Financial Times
By Alec Russell
in Johannesburg
Published: May 21 2007 22:02 | Last updated: May 21 2007
22:02
South Africa has brought together delegates from President Robert
Mugabe's
Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in
a first
round of secret talks to try to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, the
Financial Times has learnt.
Launching a process that South African
sources liken to the clandestine
negotiations that led to the end of
apartheid, officials from Zimbabwe's
rival parties were flown to a lake
resort near Pretoria 10 days ago.
The Zanu-PF delegation of Patrick
Chinamasa, the minister of justice, and
Nicholas Goche, the labour minister,
met first South African officials, and
then had a groundbreaking tripartite
meeting with representatives from the
MDC.
"After a rocky start" the
two delegations agreed to convene again in early
June to confirm the ground
rules for negotiations, said a source close to
the process. Formal talks
between two teams of four delegates would then be
held in the middle of
June, he added.
The revelation of the meeting is the first clear sign of
the urgency in
Pretoria over the crisis across its northern border, since
regional leaders
mandated South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki seven weeks
ago to mediate
between the two sides.
With Zimbabwe's security forces
continuing a crackdown on the opposition,
the MDC's leaders remain deeply
suspicious of Mr Mugabe's intentions and
doubtful that South Africa will
be able to force him to hold free and fair
elections next March, as
scheduled. But news of the start of negotiations
will at least temper the
scepticism that Zimbabwe's opposition and some in
the west have felt about
South Africa's commitment to its mission.
In the past few years as
Pretoria has pursued a policy of "quiet diplomacy",
Zimbabwe's economic
implosion and political repression have intensified. The
official rate of
inflation is nearly 4,000 per cent but the actual figure is
widely believed
to be far higher.
Mr Mbeki last week told parliament that the mediation
was going "very well"
but he would not elaborate.
A key moment in the
process came two weeks ago when he dispatched three top
aides on a secret
trip to Harare where they met Mr Mugabe and his two
vice-presidents.
Zimbabwean sources said Mr Mugabe had reacted furiously
when he received a
letter from Mr Mbeki setting out his plans for mediation.
But after meeting
the South African delegation he appears to have been more
accommodating and
appointed his two negotiators.
The MDC is split into two camps. Each sent
two delegates and both camps have
adopted a common position on the talks.
Their main pre-conditions to take
part in parliamentary and presidential
elections scheduled for March are: an
immediate cessation of violence on the
ground; the appointment of
independent electoral institutions and a vote for
the several million
Zimbabweans who have fled the economic chaos into
neighbouring countries.
Mr Mugabe has not yet publicised his terms. Only
recently Nathan
Shamuyarira, Zanu-PF's spokesperson, said that talking to
the MDC was a
waste of time because it was a "puppet
opposition".
Diplomats monitoring the process cautioned that for the time
being the
negotiations were still just "talks about talks", a phrase used of
the
initial negotiations over the end of white rule in South Africa. All
the
while, one diplomat added, Mr Mugabe's supporters were continuing their
harassment of the opposition.
SW Radio Africa
At the ongoing 41st Session of the African Commission on Human and
People's
Rights (ACHPR) in Accra, Ghana, Zimbabwe's human rights record was
in focus,
with Zimbabwe, as the only individual country added onto the agenda
as a
particular worry of the ACHPR. 1.1 However, in his presentation on the
Human
Rights Situation in Africa (agenda item 4a; statements by State
Delegates)
on Thursday 17 May, the Zimbabwean head of delegation, Honourable
Patrick
Chinamasa, defended the Governments record, including the use of
violence on
and after 11 March 2007. He stated that this must be seen in the
context of
the liberation war and the regime change agenda of the UK and
other Western
powers.
1.2 On Saturday 19.05.07 the Nigerian
NGO Civil Liberties Organisation
delivered a statement on behalf of the
Zimbabwean NGOs with observer status
which the ACHPR issued in response to
threatening statements made by
Chinamasa. In this statement Zimbabwe's
delegation is called on to make a
public statement that they will not subject
any of the participants to
harassment or intimidation on account of having
participated in the
proceedings of the session. Please find attached the
complete statement
presented during the discussion on the Human Rights
Situation in Africa
(agenda item 4d; Statements by NGOs). The Zimbabwean NGOs
chose not to speak
at this agenda point following the Ministers statement.
1.3 Also in
attendance at the ACHPR were the South African based Zimbabwe
Exiles Forum
(ZEF) and the Anti Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT
Southern
Africa). On 18.05.07 they issued a Joint Press Release in response
to
Patrick Chinamasa's statements at the ACHPR. We attach their press
release
entitled "Zimbabwean Minister Patrick Chinamasa must apologise to
Zimbabwean
Human Rights Activists and the African Commission on Human and
Peoples'
Rights for issuing out threats". 1.4 For a fuller account of the
happenings
during Thursday to Saturday find a summary statement by the ZEF
circulated
to Commissioners and delegates.
2.1 At the 41st Session of
the ACHPR, Zimbabwe's Government's state party
report on compliance to the
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
will be discussed, as we
reported in our last mailing of Tuesday 15 May. In
that mailing we presented
the shadow report the Zimbabwean NGOs as presented
at a press conference in
Accra. In addition, Friday 18 May, five
independent human rights
organisations jointly produced a shadow report to
the Commission. All five
organizations contend that the government of
Zimbabwe has failed to respect
and protect the rights contained in the
African Charter. To read the report
in full, please follow this link:
http://www.ibanet.org/images/downloads/05_2007_May_Shadow_Report_to_the_ACHPR_Zimbabwe_human_rights_in_crisis_Final.pdf
ZIMBABWEAN
MINISTER PATRICK CHINAMASA MUST APOLOGISE TO ZIMBABWEAN HUMAN
RIGHTS
ACTIVISTS AND THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS FOR
ISSUING
OUT THREATS.
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum responds -
http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/ZEF%20Response%20to%20Patrick%20Chinamasa%20report%202007.pdf
Zim Online
Tuesday 22 May
2007
By Patricia Mpofu
HARARE
- Zimbabwean civic rights activists on Saturday declined
addressing the
African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR),
saying they feared
retribution on their return to Harare after a top
government official
accused them of working with the West to oust President
Robert
Mugabe.
In an earlier briefing to the ACHPR on the human rights
situation in
Zimbabwe, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa accused
non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) operating in the country of working
for regime change.
Chinamasa told the commission that Zimbabwe's
political crisis was
because of Western governments he said poured resources
and cash to
political malcontents and NGOs to destabilise the
country.
In a joint statement, Zimbabwean NGOs, who are attending
the 41st
ordinary session of the ACHPR as observers, said they no longer
felt safe to
address the continental rights watchdog in the wake of
Chinamasa's
threatening comments made before the ACPHR itself.
"The remarks by the Minister (Chinamasa) place accredited
non-governmental
organisations from Zimbabwe in a position where they cannot
publicly, and
without fear of retribution, address this Commission, as is
their obligation
in updating the Commission on the current situation
prevailing in Zimbabwe,"
the joint statement read in part.
Among the NGOs that declined to
address the ACHPR are the Media
Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA-Zimbabwe), Human Rights Trust of Southern
Africa (SAHRIT) and the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
The groups said they
could address the ACHPR only if the commission's
Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights Defenders took "all precautionary
measures to ensure that all those
who enjoy observer status and have
participated in this session will not be
subjected to harassment, or attack
on account of their participation,
whether here in Ghana, or upon their
return to Zimbabwe."
It
was not clear on Monday whether the ACHPR would make arrangements
to address
the fears of the Zimbabwean NGOs and ensure they are able to
address the
commission session that is currently taking place in Accra,
Ghana.
Mugabe's government is accused of gross human rights
violations as it
increasingly relies on brutal force to keep in check public
discontent in
the face of an economic meltdown described by the World Bank
as the worst in
the world outside a war zone.
Hyperinflation,
at over 3 700 percent and still galloping, is the most
visible sign of the
economic crisis which has also resulted in unemployment
soaring to over 80
percent and sparked crunch shortages of food, fuel and
foreign
currency.
The Harare administration denies violating human rights
and denies
ruining the economy, saying Western sanctions to punish it for
seizing land
from whites to give to blacks are behind Zimbabwe's economic
meltdown. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 22 May 2007
By Nqobizitha
Khumalo
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe police have defied a High Court order to
vacate a
white-owned farm they seized two months ago and instead have over
the past
week deployed more men at the lucrative game farm in Matabeleland
North
province.
High Court Judge Francis Bere last week ordered the
police to stop
interfering with operations at Portwe farm and that they
should return guns
and farmhouse keys they had unlawfully confiscated from
the owners.
But a week after Bere's order, the police are still camped at
the farm and
in one of the most vivid illustrations of lawlessness on farms
and in the
country in general, the police have over the past week actually
moved more
men onto Portwe farm.
"The situation is still the same,
they have brought in more men into the
farm and they even ordered me to
create more room in my cottage as they said
they were expecting more
personnel to come in next week," said Margaret
Jourbet, the wife of Dave
Jourbet one of the farm directors.
Joubert said their lawyers were
preparing to file a contempt of court suit
against the police, who over the
past few years and with tacit approval from
President Robert Mugabe himself
have defied several court orders they deemed
not to their liking.
The
police first invaded Portwe farm last March arriving in a convoy of 20
marked police cars and declared the farm now belonged to the law enforcement
agency. They chased away foreign tourists who were at the safari lodge on
the farm and seized keys to all the buildings at the farm.
The farm
invasion is the first time that the police organisation has seized
a
white-owned farm.
The Zimbabwe government has expelled more than 90
percent of the country's
about 4 500 white commercial farmers, plunging the
country into acute food
shortages because the Harare administration failed
to give inputs and skills
training to black peasants resettled on former
white farms to maintain
production. - ZimOnline
Public Agenda (Accra)
21 May 2007
Posted to the
web 21 May 2007
Amos Safo
Accra
The Committee of Experts' Draft
Proposals for Ghana's 1992 Constitution made
cogent remarks about the near
universal acceptance of free expression and
freedom of the press as
fundamental human rights which cannot be traded for
anything.
Paragraph 180 reads "In the modern world, freedom of
thought and expression,
including freedom of the press, the rule of law and
the independence of the
judiciary; and fair and free elections are
considered to be the three
pillars on which democracy stands. All these
pillars are interdependent and
interconnected. Destruction of one of them
can undermine the whole structure
of democracy and lead to its
collapse."
Also paragraph 181 states that 'the experience of modern
states has
demonstrated convincingly that in the absence of freedom of the
press and
thought, and an enlightened and vigilant public opinion, a safe
future for
democracy and its success cannot be ensured anywhere. The mass
media, the
press and the platform are means to educate the people and make
them
watchdogs of their inherent rights in a democracy. So vital is the role
of
the mass media that freedom of expression along with that of the press
has
been called 'the first freedom.' Indeed any successful attack on human
rights by governments often starts with a suppression of the freedom of the
press. Once this freedom is dented, governments are free to abuse basic
human rights without any publicity and frequently with impunity. It is the
case that no dictator can tolerate freedom of thought, expression and the
press."
Paragraphs 180 and 181 which were eventually enshrined in the
1992
Constitution of Ghana formed the basis for the current press freedom
and
free expression Ghanaians are enjoying; though it must be pointed out
that
many journalists and Ghanaians are making irresponsible use of the
'first
freedom.'
The irresponsible use of free expression should not
be the stepping stone
for any government to muzzle the press and dissent.
This unfortunately is
what is happening in Zimbabwe, a country that held so
much promise at
independence in 1980. The thrust of my argument is that
injustice anywhere
is injustice.
During the recent NGO Forum, a
delegation from the Media Monitoring Project
of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) outlined how
the ZANU FP government under Robert Mugabe
has systematically stifled press
freedom and free expression.
According to Abel Chikomo, Advocacy
Coordinator of MMPZ, Zimbabwe's media
landscape is skewed heavily in favour
of state-owned media. The government
solely runs the broadcast media and has
defied all logical reasoning to open
up the airwaves for private
participation.
He said Mugabe's heavy-handedness against private media
started with the
promulgation of the 'Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act
(AIPPA), which criminalizes journalism and open dissent. The
first casualty
of this dreadful act was the Daily News, which at the time
was the only
independent newspaper in Zimbabwe. The sister paper of Daily
News, the Daily
News on Sunday, the Tribune and the Weekly Times were the
next casualties.
AIPPA makes it criminal for anyone to publish cabinet
deliberations until
after 25 years. This means Zimbabweans can never know
how decisions are
arrived at and how government business is conducted. Given
the provisions of
the AIPPA until Mugabe is dead, virtually nothing can be
written about his
rule. He and his government are not accountable to the
people of Zimbawe.
That is sad and had made nonsense the African Peer Review
Mechanism to which
Ghana, South Africa. Rwanda, Kenya etc have subscribed
.
In addition to stifling the media, the government's central
intelligence
agency used AIPPA to take over the Daily Mirror and Sunday
Mirror, both
privately own newspapers which were published by intelligence
unit until
they were closed down recently for lack of funds.
A
Broadcasting Service Act, which gives monopoly to ZBC was recently
declared
illegal by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. In reaction, the
government set up
a board to licence broadcast media, but since 2001,not
even a single private
radio or TV has been licensed.
The Public Order Security Act was the next
punitive legislation to take its
toll on the media. According to Chikomo
under this law, no one can publish
anything derogatory of the president or
his office which is likely to cause
disaffection for the president or any
member of the security forces. This
law is so vague that if anyone coughs,
either in a public transport or in an
office in a manner that does not
please the president or any of the security
forces, it could be interpreted
as derogatory. Such a law is no doubt open
to abuse.
Independent
journalists are referred to as 'terrorist of the pen.' Little
wonder some of
the finest journalists in Zimbabwe have fled the country for
fear of their
lives. Recently Edward Chikomba was allegedly abducted and
later found
dead.
Chikomo says a new law ,'Interception of Communication' will soon
be passed
to empower the government to intercept communication either by
post or via
the internet. If this bill becomes law, there will be no
alternative media
in Zimbabwe, since the internet has become the only means
of communication
and social mobilization.
Mugabe and his advisors
must have realized the threat the internet poses to
their zeal to control
information. And their fear is quite understandable.
The net is generally
used as an extension of everyday relationship,
providing a way of staying in
touch with friends and relatives, much like
the phone and in the past, the
mailed letter.1
Larry Gross reveals the growing importance of the net in
providing a source
of identity and moral support for isolated people. In the
case of
oppression, the net simply provides an escape route.2
Given
the terrible state of the Zimbabwean press, Africans and the world at
large
cannot turn their backs on Mugabe who has stolen the 'first freedom'
from
Zimbabweans. The AU must act in the interest of Zimbabwean people and
their
journalists.
In a resolution adopted on May 14, the committee on
Zimbabwe;
(1) Condemned the increasing violence, human rights violations
and selective
application of the law perpetrated against human rights
defenders in
Zimbabwe;
2. Called upon the government of Zimbabwe to
desist from harassing,
intimidating, assaulting, arresting and detaining
human rights defenders,
including members of the legal profession who
protect and promote the rights
of human rights defenders,
3. Insisted
an environment where the independence of the legal profession
will not be
compromised in anyway;
4. Demanded that the government of Zimbabwe
respects judicial processes; in
particular ensuring the enforcement of all
court orders by the authorities;
5. Urged the government of Zimbabwe to
comply with its obligations as
articulated in the African Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights, the
Principles and Guidelines on the Right to A Fair
Trial and Legal Assistance
in Africa, the UN Declaration on Human Rights
Defenders and other
international human rights instruments;
6.
Pressed the government of Zimbabwe to implement without further delay the
recommendations contained in the African Commission Report of the
Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe;
7. Called upon the African Union
(including SADC ) to insist that the
government of Zimbabwe implement the
recommendations of the African
Commission and stipulate specific time frames
for compliance with
recommendations;
8. Encouraged Civil Society,
including democracy movements, women's
movements, students and youth
movements, workers' movements, grassroots
leaders and professional bodies to
cohere their inter-dependent programming
to ensure a systematic and
sustained oversight over the state of compliance
or non-compliance by the
government of Zimbabwe with the aforesaid
resolutions of the
AU.
(Footnotes)
1 John Gray, After Social Democracy (Demos, 1996),
cited in Power Without
Responsibility. Curran, J et al
2 Gross, L.
(2003). 'The Gay global village in cyberspace', in Couldrry, N.
and Curran
J. (eds). Contesting Media Power. Boulder, Co, Rowman
&Littlefield.
Financial Times
By Alec Russell
Published: May 21 2007 03:00 |
Last updated: May 21 2007 03:00
The people of Nswazwi are once again on
the move. Three decades ago their
tiny settlement of thatched mud huts, a
few miles from the border with
Botswana, was caught up in Zimbabwe's
liberation war. Many residents fled
across the frontier before returning
home to enjoy the fruits of freedom.
Now, again, abandoned huts and empty
kraals (enclosures) testify to an
exodus.
Since the days of
Lobengula, the 19th-century Matabele king, lustrous cattle
have grazed in
this remote corner of Zimbabwe. But now food stocks are
running low; the
average household income is a few US dollars a month; and
the intimidation
from the regime is intensifying. Those who remain are
clearly struggling.
Local tracks are dotted with people who cannot afford
the bus fare to the
local town. And so they walk for hours in the sun,
bearing scraps of food
that they hope to sell or barter - and this in a
country that was until
recently dubbed the bread-basket of southern Africa.
These are tense
times. Few people talk openly to strangers, lest agents of
the feared
Central Intelligence Organisation are watching. Hidden behind the
corner of
a cattle kraal, a young girl said she wanted to speak out. "There
are so
many who are going," she said. "They say they will come back one day
but I
don't think so. It is so difficult to get food now. We are finishing
off
last year's maize and then we will have no stocks."
The situation in
Nswazwi is mirrored across Zimbabwe, where security forces
tightly monitor
the main roads and most journalists, including this
correspondent, have to
operate undercover. "Every year we say this must be
the end," said a veteran
of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), who acted as a guide
for the FT. He recalls how his first car cost
$Z5,000, a thousandth of what
half a tank of petrol costs now - or rather
what it cost when he spoke, for
the next day the prices went up. "Mugabe
can't last much longer," he added.
"Or maybe he can . . . "
In the latest grim signal of Zimbabwe's
vertiginous decline, the official
rate of inflation was last week put at
3713.9 per cent. Economists believe
it may be much higher. With unemployment
at over 50 per cent, three or four
million out of a population variously
estimated between 12 and 15 million
have fled the country in search of work.
Perversely, their remittances are a
crucial prop to the regime. Yet the
government blandly delivers statistics
as if inflation were four per cent
and not four thousand.
Gideon Gono, the Zimbabwean central bank governor,
said on Thursday that
inflation had been fuelled by chronic food shortages.
The government
attributes these to the sanctions imposed by the European
Union and the US,
as well as to the drought affecting southern Africa, and
denies a link to
the land expropriations that have led to the near-total
collapse of
Zimbabwe's commercial agriculture. The sanctions include a ban
on arms
sales, a freezing of assets in European banks and a travel ban on
senior
officials in the government and Zanu-PF.
Mr Gono said he would
continue large-scale printing of money despite the
warnings of the
International Monetary Fund that this would merely increase
inflation. "We
offer no apology, we offer no remorse for our intervention in
all spheres of
the economy when we do the unorthodox," he told MPs.
Some commentators
have argued that, such is the economic chaos, the regime
must be near its
"tipping point". But comparisons suggest Zimbabwe may well
fall a lot lower
before this happens. The country is not policed with the
ruthlessness of
Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nor has it been reduced to the state
of Zaire (now
the Democratic Republic of the Congo) under its late dictator
Mobutu Sese
Seko. By the end of his ruinous regime in 1997, many roads and
railways
built by the Belgians had been reclaimed by the jungle and visitors
were
routinely fleeced by officials on arrival at Kinshasa's Ndjili airport.
Despite all Mr Mugabe's catastrophic decisions in the past decade or so,
unlike Zaire in its last days Zimbabwe still somehow staggers along with the
odd vestige of normality.
One evening at the Bulawayo Country Club
earlier this month, a young white
couple were discussing their wedding plans
with a caterer. "So do you want
fish as well as pâté?" she asked. "And when
are you going to do the
speeches? Do you want me to wait before bringing in
the meat?" Similar
exchanges have been overheard in the club's panelled
interior for years and
will no doubt be heard for years to come. But the
most myopic visitor or
resident could not now miss the evidence of a society
under terrible strain.
On the fringes of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second
city, queues form outside
shops on the rumour of deliveries of sugar or
other foods. Banknotes are
exchanged in brick-sized wads. Many shops change
prices twice a day. Most
business is done by barter. One world-weary
businessman says that after
years of marriage he has changed his mantra to
his wife. "I no longer say:
'You are spending too much.' I now say: 'You are
not spending quickly
enough.' Whenever we have cash we spend it."
For
seven years since Mr Mugabe first faced a serious challenge to his rule
with
the formation of the MDC, Zimbabwe's opposition has been in a state of
increasing despair. Since 2000 there have been three elections, two
parliamentary and one presidential. With the economy in freefall, each
should have been a stiff challenge for Mr Mugabe. But he won all three
easily, relying on a formula of populism, thuggery and skulduggery at the
polls.
Now more than ever, Mr Mugabe's back is against the wall. His
Zanu-PF party
is in disarray. Ten days ago, party meetings in Bulawayo, an
opposition
stronghold, and the central town of Masvingo broke up in chaos
amid clashes
between supporters of the two factions vying to replace the
president. Also,
his sovereignty has for the first time in his 27 years in
power been
compromised: regional leaders have mandated South Africa to
mediate between
Zanu-PF and the MDC ahead of presidential and parliamentary
elections due
next March.
Yet barring a move from within Zanu-PF -
and insiders suggest that this,
despite the party's unhappiness, is unlikely
for the moment - the earliest
the 83-year-old can be expected to leave
office is after the elections. In
the meantime, the opposition is struggling
to speak with one voice and
overcome regional scepticism as to its viability
as a political force. All
the while, Mr Mugabe's supporters are doing their
best to ensure that it is
in no state to contest the election.
"The
regime has thrown all caution to the wind," says David Coltart, a
veteran
human rights lawyer and a leading MDC MP. "It has been pushed into a
corner
and is now lashing out. As with so many dictatorships, the closer
they get
to the end the more vicious they become. They are deadly serious
now. This
isn't an aberration. This is an attempt to crush the opposition
before
elections."
He was speaking shortly after police beat two of Zimbabwe's
best-known human
rights lawyers in Harare. This was merely the latest act of
state-sponsored
brutality since March 11, when Morgan Tsvangirai, the head
of one of the
MDC's two wings, and other leaders were beaten in the streets
of the
capital. These are dangerous times for the opposition as Human Rights
Watch,
the US rights group, made clear in a report this month that recorded
the
summary arrest and torture of hundreds of activists since the attack on
Mr
Tsvangirai.
Day by day, the fabric of the old law-abiding and
functioning order becomes
more threadbare and people more desperate. Earlier
this month, on Suzanne
Street on the northern fringe of the city hundreds of
people had gathered
outside a high metal gate. Briefly it opened and some
bags were thrown out.
The crowd surged forward. Behind the gate was a
chicken farm. The crowd was
waiting for chicken heads and feet for the pot,
or to sell on. "There is a
new rule," said a pastor watching in dismay. "If
you buy it, don't eat it,
but sell it, make your mark up."
The pastor
was on his way back from delivering food to impoverished victims
of
Murambatsvina (Operation Clear Out the Trash), the government's brutal
2005
campaign to raze informal settlements in the main cities. Hundreds of
thousands of people had their homes destroyed and were then dumped in the
countryside. Now many are eking out an existence on land confiscated from
white farmers a few years ago.
Ten miles outside Bulawayo, Edward
Sibanda, 52, is living on a dusty
five-hectare plot with his wife and four
children. It used to be part of a
successful commercial farm. His experience
highlights the folly and crime of
both Murambatsvina and the expropriations.
A decade ago the commercial
farmers accounted for half Zimbabwe's foreign
currency earnings. Now most of
their land is in small plots and all but
uncultivated. Mr Sibanda ticked off
on his fingers what he needed to make a
go of it: "We have no rain, no
tractors, no petrol, no tools, no
food."
He is one of many who can no longer afford monthly school fees
($Z15,000 -
just over 50 US cents at the unofficial rate) for his children.
Zimbabweans
were long regarded as some of the best educated people in Africa
and in his
early years, Mr Mugabe rightly took pride in his government's
investment in
schooling. Now, a malnourished and uneducated generation is
growing up. A
nurse burst into tears as she described the implosion of the
health service.
"We've got kwashiorkor [a type of childhood malnutrition]
again. I didn't
see it 25 years ago when I was trained. Now you are seeing
the telltale
signs, golden hair and pot bellies."
South African
officials are increasingly concerned about the crisis on their
northern
border. Western criticism of the country's policy of "quiet
diplomacy" over
the past few years has infuriated Pretoria, which argues
that trumpeting its
concern would be counter-productive. But privately,
officials concede the
crisis sends all the wrong signals to the foreign
investors they want to
attract. They also fear it risks overshadowing the
2010 football World Cup
in South Africa, which they hope will be a showcase
for the post-apartheid
state.
Now they are pushing forward with their mediation plans. They have
held
several meetings with the opposition factions and written formally to
Mr
Mugabe seeking his response to their mandate. Meanwhile, western agencies
have done their sums and calculated that the world will need to stump up one
billion US dollars a year for a decade after the regime falls.
The
best-case scenario is for the region somehow to force Mr Mugabe to step
down
in favour of a coalition between reformist elements of the Zanu-PF and
the
MDC. But no one is holding their breath. A senior former cabinet
minister
believes Mr Mugabe has only one goal: to stay until he dies and so
avoid the
risk of prosecution. As a senior opposition figure concedes, Mr
Mugabe knows
all too well that the MDC's promises of amnesty are
meaningless.
"I
think we are in for growing violence and eventually some sort of
conflagration this year, next or even the year after," says one diplomat
with long experience of Zimbabwe. Given Zimbabweans' relative quiescence in
the face of the growing tyranny, until recently that might have been
dismissed as alarmism. Moses Nzila-Ndlovu, an MDC MP, fears that is no
longer the case.
"There are so many people who have been traumatised
and brutalised by
Zanu-PF. If the MDC were cheated at the elections again
there could be
carnage. There is so much anger. And even if Mugabe goes, it
may not end
there. Look at it from the perspective of the ordinary people.
You have a
pot, boiling. Lift up the lid and the steam boils over."
zimbabwejournalists.com
21st May 2007 00:33 GMT
By a Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe will
cooperate with the Southern African Development
Community's (SADC) efforts
to mediate between the government and the
opposition MDC but would not
welcome any "parallel initiatives", state media
reports revealed over the
weekend.
Writing in his weekly Nathaniel Manheru column in the Herald on
Saturday,
presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, said there was no way
the
Zimbabwe government was going to allow opposition parliamentarians from
the
Pan African Parliament (PAP) to come into the country on a fact-finding
mission.
Earlier, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Joey Bimha said
the Zimbabwe
government would cooperate with the SADC-backed mediation that
chose Mbeki
help bring Zanu PF and the MDC together.
"The government
will therefore do its utmost to cooperate with President
Mbeki in his
efforts to carry out the mandate given to him by SADC and will
thus not
entertain any parallel initiatives, wherever they come from," Bimha
said.
But Charamba had nasty words to say about the PAP fact-finding
mission.
Writing in his column about the PAP's decision to go to
Zimbabwe to
investigate human rights abuses, under the sub-heading PAP, My
foot!,
Charamba, whose column reveals the Zimbabwe government's true
feelings on a
number of issues, said:
"Using two of its number --
both drawn from minority opposition parties from
two southern African
countries -- the PAP passes a resolution which empowers
it to send a
deputation to Zimbabwe to investigate anything, everything."
"To say the
resolution drafted by a white MP from the notorious Inkatha
Freedom Party of
apartheid days, gave PAP the widest remit on Zimbabwe, is
to suggest the
resolution had boundaries. It did not."
He continued: "PAP is being asked
to simply come into the country and do all
it wants for the joy of the West
whose spooks guided its MPs. It is
unimaginable to even think that some
Afrikaner belonging to IFP can turn
into a liberator of any black Zimbabwean
here."
The PAP motion was moved by IFP MP Suzanne Vos and was seconded by
Boyce
Sebetela (Botswana). Efforts by the Zimbabwe government to block last
week's
discussions on the crisis-ridden country and the subsequent vote
failed.
Said Charamba in the column: "Come on guys, let's be serious!
Does it have
to be so blatant? But all that is to dignify both the motion
and the
outcome. Does anyone expect the Government of Zimbabwe to allow a
mission of
PAP to do what governments of Africa have not done, namely,
firstly to make
Zimbabwe an issue, and secondly, one resolved by
fact-finding missions of
the nature proposed by the PAP? So the Zimbabwe
government has to allow the
country to be put under the scrutiny of
backbenchers in the name of PAP?
Using which executive powers?"
"SADC
has taken a clear position on Zimbabwe. It has tasked Mbeki as its
point-man. And Mbeki alone it shall be, as Secretary Bimha has made it
abundantly clear.
"Mbeki will report to the SADC's Organ, which in
turn will report to Summit.
SADC will in turn brief the AU. SADC has done
what ECOWAS, itself the
habitat of President Kufour, is still to do in
respect of the Nigeria
debacle. Now, these fame buccaneers who seek to make
names for themselves in
British and American annals want to jump this huge
maxim gun to venture into
Zimbabwe, carrying white ghosts? They can go and
hang on a banana tree."
"But before they do, let them answer this simple
question: is Zimbabwe the
urgent-est, the most-est, the worst-est there is
for PAP? More urgent than
Somalia? More urgent than Nigeria? More urgent
than Sudan? More urgent than
Ethiopia? Or is urgency a matter of countries
where western interests are
read as most threatened? Which makes PAP whose
institution? And no debate on
Britain's reneging on an outstanding colonial
question? Or its support of
opposition politics here?
"No debate on
America's self-confessed meddling in the internal affairs of a
member
country? Instead of debating such crucial matters, PAP decides to be
another
plank of that interference? My foot! I see the PAP president says
Zimbabwe
has not rejected a fact-finding delegation. Well, it has, and let
that
register emphatically.
"No monkey business, we are proud Zimbabweans. It is
an atrocious beginning
for this parliament, one likely to give it a blot of
revilement. Made worse
by the fact that it chose to be the West's Trojan
Horse, when Africa and the
greater part of the Third World were enthroning
Zimbabwe at the UN, against
the stiff will of the West. How back of benches
can one ever hope to be?"
On Friday the MDC said it remained committed to
negotiations with the Zanu
PF regardless of an intensified crackdown in
which many of its members have
been arrested or detained.
The
opposition says more than 600 of its supporters have been abducted and
tortured by government agents since February. It says 150 activists and
leaders, including party president Tsvangirai, have sustained serious
injuries. Mugabe's government accuses opposition activists of unleashing
violence in the townships and engaging in "terrorist" activities, a charge
the opposition denies.
Business Day
21 May 2007
Dianna
Games
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
ZIMBABWEAN who recently visited Harare for the first time in more than
nine
years remarked that the biggest change in the capital over a decade had
been
the increased evidence of wealth.
He mentioned the large four wheel drive
vehicles that ply the roads, huge
mansions in the upmarket suburbs and
supermarkets stocked to the brim with
imported goods. In the 1990s, when the
economy was in better shape, none of
this was a feature of the landscape, so
why now, he asked, when the economy
is at an all-time low? It does not
square with regular newspaper reports
about soaring inflation, declining
incomes, massive unemployment, food
shortages and other negative
indicators.
To find the answer, I spoke to a number of Zimbabweans
about what they
believe is driving this new wealth. Inflation and black
market trading, I
was told. Remittances are also a key factor in keeping the
economy afloat. A
large chunk of Zimbabwe's wealth is outside the country,
taken by departing
Zimbabweans and stashed abroad in hard currency by newly
rich businessmen
living inside the country.
Zimbabweans in the
diaspora are a key source of foreign exchange, the
trading of which has
become the most lucrative game in town. The parallel
rate for hard currency
last week rose to Z$40000 to one US dollar, fuelled
mostly by shocking new
inflation figures putting annual inflation at 3700%.
The official rate
remains at Z$250 to the US currency.
Black market currency trading
has become particularly lucrative for
government officials, who can access
the official rate to change money and
sell it into the black market at a
massive profit. They, along with farmers
and other special categories, can
also buy fuel at subsidised prices and
sell it back into the economy at
market prices.
Quick fortunes have been made by fuel traders since
the government
deregulated the market and sellers can virtually set their
own prices.
People are also making good money - in Zimbabwe dollar terms -
on the stock
market, the preferred place to store money and get a decent
return at rates
ahead of inflation.
A handful of companies,
particu-larly exporters, are making good profits but
company results are
often treated with scepticism as hyperinflation has
allowed creative
accounting. The figures can be tweaked to produce almost
any result.
Treasury bills are a popular way for companies to make money.
With much of
Zimbabwe's manufacturing running at 20% of capacity, there is
just no good
reason to plough profits back into the business.
But wealth creation
is "slowing down", some people say. Supermarkets report
a decline in sales
of expensive luxury goods as even wealthy customers are
forced to use their
money to keep the wheels of daily life turning.
Money increasingly
has to be diverted from buying 10-year-old whisky,
imported shoes and
expensive cars to paying rapidly rising school fees and
keeping up with
massive increases in prices for municipal services and
foodstuffs. Much of
the wealth on show (which is effectively limited to a
handful of the
population - it just seems to be more because it is openly
flaunted) is also
a product of the heady days of a few years ago, when
spiralling inflation
drove massive spending. At today's dizzying inflation
rates, almost everyone
is poorer.
And inflation is not going to slow down anytime soon. The
government's
printing presses are working overtime to prop up its
"quasi-fiscal" spending
on supporting exports, reviving agriculture, keeping
parastatals going,
giving public servants wage increases and so on. With an
election next year,
spending on populist and unproductive priorities can
only get worse.
Economists are predicting six-figure real inflation by
then.
Already the government is setting up an Incomes and Pricing
Commission which
will have sole right to set charges for hundreds of
price-controlled items,
and establish profit margins. Violations will carry
a jail sentence of up to
five years. While the authorities claim that this
is in the interests of the
poor, in effect it will simply create more
shortages of a variety of basic
goods.
Zimbabweans have seen this
movie before. Some bakers have already ended up
in jail for selling bread
above the government price.
With no end in sight to the distortions
in the economy resulting from the
political climate, many people will still
make a lot more money but the
issue is not about their unethical ways of
creating wealth, it is something
much more serious.
The more the
economy benefits these people, the less incentive they have for
supporting
change. That is far more dangerous than flaunting your wealth in
the faces
of an increasingly miserable population.
Games is a director of
Africa @ Work, an African consulting company.
BBC
By Lucy Fleming
BBC News website
Text messages from abroad have never been
received so eagerly by
cash-strapped Zimbabweans.
The "beep beep"
signals an end to hours spent queuing at petrol stations.
"Hey... you
have been sent a Mukuru Voucher for 40 litres of Petrol from..."
reads the
message.
A voucher number follows which allows the recipient to swap the
pin number
for coupons redeemable at certain garages.
This is all the
handiwork of Mukuru.com - a website set up by Zimbabweans in
the UK to help
their fellow countrymen in the diaspora pay for petrol,
satellite TV or
transfer money to their friends and relatives at home.
It properly got
off the ground last year, and its customers are steadily
growing as news of
it spreads.
Little fuss
Within seconds of opening an account and
sending an order to a grateful
guinea pig in Zimbabwe, I received an email
from Mukuru.
"Shamwari Lucy, Uri bho here? (friend, how are you?)" it
began in
conversational Shona.
"Thanks a bunch for using Mukuru.com -
we have sent an email to (your
friend) notifying them of the order
below."
The next morning, another email arrived to tell me the funds had
cleared and
a voucher had been issued.
At the same time, my friend in
the capital, Harare, got a text message and
went off to collect the petrol
coupons - valid for three months. Forty
litres costs $40 - the going black
market rate.
Several days later they went to fill their car, with little
fuss from one of
Zimbabwe's garages allowed to import fuel using foreign
currency.
"I arrived there at 3pm and looked in the book and they must've
sold more
than 500 litres that day," my friend
said.
Groceries
I was left in no doubt about my generosity,
receiving texts to let me know
about every moment of the transaction right
up until the petrol was gushing
into the tank.
For one of the
founding members of Zimbuyer.com - another new website
allowing Zimbabweans
to buy groceries for people at home - this control is
what makes these
services popular.
"They're a lot of people who left Zimbabwe and, for
example, have left their
children over there," he told the BBC News
website.
"But sometimes the money they have sent home for the care of
their children
is diverted into other things.
"With our service,
people buy the stuff - we deliver them to the recipients
so they know that
they're buying."
Shopping on Zimbuyer - run by a team of four in the US
and UK - is like
doing a supermarket shop online in the UK, with a little
less software
finesse.
The prices are marked in British pounds, but
the products are Zimbabwean
staples such as sadza maize, Cashel Valley Baked
Beans and Ingrams Camphor
Cream - delivered to addresses in Harare,
Chitungwiza and Bulawayo.
Lifeline
Zimland.com offers a
similar service for customers from 52 OK supermarket
branches nationwide.
Its website says it gives Zimbabweans abroad "a quick
and efficient way of
ensuring their families did not starve in Zimbabwe".
With Zimbabwe's
economy spiralling out of control, high unemployment and one
of the highest
HIV rates in the world, people in the diaspora can literally
provide a
lifeline.
UK-based Dr Brighton Chireka and his wife Prisca, a nurse, have
set up
Beepee Medical Services, allowing Zimbabweans abroad to pay for
doctor's
appointments, prescription drugs and surgery for relatives at
home.
"Mostly we're running it as a service to help people," Dr Chireka
told the
BBC News website, adding that since its launch last September BPMS
now gets
about two consultation bookings ($30 an appointment) a
day.
"It should be able to pay itself... We've employed people who are
working
full-time in Zimbabwe. This side it's on a part-time basis to answer
the
calls."
Dr Chireka says they have to review their prices every
two or three weeks
because of the rampant inflation which stands at 3,731.9%
- a climate ripe
for a flourishing black market.
This is something
Zimbabwe's no-nonsense central bank governor is keen to
stamp
out.
Legal
Last year Gideon Gono banned several money transfer
agencies, accusing them
of abusing their licences by doing deals on the
black market.
Zimbuyer says their service - which at the moment
attracts about 10
customers a day - is a way around this for Zimbabweans
abroad who are loath
to send money back at the official
rates.
Last week, the black market rate was Z$29,000 to US$1 -
compared to the
long-standing official rate of Z$250 to US$1. This week, the
black market
rate for the US dollar has risen by Z$4,000.
"The
government it is cracking down on the black market or foreign currency
dealers - they buy money in Zimbabwe or take the wealth outside Zimbabwe
which is something we're not doing," the Zimbuyer spokesman - which imports
most of the products - told the BBC.
"I think Zimbabwe would be dead
right now if wasn't for imports - it would
be on its
knees."
Mukuru.com also allows customers to transfer money - at the
black-market
rate - to accounts in Zimbabwe; it has also started this
service to South
Africa.
Their customer service line says a
"dispersment agent" deposits the money in
Zimbabwe.
All the services
are clearly being careful not to antagonise Mr Gono, and
offer tight
security and the online payment system PayPal for their clients.
And as
Mukuru's petrol fame spreads, what are Zimbuyer's most popular
products?
"Cooking oil and sugar - right now we've run out of the
sugar we have it
bought in from Botswana.
"And power generators are
proving popular because the electricity always
goes off nearly every
day."
allAfrica.com
21 May 2007
Posted to the web 21 May
2007
Cape Town
The South African member of the Pan African
Parliament who successfully
proposed that the body should investigate
reports of human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe has denied that the parliament is
backtracking on the decision.
Suzanne Vos, a member of the Inkatha
Freedom Party of Chief Mangosuthu
Buthelezi, was responding to a report in
the Zimbabwe government newspaper,
The Herald, saying the parliament had
deferred until November the adoption
of a resolution on a motion she had
proposed.
In emailed comments to allAfrica.com, Vos said the motion
to send a
fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe had already been passed by 140
votes to 20,
and that the parliament's rules did not require any further
vote.
"I cannot conceive of this parliament 'back-tracking' on any motion
which
was formally tabled, fully debated and overwhelmingly supported," she
said.
"It will now be up to the bureau of the [Parliament] to decide when
this
mission will take place and who will be nominated by them to be
members...
It is entirely up to them to decide on all matters of procedure
and I have
the utmost confidence they will do so as soon as
possible."
The Herald's report suggested that the parliament still had to
decide
whether or not to send a mission.
Vos said she was confident
the government of Zimbabwe would comply with the
parliament's decision.
"Members of parliament from Zimbabwe... have given me
no indication
whatsoever that any moves have been made to 'back-track' on a
motion which
was democratically passed."
HARARE, 21 May 2007 (IRIN) - Surviving the
world's highest inflation rate is
resulting in people ditching their
professions and embarking on work, which
they had never previously
considered.
Mavis, a qualified nursery teacher, has swapped her life as
an educator for
that of a sexworker and now cruises for clients in the
upmarket hotels of
the capital Harare.
"I am a professionally trained
infant teacher, but last year I decided to
quit the profession as the money
that I was earning was not adequate to
sustain myself," she told IRIN. "The
odd tourist is always good for business
because they pay in foreign currency
and they are always very generous with
their money."
Although foreign
tourism has dropped off considerably in the last few years
because of the
country's political and economic woes, Mavis said there was
still a class of
people in Zimbabwe who were able to afford her services and
the best place
to proposition them remained the hotels.
"If I was still working as a
school teacher, I would be earning just over
Z$300,000 (US$7.5 at the
parallel exchange rate of Z$40,000 to US$1) a
month, but now, I can charge
as much as Z$500,000 (US$12.5) per night
regardless of whether the client
wants my services for a short while or for
the whole night."
Mavis
said that the majority of her clients were married men, who had to get
home
to their wives. "When clients cannot be with me for a long time, I can
double my earnings in a single night," she said.
Her new work carries
with it the risk of AIDS, as one in five Zimbabweans
aged between 15 and 49
are infected with HIV. "I would not do anything as
reckless as unprotected
sex. I am an educated person and I know the hazards.
There are some clients
who demand to have unsafe sex and even offer to pay
more but I insist on the
use of condoms or cancel the transaction," Mavis
said.
More than
5,000 teachers failed to report for duty when schools opened for
the new
term two weeks ago.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions estimates in
its latest economic
review that hyperinflation had reduced wages and
salaries to renumeration
received in 1965. An average public servant earns
about Z$300,000 (US$7.5) a
month, while the cost of living for a family of
six for the most basic
requirements, such as rent, food and school fees, is
estimated at about Z$2
million (US$50) a month.
Independent
economists contend that the official annual inflation rate of
3,713 percent
is less than half of the real rate of inflation. In a recent
weekly
newspaper column, economist, Eric Bloch said "With inflation having
soared,
based on the Consumer Price Index (it's) in practice exceeding 8,000
percent." The Consumer Price Index is a measure of price rises affecting a
specific basket of goods.
"The hyperinflation is so pronounced that
an estimated 85 percent or more of
the population is striving to survive
with insignificant incomes, far below
the Poverty Datum Line and more than
half of Zimbabwe's people are suffering
at levels below the Food Datum Line,
being the minimum resources needed to
avoid malnutrition," Bloch
said.
Domestic duties
Sarudzai works as a domestic helper for
three young female journalists,
doing their laundry at the weekends and
general house-cleaning one day a
week. The journalist were initially
perplexed by their maid, as she seemed
"too intelligent" for such menial
work, and became a good source for news
story, particularly regarding the
police.
The conundrum of their maid's life was exposed when the three
journalists
were stopped at a police roadblock and among their number was a
police
officer who looked vaguely familiar: then it dawned on them the
policewomen
was their domestic helper.
After some initial
embarrassment and a mumbled apology from the policewoman,
the coincidence
was to change Sarudzai's life. She resigned from the police
force five
months ago, after her unmasking had led to options for
better-paid
work.
"When I came out in the open with the journalists, they introduced
me to a
lot of their friends who I now do part time work for. I am very
grateful for
the break which they gave me because while I would have been
earning
Z$400,000 (US$10) as a sergeant in the police, I now make Z$3
million
(US$75) a month from doing laundry and cleaning for young
professionals in
Harare," she told IRIN.
The government has said
15,000 public servants have resigned in the past 12
months and half of all
government posts were vacant.
Entrepreneur
Robert Chimedza was at
one time a manager at a Harare hotel, but because of
the dwindling number of
foreign tourists visiting Zimbabwe, his employers
told him and his
colleagues that their salaries would be reduced in line
with the slump in
tourism.
Instead of accepting the lower wages, Chimedza resigned, took
his six-month
redundancy cheque and cashed in his pension. "I pooled my
pension and
requested the salaries in advance and raided the foreign
currency black
market and bought as much foreign exchange as I could," he
told IRIN and
then he left for neighbouring South Africa.
"I had done
my research and established that a lot of companies and
government
departments did not have foreign currency to buy supplies in
South Africa. I
made arrangements with pharmacies to import basic medical
supplies," he
said.
"After selling my products at the prevailing black market rate, I
raid the
illegal foreign currency market, go and buy some goods in South
Africa and
supply local companies because the manufacturing sector has all
but
collapsed and is now dependent on people like ourselves to import basic
products," Chimedza said.
He has no regrets about his decision to
resign from his hotel job and said
his entrepreneurial talents had rewarded
him handsomely, as he now owns a
house in one of the township suburbs and
drives a car imported from Japan.
[This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Solidarity with
Victims of Operation Murambatsvina
THE 18th of May brings back sad
memories of how the government of Zimbabwe
systematically rendered at least
700 000 of its citizens homeless. The
informal sector which had become a
source of livelihood for many in a
country which had over 80% of its
potential labor force unemployed was not
spared by the operation. Many small
to medium enterprises were destroyed as
army trucks, earth moving machines
and bulldozers were driven into the high
density areas, ostensibly, to rid
the country of filth in an operation
codenamed Murambatsvina (Restore
Order).
As the effects of Murambatsvina continue to bite, women and
children are
amongst the hardest hit. The access to anti-retroviral drugs
and the
home-based care programmes were disrupted due to displacement caused
by
Murambatsvina. For them this was a death sentence leading to many deaths
which could have been avoided, had it not been for an insensitive regime,
which cared not for the welfare of people but for the consolidation and
retention of political power, through brutality unexpected from a government
that is already failing to provide anti-retroviral therapy to its people,
and faced with a plunging economy but claims to have its people at
heart.
Murambatsvina 2 Years On!
As we take stock of
Operation Murambatsvina 2 years down the line, we are
confronted with the
reality of whole families (father, mother and children,
some of whom are in
their teens) living in a single makeshift plastic shack
along Mukuvisi
River, stripping them of their human dignity, and exposing
them not only to
cholera and other health hazards but also to a life worse
than they led in
the concrete and brick structures they were living in
before the
operation.
Promises by the government to build alternative
shelter for affected people
in another operation code-named Garikayi Hlalani
Kuhle have come to naught,
as only under 5000 homesteads have been built to
replace over 90 000
homesteads that were destroyed. The few that were built
remain unserviced
with no ablution facilities but also largely available
only to card carrying
members of the ruling ZANU PF party. Operation
Garikayi has since proved to
be nothing more than a public relations stunt
and a poor attempt at covering
what is now increasingly being called,
together with rampant human rights
violations.
Furthermore, none of
the recommendations by Dr Anna Tibaijuka's, the UN
Special Envoy have been
implemented, after the government dismissed her as a
conduit of the
West.
We Remember
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition this year,
as it did last year,
commemorate, with its members and partners, Operation
Murambatsvina over 8
weeks, to among other objectives,
v
Remind the Government that we remember the operation for the loss of
livelihood it precipitated for the majority poor.
v Let the world
know that more people's lives have continued to be destroyed
as a direct
result of Operation Murambatsvina. The commemoration will also
save to
remind each other of the fact that those who orchestrated the
operation,
have not been brought to account for their heinous acts, and that
the full
course of justice has not yet been taken.
The Coalition calls upon
the international community, particularly the
United Nations, Southern
African Development Community (SADC) and the
African Union to reign in on
the government of Zimbabwe known for
instigating gross human rights abuses.
We urge the Zimbabwe government to
implement the recommendations of the
report of the UN Special Envoy Dr
Tibaijuka and to compensate the victims of
Operation Murambatsvina.
Macdonald
Lewanika
Spokesperson
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
19 May 2007
A busy Vigil this week, as we
gathered to commemorate the second anniversary
of Operation Murambatsvina,
the brutal campaign in which Mugabe's troops and
police bulldozed people's
houses indiscriminately throughout Zimbabwe's
urban areas, displacing 700
000 people to an uncertain future and disrupting
the livelihoods of around
2.7 million people. Two years on, most of those
affected remain unaccounted
for.
There was a hard core of Vigil regulars right from the
outset, and some hard
core bricks and rubble, donated by our old watering
hole, the pub formerly
known as Bad Bob's. Appropriately, we used the rubble
in a physical display
of the effects of Bad Bob's Operation Murambatsvina,
along with some very
graphic photographs of the devastation. Many of those
at the Vigil have been
affected in one way or another by this operation, and
one of our documentary
makers will be posting some interviews on YouTube in
the near future - more
details when this becomes
available.
The Vigil attracted some supporters from the very
early days as well as new
people who have recently decided to get active. We
were graced by a couple
of exotic visitors: Maggie Lloyd-Williams, a rising
TV star with strong
Zimbabwean connections came to lend her support. Our
other visitor,
Bouqiriwa the Boa Constrictor from South America, was helping
his handler
collect money for the RSPCA. Boas are very like pythons, so they
are quite
safe as long as they have eaten. Having established that Bouqiriwa
had eaten
two days previously, many of the Vigil supporters including our TV
celebrity
were soon being photographed with the snake draped over their
shoulders.
There were many new songs this week, including a
Liberation-era favourite,
Mbuya Nehanda. It was a good reminder that Zanu-PF
do not own the liberation
struggle. When the singing was at its strongest
and most melodic, people
were lining up three deep to sign the petition.
Sometimes it is hard for
passers-by to realise that what looks like happy
singing is our way of
dealing with the sad times we face. Many songs are
adapted from those sung
at funerals, where the upbeat melody keeps people's
morale and gives them
the strength to fight back. Singing keeps us
strong.
Ephraim Tapa addressed the vigil, telling us that
Operation Murambatsvina
was a chilling reminder that in Zimbabwe we have a
government that does not
look after its own. In the UK if you are poor, or
if you do not have
housing, the State has ways of looking after you. The
papers here have been
full of the story of the disappearance of one little
British girl in
Portugal, which has got everyone involved from the Prime
Minister downwards,
yet in Zimbabwe countless little children are missing,
many of them as a
direct result of the Government's actions, and the State
does nothing.
Ephraim reminded us that the only ones who will look after the
people of
Zimbabwe is ourselves. We must campaign, write letters to our
local papers,
and write to and demonstrate at African embassies here in
London (following
their appointment of Zimbabwe to head up the UN's
Sustainability Development
Commission). It is up to us to save
ourselves.
Next week we will commemorate Africa Day. We hope to
invite people from
other parts of Africa who are suffering from oppression
and human rights
abuses, so that we can strengthen and support one another
in solidarity and
in song.
Zim Online
Tuesday 22 May 2007
Own
Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - A Malawian opposition leader has accused the
government of
President Bingu wa Mutharika of flouting international trade
rules saying
the president had forced the central bank to pay for maize
exports to
Zimbabwe.
Malawi Democratic Party leader, Kamlepo Kalua
told a rally on Sunday that
Mutharika had arm-twisted the central bank to
pay for the maize exports to
Zimbabwe.
"(The) government has taken
US$300 million from the Reserve Bank of Malawi
to pay the National Food
Reserve Authority for the maize it is exporting to
Zimbabwe," Kalua told the
rally.
Under the terms of an signed between Malawi and Zimbabwe, Harare
was
supposed to pay cash upfront before Malawi could deliver 400 000 metric
tonnes of maize to the southern African country that is facing severe food
shortages this year.
Kalua accused Mutharika of bending the country's
fiscal regulations to
please President Robert Mugabe whom he said was his
friend. Mutharika, whose
wife is Zimbabwean, is said to own a farm in
Zimbabwe.
Malawi's deputy agriculture and food security minister Bintony
Kutsaira
dismissed the charge as "baseless" and a "fabrication" saying no
money had
been taken from Malawi's central bank to finance the
transaction.
"The deal was a normal international trade deal signed
between Malawi and
Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean central bank will pay Malawi
some US$120 million
for the maize," he said.
Zimbabwe, which has
battled food shortages over the past seven years, is
again facing a massive
grain deficit this year after only harvesting about
600 000 metric tonnes
against the national requirement of 2.4 million
tonnes.
The main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and major Western
governments blame the food shortages on President Robert Mugabe's chaotic
land reform programme that began seven years ago.
The land reforms
saw the government seize productive farms from the minority
whites for
redistribution to landless blacks slashing drastically food
production on
the farms. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
21 May
2007
After previous stalled attempts, Zimbabwe's three social
partners in the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum, met in Harare Monday, to
finalize the three
key protocols which form the core of the social contract,
namely the Incomes
and Prices Stabilization, the Restoration of Production
Viability, and the
Foreign Currency Mobilization. However, the latter could
not be discussed as
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe did not send a
representative.
Last week, the partners that make up the TNF- labor,
represented by the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, business, represented
by the Employers
Confederation of Zimbabwe, and the government - failed to
agree on an
article on the Incomes and Prices Stabilization Protocol, which
labor
insisted on before all the other protocols could be
discussed.
But Director John Mufukare of the Employers Confederation of
Zimbabwe, told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe,
that business
accepts that it must pay living wages, and is now looking at
how to sustain
it.
Labor representative Godfrey Kanyenze told VOA
that for industries to be
viable, there is need to address the issue of good
governance and the
political risk factor.
By Lance Guma
21
May 2007
The whereabouts of University of Zimbabwe student
leader
Tineyi Mukwewa who was arrested last week has generated immense
concern in
the student movement. On Friday the Zimbabwe National Students
Union issued
an appeal for information from anyone who might know where
Mukwewa is.
Lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have also
been unable to
locate him following searches done at Avondale and Harare
Central Police
stations. Zwelithini Viki, an Information Officer with the
university
student's representative council, told Newsreel on Monday that
the search
for their President was still on. ZINASU has sent out thousands
of alerts on
their e-mail list, requesting information from members of the
public.
Mukwewa was arrested and detained last week Wednesday by UZ
security guards.
He was also served with a suspension letter that was also
handed out to 8
other students including Terence Chimhavi, who was expelled.
The authorities
accused them of masterminding a demonstration that rocked
the campus,
following the disruption of a campaign rally for aspiring
student leaders by
UZ security guards. Riot police descended on the campus
to help crush the
demonstration. The majority of students suspended were
candidates in the
polls. Meanwhile two student leaders abducted at the
Bindura University of
Science Education on Thursday were later found the
following day at Bindura
police station. Moreblessing Mabhunu and Tinashe
Madamombe were released 3
days later on Sunday outside normal police charge
office working hours. No
charges were made and Viki said this probably
explained the decision to
release them on a Sunday.
The impasse
between government and students over deteriorating conditions of
learning
and tuition fees, which were hiked last year, is set to worsen. In
an
article carried by the state owned Sunday Mail, government confirmed
plans
to introduce a bonding system for university and college graduates.
Students
educated through government loans and grants will be compelled to
join the
civil service before being allowed to work in the private sector or
to
emigrate. Authorities want to introduce the system in all the ministries
and
departments that are facing critical manpower shortages. The students
however argue that because they ultimately pay back government loans that
fund their education, the same government cannot bond them over money they
will payback anyhow. The country is suffering a massive brain drain as
people flee a worsening economic and political crisis.
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
diamonds.net
By Avi Krawitz
Posted: 05/21/07 06:01
RAPAPORT...
The current and former operators of River Ranch diamond mine in
Beitbridge,
Zimbabwe, expect to be in court again on June 4, 2007, when
former operator
Bubye Minerals will answer to a charge of stripping the
mine's assets.
Bubye Minerals' husband and wife founders Michael and Adele
Farquhar were
arrested May 21, 2007 and placed in police custody, Rapaport
News has
learned.
Documents obtained by Rapaport News show that the High Court of
Zimbabwe
summoned the Farquhars to appear at the hearing. While the text
failed to
explain the charges they face, the couple's defense attorney,
Terrence
Hussein, claimed they have never been notified by the court of the
charges
they face.
River Ranch Limited's chief executive officer
George Kantsouris, told
Rapaport that the company filed a complaint against
the Farquhars at the end
of 2006 for stripping and externalization of funds
under their management.
In response, Hussein said, "Such charges, we
believe, stem from a period
when the Farquhars were in fact the owners of
River Ranch, thus they are
going to be prosecuted for stealing their own
property."
The latest hearing takes place some three years after Bubye
Minerals was
evicted from the property, or as they claim, militarily and
forcibly
removed.
Ongoing Legal Battle
Bubye Minerals was
appointed to run River Ranch in 1998 when government
liquidators set to
restore the operations due to financial problems by its
previous owner.
Bubye Minerals found investment partners, including Saudi
Arabia's Adel
Abdulrahman al Aujan, and mining commenced.
A series of cost overruns
(and a hurricane flood) however, impacted
production shortly thereafter and
in year 2000 Buybe Minerals secured more
financing from Aujan, bringing his
stake in the mine to 30 percent at the
time.
The relationship with
Aujan turned sour in 2004 after he called in past
loans of about $1.16
million from Bubye Minerals, and brought in Kupukile
Investments - owned by
former parliamentarian Tirivanhu Mudariki and Solomon
Mujuru, the husband of
Zimbabwe's vice president Joyce (Joice) Mujuru. The
loan was not paid in
full, and the present occupants took control of River
Ranch.
Bubye
Minerals management subsequently filed legal action against River
Ranch to
regain control, claiming the mine was taken without just cause, and
it was
so awarded. Since that ruling however, Minister of Mines Amos Midzi
permitted Mujuru's group to hold ownership and in 2006 the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of the River Ranch occupants.
Currently, the parties
await a final verdict from the Supreme Court over an
appeal submitted by
Bubye Minerals to that decision. A verbal ruling
regarding the appeal was
passed in the past two weeks in River Ranch's
favor, for which Kantsouris
said the company awaits written confirmation.
While Bubye Minerals
attorney Hussein confirmed the decision, he explained
that the ruling denied
their appeal to have various documents, including the
stenographer's report,
included in the court record and that he was
preparing an appeal of that
decision. Should such an appeal go in Bubye's
favor, Hussein would then
proceed with the appeal for ownership.
Marketing Mandate for
Grabs
In the interim, River Ranch Limited has continued its efforts to
gain
marketing rights for the rough diamonds it has produced since it
started
mining again in June 2006.
The company has been prohibited
from selling its rough while legal
proceedings continue. Nevertheless,
River Ranch legal advisor George Smith
told Rapaport that the company is
currently in negotiations with the
Minerals Mining Corporation of Zimbabwe
(MMCZ) and is hoping to sign an
agreement in the coming weeks, which would
allow it to start exporting
diamonds.
Given Minister Midzi's previous
recognition of River Ranch's ownership -
following the 2006 Supreme Court
ruling - Smith said, "The Mines Ministry
accepts that we are the legal
owners of the mine and it is not for the
Minerals Marketing board to dispute
that."
A high ranking MMCZ official, confirmed by Rapaport to have
visited River
Ranch this past week, would not comment for this
report.
Hussein meanwhile, pointed to the pending court decision to
refute any
legality to River Ranch's near-term marketing
ambitions.
Smuggling Charges Abound
Pressure on River Ranch to
legally sell its diamonds came under the
spotlight recently when the company
was accused of smuggling its diamonds to
South Africa, using United Nations
Development Fund (UNDP) vehicles.
Hussein issued a formal complaint in a
letter to UN assistant secretary for
legal affairs Larry Johnson on March
26, 2007, saying that the UNDP is
giving advice and assistance to River
Ranch Limited and that UN registered
vehicles are being used at the
mine.
In documents obtained by Rapaport, Bubye Minerals claims it has
proof that
River Ranch Limited used UNDP vehicles, "which contravenes
Zimbabwean law
and international diplomatic protocol." The company said it
has affidavits
alleging that at least one of the vehicles was used to take
diamonds off the
mine and into South Africa, which it can more easily do
since these vehicles
are exempt from search and seizure at border
posts.
The UNDP dismissed allegations that it is involved in any activity
at River
Ranch.
"This erroneous impression of the UNDP may have been
triggered by the fact
that UNDP has a relationship with AMSCO (The African
Management Services
Company,)" the UNDP stated in response to the
allegations.
The UNDP facilitates AMSCO's engagement in the country
through the
government such as the registration of staff and vehicles,
however it has no
involvement with the operations of AMSCO in the country,
the organization
explained.
The UNDP further acknowledged that as
many as five AMSCO professionals have
worked at River Ranch in posts ranging
from managing director to chief
financial officer since 2004, in response to
a request from "the owners of
the River Ranch Limited for AMSCO's help in
resuscitating operations at
River Ranch," UNDP stated.
Among these
are current CEO Kantsouris, who Bubye Minerals claims, was
previously the
personal assistant to Aujan, and subsequently involved in
ousting them from
the mine.
Responding to Hussein's letter, UN assistant secretary Johnson
said, "We
have brought your letters to the attention of the UNDP and we
understand
that UNDP and the International Financial Group of the World Bank
Group and
AMSCO are currently examining the questions you have
raised."
UNDP spokesperson Jabulani Sitholi dismissed reports in the
press that UN
assistant secretary Johnson had initiated an investigation
about the charges
against the organization.
Sitholi noted that the
wording was up for interpretation but that as far as
he knows, no
investigation has been launched.
Meanwhile, responding to the smuggling
charges, River Ranch's Smith was
adamant the mine has the tightest possible
security and that such activity
was near impossible.
"As far as we're
concerned we have the best security arrangements in the
country and it would
be virtually impossible for an individual to get
diamonds out of the sorting
room," Smith said.
KP To The Rescue?
A review team from the
Kimberley Process (KP) is scheduled to arrive in
Zimbabwe shortly and
assesses Zimbabwe's compliance with the KP
Certification Scheme.
Both
Bubye Minerals and River Ranch Limited are looking to the industry body
to
strengthen their claims on the mine.
"River Ranch needs an aspect of
international legality, which they don't get
from the Zimbabwe courts and
they can get that from the KP," attorney
Hussein said.
River Ranch's
lawyer Smith said the company was confident the KP would find
its procedures
and security measures at the mine "squeaky clean."
He added that the mine
has submitted a monthly report to the mining
commissioner detailing every
stone produced at the mine.
KP secretariat Stephane Chardon meanwhile
hinted that the legal goings on at
River Ranch may well be beyond the scope
of the KP. While the review team
is most likely to visit River Ranch, he
explained, its mandate is to assess
whether the system in Zimbabwe as a
whole meets the minimum requirements of
the scheme.
The World Diamond
Council (WDC) too has been cautious over the River Ranch
case and chairman
Eli Izhakoff earlier this year stressed that the WDC would
not get involved
in any internal disputes between private parties.
"The World Diamond
Council has a duty to bring to the attention of the chair
of the KP any
credible reports that indicate a potential breach of the KP
provisions
and/or threatens the effectiveness and credibility of the
Kimberley Process,
which is our industry's primary safeguard," Izhakoff
said. "This is what the
WDC has done. It is for the KP chair and participant
governments to
investigate and, if necessary, to act upon such reports."
While the KP
visit, initially scheduled for the end of May, is now expected
in June, its
timing may prove vital for the Farquhar's, should it coincide
with their
June 4 court hearing.
Hussein, however, said that Bubye Minerals was
concerned it had not been
approached by the KP about the visit and that the
KP's attitude to Bubye
Minerals' claims has been "extremely luke
warm."
"Our feeling is that River Ranch presents too much of a headache
for the
KP," Hussein said. "We are not holding our breath. We can only give
them the
information and pray for the consequences." RAPAPORT
New Zimbabwe
(London)
OPINION
21 May 2007
Posted to the web 21 May
2007
George Mkhwananzi
IN THE Sudan until 2003, it had always
been assumed that the resolution of
the feud between the Arab-led government
of that country and the
Southern-based separatist SPLM would effectively
lead to peace and
tranquillity.
Little did the world suspect that the
people of the Darfur region harboured
deep-seated grievances whose enormity
would sink the country into one of the
most catastrophic crises right on the
stroke of a political deal that
exclusively involved the Arab government and
John Garang's movement.
In Zimbabwe today, the assumption is that any
mediation exercise intended to
resolve the national crisis should be treated
as a bilateral quarrel between
the ruling Zanu PF and factions of the
opposition MDC. This is an extremely
tragical approach to the country's
future stability as it is wrongly
premised on the fallacy that Zimbabwe's
problems started in 1999.
When the MDC euphoria swept across the country
in 2000, there was already a
resolve in Matabeleland to review the region's
status as a province of
Zimbabwe and it was becoming increasingly clear that
its marginalisation
emanated from a unitary constitution that concentrated
all power to the
Mashonaland provinces.
The formation of the Forum
Party in 1994 and the revival of ZAPU in 1999
strongly reflected this aspect
as they both advocated a federal
constitution. More importantly, the MDC
storm found in Matabeleland a hard
layer of discontentment that stretched
beyond the 1990s issues of economic
mismanagement and bad governance. These
were issues of a misdelivered
independence and the genocides perpetrated
against the people by the Zanu PF
regime.
It should be clear that the
white settler regimes took many decisions on
behalf of the indigenous people
which in most instances were unpalatable.
They are the ones who decided that
Matabeleland and Mashonaland be merged
into Rhodesia in 1895. They are the
ones who decided that Rhodesia should
not join the Union of South Africa in
1923. They are the ones who decided to
form the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland in 1953. They are the ones who
decided that Salisbury be the
capital. They are the ones who decided that
the country's constitution be
centralist (a bambazonke constitution). All
these decisions were being made
for the convenience of colonial
administration and capitalist exploitation
without regard to African
preferences.
Regrettably, the desire to
acquire independence tended to overlook these
historical factors resulting
with gruesome experiences being witnessed after
independence. Signals during
the course of the struggle indicating that
there was a divergence of visions
amongst the nationalists on tribal grounds
were ignored. When ZAPU split in
1963, it was an illustration that not even
such a grand cause could unite
the two peoples. Other such abortive attempts
to unite included the 1972 ZLP
fiasco, the 1976 ZIPA collapse, the 1979 PF
disaster, the 1980 GNU break-up,
the 1995 Forum Party split, and the 2005
MDC split.
All these are
symptoms of an incompatible nation pretending that it is one
when in fact
pursuing fundamentally different agendas. There is clearly an
unresolved
colonial question which politicians appear to be too embarrassed
to
countenance. There is no proof that before colonisation, Matabeleland and
Mashonaland were one country. Inheriting a colonial legacy of a one Rhodesia
was double standards for Zanu PF and its British handlers in 1980. Without
proper appreciation for historicity, the British handed over the colonial
status of Matabeleland to black colonisers and called it
independence.
When Robert Mugabe created the Five Brigade in August 1980,
three months
after being granted independence in April, he was very clear
that this was a
campaign to subjugate a historically independent nation and
prepare it for a
new colonial status under his government. Zanu PF rule in
Matabeleland or
any other future Harare-head quartered party remains
illegitimate. Reality
has demonstrated that such parties are unanimously
agreed that access to
power, resources and opportunities should be
barricaded from a Matabeleland
man or woman.
Now that President Mbeki
has decided to engage only these 'opposam' parties,
will Zimbabwe's crisis
be explored beyond the manufacture date of the MDC?
Zanu PF and MDC
curiously exude the same order. They are both centralist.
They are both
tribalistic (no Ndebele qualifies to lead the respective
parties). They are
both suffering from an ideological crisis. They are both
linguistically
chauvinistic (their presidents address meetings in
Matabeleland in
Shona).
There seems to be a dangerous political hallucination amongst
some Ndebele
people in thinking that issues of justice should wait until
Zanu PF is
removed from power. They forget that Chief Khayisa Ndiweni was
told the same
story by Joshua Nkomo before Ian Smith was removed only to
discover that
they had aided a much more brutal, hungrier and numerically
superior
adversary into power.
The Zimbabwe crisis should not be
considered resolved until it is forced to
accommodate the Matabeleland
question. Part of the package should include
adopting a federal constitution
that recognises that Matabeleland is an
equal partner with
Mashonaland
The constitutional framework should ensure that resources,
opportunities and
power are distributed equally between the two regions
regardless of
population and size. There should be a 50-50 representation in
parliament as
in the case of the Hutu and Tutsi in Burundi. The presidency
should be a
rotational one between the two territories. These are notes that
President
Mbeki ought to familiarise himself with before he could possibly
turn
Zimbabwe into another Sudan.
George Mkhawanazi is the National
Vice Chairman of the National
Constitutional Assembly and writes in his
personal capacity.
zimbabwejournalists.com
20th May 2007 23:59 GMT
By Chenjerai Chitsaru
THERE can be no
guarantee that there are many Zimbabweans today who remember
Nicolae
Ceausescu.
The Rumanian communist dictator was a great friend of this
country. Perhaps
that is an exaggeration; he was a great friend of Zanu
PF.
Economic co-operation between the two countries included a glass
factory in
a town in Mashonaland West. Little has been heard of it since
Caeusescu's
execution by his
own people in 1989
Yes,
unfortunately, this great friend of Zanu PF, along with his wife,
Elena, was
executed by Romanian soldiers. There is no need to speculate on
the reasons
for their drastic action against a man who had once been
glorified as a
saviour of his people.
In short, the same people who had so idolised him
turned into his worst
enemies. They transformed their hatred into the
ultimate act of retribution:
they snuffed out his life, and that of his
wife.
Some trivia: in 2002, the new Romanian government held an auction
of his and
his wife's clothing. They must have suspected there were citizens
who
thought these articles of clothing had sentimental value, as some people
have bought symbols of Nazism.
Unfortunately for Ceausesceu, not one
item was bought.
If, like me, you have followed events in Romania so many
years after the
death of this dictator, you will have read the amazing story
of the
suspension last month of the president, Trainan Basescu, by the
country's
Parliament.
He was accused of abusing his powers. But last
week, there was a referendum
in which the people apparently overturned the
suspension and reinstated
their beloved president.
An incidental
detail here: the turnout of voters in the referendum was so
low, Basescu's
opponents, supporters of the prime minister, Calin Popescu
Tarlceana,
maintained he did not enjoy the overwhelming support of the
people.
Needless to say, all these events would have been incredible
during
Ceausesceu's brutal reign. All those opposing him would have been
executed.
Another incidental detail: at its height of popularity, the then
united
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) contemplated the impeachment of
President Robert Mugabe.
Then, without a satisfactory explanation
they dropped the plan. Speculation
is that if they had gone ahead with the
action, the party would not have
split in 2005, over a non-issue such as to
participate or not to participate
in the Senate elections.
Why do I
have the sneaking suspicion that there are similarities between the
old
Romanian regime and the present Zanu PF government, particularly in the
propaganda which portrays all who disagree with the regime as
"enemies"?
All this must remind people of the events leading up to the
Rwanda genocide
of 1994. There was an intensive hate campaign against the
minority Tutsi,
the dominant ethnic group in the structures of power in that
small country.
Some historians have blamed the Belgian colonial masters
for creating this
tragic imbalance. Yet the ultimate blame must lie with the
leaders of the
country: how could they, on the basis of this stupid creation
by the
Belgians, decide to kill nearly one million of their
compatriots?
Had the ethnic Hutus always felt this deadly hostility
towards the Tutsi, or
were their passions inflamed by the "hate" campaign
launched by such Hutu
groups as those which later coalesced into the
murderous Intarahamwe?
In Zimbabwe, there have been similar campaigns
against, not just the
Movement for Democrastic Change (MDC), but also
against the independent
media, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the
lawyers, independent bank
executives and other citizens who have, through
their own sweat - and
without the help of Zanu PF - established successful
commercial and
industrial entities.
The government media, in a hardly
disguised campaign, has launched such a
vicious "hate" crusade against all
those perceived as "enemies of the
state", the gullible among the people may
actually decide that a call to
"crush" them could have merit on the basis of
saving the country from being
"recolonised".
Let's not forget that in
1994, before the genocide itself occurred, not many
people outside Rwanda or
even in the country itself realised how potent the
propaganda against the
Tutsi in newspapers and on the radio would be in
unleashing the violence
that culminated in the equivalent of an African
holocaust.
There are
leaders in Zanu PF, unaffected so far, by the obsession to cling
to power
regardless of the terrible damage to the economic and political
well-being
of the country, who know what must be done.
It is to convince the top
echelon of the party that Zanu PF has committed
tragic mistakes in the
running of this country. It cannot cover them up by
killing or harassing
journalists, lawyers, trade unionists or independent
bankers and other
captains of commerce and industry.
If the party now recognises its utter
helplessness, it is futile to pretend
that either the "Look East" policy or
Gideon Gono's ridiculous gymnastics
with the value of the Zimdollar alone
can be a sureifre panacea.
In the absence of an amelioration of the
relations with the rest of the
world, politically and economically, the
descent into a political and
economic abyss is all but guaranteed.
An
aspect of the equation to a lasting solution to the imbroglio has been
the
idea of an amnesty for all those who committed atrocities during Zanu
PF's
reign. This must be premised on the hope - some would call it a forlorn
hope
- that all citizens are ready to forgive and forget the killing of 20
000
people, most of them unarmed during the campaign known as Gukurahundi.
A
truth and reconciliation exercise similar to South Africa's might salve
the
consciences of many. Yet what message does it send to ordinary people:
that
leaders can make these tragic miscalculations, but cannot be held
responsible for them, in the interests of sparing the nation the trauma of
retribution?
On the basis that South Africa today is relatively
peaceful and enjoying
fairly stable race relations, this would be an
attractive alternative to
holding "Nuremberg trials".
I think what has to
be recognised is that there is more than politics
involved here. It is not
improbable that the leadership, which most people
have targeted as having
vandalized this country politically may have
performed similar damage to its
resources.
The evidence is everywhere and most of it provided by the
leadership itself.
How many times has President Mugabe himself publicly
castigated his
colleagues for virtually "stealing from the
people"?
Years ago, he alleged there were leaders who were taking ten
percent of each
tender granted to a contractor by the government? There is
still scant
evidence that any of these corrupt leaders were eventually
flushed out and
consigned to the dust-heap of political oblivion which they
so richly
deserved.
There is even more serious doubt that the filthy
lucre they gathered was
restored to its rightful owners - the people living
their lives with little
water, power, food, jobs or good health.
So,
what you have are people at the top who have amassed incredible wealth,
most
of it illegally, who still have the political clout to terrorise honest
public prosecutors with threats of physical liquidation of they don't drop a
case which might link the top people to crimes.
None of them would be
inclined to give up power, unless they were assured
they would retain their
ill-gotten loot.
Meanwhile, where does that leave the rule of
law?
What most people would find less painful would be a condition of
amnesty
providing for the recipient of such national generosity restoring to
the
people EVERYTHING they plundered, including mansions, cars, businesses
and
farms.
Few people would accept a complete amnesty, allowing the
criminals and
looters to walk the streets as free as the birds, flaunting
their wealth as
if they sweated blood for it.
Zimbabweans are no
different from the Romanians who turned against a man
they had glorified as
their saviour and got rid of him and his wife as if
they were no better than
worthless curs.
Today, the number of people enduring the real pain of
acute deprivation is
so high Zimbabwe can be characterised, figuratively, as
one big sore thumb
in five healthy fingers.
What most people are
aware of is that not everyone is suffering. Every day
they see the
brand-new, expensive cars on the roads of Harare; they see men
and women
entering five-star hotels, dressed in Pierre Cardin suits and mink
and fur
coats - these are Zimbabweans, not foreigners or diplomats.
They must
wonder which part of Zimbabwe these people come from, not the same
country
as they inhabit, a country with little that makes their independence
materially or even spiritually meaningful.
The Australian
James Allan
When outlaws run UN committees, global community is a dubious
concept
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May
22, 2007
LISTEN carefully and you will hear regular appeals to "the
international
community" or to "the UN" or to "what the rest of the world
thinks". These
sort of appeals pop up when the speaker happens not to like
some outcome
produced by the democratic process here in Australia.
So the
speaker might dislike some outcome having to do with rights, or with
labour
standards, or just about anything really. And rather than go through
the
hassles and hard work of actually changing the minds of some of his or
her
fellow citizens, this speaker appeals in some grandiose way to what "the
international community thinks" as though that were self-evidently good and
the end of the matter. Personally, I think a fairly large dose of scepticism
is warranted.
Start with the UN itself. The old UN Commission on
Human Rights was
dismantled in June last year for being ineffective, biased,
ridiculous: take
your pick. In its place we have the UN Human Rights
Council, with 47 member
countries. And in its short lifespan it has already
made nine resolutions
criticising human rights abuses.
Sounds good,
right? Well, not one of those resolutions was critical of Sudan
(over
Darfur), or Zimbabwe, or China, or anywhere, save Israel. Yes, Israel
is the
only country this new body has criticised (on nine separate
occasions, no
less) for rights abuses. Gee, nothing to be sceptical about in
that.
How about the UN Commission on the Status of Women? At its 2007
annual
conference, when surveying the plight of women around the entire
world, what
countries did it single out? Saudi Arabia, maybe, where women
aren't allowed
to drive and are liable to be stoned to death? Or big chunks
of Africa? Or
Afghanistan? Nope. Apparently the only country that warranted
a resolution
for violating women's rights was, wait for it,
Israel.
Does scepticism really need to be made of sterner
stuff?
Or how about this? The UN Commission on Sustainable Development,
which is
charged with economic development and the environment, just elected
as its
chairman Zimbabwe. Yes, Zimbabwe, which has annual inflation of more
than
2200 per cent and whose economy is contracting by more than 5 per cent
a
year.
Or what about the UN's Disarmament Commission? Iran was just
elected to
serve as vice-chairman, with Syria as rapporteur. Even George
Orwell
couldn't satirise that!
Oh, the countries on that
above-mentioned UN Human Rights Council include
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China,
Cuba, Angola, Azerbaijan and others whose advice
on human rights might not
strike you as terribly persuasive, which is no
doubt why those people who
don't like the outcomes of democratic politics
here in Australia tend to
phrase their appeals in vague, amorphous terms
("the international
community") rather than in specifics ("here's what
Robert Mugabe and the
Baath party of Syria think about the proper level of
treatment for women and
minorities").
Need more examples of "interesting" countries on various
agencies and
bodies? Here are just a few. Committee on Information: China
and Kazakhstan.
World Food Program executive board: Sudan and Zimbabwe (for
some reason
North Korea missed out, despite its famine). International
Labour
Organisation Governing Body (the one lots of union officials like to
appeal
to): Saudi Arabia (that bastion of generous treatment to non-citizen
workers).
Now, I know that some readers - those who have more than a
passing
acquaintance with the whole international law superstructure and
who, one
supposes, get the odd invitation to conferences across the world or
are
asked to serve in some paid role here or there - like to say that these
examples are all on the political side of the UN. Forget all that, they'll
say (well, at least if you get a few drinks into them). The real work, they
assure you, takes place in the various treaty bodies, the groups of
"experts" who report on the many human rights treaties in
existence.
So, any room for scepticism there? I think that depends on
whether you're a
democrat at heart or you're more inclined towards
aristocratic,
philosopher-king, judicial-activism type of
government.
You see, these treaty bodies are staffed with people making
all sorts of
highly debatable calls. To give but one example, does spanking
infringe
eternal, timeless human rights? The issue divides people who are
smart,
reasonable and nice. It should be left to the voters, full
stop.
The body overseeing the Convention on the Rights of the Child
disagrees. The
experts think they have a pipeline to God on this one. They
point to Article
19 and say it prohibits spanking. But this is pure
poppycock. Remember, this
convention had to be phrased in incredibly
general, amorphous terms in order
to get the world's Chinas and Egypts to
sign up. So it said no such thing in
explicit terms. If it had done so, no
country save Sweden (and maybe New
Zealand) would have signed up. But these
"experts" use a souped-up
interpretation-on-steroids power to foster a sort
of rule by the
democratically illegitimate. It's a bit like really bad
judicial activism,
save that it takes place outside the glare of publicity.
And when solid
democratic countries ignore the views of these self-styled
experts, that is
characterised as being "against international human rights
standards".
So it's either the politicised UN agencies and bodies or the
preening, smug,
"expert"-driven and highly democratically illegitimate
treaty bodies that
tell us what these indeterminate treaties mean: treaties
that I should note
were entered into in Australia under the prerogative
power, meaning they
never had to be passed through parliament and voted on
by elected
representatives.
I think we can be sceptical of both these
things. If you randomly drew 100
names from the phone book, those people
would be a better guide to how to
draw the many debatable and contentious
rights-respecting lines that need
drawing than anything likely to emerge
from the UN or "the international
community".
Call me
sceptical.
James Allan is a professor of law at the University of
Queensland.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
21 May, 2007
A mediation team from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) led
by Sydney Mufamadi, South Africa's Minister
of Provincial and Local
government, is reported to have met Robert Mugabe
secretly in Harare two
weeks ago. The report said Zimbabwe's negotiation
team was comprised of
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and the labour
Minister Nicholas Goche,
and that the team had also met with representatives
of the two factions of
the opposition MDC. Mufamadi was accompanied by Frank
Chikane,
director-general in the Presidency, and Mojanku Gumbi, Mbeki's
legal
adviser. They also met with Mugabe vice-presidents Joyce Mujuru and
Joseph
Msika.
Information on these meetings has surfaced weeks later,
in line with
president Thabo Mbeki's secretive policy of "quiet diplomacy",
but nothing
has happened to change the daily lives of suffering Zimbabweans.
And
continuing state sponsored violence on the ground raises the issue of
whether Mugabe can be trusted.
The negotiating teams are supposed to
facilitate free and fair elections,
which are currently scheduled for March
2008. Chris Maroleng, a research
fellow at South Africa's Institute for
Security Studies, said the key
stumbling block to the negotiations will be
the requirement for compromise
that is implicit for the negotiations to
succeed. And Mugabe is that
stumbling block. Maroleng explained: "In order
for negotiations to be
successful the various parties will definitely have
to be in a mood to
engage in some compromise. To date, president Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe has
not been known to be the most open to engaging in
negotiations that require
compromise on his part." Although Maroleng
believes the negotiating team has
a difficult task, he said they have made
headway and brought the two sides
closer to being face to
face.
According to reports Mufamadi told Mugabe to stop the violent
campaign
against the opposition in order to establish confidence in the
negotiation
process. But the stubborn dictator said it would be 'difficult'
to meet the
demands of the opposition before next year's elections.
ZANU-PF's
spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira, is also reported to have said
recently that
talking to the MDC was a waste of time. Other reports said the
rural housing
Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, this week revealed that Mbeki
imposed
conditions on opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara
ahead of the talks. The conditions include the acceptance of
Robert Mugabe
as president and the renunciation of violence. Mnangagwa told
parliament
that no such conditions had been imposed on Mugabe.
While
the various leaders of SADC go back and forth, meeting and talking and
getting nowhere, Zimbabweans continue to suffer and to
die.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
African Path
Trust Matsilele
May 21, 2007
10:20 AM
As the mediation formalities proceed the word of caution
from the
National Constitution Assembly continues to get louder eventually
this will
make the opposition MDC and the ruling ZANU PF find it impossible
to ignore
that constitutional issue is fundamental in restoring democracy in
Zimbabwe.
"A people-driven democratic constitution must
remain an un-negotiable
precondition", reads part of the recommendations
submitted to those in
mediation efforts as a way of finding a lasting
solution to the economic and
political impasse crippling Zimbabwe. The
recommendations were submitted by
the National Constitution
Assembly.
For sure any legitimate leader who believes in
his electorate can
never deny something democratic which himself will
eventually benefit from.
President Mugabe knows he has a huge following so
nothing can or should stop
him from according the rest of Zimbabweans their
democratic right they are
fighting for. This is the right to a democratic
people driven constitution.
Itai Zimunya of Crisis Zimbabwe
Coalition addressing a rally
demonstrating in Johannesburg in solidarity
with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions asked President Thabo Mbeki at Buenos
Naude square to bring the
constitutional issue to the attention of President
Mugabe. Zimunya warned
that if ZANU PF went ahead with elections without a
new constitution it
would be an election of Robert Mugabe against Robert
Mugabe and the winner
eventually being Robert Mugabe
In
the first Save Zimbabwe campaign meeting held in Johannesburg, a
couple of
months ago, addressing the meeting, NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku
made it
clear that under the present situation the MDC would not win any
election
with a considerable margin as instruments at play now promotes ZANU
PF.
Zimbabwean Constitution at the present moment
avails executive powers
to a single individual which makes it impossible for
other competitors to
wage a meaningful battle as he becomes both the player
and the referee. The
draft constitution proposed by the NCA called for an
impartial and
Independent Electoral Commission which no person can or would
interfere
with.
The draft proposal also suggested that
the Parliamentary Public
Appointments Committee to be set up would make
nominees for those to be
involved in the electoral commission which the
president would pick from but
at the current situation the president chooses
to his liking without any
recommendations and those who comprise it are
strong ZANU PF members.
As much as the opposition is
desperate to be in power it must not
forget that it has contested all
elections since its formation in 1999 and
has lost all (ZANU PF won with two
thirds majority in all elections) and as
long it goes for another election
without a democratic constitution it will
encounter defeat which will
eventually derail its constituency.
In the past the
opposition has been warned by the NCA for a need to
have a democratic
constitution to ensure free and fair elections but it has
not hearkened to
the call partly because of its desperation to be in power.
Currently the MDC
factions vowed never to go for the Zaka by-elections as
the parliament will
be dissolved in December and its new approach of no
elections without a new
constitution.
The question still ringing in the minds of
many is will the MDC also
boycott next year elections? Zaka is a stronghold
of ZANU PF would the MDC
have done the same had it been Kuwadzana, Budiriro
or Highfields? The MDC
should grow in politics and start being realistic, as
long as the
constitution operating today is not changed or amended Mugabe
can win a
thousand times.
Abednico Bhebhe from MDC led
by Professor Arthur Mutambara and Roy
Bennet from Morgan Tsvangirai affirmed
they would not go for any elections
as past mistakes had taught them that
Mugabe would not lose in any elections
as he enjoyed leverage accorded by
the present constitution. Responding to
the promise Dr Madhuku acknowledged
the pledge and said this time he trusted
the MDC would boycott elections as
going for elections would be a way of
legitimizing elections that are
already rigged.
Now the BIG question is will Mugabe offer
Zimbabweans another chance
to participate in a referendum for a
constitution, does he have the finances
to run that referendum, is the MDC
prepared to linger to the end of 2008 in
an event Mugabe uses time as an
excuse? Then if he denies the issue of
constitution altogether will the MDC
boycott elections? Are MDC's urban
legislatures prepared to boycott even
their lavish life, including their
twin cabs for the sake of restoration of
democracy? Tsvangirai is not going
for an election so is Mutambara only time
will tell who the traitor is the
one who is going to call for MDC's
involvement in an election before sanity
returns in the operating
ground.
One thing that must be clear to both the MDC and
ZANU PF is that a
people driven constitution is there to benefit all
Zimbabweans irregardless
of political affiliation.
NCA
chairman has in the past cleared the air after being linked with
the MDC
that the NCA was not there to remove Mugabe and that it would be to
the best
interest of the NCA even for Mr Mugabe to win in a democratic
institution
which is not there now.
IOL
May 21 2007 at
11:10AM
By Moshoeshoe Monare
While the ANC will not
ditch Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF, the ruling party
wants to sever its relationship
with some of the continent's liberation
movements and form new friendships
with emerging political organisations.
This was discussed at the
ANC's national executive committee meeting
at the weekend.
ANC
spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama told the Daily News the discussions
were a
result of a changing political landscape on the continent and the
review of
the ANC's own international relations policy.
It is believed the
move was also prompted by the dramatic political
atmosphere in Zimbabwe,
where the ANC is also considering aligning itself
with new parties "which
show progressive tendencies".
For a long time the ANC
has shunned the Zimbabwean opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, but
the ruling party's second highest decision-making
body is considering
courting friendship with the one of the MDC factions.
However,
Ngonyama emphasised that the ANC would not necessarily dump
Zanu-PF.
At the Zanu-PF congress in 2004, the ANC's
representative and veteran
Henry Makgothi promised the Zimbabwean ruling
party of the repressive Robert
Mugabe an everlasting support.
The ANC has been under criticism for failure to use its ties with
Zanu-PF to
influence its repressive political direction and has been accused
of
allowing liberation struggle ties to blind its judgment.
The ANC
might also reconsider its relationship with Angola's ruling
MPLA because
some NEC members felt it has drifted from being a liberation
movement to the
right.
The same could apply to the ruling Botswana Democratic
Party, which is
considered by certain ANC leaders as "reactionary", while
the party is still
close to former liberation movements that are now ruling
parties, such as
Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania and Frelimo of
Mozambique.
This article was originally published on page 2 of
Daily News on May
21, 2007
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
21 May
2007
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa of Zimbabwe,
presented his long awaited
human rights report Sunday, to the 41st Session
of the African Commission on
Human and People's Rights, taking place in
Accra, Ghana.
This was the first time in 8 years that Harare presented
its report, which
is supposed to be presented after every two
years.
In his presentation, Chinamasa reiterated Zimbabwe's position that
western
countries have incorrectly accused Zimbabwe of human rights abuses,
because
they opposed its 2000 land reform program, and as a result have
imposed
"illegal sanctions" on Harare.
The European union (EU),
Australia and other western governments, including
the United States, have
consistently accused Zimbabwe of human rights
abuses, and imposed targeted
sanctions on top government and ZANU-PF party
officials, including President
Robert Mugabe, in hopes of pressuring the
government to end the
abuses.
The targeted sanctions include travel bans against the named
officials to
Europe, the United States and Australia, and also the freezing
of foreign
assets of senior members of the Zimbabwean government and the
ruling party.
Chinamasa, who led the government delegation, also
reportedly threatened to
use "proportionate force" against non-governmental
organizations, which
Zimbabwe has accused of working with the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change, London and Washington, to topple the
government.
Some of Zimbabwe's civic groups attending the summit, refused
to participate
in some of the scheduled sessions saying, following
Chinamasa's threats. The
justice minister is said to have refused to
guarantee the NGO's safety, when
asked to do so by some civic groups and AU
commissioners.
Legal Advisor Wilbert Mandinde of the Zimbabwe chapter of
the Media
Institute of Southern Africa, told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7
for Zimbabwe, that the ten NGO's who attended the two-week summit,
now fear
for their lives.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
21 May
2007
Zimbabwe's health minister, David Parirenyatwa, has
called on the World
Health Assembly, currently meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland, to support Harare's
call for the lifting of "sanctions," which,
he said, is crippling the
country's health delivery system.
Critics,
however, argue the sanctions have no impact on the country's health
care
system, because they are only targeted at specific government and
ZANU-PF
officials, including President Robert Mugabe.
Despite criticism against
Zimbabwe's human rights record, many western
countries have continued
assisting the country, by providing it with
financial and material
assistance, to boost the health care system.
For instance, In 2006, the
United States Agency for International
Development or USAID, set aside
US$10,600 for HIV/AIDS projects, while the
European Commission adopted a
global humanitarian aid plan for Zimbabwe for
2007, worth 8 million-pounds,
to assist people living with HIV/AIDS, and
other ailments.
The
director of the Mutare-based Family AIDS Caring Trust, Jephias Mundondo,
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe, that most of
Zimbabwe's health programs are donor funded, but despite the claims of
sanctions, Harare should be able to handle its own health care system.
www.fidh.org
16/05/2007
- ZWE 003 / 0507 / OBS 046
The Observatory has been
informed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) and the Law Society of
Zimbabwe (LSZ) of new serious acts of
repression against Zimbabwean human
rights defenders.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders, a joint
programme of the International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH) and the
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests
your urgent intervention
in the following situation in
Zimbabwe.
Brief description of the situation:
According to the
information received, on May 4, 2007, Messrs. Alec
Muchadehama and Andrew
Makoni, two senior lawyers of ZLHR and partners in
the law firm Mbidzo
Muchadehama and Makoni, were arrested outside the High
Court in Harare by
members of the Law and Order Section of Harare Central
police. They were
taken to the Central police station "for interrogation"
but were not
provided with reasons for their arrest.
Following their arrest, lawyers
attending at the Law and Order section were
able to confirm the presence of
the two lawyers but were chased out of the
offices by Detective Inspector
Rangwani, who also threatened to physically
assault Mr. Dzimbabwe Chimbga, a
project lawyer with ZLHR and threatened all
lawyers present with arrest if
they persisted with seeking a reason for
their clients' detention. Moreover,
Messrs. Alec Muchadehama and Andrew
Makoni were denied access to their
relatives and were also denied food and
medication.
An urgent
application was filed by ZLHR at the High Court of Zimbabwe. In
the evening,
the Court granted a "temporary order" directing the police to
allow lawyers
access to Messrs. Makoni and Muchadehama and to allow them
access to food,
medical attention if necessary, and visitation by their
relatives, pending
the hearing of the matter the following day.
In spite of this, the police
defied the court order and transferred Mr.
Makoni to Stoddart police station
and Mr. Muchadehama to Matapi police
station. They also denied them any
access to their lawyers, relative, food
and medication.
On the
following day, the court reconvened and declared that the arrests
were
unlawful and that Messrs. Makoni and Muchadehama should be immediately
released.
When travelling to Matapi police station, lawyers from ZLHR
were informed
that Mr. Muchadehama had been taken back to the Law and Order
section at
Harare Central for further interrogation. Lawyers proceeded to
Stoddart
police station, where they confirmed the presence of Mr. Makoni,
but were
advised that the officer in charge was not available and therefore
he could
not be released.
On the morning of May 6, 2007, as a second
application was being filed,
Chief Inspector Manjengwa and several police
officers from the Law and Order
section at Harare Central police station
visited the offices of the law firm
of Messrs. Mbidzo, the other partner in
the firm, Muchadehama and Makoni
taking the two detainees with them. Mr.
Lawrence Chibwe, LSZ Deputy
Secretary, Mr. Otto Saki, acting programmes
coordinator at ZLHR, were
threatened with arrest when they sought to
scrutinise the search warrant.
Police proceeded to remove certain files and
documents from the offices and
did not allow the lawyers to take an
inventory or remain present during the
search. Messrs. Muchadehama and
Makoni were then taken back to Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) Law
and Order.
Following the application, the High Court ordered that they be
produced
before it on May 6, 2007 and once again, the police refused to
produce them
and they remained in custody as of May 7, 2007. Lawyers acting
for the two
were harassed, threatened and severely intimidated by officers
of the Law
and Order Section as and when they served the court applications
and court
orders and the general refusal to accept service of court process
by members
of the Law and Order Section continued.
The police would
intend to charge the two lawyers under section 184 (a) and
or (e) in the
alternative of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act
with
obstructing the course of justice. They have been remanded to June 15,
2007
for routine remand.
The Observatory has also been informed that on May 8,
2007, Mrs. Beatrice
Mtetwa, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Ms.
Irene Petras, acting
executive director of ZLHR, Mr. Mordecai Mahlangu, a
senior lawyer and
former president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Mr. Chris
Mhike, Councillor
of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Mr. Colin Kuhuni,
Councillor of the Law
Society, and another senior lawyer Mr. Fitzpatrick,
were severely beaten by
the police in Harare Zimbabwe, for leading the legal
profession in Zimbabwe
to defend the rule of law and protest the frequent
harassment of lawyers in
Zimbabwe by the police and the now endemic defiance
of court orders by the
government.
The Observatory notes with great
concern that these facts occur in the
context of organised violence and
torture against human rights defenders and
political opponents in the run up
to the 2008 elections.
Actions required:
Please write to the
authorities of Zimbabwe urging them to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances
the physical and psychological integrity
of Messrs. Alec Muchadehama and
Andrew Makoni, as well as all persons
above-mentioned;
ii. Conduct a
fair, impartial and independent inquiry into the events
above-mentioned, in
order to bring the authors to justice and pronounce
sentences proportional
to the gravity of their crimes;
iii. Put an end to all acts of harassment
against Messrs. Alec Muchadehama
and Andrew Makoni as well as all other
human rights defenders in Zimbabwe;
iv. Conform with the provisions of
the UN Declaration on Human Rights
Defenders, adopted by the General
Assembly of the United Nations on December
9, 1998, especially its article
1, which states that "everyone has the
right, individually and in
association with others, to promote and to strive
for the protection and
realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms
at the national and
international levels" and article 12.2, which provides
that "the State shall
take all necessary measures to ensure the protection
by the competent
authorities of everyone, individually and in association
with others,
against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure
adverse
discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a
consequence of
his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in
the present
Declaration";
v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and
fundamental
freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards
and
international instruments ratified by Zimbabwe.
Addresses
:
President of Zimbabwe, Mr. Robert G. Mugabe, Office of the President,
Private Bag 7700, Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe, Fax : +263 4 708 211 Mr.
Khembo Mohadi, Minister of Home Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, 11th
Floor Mukwati Building, Private Bag 7703, Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe, Fax :
+263 4 726 716 Mr. Patrick Chinamasa, Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs,
Fax: + 263 4 77 29 99 / +263 4 252 155 Mr. Augustine Chihuri, Police
Commissioner, Police Headquarters, P.O. Box 8807, Causeway, Harare,
Zimbabwe, Fax : +263 4 253 212 / 728 768 / 726 084 Mr. Sobuza Gula Ndebele,
Attorney-General, Office of the Attorney, PO Box 7714, Causeway, Harare,
Zimbabwe, Fax: + 263 4 77 32 47 Mrs. Chanetsa, Office of the Ombudsman Fax:
+ 263 4 70 41 19 Ambassador Mr. Chitsaka Chipaziwa, Permanent Mission of
Zimbabwe to the United Nations in Geneva, Chemin William Barbey 27, 1292
Chambésy, Switzerland, Fax: + 41 22 758 30 44, Email:
mission.zimbabwe@ties.itu.net
Ambassador Mr. Pununjwe, Embassy of Zimbabwe
in Brussels, 11 SQ Josephine
Charlotte, 1200 Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium,
Fax: + 32 2 762 96 05 / + 32
2 775 65 10, Email: zimbrussels@skynet.be
Please also
write to the embassies of Zimbabwe in your respective
country.
***
Geneva - Paris, May 16, 2007
Kindly inform us
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New Zimbabwe
By
Mutumwa D. Mawere
Last updated: 05/21/2007 14:17:27
IF THE Labour Party
was an African party and Tony Blair was its leader,
would the party's
interests, and indeed, national interest have overridden
the leader's
personal interest to remain in power?
The succession debate is not unique
to Africa but what makes Africa unique
is that personal interests of
incumbents appear to be more important that
even national interests. This is
not restricted to the Heads of States but
even to functionaries like Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono in the case of
Zimbabwe.
Last Thursday, it
was reported in that Gono was under pressure to quit
against a background of
an acknowledgement that Project Sunrise has left
most of Zimbabwe in
darkness and condemned the country to unprecedented
inflation.
Notwithstanding the fact that the wheels are off in
Zimbabwe, Gono hit is
reported to have hit out at his critics in parliament
and the ruling Zanu F
party.
At the centre of the apparent dispute
between Gono and the Portfolio
Committee on Budget and Finance chaired by
Guruve North MP, David Butau,
appears to be the management of the national
foreign currency resources by
one man and the opaque quasi-fiscal activities
of the RBZ. This is not the
first time Gono has been criticised for
monopolising the management of the
national loot. Zanu PF at its national
conference held in December 2006
passed a similar resolution to no
effect.
It is now clear that President Mugabe will not exit as
anticipated by his
critics. The position taken by President Mugabe is not
unusual and, in fact,
he has many friends including the outgoing President
of the World Bank, Paul
Wolfowitz, whose initial reaction to the scandal
that has rocked the World
Bank was to say that he will not quit only to then
succumb to sustained
pressure from within and outside the institution. Even
when there is
overwhelming evidence that the continued stay in office of a
leader is not
in the best interests of the institution they serve there
appears to be a
universal attitude of leaders to continue to cling to power
at all costs.
To the extent that the behaviour is not unique to Africa,
it is important
that we interrogate the issue of leadership response to
internal and
external shocks and crises so that citizens can find better
ways of
convincing stubborn leaders to vacate office to allow the mission of
their
institutions or nations to be advanced. Any observer who watched how
the
Labour Party and presumably Gordon Brown outmanoeuvred Tony Blair would
agree that there are important lessons to be learnt on how an institution
can democratically remove obsolete and irrelevant leaders.
Even in
the Wolfowitz case it was clear from the beginning that his days
were
numbered but what was instructive is how the Staff Association of the
World
Bank and other external stakeholders as well as the media worked
constructively to remove him. At the end, he conceded on Thursday last week
the same day that Gono vowed that he will not quit by saying that he was
resigning in the "best interests" of the bank, thus ending a protracted
controversy over a generous pay and promotions package for his girlfriend,
Shaha Riza.
My focus is not to dwell on the Wolfowitz case but to
demonstrate how it is
possible to make the necessary leadership changes in
the face of
recalcitrant leaders who become married for life to the offices
they hold.
Mr. Wolfowitz said something profound in his resignation
statement. It read
as follows: "I have concluded that it is in the best
interests of those whom
this institution serves for that mission to be
carried forward under new
leadership."
Why is it not conceivable that
persons like President Mugabe and Gono will
not see it in themselves to
allow the destiny of Zimbabwe to continue to be
written by other leaders
when there is evidence that the patient i.e.
Zimbabwe remains brain dead in
the intensive care unit? Some may argue
rightly or wrongly that it would not
be in the national interest for a
President to throw the towel in the face
of problems instead of solving the
problems in as much as President
Wolfowitz, Blair and even the late Nyerere
could have advanced the same self
serving argument.
Some have said that "attitude determines altitude" and
Zimbabwe's
possibilities can be as elastic as Zimbabweans are realistic
enough to
appreciate what works and what does not work. In the case of the
RBZ, it
does not take any genius to understand that any economy that is as
micro-managed by a single unaccountable individual is doomed to fail. What
is scarier are the justifications advanced to rationalise the destructive
policies and actions. Having read what Gono had said to Zimbabwe's elected
representatives; I thought it was important to revisit Gono's statements to
highlight the dangers inherent in the continuation of the current economic
strategy if it exists at all.
This is what Gono is reported to have
said: "They say the governor is
big-headed, he has got ambition. Some hide
behind the camouflage of the
legislature and bring out their spears so that
the governor can be moved.
Not before my term is finished!"
"We offer
no apologies for interfering in all spheres of the economy. We
offer no
apology for doing the unorthodox. Those who wrote economic
textbooks never
experienced Zimbabwe's land reform."
"I hardly have a good sleep at
night. I sleep facing the stars.why should we
be importing food when the RBZ
has printed trillions and trillions? We are
being told that we cannot
produce because we are susceptible to drought.
"It is therefore,
illogical and misguided for some sections of society to
recommend to
government the formation of foreign exchange allocation
committees thinking
that this would in itself solve the prevailing foreign
currency
shortages."
If it is common cause that the Gono medicine is not helping
the patient, why
would he want to remain in office giving the same dosage to
a dying patient?
If the Parliament of Zimbabwe is an address through which
citizens express
their views about the state of the nation, why would Gono
adopt the attitude
that the Parliament of Zimbabwe does not have a right to
know about the
allocation of the resources of the nation? Who should have
oversight on the
operations of the government? Is the budget still the
vehicle for allocating
resources in Zimbabwe?
Why would Gono have the
courage of not offering an explanation for doing
what he terms as the
unorthodox? Is it Gono's position that because of the
land reform program,
democracy should be suspended? Gono's argument seems to
suggest that
institutions that should ordinarily inform any democratic
society should be
suspended in Zimbabwe. If this is accepted, then does a
Zimbabwe that is
implementing land reform really need a transparent and
honest
government?
The RBZ is an organ of the state of Zimbabwe and, therefore,
it is
unprecedented for a Governor to publicly ridicule the Parliament when
he is
not the Head of State. Even the Head of State would not dare make such
statements to a Parliament if the doctrine of the separation of powers is
applicable and operational.
Any reasonable Governor should ordinarily
have no problems with the
recommendation of the portfolio committee for the
government to put in place
institutional arrangements that would allow a
multi-stakeholder framework to
be responsible for allocating national
resources. Why would Gono be afraid
of a foreign exchange allocation
committee? Does he have anything to hide?
Could it be that one of the
unorthodox measures being implemented by the RBZ
is corruption?
The
probability exists that in an environment where there is no
transparency;
corruption becomes the order of the day and the perpetrators
benefit by
pointing the fingers to other people like NMB officials when in
truth and
fact the worst transgressions may be the order of the day at the
RBZ. Is it
not possible that the citadel of corruption may now be the RBZ?
We have
seen the drama associated with the so-called NMB's second forex
scandal.
Could it be the case that the NMB officials were fully aware of the
modus
operandi in Zimbabwe i.e. the unorthodox where anything goes and with
this
in mind they proceeded to construct their own external bridge by
remitting
funds in the same manner that officials of the RBZ may be doing
for personal
gain?
It is evident that the attitude of President Mugabe to textbook
economics is
no different from Gono or the other way round. If theoretical
economics is
no longer relevant in Zimbabwe, then surely trained economists
have reason
to worry. If the attitude is as expressed by Gono then surely
the 2008
elections would be nothing but a sham. Why would President Mugabe
bother to
get the mandate of the people when his Governor has the courage to
tell the
representatives of the same people to take a walk? This begs the
question of
whether a Zimbabwe that is implementing land reform and is under
sanctions
still needs a democratic dispensation. It is clear from Gono that
if he were
the President of Zimbabwe, it would be in the national interest
to suspend
democracy.
Mutumwa Mawere's weekly column appears on
New Zimbabwe.com every Monday. You
can contact him at: mmawere@ahccouncil.com
libcom.org
May 21st, 2007 by
John.
We have received reports that wildcat strikes are spreading across
Zimbabwe
as workers demand pay which will match massive
inflation.
Eddie Cross reported on Zimbabwe's Nehanda Radio on Friday 18
May:
At this moment there are a number of wildcat strikes taking place
throughout
the country. Workers are demanding wages that will help them cope
with
massive price rises that have left them virtually in penury. Tregers
and
Advance/Spar are on strike for higher wages in Bulawayo and in many
other
industries workers are either adopting go slows or threatening strike
action.
Industrial wages are totally inadequate for the average
worker who now faces
a transport bill of at least Z$400 000 a month, maize
meal at least 10 kg a
week at a cost of about $100 000 a bag and cooking oil
at Z$50 000 a litre
(if availabe). School fees and other incidental costs
mean that a low income
workers needs at least Z$1,5 million a month to
survive. Wages last month
were a third of this on average.
In
addition to this problem, business is struggling with the hyper inflation
and are finding it almost impossible to finance the replacement of stocks
and operating costs. Almost all industrial and commercial firms are
struggling to manage their cash flows. The dollar is depreciating at about 3
per cent per day and this is exacerbating the situation.
Just this
week we have reports of food riots in the rural areas when GMB
trucks loaded
with maize grain arrived to undertake food distribution
organised by local
Zanu PF structures. They had expected the maize to cost
the same as the
month before (Z$17 000 for 50 kilograms) and instead were
faced with new
prices of nearly Z$200 000 per 50 kilograms.
The villagers who had in
most cases paid Z$17 000 to their headmen for the
maize, refused to pay the
increased prices and demanded their money back.
There were many angry
scenes and I understand the GMB vehicles returned to
their depots with very
little maize sold. At Z$200 000 for 50 kgs the maize
is very cheap, even so
the villagers are used to virtually free food and
simply do not have the
money to pay higher prices.
I am told that agencies distribution food in
the rural areas are being told
that no distribution will be allowed without
the presence of a government or
Zanu PF official present. The food situation
in most districts is now
desperate.