbabwe and to introduce the new liberation team of the party,"
said Ali.
"The agenda will be an engagement of all in the diaspora on the
crisis that
our country is facing and to map the way forward and our roles
together."
MDC structures in the UK have already started mobilising
people to
attend meetings that will be addressed by Tsvangirai.
After a promising start just seven years ago, the MDC split following
disagreements over the controversial senatorial elections last October.
There had been seemering tensions in the party for more than a year, they
eventually boiled over leading to the split that left many in the country
without hope of being lifted out of their misery by the movement that almost
dislodged Zanu PF from office in 2000.
Tsvangirai leads the
other faction and his former secretary general,
Welshman Ncube and deputy,
Gibson Sibanda, now belong to the Mutambara-led
camp. Mutambara was in the
UK last week following a two-week visit to Europe
to meet "strategic
partners" and the party's structures and Zimbabweans
living in the diaspora.
With Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga as
part of his team,
Mutambara also had the opportunity to meet with
parliamentarians at the
House of Commons and politicians at Westminster.
Tsvangirai will no doubt
meet the same people to explain his side of the
story that led to the split
and the way forward in tackling the Robert
Mugabe government in their fight
for democracy in the country.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Sandra Nyaira
LAST Tuesday I went to
attend the Arthur Mutambara rally in London.
Ever since the much-publicised
split between the Professor Welshman Ncube
and the Morgan Tsvangirai camps
of the opposition MDC, I had not heard the
opportunity to sit and listen
first hand to each of the factions' senior
members talking about the divorce
and the future.
I wasn't going to miss this opportunity for anything.
The first time I
heard about Arthur Mutambara I was doing my ZJC at Glen
Norah High 1 school
in Harare when he was arrested with his student
colleagues at the University
of Zimbabwe and I first met him when I was
working at The Daily News.
The London rally was going to be my second
meeting with him.
After the introductions, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who happens
to be my MP in Harare, and Prof Ncube
were to speak about the differences
that tore the party that many had staked
their hopes on into two.
First to have the podium was
Misihairabwi-Mushonga and she was as
clear as ever. She chanted the party's
slogan but there was not enough
enthusiasm in the response, not because most
of the people were not MDC
supporters but because many came to find out what
this particular faction
had to offer the people of Zimbabwe outside the main
body of the MDC.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga dealt with three issues
- why the split, the
course of the democratic struggle in Zimbabwe and the
role of the diaspora
in the process. I will stick to the split much more
than anything else said
on the day. Misihairabwi-Mushonga said as far as she
was concerned
Tsvangirai was the "mother" of the MDC split because he was
the one who had
pronounced openly that he did not care if the party split or
survived at all
at the height of their disagreements. "If you are prepared
to kill a baby so
that you are the only person who remains the only owner of
the baby then as
far as I'm concerned you were never the owner of that
baby," she said. "If
you went through the labour of having that child the
first thing you think
of is what is it that I'm prepared to give and
sometimes it may actually
mean giving up being the mother of the
baby."
"And in the context of the Zimbabwean situation, we should have
seen
some people saying if it means me giving up being a president of a
particular political party so that I avert a split, I'm going to do so. The
fact that the leadership (of the MDC) failed to do so, as far as I'm
concerned, is where I take the position that I take that he lost the plot at
that point."
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the reason Zimbabwe
has a dictatorial
president in the form of Robert Mugabe was because people
buried their heads
in sand and were prepared to look aside when he was
showing all the signs of
being an autocratic leader.
She said the
system that had been created in the MDC was exactly the
same as the one
being run by Robert Mugabe and his colleagues, an allegation
that is denied
by the Tsvangirai camp. Misihairabwi-Mushonga said Tsvangirai
had failed to
respect the party's constitution, among many other issues that
the party had
been covering up for a long period.
Tsvangirai, she said, was using
violence and coercion to maintain his
stay in office, the same way as
Mugabe.
"If you are prepared to beat people up when you are
still in
opposition, what would happen if you have the state machinery at
your
disposal - you have the CIO, the army, police - would anybody be able
to
stand up against you. That for me is a litmus test about you being a
leader."
Then came Prof Ncube. He reiterated what
Misihairabwi-Mushonga had
said and spent more time talking about the
split.
"Contrary to what others will tell you that there were
differences on
strategies, tactics - there never was. Contrary to what you
would be told
that there were some who were closer to Zanu PF, sympathetic
to the Zanu PF
way of doing things and the claim that what you had was a
Ndebele rebellion,
the reality of the matter is that over a period of more
than a year, there
were sharp contradictions in the party that all of us
tried to contain and
those differences were not on strategy or tactic
against Mugabe regime but
were a clash over the founding values and
principles of the party. Do we
leave those principles before we are in
government?"
At the beginning, the MDC had a set of values they
chose to follow in
their bid to create a democratic country and Tsvangirai
had gone back on
them resulting in the clash, said Prof Ncube.
"What then happened from around the time of the treason trial, but
more so
December 2004, the president's office sent Ghandi Mudzingwa, Dennis
Murira
and two others to Serbia to do training on mass action," he said,
"they then
tell us later that one of the things they were taught in Serbia
was that in
order to engage in successful mass action, you needed a core
group of young
people who had no stake in society, who had nothing to lose.
They went ahead
and recruited these people when they came back - from Mbare,
Highfields -
pickpockets, thieves and all and trained them and they were
supposed to be
our core group and all this behind our back. We didn't know
about it until
we were doing an investigation after the (intra-party
violence) in May 2005,
they then confessed to doing all this."
Prof Ncube continued: "And when
these youths were not effectively used
in mass action, they then became a
readily available army - anyone who
wanted youths to hire against an
opponent they were then available. Those
who had recruited them started
telling them mass action failed because
Priscilla was opposed to it, you
must deal with her, oh there is a group of
people who want to remove Morgan
Tsvangirai from the presidency of the MDC,
the chairman of Mashonaland East,
go and abduct him and bring him to Harvest
House, strip him naked, use broom
sticks, sjamboks to beat him. Order him to
address a crowd like this of men
and women completely stark naked and when
he doesn't do what you want, you
assault him again - broken arms, broken
legs, broken
fingures."
An investigation was then carried out and Prof Ncube
says evidence was
that the 24 youths responsible were being controlled by
people in Tsvangirai's
office, two of them were dismissed and then re-hired
after a presidential
directive, which Prof Ncube says was the first direct
"incident of a
violation of a collective resolution of the national council
and we said we
will live with it. Then those youths who had been suspended
or expelled were
reinstated". One of them, he alleged, is the candidate
standing in the
Budiriro by-election on the Morgan Tsvangirai faction's
ticket.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson of the Tsvangirai camp,
yesterday
denied the Serbia training allegations made by Ncube. He said:
"The project
to undermine the president has been a long-standing one and
these people
will not stop at anything. They are wasting their time because
all that is
not true at all. As far as we are concerned Ghandi and Murira
have not
received any military training and have no capacity to train
anyone. Since
October 12 the president has not even mentioned their names so
why do they
continue to talk about Tsvangirai and attacking him in public
when he
doesn't repay them in the same way."
After putting the
meeting into context of the things happening in the
party by 2005, Ncube
said as far as he was concerned, it was not the
senatorial elections that
had split the MDC but differences going back at
least a year.
He said many more issues but after him then came Mutambara. An
energetic
person, Mutambara bellowed from the podium as he spoke about the
party's
vision, strategy and focus. His speech was well covered by many
Zimbabwean
publications so I won't dwell on that. I couldn't help wondering
as I sat
there whether Mutambara's energy and capabilities were being fully
utilised
in the fractious MDC camp. Yes he is arrogant and his supporters
say it's
okay, leaders are allowed to be full of themselves but I think he
still
needs to learn more about the political game in the country, he is
still
rough on the edges and needs to polish up his act. Sometimes he said
one
thing and then came back later contradicting himself. Most of all I was
not
impressed by his incessant attacks on those who joined the struggle to
dislodge Zanu PF ahead of him, notably Tsvangirai, though under pressure he
capitulated to say the former labour unions leader was actually a
hero.
I believe Mutambara, like everyone else, has a role to play
in
Zimbabwe's politics, it is his right but speaking as a person who was
around
when the MDC project was put together, I feel disjointed efforts may
actually lead to nothing in the end. I still believe in a united MDC and I
see it as the only way through which the struggle in Zimbabwe can be carried
forward. Yes we can have as many parties as possible like in South Africa
during the apartheid days but I have doubts as to whether Zimbabwe has room
for more than three strong political parties. Yes a monster can be tackled
from many angles but with the people as weary as they are, are they prepared
to have Shumba in one corner, Jonathan Moyo in another, Mutambara in his
own, Tsvangirai and many others. Are we really selfish that we cannot all
come together to deal with the many issues that affect us and fight for
democracy in a united way?
I enjoyed being in the meeting and
seeing the tussling amongst the MDC
supporters in the audience - some whom
came to make noise on behalf of
Tsvangirai, some to support Mutambara and
others to take him heard-on for
different reasons. I couldn't help thinking
back to the old days when the
media was so divided over Zanu PF and the MDC.
Others did not take lightly
to anyone who talked to those in Zanu PF - you
were a traitor, a sell-out
and vice versa - and now that the MDC has split
into two, people once again
are being further divided. I have lots of time
and respect for
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Thoko Khupe and many others in the
MDC and I
understand their reasons for choosing between Tsvangirai and
Mutambara.
Every struggle, at one stage or the other, I believe is bound to
go through
some sort of problems. I'm not saying I support Tsvangirai and
what he is
said to have done to usurp the powers of the National Council, to
violate
the party's constitution and other issues but I think the members
who felt
strongly that he had crossed the line could have done more from
within to
promote tolerance and divergence of opinion in the party and then
to the
Zimbabwean society as a whole. From what transpired in the meeting, I
feel
as Zimbabweans we still have to deal with the intolerance and hate that
we
feel towards each other when we support divergent views. Yesterday it was
Zanu PF versus the MDC, today it is the MDC against the MDC - people who
stood together yesterday fighting for change in Zimbabwe can no longer
tolerate each other. Only one person is laughing all the way to the bank. It
is Robert Mugabe of course.
As I left the Dominion Centre, I
couldn't help wondering though
whether we had been told the real story
behind the split - is it true that
the separation was caused by lack of
respect of the party's "values",
"principles" and was it even tribalism as
some would want us to believe.
Without pouring any water on the allegations
levelled by the Mutambara camp
against Morgan Tsvangirai, I still think more
could have been done to avert
the split. Many had hope in the MDC delivering
them from their continued
misery under the Zanu PF
government
As a journalist who was working on the ground at the
inception of the
MDC and two elections down the line, I heard so many
stories that convince
me today that deep-seated resentments had been
building up over a very long
period of time in the party, resulting in the
eventual split. Morgan
Tsvangirai and his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, were at
the helm of the ZCTU for
a long, long time and I cannot believe that after
all those years they
failed to sit together as real leaders in the party to
avoid the split - all
those years of brotherhood came to naught. Up to now
they still have to sit
and talk.
Today we have two groups of people
that now prefer to greet Zanu PF
parliamentarians and wine and dine with
them rather than their former
colleagues. I hear some of the MDC
parliamentarians no longer speak to each
other, intense tensions and
disagreements still remain to date.
There has been talk of the two
groups probably coming together to
fight the next election, which maybe the
presidential election in 2008, but
so many strong and acerbic words have
been exchanged with only at least two
years to go before the election. If
the groups are going to come together to
fight the election on one platform,
will they be able to put the past behind
them and trust each other, I
wonder.
Anyway, the problem in Zimbabwe hasn't changed. I feel the
final goal
is about Zimbabwe having a leadership that respects its people,
and its
laws, a Zimbabwe where we are allowed our freedoms to argue freely
and agree
to disagree without killing each other. I hope to reach that
final goal,
those in the opposition MDC camps and others will one day be
able to embrace
each other as they did at the beginning. If the opposition
parties fail to
come together and deal with their differences, I think they
will be doing
that to their own peril.
I sometimes wonder
whether things would have been different had
Learnmore Jongwe been alive
today. May His Soul Rest in Eternal Peace!
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Taurai
Nyasha
ZIMBABWEAN HUMAN rights defenders and civic groups
yesterday spoke
with one voice against the government's continued unlawful
detentions,
arbitrary arrests and torture of student leaders over the past
few weeks.
The human rights groups, which are currently in Gambia
where the
African Commission on Human and People's rights is currently
meeting, urged
the African Commission to urge Zimbabwe to stop the
harassment of the
students, human rights defenders and to continuously draw
Harare to its
obligations in terms of the African Charter. The human rights
groups said
the African Commission should also remind Zimbabwe to implement
the
recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission to Zimbabwe in 2002 and the
Resolution on the situation of Human Rights in Zimbabwe adopted at the 38th
Session of the Commission last December.
The organisations,
falling under the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum,
sent letters to President
Robert Mugabe's office, the Attorney General,
Sobuza Gula Ndebele, the
ministry of legal and parliamentary affairs, Police
Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri and Zimbabwe's representative to the United
Nations in Geneva,
Chitsaka Chipaziwa, calling on them to save the students
from further abuse
at the hands of the state agents.
The organisations are also
calling on Zimbabweans in general and those
with the interest of the country
at heart to write to the authorities in
Harare asking them to cease the
arrest, detention and victimization of human
rights defenders on
unscrupulous and frivolous charges, the use of violence
upon the people of
Zimbabwe and thus play a role in fostering a culture of
non-violence in
Zimbabwe, promote and practice tolerance and divergence of
opinion in
Zimbabwean society, acknowledge, appreciate and respect the
rights of
persons in Zimbabwe to express themselves in all matters that
affect them
and respect their freedom of assembly in doing so and to
investigate the
acts of torture, assault and ill treatment of the human
rights defenders
while in police custody and bring the perpetrators of such
acts to
book.
In its own statement addressed to the same people and
offices, the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said: "We note with
grave concern
the continued harassment of students - particularly the
leadership thereof -
in Zimbabwe and the perpetual undermining of the right
to peaceful assembly
and association in Zimbabwe."
The
organisations spoke as a Bindura Magistrate ruled that 16 Bindura
University
students arrested during the disturbances at the university last
week should
remain in custody until 26 May 2006. The students are accused of
denouncing
Mugabe and the Higher Education Minister, Stan Mudenge. The
students were
arrested following violent demonstrations at Bindura
University against the
recent massive hikes in tuition fees. The Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights
filed an urgent High Court Application to seek the
immediate release of the
students. The application is set to be heard today.
ZLHR told
zimbabwejournalists.com it is determined to secure the
immediate release of
the students as some of them are supposed to write
final exams later this
week.
Ten more students appeared in court yesterday facing the same
charges
as the 16 who were refused bail. The 10 are part of the 77 students
arrested
when an administration block was burnt at the university last week.
On
Friday the police released the bulk of the students and left 15 in
custody,
of these 5 were released on Saturday. The students are being
charged under
Section 19(1) of the draconian Public Order and Security Act
(POSA).
The NGO forum said it was sad that the harassment and
arrests of
students by the Zimbabwe government continued on a daily basis.
On the 4th
of May police stormed a Zimbabwe National Students' Union
(ZINASU) Congress
meeting in Harare and arrested 48 student leaders
apparently over a missing
portrait of President Mugabe. The police demanded
that the students identify
former ZINASU President, Washington Katema and
fired two shots into the air
to force the students to disclose his
identify.
Despite this unacceptable show of force and harassment, they
refused.
The police officers then detained the students overnight, and they
were only
released - without charge. On the same day, a total of 73 children
ranging
from age seven to eighteen, most of whom are students in primary and
high
schools of Bulawayo, were arrested when they took part in a peaceful
protest
against the unaffordable escalation of school fees. The protest had
been
organised by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA).
On the 8th of
May, heavily armed members of the ZRP once again stormed
Bindura
University and arrested 18 students who were peacefully demonstrating
against the new fee structures approved for universities. The arrested
students were brutally assaulted resulting in one female student sustaining
a broken jaw. They were then taken to Bindura Central police station where
they were unlawfully detained. Another student from the same university was
picked up by the police on campus the following day and detained, bringing
to 19 the number of students in detention. Among the arrested was Beloved
Chiweshe, the ZINASU secretary general who was brutally assaulted while in
custody.
On the 10th of May, police arrested 20 more students at
Bindura
University for allegedly destroying university property. The
students'
lawyers claim they were denied unimpeded access to their clients
and an
urgent application is being prepared to be filed in the High Court to
compel
the police to allow the lawyers' access to the students. The
following day,
the 11th of May, the students were denied bail and sent to
prison and where
they were told they would be back in court on the 26th of
May despite the
fact that all of them are supposed to be sitting for their
exams this week.
These students are accused of denouncing Mugabe and
Mudenge. The names of
the students sent to prison at the moment
are:
Batabai Muroyi, Beloved Chiweshe, Kellington Kwashira, Foward
Mavenga,
Tinashe
Madamombe, Clever Paraiwa, Alexina Dembedza, Harry
Matingu, Moses
Chamisa,
Chipo Muchena, Chiedza Gadzirai, Wilson
Kavhukatema, Laswet Savadge,
Anyway
Samutanda and Faith
Mutambo.
Ten more students are still in the police cells together with
the 16
who were refused bail. On Friday the police released the bulk of them
and
left 15 in custody, of these 5 were released on Saturday.
The
names of some of students still in police custody are:
Kudakwashe
Sintu, Innocent Mapanga, Lenny Diamond, Leonard Dube,
Phanuel
Mbovo, Walter Mutsvene, Worship Chataira, Sam Nyama, Brighton Mutsvedu
Lesley Nyanyiwa.
"ZLHR would like to express its concern over the
criminal, wanton and
blatant violation of the rights of these human rights
defenders by the law
enforcement agents of Zimbabwe, whose function it is to
protect the rights
of citizens rather than violate them with impunity," the
lawyers
organization said in the petition." ZLHR further condemns the
continued use
of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment as a weapon of
control against
these defenseless human rights defenders in Zimbabwe and
also notes with
great concern the failure to respect the rights of even
minor children in
Zimbabwe."
The lawyers reminded the
government of Zimbabwe, including the law
enforcement agents, of their
obligation to respect, protect and promote the
rights of all citizens and
safeguard human rights defenders in their
activities. "The Zimbabwe
Constitution,
African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights as well as
numerous other
international covenants to which the state is party note
without exception
the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and
association and
protection from inhuman and degrading treatment as
fundamental human rights
necessary for the well-being of society living in
dignity."
In it's report to the Banjul meeting, the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO
Forum (NGO Forum) said they continued to be concerned about
the situation of
human rights in Zimbabwe. In spite of the Resolution on the
Human Rights
Situation in Zimbabwe adopted at the 38th Session of the
African Commission
held in December 2005, human rights violations are still
rampant in
Zimbabwe, the NGO Forum said.
"The state continues
to neglect its obligations in terms of the
African Charter to promote,
protect and to fulfil human rights. The reports
produced by the NGO Forum
show that incidents of torture, assault, unlawful
arrest and detention,
political discrimination and displacement, among
others, are still rife,"
the group said in their report. As at December 2005
figured collected by the
human rights defenders show that a total of 4200
human rights violations
were recorded up from the 2711 recorded in 2004.
High on the list of
perpetrators are the uniformed forces and impunity
continues, as these
violators are not brought to justice.
"Repressive pieces of
legislation such as Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act and
Public Order and Security Act continue not
only to be on our statute books,
but to be applied selectively to deny
activists and human rights defenders
freedom of association and assembly and
freedom of expression. This is so,
despite the Government of Zimbabwe's
assurances to the African Commission
that such pieces of legislation were
going to be amended to bring them in
line with the provisions of the
Charter."
It continued:
"Psychological violence has also been refined, for
instance, threats of
withdrawal of food relief are largely still being used
to force compliance
particularly in the government managed "food for work
programme" or donor
food that is distributed through community leaders.
Benefiting from
government-managed loans largely remains aligned to the
ruling party
affiliation as the primary requirement. Shelter and government
housing
projects also benefit party faithfuls to the detriment of the
populace
housing requirements as has been documented in the few houses built
under
the government's Operation Hlalani Kuhle/ Garikai (Better life). The
realisation of economic social and cultural rights thus remains a
mirage."
The Forum also wants the African Commission to urge Zimbabwe
to stop
enacting repressive legislation and repeal draconian pieces of
legislation.
"Zimbabwe should be further urged to fulfil its obligations by
providing the
minimum core content in respect of economic and social rights
particularly,
food and housing rights," the groups said in the Banjul
report.
New Zimbabwe
By Tonderai
Munakiri
Last updated: 05/16/2006 08:00:33
WHEN we were growing up in the
villages, one of our chores as "village boys"
was to take turns to herd
cattle for the whole village.
In the process it never occurred to us that
we had a primary responsibility
over the land, the water and all resources
that the environment provided. We
had no programs for rotating grazing
lands, neither did we care about the
environment that we herded our
cattle.
Such was the tragedy of the common villager because our cattle
died in their
millions whenever we had a drought and sometimes in between
good seasons.
This was essentially because none of us cared about the future
of the
environment as well as the future of the cattle
themselves.
The crisis that has been plaguing Zimbabwe in the last 8
years is a tragedy
of the common Zimbabwean who has no political muscle or
economic stamina to
stave off poverty and disease. The current decay of the
state has exposed
three quarters of our people who have endured 8 years of
inept and corrupt
government. The tragedy has been that the majority of our
people have not
any patron relations with government officials and most of
them have no sons
or daughters that have skipped borders to remit home the
green-buck or pound
or the South African rand. Most of them have been
condemned to a life of
hopelessness, diseases and poverty. They have become
the "wretched of the
earth" because our society has lost its fabric to
corruption and immorality.
For the past 8 years, Zimbabwe has been
bleeding from massive corruption
which has corrupted every sector of our
society. Foreign currency hoarding
and black marketeering have all
constituted the norm for our society; every
fabric of our society has become
corrupt. Moral values have been eroded; a
decay of the state is unfolding
and is fast spreading its tentacles all
around us. Garbage in city centers
has become an eyesore and pot-holes have
become a mainstay of our
lives.
Our tragedy is that we have not taken responsibility/ownership
over our
problems. As a country, we have allowed the decay of the moral
fiber to
affect not only our body politic but the very fabric of our
society. Some
Zimbabweans have had to abandon the sinking ship by skipping
borders or
seeking "papers" to become citizens of other countries because we
like to
wish away the problems of our country.
The height of our
problems was marked on Friday (May 12, 2006) when the
inflation figure rose
to a whooping 1000%. Surely Zimbabwe is not at war
with itself or with any
other nation. It should boggle the mind that a
country that 20 years ago
boasted the best infrastructure in Sothern Africa
today has the worst owing
to a deepening political and economic crisis. In
addition, it disturbs the
mind that a country that used to be a breadbasket
of the continent, is today
begging from its neighbors. Moreover, a country
that used to be a member of
every multilateral institution is today a pariah
state with very few friends
to turn to when hard times fall. The millions of
graduates that the country
churned out year in year out have suddenly
skipped borders leaving Zimbabwe
with one of its worst brain drain in living
history.
Zimbabwe has
become barren politically, socially and economically because we
have watched
our politicians and their cronies plunder whatever is left of
our once
beautiful country. We have allowed the politically connected (the
Makwavararas of this world) to abuse tax-payers money with impunity, we have
allowed politicians and their cronies (patron client relations) to steal the
land that they purported to distribute to the impoverished black masses.
Additionally, we have allowed state sponsored violence to reduce whatever
was left of our hard-work through inhumane programs like "murambatsvina".
Government programs in the last 8 years have been devoid of any progressive
and futuristic thinking. As a result, the twin menaces of poverty and
disease have decimated our countrymen enmasse.
In the last 8 years,
Mugabe has refused to take the blame for the country's
current mess. He has
instead blamed his "war and development" cabinets for
gross mismanagement,
corruption and ineptitude. He has blamed the US, UK,
the Commonwealth and
everyone that disagrees with his violent land grab
policy. Here is our own
President refusing to take ownership over our
rotting economy and
deteriorating international relations.
Our tragedy as a country is that
there is no political or economical
ownership of our problems. Mugabe blames
everyone around him except himself
for Zimbabwe's poor running in global
politics and economics. Like the
grazing lands that we neglected in my
village, we have also neglected the
problems of the country. All we do is
just to pass the buck, blaming
everyone around us for the poor state of the
economy and for our poor
political standing in global politics.
I
think Zimbabweans should start to take responsibility for the problems
currently plaguing our country. Zimbabweans like myself have been writing
about the problems of the country without ever taking ownership of the
problems. All we have been doing is blaming the government, blaming
corruption, blaming the droughts without ever owning these
problems.
It shall take "us" to restore the battered investor confidence,
it shall
take "us" to embrace good ethical principles in business to avoid a
situation where we have "all become corrupt", and it shall take cultural
transformation vis-ŕ-vis greediness and looting in our country. We have
become a dog eat dog society, a society with little if any values.
Everywhere one goes, there is a little black market of some sort, all
efforts to fix the economy have hit a brick wall, and all efforts to remedy
our problems have fallen apart because the values of our society have
fundamentally been changed by a dog eat dog culture. Everyone of us tries to
survive at the expense of something or someone; we have lost our "ubuntu"
ladies and gentleman. It is high time we go back to the drawing table to get
into an ethics class and fix our ethical short-comings. This is the only way
that we can get rid of a culture of greed and looting which leaves the
grazing land barren.
Tonderai Munakiri is a Zimbabwean based in South
Africa
New Zimbabwe
By Cris
Chogugudza
Last updated: 05/16/2006 08:00:27
ARTHUR Mutambara's return to
the centre of political theatre in Zimbabwe
could not have come at any other
time than now.
The firebrand and hugely influential former student
leader's entry into the
political battle ground has obviously send shock
waves across the political
divide in Zimbabwe. Prof Mutambara, the darling
of Zimbabwean student
politics in the late 1980s, once an admirer and
sympathizer of ZCTU's Morgan
Tsvangirai has unexpectedly bounced back into
politics this time as the
leader of the pro-Senate MDC faction when Zimbabwe
badly requires a
visionary leader.
Prof Mutambara, one of the few
Zimbabweans with exceptionally proven
leadership abilities might actually
fill in the increasing widening
leadership vacuum in Zimbabwe. It is ironic
that there are people in
Zimbabwe today with heroic attributes but a lot of
whom do not have what it
takes to be good leaders. It is one thing being a
hero and being a good
leader is another. Prof Mutambara may not have the
heroic qualities that
some leading opposition and moderate Zanu PF figures
have but has abundant
leadership potential, and hopefully he can use this
potential for the
benefit of millions of Zimbabweans who can not wait for a
new non Zanu PF
leader when Mugabe leaves in 2008.
His admirers have
not doubt that Prof Mutambara's influence on Zimbabwean
politics will turn
the political tables and improve the competition for the
country's top job.
Quality is something that the opposition has been lacking
for a long time
and hopefully Prof Mutambara through his able leadership of
the factional
MDC party will once again revive huge interest in politics
among the
increasing disoriented Zimbabweans.
Some analysts have described Prof
Mutambara's return to mainstream as a
heroic move designed to emancipate the
sons and daughters of Zimbabwe who
are suffering under the current
establishment. However, for Professor
Mutambara leadership is a very serious
commitment and sacrifice in the face
of increasing adversity. Whether Prof
Mutambara has what it takes to take
the opposition MDC pro-Senate party and
the country to greater heights it is
anybody's guess. His academic and
professional profile coupled with his
formidable understanding of political
and economic issues will certainly
reinvigorate lost glory and new interest
in the opposition party. Prof
Mutambara told his London and Manchester
audience that he has plans A, B, C,
D and E for rescuing Zimbabwe from
economic meltdown and political doldrums.
The learned Prof has a huge
following among the student population and young
professionals who have a
lot in common with his political cause and legacy.
He is just an
irresistible political figure who requires the support of
peace loving and
democratically minded Zimbabweans. I was privileged to
attend Prof
Mutambara's familiarisation speech in London recently, and
contrary to what
some of his detractors claim, the meeting was well attended
about 300 people
came to see him talk, the man gave a spirited performance.
This meeting I am
reliably informed that it was meant to introduce President
Mutambara to the
Diaspora followers and share his vision for Zimbabwe. It
was not in any way
a fundraising event.
The so called arrogance on his part is nothing but
just a carefully
orchestrated political campaign to decapitate his political
career by those
who see him as a real threat to their political ambitions.
Mutambara aptly
demonstrated that not only is he a master of robotics and
science but a good
orator and political actor whose ability to express his
vision for the
future of Zimbabwe is phenomenal. I have been closely
following opposition
politics since the late nineties as a political and
economic analyst for a
major G8 diplomatic mission in Zimbabwe, until
recently with due respect l
had not heard somebody talk about political and
economic issues with such
clarity and greater detail as Prof Mutambara did.
Mutambara does not over
emphasise the politics of individuals, he talks
about strong institutional
capacities not based on individuals and the need
to be forward looking. Prof
Mutambara's gravitas on politics will be judged
with the passage of time but
for now there is hope in him.
In as much
as he referred to the use of Jambanja as a tool of resistance if
need be, he
believes in political change through democratic means. Contrary
to the
cliche of demonising Mugabe and his so called cronies, Mutambara
devoted his
speech to critical issues of political and economic revival in a
post Mugabe
era. As a true believer in democracy he did tell his audience in
no
uncertain terms that he respects all those forces fighting the Zanu PF
regime and its sympathisers even if they are conducting their business
outside his political temple. Prof Mutambara gave the impression that he
understands the language of economics, scientific and technological
development, political reform and the need for a new leadership which is
dynamic, strategic and charismatic. His emphasis on generational
intervention and strategic leadership was particularly very inspiring to his
London audience. The man is not just a populist or stereotypical leader who
preaches the language that he has very little understanding of, he looks
serious and properly guided.
Gone are the days when people would say
we they can vote for a baboon as
long as it is standing against the Zanu PF
party. The people of Zimbabwe at
this stage of political development may not
need convenience leadership but
quality leadership that can guarantee them
good governance, economic
vibrancy, return of the rule of law, understanding
and RESPECT of the
constitutional provisions of the party and the state.
They need one person
who does not think that the country owes him a favour
and most importantly
one person whose priority is the second liberation of
Zimbabwe, the real
third Chimurenga.
If Prof Mutambara possesses the
above attributes then he is the man. Our
country and indeed the rest of the
developing world in today's changing
complex globalised world need a strong
charismatic leader whose apprehension
of critical issues is above question.
Zimbabweans are tired of being told
how ruthless Mugabe and his Zanu PF
party are, that is not good enough
people what to see a pragmatic plan of
action better than what the Zanu PF
can offer, otherwise why remove Mugabe
and his party if you cannot do better
than him. People want opposition
leaders who are prepared to stand down in
the event of failure to deliever
under any circumstances and there should be
no excuses.
In developed
democracies, leadership tenure is not only respected by sitting
presidents
or prime ministers but by opposition leaders as well. This should
apply to
our opposition leaders Mutambara and Tsvangirai included, people do
not want
to see life presidents but leaders whose belief in democracy allows
them to
step down and handover to others when things are not going their
way. I
believe that the popular statements of saying 'you cannot win against
Zanu
PF because they rig elections are defeatist'. I know of ruthless
regimes
elsewhere in the world that were masters of rigging and other forms
of
chicanery and electoral fraud but were toppled democratically by people
power. If a regime is difficult to defeat, there is need to study their
tactics and change not your tactics but leadership as well if necessary. The
danger of not changing leadership is that the opponent learns and masters
your style of leadership and responds accordingly rendering them your
leadership largely impotent and ineffective. The longer the same leader
stays in power the more they become useless in their
influence.
However, once they resigned their experience and expertise can
still be
unitised to reinforce the effectiveness of the new leader. Only
people like
President Abdul wade Wade of Senegal managed to reclaim power
after
languishing in oppositional politics for twenty years and by the time
he
became President he was very old, frail and less energetic. However,
people
have the choice to keep their opposition leaders for as long as it
takes
should they think that no similar or better talent exist in their
party to
take them to greater heights. Hopefully, Prof Mutambara will throw
in the
towel if he fails to deliver after several years in leadership. He
seems to
hold the view that leaders should not hold their people at
ransom.
One of the greatest challenges that Zimbabwe faces today is to
ensure the
leaders of tomorrow are equipped for success in the networked
world. To
achieve this, Zimbabweans must raise the profiles of leadership
and increase
the understanding that this is a key ingredient for economic
and political
success. Leadership must be seen objectively to be more
important than just
managing the daily affairs of the party and the two
concepts of leadership
and management should be clearly understood by the
incumbent. To achieve
measurable success in leadership in Zimbabwe today,
the answer lies in
education, all levels of education not just
professorship.
Education helps to tolerate different views, it also helps
to read and
interpret complex situations, creating and maintaining
relationships,
education not only to work and do things rationally and
responsibly but more
importantly these days education to lead people in a
globalised and
networked world. Advisors are there to give advice and
guidance but the
leader needs to be intellectually inspiring, reflective and
carefully
introspective in order to lead in a wise direction. Zimbabwe is
now awash
with the educated unemployed and l do not see uneducated leaders
being able
to hold this country together unless they are very sophisticated
politically
and intellectually and many a times these people end up becoming
tyrants. I
acknowledge that the above statements may be controversial but
the truth is
Prof Mutambara has shown signs of a leader the country needs.
Educated or
not. Whether he is in a splinter or mainstream MDC group his
credentials are
just outstanding. Some may argue that educated leaders have
let us down
before but l still argue that the same leaders could have been
more
disastrous if they were not educated.
The entire brand of
successful leaders in the world today are all educated,
people like Tony
Blair, David Cameron and George Galloway of Britain, George
Bush of the USA,
Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, Angela Merkel of German, Thabo
Mbeki of South
Africa, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi of South Africa, Jakaya
Kikwete of Tanzania,
Festus Mogae of Botswana, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, John
Kuffor of Ghana, Levy
Mwanawasa of Zambia, Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi,
Arimado Geubuza of
Mozambique only to name a few are all educated. Even
Guerrilla leaders such
as John Garang, Jonas Savimbi (controversial though)
were all highly
educated. This is not to say that education is hugely
essential but it is an
imperative in the world we live today. Those who are
less educated also have
a huge role to play in politics consistent with
their experience, oral
knowledge and level of intellectual sophistication
and everyone contribution
becomes all complementary to each other. Benjamin
Burombo is one person who
was not educated, conscious of his academic
limitations but made a huge
sacrifice and contribution to the liberation of
Zimbabwe.
It is a
pity that people in Zimbabwe accept anybody today for leadership
because
they have been let down by so called 'intellectuals,' the educated
people
some of whom are expired intellectuals. However, this does not water
down
the need for educated and more intellectually challenging and inspiring
leaders like Prof Mutambara. People often give examples of little educated
but hugely successful leaders in the West but these people forget to mention
that the state of democracy in the West is by far more developed and
advanced than ours. Their political systems have checks and balances which
keep their leaders under control and they can easily remove them by a mere
but binding vote of no confidence. Our democracy has not yet developed to
levels where we can just entrust anybody with the power of the State just
like that.
My advice to Prof Mutambara is that if he talks and
listens at the same time
as he appears to do his chances of success are
greater. A lot of other
highly educated politicians have fallen by the way
side in the past because
they thought they were too educated and did not
need the advice of the
uneducated who ironically constitute the majority of
the electorate. Again,
Prof Mutambara who in my opinion appears to be a true
believer in democracy
and good governance should accept and allow for the
existence of other
democratic forces that may have different views from
his.
It is a stratum of fact that Prof Mutambara will have to shrug off a
spirited challenge posed by 'determined' cadres of vicious Zane PF machinery
keen to retain power at all costs if he entertains any hopes of setting foot
at the State House. Zanu PF still commands the majority support of people
from the communal areas who have been scandalously told that MDC is a front
for Britain's Tony Blair. This calls for a lot of sacrifice and proper
grounding of President Mutambara's young but promising party considering
that he has only been leader for less than 100 days. Prof Mutambara as
leader of MDC pro-Senate man faces huge challenges ahead of him. He should
continue with his efforts to unite the opposition with him being the
ultimate leader if possible, revamp the party membership and increase party
membership including the apathetic and undecided. If unity fails then he
should be prepared to move forward as a separate party.
The earlier
the name confusion is resolved the better for Mutambara and his
opposite
number in the other MDC faction. The next step should be to push
for
constitutional changes with the support of the NCA and other stake
holders.
These changes would bring about free and fair elections in
Zimbabwe. As
leader, Prof Mutambara would also need a strong team that has
the capacity
to research and propose practical policies meant to improve the
current
status quo.
His current team with Prof Ncube, firebrand Priscila
Misihairabwi and other
gallant forces it appears good needs but needs
strengthening in order to be
more effective. This essay is not meant to
either advertise Prof Mutambara
or demonise anybody but to try and bring to
the fore some sensitive issues
of leadership which other people may not feel
too comfortable articulating
for different reasons. It is high time people
debate critical issues of
leadership without fear or favour only through
that people can trust our
leaders. Leadership is like marriage, you do not
want to discover your
partner's shortcomings when you have already tied the
note, it may be too
late.
Food for thought.
Cris Chogugudza is
a political commentator based in North London, England.
He can be contacted
on crisford02@yahoo.co.uk
Independent, UK
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 16 May 2006
Ruth
Nakabonge crouches on the ground clutching a handful of earth to fling
over
her father's coffin. She is too distressed to cry, her tiny body
contorted
by grief as a relative gently strokes her forehead.
Ruth was eight when
her father Samuel died of Aids in their Ugandan village.
She has not just
lost a father, she has also been deprived of a childhood,
like millions of
other children across the continent.
Samuel Nakabonge is not just another
Aids statistic. He is a symbol of how
the Aids pandemic is still cutting
down the breadwinners of Africa in their
prime, leaving behind an army of
orphans. Girls like his daughter Ruth
suddenly find themselves thrust into
the role of parent, responsible for the
welfare of their
siblings.
Samuel lost 10 members of his family to Aids before he
succumbed to an
opportunistic disease that took his own life, his body
wasted from the virus
that was once known as "the slims" in his
country.
It is easy to see how Aids is responsible for creating a missing
generation
across Africa, devastating economies, and crippling health
sectors as it
strikes. Across the continent, 6,500 Africans are dying every
day, the
equivalent of a village being wiped from the map every 24 hours. A
further
9,000 are infected each day by HIV/Aids, which is the leading cause
of death
in Africa.
In Uganda, 84 per cent of Aids victims contract
the disease through
heterosexual contacts. The men go first, followed by
their wives. Fourteen
per cent of children are infected by mother-to-child
transmission. Up to 6.6
per cent of the adult population in Uganda is
infected with HIV. If you are
an adult male in Uganda suffering from Aids,
you are unlikely to live beyond
the age of 47.
In Zimbabwe, the
population is already struggling to survive an economic
crisis and an
inflation of 1,000 per cent, brought about by the policies of
their
tyrannical leader President Robert Mugabe. Now, one in three children
in
Zimbabwe are Aids orphans, and the anti-retroviral drugs are running
out.
In the continent's economic powerhouse, South Africa, 800-900 people
every
day are dying from Aids. The country holds the dubious record of
having 5
million HIV/Aids sufferers: the highest number in the world, with
21.5 per
cent of the population infected. "President Thabo Mbeki and Health
Minister
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang have failed to provide unambiguous and
clear
leadership on Aids," says Mark Haywood of the Treatment Action
Campaign,
which successfully sued the South African government to roll out
anti-retrovirals. "South Africa is getting it wrong at the very
top."
"They [the leaders] still send out confusing signals doubting the
efficacy
of ARVs. Some people are now actually scared of treatment. It's a
tragedy,"
Mr Haywood added.
Africa still lags lethally behind the
West, which has taken great strides
thanks to life-saving anti-retroviral
drugs. Falling drugs prices and new
sources of international funding are
needed to help it catch up.
Aids treatment varies from country to
country, but also can vary greatly
from place to place within a single
state, and even within a single city.
Botswana's biggest hospital, the
Princess Marina in Gaborone, recorded eight
people yesterday who died of
HIV-related illnesses. Yet at the
Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Centre
of Excellence, which benefits
from Western cooperation in a public-private
sector partnership, the chief
nurse, Liz Lowenthal, said that no deaths were
recorded at her Gaborone
clinic in the past 24 hours.
"We have about
1,400 children receiving highly active anti-retroviral
therapy (HAART)
through our site. Walking through the waiting room, you
would not recognise
most of these children as being ill in any way," she
says.
"The areas
where death rates are high due to Aids-related illnesses are
those in which
HAART is not readily available. In Botswana, when children
are diagnosed
early, they are entitled to free treatment and generally do as
well as
children in Western nations on the same excellent regimens," she
said.
So even in Africa the picture is not entirely gloomy.
Governments -
including those of Uganda and Botswana that have put Aids at
the heart of
government policy - have notched up some successes.
But
it is not just a lack of appropriate medicine that is preventing Africa
from
saving a generation. Other major obstacles are preventing the Aids
pandemic
from being conquered. One of these is ignorance of how the virus
spreads.
In South Africa, whose urban blacks have had the benefit of
education, a
former deputy president of the country, on trial for allegedly
raping a
31-year old HIV-positive woman revealed the depth of ignorance
about how
HIV/Aids is transmitted. Jacob Zuma told the court that he was
safe from
contracting the disease because he had taken a shower after having
unprotected sex with the woman, an Aids activist and family friend. He said
that it was his understanding that it was difficult for a man to contract
HIV by having sex with a woman.
Mr Zuma was acquitted of the rape
charges last week. Aids campaigners
complained that his statement in court
had thrown years of hard work in Aids
awareness down the drain.
A
second obstacle holding up progress is the issue of abstinence, with
programmes in Africa promoted by the Christian right wing in America and
advocated by such prominent politicians as Colin Powell, the former
secretary of state.
Ugandans were once told that "the slims" could be
kept at bay through the
ABC strategy of "Abstain, Be faithful and wear
Condoms". But now, thanks to
US-funded programmes which carry ideological
conditions, the condoms are
literally being thrown away, and HIV-Aids
infections are on the rise again.
Ruth Nakabonge's father died five
months ago. Since that time, according UN
estimates, 465 Ugandans have
perished from HIV/Aids - and almost one million
Africans have died. How many
more villages will fall silent before the
global response catches up with
the deadly pace of the pandemic?
A continent's misery
*
Sub-saharan Africa is home to 10 per cent of the world's population and 60
per cent of the world's Aids population.
* Right now in Nigeria,
there are 1.8 million Aids orphans. There are 12
million across the
continent.
* In South Africa, 4,000 teachers will die of Aids this
year.
* 37.5 per cent of South Africans would keep it secret if a family
member
was diagnosed with HIV.
* 66 per cent of South Africans think
they will never contract HIV. 41 per
cent of those use condoms.
*
6,500 people died from Aids on this day last year
* There is at least one
HIV-positive child in every classroom in Botswana
* 9,000 people across
Africa are infected daily
* More than 15 million people in Africa have
died of Aids, more than the
highest estimates of the Rwandan genocide
(800,000), Khmer rouge regime (up
to 2 million), Holocaust (11 million) and
Iraq war (up to 38,000) combined.
Only 16 per cent of HIV positive people
in Africa can hope to receive
antiretroviral drugs.
Ruth Nakabonge
crouches on the ground clutching a handful of earth to fling
over her
father's coffin. She is too distressed to cry, her tiny body
contorted by
grief as a relative gently strokes her forehead.
Ruth was eight when her
father Samuel died of Aids in their Ugandan village.
She has not just lost a
father, she has also been deprived of a childhood,
like millions of other
children across the continent.
Samuel Nakabonge is not just another Aids
statistic. He is a symbol of how
the Aids pandemic is still cutting down the
breadwinners of Africa in their
prime, leaving behind an army of orphans.
Girls like his daughter Ruth
suddenly find themselves thrust into the role
of parent, responsible for the
welfare of their siblings.
Samuel lost
10 members of his family to Aids before he succumbed to an
opportunistic
disease that took his own life, his body wasted from the virus
that was once
known as "the slims" in his country.
It is easy to see how Aids is
responsible for creating a missing generation
across Africa, devastating
economies, and crippling health sectors as it
strikes. Across the continent,
6,500 Africans are dying every day, the
equivalent of a village being wiped
from the map every 24 hours. A further
9,000 are infected each day by
HIV/Aids, which is the leading cause of death
in Africa.
In Uganda,
84 per cent of Aids victims contract the disease through
heterosexual
contacts. The men go first, followed by their wives. Fourteen
per cent of
children are infected by mother-to-child transmission. Up to 6.6
per cent of
the adult population in Uganda is infected with HIV. If you are
an adult
male in Uganda suffering from Aids, you are unlikely to live beyond
the age
of 47.
In Zimbabwe, the population is already struggling to survive an
economic
crisis and an inflation of 1,000 per cent, brought about by the
policies of
their tyrannical leader President Robert Mugabe. Now, one in
three children
in Zimbabwe are Aids orphans, and the anti-retroviral drugs
are running out.
In the continent's economic powerhouse, South Africa,
800-900 people every
day are dying from Aids. The country holds the dubious
record of having 5
million HIV/Aids sufferers: the highest number in the
world, with 21.5 per
cent of the population infected. "President Thabo Mbeki
and Health Minister
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang have failed to provide
unambiguous and clear
leadership on Aids," says Mark Haywood of the
Treatment Action Campaign,
which successfully sued the South African
government to roll out
anti-retrovirals. "South Africa is getting it wrong
at the very top."
"They [the leaders] still send out confusing signals
doubting the efficacy
of ARVs. Some people are now actually scared of
treatment. It's a tragedy,"
Mr Haywood added.
Africa still lags
lethally behind the West, which has taken great strides
thanks to
life-saving anti-retroviral drugs. Falling drugs prices and new
sources of
international funding are needed to help it catch up.
Aids treatment
varies from country to country, but also can vary greatly
from place to
place within a single state, and even within a single city.
Botswana's
biggest hospital, the Princess Marina in Gaborone, recorded eight
people
yesterday who died of HIV-related illnesses. Yet at the
Botswana-Baylor
Children's Clinical Centre of Excellence, which benefits
from Western
cooperation in a public-private sector partnership, the chief
nurse, Liz
Lowenthal, said that no deaths were recorded at her Gaborone
clinic in the
past 24 hours.
"We have about 1,400 children receiving highly active
anti-retroviral
therapy (HAART) through our site. Walking through the
waiting room, you
would not recognise most of these children as being ill in
any way," she
says.
"The areas where death rates are high due to
Aids-related illnesses are
those in which HAART is not readily available. In
Botswana, when children
are diagnosed early, they are entitled to free
treatment and generally do as
well as children in Western nations on the
same excellent regimens," she
said.
So even in Africa the picture is
not entirely gloomy. Governments -
including those of Uganda and Botswana
that have put Aids at the heart of
government policy - have notched up some
successes.
But it is not just a lack of appropriate medicine that is
preventing Africa
from saving a generation. Other major obstacles are
preventing the Aids
pandemic from being conquered. One of these is ignorance
of how the virus
spreads.
In South Africa, whose urban blacks have
had the benefit of education, a
former deputy president of the country, on
trial for allegedly raping a
31-year old HIV-positive woman revealed the
depth of ignorance about how
HIV/Aids is transmitted. Jacob Zuma told the
court that he was safe from
contracting the disease because he had taken a
shower after having
unprotected sex with the woman, an Aids activist and
family friend. He said
that it was his understanding that it was difficult
for a man to contract
HIV by having sex with a woman.
Mr Zuma was
acquitted of the rape charges last week. Aids campaigners
complained that
his statement in court had thrown years of hard work in Aids
awareness down
the drain.
A second obstacle holding up progress is the issue of
abstinence, with
programmes in Africa promoted by the Christian right wing
in America and
advocated by such prominent politicians as Colin Powell, the
former
secretary of state.
Ugandans were once told that "the slims"
could be kept at bay through the
ABC strategy of "Abstain, Be faithful and
wear Condoms". But now, thanks to
US-funded programmes which carry
ideological conditions, the condoms are
literally being thrown away, and
HIV-Aids infections are on the rise again.
Ruth Nakabonge's father died
five months ago. Since that time, according UN
estimates, 465 Ugandans have
perished from HIV/Aids - and almost one million
Africans have died. How many
more villages will fall silent before the
global response catches up with
the deadly pace of the pandemic?
A continent's misery
*
Sub-saharan Africa is home to 10 per cent of the world's population and 60
per cent of the world's Aids population.
* Right now in Nigeria,
there are 1.8 million Aids orphans. There are 12
million across the
continent.
* In South Africa, 4,000 teachers will die of Aids this
year.
* 37.5 per cent of South Africans would keep it secret if a family
member
was diagnosed with HIV.
* 66 per cent of South Africans think
they will never contract HIV. 41 per
cent of those use condoms.
*
6,500 people died from Aids on this day last year
* There is at least one
HIV-positive child in every classroom in Botswana
* 9,000 people across
Africa are infected daily
* More than 15 million people in Africa have
died of Aids, more than the
highest estimates of the Rwandan genocide
(800,000), Khmer rouge regime (up
to 2 million), Holocaust (11 million) and
Iraq war (up to 38,000) combined.
Only 16 per cent of HIV positive people
in Africa can hope to receive
antiretroviral drugs.
The Herald (Harare)
May 15,
2006
Posted to the web May 15, 2006
Bulawayo
GOVERNMENT is
seeking more than $600 billion as part of ongoing efforts to
rebuild the
national herd in line with its agrarian reforms.
In an interview, the
Minister of Agriculture, Dr Joseph Made, said the
Government was committed
to resuscitating the national herd. "Resources are
being mobilised to ensure
that the national herd is revived, the process
involves many stakeholders in
the industry," he said. Dr Made said the
Government was focusing on ensuring
that the dairy and beef industries were
revived in the next few months.
Zimbabwe's national herd has declined by
significant figures in the past
four years due successive droughts and the
foot-and-mouth disease. More than
$600 billion is required to increase the
national herd and meet the cost of
inputs in the sector. Dr Made said his
ministry and the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe were discussing the issue of
reviving the national herd. Figures
show that the national herd plummeted
from about 5 million in 2000 to 2
million amid urgent calls by experts in
the farming industry to come up with
new policies towards restoring
confidence in the sector.
Dr Made said
improved harvests experienced in the 2005/06 farming season
would boost
confidence in the beef and dairy sectors. "One important factor
to note is
that the bumper harvest during the 2005/06 will increase feed
supplies for
the cattle," he said. The minister added that the resuscitation
of the
national herd was an ongoing programme aimed at boosting food
security. He
said the Government was targeting national herd growth for both
the communal
and commercial farmers and the Department of Veterinary
Services was also
involved in the implementation of policies to enhance
viability in the
industries. He said there was optimism for growth in the
national herd owing
to economic policies being unveiled by the Government.
The Government has
unveiled the National Economic Development Priority
Programme (NEDPP) that
was designed to respond to challenges facing the
economy through stabilising
food security, encouraging forex inflows,
reducing forex wastage through
stopping food imports a nd encouraging
savings. "This process of reviving
the national herd takes into account both
the communal and commercial
farmers as we seek to improve productivity at a
national level," said the
minister. The revival of the national herd is
expected to increase
productivity in food processing industries and create
scores of
jobs.
By: Jim Jones
Posted: '15-MAY-06
19:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004
JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb.com) -- It
has not taken long, but a whole new risk
element has been introduced into
the world of commodities, a risk element
that must surely change miners and
oil producers attitudes to seeking
minerals in countries whose legal systems
are applied by whim rather than by
consistency.
Recently we have seen
Bolivia's new government under Evo Morales grab the
rights of gas producers
following the example of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. We
have had the unedifying
spectacle of Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe
confirming his intention of
grabbing more than half of his country's
faltering mining industry without
any real prospect of compensation. And we
have even had Britain threatening
new taxes on gas and oil producers who
have benefited from the current round
of high energy prices. Britain had the
sense to back off, but it has a long
history of legal honesty.
Latest to jump on the bandwagon is Mongolia - a
backward country that has
been desperate to attract foreign risk capital but
that now wants to levy
"windfall" taxes on mines that are showing promise
because of temporarily
high gold and copper prices.
Well, they are
all creating problems that are likely to backfire sooner or
later. Resources
companies are well aware of the risks they face from
volatile minerals
prices. They build that risk into their long-range
planning, calculating
like Joseph and Pharoah that seven good years will
help see them through
seven years of bad. Governments in these benighted and
often corrupt
nations, though, often cannot see beyond the end of their
noses and look
only at the short term.
Latest to be caught by government folly is
Canada's Ivanhoe Mines, busy
developing a copper-gold deposits in the wilds
of Mongolia. Mongolia's
parliament has voted - in a minority vote - to levy
windfall taxes amounting
to more than two-thirds of profits when gold's
price exceeds $500 an ounce
or copper more than $2,600/ton. And the move was
made without prior
consultation with the mining firms only recently
attracted to one of the
world's most inhospitable regions.
The
government in Ulan Bator, freed of communist hegemony only 15 years ago,
needed to remove punitive turnover taxes to attract the western firms -
which it did, attracting a string of mining companies to the country. Even
as late as last year, the Mongolians were pledging to support the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative sponsored by the World Bank.
Just
goes to show how much reliance one can place on the words of some
governments. In one parliamentary vote, Mongolia has destroyed any
confidence in the hard-won confidence it was apparently attempting to
build.
Perhaps not unexpectedly, Mongolian president Enkhbayar tried
soothing
words. The windfall tax, he said on state-controlled television
that the new
tax only applied when the prices of the metals exceeded those
mentioned.
Mongolians might have been seduced by his broadcast, the outside
investors
will hardly be as easily convinced. Fat chance that Mongolia, or
any of the
others for that matter, would contemplate negative taxes or
subsidies when
minerals prices render mines unprofitable.
The lessons
are clear, be careful of where investment funds are directed.
The world's
resources companies have no responsibility to prop up the
exchequers of
countries that, for whatever faults of history, have failed to
develop their
economies in any meaningful way.
Let the Mongolians crawl back to their
yurts and nomadic lifestyles, let the
Bolivians regress to the instability
and grinding poverty that has
characterized their history since Simon
Bolivar chased the Spaniards out and
let the Zimbabweans go back the
subsistence existence that they reveled in
before alien ideas of industry,
security of ownership and consistently fair
legal process were introduced to
them.
Meantime, western companies might best focus their attention on
minerals
rich countries such as Canada, the US or Australia where
legislation might
be tough but where it is consistent and designed to
encourage economic
development. It might be difficult for people in the
developed world, but at
least they will be secure in the knowledge that what
they see is what they
get.
Let's remember what has happened when
these feckless governments come
crawling back for capital to help them out
of the holes they are digging for
themselves.