http://af.reuters.com
Fri May 1, 2009 1:52pm
GMT
HARARE, May 1 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said
on Friday the country's new unity government was broke and
unable to meet
union demands for higher wages.
Addressing a May Day
rally, Tsvangirai said the government he formed with
President Robert Mugabe
in February to try to end a political and economic
crisis that has brought
Zimbabwe to ruin would maintain the current monthly
salary of $100 that it
is paying its workers.
"This government is broke, and we are only able to
pay the $100 allowance,
but when things improve, we want this allowance to
graduate into a proper
salary," he said. "For now, everyone, all of us,
including President Mugabe,
is getting $100".
(Reporting by Cris
Chinaka)
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Charles
Tembo Saturday 02 May 2009
HARARE - A showdown looms between
Zimbabwe's new unity government and
workers over salaries as Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday the
government is broke and cannot meet
union demands for higher wages of at
least US$454.
"This government
is broke, and we are only able to pay the US$100 allowance,
but when things
improve, we want this allowance to graduate into a proper
salary,"
Tsvangirai told a Workers Day rally in Harare, adding: "For now,
everyone,
all of us, including President Mugabe, is getting US$100."
Addressing the
same gathering president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU)
Lovemore Matombo said the powerful labour union is demanding a
minimum wage
of US$454 from employers.
"If we don't get this money we will go into the
streets," said Matombo.
"Eighty-five percent of Zimbabwean workers are under
forced labour because
they are being paid wages which are way below the
poverty datum line and
because of that we will demonstrate."
Once a
model African economy Zimbabwe has suffered a severe economic and
humanitarian crisis that is marked by record unemployment, deepening poverty
and disease, while the country has avoided mass starvation only because
relief agencies were quick to chip in with food aid.
President Robert
Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a power sharing government
last February to
begin work to rescue the country from total economic
collapse following
years of decline and political bickering.
The inclusive government has
unveiled an economic recovery blueprint - Short
Term Emergency Recovery
Programme (STERP) - which highlights priorities in
terms of improving food
security, tackling disease and strengthening health
systems, reviving
industry, addressing water and sanitation problems and
improving capacity to
provide basic services to the people of Zimbabwe.
The southern African
country is desperately seeking US$2 billion in
emergency funding and US$8
billion in the long term to help stabilise an
economy ravaged by a decade of
hyper-inflation, unemployment above 90
percent and political
violence.
But key Western donors have not been forthcoming, demanding
that the
government carry out far reaching political and media reforms and
bring an
end to a fresh wave of farm invasions before they consider
releasing any
money.
Tsvangirai told the 15 000-strong crowd that
thronged Gwanzura Stadium in
the capital that government would in the mean
time maintain the current
US$100 it is paying its workers a
month.
"We are not collecting taxes and 65 percent of government income
comes from
Pay as You Earn (PAYE). So if the government cannot collect taxes
where will
it get money to pay salaries?" he said.
"We know that
workers are subsidising government through your salaries which
are well
below what you are suppose to get but give us time so that we can
rectify
that."
The Prime Minister and former leader of the ZCTU before formation
of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in 1999 said there was
nothing
wrong with workers making demands from their employer as long as
those
demands are realistic.
"Workers must have a culture of making
demands from the employers but your
demands must be realistic. Your demands
must be within the capacity of the
government, which is the major employer
and the private sector which is not
there," said
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai told the gathering, also attended by Deputy Labour
Minister
Tracey Mutinhiri, Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn movement leader Simba Makoni,
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) head Lovemore Madhuku and other
labour union
leaders that the unity government has a democratisation agenda
for Zimbabwe.
"This inclusive government brings a democratic agenda and
that includes the
constitution making process. It must be people-driven," he
said.
Both the ZCTU and the NCA have said they would not trust
politicians with
the writing of the new constitution and vowed to mobilise
people to reject
any proposed new constitution drafted by Parliament in a
referendum
scheduled for next year.
The ZCTU and the NCA worked with
then opposition leader Tsvangirai and his
MDC to defeat the government draft
constitution in 2000 but the MDC that
later split into two formations is now
part of the unity government with
Mugabe's ZANU PF and backs the
government-led constitutional reform process.
Once a new constitution is
in place, the power-sharing government is
expected to then call fresh
parliamentary, presidential and local government
elections.
Zimbabwe
is currently governed under the 1979 Constitution agreed at the
Lancaster
House talks in London.
The constitution has been amended 19 times since
the country's independence
in 1980 and critics say the changes have only
helped to entrench Mugabe and
ZANU PF's stranglehold on power. -
ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By
Blessing Zulu
Washington
01 May 2009
The
International Monetary Fund has estimated that returning Zimbabwe to the
economic level where it stood in the mid-1990s could take as much as US$45
billion over the next five years, according to Zimbabwean Finance Minister
Tendai Biti.
The national unity government installed in February has
been struggling to
raise funds for reconstruction, but so far has only
brought in commitments
for US$400 million from members of the Southern
African Development
Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa, better
known as Comesa.
Western donors and multilateral
institutions like the IMF and World Bank
have been standing back waiting for
more far-reaching reforms in Harare,
especially on respect for human rights,
restoration of the rule of law and
governance in general.
Though the
former opposition Movement for Democratic Change has a majority
in
parliament and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, founder of the MDC,
heads
the government, President Robert Mugabe has refused to replace
controversial
figures such as Attorney General Johannes Tomana and Reserve
Bank Governor
Gideon Gono.
Potential donors are waiting in particular for the removal
of Gono, whose
misappropriation of funds from private and non-governmental
accounts at the
central bank to fund the last government led by Mr. Mugabe
discredited him
in the eyes of many observers - in particular the diversion
of US$7.3
million from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS.
Gono is
also accused of stoking hyperinflation by printing massive amounts
of
Zimbabwean dollars, ultimately destroying the currency's value to such an
extent that the government officially abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar,
adopting multiple hard currencies.
Finance Minister Biti told
reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the IMF, the
World Bank, the African Development Bank and the
United Nations Development
Program have set up a trust fund that will serve
to receive donor monies in
such a way that they cannot be diverted as
occurred in the past at the
central bank.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
01 May
2009
Government officials and teachers' unions have agreed to meet again
on
Monday, in an effort to avert a possible strike by teachers at the start
of
the new school semester next week.
Schools are set to reopen on
Tuesday and Monday's meeting will see Education
and Finance ministry
officials trying to sway teachers away from the
threatened mass action.
Teachers are demanding, among other things, a
significant salary increase of
more than US$1000, saying they will not
return to work until the demands are
met. Leaders from the Zimbabwe Teachers
Association (ZIMTA) and the
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
met with Education Minister
David Coltart on Thursday, after the deadline
for the government to produce
a better salary structure for teachers passed
this week.
Coltart has
already indicated that the government does not have the funds to
increase
teachers' wages, and called on acting Finance Minister Elton
Mangoma to help
explain the situation to teachers' at Thursday's meeting.
The meeting was
deferred to Monday, apparently to allow the donor community
to participate
in the talks and to explore ways in which they can assist the
government in
paying teachers. PTUZ President Takavafira Zhou explained on
Friday that
teachers understand the financial situation facing the Education
Ministry,
and said he was pleased there would be a chance to appeal to
donors to
assist in salary payments.
The government has called on the country's
civil service, who each receive a
US$100 monthly allowance, to be patient
over their meagre salaries until the
country's economy begins to stabilise.
But with the economy completely
dollarised and the local dollar being
abandoned in favour of foreign
currency, the US$100 payout has not been able
to keep teachers and their
families financially afloat. Zhou described the
reality facing teachers,
saying many have been forced into 'moonlighting' as
menial workers for any
extra money.
"It is so degrading for teachers
to do this but they have been left no
choice," Zhou explained. "How else can
they look after their families?"
The salary increase of more than US$1000
that is being demanded is highly
unrealistic even compared to the rest of
Africa, where teachers earn much
less than this. Zhou argued that his union
is aware that the demand is too
high, and instead is pushing for a proposed
'salary roadmap' that will pave
the way for significant increases in the
future. He explained that teachers
would be happy with a US$500 increase in
the short term, but also said that
a strike has not yet been ruled
out.
It is being argued that ZIMTA, which is leading the strike threat
and list
of demands, is involved in trying to force the MDC out of the unity
government. The ZANU PF friendly teachers' association has never before
taken such a strong stance against the government, despite earning a
pittance for years under ZANU PF rule. The argument stands that by forcing
such an unrealistic salary demand and by threatening the stability of the
unity government with a teachers' strike, ZIMTA is working with ZANU PF to
force the MDC out of the coalition.
Meanwhile, salary concerns aside,
Zimbabwe's teachers continue to be victims
of ongoing harassment and
intimidation across the country. According to
international rights group,
Amnesty International, teachers have expressed
serious concerns about their
safety, as ZANU PF supporters are still
threatening them with violence. Many
teachers were targets of politically
motivated attack during the 2008
presidential election period, and there are
fears among the teaching
community that they will still be vulnerable in
future elections.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
1
May 2009
.
Despite confirming that they would be there, no one from
the Zimbabwe
Election Commission or ZANU PF attended a two day regional
conference on
electoral reforms in Victoria Falls this week.
The
workshop was organized by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, in
conjunction with the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa. It was attended
by senior government officials, MPs and members of civil
society.
Though Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa pitched up briefly,
delegates
pointed out that he was there in his capacity as a government
minister and
not a ZANU PF representative. He also left the conference
almost immediately
after addressing the delegates.
The boycott by ZEC
and ZANU PF representatives is seen by many as an
indicator that they are
not interested in reforms. This is buttressed by the
fact that analysts
believe Robert Mugabe would not win an election if it is
conducted in a free
and fair environment.
A delegate who spoke to us from Victoria Falls on
Thursday said the
assumption among those present at the conference was that
ZEC officials were
worried they would be asked awkward questions over the
conduct of the 2008
elections, which were largely discredited by regional,
continental and
international bodies.
The widely-documented
harassment and physical abuse of MDC supporters and
rights activists in the
months preceding and following the polls, by
government supporters and state
forces, were some of the issues raised by
delegates on the sidelines of the
conference.
'Most delegates were left frustrated because they wanted to
hear from ZEC
the reasons for excluding election observers from countries
which have
criticized the Mugabe regime and journalists from foreign media
organizations who have done the same,' one delegate said.
Justice and
Legal Affairs Deputy Minister Jessie Majome told delegates when
she
officiated at the opening of the conference, that difficulties
encountered
in the previous polls could be overcome through revisiting the
electoral
laws and processes.
Solomon Chikohwero, chairman of the MDC Veterans
Activists Association, said
a lot has to be done to overcome difficulties
encountered during the
previous elections. Despite promises to ease
restrictions on political
parties' activities and freeing the news media,
Chikohwero says these do not
go far enough.
'Zimbabwean voters in the
past decade have been constricted by limits on
political assembly, by
one-sided information from state-owned news media and
by a lack of
information on electoral procedures,' he said.
'Intimidation must end by ZANU
PF supporters, including members of the
security forces, war veterans and,
in particular, the youth militia. These
green bombers have wreaked so much
havoc and caused mayhem in rural areas.
It is one institution that is used
for violence and it is also used for
intimidating ordinary voters. They must
disband all these if we are to have
free and fair elections, Chikohwero
added.
http://www.upi.com
Published: May 1, 2009 at 2:54 PM
BULAWAYO,
Zimbabwe, May 1 (UPI) --
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
says his Movement for Democratic
Change party wants to improve the lives of
the country's citizens.
Speaking with party officials in the city of
Bulawayo, Tsvangirai said
improving people's lives should be the main
objective of the country's
current coalition government, SW Radio Africa
said Friday.
Tsvangirai recognized how coalition governments throughout
the world's
history have been problematic, just as Zimbabwe's new political
system has
been.
The MDC leader has failed to find common ground with
Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara and President Robert Mugabe during
five recent coalition
government meetings.
Such disagreement among
the country's top officials has delayed the
appointment of other top posts
including governors and ambassadors, SW Radio
Africa said.
Tsvangirai
also commented on the strike threat issued by Zimbabwean teachers
unions,
saying although teachers deserve higher pay, Zimbabwe is currently
financially unable to meet such demands.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Friday, 01 May
2009
HARARE - An international human rights watchdog has called
on
President Robert Mugabe to account for the whereabouts of seven Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) activists missing for the past six months since
their abduction last year.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW)
listed the release of the
seven as one of the conditions the international
community should demand
before resumption of economic aid to Zimbabwe's
coalition government.
The seven - Gwenzi Kahiya, Ephraim Mabeka,
Lovemore Machokoto, Charles
Muzza, Edmore Vangirayi, Graham Matehwa and
Peter Munyanyi - were part of
more than 30 MDC activists and human rights
defenders abducted by the secret
police between October and December
2008.
More than 20 of the abductees have been accounted for and
produced in
court where they have been charged with plotting to topple
Mugabe or
engaging in acts of banditry.
The whereabouts of the
seven are unknown, raising fears they may have
died at the hands of their
captors who have been accused of severely,
torturing their victims.
HRW urged international donors to withhold development aid to Zimbabwe
until
the Zanu (PF) element in the power-sharing government stopped ongoing
rights
abuses and backed serious reforms.
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai
Biti was in the United Kingdom and
the United States last week to ask the
British and American governments for
direct financial support.
"Humanitarian aid that focuses on the needs of Zimbabwe's most
vulnerable
should continue," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human
Rights
Watch.
She said donor governments should not release development aid
until
there are irreversible changes on human rights, the rule of law and
accountability.
"In the short term, Human Rights Watch called on
the power-sharing
government to disclose the whereabouts of the seven
"disappeared" persons,
end harassment of civil society activists, student
leaders and MDC
activists, and free those who have been illegally abducted,"
the watchdog
said.
It called for an independent probe into
allegations of torture and the
prosecution of those implicated in the abuses
regardless of their positions.
It also urged donor governments to
demand an immediate cession of farm
invasions and the removal of the illegal
land occupiers.
Gangs of marauding Zanu (PF) supporters have raided
more than 100
white-owned farms since the formation of the unity government
in February in
violation of a power-sharing agreement between Mugabe and
former opposition
leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
The continued farm invasions have worsened Zimbabwe's prospects of
receiving
much-needed balance-of-payments support which is crucial to revive
the
comatose economy.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/
30 April 2009
Harare - GOVERNMENT urgently needs
about US$3,1 million to complete the
marking of last year's public
examinations, Education Sports and Culture
Minister David Coltart, revealed
this week.
Coltart described government's failure to produce last
year's Grade Seven,
Ordinary and Advanced Levels examination results as a
national tragedy.
"I am concerned about these school children as they are
being prejudiced of
their right. It's a national tragedy and personal
tragedy. I am working as
hard as I can so that I can have this exercise
completed," he told The
Financial Gazette yesterday.
The delays in
releasing the results led to the enrolling of Form Four and
Lower Sixth
students using last year's mid year exams.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16064
May 1, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Human rights lawyers this week turned on the heat
on the country's
co-Ministers of Home Affairs, imploring them to explain
their alleged
complicity in the continued incarceration of senior Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC) officials and a photo-journalist.
In a
letter addressed to the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) rights lawyers
Alec
Muchadehama, Andrew Makoni and Charles Kwaramba, who have been
representing
the trio with the support of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR)
protested the serious violation of their clients' freedoms and
demanded some
explanations from Giles Mutsekwa and Kembo Mohadi, the
co-Ministers of Home
Affairs and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the
Attorney General
Johannes Tomana and the AG's senior law officers, who have
blocked the
release of the political prisoners.
"The Ministries of Justice and Home
affairs and their officers have taken it
upon themselves to kidnap our
clients for the second time within six months.
The implications of what has
been done to our clients, to the rule of law
and administration of justice
are grave. For the umpteenth time, Ministers
and State security agents have
acted in contempt of court orders and
resorted to the law of the jungle.
Our work as lawyers is being seriously
hamstrung by persons who
deliberately, and with impunity choose to violate
citizens' rights," reads
part of the letter seen by this reporter.
MDC members Gandhi Mudzingwa
and Kisimusi Dhlamini who are facing what
lawyers have described as
trumped-up charges and are accused of insurgency,
banditry, sabotage and
terrorism are currently detained under police guard
at the Avenues Clinic in
Harare, where they are receiving medical treatment
for injuries sustained
during their torture by state security agents and the
police who abducted
them last year.
The police have also mounted a manhunt for freelance
photojournalist
Andrison Manyere.
Manyere, Dhlamini and Mudzingwa
were granted bail by the High Court early
April but the State invoked the
provisions of Section 121 (3) of the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act
(CPEA) to deny them their freedom.
Rights lawyers argue that the State
failed to comply with the provisions of
Section 121 (1) of the (CPEA) in
that they failed to obtain leave to appeal
and note their appeal within
seven days hence their clients should be free.
Mudzingwa this week
slammed Mutsekwa, the secretary for defence in Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC party for failing to do anything to secure
his freedom from
unwarranted detention.
Tsvangirai formed a coalition government with
Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe
in February after months of dispute over a
power-sharing agreement. The two
agreed to share the contentious portfolio
of Home Affairs, which has been
abused for years by President Mugabe's
administration to arrest dozens of
human rights and opposition
activists.
Meanwhile, there is still no word on the fate or circumstances
of the MDC
activists and members who are still missing after they were
abducted by
state security agents last year.
The seven missing
persons are:
Gwenzi Kahiya - abducted October 29, 2008 in
Zvimba,
Ephraim Mabeka - abducted December 10 in Gokwe,
Lovemore Machokoto
- abducted December 10 in Gokwe,
Charles Muza - abducted December 10 in
Gokwe,
Edmore Vangirayi - abducted December 10 in Gokwe,
Graham Matewa -
abducted December 17 in Makoni South
Peter Munyanyi - abducted December 15 in
Gutu South.
http://www.voanews.com
By
Ish Mafundikwa
Harare
01 May 2009
Zimbabweans join
workers around the world in celebrating worker's day.
Despite there being an
government of national unity in Zimbabwe, times are
still very tough for the
country's workers.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest unemployment rates in
the world. Lovemore
Matombo, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) says
only six percent of the workforce is formally
employed.
The ZCTU boss notes that his organization's struggle for a
better deal for
those still working has put it on a collision course with
the government in
the past.
Tensions in Zimbabwe usually rise on May
Day. But Matombo says with the new
government of national unity this year
could be different.
"This year's celebrations are a bit different because
the political
environment appears to be giving us a bit of space to organize
our people
without being intimidated by the police or the Central
Intelligence
Organization. So to that extent, this year's May Day would be
more peaceful
than we have had before. But of course in as far as the plight
of the
workers is concerned, the situation remains the same," said
Matombo.
Matombo added that while the plight of the workers is still a
priority, his
organization supports the new government and is involved in
negotiations
with the government and employers to get the workers a better
deal. He says,
however, that should these efforts fail, industrial action is
always an
option.
"We cannot rule out any form of industrial action
but what we are doing is
to say let's give government opportunity and we
have put across our need to
increase salaries for the Zimbabwean workers
through the Tripartite
Negotiating Forum," he said.
But while Matombo
is cautiously optimistic about the new government and the
apparent
cease-fire, he is urging Zimbabwean workers to remain vigilant.
"We are
saying they need to be vigilant because our theme this year for May
Day is
'it may be dawn; workers intensify the struggle,'" he said.
Matombo says
2008 was the most difficult year for Zimbabweans, whether they
had a job or
not.
In July 2008 inflation reached a staggering 231 million percent. By
the end
of the year the Zimbabwe dollar was virtually worthless and the
government
authorized transactions in hard currency.
Though
Zimbabweans are now paid in US dollars, the union chief says they are
still
some of the lowest paid in the world.
MUSINA, 1 May 2009 (IRIN) - To the
untrained eye, the human tide surging through the South African border town of
Musina is just that: a mass of people leaving behind Zimbabwe's collapsed
economy to seek job opportunities and a better life, or refuge in a neighbouring
country.
Photo:
Guy
Oliver/IRIN
Sebelo
Sibanda, of Lawyers for Human Rights in Musina, with two children suspected of
being trafficked
Sebelo Sibanda, of Lawyers for Human Rights in Musina, is a
more acute observer; he sees changes taking place in a migration that is
believed to number between one million and more than three million people.
"A trend started in the last two or three months, where you see more and
more women coming in with groups of children - the children are too numerous and
often too similar in age to be from one mother," he said.
The Zimbabwean
migration, comprising asylum seekers fleeing political persecution, economic
migrants from a shattered economy, traders, shoppers and unaccompanied minors,
provides ample camouflage for human traffickers.
The border between
South Africa and Zimbabwe is a fertile ground for criminal gangs. The
"magumagumas" prey on migrants, robbing and raping them as they make their way
to South Africa, while the "malaicha" arrange safe passage for migrants, but do
not always keep to the contract.
Nde Ndifonka, the southern African
spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, told IRIN: "The
conditions are there. We believe there is a high incidence of human trafficking
happening there [the South Africa-Zimbabwe border]".
Parents living in
South Africa often pay a malaicha to bring children across the border, Sibanda
said, and it was a "small step" to becoming a human trafficker.
Ndifonka
said the malaicha were part of trafficking rings and targeted "specifically,
vulnerable young children, as there is a demand for labour and sexual
exploitation in South Africa".
In mid-April 2009, during a spot check,
police found two unaccompanied minors - boys aged about four and five - in a car
en route to Johannesburg. "The woman at first said they were her children, but
when I interviewed the children separately they said they did not know who she
was," Sibanda said.
The unseen crime
"The
woman then maintained that she was their mother's sister, but the children did
not know who she was, but were told by her to call her 'aunty'. The woman then
said she was taking them to meet their mother in Johannesburg, but the children
said their mother was living in Cape Town."
The woman is expected to be
charged with kidnapping or a lesser charge of smuggling, as South Africa has yet
to adopt human trafficking legislation.
An international children's
agency, which declined to be identified, fearing it might attract human
traffickers to its offices, told IRIN it had begun trying to trace the
children's relatives. The aid worker said people claiming to be the relatives or
friends of parents had tried to lure children away from the shelter.
"Human trafficking is
difficult to detect, as people are generally not aware they are being
trafficked. We know it [human trafficking] is happening but cannot detect it,"
Jacob Matakanye, CEO of the Musina Legal Advice Centre, told IRIN.
Human trafficking is difficult
to detect, as people are generally not aware they are being trafficked. We know
it [human trafficking] is happening but cannot detect it
"The
only way to prevent trafficking is to educate people about it in the country of
origin ... Zimbabwe is an ideal opportunity for traffickers, as it is next to
South Africa [the continent's richest country]," he said.
The UN defines
human trafficking as "The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability, or of the giving of or receiving of payments or
benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person
for the purpose of exploitation."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Press freedom: Life can be easy for journalists who toe
Mugabe's line. For
those who do not, it is difficult and
painful
Wilf Mbanga
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 May 2009 19.30
BST
Zimbabwean journalist Anderson Manyere will be spending World Press
Freedom
Day 2009 on the run. He has spent the past four months in a
hell-hole of a
jail. His crime? Practising journalism.
He was locked
up, most of the time in solitary confinement, after being
kidnapped by the
police on 13 December last year. A South African
Broadcasting Corporation
documentary released last month revealed the full
horror of Robert Mugabe's
jails - with skeletal prisoners receiving a bowl
of gruel per day and dead
bodies piled haphazardly in a storeroom.
Last week, Manyere was
eventually released on bail. But the two Movement for
Democratic Change
officials arrested and released with him were arrested
again 48 hours later,
with no warrant. And the police are hunting Manyere.
His experience is
not unique. Many journalists operating in Mugabe's
Zimbabwe have suffered in
the past decade. Kidnapping, arbitrary arrest,
torture, constant harassment
; terror tactics - and even murder - are all
tactics used by the regime to
retain a strangle-hold on the press. Edward
Chikomba was kidnapped by state
agents last year and his tortured body was
found dumped in the bush a few
days later.
Freedom of the press has always been elusive in Zimbabwe. At
independence in
1980 the new government inherited a well-oiled state
broadcasting network
and bought the country's largest newspaper company
within months of taking
power.
Increasingly over the next two
decades, as corruption and human rights
abuses increased, the state
tightened its grip on information control.
Mugabe's battle against the
media hit a new low in 2003 with the passing of
the draconian and misnamed
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA). This made it
mandatory for all journalists and media
organisations operating inside the
country to be registered (that is,
policed) by the Media and Information
Commission. Headed by an unashamed
Mugabe apologist, Tafataona Mahoso, the
MIC holds the dubious honour of
having closed down five independent
newspapers including The Daily News and
its sister Sunday paper, in its
first two years of existence.
The message to journalists is very clear -
life can be easy for you if you
are prepared to toe the Zanu (PF) line. If
you insist on remaining true to
the ethics of your profession, life will be
difficult and painful.
As a result, many Zimbabwean journalists have fled
into exile, and resorted
to publishing on websites - to which the majority
of those inside the
country, where the toll in human suffering is now way
beyond that of a war
zone, have no access.
In an effort to keep
Zimbabweans on the ground informed, an independent
weekly, The Zimbabwean,
and its sister Sunday are published in South Africa
and trucked into the
country. The Mugabe regime has tried to silence this
through the imposition
in July last year of 70% "luxury" import tax. Three
months after the
formation of the government of national unity, the tax has
been reduced to
50% but remains firmly in place and has severely curtailed
the print
run.
Under such conditions it is virtually impossible to operate as a
professional news organisation. We do our best to get the story out and
break the silence by exposing the appalling human rights abuses and
government corruption. The finer points of journalism have, regrettably, had
to be compromised in the desperate battle for access to information. This is
guerrilla journalism.
Journalists in exile, whose hopes were raised
with the formation of the new
government in February, wait in increasing
despair for some sign of
meaningful change - such as the removal of
draconian anti-press legislation.
So far, there are no such glimmers of
hope.
No
matter how inconceivable or unimaginable it could have ever been, the
Government of National Unity (GNU) that is now shakily running the country
is probably our best bate out of the sorry state that we find our country in
today. It is a toxic experiment that can potentially and explosively go off
any minute should it be mishandled in any way But however, if handled with
requisite care and caution it can cool down to a much more pleasant mixture
with very pleasing results.
It can be very difficult
especially given the history of the parties to the
agreement (the MDC and
ZANU PF) who have been political protagonists for
years, but there was no
other solution on the horizon to carry us through
the most difficult phase
in our country's history. The Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai finds himself
in the same situation that Joshua Nkomo was more
than twenty years ago when
he put country before self and roped his ZAPU
party into a similar
arrangement with ZANU PF. The problem is that once you
are in government, no
matter who you are with in it, you have to talk and
act like someone in
government and that is exactly what Tsvangirai is doing.
Just
like Nkomo back then, Tsvangirai has to ensure that should the whole
thing
fail to deliver the desired results, the finger should be pointed
where it
should be pointed at. A lot of people criticised Nkomo for
capitulating to
ZANU PF and accused him of giving in to pressure from Mugabe
but Nkomo knew
what he was doing because the country had reached a
stalemate. There was
more to be lost by the country than by Nkomo personally
had he not signed up
to the Unity Accord. The same situation is today
because there was more to
be lost especially in terms of lives if the
squaring-up of ZANU PF and the
MDC had been allowed to carry on unabated.
Somebody had to give up
something, whether it was political high ground or
ego
Everybody in the MDC, the PM, his two deputies, the MP's
and ministers, they
all know where exactly the country needs to go because
this has been the
founding philosophy of the party. Of course there is
always the advent of
human error stalking them wherever they try to go but
they are all fully
aware of what the country needs urgently and if they had
a free hand to
deliver that it could have come sooner rather than at the
painstaking pace
we are witnessing. It should be even harder for those in
the GNU because
when you are in and you feel the impediment from inside, it
is much more
difficult than watching from a distance. What I am actually
seeing is that
Tsvangirai has actually learned a thing or two as well
especially as echoed
by his statement to MDC provincials in Matabeleland
that the MDC would never
go down the megaphone route again. This is the
route that the party has
largely walked over the years and with much loss to
its acquired ground.
Most people seem to be overlooking the fact
that no matter how flawed the
GNU may look outwardly, this is still all we
have in a government and no
matter how uncomfortable the arrangement, those
in it are still as bound as
they would be in any better formation. Everybody
can see and we do not need
anyone in the GNU to tell us that there is still
a long way to go as far as
ZANU PF sincerity is concerned because there are
a lot of issues that are
still outstanding due to ZANU PF rather than MDC
grandstanding. It may easy
to say that Tsvangirai is becoming malleable or
to put it as Geoff Nyarota
said in his writing on his Zimbabwe Times,
speaking on behalf of Robert
Mugabe, but the truth is Tsvangirai is only
saying what he or anyone in his
position would say. This is like Barack
Obama painting a picture of hope on
an economic outlook that is nothing
short of a deep recession. There has to
be a message of hope from the top no
matter how hopeless things may actually
appear inside because that is what
builds confidence that may in the end
translate into fruitful
results
There have been cases in the past when the MDC has missed
an opportunity or
two to nail down ZANU PF but with the GNU the old guard is
definitely
knuckled under, and this is why there is a lot of uneasy in ZANU
PF circles.
Mugabe knows fully that the game is up and this is why he still
desperately
goes around telling people that he is still in charged. No one
in charge
needs to tell anybody that they are in charged because authority
has a
tendency to be felt. What ZANU PF still definitely commands is the
treachery
and this is why they continue to use every rule in that book to
manipulate
the system because they no longer have the blank cheque they have
always
had. The abuse of the justice (or maybe injustice) system through the
overzealous performances of people the questionable Attorney General
Johannes Tomana is a clear sign that ZANU PF will try to cling on right to
the end.
Even their (ZANU PF) use of the police force and the
army has now been
hugely diluted and whittled down to a few diehards who
have nothing to do in
a transformed Zimbabwe. These are people whose lives
are so engrossed in the
savagery of the past that they do not see themselves
crossing the bridge
into the future in which Zimbabweans from all walks of
life can live in
harmony side by side without any trumped up hatred or fear.
These are the
people who are still being used to detain and torture people
like Ghandi
Mudzingwa and Chris Dhlamini while keeping freelance journalists
like
Shadreck Manyere on the run for no apparent reason. The fact that these
guys
have been in remand for more than five months shows that they have no
case
to answer but are victims of a system that is has been enshrined in
gross
injustice and violation.
There have been some false
starts to the GNU and some elements of getting
carrying away by the parties
to it especially in view of the overly
ambitious and somewhat costly
Victorious Falls retreat but the reality has
to dawn on them. There is an
urgent need to deliver because unity or
coalition governments have a shelf
life after which those in it will expire
whether they like it or not. There
is great impatience sweeping across the
country especially because people
still can not access medicines and clean
water well into the new
dispensation that had been touted to have an instant
impact.
Also, politicians especially those in the MDC must
never get carried away by
the desperateness of the prevailing circumstances
and forget the founding
principles upon which the party is rooted. They must
stick to their values
and refuse the temptations of corrupting sweeteners
that will be lining up
the otherwise barren route to a real Zimbabwe. There
are still some huge
mounts to climb before the country actually gets there,
but the possibility
of totally transformation could never be more
realistic
Silence Chihuri can be contacted on silencechihuri@googlemail.com
http://www.cathybuckle.com
1st May 2009
Dear Friends.
Over the years,
Zimbabweans have become accustomed to hearing Robert
Mugabe's mastery of
language. We know how skilful he is at adapting what he
says and how he says
it to suit his audience. Linguists refer to this
concept as 'register': the
ability to use the appropriate language in
different contexts. Mugabe is a
master of 'register'. In the days when he
strutted the world stage, we would
hear him addressing world leaders in
perfectly enunciated English, his
clothes and body language epitomising
their understanding of what a world
leader should be. We at home heard a
very different Robert Mugabe when he
returned to his native land. Gone was
the suave, urbane statesman, instead
we saw the clenched fist and heard the
language of hate and vengeance as he
addressed his supporters at Zanu PF
rallies up and down the country. He took
to wearing the Zanu PF regalia, a
baseball cap and shirt with his own image
embossed on the front - a worrying
symptom of ego-mania, I'd say- but since
the faithful were also wearing
party T shirts, perhaps he was merely
identifying with 'his' people. It was
all part of Mugabe's assessment of the
appropriate 'register' for the
occasion. For the listener, or the reader,
the important point was to know
the audience he was addressing. That way one
could test the validity of the
message and the intention of the speaker. In
Mugabe's case the rallies were
clearly intended to whip up his followers
into a frenzy of hatred against
his so-called enemies: the British, the
Americans and, of course, the
opposition.
Without in any way
suggesting that these two men are cut from the same
cloth, I was reminded of
how important 'register' is this week when Morgan
Tsvangirai, addressing two
very different audiences, made what seemed like
widely differing remarks.
Speaking in front of thousands of his supporters,
the Prime Minister said of
Mugabe, "We respect each other although we may
disagree. There's nothing
Robert Mugabe does without me approving and
there's nothing I do without him
approving."
Bearing in mind that Tsvangirai was speaking to his own
supporters, it's
hard to understand what his intention was and if it was
really necessary to
go to such lengths to identify with a man whose
functionaries continue to
torture and imprison MDC party officials. I was
not there at the rally so I
cannot assess how this remark was received by
the crowd but I can guess that
if I or any member of my family had been
imprisoned and tortured by Mugabe's
regime, I would find it pretty difficult
to 'respect' the political ideology
that sanctioned such behaviour. Was
Tsvangirai telling his followers that he
'approved' the patently illegal
treatment of Ghandi Mudzingwa and Chris
Dhlamini even though he didn't agree
with it? Was he 'approving' the
government sanctioned farm invasions and all
the other lawlessness going on
in the country, often at the instigation of
the police themselves? Reading
Tsvangirai's words thousands of miles away,
it is impossible to escape the
conclusion that the Prime Minister had
seriously misjudged the mood of the
country. The people may be desperate for
the GNU to succeed but not, I
believe, at the cost of justice for the
hundreds of victims of Zanu PF
brutality. To align himself with Robert
Mugabe in such an abject way as
Tsvangirai did, was, I believe a grave error
of judgement on his part.
Despite his condemnation of Thabo Mbeki's earlier
'quiet diplomacy,
Tsvangirai appears to be adopting the same approach now.
He says he will not
use 'megaphone' diplomacy to condemn wrong doings by his
partners in
government but there is a difference between shouting from the
roof-tops and
the almost servile utterances we hear from him
now.
Talking to the business community was no doubt an easier task for
Morgan
Tsvangirai; the businessmen and women's primary aim is to make money
after
all. That aim fits in very neatly with the GNU's repeated pleas to the
west
to lift sanctions and make cash immediately available for the bankrupt
country. What was interesting was that, in marked contrast with his remarks
to his own followers, Tsvangirai chose this occasion to stress time and
again how important it is to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe if there is
to be a favourable economic climate.
"If business is the engine of
growth," he said, "then the rule of law is the
fuel that drives that
engine.The rule of law is a moral imperative and a
business necessity."
Later on in the same speech, Tsvangirai said "The
responsibility to save and
protect the quality of life for all must
preoccupy us, the political
leadership, regardless of race, colour, tribe,
religion or political
affiliation.a value system (that) can only rest on the
pillars of civil
liberties, the right of association and the right of civil
society to
challenge those entrusted with government." Does Robert Mugabe
'approve' of
these fine words - and they are just words since Tsvangirai
gave no evidence
of what steps he and his fellow ministers in the GNU can
take to make them a
reality - does he 'respect' the man who spoke them? We
have no evidence that
Mugabe respects or listens to anyone, least of all his
partner in this
so-called Unity Government. Robert Mugabe gained power
through the barrel of
a gun; he has boasted of his 'degrees in violence' but
it seems that Morgan
Tsvangirai and the MDC ministers are prepared to
overlook past and present
crimes for the sake of national reconciliation -
but without the necessary
truth and justice prevailing. Where is the 'moral
imperative' here? A police
report states this week that there have been 2000
fresh reports of violence
since the GNU was installed but still Morgan
Tsvangirai tells his followers
that he 'respects and approves' Mugabe's
words and actions. The thousands of
Zimbabweans who have suffered and
continue to suffer under Mugabe's ruthless
brutality deserve nothing less
justice.
Yours in the (continuing)
struggle, PH