Zim Online
Saturday 05 May
2007
By Prince Nyathi
HARARE -
An outbreak of pellagra has killed 23 inmates at Zimbabwe's
notorious
Chikurubi Maximum prison since the beginning of the year, a prison
official
told ZimOnline.
Dozens more inmates at the prison that is located
on Harare's eastern
boundary were sick from the disease that is caused by a
poor diet and
general shortage of food.
"So far, 23 prisoners
have died as a direct result of this disease. At
the moment, it is difficult
to contain the disease because there is an acute
shortage of food," said the
official, who did not want to be named because
he was not authorised to
disclose conditions at Chikurubi to the Press.
Pellagra is a
vitamin deficiency disease caused by the shortage of
vitamin B3 and protein
especially containing the essential amino acid
trypophan.
Trypophan is found in meat, poultry, fish and eggs, all rare
commodities at
the overcrowded Chikurubi or any of Zimbabwe's infamously
filthy
jails.
With the Harare government preoccupied with finding money to
buy food,
essential medicines, fuel, electricity and for salaries for
hundreds of
thousands of its workers, prisons have virtually been
forgotten.
Prisoners have on many occasions been forced to survive
on a single
meal per day because there is no money to buy adequate supplies.
In many
cases, prisoners at Chikurubi or at any of the country's jails are
fed a
single meal of sadza (a thick porridge of ground maize) and vegetables
boiled in salted water.
"On a good day, they eat sadza and
beans but still it will too little
to keep someone health," the prison
official said.
A parliamentary committee which toured Chikurubi and
other prisons
last year found inmates clad in torn, dirty uniforms and
crammed into
overcrowded cells with filthy; overflowing toilets that went
unflushed for
weeks as water supplies to jails was cut off due to unpaid
bills.
Prisoners were denied privacy when relieving themselves and
used torn
strips of blanket or even pages ripped off the freely available
Bibles as
toilet paper, said the committee.
Prisoners lacked
soap or facilities to wash themselves or their single
sets of prison
uniform.
The committee, which described conditions in some prisons
as inhuman,
said epidemics of diarrhoea and skin diseases such as pellagra
swept through
prisons, due both to unsanitary conditions and prisoners'
chronic
malnutrition.
Both Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS)
spokeswoman Elizabeth Banda and
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa were not
immediately available for
comment on the matter. - ZimOnline
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: May 4, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: President
Robert Mugabe told Roman Catholic bishops who
issued a letter blaming him
for his country's political and economic turmoil
they had chosen "a
dangerous path," and church officials said Friday a
priest had been briefly
detained for passing the pastoral message on to his
congregation.
Police later Friday arrested two prominent lawyers who
have specialized in
human rights issues, colleagues said.
Mugabe, in
extracts of an interview published in the state Herald newspaper
on Friday,
declared the pastoral letter "political nonsense" and said the
government
would treat the country's nine bishops, all signatories to the
letter, as
what he called "political entities" and "deal with them
accordingly."
Church officials said since the pastoral letter was
distributed across the
country to coincide with Easter services, state
agents visited Catholic
churches and questioned worshippers over their
understanding of the bishops'
message.
The five-page pastoral letter
called on Mugabe to end oppression in the
country and allow for democratic
reform. It also said violent confrontation
and deepening economic hardships
was pushing the nation close to a flash
point.
The arrested
priest and a member of his congregation were released without
charge after
spending 24 hours in jail last month, said Father Oskar Wermter
of the
Catholic social communications secretariat in Harare.
It was the first
reported arrest of a priest on political grounds in recent
years. The priest
had evidently given prominence to the letter in services
in northern
Harare.
Wermter said Mugabe's response to the pastoral letter, as
reported in the
Herald, was to be expected.
"What is surprising is
that he kept silent for so long. People have reacted
to the letter very
positively and maybe that is riling him," Wermter said.
Opposition
activists and civic leaders along with independent journalists
accused of
giving credence to calls for "regime change" in Zimbabwe have
frequently
been arrested and assaulted in efforts to silence them.
Attorney
Sternford Moyo said police arrested lawyers Alec Muchadehama and
Andrew
Makoni at their Harare offices late Friday and held them at the main
Harare
police jail, allegedly for attempting to pervert the course of
justice.
The two lawyers are currently representing a group of jailed
opposition
activists who have denied involvement in a series of petrol
bombings since
early March.
The defense team has argued some of the
evidence against the activists, who
face life imprisonment on terrorism
charges, has been faked by authorities.
Arrests on Friday afternoon are
common, preventing suspects having access to
courts until after the
weekend.
Police violently broke up a multi-denominational prayer meeting
March 11,
describing it as a banned political demonstration. One
pro-democracy
activist was shot dead, another died later of wounds suffered
in the police
action and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change, and a dozen senior colleagues were
hospitalized after
beatings.
Mugabe later said Tsvangirai and
government opponents deserved the police
beatings and that security forces
were ready to again "bash" opponents.
With their pastoral letter, "the
bishops have decided to turn political. And
once they turn political, we
regard them as no longer being spiritual,"
Mugabe told the British-based New
African magazine, the Herald, a government
mouthpiece reported.
"Our
relations with them would be conducted as political entities, and this
is
quite a dangerous path they have chosen for themselves," Mugabe was
quoted
as saying.
"If I had gone to a church and a priest had read that
so-called pastoral
letter I would have stood up and said, 'Nonsense,'"
Mugabe said.
Mugabe, 83, was educated by Catholic missionaries and has
Catholic services
conducted at his official residence.
By Violet
Gonda
4 May 2007
Alex Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni, the lawyers who
have been defending and
representing the 30 MDC political detainees, were
arrested on Friday
afternoon. The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said the two
were picked up from
their legal offices in Harare. At the time of broadcast
a team of lawyers
from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights were at the
Harare Central Police
Station trying to ascertain why their colleagues had
been arrested. We could
not get a comment from the police.
An
official from the Crisis Coalition said: "From a political perspective
one
can notice a trend that is developing in Zimbabwe and orchestrated by
the
ruling ZANU PF party to exterminate and kill off any voices of dissent,
or
any organized organizations that express gross human rights abuses of
this
government."
Since March 11 hundreds of opposition activists have been
beaten and jailed.
Most of the secretariat or administrative personnel in
the Tsvangirai led
MDC, including MP Paul Madzore and presidential aide Ian
Makone, have been
in police custody for the last four weeks.
Lawyers
and doctors have in most cases been denied access to the detainees
who are
reported to be in bad health.
The current crackdown on opponents has also
spread to Non Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) who were last month told
they will be vetted through an
accreditation system. The NGOs see this as an
attempt to silence critics of
the regime.
The arrest of the two
lawyers is the latest attack on rights defenders. The
official from the
Crisis Coalition said: "This is the third step that the
government of
Zimbabwe is taking to close off and exterminate human rights
defenders
before the crucial election next year."
In a related issue, Pishai
Muchauraya the MDC's spokesperson for Manicaland
was released on Friday
morning after paying a fine of Z$ 2,500.00 for
"Disorderly Conduct". The
Tsvangirai MDC said: "But, for four days and
nights he was subjected to
torture and beatings because he would not admit
to petrol bombing a police
station in Manicaland."
It's reported he has sustained deep tissue
bruising of the buttocks, bruised
ribs and a fractured
finger.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Times
May 5, 2007
Jan Raath Harare
Just when President Mugabe thought he had
smashed a swell of restiveness
into submission, it returned to haunt him. An
international arts festival,
taking place a stone's throw from his office,
has wowed crowds with its
daring and politically provocative
shows.
The opening performance stunned the 6,000 spectators on the lawns
of the
Harare Gardens. On stage, male dancers in suits and dark glasses
descended
with pickaxe handles on a crowd of young actors, evidently
township
opposition activists, as a woman singer growled: "I can't get no
satisfaction." When the limp forms of the victims were carried off the
stage, the song changed to Tracy Chapman's Talkin' Bout a
Revolution.
The act was a violent, shocking danse macabrethat reenacted
the killings and
savage assaults by Mr Mugabe's security agents on
opposition activists,
including Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for
Democratic Change leader, that
began on March 11. From the back of the
audience came shouts of "March 11,
March 11".
The master of
ceremonies, flanked by two expressionless men in dark glasses,
opened the
show with a mock presidential tirade that began: "Tonight I am
your leader.
I will tolerate no opposition." In Zimbabwe's violently
repressive
atmosphere it was a highly risky act for the producers of the
Harare
International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) to stage before a
dangerous,
intolerant regime.
The anti-government flavour has continued throughout
the six-day festival
that ends tomorrow. In a locally produced play,
Zimbabwe police misconstrued
rumours of an "Orange Revolution" and beat up
street vendors selling oranges
who they suspected of plotting to bring down
the Government by distributing
poisoned citrus.
Exhibitions at the
National Gallery adjacent to the festival grounds are
filled with images of
the ruination that has consumed the country in the
past seven years of angry
dissent and rebellion.
"The festival is informed by the circumstances in
which we are making it,"
said Manuel Bagorro, HIFA's artistic director, who
has driven the festival
since its inception in 1998. "I don't want it to
feel impotent, that we are
burying our heads in the sand."
The
festival is an astonishing, unique phenomenon. Mr Bagorro,
Zimbabwean-born
of a Portuguese father and an Irish mother, and his sister,
Maria Wilson,
somehow manage to produce - despite 2,200 per cent inflation,
collapsing
infrastructure and a rogue Government - what has become
recognised as one of
the world's best arts festivals on a $1 million
(£500,000)
budget.
Without megastars, he manages to attract a rising generation of
actors,
playwrights, opera singers, dancers, classical and contemporary
musicians,
magicians, acrobats and comedians from all over the world. This
week's
lineup ranges from the British soprano Anne Williams-King, who made
her lead
debut in Covent Garden last year, to Hong Kong-based Chris Wong,
China's
biggest pop star who came to Harare with his own television
crew.
"To put together a big-name, talent-heavy show like HIFA in today's
Zimbabwe
is masterful," said Rajiv Bendre, director of the British Council
in Harare.
"Even for many European capitals, it would be difficult to match
this."
Harare's audiences - a record 48,000 by the third day - are hungry
for
culture and entertainment, and respond rapturously. It affects the
performers strangely. On Thursday night, the French flautist Jean Ferrandis
was on an extended note in a piece from Carmen when his accompanist, Patrick
Zygmanowski, rose from the piano, stretched out his arm to Ferrandis and
tapped his watch impatiently. The audience fell about and it set off a
string of impromptu deadpan jokes.
Williams-King said: "I have been
absolutely amazed at how wonderful the
whole thing is. I have toured all
over the world and I have never had such a
reception from an audience. It is
quite uplifting."
Libération Afrique, France
13
April 2007
Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) - http://www.actsa.org/
Whilst
press reports have quietened over issues in Zimbabwe this week, the
trials
and tribulations of the people of Zimbabwe continue to worsen every
day. The
latest reports coming from within Zimbabwe are that the ruling
party have
recommended the resuscitation of torture camps.
Zanu-PF youth militia
and war veterans would run a campaign of terror from
these camps to shut out
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party
from rural areas while
also destabilizing opposition support in major
cities.
A Zanu-PF
representative confirmed the deployment of ruling party youths and
war
veterans in rural areas but insisted that they being sent only to
protect
villagers from the "violent MDC".
Last week, two trade unionists were
forced into hiding after having received
threatening calls from state
persecutors warning them to cancel their plans
to support the ZCTU
stay-away. It is all part of the regime's campaign of
terror to silence the
dissenting voices.
However, the Save Zimbabwe Campaign is holding a
prayer meeting in Bulawayo
tomorrow barely a month after the police
violently crushed an identical
meeting in Harare. The coalition will join
hands with the Zimbabwe Catholic
Bishops Conference for the prayer meeting
at St Patrick's Church in
Bulawayo.
In a bold statement, members of
the coalition are standing out against the
threatening behaviour of the
state despite fears of a crackdown by Mugabe's
feared security agents by
going ahead with the prayer meeting tomorrow.
"This is a prayer meeting for
peace and it will go ahead as planned at a
city church and we do not need to
seek permission from anyone when we are
seeking God's help to stop our
suffering," said a spokesperson for the
alliance, Reverend Ray
Motsi.
"It is a horrifying prospect that Muagbe could order the
resuscitation of
torture camps in a supposedly democratic country. These
actions must be
challenged, they cannot be ignored. We support the valiant
efforts of the
ZCTU and other organisations desperately fighting a daily
battle for freedom
against this oppressive regime" said Kathryn Llewellyn,
Head of Campaigns
for Action for Southern Africa.
New Zimbabwe
By Obert
Madondo
Last updated: 05/05/2007 07:24:15
WHEN the recent petrol-bomb
attacks started, I thought the architects were
simply testing the
invincibility of Robert Mugabe's security forces. Until
recently,
Zimbabweans have subscribed to this pervasive myth that Mugabe was
invincible both on the ballot box and in the boxing ring.
While the
spirited opposition charge of the last seven years debunked that
myth, a
frightening reality is beginning to emerge: violence is beginning to
appeal
to opposition sympathisers as well.
Pop culture has self-styled Kings of
Pop. The Zimbabwe violence has a
self-styled King of Violence: Robert
Mugabe. In classic Machiavellian style,
he pursued and grabbed political
power. Throughout his 27-year rule, he used
violence to nourish and defend
it. The cost so far is more than twenty
thousand innocent lives and a
brutalised, tired country.
Mugabe glorifies violence. He has claimed to
posses "degrees in violence".
He once claimed that he was worth ten
Hitlers. His Chimurenga nickname is
Karigamombe, which means 'indomitable
warrior'. Chatunga is the name of his
son. The name invokes the image of a
wild beast with horns, on the rampage,
goring anything in its
way.
With chilling words, Mugabe cheered on as state-hired killers
executed 20
000 people in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s. He
likened ZAPU
and Joshua Nkomo to a "cobra in the house" and urged his
supporters to
"strike and crush its head".
To him, political
competitors are enemies of the state, puppets and
terrorists.
This is the
language of violence. Unfortunately, both leaders of the MDC
factions seem
to have converted.
Morgan Tsvangirai once warned: "What we would like to
tell Mugabe is please
go peacefully. If you don't want to go peacefully, we
will remove you
violently."
Tsvangirai later retracted this statement
and told us he wasn't exactly
itching for an armed confrontation. In an
opinion article recently published
in The Washington Times Tsvangirai
predicts the inevitable "wrath of the
people" if
Mugabe holds on to
power. He sees time running out for peaceful change
in
Zimbabwe.
Arthur Mutambara is a master of the art of ambiguity. He
has declared 2007
the year of the people's revolution and vowed to bring
political change "by
any means necessary". He's urged Zimbabweans to "drive
the tyrant out of
town". In a recent Independence message, he assumed
Zimbabweans' collective
anger and rage, calling Mugabe a spineless coward,
wimp and moron.
The verbal venom being splashed onto Mugabe's face does
not bother me.
Mugabe deserves worse, much worse. But when the venom comes
from a potential
president, I get a bit worried. The three leaders speak on
behalf of and to
important constituencies. In a country such as Zimbabwe
where leaders enjoy
unadulterated loyalty, their words inevitably become the
cue to action.
For Zanu PF supporters, Mugabe's message is crystal clear:
kill, maim, burn
and vandalise. With the regime on the ropes, violence is
now the only
option.
Tsvangirai and Mutambara's message, while ambiguous
and evasive, is simple:
violence is still an alternative. The two risk
partnering the dictator in
derailing the democracy project. Democracy is
achieved through
none-violence, period!
Violence of any form should
be condemned, perpetrators punished.
But these leaders are also playing
our favourite tune. Mugabe cannot now
preach peace to his constituency of
violence adherents. Tsvangirai and
Mutambara are part of a constituency
under siege. For a long time Zimbabwe
tried to hide from Mugabe's violence
but now all the hiding places are
manned by Zanu PF thugs with licenses to
kill.
One could argue that Mugabe's terror conscripted Zimbabweans into
violence
in the name of self-defence. But how do we justify the violence
soaking up
online forums on the Zimbabwe issue? The forums have become
canvasses for
threats of murder, obscenity and other cheap verbal insults.
I've no doubt
that some of the participants would act out their violence if
given the
opportunity.
I've begun to believe that Zimbabweans have
never had complete faith in
Gandhi-style peaceful politics. We have always
believed in violence as a
possible shortcut to political goals. I remember
with nostalgia going
toe-to-toe, the entire 12 rounds, against Zanu PF thugs
during the historic
1995 election of Margaret Dongo as an independent MP in
Harare South.
Certainly, there is a perverse thrill deriving from
subduing Mugabe's thugs.
Driving the tyrant out of town, as Mutambara urges,
would be the ultimate
aphrodisiac.
Our campaign trail is a tale of
violence. In democratic settings, political
activists knock on people's
doors and beg for votes. They engage in
conversation. But, even where
threats of violence are non-existent,
opposition activists compete with Zanu
PF thugs in the aggressive,
military-style Toyi
Toyi -- marching up and
down the streets, chanting war songs and making
threats. The student
movement, the gold mine of the opposition movement, is
famous for its
militancy, push-ups on the streets and chants of Ahoyi!
Non-political
Zimbabweans have allowed violence to thrive. They've never
protested against
political violence in their midst. Either they pray for
divine intervention
or, like some in our midst, pray to the invisible god of
violence, wishing
for "something" nasty, an accident, to befall the
dictator. Who can blame
them? Mugabe committed too many crimes to die
peacefully in his
sleep.
But Zimbabweans are not naturally predisposed to aggression or
violence,
neither did they invent violence. In fact, we've been too peaceful
for our
own good. Back then in the 1890s, King Lobengula exemplified our
innate
propensity for peace.
A certain Sir James McDonald, in his
book Rhodes: A Life (London: Philip
Allan 1928, 403pp) describes how
Lobengula, in his last hours and facing a
possible annihilation by the
British South African Company militia, sought
everlasting peace for his
people. He called together his faithful indunas
and warriors and instructed
them to surrender to Cecil John Rhodes and make
peace.
He reportedly
uttered the famous Ndebele cry of peace: "Hambani kuhle!" (Go
in
peace!)
Zimbabweans gravitated, intuitively, toward violence. Every
Zimbabwean
living today was born into a thriving culture of violence.
Present-day
Zimbabwe, with its current borders, is an offspring of violence.
The 1884-85
Berlin Conference partitioning of Africa by Europeans was an act
of
violence. It divided kingdoms and clans and tribes, and pitted brother
against brother. The so-called scramble for Africa injected Europeans with a
double insatiable hunger to own what was not theirs and suppress any
aspirations to self-rule by indigenous Africans.
In the 1890s, Cecil
John Rhodes and his colonial gang persecuted and
publicly hanged Zimbabwe's
twin grandparents, Sekuru Kaguvi and Nehanda.
They defined the character and
object of organised state violence. They
persecuted to install new authority
and prevent change in society. The
violence unleashed was collective,
involving organised, well-funded militias
without any regard to the rule of
law and human rights. The victim was
always a political leader, selected as
a representative of a group, rather
than as an individual.
In the
last 27 years, Mugabe has used violence to stifle political change.
His
victims, from Joshua Nkomo through Morgan Tsvangirai to Arthur Mutambara
have been political leaders. In colonialist-militia style, he formed
organised groups such the 5th Brigade, and gave them the blank cheque to
commit murder.
The recent assault on the opposition activists was
public by design. Again,
history is our impeccable witness. Nehanda was
publicly taunted and hanged.
Public execution was a mode of political
communication to the rest of
society.
After vanquishing the initial
effort at self-rule by native blacks, the
colonial regime consolidated the
culture of violence. They stole land,
forced taxes and treated blacks as
sub-humans. This violence created a
counter-reaction in the form of the
liberation war. The war is a beacon of
violence to which both sides
converted as if for salvation. It was a
rejection of peace as a pathway to
political settlement.
The Rhodesian regime routinely bombed refugee
camps, killed and maimed.
During the closing stages of the war, it resorted
to biological warfare,
spreading anthrax pores on food and live stocks, and
dumping cholera and rat
poison in rivers in the
countryside.
According to the evidence revealed during the recent South
African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, over 10,000 people contracted
anthrax from 1978
to 1980. 200 died.
The liberation fighters were no
saints either. In the villages, they
routinely dragged young women to their
hideouts as "comfort women" and raped
them. They executed sell-outs, real
and imagined. Mugabe and the liberation
fighters glorified violence. They
gave themselves war nicknames that bespoke
violence.
Current
vice-president, Joyce Mujuru, was Teurai Ropa, which means Spill
Blood.
The war created some of today's institutions and instruments
of violence.
Intent on suppressing rising African nationalism, the settler
government of
Sir
Edgar Whitehead introduced the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Act (LOMA) in
1960.
The colonial regime created the
Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) and
used it to infiltrate and weaken
the liberation movement. Mugabe embraced
the CIO and LOMA. He recently
renamed the latter Public Order and Security
Act (POSA). He created the 5th
Brigade. To legislate the independent media
out of existence, he recently
added the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
The 1990s saw the dramatic transformation of the war veterans
into
propagators of violence. To this arsenal Mugabe added the youth
militia,
known as the Green Bombers.
A new breed of criminal also
emerged in the form of the late Chenjerai
"Hitler" Hunzvi, armed with the
license to harass, abduct and murder with
impunity. Impunity now underpins
Zimbabwean violence. Contrary to popular
perception Mugabe did not invent
it; he simply perfected it.
Impunity came along the day state violence
arrived in the 1890s. As I
illustrated above, the liberation war nourished
it. The 1979 transitional
reign of British-appointed governor, Lord Soames
consolidated it. A general
amnesty was granted for the purposes of smooth
transition to independence.
The amnesty meant that there were not going to
be trials for those who had
committed war crimes on both sides of the
conflict.
Ian Smith and Mugabe's war criminals walked scot-free. If the
brutal attack
on Trudy Stevenson is anything to go by, the opposition is
offering no
guarantees that violence and impunity are evils of the
past.
This is a critical moment. The breakdown of the rule of law is
complete. At
the same time, the sustained state violence of the last 100
years has
created a formidable counterforce. The recent bombings can only
mean one
thing: Zimbabwean violence has assumed a new form. Zimbabweans are
losing
faith in peaceful, passive resistance.
As long as opposition
leaders speak Mugabe's language of violence, few will
believe their
commitment to abolishing LOMA, POSA, AIPPA; disbanding state
militia;
de-politicising the military and police services; reforming state
institutions and democratising the political process.
Zimbabweans
deserve some assurance that the future will be different, that
Mugabe's
departure will be the end of the culture of violence.
Obert Madondo is a
Zimbabwean national and writes from Toronto, Canada. He
can be contacted on
e-mail: ronrich22@yahoo.ca
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
04 May
2007
The Manicaland spokesman for the Movement for Democratic
Change faction led
by Morgan Tsvangirai, picked up by security agents in
Mutare on Monday and
alleged to have been tortured by police, was released
Friday, opposition
sources said.
No charges were pressed against
Pishai Muchauraya, though he was initially
accused of bombing a police
station in the Chisamba section of Mutare and
receiving military training to
overthrow the government of President Robert
Mugabe.
Muchauraya, who
refused to sign a "warned-and-cautioned" statement in the
absence of his
lawyer, was being treated at a private hospital in Harare
after his
release.
The MDC activist told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio
7 for
Zimbabwe that police had failed to establish a case against him but
gave him
a receipt for Z$2,500 to make it appear as if he had acknowledged
guilt and
paid a fine.
VOA
By Netsai Mlilo
Harare,
Zimbabwe
04 May 2007
Many Zimbabweans say are putting
aside savings to pay for death expenses as
economic distress intensifies,
hunger grows and more succumb to disease.
Some Bulawayo residents say paying
monthly subscriptions to burial societies
is more important to them than
paying rent or buying food. From Bulawayo,
Netsai Mlilo reports that
traditionally when death strikes relatives,
friends and neighbors ofthe
deceased are expected to contribute, to help
bury their departed
acquaintance.
But this is considered no longer a popular option, because
of death becoming
an increasingly common occurrence, and many families'
depleted coffers. It's
not only cash-strapped unemployed Zimbabweans who're
seeking alternatives.
Some employed Bulawayo residents say they, too, are
joining burial societies
even though they can afford funeral policies. In
the event of the death of
either a memberor a registered relative, burial
societies give families
money to cover funeral costs. In turn, members are
expected to attend wakes
and offer emotional support to
colleagues.
Janet Mahlala, who lives in Gwabalanda, says she's proud of
the fact that
she andher family are "fully covered for death." She boasts
of being a
member of 6 burial societies. Mahlala explains she had to join so
many
groups to cover herselfagainst rising funeral costs. Aside from paying
monthly subscriptions, Mahlala saysshe also attends monthly meetings where
each society's accounts are updated. She says she's able to attend the
different groups' meetings because dates usually vary.
Mahlala says
things become tricky when more than 1 member dies at the same
time. She
acknowledges that while the monthly contributions are minimal; she
struggles
to pay. As result she sometimes skimps on her family's meals.
She says,
"It's better to miss meals like breakfast and pay up your burial
society
subscriptions. It makes it easy when there is a death in the
family."
Mahlala says she doesn't mind making such a sacrifice,
because she doesn't
want to endure additional suffering when one of her
loved ones passes away.
Her fears are considered understandable, given the
fact that increasing
numbers of Zimbabwean families are battling to bury
their relatives. As
result, bodies have been pilingup in mortuaries,
compelling the state to
offer a pauper's burial.
She adds she
currently pays a total of 10-thousand dollars to all 6
societies. In
return, she says she expects to receive at least 1 million
dollars if she's
bereaved. Workers who have funeral policies are also
joining burial
societies. Kudzai Kwangwari says although his family has
funeral coverage,
he's joined a burial society in his neighbourhood: "It's
one of the ways
that most Zimbabweans can use to bury their loved ones
because the economy
is difficult. Funerals happen when you are not
expecting them so that
makes it easier for you to have resources to deal
with the
situation."
But Kwangwari has one major complaint; he says he's not happy
with the way
burial societies are becoming increasingly commercialized by
helping only
paid-up members. He says this kills the spirit of
spontaneously assisting
neighbors in distress. Additionally, he argues it's
not right to pay
societies' subscription fees when a relative is ill, and
hungry, at home.
Some burial societies are broadening their mandate to
include home-based
care, as the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic spreads.
Mahlala says one of
the burial societies she belongs to takes care of ill
members, "We don't
have a problem taking care of sick members. We go as
burial society members
to bathe, do laundry, clean the house and cook
porridge and make sure the
member eats. We take turns to go and care for
sick members. "
Mahlala and other unemployed residents like her say for
the time being
burial societies offer value for money during death.
Monsters and Critics
May 4, 2007, 20:47 GMT
New York - Zimbabwe's
pursuit of a prestigious United Nations commission
chair is running into
resistance by Western nations worried about the
downward political and
economic spiral in the southern African country.
Francis Nhema,
Zimbabwe's environment minister, has received backing from
African states to
run for the chairmanship of the UN Commission on
Sustainable
Development.
The United States said Friday that Zimbabwe's track record
in recent years
does not bode well for a committee focused on sustainable
agriculture, rural
development and preventing drought and
desertification.
'The car of economic development in Zimbabwe for the
last few years has only
been going in one direction. And it's backwards,' US
State Department deputy
spokesman Tom Casey said.
'We don't think
that Zimbabwe would be a particularly effective leader of
this body,' Casey
said.
The panel plans to elect a new chair next week to conclude 10 days
of
meetings at the UN headquarters in New York. It it Africa's turn to take
over the committee currently chaired by Qatar.
Western nations cite
severe human and civil rights violations and the
deterioration of the
economy under the repressive regime of President Robert
Mugabe. UN diplomats
said pressure was being put on the Africans to drop
Nhema and choose another
African candidate.
The committee was formed at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992 to
devise plans to save the deteriorating environment and
meet economic
development needs.
İ 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
04 May
2007
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of some 350
civil society
groups, held its annual general meeting Friday in Harare
including a review
of its strategy for dealing with a national political and
economic crisis
that has intensified in 2007.
Coalition Coordinator
Jacob Mafume said about 60 members reviewed the
outcome of the recent summit
of the Southern African Development Community
and conditions in the country
ahead of March 2008 presidential and
parliamentary elections.
Mafume
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
his
group was prepared to work with the government of President Robert
Mugabe if
the Harare administration were willing to seek an end to the
multi-year
impasse.
The Crisis Coalition re-elected Arnold Tsunga as its chairman
and elected
Tabitha Khumalo vice chairperson, replacing Colin Gwiyo.
Macdonald Lewanyika
was designated spokesman, taking the place of Primrose
Matambanadzo.
By Lance
Guma
04 May 2007
A 2002 purge by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) which saw the
retrenchment of 400 workers, backfired at the Labour
Court when the state
broadcaster was ordered to reinstate them. Lawyers for
the workers applied
for the execution of a judgement made in March 2005 but
had been on hold
after ZBC, now called Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH),
filed an appeal
in the Supreme Court. Labour Court Judge President Euna
Makamure upheld a
decision by an arbitrator who ruled that the workers were
still employees of
the ZBC until their retrenchment was completed. The
broadcaster apparently
did not comply with the conditions of a retrenchment
agreement that it had
set out with the workers. The ZBC has filed a fresh
appeal against the
latest decision.
Under the iron grip of former
Information minister Jonathan Moyo ZBC carried
out a purge of veteran and
talented broadcasters and journalists, replacing
them with inexperienced
college graduates and known Zanu PF apologists.
Presenters like Eric Knight,
Brenda Moyo, Musavengana Nyasha and others were
sent packing following
accusations they were sympathetic to the opposition.
Newsreel spoke to
former Radio 2 DJ and TV presenter Knight who said he had
no interest in
going back to the ZBC. He says he put his name to the court
application only
as a show of support for his colleagues whom he felt got
the rough end of
the stick and were left destitute. He said he will only
rejoin ZBC if the
media environment changes. Knight says even if his other
colleagues rejoined
they would find themselves working under the same
restrictive
system.
Presenter Brenda Moyo, now working for Voice of America's Studio
7, told
Newsreel she was not interested in going back to the state
broadcaster. She
said the risks were too great to consider even though she
missed home badly.
Ezra 'Tshisa' Sibanda, now with UK based Afro Sounds FM,
told us he was
never retrenched but left the country following a broadcast
which, he says,
landed him in trouble with the authorities. He says the
Labour Court ruling
does not affect him since he left 5 months before the
retrenchments. He
however said he does not see how his former colleagues,
now outside the
country, can ever risk going back to a country that has such
repressive
media laws. He warned that any of the broadcasters who planned on
returning
were taking a huge risk.
ZBC retrenched the workers in 2002
and promised to pay them financial
packages. This never happened and up
until now the workers have not received
anything. Charles Kwaramba their
lawyer said out of 480 workers initially
affected some have since died while
others lost interest in the case leaving
about 380 on the application.
Kwaramba says they have written to the ZBC
lawyers asking when their clients
can resume work. The workers have also
demanded their salaries backdated to
2002 when they were retrenched. With
the country's hyper-inflationary
environment the packages could end up
amounting to nothing experts
say.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Sydney Morning Herald
Joel Gibson
May 5, 2007
AUSTRALIA'S cricketers risk
being beaten up if they tour Zimbabwe in
September, a democracy activist has
warned on her return to Australia after
being bashed by police.
"That
is what will happen to them, because Mugabe is anti-white," said Sekai
Holland at Sydney Airport yesterday.
Clutching X-rays of her broken
bones, she said it was fantastic that the
Federal Government was considering
asking Cricket Australia to cancel the
tour.
"The Zimbabweans would
feel that for once Australia has not dilly-dallied
about where its alliances
are. There should be no ties with Zimbabwe until
Mugabe goes."
Mrs
Holland, 64, the secretary of policy in the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, was reportedly stamped on, called "Tony Blair's whore"
and a lover of white men during the March 11 assault at a police station
because she is married to an Australian, Jim Holland, and lived here from
1964 until 1980.
Mrs Holland thanked the Australian Government,
friends, family and media for
their support of the democracy movement in
Zimbabwe but said Australia could
do more to oppose the 82-year-old
dictator, such as banning the dependants
of his ZANU-PF party members from
studying in Australian and demanding the
UN bring Mugabe to account so that
he can be tried before an international
court.
Cricket Australia
could face a $2 million fine from the International
Cricket Council if it
boycotted the three-match one-day series, unless
Zimbabwe is deemed unsafe
for the team. The captain, Ricky Ponting, said
that, even if the three-match
tour proceeded, each player would be allowed
to decide whether he would
go.
If the tour is cancelled the Federal Government would pay the fine,
the
Prime Minister, John Howard, told Southern Cross radio yesterday, but
the
Government had yet to decide whether to ask Cricket Australia to
cancel.
"We would indemnify Cricket Australia for any compensation that
it might
have to pay to the international body," he said.
"It would
not be fair to visit the cost of a foreign policy decision on a
sporting
body."
Annual inflation is running at 2200 per cent in Zimbabwe.
Unemployment is
between 80 and 90 per cent and the life expectancy is the
world's shortest,
at 36 years. Reports say that 600 Mugabe critics have been
arrested since
March.
news.com.au
John Ferguson
May 05,
2007 12:00am
TAXPAYERS could pay up to $2 million to ensure Australian
cricketers do not
tour strife-torn Zimbabwe.
Prime Minister John
Howard has spoken to Australian captain Ricky Ponting
and Cricket Australia
about a possible government bailout of the planned
September trip.
The
International Cricket Council threatens big penalties for countries that
fail to compete against any of its 10 members.
The reported fine
faced by Cricket Australia for refusing to tour was up to
$2
million.
The short tour of one-day internationals -- if it was to go
ahead in
September -- would be held amid international condemnation of the
murderous
dictatorship led by Robert Mugabe.
Mr Howard yesterday made
a scathing attack on Mr Mugabe, who has all but
destroyed the once
prosperous nation.
Mr Mugabe's regime has been blamed for the deaths of
up to two million
people.
Mr Howard has asked for the views of the
Australian cricketers, but only
leg-spinner Stuart MacGill refused to tour
when Australia last visited in
2004.
The Prime Minister said the
cricketers' views should be considered.
"But the situation in Zimbabwe
has become quite catastrophic," he said in
Melbourne.
"The failure of
neighbouring African countries that have the power . . . to
bring about a
change and the only change that can help Zimbabwe is the
immediate departure
of Mugabe as President.
"His continued presence is disastrous for the
country."
His comments came as the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo said
Australia's
participation in the tour would help legitimise the Mugabe
regime.
The main way Cricket Australia could escape ICC sanctions would
be if the
tour was cancelled over security concerns.
Officials are
slated to visit the country before the planned tour to
determine whether
player safety would be compromised.
Mr Mugabe, 83, has spiralled
dramatically from being a respected figure in
the Commonwealth to a
president derided around the world.
A spokesman said Cricket Australia's
position had not changed.
Cricket Australia had noted Mr Howard's
comments and that the end of the
World Cup would enable officials to examine
the issue more closely.
Zim Online
Saturday 05 May 2007
By
Nqobizitha Khumalo
BULAWAYO - The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ)
nearly went into
liquidation two years ago due to gross mismanagement and
underperformance, a
parliamentary committee has been told.
Addressing
Parliament's portfolio committee on industry and international
trade, NRZ
general manager Retired Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai, said the
rail firm
last transported its maximum freight capacity of 18 metric tonnes
some 12
years ago.
"Due to mounting debts caused by years of underperformance, we
were
seriously affected when the volume, by way of freight movement and
passenger
services dropped to very low levels.
"The situation
worsened over the years up to 2005 when the organisation
faced near
collapse," Karakadzai told the parliamentarians during a briefing
in
Bulawayo last week.
Karakadzai blamed NRZ's dire financial position on
the low volume of traffic
on its wagons saying the company had failed to
generate meaningful revunue
during the period.
"In 2005 . . . most of
the locomotives and wagons were grounded when the
maintenance programme was
suspended due to lack of money and it was at the
time that we were moving
about 3.7 metric tonnes against 18 metric tonnes of
freight traffic last
moved in 1985," he said.
The NRZ boss said they had set ambitious targets
to move about 10 million
tones of freight and 3.3 million inter-city
passengers in 2007 as part of
the parastatal's recovery efforts.
The
national rail company is now a shadow of its former self after years of
mismanagement and under-funding.
Non-functioning communication
systems as well as serious defects on train
wagons have contributed to some
of the worst seen rail accidents in the
country over the past few
years.
The NRZ is among several loss-making parastatals, headed by
relatives and
friends of the politically well connected in Zimbabwe.
President Robert
Mugabe's government has in the past refused to privatise
these parastatals
at great cost to the national fiscus. - ZimOnline
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject line.
JAG Hotlines:
+263 (011) 610 073 If you are in trouble
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Lines
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1 - Cathy Buckle
Dear Family and Friends,
Having spent three weeks
in a civilized country south of Zimbabwe, I must
admit that there were many
things that made me not want to come home. Food
was one thing - its
existence, huge variety and consistent pricing. Money
was another thing -
coins that are actually worth something, bank notes that
don't have expiry
dates printed on them and money that keeps its value from
one week to the
next. Then there was the freedom of the media with abundant
newspaper and
radio stations with criticism and debate encouraged. There was
the joy of
petrol stations that always had fuel and of being able to travel
freely
without incessant road blocks and police checks. Even little things
like
public toilets that were fit for use by human beings, water that was
safe to
drink from a tap, street signs that haven't been stolen and
dustbins being
emptied - all were cause for stares of amazement.
For three weeks my eyes
were open wide and slowly it began to sink in just
how utterly shocking
everything in Zimbabwe has become. We have all been so
busy trying to survive
the horrors that not only have we forgotten how a
country should work but
also how to demand that officials paid with our
taxes do our bidding and not
their own.
Crossing the border back into Zimbabwe there were just three
people in the
queue. On the other side of the counter at least 60 Zimbabweans
were
jostling to get out of the country. I knew I was home within minutes
of
leaving the border post. Deep potholes litter the highways; cows,
donkeys
and goats have right of way and there are no roadside fences. Road
markings
have worn away, cat's eyes in the tar have gone and sign posts have
been
stolen.
But it was good to be home and the scenery this time of
year is exquisite.
Baobab trees in full leaf, crowds of yellow flowers in the
dry bush and
eagles soaring in the skies. The names of dry, dusty places
conjure up
images that can only be of Zimbabwe: Bubye, Nuanetsi, Sosonye,
Mwenezi and
Mount Guhudza. In the middle of nowhere there are always bottle
stores: The
"Try Again Bottle Store" caught my eye - a shabby little
building,
surrounded by red dust, women trying to sell water melons and men
sitting
drinking beer in the middle of the morning.
This for sure is
home!
Breaking the journey at one stage and in the middle of nowhere, two
young
teenage girls appeared. "Hello," I called out, "How are you?" "Hello,"
they
answered, " we are eating!" One girl opened her hand to reveal a dozen
shiny
black berries. "Take them" she said, "you are welcome." I thanked her
and
took two. She told me they were called Subvu and I gave her some
peppermints
in exchange. We all clapped our
hands in thanks and the girls
went away giggling. Instantly I was overcome
with emotion and patriotism. In
a land where hunger is rampant, in a country
with the lowest life expectancy
in the world, two young girls would offer me
a mouthful of their food. Where
else could I be except at home and this is
the Zimbabwe that everyone knows
and loves. Later I found that the berries
are from the Mutsubvu tree and also
called Chocolate berries.
The grim reality of being back home came soon.
On the bottom of the
electricity bill waiting for me when I got home were
the words: "Tariff
increased by 350% effective 1 April ."
I thank the
two young girls on the roadside for making me feel welcome , and
my mum for
writing her letter 'from the diaspora' these past three weeks
and keeping
the news current. Until next week, thanks for reading,
love
cathy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2 - Bobbejaanspanneroligist.
Editor,
It appears that Thabo and
Robert are busy emulating Putin to maintain a
"managed democracy" in Zimbabwe
- to secure the continued grip on power by
Robert. A facade of a free and
fair election in 2008 is an integral part of
their international charade
known as "Democratic Zimbabwe."
They remember that Joshua and Robert (The
PF) declined to participate in the
Smith, Chirau, Sithole, Muzorewa elections
in the late 70's. These black
participants were disparagingly termed
"BlackSmiths."
In August 2003 Robert set ZRP a quota of five white
farmers detained per
police station over the August heroes holidays -
regardless of any law.
One perceptive detainee (held at the same police
station that wilfully
blocked the ambulance from collecting a seriously
injured farmer in April
2000, to guarantee his death) enlightened the
Officer in Charge with:"You
are a Bobbejaan Spanner - you are a tool of the
government."
Tsvangirayi, Mutambara, Biti, Chamisa, Coltart, Bennett and
their colleagues
need to give some serious thought to what they think they
will achieve in
participating in an electoral process that is already
announcing the
results - a year in advance!
The western world supports
democratic change, and better life for the
Zimbabwean people but Thabo
appears as the key bobbejaan spanner at Robert's
disposal.
Are the
opposition going to fall for it all again and become "glorified
bobbejaan
spanners" once more? I think that The Bobbejaan is still looking
for more
bobbejaan spanners.
He knows that bobbejaan spanners create
legitimacy.
Bobbejaan spanners are "new age muijbas." Bobbejaan spanners
are expendable.
He wants legitimacy. At any
cost.
Bobbejaanspanneroligist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
3 - Brian Hayes
Dear JAG,
I am trying to obtain a detailed list of
names of farmers and the names of
their farms, who were murdered by
dissidents after 1980 - quite urgently.
Any assistance you can give will
be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Brian
Hayes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
4 - Lesley Hacking
Dear JAG,
Betty Ann and Bob Jefferies of
Augusta, West Australia would like to
re-establish contact with Wendy &
Rex Carey who used to farm on Waterford
Farm, Ruwa and Gina and Nigel Robey
who have a daughter Talulah.
If anyone has any idea of their whereabouts
please contact us on:
Ox and Les Hacking
Molloy Island, Augusta, WA,
oxandles@yahoo.com.au
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
5 - Conroc
Dear JAG,
Please could you insert an urgent appeal in
your next bulletin on behalf of
David and Susan Kaye whose home in Kadoma was
broken into during the early
hours of Thursday 26 April 2007. All of their
personal documents were
stolen and may have been discarded by the
perpetrators. The following is a
complete list of all of the items
stolen:
A solid grey briefcase with combination lock containing:
4
British Passports contained in a grey wallet in the names of David,
Susan,
Natasha and Shelley-Ann Kaye
Original Birth Certificates for the
whole family
Original Marriage Certificate
Residence Permit
South
African Book of Life iro David Kaye
Falconry Permits in the name of David
Kaye
All documents were contained in a blue plastic folder.
One
Wharfdale DVD / HiFi
One Multichoice Decoder
One Goldstar Video Player (
front cover missing where tape is inserted) -
video Miss Congeniality 2 still
inside
The following new Powersave tools which were still in original
boxes:
Electric Hand Drill
Electric Hand Skill Saw
Electric Hand
Planer
2 Nokia cellphones:
Blue and grey model 1100
Dark Blue model
3510i
The family are most anxious to recover the stolen documents and may
be
contacted on Kadoma (068) 24037 during office hours and (068) 22688 or
cell
0912 837301 after
hours.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.