The ZIMBABWE Situation
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Effects of torture
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7406006.stm
A BBC video about the current crisis.
Human Rights Watch - End Violence Before June Runoff
Six Presumed
Opposition Supporters Die Under Torture During ‘Re-Education’
Meeting
(Johannesburg, May 16, 2008) – Supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF
party in
Zimbabwe tortured more than 70 people, including six men to death,
in a
“re-education” meeting on May 5, 2008 in Mashonaland Central, Human
Rights
Watch said today. The government’s campaign of organized terror and
violence
against the political opposition is continuing despite agreement to
hold a
presidential runoff election.
“Political compromise over the
runoff election has not reduced government
atrocities against the
opposition,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director
at Human Rights Watch.
“With the setting of a June 27 runoff, concerned
governments have a greater
obligation than ever to press the government to
bring the violence to a
halt.”
Human Rights Watch field investigations confirmed the deaths from
torture of
six men punished for their real or presumed support for the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and the torture of more
than 70 others
on May 5. Many were MDC supporters, but one who died was
tortured because he
owned a radio, which raised his attackers’ suspicions.
Retired Major Cairo
Mhandu with ZANU-PF youths, members of a youth militia
and “war veterans,”
held a “re-education” meeting in Chaona primary school
in Mashonaland
Central in which some 300 villagers from Chiweshe and three
neighboring
villages were forced to attend. Eyewitnesses told Human Rights
Watch that
Mhandu addressed the meeting saying, “This community needs to be
taught a
lesson. It needs re-education. We want people to come forward and
confess
about their links with the MDC and surrender to
ZANU-PF.”
When no one came forward, a ZANU-PF youth grabbed a 76-year-old
woman and
forced her to lie on her stomach in front of the crowd and started
beating
her buttocks with logs. After a few minutes, three men intervened,
saying
they were MDC, to stop the beating. Mhandu encouraged more to come
forward,
saying, “This is what we want.”
Participants at the meeting
said the organizers had drawn up a long list of
suspected MDC activists, 20
of whom were singled out for torture. As they
were beaten, the abusers
taunted each to reveal names of at least five other
activists. Some of the
victims shouted out names of people, who were then
beaten.
Eyewitnesses said the torture continued throughout the day.
The ZANU-PF
youth and “war veterans” would beat three or four people at one
time. Legs
tied and handcuffed, women were stripped naked or down to their
underwear
and forced to lie on their stomachs together with men. Their
mouths were
bound to prevent them from screaming. Standing on either side of
each
victim, three youths with thick sticks took turns to beat them on the
legs,
back and buttocks. Some men also had wire tied around their genitals
and
suffered severe damage. More than 70 people were beaten and some 30
hospitalized, many requiring skin grafts. Human Rights Watch has confirmed
that two men died on the spot, one died at home of injuries, and three
others died later at the hospital. Three of those who died had severely
mutilated genitals and one had crushed testicles. Medical reports confirm
the deaths were a direct result of the injuries sustained under torture. The
authorities have not arrested anyone for these criminal acts. These
‘re-education’ meetings are still taking place.
In March 2008, the
MDC decisively defeated the ruling ZANU-PF in the
parliamentary elections.
The MDC also won the presidential elections, but
the official results did
not give MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai an absolute
majority, necessitating a
runoff election. On May 16, the date of the runoff
was set for June 27,
2008.
In the wake of the elections, ZANU-PF and its allies set up torture
camps in
opposition strongholds and areas where the opposition has gained
significant
support (http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/19/zimbab18604.htm).
On May
7, the Zimbabwean army acknowledged the existence of torture camps
and has
tried to distance itself from any responsibility. Shortly after, the
police
stated their intention to dismantle them. The government, however,
has taken
no action against any perpetrators, but has merely sought to
portray without
any evidence that responsibility for the torture camps also
resides with the
MDC.
Human Rights Watch called upon the Southern
African Development Community
(SADC) to take all available measures to
provide for the protection of all
Zimbabweans in the period before the
runoff. Should SADC be unable to
fulfill this role, the African Union should
do so.
“For any runoff to have credibility, this escalating
government-sponsored
violence must stop, investigations must lead to the
arrest of key suspected
perpetrators and human rights monitors must be
deployed throughout
Zimbabwe,” Gagnon said. “African election observers are
desperately needed,
but they will accomplish little if the rampant violence
continues.”
Human Rights Watch
"Stand Up (for) Zimbabwe" International Day of
Action, 25 May 2008
Stand up (for) Zimbabwe Campaign
May 2008
Concept for “Stand Up (for) Zimbabwe” Day
The 25 May is commemorated annually as Africa Day,
recalling the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now the African
Union, in 1963. Flowing from the communiqué issued by the African Civil Society
Meeting held in Dar es Salaam in April 2008, we ask concerned organizations
regionally and internationally to commemorate Africa Day, Sunday 25 May 2008, as
one on which to show solidarity for the people of Zimbabwe – a “Stand Up (For)
Zimbabwe” Day.
Although the concept originates with a group of
southern Africa-based NGO’s, concerned for issues of democracy and human rights,
in Zimbabwe, it is intended that people all over the world build on this concept
and that the “Stand Up For Zimbabwe” campaign have varied and multiple
dimensions, not controlled or explicitly coordinated by the originating
organizations.
It is thus envisaged that on this day there would,
for example, be protests and assemblies outside offices of the Zimbabwean
government, like embassies; outside offices of SADC, the AU and the UN calling
for stronger action; outside offices of those individual governments which have
roles to play in resolving the crisis (specifically southern African
governments). All such protests and assemblies might be marked, for example, by
a few minutes silence in which all those assembled stand in solidarity with the
people of Zimbabwe.
But the campaign can also be carried out through
other activities: through asking congregations assembled at places of worship to
rise and stand in solidarity with those beaten, tortured and killed in the
post-election violence in Zimbabwe; by asking those gathered to watch sporting
events to do the same.
How to organise your "Stand up (for) Zimbabwe"
Activities for 25 May 2008
The day in a nutshell:
We are asking organizations and people from around
the world to “Stand up (for) Zimbabwe”, by planning and participating in a
series of activities around the African continent and the world that seek to
show solidarity with those Zimbabweans impacted by the escalating post-election
violence. We ask that you plan these events to around the week of the 25 May
2008, a day traditionally commemorated as Africa Day, being the day on which the
Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) was founded.
The theme
The theme of the International Day of Action is
“Stand up (for) Zimbabwe” to highlight that the people of the region and the
world are standing up and with the people of Zimbabwe in their desire for a
democratic, peaceful transition of government and an end to the violence that is
so much part of their lives.
Useful materials and news items can be downloaded
from the standupforZimbabwe webpage, available on line at the end of this week
at: www.standupforZimbabwe.org.
You can also register your activities on the website.
Before the event:
1. Your organization will want to think about what
type of activity/event is most suitable for it to plan and organize. You may
want to plan a protest outside the nearest Embassy of Zimbabwe or an assembly
outside the nearest African Union offices. It may be that you organize for your
local church congregation to stand and observe a few minutes silence in
solidarity with those affected by the violence in Zimbabwe.
2. Before the event your organization should contact
relevant media outlets to inform them of the day of action, where and when it is
taking place, and contact information if they need further information. You may
want to do this as a press advisory.
3. Your organization may want to focus on the
following messages when communicating with the press and others:
a. the people of the world stand with Zimbabweans in
their desire for a peaceful democratic transition
b. the people of the
world/Africa call on their government, the AU/SADC/UN to:
- ensure an end to the crippling violence in
Zimbabwe
- resolve the governance crisis in
Zimbabwe
We will also be creating a central website, www.standupforZimbabwe.org, where you
can find further information regarding the day of action including materials to
distribute, contact information of organizations in other countries coordinating
similar protests.
Depending on your resources, you could also reach out
to stadiums and arenas which are planning on holding events to ask the audience
to stand up at the specific time.
On 25 May
1. We call on people from around the world to
literally stand up at a scheduled time and observe a few minutes silence. If you
have a banner, buttons or T-shirts, ensure they are visible. It would be ideal
if the protestors were standing up in a place that is usually reserved for
sitting, for example a stadium. But it need not be.
2. You should appoint someone to take photographs of
the (hopefully) masses of people standing
3. The photographs should be distributed to the local
press soon after the event and posted on www.standupforZimbabwe.org
Civic group says poll monitors under
siege
Zim Online
by Simplicious Chirinda Saturday 17 May
2008
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s biggest elections monitoring civic
group said on Friday
that worsening political violence in the country did
not allow for the
holding of a free and fair presidential election
run-off.
Zimbabwe is due to hold a second presidential election on June
27 after
electoral authorities said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
defeated
President Robert Mugabe in a first round poll on March 29 but
failed to
muster more than 50 percent of the vote required to takeover
power.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said scores of poll
observers
had been targeted in the political violence – blamed on ruling
ZANU PF party
supporters – making it difficult to monitor the second round
election.
“ZESN observers have been under siege from suspected ZANU PF
supporters in
various parts of the country. Observers have been abducted,
severely
assaulted and injured,” ZESN chairman Noel Kutukwa told journalists
in
Harare.
“Observers have been subjected to harassment and
intimidation while
homesteads and property have been destroyed, homesteads
looted targeting
clothing and food reserves.”
ZESN, which deployed 8
667 observers throughout the country in the March 29
elections and was the
first to project that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai would
not be able garner
more than 50 percent of the vote – said to date 185 of
its observers had
been displaced from their homes because of violence.
Political violence
broke out in many parts of Zimbabwe almost immediately it
became clear that
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party
had defeated Mugabe
and ZANU PF in the March polls.
The MDC, Western governments and human
rights groups have accused Mugabe of
unleashing ZANU PF militias and the
army to beat and torture Zimbabweans
into backing him in a second round
presidential ballot.
The MDC says 32 of its members were killed in the
violence while thousands
others have been displaced.
However, the
government denies committing violence and says it is the
opposition that has
carried out violence in a bid to tarnish Mugabe’s
name. – ZimOnline.
With Zimbabwe Presidential Run-Off Date Set, Tough Campaign
Looms
VOA
By Brenda Moyo, Patience Rusere & Blessing Zulu
Washington
16 May 2008
A new phase of Zimbabwe's
long-running electoral saga opened late this week
as the Harare government
finally set June 27 as the date for a presidential
run-off between President
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai amid continuing
political violence in the country's rural areas
mainly targeting Tsvangirai
backers.
His formation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
said it would
take up the electoral gauntlet once more though objecting that
a run-off
should not have been necessary, as the MDC contends Tsvangirai won
an
outright first-round majority, and also arguing that the run-off should
have
been scheduled over a month earlier.
Opposition officials said
that if a run-off had to be held, it should have
been scheduled within the
statutory deadline of 21 days from the
announcement of official first-round
results on May 2 by the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission - that is, on May 23.
The commission said Tsvangirai
received 47.9% of the vote, Mr. Mugabe
43.2%.
As matters stand, Tsvangirai and his MDC grouping now face a
six-week
campaign in an environment in which many rural voters have been
traumatized
by intimidation and violence by youth militia and war veterans
associated
with Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party - which has denied responsibility
and blamed
the MDC for the violence.
Tsvangirai's own safety is seen
at risk, to such an extent that the Southern
African Development Community
has reportedly dispatched operatives to
protect him.
The June 27
election date was announced late Thursday in an extraordinary
edition of the
government Gazette, which stated that a “poll shall be taken”
that day “for
the purpose of electing a person to the office of president."
President
Mugabe met with the ZANU-PF central committee late Thursday to
examine his
campaign strategy. Mr. Mugabe acknowledged that the first-round
results were
"indeed disastrous" due to poor preparation, vowing to win the
second
round.
Tsvangirai told reporters on Friday in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
that he
will contest the run-off, though he expressed objections to the
date. He
added, however, that "I know the MDC will form the next government,
and I
call on our African brothers and sisters to assist us to ensure that
there
is a smooth transfer of power."
MDC Elections Director Ian
Makone told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the
party will do what it must to free the
Zimbabwean people from "bondage"
under President Mugabe and his
long-dominant ZANU-PF, though he acknowledged
that violence in rural areas
will complicate campaigning.
Tsvangirai
was due back in Harare on Saturday, and MDC sources said his
security will
be ensured with help from the Southern African Development
Community.
Tsvangirai spokesman George Sibotshiwe said the first item
on Tsvangirai's
agenda would be to address an inaugural meeting of the MDC
parliamentary
caucus - in effect highlighting the majority the combined MDC
won in the
March 29 general election. The two MDC formations have agreed to
work as one
in exercising that majority.
Elsewhere, Tsvangirai's MDC
formation appeared to have cleared the way for a
major rally Sunday in
Bulawayo to celebrate that victory and welcome
Tsvangirai home after weeks
spent shuttling between capitals - mostly
southern African - trying to drum
up diplomatic support for the MDC's
contention he had won the
presidency.
The Bulawayo high court overturned a police ban on the rally
when top
officials named in the MDC application to the court failed to
appear for a
hearing.
MDC lawer Job Sibanda said Home Affairs
Minister Kembo Mohadi and the police
officer in charge of Bulawayo West did
not show up to respond to the MDC
suit, so Justice Maphios Cheda ruled for
the opposition party, adding that
the court told police not to interfere
with the rally unless someone in the
stadium violated the law.
With
the run-off election scheduled, reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio
7 for
Zimbabwe sought the views of two experts on how it will go:
independent
member of parliament Jonathan Moyo, a former ZANU-PF information
minister,
and Zimbabwe Election Support Network Chairman Noel Kututwa.
Moyo said he
agreed with the MDC that the electoral commission should have
called the
election within the statutory 21 days after announcing results,
rather than
invoking a loophole in electoral legislation and extending that
deadline by
90 days.
Morgan Tsvangirai ready for Robert Mugabe as new
election date set
The Times
May 17, 2008
Jan Raath in Harare and David Sharrock in
Belfast
Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai will go head to head in a
run-off
presidential election on June 27, Zimbabwe electoral officials
announced
yesterday.
Mr Tsvangirai accepted the challenge
immediately, having threatened earlier
to boycott a new election, but called
the decision illegal and said that the
contest could only take place in the
absence of violence.
Analysts in Harare said the date gave the Harare
regime six weeks to
complete its objective of terrorising sufficient people
to ensure the
pro-democracy movement could not repeat Mr Tsvangirai's
electoral triumph in
March. Nevertheless, Mr Tsvangirai said he was totally
confident he would
win again.
The date is seen as carefully chosen to
ensure that Mr Mugabe's Cabinet can
continue operating without having to
recall Parliament, which has been
controlled by the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change since the
parliamentary and presidential elections on
March 29. But Mr Tsvangirai said
that his party would “begin to fulfil our
mandate to save the people”
regardless of whether or not Parliament was
reconvened.
“When we attain our liberty again we will guard it
jealously,” he told
delegates at the 55th Congress of the Liberal
International, meeting in
Belfast. “The first act of the Parliament will be
to begin a consultation on
a new constitution.”
A month after the ballot
Mr Tsvangirai was told by the Zimbabwe electoral
commission that he had 48
per cent of the vote, beating Mr Mugabe by five
percentage points. Failure
to win more than 50 per cent of the votes
triggered a run-off.
Eldred
Masunungure, who directs a respected political polling body, said:
“The
calculation by those who are instigating the violence is that it will
...
give them the chance to complete the ‘re-education' of voters. The fear
factor looms so large now ... It may be that Zanu (PF) will reverse the
result.”
Mr Tsvangirai was given a rapturous welcome in Belfast, when
he was embraced
by the Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade. Mr Tsvangirai
said he was
returning immediately to Zimbabwe from Belfast. He has been out
of the
country since the elections in March because of death threats.
Although he
described Mr Mugabe as a brutal dictator, Mr Tsvangirai
signalled that he
was prepared to give his predecessor immunity from
prosecution for past
alleged crimes. Hospital figures yesterday confirmed
reports that Mr
Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party's militias, police and soldiers had
redoubled
attacks on perceived opposition supporters. The number of victims
of
political violence seeking help at hospitals shot up to 45 a day in the
first two weeks of May, from an average of ten in April.
A letter
from the diaspora
www.cathybuckle.com
16th May 2008
Dear Friends.
It seems that the
world's media has largely taken its collective eye off the
situation in
Zimbabwe. No one can deny that the natural disasters that have
hit Burma and
China are catastrophic in terms of human tragedy and massive
loss of life
but that hardly explains why there has been so little coverage
of the
politically inspired tornado of violence that is sweeping across
Zimbabwe.
The excuse, regularly trotted out by the BBC and other
broadcasters, that
they are not allowed to broadcast from Zimbabwe simply
does not stand up to
scrutiny. Neither are foreign journalists exactly
encouraged to operate in
Burma but that has not stopped them from getting
film footage and reports
out on a daily even hourly basis. The whole world
has seen and heard what is
happening in Burma and China. In the chaos that
follows natural upheavals;
the pictures speak for themselves. Words are not
even needed as we watch
images of devastated cities and collapsed school
buildings burying hundreds
of school children and their teachers, of people
living out in the open
without fresh water or food, with no electricity and
no
shelter.
Without the excuse of a natural disaster the Zimbabwean
government has
unleashed the dogs of war on its own people. Added to the
physical misery
caused by a collapsing economy: little food, no clean water,
no power and
constant shortages of cash, the Zimbabwean government has, since
it lost the
March elections, introduced another element in Zimbabwe's
relentless
decline: sheer, naked terror. 'Political re-education' is how
it's described
by Mugabe's thugs as they systematically beat, rape, mutilate
and murder
their own people. And the world's media for the most part remains
silent.
People in the know tell me that there is a whole lot of talking
going on
behind the scenes to resolve the crisis, that now is not the time
to give
way to despair but from where I am the situation looks unbearably
bleak.
Daily I read of schools and villages that I know well where teachers,
many
of whom I helped to train, and even children have been hideously beaten
and
burned out of their homes. One teacher commented the other day that kids
whom he had himself taught a few years ago were now part of the dreaded
Youth Militia that is inflicting hideous punishment on anyone who 'voted the
wrong way' What is happening in Zimbabwe is a low-grade civil war and while
the world looks the other way a cruel and vindictive regime kills and
tortures its own people. But it is more than vindictive, it is a calculated
attempt to rig the result of the runoff; by driving people out of their
homes and making it impossible for them to vote in their own wards, they are
denied the chance to confirm what they have already told Mugabe: 'It's time
to go. We no longer want you or your rotten government.'
There has
been much discussion in the press here this week about what the
international community can do when Burma refuses to allow foreign aid into
the country. The convention is that the world cannot intervene in countries
like Burma - or Zimbabwe - without the request of the government in power.
Robert Mugabe is of course well aware of this, hence his constantly repeated
claim that Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation. Thabo Mbeki reinforces Mugabe's
view. It is up to Zimbabweans to solve their own problems, he says and
blocks any discussion of the Zimbabwean situation at the UN. while blandly
announcing that there is no crisis in the
country and it does not
constitute a threat to world or regional peace. In
2006 the UN Security
Council imposed a responsibility on the international
community ' to protect
people whose governments failed to do so'. Can anyone
deny that Robert
Mugabe's government falls into that category? Not only does
it not protect
the people, it actively seeks to eradicate all dissenting
voices through
violence and starvation. Mugabe could stop the violence right
now if he
wanted to but he will not; he has degrees in violence, remember.
There is
overwhelming evidence that he has personally ordered the purge of
the
opposition supporters using his hated CIO, so-called war veterans, Youth
Militia and police all under the control of army officers loyal to the
regime.
Despite the almost complete absence of media coverage in the
world's press,
an incident occurred this last week which may signal hope for
Zimbabwe. The
US Ambassador and several chiefs of missions including the UK.
the EU and
Japan together with officials from the Netherlands and Tanzania
drove out
from Harare in a convoy of vehicles, presumably clearly marked
with their CD
number plates, to the rural areas to see for themselves the
evidence of
organized violence. At a roadblock they were stopped and asked
by a security
agent what they had been doing. 'Looking at people who have
been beaten'
replied an American official to which a security agent
shamelessly retorted
'We are going to beat you thoroughly too' Undeterred,
Ambassador McGee
snapped away with his camera as the agents tried to hide
their faces and
afterwards the outspoken American commented, 'We are eager
to continue this
type of thing, to show the world what is happening here in
Zimbabwe. It is
absolutely urgent that the entire world sees what is going
on. The violence
has to stop.'
Without the help of brave local and
foreign journalists – like Peter Osborne
in yesterday's Daily Mail and Jan
Raath in The Times - prepared to risk
imprisonment and even death the world
will never see the real horror that is
happening in Zimbabwe today. With the
announcement of the date for the
presidential runoff that becomes even more
urgent; Zimbabwe needs witnesses
now.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle.
PH.
'Outraged' Kirk attacks violence in
Zimbabwe
The Scotsman
Published Date: 17 May 2008
By CRAIG BROWN AND ROSS
LYDALL
A YEAR after it refused to denounce Robert Mugabe's regime, the Church
of
Scotland has finally expressed outrage at events in Zimbabwe.
Last
year the General Assembly said that to attack the dictator would
endanger
the lives of Christians living there.
Yesterday, with the encouragement
of churches in Zimbabwe, the Kirk
"vehemently condemned" Mr Mugabe's rule
and called on the Brit
ADVERTISEMENT
ish government to act with urgency to
bring the regime to a peaceful end.
The Rev Colin Renwick, convener of
the Kirk's World Mission Council, which
deals with international policy,
said members could no longer keep silent
over a situation he described as
"heartrending".
"We have been circumspect in statements in the past,
recognising the danger
that careless words might pose, even from this
distance, and heeding the
caution of Christians in Zimbabwe itself," he
said. "However, now is the
time to take up the challenge they have
issued."
World Mission's report "vehemently condemned" the violence
perpetrated by
the Mugabe regime on its people after last month's
presidential elections.
The assembly voted unanimously to "express
outrage and urgent concern in
regard to the extreme privation and suffering
being inflicted on the people
of Zimbabwe; and encourage all who work for
justice, peace and
reconciliation in that beautiful country."
It
called on the British government to work to bring a swift end to the
"violence and intimidation being endured in many parts of the
country".
Mr Renwick read out a warning from the Zimbabwean Council of
Churches, which
has rarely spoken out against the regime for fear of violent
backlash.
It said: "We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the
people of
Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing
genocide
similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda and other hot spots in
Africa
and elsewhere."
The Rt Rev William Pool, moderator of the
United Presbyterian Church in
South Africa, read out a letter from two
ministers in Zimbabwe, describing
the persecution church members had faced.
He said children who were members
of Zanu PF had arrived for services
bleeding, having been beaten for asking
permission to go to church, while
whole congregations were being ordered not
to attend services and to go to
government rallies instead.
Concluding the debate, Deputy Moderator
Sheilagh Kesting led the assembly in
a prayer, saying: "We have heard the
cries of those who suffer in Zimbabwe.
We have been moved, we are outraged
and we desperately want to do something
for them."
Man helpless as mob takes home
IOL
Solly
Maphumulo
May 16 2008 at 11:37AM
One minute an
Zimbabwean immigrant was a proud owner of an RDP house.
Then an
anti-immigrant mob moved in and chased him out.
The house now
belongs to a South African man. He has already put on a
new lock to indicate
that the house is his.
The drama unfolded on Wednesday night when
Alexandra residents
conducted door-to-door visits evicting foreigners who
live in RDP houses.
The residents decided to evict foreigners
because they believed
government corruption saw houses allocated to
foreigners while they were
forced to live in squatter camps.
The owner of house number 4835 stood a few metres away, looking on
helplessly, as the man put on his new lock.
He wasn't the only
foreigner to be evicted in Extension 7. A series of
houses that once
belonged to foreigners were already occupied.
The residents also
targeted Zimbabwean and Mozambican taxi drivers.
A handful of
residents waited patiently for Home Affairs Minister
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
at Alexandra police station. They had heard on the
radio that she was going
to visit the area.
Sabelo Mbekeni was among those who wanted to
take Mapisa-Nqakula to
task.
"She must accommodate them in her
house. We have had enough. These
foreigners have been terrorising this area
and no one intervenes.
"It's not our problem that they are too lax
at the border," Mbekeni
said.
This article was originally
published on page 3 of The Star on May 16,
2008
Text of Corné Mulder's speech in debate on
xenophobia
Politicsweb, SA
Corné Mulder
16 May 2008
Issued by the Freedom Front
plus May 16 2008
Debate on reported incidents of violence and alleged
xenophobia attacks in
Alexandra and other areas
Things don't simply
just happen. People don't get up one morning and decide
today we are going
to be xenophobic. No - it does not work that way. There
is a causal
connection between things.
Today everybody is condemning these xenophobic
attacks and rightly so. The
FF Plus also deplores these actions. But
suddenly the government is taken
aback and astounded. How could this happen?
Well maybe the policy failure
chickens of the ANC are coming home to roost
one after the other. I have
already said there is a causal link.
Let
me name 4 policy failures by this ANC government which the FF Plus
believes
play a direct role in this:
1. Silent diplomacy with Zimbabwe since 2000
- Silent diplomacy which
eventually leads to tacit approval and implied
support for what Mugabe and
ZANU PF are doing. The effect of this is that
more than 3 million
Zimbabweans have fled from Mugabe's tyrannical rule to
SA;
2. The ineffective Departments of Home Affairs and Safety and
Security which
are incapable of securing South Africa's borders and
processing refugees;
3. Racially motivated equity labour laws that make
it very difficult for
small and medium enterprises to flourish and employ as
many people as
possible. This would have assisted with growth and job
opportunities for all
and;
4. Extremely poor service delivery at
ground level by inept ANC ruled local
councils which are marred by
corruption and infighting.
All these factors are conducive for xenophobic
outbursts which we have seen
of late.
I want to predict that not one
of the policy failures I have mentioned will
be accepted as valid reasons by
the ANC government in their investigation.
It will be blamed on criminals or
even worse, opposition parties, with
alleged ulterior motives. The Zimbabwe
crisis is now escalating beyond
Zimbabwe into the southern African region.
That is the real cause of the
current xenophobic outbursts. It will not go
away - if we address the
Zimbabwe issue - Zimbabweans will be only too happy
to return to their own
country.
This is the prepared text of a speech
by Freedom Front Plus Chief Whip, Dr.
Corné Mulder, in the debate on
xenophobia in the National Assembly, Cape
Town, May 16 2008
An Increase in US Diplomatic Activity in Africa
African Path
May 16, 2008
04:57 PMBy
Scott A Morgan
The last few weeks have seen an unheralded
increase in US Diplomatic
Activity in Sub-Saharan Africa. And if one follows
the International News
closely they will notice that there has been more
than one instance where US
Diplomats have done Yoeman's Work in attempting
to ensure Fair Elections and
other activities.
The Best Example of
this so far has been in Zimbabwe. The Country simmers on
the brink of a
Potential Civil War after a series of Delays after the March
Presidential
Contest. Recently a Second Round of Elections for President was
announced by
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Staff Members of the US
Embassy have been
in the field conducting investigations regarding
allegations of Torture that
has occurred since the March Elections. The US
State Department has filed a
formal protest letter to Zimbabwe after the US
Ambassador was accosted by
the Police and he was grazed by a Police Vehicle.
Last Month US Diplomats
lent their support towards Southern African Civic
Groups and Trade Unions in
preventing the An Yue Jiang a Chinese Freighter
from Docking in Southern
Africa. The Freighter was carrying Tons of Weapons
and Ammunition that was
to be delivered to Zimbabwe just weeks after the
Elections. It was feared
that these weapons could be used in a crackdown
against the Opposition in
Zimbabwe. This is not the only area where US
Diplomats have been
active.
In recent days there has been word that a Separatist Movement in
Tanzania
has approached the US seeking Aid. Some of the Elders on the Island
of Penda
feel as if they are being marginalized by the Tanzanian Government.
So they
drafted a petition and presented it to the US Embassy asking
President Bush
to intervene in their situation. At this time there has been
no information
released about whether or not the US will take action in this
situation.
However some of the Elders have been taken into custody by the
Tanzanian
Authorities recently. A Tanzanian Government Minister stated that
this
effort was Malicious towards the Country.
Another location where
US Intervention has actively been sought is in the
Niger Delta. On two
separate occasions the Main Rebel Group MEND (Movement
for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta) has directly approached the United
States for
Assistance. Once the group faxed an 11 point proposal to
President Bush as
he was enroute to Africa for his State Visit back in
February. The second
time they have sought out the assistance of former
President Jimmy Carter
and his CarterCenter. In 1999 President Carter tried
to broker a Peace Deal
between the Group and the Nigerian Government.
Recent weeks have seen US
Diplomats investigate the recent upswing in
tensions between Chad and Sudan.
IN Recent weeks both Capitals have come
under attack from Rebel Forces that
are reportedly back by the respective
Governments. The United States has a
Special Envoy for Darfur who has been
trying to mediate to end the latest
wave of fighting in the region.
Other Activities that US Diplomats have
been actively involved in include
getting involved in the violent aftermath
in the Kenyan Elections in January
and observing the Ugandan Peace Talks
that came up with a Peace Deal that
has yet to be signed. As the year
progresses who knows what other areas in
Africa where the US will take a
constructive role in as the UN appears to be
mired down in scandal after
scandal.
In the Past US has had a waning interest in Africa. It was a
Cold War
Battlefield to thwart the efforts of the old Soviet Union. But the
US put
Africa on the Back Burner after the Collapse of Communism and the
Somalia
Debacle. It stood on the sidelines as Civil War waged in both Sierra
Leone
and Rwanda. Now the US has been looking for Al-Qaeda wherever it can
find
them. Some of the Actions listed above can result in new respect for
the US
in Africa. IT is badly needed.
Q&A with Robyn Dixon, RFK Journalism Award
winner
Los Angeles Times
Robyn Dixon is one of the recipients of the 40th Annual
Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, which recognize "outstanding reporting
of the lives and strife of disadvantaged people throughout the world." Dixon,
The Times' bureau chief in Johannesburg, South Africa, won in the International
Print category for her coverage of Zimbabwe in 2007, articles that "judges
agreed showed truly extraordinary courage in reporting and [painted] a deeply
moving and comprehensive portrait of a country descending into a catastrophic
nightmare."
"The roads of Zimbabwe sing their own haunting lament for a people and their
suffering," wrote Dixon in her piece of Dec. 22, 2007, in one of 10 articles
for which she was recognized. Another,
from Sept. 3, begins, "Kuda Shumba goes at one speed: fast. He prides himself on
being able to get hold of almost anything, and he's open for business day or
night. That's what it takes to be one of Zimbabwe's black-market cowboys."
(Links to the articles on which the judges based their decisions are
below.)
Wrote her editors in their letter of nomination, "She unveiled the tragedy of
Zimbabwe through tales of ordinary people trapped in an Orwellian nightmare.” As
Dixon herself wrote in her Dec. 22 article, "Reporting is difficult here.
Because the government rarely issues journalist visas to foreigners, most of us
work undercover, risking jail."
Dixon responded to questions from the readers' representative office earlier
this year. Surprisingly, the reporter listed being on a plane among her fears.
Not surprisingly, she doesn't like to be caught in angry mobs.
That hasn't stopped her from flying to any number of places where the risk of
being caught amid a throng of angry people is high. Asked about the challenges
and rewards of being a foreign correspondent, she wrote, "I felt most fulfilled
when I was writing about people, particularly poor or disadvantaged people, and
the struggles of their daily lives whether in Russia, the former USSR, Africa or
Australia.... Some of the richest and most memorable conversations I've had have
been with people whose lives are a real struggle."
Here's more from the Q&A.
Where have you been posted?
I spent nine years in Moscow covering the former USSR and Afghanistan. I was
working for two Australian papers for four of those years (the Sydney Morning
Herald and The Age) and from 1999 to 2003 I was part of the L.A. Times Moscow
Bureau. In 2003, I moved to Johannesburg with my daughter, Sylvia. I got my
start in journalism in 1978 and I've done every job under the sun since then. I
used to do a night police reporting beat from 2 a.m. until 10 a.m. I covered
politics, wrote a TV column, wrote about education, the courts, rural affairs,
community welfare and I wrote general features. I loved it all but I felt most
fulfilled when I was writing about people, particularly poor or disadvantaged
people, and the struggles of their daily lives whether in Russia, the former
USSR, Africa or Australia. My younger brother was very severely disabled and
died quite young so perhaps that gave me a feeling from a young age for just how
tough life can be. Some of the richest and most memorable conversations I've had
have been with people whose lives are a real struggle.
When do you feel most in danger?
Well, I'm not a good flier. I once bought a book on conquering one's fear of
flying, only to find a line on Page 1 which said the book's assumptions about
the relative safety of flying applied only to Western airlines, and not to any
of the airlines that I'd be likely to fly. I put down the book.
I do operate on the principle, "Feel the fear, but do it anyway," but at the
same time I try to tune in to signals that tell you it's time to get out of a
situation. For example I was interviewing angry young men in a Kenya slum in the
post-election violence recently and some of them started shouting that I was a
government spy. A few of them started banging on my car. The shouting got
louder, the men got angrier and at that point we turned the car and left, before
things got ugly. But sometimes the signals are not quite so obvious.
I find angry mob situations frightening, particularly if people are armed.
Sometimes the situation can turn very quickly; everything seems fine, then
suddenly there is an angry, explosive situation.
Because I'm small I do not like to be caught in a tight, uncontrolled crush
of bodies, which happened a couple of times, covering the Liberian
elections.
In Zimbabwe, it was a different kind of risk: the risk of arrest for working
without accreditation, which [until early this year] carried a two-year jail
penalty. The problem there is that local people talk a lot about the activities
of the secret police, and how all-pervasive they are, so it's easy to get caught
up in the atmosphere of fear, which can prevent you doing your job properly if
you let it. Going into rural areas is difficult, because you stand out as a
suspicious stranger. But in urban areas, as long as you don't take notes or
photos in public, it is usually OK although you have to avoid certain places
with a heavy security presence where your presence would attract attention. I
try to dress and act like a Zimbabwean. Simple things like carrying a backpack
can give you away as a foreigner. The time I felt most at risk was one occasion
when my car was searched from top to bottom by police and I was worried they
would find my interview notes which could be used as evidence that I'd been
working unaccredited.
How do you stay safe?
I try to be conservative in
estimating danger and to find ways to get close to the story without putting
myself in physical danger. Perhaps the most dangerous time for a journalist is
when you "parachute" into a situation that is moving quickly and with which you
are unfamiliar. You have just arrived; you are trying to get a grip on the story
as quickly as possible, moving around and reporting, and your guard may be down.
You might be unfamiliar with which areas are safe or what kind of actions you
might take that could anger people or put you in danger. It's sometimes hard to
remember to play it safe in those situations, because you are so eager to get to
the heart of the story, find out what's going on and file news as soon as you
can.
Estimating the risk is often difficult. The best thing to do is to talk to
local people about the situation to get a feel for how risky a situation is.
There often is a calculated risk, but the idea is to keep it to a minimum level
that you feel comfortable with. There are some places which are always
dangerous, even when they feel OK, like Mogadishu.
There are other dangers that people tend to forget: malaria can kill you, for
example. And driving, given the condition of the roads and the driving culture
in some of the places I have worked, is one of the most dangerous things of
all.
Below are two lists: the first, the stories from 2007 that earned Dixon
the award; the second, the stories that Dixon provided when asked what she found
memorable for whatever reason. Those on the second list, Dixon says, "bring to
life all kinds of memories for me. Some are poignant, some are sad, and others
some are exhilarating, happy stories."
“Odyssey
through a sad land” Dec. 22
“Zimbabwe
may shatter” Dec. 15
“Corruption
fuels hunger” Dec. 9
“Theater
of fear” Nov. 19
“Lining
up for loaves” Nov. 13
“Angry
and unyielding” Oct. 3
“Running
for their lives," Sept. 9
“He
can get it for you fast” Sept. 3
“An
economic noose tightens” Aug. 20
“Even
loyalists are disloyal” March 29
Robyn Dixon's "memorable stories" and her comments:
"Boys
with guns in Afghanistan," Nov. 9, 2001. I brushed up against several
furious young teens with Kalashnikovs who shot at our car and briefly took us
prisoner. That incident got me interested in the gun culture in Afghanistan.
"Poachers
ply a sea of secrets," June 8, 2001. I did not meet one Russian sailor who
did not have a hair-raising tale of surviving some harrowing storm. No one
wanted to talk about the illegal poaching industry, but eventually some did.
"South
Africa, told in a pony's tale," Dec. 9, 2006. This is a story about South
Africa's first black show jumper, Enos Mafokate, and the skinny gray coal horse
in Soweto that he saved from cruelty, called Lucky.
"Lessons
in resentment, resilience," Feb. 6, 2005. A bittersweet story. I was moved
by an 85-year-old man in Kenya who had such a passion to be educated that he
went to primary school to learn to read, even though it cost him many friends in
his village.
"Rejecting
a ritual of pain," July 3, 2004. I was struck by the courage of a group of
young girls who fled their village in Kenya to escape female genital
mutilation.
"I
will eat your dollars," Oct. 20, 2005. This story is an inside peek into the
world of the cyber scammers who send out thousands of emails trying to
fraudulently extract money.
"On
their toes for a way out," Nov. 15, 2005. An inspiring story about children
from the crowded South African township of Alexandra, who won the chance to
become ballet stars.
"The
booming, broken 'New York of Nigeria,'" June 25, 2007. I always loved the
fast, exhilarating atmosphere in Lagos, so I wrote a portrait of the city.
"A
passage buoyed by hope alone," March 16, 2007. A story about the brave young
men who flee Africa in tiny fragile vessels, trying to make it to Europe by sea.
They are seen as heroes in their villages, and I could see why.
"The
dream houses of Iraq's Ali Babas," April 24, 2003. This story attempted to
capture the exhilarating sense of freedom many Iraqis felt after the fall of
Saddam Hussein, when people started stealing whatever they could to try to get
ahead in life, and in one case to build a house -- with orange walls because
"everyone likes the color orange."
"Flights
of fancy from a harsh life," Jan. 3, 2001. One of my favorite stories about
the indefatigable human spirit. It's about eccentric Russian inventors who built
submarines and airplanes in their attics or back sheds during the Soviet
era.
Photo by Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times, of correspondent Robyn Dixon in
Zimbabwe. "Life here is full of Catch-22 dilemmas that would strain credulity,"
Dixon says.
Heads roll at ZBC
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff Reporter
CEO fired
over election outcome
THE chief executive officer of Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings (ZBH) Henry
Muradzikwa has been fired reportedly for failing to
handle ZANU-PF’s
campaign for the March 29 general and presidential
elections, which were won
by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) and its leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
THE chief executive officer
of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) Henry
Muradzikwa has been fired
reportedly for failing to handle ZANU-PF’s
campaign for the March 29 general
and presidential elections, which were won
by the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Although the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has ruled that there was no clear
winner in
the March 29 presidential election on the grounds that all the
four
presidential candidates failed to poll more than 50 percent of the
votes
cast, the ruling ZANU-PF blames ZBH for not campaigning for President
Robert
Mugabe in a more robust manner, sources told The Financial Gazette
last
night.
Muradzikwa’s sacking yesterday capped a tense period of more than a
month
when long knives have been out and when accusations and counter
accusations
have been traded between members of the ruling party as they
tried to
pinpoint what could have gone wrong in the March 29 elections in
which
ZANU-PF was trounced by the opposition MDC in both the parliamentary
and
presidential polls.
Muradzikwa’s fate was decided at an emergency
board meeting held at Pocket’s
Hill last night amid intense pressure from
ZANU-PF heavyweights pushing for
the appointment of conformists from the
rank and file at ZBH as the bruised
party fights to restore its wounded
pride before the presidential run-off.
ZBH board chairman, Justin Mutasa,
confirmed Muradzikwa’s dismissal to The
Financial Gazette last night
although he chose his words carefully to
explain what had become an intense
political tussle at Pocket’s Hill.
“It was an amicable separation and not
relieving as you might want to put
it. Right now we are undertaking
consultations on who will take over from
Muradzikwa,” said Mutasa.
But
when this reporter spoke to Muradzikwa earlier, he said he was at home
and
was not aware of any meeting being held at Pocket’s Hill.
“I am not aware of
what you are talking about but let me check and confirm
with you,” said
Muradzikwa.
Repeated phone calls to get Muradzikwa’s side of the story after
Mutasa had
confirmed his sacking went unanswered.
Sources told The
Financial Gazette that Muradzikwa was not the only casualty
as some top
Ministry of Information officials had lost ZANU-PF campaign
advertising
contracts after the party accused them of doing a shoddy job.
A company owned
by a senior Ministry of Information and Publicity official
and a former ZBH
editor-in-chief lost a contract to produce political
advertisements for the
ruling party. The contract is now said to have been
clinched by former radio
personality Tichaona Matamba-nadzo, newscaster Hugo
Ribatika and MP-elect
for Mberengwa East, Makhosini Hlongwane, a former ZBH
employee.
It is
most likely that a trio led by war veteran Happison Mucheterere, Allan
Chiweshe who currently heads Radio Zimbabwe and Petros Masakara will take
over the reins at ZBH because of their allegiance to the ruling
party.
Muradzikwa paid the price because he was considered at one stage to
have
supported the Simba Makoni faction, raising eyebrows among ZANU-PF
stalwarts
who did not understand why so many of the former finance
minister’s
advertisements were featured both on radio and television.
But
the root of his troubles, according to sources at ZBH seems to have been
the
fact that Muradzikwa refused to bow to the whims of politicians during
the
crucial March 29 polls.
Now even the future of other high-ranking ZBH
executives hangs in the
balance as the ruling party politicians seek to
cleanse the public
broadcaster of all perceived non-conformists at the
Pockets hill.
Muradzikwa replaced Susan Makore in 2007 following the
unceremonious
departure of Makore who had taken over from the controversial
Alum Mpofu
appointed by Jonathan Moyo during his time as junior minister of
information
and publicity.
Duty: Cars pile up at Beitbridge
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Staff
Reporter
HUNDREDS of imported vehicles are being dumped at Beitbridge
border post
while household appliances and other goods are piling up at
warehouses at
various designated points of entry following the sharp
increase in duty.
HUNDREDS of imported vehicles are being dumped at
Beitbridge border post
while household appliances and other goods are piling
up at warehouses at
various designated points of entry following the sharp
increase in duty.
Commercial importers this week said the floating of the
domestic currency
and its consequent drubbing on the official market had
dealt them a heavy
blow, with duty payments going up by close to 7 000
percent since the
beginning of the month.
Zimbabwe’s defenseless
currency, which had been kept fixed at an unrealistic
rate of $30,000 to the
United States dollar for close to a year, slid to
around $165 million to the
greenback on the first day of free trading on the
official market.
It has
since suffered its worst depreciation, trading at close to $240
million per
US dollar on Monday.
Following the liberalisation of the exchange rate, the
Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority (ZIMRA) began calculating import duty using the
new inter-bank
exchange rates, abandoning its own rate of $285 000 to the US
dollar,
triggering a massive surge in duty on imports.
Sources indicated
the worst affected by the upward surge in duty were car
dealers.
Sources
in the industry said hundreds of imported cars had been dumped at
the
Beitbridge border post after failing to raise the high duty for the
vehicle
imports.
A Harare-based businessman said he had initially been asked to pay
about $3
billion in import duty for a second hand passenger vehicle but was
shocked
to be informed he had to pay $350 billion under the new foreign
exchange
rates.
One dealer said duty payment had exceeded $1 trillion,
way above just a
billion he had budgeted to spend under the old exchange
rate regime.
Peter Nyamidzi, chairman of the Mashonaland chapter of the Motor
Trade
Association of Zimbabwe, told The Financial Gazette yesterday that
commercial vehicles, such as minibuses and trucks, which had been paying
duty in local currency, had become too expensive to import due to the new
exchange rate regime.
“All of a sudden there has been a sad turn of
events for commercial
vehicles, which pay duty in the local currency,”
Nyamidzi said.
“I think what the government must do is to reduce duty payable
for these
vehicles from 65 percent to 25 percent like any other buses
because these
are also commercial vehicles used by businesses. They are not
for luxury
use,” Nyamidzi said.
Another businessman in the motor vehicle
sector said the situation at the
border town was messy, with large numbers
of people leaving their goods with
ZIMRA after failing to raise
duty.
“It’s really a tragedy. They should have warned people that they would
adopt
a new exchange rate that could affect us in this manner. This is like
an
ambush,” said the businessman, who declined to be named.
Another
businessman said: “I imported a minibus from the United Kingdom but
I had to
leave it because I cannot afford the duty. The Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority
was demanding that I pay $1,9 trillion, yet when I came I had been
told I
will pay about $1,7 billion,” he said.
The increased duty payments had ripple
effects on the struggling economy,
with prices soaring on the back of the
new duty levels as well as the
depreciation of the Zimbabwe
dollar.
Prices of basics like soap, toothpaste, sugar, salt, clothes and
others,
most of which are now imported from South Africa because of capacity
constraints in the local industry, went up significantly.
The move forced
government to scrap duty on the basics, saying the imports
were crucial in
augmenting supplies on the local market.
The upward movement of duty has also
resulted in massive hikes of second
hand car prices on the local
market.
Prices for second hand Nissan Sunny vehicles moved from less than
$200
billion last week to about $750 billion this week.
The RBZ ended
tight controls on the exchange rate in a move aimed at
boosting exports and
encouraging foreign currency inflows into the official
market.
Africa
University Economic lecturer Francois Kabuya said the liberalisation
of the
exchange rate was welcome.
“The overvalued Zimbabwe currency has hurt many
sectors of the economy, this
move is a welcome shift,” Kabuya said this
week.
UN seeks permission to assess violence
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
THE United Nations has sought permission to carry out an
assessment of
post-election violence in Zimbabwe, which it says is reaching
crisis levels,
the world body’s resident representative, Augusto Zakarias,
said on Tuesday.
THE United Nations has sought permission to carry out an
assessment of
post-election violence in Zimbabwe, which it says is reaching
crisis levels,
the world body’s resident representative, Augusto Zakarias,
said on Tuesday.
Zakarias said his office had communicated the request for a
joint assessment
with the government to the authorities, who in response
have, asked the UN
to show cause for the request.
Evidence of the
violence had since been submitted to government and the UN
was hopeful that
its request would be granted, Zakarias said.
Despite the Zimbabwe National
Army’s spirited denials last week that some of
its soldiers were involved in
the spiraling violence, Zakarias said security
forces, youth militias and
war veterans and supporters of both ZANU-PF and
the MDC, were perpetrating
acts of violence.
“These reports indicate that some people have died, several
hundred others
have been hospitalised, while many more have been displaced
from their homes
and some have lost property that includes livestock, homes
and belongings,”
Zakarias said.
“These incidents of violence are
occurring in the communal, farming and
urban areas and there are indications
that the level of violence is
escalating in all these areas and could reach
crisis levels,” he said.
Since the wave of politically-inspired violence
broke out, a number of
people from the rural areas have approached The
Financial Gazette, asking
where they can turn for shelter or to recover the
property and livestock
they have left behind when they fled the
violence.
This week the police finally confirmed allegations made last month
by church
leaders and the Progressive Teachers Union, initially denied by
the
government, that torture camps had been set up in the
countryside.
The police said they had dismantled two such “political bases”
in the
Masvingo constituencies of Bikita and Gutu that were won by the MDC
in the
March 29 parliamentary poll.
At a press conference in the capital,
Zakarias said: “It is the primary
responsibility of the government of
Zimbabwe to provide protection and
effective remedies to all its
citizens.”
He said besides targeting the electorate, violence has also been
directed at
election monitors, human rights lobbyists and other
representatives of civil
society.
UN representatives had also visited 23
schools where they established that
children have been affected by the
violence, with some failing to attend
lessons because their teachers had
fled.
Zakarias said the UN Country team had received two reports that people
had
died but his team needed to carry out an assessment because of fears
that
many more people have been affected than is presently known.
He said
the team had visited Avenues Clinic, where some of the victims of
political
violence are being treated.
“There is an emerging pattern of political
violence inflicted mainly, but
not exclusively, on rural supporters of the
MDC party,” Zakarias said.
He said UN humanitarian agencies have had limited
access to affected people
due to heightened tensions.
The Financial
Gazette this week visited the clinic and one of those admitted
was the MDC
ward chairman for Musami Murehwa West, Tobias Tsuro, who was
attacked at
around 1a.m by suspected ZANU-PF members and sustained head and
other
injuries. His house, where children including a nine-month-old baby
were
sleeping, was torched, but they were rescued unharmed.
Murehwa West was won
by the MDC in the last polls.
The area’s MDC ward 13 councillor, Elias
Musami, who was visiting Tsuro at
the Avenues Clinic, said he had also fled
from Murehwa with his family
because he feared for his life.
The MDC
officials expressed fears that there appeared to be a campaign to
ensure
that the party’s members flee their homes so that they would not vote
in the
presidential run-off.
On Tuesday MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said 32 of
the opposition’s
members have been murdered in the terror campaign.
Bakers seek bread price review
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE
National Bakers Association (NBA) this week initiated fresh talks for a
review of the price of bread by the National Incomes and Pricing Commission
(NIPC), as prices soared across the board after the depreciation of the
Zimbabwe dollar on the official market.
THE National Bakers
Association (NBA) this week initiated fresh talks for a
review of the price
of bread by the National Incomes and Pricing Commission
(NIPC), as prices
soared across the board after the depreciation of the
Zimbabwe dollar on the
official market.
The new wave of price hikes increased pressure on the bread
making industry,
which has been grappling with losses due to price
controls.
Sources indicated that the NBA, whose new executive is led by
Harambe
Holdings operations director Bramwell Bushu, was pressing for a
review of
the bread price from $66 million per loaf to $290 million.
They
are citing the increase in the cost of wheat imports for the suggested
price
review. Import duty shot up significantly after the Zimbabwe dollar
slid
from $30 000 to the US dollar to around $200 million last week,
following
the floatation of the domestic currency under reforms meant to
boost exports
and revive faltering industries.
Although the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority used
a lower exchange rate of $285
000 to the US dollar prior to the new exchange
rate policy, it quickly
abandoned its rate and followed the market rate as
it sought to boost
revenue inflows.
Should the NIPC fail to approve the
suggested price, bakers are understood
to be asking for the provision of
wheat from the Grain Marketing Board at
subsidised prices, but still would
want the bread price reviewed to $105
million per loaf under this
arrangement.
Still, the bakers are hoping for a two-tier pricing system that
would allow
bread made from imported flour to be priced higher than that
made using
local flour.
“Bread that is baked using the imported wheat
will cost $290 million per
loaf and bread that we bake using locally
produced wheat will cost $105
million per loaf,” a well-placed NBA source
said.
“What it means therefore is that all the bread on the market will be
sold at
$290 million per loaf because the bulk of the bakers are importing
wheat for
baking,” the source said.
Although the official price of bread
is $66 million per loaf, the black
market is, however, selling bread at up
to $200 million..
Figures produced by the NBA last week indicate that out of
the required 450
000 tonnes of wheat per year the baking industry required
to produce at full
throttle, they had only received 150 000 tonnes in 2007,
leaving a deficit
of 300 000 tonnes.
Capacity utilisation in most
bakeries has dropped to 10 percent or below,
according to an NBA report.
Electoral disputes to heighten suspense
FinGaz
Ray Matikinye News
Editor
MORE delays are expected in putting the March 29 synchronised
elections to
rest as both ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) have filed
petitions with the Electoral Court disputing some results
in a number of
constituencies in a bid to increase their parliamentary
representation.
MORE delays are expected in putting the March 29
synchronised elections to
rest as both ZANU-PF and the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) have filed
petitions with the Electoral Court
disputing some results in a number of
constituencies in a bid to increase
their parliamentary representation.
ZANU-PF is seeking to overturn results in
53 constituencies and regain
control of parliament that it lost for the
first time since independence
from Britain almost three decades ago while
the MDC is contesting 52 others
in the hope of fortifying its grip on the
House of Assembly.
The current parliamentary configuration, as determined by
the initial poll
results is untenable for anyone who wins the presidential
run-off between
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
proponents of a
government of national unity, say.
But analysts note that
the practical effect of such a steady drum-roll of
petitions in a single
election casts doubts on the electoral process and
questions the “manner and
integrity” of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Election
Observer Mission (SEOM) mandated to oversee the
free and fair conduct of
polls in member countries.
SEOM’s poll verdict gave the now disputed election
a clean bill of health.
Officials must be ruing the fact that they seem to
have blown the dust off
their 2000 and 2005 election verdict template and
presented it as fresh
work.
The Tsvangirai-led MDC won 99 seats as
opposed to ZANU-PF’s tally of 97
while the Mutambara-led MDC formation
garnered 10 seats. Together the two
MDC formations hold 109 seats with polls
still to be held in three
constituencies, namely Gwanda South,
Pelandaba-Mpopoma and Redcliff.
According to the Electoral Act the 105
petitions have to be finalised in six
months.
But electoral law expert
Chris Mhike expressed doubts that all the petitions
could be determined in
the stipulated period as required by the law.
“We have the problem of a
justice system that is inefficient such that the
final verdict might be
academic,” Mhike said citing cases arising from the
2000 and 2005 polls that
were concluded when the outcome had become
immaterial to either the
petitioner or respondent.
After the 2000 the elections the then main
opposition MDC filed 37 election
petitions for its candidates.
One of the
first petitions to be heard was brought before the courts by
Moses Mare, an
MDC candidate for Chiredzi North constituency in which the
ZANU-PF candidate
Elliot Chauke had been declared the winner and Mare
protested that the
election had not been free and fair.
The petition was heard early in June and
the presiding judge delivered her
judgment on June 20 declaring that Elliot
Chauke was not duly elected as the
Member of Parliament and that no other
person was entitled to be duly
elected.
Chauke appealed against the court
decision.
Justices Chidyausiku, Cheda and Malaba eventually heard the appeal
on June
14, 2004, almost five years after the petition was lodged.
By
that time Chauke had served his five years in parliament and his term of
office had expired.
Mhike said Section 172 of the Act gave the Electoral
Court authority to make
a final decision that was not “appealable on the
question of fact but on a
question of law.”
“That provision takes away
the overview role of the Supreme Court,” Mhike
added.
If, as insiders
say, some of the petitions are a replica of the original
petition for a
recount conducted at the behest of ZANU-PF, which alleged
gross
irregularities in the electoral process, the electorate has a long,
anxious
wait ahead of them before the March plebiscite is put to rest.
If the
petitions are also premised on claims that the opposition had sourced
funds
from the West, particularly from Britain, to bribe the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission (ZEC), to secure victory in the parliamentary polls, it
would
require all genius from the judge to pass a verdict “on a question of
law,”
because both parties are culpable.
In another electoral petition involving
Elton Mangoma of the MDC and Didymus
Mutasa in Makoni North the judge
conceded that good electoral practices had
been flouted on the basis of
irregularities.
Despite that verdict Mutasa continued to hold
office.
Mhike said it seemed “now that contradictions in logic and rationale
are
becoming more and more a part of our domestic jurisprudence.”
He said
the workload on the Electoral Court would be enormous, considering
that the
same judges appointed to the court had to deal with other High
Court cases
apart from those related to the petitions.
Although judge president Justice
Rita Makarau assured the public that the
courts would hear the 105
petitions, there is little evidence to invest much
faith in her
pledge.
Exiled businessman, Mutumwa Mawere, warns about the grave risks that
lie
ahead for parliamentarians whose constituencies have been targeted for
the
reversal of results.
Mawere says there is the remote chance that the
Electoral Court can rise to
the challenge in as much as ZEC did with regard
to the politically motivated
recount.
“But I still believe that ZANU-PF
will do whatever it takes to remain in
power,” he said.
Where to Welshman?
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
THE Financial Gazette Reporter Clemence Manyukwe (CM) had a
wide-ranging
interview with the secretary general of the Arthur Mutambara
formation of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and a key member of
the
negotiating team under the Mbeki-brokered talks, Welshman Ncube (WN) in
which the politician cleared the air on a number of issues pertaining to the
aftermath of the March 29 polls. Excerpts:
CM: What do you think
is the solution to the current political crisis, the
violence ahead of the
run-off between President Robert Mugabe and opposition
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai?
WN: The starting point is the acceptance by all political
players of the
will of the people. If all political players were to accept
that it is the
sovereign right of the people to freely elect a government of
their choice
no matter how we may disagree with their judgment. Even if we
fiercely
believe that it is a wrong judgment we must accept it as their
sovereign
right. If all political parties were to embrace that principle
that the will
of the people is sovereign… in my view that is the problem
that faces the
country at the moment - the refusal by the major political
players that
people can make a judgment, which is different from theirs. For
as long as
there is unwillingness to accept the judgment of the people we
will have
this crisis where the major political players seek to manipulate
the will of
the people.
CM: How do you see Tsvangirai faring in this
election?
WN: The starting point is that in the previous election,
Tsvangirai obtained
the highest number of votes, which were cast as against
all the other
candidates and it appears to me that he will maintain the
votes originally
cast for him and will gain the majority of votes cast for
the other
opposition candidates because they were anti-Mugabe votes. It
appears that
those votes in a run-off will be cast for Tsvangirai.
Approximately 58
percent were anti Mugabe votes and these votes will remain
anti-Mugabe votes
and will in all probability be cast for Tsvangirai. This
therefore means
that Tsvangirai stands the best chance of winning the
run-off.
CM: Will your grouping or MDC formation support Tsvangirai in
the event of a
run-off?
WN: Our national council met two weeks ago
and resolved that in the event of
a run-off we should support the candidacy
of Tsvangirai.
CM: Do you think it was wise for Tsvangirai to go into
self-imposed exile
after the March 29 poll?
WN: It’s not for me to
make a judgment on that. We understand that he was
advised that his security
was not conducive to his remaining in the country.
It is only him who can
make the judgment about his security.
CM: You were involved in the SADC
talks. Is President Mbeki an honest
broker?
WN: It is not for us to
make a determination about the bona fides of
President Mbeki. What we can
judge is the outcome of the dialogue, which he
facilitated. And for us the
important thing is that the SADC dialogue
brought onto one table the main
political players in Zimbabwe to seek a
resolution of the political crisis.
Some of the things were settled, others
remained
contentious.
Notwithstanding the criticism levelled at that dialogue, it
remains a fact
that most of the reforms that made it possible to defeat
(President) Mugabe
in the last election were born out of that dialogue. For
example, the
often-criticized 18th Constitutional Amendment is responsible
for the
removal of the appointed seats in the House of Assembly. If we had
not
intervened, changed the content of Amendment 18 today the opposition
would
not have a majority in the House of Assembly. The 12 appointed MPs,
the 10
governors — that in itself would have wiped the majority of the
opposition
in the House of Assembly. It is one of the benefits of Amendment
18 that
(President) Mugabe can’t do anything about the outcome of the
parliamentary
election.
Secondly, the advertisements that the opposition
was able to place on ZTV,
on radio, state newspapers were all results of the
dialogue.
Thirdly, the changes to POSA, (Public Order and Security Act),
which made it
possible for the opposition to hold meetings, as freely as
happened were
again the outcome of the SADC dialogue. The system of voting,
counting at
polling stations, tallying results at poling stations and
posting them up at
the door that made it impossible to rig the elections
were all a result of
the dialogue.
Of course that dialogue was incomplete
because (President) Mugabe was in a
hurry to frog march us into an election.
As a result, there was no agreement
on a new constitution; on how to handle
the pre-election and post election
period. That is the judgment some of us
make of that dialogue.
CM: Simba Makoni has proposed a government of
national unity, your views on
that?
WN: We believe that the important
thing is not to talk about the end result
of the dialogue but to talk about
the principles and the need for the
parties to seek and negotiate a
settlement. What is important is to respect
the will of the people and
within the context of that respect to find a
solution that is agreeable to
all the parties.
CM: There was a story in a local weekly paper that said
you, Gibson Sibanda
and Paul Themba Nyathi have reached an understating with
Tsvangirai’s
grouping to contest in three forthcoming
by-elections...
WN: That story is not only ridiculous, but also
manifestly and patently
false. First there has been no such deal between
ourselves and the other
MDC. Even if there had been, as a matter of
principle we would never accept
to contest in an election where any
political party seeks to give us a free
run. We can only run in an election
where there is a genuine and real
contest.
Thirdly, we ran in the
election of March 29, we have no - absolutely no-
intention of running in
any of the by-elections, which were part of the same
election but were
suspended after the death of our members. It’s like
running twice in the
same election.
CM: But what does the law say? Does it allow running twice in
the same
election?
WN: At law there is nothing that can prevent us. This
is a political
principle. We are not running.
CM: To what do you
attribute your loss as well as that of other leaders of
your grouping in
Bulawayo and Matabeleland in the March 29 poll?
WN: We are democrats in
words and in deed. The people of Bulawayo made their
choice. We might
disagree with that choice, but we fully and unconditionally
respect their
sovereign right to make that choice. It is not possible for us
to go into
the hearts and minds of the people who voted on March 29 in
Bulawayo. We
don’t know why they voted the way they did. What we know is
that we
campaigned in every town, in every household, in every street in
Bulawayo,
we did campaign. We believe that the people made an informed
choice. They
had all the information before them and made the selection they
did. We
cannot second-guess them at this particular historical moment. That
was
their choice and we fully accept it.
CM: There is word from some people
that all is not well within your groping
especially after Mutambara and
Tsvangirai’s press conference in South
Africa?
WN: There is no
fallout and there are no divisions. There is one and only
one resolution of
the national council and that resolution is to say in the
event of a
presidential run-off between Tsvangirai and (President) Mugabe,
our party
will of necessity- unconditionally and in return for nothing- back
Tsvangirai. We will assist them in the run-off. We ask for nothing in
return. That is what president Mutambara sought to clarify.
Political impasse triggers mass exodus
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
WALKING past Harare’s busy Roadport cross–border bus terminus,
one cannot
miss the fact that a huge number of people are leaving Zimbabwe
for
neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa.
WALKING past
Harare’s busy Roadport cross–border bus terminus, one cannot
miss the fact
that a huge number of people are leaving Zimbabwe for
neighbouring
countries, particularly South Africa.
It is clearly noticeable from the
expressions on the people’s faces that
they are determined to escape the
worsening political and economic crisis.
On this particular Sunday morning,
Sesedzai Chiragwi is battling to find a
seat on a South African bound bus.
“All the buses are fully booked. They are
saying the next bus will only be
available on Tuesday,” said Chiragwi,
unable to hide her
exasperation.
She attributes the heavy bookings partly to the long holiday in
South Africa
on the weekend of May 1, but it was evident that the number of
people
itching to leave the country has increased, as one official at the
terminus
confirmed. Even an enquiry at the desk of the luxury Greyhound bus
service
failed to produce favourable results.
The Roadport official says
on average, more than 15 buses leave Zimbabwe for
South Africa daily with a
few more headed for Bostwana, Namibia, Mozambique
and Zambia. In addition,
new bus companies are opening up routes to South
Africa.
Zimbabweans are
leaving the country in droves in a desperate bid to escape
the worsening
economic situation, characterised by an inflation rate of 165
000 percent,
unemployment rate of over 80 percent and widespread shortages
of food, fuel
and other essentials, including cash. Chiragwi, a trained
nurse who has
worked in Zimbabwe for the past five years says she has lost
all hope that
the country will one day return to normal.
After delaying her journey by some
months while raising the cash needed to
get a visa to South Africa, she had
hoped like many other Zimbabweans, that
the March 29 elections would finally
bring change.
But she is as disappointed by the on-going political bickering
as the rest
of her compatriots.
“I am disappointed that after voting,
nothing has changed, so I have decided
to try my luck in South Africa,”
Chiragwi said.
Millions of Zimbabweans are believed to have left the country
since 2000,
when the economic malaise set in after the government introduced
the
controversial and often violent land reform programme, which drove out
most
of the country’s productive white farmers.
The move led to a drastic
decline in agricultural production estimated at 70
percent, which is now
manifesting itself through severe food shortages
experienced countrywide.
The large numbers of Zimbabweans crossing over into
neighbouring countries
have caused an upsurge in fatal xenophobic clashes
between locals and
foreigners.
In South Africa, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees has
recorded an increase in the number of attacks against foreign
nationals. In
March, a crowd of township dwellers in Pretoria, chanting
slogans, burned
down shacks occupied by migrants, killing two people. The
crowd embarked on
an assaulting and burning spree that left at least 1,000
people homeless.
The South African Human Rights Commission says xenophobia is
a problem in
the country and rising numbers of refugees can only exacerbate
it. Recently,
a mob attacked a group of immigrants with stones, whips and
guns in
Alexandra township outside Johannesburg this week, killing two
people and
injuring about 40, police said.
Twelve people were arrested in
connection with the violence in which police
said was motivated by a belief
that illegal immigrants were responsible for
a series of robberies.
The
rampage rekindled fears that xenophobia was rising in a country known as
one
of the most welcoming to immigrants and asylum seekers, especially from
Africa.
Some of those who were attacked were Zimbabweans, the largest
immigrant
group in South Africa who are often accused by residents of
contributing to
the country’s high crime rate. In Mozambique there have been
calls for the
closure of the border to limit the number of Zimbabweans
streaming into the
country but authorities in that country have ignored
these pleas.
The Mozambican immigration department estimates that an average
of 400
Zimbabweans pass across the border daily. These figures are said to
have
risen after the March 29 elections in Zimbabwe.
In South Africa,
which is the most favoured destination for many weary
Zimbabweans,
immigration authorities are said to have slowed down the pace
at which they
work as a way to limit the numbers entering the country
everyday.
The
Botswana government was last week reported to have opened a refugee
centre
in Francistown to accommodate Zimbabweans fleeing the political
violence
that has engulfed the country in the aftermath of the March 29
polls.
Meanwhile, a Methodist church in South Africa’s commercial city of
Johannesburg is the most likely first port of call for many of these
Zimbabwean refugees. Here new arrivals compete for space in a packed church
hall until they get part-time jobs.
Irony of rich farmers without
cash
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Staff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S tobacco farmers are
having cash problems.
They have so much money in their pockets, but cannot
buy what they need
because it is in the form of
cheques.
It is something that has so seriously
dejected them
that they are ruing ever planting the golden leaf, one of
Zimbabwe’s prime
export earners.
Huddled at the
tobacco auction floors at night
because they cannot pay for hotel or
accommodation at the cheap lodges, the
farmers have obviously become
despondent.
Meanwhile, the huge sums of money written
on their
cheques are becoming worthless with each passing day due to
Zimbabwe’s
hyperinflationary environment.
Three
weeks after the opening of the tobacco-selling
season, more than 2 000
farmers, most of them small scale growers, are still
camped at the country’s
three major auction floors, unable to cash their
cheques.
Inevitably, the country’s hyperinflation
has been
eroding the value of their earnings, which had been boosted
following the
liberalisation of the foreign currency market that resulted in
the Zimbabwe
dollar exchange rate weakening from $30 000 per US dollar to
over $200
million per US dollar.
While the
depreciation of the domestic currency
brought smiles to the farmers’ faces,
it has now turned out that the other
side of the currency movement has hurt
their pockets because of an
escalation of prices.
Amos Jimu says he left Centenary three weeks ago,
and planned to buy 10 bars
of bath soap after getting payment for his
tobacco.
Then, he says, a bar of soap cost $120
million. Now,
he says, dejectedly, he has to fork out $500 million for the
same bar of
soap, assuming he is able to cash his cheque
now.
“We are spending sleepless nights in the open
space
here watching the fruits of our hard labour slipping away, ” Jimu
said.
“I planned to buy fertilisers and other inputs
with
my first deliveries, which I could afford three weeks ago, but not
anymore,”
he said.
With inflation escalating at
an unprecedented pace,
the more the farmers delay buying what they need, the
more their earnings
will be eroded while still in their
hands.
Eventually, they will be unable to buy
anything,
including inputs for the next farming season, they
contend.
“I am now a beggar. I have this cheque in my
pocket,
but everyday, I go to those women selling food and leave my National
Identity Card as surety so that I get some food to eat. It is terrible,”
said Jimu.
A young farmer, Tongai Zambara said:
“If the
situation remains like this, tobacco output will fall next season.
We wanted
to go back to produce more next year but if we end up having more
cheques
than cash, it will not make sense to continue,” he
said.
The prices were “favourable” this year, at
US$2,50
per kilogramme, having opened the marketing season at US$4 per
kilogramme.
But farmers revealed how with such good prices, they had been
short-changed
by both the auction floors and retailers eager to reap profits
out of their
desperation.
Zambara, who has spent
two weeks queuing for money
at Zitac, an auction floor, said he had gone
into retail shops to cash his
cheque, but prices were increased
immediately.
A DVD player costing $10 billion was now
priced at
$25 billion, while a television set costing $25 billion had its
price hiked
to $45 billion.
When buying from the
shop, Zambara said he was asked
to spend not less than 90 percent of his
$300 billion so that he could get
the balance in
cash.
At the Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF), one farmer
who had
sold tobacco worth $300 billion said he had been given $5 billion.
The
remainder was settled in cheque.
A farmer
from Guruve said retailers had rejected the
cheques, leaving them in a
precarious state.
At Zitac, The Financial Gazette
witnessed more than
1 000 farmers in long queues to process their
documents.
Outside the auction floors, women and
children,
looking exhausted, slept under the harsh afternoon sun, waiting
for a whiff
of good news that the auction floors could finally pay them in
cash.
But that news has been hard to come by, and
three
weeks could turn to four weeks, then five, six….And they keep
wondering:
where is the justice, and is it all worth the
toil?
The answer would hinge on their choice of plant
in
the next farming season.
Robbing the future
FinGaz
Comment
THE senseless
violence being perpetrated to intimidate the populace into
acquiescence ever
since the March 29 synchronised elections, which saw
ZANU-PF losing its grip
on parliament for the first time since Independence
in 1980, is yet another
impediment to efforts to bring the country’s economy
back on the
rails.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights claims it has
attended
to over 900 cases of torture and assault, but the figure is only a
fraction
of the victims who never sought treatment because they cannot
afford the
extortionist hospital fees.
According to the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), 32 of its members
were killed in the past six
weeks, while hundreds were displaced, maimed,
raped or assaulted. The
statistics have been disputed by the police and
ZANU-PF, which fingers the
MDC as the authors of the violence.
Despite the bickering between the two
feuding parties, the savage attacks
are intensifying, raising fears that the
country might become ungovernable.
And this at a time when the country is
least prepared to deal with the
resultant deaths, injuries, sexual,
reproductive and health problems.
For instance, the health delivery system is
currently thin on staff and its
facilities are crumbling due to poor
funding, diminishing inflows of drugs
and equipment into the country.
The
violence has also placed a heavy burden on law enforcement, operating on
a
shoestring budget. The Courts, battling a huge backlog of criminal and
civil
cases, will be stretched to a breaking point with successful
prosecutions
compounding the overcrowding in the prisons.
With the State still to provide
shelter to victims of Operation
Murambatsvina, which affected more than 2,4
million people in 2005, it does
not take a rocket scientist to see that
Zimbabwe does not have the capacity
to secure alternative accommodation for
the displaced families.
A number of schools have opened for the second term
without teachers who
fear for their lives. The country, in the throes of a
massive brain drain,
might lose more teaching staff to greener pastures
unless the powers-that-be
decisively deal with the violence compromising the
safety of children in
schools.
Productivity in industry and on the farms
has hit rock bottom as workers who
feel targeted by the marauding militia
sought sanctuary in areas and places
considered safe.
Despite the
condemnation of the violence internally and externally, the
powers-that-be
have been conspicuous by their silence. No one in the
presidium, for
example, has come out in the open condemning the pugnacious
acts or issued
stern warnings against those caught on the wrong side of the
law.
The job
has been left to political nonentities whose standard reaction has
been to
blame everyone else for the violence except themselves.
In the court of
public opinion, the silence of the powers-that-be is tacit
endorsement of
these acts of barbarism.
Churches and civic organisations should be commended
for debunking the see
no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil syndrome that
characterises the
country’s politics.
One hopes that the evidence being
gathered by civic society would one-day
result in the perpetrators of the
violence and their sponsors facing the
full wrath of the law. Judgment day
shall certainly come.
As the violence escalates, it is possible that it might
assume a life of its
own to the extent of getting out of control.
We fear
Zimbabweans could be playing into the hands of political
opportunists who
would want to safeguard their positions in government by
pushing for a state
of emergency, which would be the last straw for the
country’s tottering
economy.
Yesterday’s state-owned Herald carried a curious story quoting the
obscure
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Justice lobbying government to declare a state
of
emergency, ostensibly to safeguard lives and property.
Government is
in the habit of “planting” stories in the state media to gauge
the public
mood and justify its actions and one hopes whoever is driving the
state-of-emergency agenda will have a rethink and spare a thought for the
country’s economy.
Perhaps the time is now to embrace the free advice
given by central bank
governor Gideon Gono, who fears the worst could befall
the country’s economy
in the event that the protagonists in the Zimbabwe
crisis fail to agree on a
pre-runoff PACT.
“The realities on the ground
and the intrinsic risks the nation faces at
this juncture do impel that
sober consideration be given for the
establishment of a mutually binding
pre-runoff PACT, spelling out the
expected behaviours of both parties,
whoever emerges the winner or loser in
the runoff,” he said. “To each party,
ZANU-PF and the MDC-Tsvangirai, the
PACT would spell out the dos and don’ts
to either side post the runoff date
and the post announcement of the
results,” he added.
In our opinion, ZANU-PF and the MDC should also agree on
what should
constitute a free and fair election before, during and after the
runoff.
The PACT should compel leaders from both parties to speak out against
violence in word and indeed, while welcoming observers from any part of the
world if they have nothing to hide.
Gono’s refreshing views need debating
in an honest and sincere manner.
Zimbabweans should rise above parochial
sectional interests if the country
is to move forward.
Whether the
victims of the violence belong to ZANU-PF, the MDC or Mavambo
does not
matter. The bottom line is that the victims are Zimbabweans and the
loss of
life of one is a loss to everyone.
We liked the maturity displayed by
Welshman Ncube after his loss in the
March 29 elections.
He said: “We are
democrats in words and in deed. The people of Bulawayo made
their choice. We
might disagree with that choice, but we fully and
unconditionally respect
their sovereign right to make that choice…they had
all the information
before them and made the selection they did. We cannot
second-guess them at
this particular historical moment. That was their
choice and we fully accept
it.”
Surely, our political leaders must subscribe to fair play and be ready
to
accept the outcome of any electoral process they submit themselves to or
quit politics if the “kitchen is too hot”.
The unfortunate culture
permeating the country of senseless bravado as
demonstrated by some
political minnows while the proverbial Rome is burning
does not hurt Britain
or the United States as ZANU-PF propagandists would
want Zimbabweans to
believe. It hurts Zimbabweans and dims prospects for
future generations
while driving a wedge between the people and the leaders
whom they voted
into office.
Sanctions have nothing to do with people’s will
FinGaz
Mavis
Makuni
ONE of the most unfortunate aspects of the Zimbabwean situation is
that the
authorities have taken to believing their own virulent propaganda.
The
tragedy is that, on the basis of this self-delusion, they then embark on
ruinous actions and policies under which the heaviest price is exacted from
the ordinary man and woman.
One of the most deceitful pieces of
propaganda pertains to the targeted
sanctions imposed on top government
officials and the ruling elite by the
United States, Britain, the European
Union and their allies. The biggest
falsehood peddled by the establishment
is that these measures, which impose
travel and other restrictions on the
targeted individuals, represent a total
trade embargo such as the one
imposed after the Ian Smith regime declared
independence unilaterally in the
1960s. Zimbabwean officials resort to
making this false claim in the hope
that by citing sanctions, they can dupe
the populace and the world at large
into exonerating them for the economic
collapse and anarchic conditions and
other crises sparked by their
mismanagement, greed, corruption and brutal
governance.
It has come as no surprise therefore that the political party
that has
governed the country since independence in 1980, in its irrational
refusal
to accept the will of the people as expressed in the March 29 polls,
is now
bringing sanctions into the equation. The state press reported on
Monday
that in response to calls for international observers to be invited
to
observe the presidential run-off, the government is insisting that these
will only be welcome if targeted sanctions are lifted.
Out-going Justice
and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa who
now heads a ZANU PF
media sub-committee was quoted as saying:
“We will not allow them (Western
countries) because they are ‘players’. We
will think favourably of them if
they lift sanctions. Until they do that,
there is no basis to have any
relationship with them.” Chinamasa also
attacked Zambian president Levy
Mwanawasa for failing to urge the United
States and Britain to lift the
targeted travel bans and other restrictions
imposed on the ruling elite.
Chinamasa claimed, incredibly, that the
electoral playing field was heavily
tilted against ZANU-PF because
international media such as the BBC, Sky
News, CNN and what he described as
pirate radio stations, reported in favour
of Morgan Tsvangirai’s formation
of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC-T).
Chinamasa’s outbursts give a clear idea of how wide the chasm is
between
ZANU-PF’s conception of elections and the understanding Zimbabweans
and the
rest of the world have of the same process. This is that what counts
when an
election is held is respect for the expressed will of the people,
which,
ZANU-PF has refused to do. Chinamasa has not bothered to tell the
world how
the BBC, Sky News, CNN and other international media organisations
can be a
factor in local elections in which only Zimbabweans vote. He has
not
explained whether these media organisations, which in any case have so
far
been banned from reporting from Zimbabwe under the draconian Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), are registered to vote in
any constituencies in Zimbabwe. If they are not, how can their activities
have any impact when ballots cast by Zimbabweans are tallied?
It is
telling that Chinamasa’s tirade and fulminations against Western
countries
are in response to opposition calls for conducive conditions to
ensure that
Zimbabweans can vote in the presidential run-off in a free and
safe
environment. The opposition has called for the presence of
international
observers among other things to ensure that voters are
protected against the
brutal violence they are currently being subjected to
as punishment for
voting against ZANU-PF on March 29.
Chinamasa’s harangue against imaginary
enemies at the press conference at
which he made the allegations referred to
above confirms once more that the
only thing that matters to ZANU-PF is
winning at any and all costs. All they
are concerned about is for life to
continue to be effortlessly opulent for
ZANU-PF bigwigs at the expense of
the rest of the people, hence, according
to Chinamasa, a loser on March 29,
the safety and security of the Zimbabwean
electorate must be bartered for
the lifting of targeted sanctions. Western
countries should agree to lift
the targeted sanctions which have deprived
the ruling elites of the freedom
to undertake endless junkets to European
capitals and hey presto, those
countries are back in favour with Zimbabwean
authorities! What lofty
revolutionary principle is being applied here?
Chinamasa’s whining about
sanctions shows that the conditions ZANU-PF is
setting for the involvement
of international observers in the run-off are
not underpinned by any
considerations other than self-interests and
self-preservation. The
out-going ruling party is, in a sense, saying to the
West, if you do not
lift the targeted sanctions to make things nice and cozy
for the politically
powerful and well connected, we will not lift the
jackboot under which
innocent villagers are being brutally crushed for
voting for candidates of
their choice in March.
Chinamasa’s angry outbursts are in a way an admission
that his party is
responsible for the retributive violence ravaging the
countryside despite
ill-founded attempts by him and the police to deny the
brutal realities on
the ground. Lately the police have resorted to refuting
reports of
opposition supporters being killed by claiming that the victims
had died of
AIDS or HIV-related illnesses and have quoted postmortem reports
to buttress
their claims. How very convenient. The only problem is that
there is nothing
to stop the country’s notoriously trigger-happy law
enforcement agents and
ZANU PF militias on the rampage in the countryside
from battering terminally
ill people and then advertising the victims’
postmortem reports to exonerate
themselves. It is almost as though the death
of a person from AIDS is
something everyone should be thrilled about and so
what’s all the fuss
about?
And when is violence not violence? One has to
ask the question following a
shameful attempt by officialdom to sweep a
politically motivated atrocity in
Masvingo under the carpet by claiming that
the victim was not an MDC
supporter but a ZANU-PF cadre killed by other
members of the party following
a misunderstanding. This is a self-indicting
utterance that implies it is
acceptable within ZANU-PF to resolve disputes
by killing opponents. If
ZANU-PF supporters can routinely resolve conflict
this way, is it any wonder
that retributive violence erupted nationwide
after the party lost on March
29? This country needs a government that
cultivates an ethos of respect for
the sanctity of life not its
expandability for selfish political ends.
Chinamasa can shout all he wants
but the fact remains that the safety and
security of voters must be
guaranteed in the build-up to and aftermath of
elections. The opposition is
insisting on these safeguards for the benefit
of the electorate. ZANU PF is
resisting them for self-preservation and still
points fingers of accusation
at scapegoats for its rejection by voters. The
bottom line, however, is that
Chinamasa’s insensitive fighting talk is the
most eloquent argument for the
opposition and civic organizations to leave
no stone unturned in calling for
the protection of voters from state
violence.
Feedback: mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
When spin is swallowed hook, line and sinker
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
My colleague, Mohau Pheko, who writes a regular
column in the South African
newspaper, the Sunday Times, appears to have
swallowed the Zimbabwean
government’s propaganda, hook, line and
sinker.
In her column in the May 11 issue of the Sunday Times, Pheko
regurgitates
the ennui-inducing government propaganda themes that
Zimbabweans find so
insulting and patronising so slavishly that with one’s
eyes closed, one
would be excused for mistaking her for a regular government
and ZANU-PF
apologist. If Pheko lived in Zimbabwe and was obliged to endure
watching
state television, listen to state radio and read state-controlled
newspapers, she would know that the propagandists whose spin she so
wholeheartedly regards as gospel truth have no regard for the truth or
realities on the ground.
They aim to befuddle the nation and the world at
large all for one
self-serving purpose: to keep ZANU-PF in power at any cost
so as to
safeguard the ill-gotten wealth and interests of the politically
powerful
and influential at the expense of the rest of the people. Pheko
believes
that Western countries have been hypocritical in singling out
President
Mugabe for demonisation.
“Mugabe, we are made to believe,
unilaterally brought Zimbabwe’s economy to
its knees, bringing about
widespread poverty, a reign of terror and
despotism” she writes using a
malapropism that is ironic not only for
deliberately conveying the wrong
picture but also because of the unfortunate
timing of the expression of
these anti-people-of- Zimbabwe views. Can Pheko
think of another African
country that has attracted so much negative
attention to itself by waging a
decade-long propaganda campaign and war of
words against perceived enemies
in the West? Such a country is not being
singled out, its problems are
self-inflicted.
The people of Zimbabwe have just gone to the polls to express
their will
about how they want to be governed but they are determinedly
being thwarted
by ZANU-PF, which has refused to accept the verdict
pronounced by voters on
March 29. I grant Pheko her right to slam Western
countries for their
hypocrisy where she perceives it but she cannot expect
Zimbabweans to be
thrilled with their wretched lot simply because other
African countries have
not been condemned for their abuses
Unspeakable
horrors in other African countries do not make those in Zimbabwe
right.
Pheko’s railing against the opposition in Zimbabwe for being in
collusion
with the British and Americans is an insult to the people of
Zimbabwe, the
majority of whom voted for the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) in the
disputed March 29 polls. Is she saying Zimbabweans are morons
who do not
know what is good for them?
The role of the media as the watchdog for the
public interest in Africa
should be to campaign for justice, observance of
human rights , democratic
and humane governance and accountability and
transparency on the part of
leaders. The press should not fall into the trap
of condoning or defending
manifest injustices and violations of human rights
on the pretext that worse
atrocities have been perpetrated in other
countries as Pheko has sought to
do.
Pheko’s gripes about the MDC being
responsible for the imposition of
sanctions against authorities in Harare
are naïve, to say the least. She
would not have said the things she said if
she knew how the United States
Congress, the European Parliament and the
United Nations vote for such
measures. Sanctions are a non-violent and
diplomatic tool imposed to press a
particular government to change. The
course this dispensation takes depends
on whether the targeted government
chooses to be reasonable and pragmatic or
hard-nosed and suicidal by looking
at the vested interests of individuals
rather than national
aspirations.
Pheko must not forget that international sanctions are generally
credited
for helping to end apartheid in South Africa more than a decade
ago. “South
Africa’s political and economic isolation combined with the
insurgency , the
un-governablity, definitely stretched the apartheid regime
to the point
where their calculation was that trying to hang on to the
apartheid system
would bring diminishing returns and that it was best to
begin to settle and
go into negotiations”, Francis Kornegy of the
Johannesburg Centre for
Political Studies has said.
As the targeted
measures imposed on individuals in President Mugabe’s
administration cannot
cause rampant poverty, 80 percent unemployment, an
inflation rate of 165 000
percent and the collapse of agriculture and public
institutions, it should
be obvious that other factors are at play. The
people of Zimbabwe attribute
the political and economic chaos in their
country to corruption,
mismanagement, abuse of power, the plundering of
national resources and the
pursuit of populist policies that do not take
national interests and
aspirations into account.
The way the people of Zimbabwe voted on March 29
shows they believe the
solution is a change of government, which is a
perfectly normal, legal and
routine dispensation in a democracy. But like
the mother in the Biblical
story of King Solomon’s wise judgment who wanted
a baby to be cut in half
rather than focus on its survival, authorities in
Zimbabwe are ready to
destroy the country for egotistic reasons..
The act
of changing a government has only been given taboo dimensions in
Zimbabwe
because of the government’s paranoid belief that external plots are
afoot to
effect “regime change” which Pheko has embraced unquestioningly.
But what
does she have to say in defense of authorities in Harare now that
they are
also denying the people of Zimbabwe their sovereign right to elect
a new
government after almost 30 years of un-interrupted one-party rule.?
How are
Western countries to blame for the sovereign will of the people?
Pheko can
afford to portray Zimbabweans as dimwits who do not think for
themselves
until they are “influenced ” by the West because she lives in a
country that
has, since the end of apartheid in 1994 already witnessed a
change of
leadership and is due to see another passing of the baton next
year when
Thabo Mbeki’s second term as President of South Africa ends.
The columnist
made a valiant, patriotic attempt to defend Mbeki’s role as
mediator in
Zimbabwe, which he has claimed is dogged by interference by
Western
countries. Mbeki has not said exactly how these countries are
interfering
and if he is a mediator worth his salt, why he has allowed
himself to be
derailed.. I can tell Pheko that Zimbabweans find images of
Western
diplomats based in Harare showing compassion towards fellow human
beings by
visiting victims of state violence in hospitals more empathetic
and
appropriate than a picture of a spellbound Mbeki arm in arm with
President
Mugabe on his last visit to Zimbabwe at the weekend. That odd
image appears
to represent the full extent of Mbeki’s ability to find a
so-called African
solution to a crisis that has escalated steadily under his
watch for the
last decade.
Feedback: mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
Govt budget off the rails
FinGaz
Dumisani Ndlela Business
Editor
ZIMBABWE’S treasury is reportedly in a quandary over
ballooning costs
triggered by runaway inflation, which has completely eroded
the value of the
2008 national budget, The Financial Gazette can
reveal.
The 2008 national budget amounted to $7.8 quadrillion, or 49 percent
of an
implied gross domestic product (GDP) of $16 quadrillion.
Sources
indicated that much of the budget for the entire year had been
spent, with
the recently held harmonised elections gobbling up a significant
chunk.
Government domestic debt recently spiralled out of control to
reach an
incredible $6.4 quadrillion on April 17, pushed up by mounting
government
spending.
Apparently, much of the expenditure pressure
emanated from the financing of
the harmonised elections held on March 29,
which have accounted for huge
amounts of unbudgeted money due to
inflationary pressures and the absence of
external financial
support.
Former Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi allocated $209 trillion
for the
2008 elections, saying this would fund personnel costs, vehicle
procurement
and other election related costs.
Government debt stood at
$21 trillion at the start of the year.
The government has entirely depended
on domestic sources to finance its
ever-increasing budget deficits,
resulting in increased money printing.
Bilateral and multilateral financial
institutions terminated balance of
payments support to the country over
alleged human rights violations by
President Robert Mugabe’s government,
accused of rigging the 2002
presidential election to retain power.
There
is a stand-off between the Zimbabwe government and the international
community, led primarily by the United States and its allies, over the
recent presidential election, whose results were only released about five
weeks after the poll.
The Movement for Democratic Change alleges that its
leader Morgan Tsvangirai
won the election, but the ruling ZANU-PF says none
of the candidate won the
50.1 percent majority needed to declare a winner
under constitutional
amendments made just before the poll.
There are
increasing worries government might be unable to finance a
presidential
election run-off after none of the contesting presidential
candidates
garnered the threshold required by the constitution to secure
victory.
Tsvangirai, who fled the country a week after the elections, has
finally
confirmed his participation in the run-off, and ZANU-PF has said its
candidate President Mugabe is once again ready for battle.
There are
fears that the government printing machine will likely be kept hot
to fund
the election, stoking increased money supply growth, the major
contributor
to the country’s inflation currently topping 165 000 percent.
Money supply
has maintained an upward trend, with latest figures indicating
that it
jumped from 1 638.4 percent in January 2007 to 51 768.8 in November
2007.