• 'Freedom fighters' may be Mugabe trap
• Mugabe blows his last chance
• 'Club for despots' in last ditch reform bid
• Mampara of the Week: Stan Mudenge
• Hospitals collapse
• Banks corner parallel market
• Zimsec strike exposes serious conflicts in the exams body
• Soldiers missing in DRC to be declared dead
• Standard staffer brutally assaulted by police
• 'Banana's status sacrificed to please Mugabe'
• Freedom train commuters stone control room
• Moyo booed in Gweru
• ZIMRA employee nabbed as police probe massive fraud
• Furore over Zanu PF Mutare elections
• Public slams Murerwa's budget
• Murerwa makes U-turn on budget predictions
• NAAC seeks stake for coloureds
• Office workers turn to street sadza vendors
• State to curb poaching by new farmers
• Forum blasts 'foreign owned' Nepad
• CCZ calls for review of price controls
• Moyo-Manheru is job hunting
• No hope for Zimbabwe tourism
• Comment - Banana status: Case of the pot calling the kettle black
• Money for nothing and nothing for free
• Mugabe at Commonwealth: No decision yet

Britain and the official opposition in Zimbabwe are steering clear of a
shadowy new resistance group called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM),
amid fears that it may be a trap laid by President Robert Mugabe for enemies
such as the British gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell.

Most new guerrilla movements announce themselves by claiming responsibility
for an attack or act of sabotage that captures media attention. The ZFM,
however, made its debut earlier this month at London's ICA, one of Britain's
premier arts venues, where Mr Tatchell launched the group by showing a
video.

Apparently shot inside Zimbabwe, the tape shows an interview with two
balaclava- wearing men -- Commander "Charles Black Mamba" and his deputy,
whose nom de guerre is Nthuthko Fezela -- in which they outline the aims of
the ZFM. They say Mr Mugabe should be removed from power to resolve
Zimbabwe's problems. Although their intention is not to kill the President,
but to take him alive in a bloodless coup so that he can "receive the
truth", they warn that if Mr Mugabe does not want the ZFM to resort to the
use of force, the next move is up to him.

But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, is on trial for his life on treason charges, has reacted
sceptically to the ZFM's appearance. The ruling Zanu-PF had used
"pseudo-dissidents" in the 1980s, warned David Coltart, the MDC's justice
spokesman. "I suspect that these are people from the military and the
Central Intelligence Organisation," he said. "You have to ask whose
interests this serves ... Mugabe will make the most of the propaganda from
this sort of thing by blaming the British for meddling in Zimbabwe's
affairs."

The main evidence produced against Mr Tsvangirai is a secret video which his
lawyers say has been crudely doctored to make him appear to be plotting to
assassinate Mr Mugabe. This has fuelled MDC suspicions about the ZFM video.
Following Mr Tatchell's launch of the new group, Chris Mullin, a Foreign
Office minister, said informal approaches to Britain, believed to come from
the ZFM, had been firmly rejected. The MDC's secretary general, Welshman
Ncube, told The Independent on Sunday: "If it [the ZFM] is not a deliberate
creation to discredit us, then it is a group of people who really don't know
who they are playing with, because it's a very dangerous game and one which
will cause a lot of hardship for people on the ground."

Opposition groups fear another crackdown by Mr Mugabe's regime may be immi-
nent as Zimbabwe stumbles into further political and economic chaos. Last
week police and paramilitaries began confiscating foreign currency
indiscriminately from travellers - a desperate measure which state media
explained as necessary to buy imported fuel for farm vehicles, but which has
been more widely interpreted as funding military fuel stockpiles in
anticipation of civil unrest. Some believe the advent of the ZFM could be
used as an excuse for repression.

Mr Tatchell, who has twice attempted to make a citizen's arrest of Mr Mugabe
on visits to Europe - he was beaten up by the leader's security men on one
occasion - insists that the ZFM is genuine.

"They have been in contact with me for over 18 months, and have cautiously
delayed their announcement several times to concur with their aim of
patiently creating underground cells," he said.

Mr Tatchell noted that the regime's officials had belittled the ZFM: if the
movement was a government set-up, he said, the regime's officials would have
played up the threat rather than disparaging it.

Mr Tatchell is a particular bête noire of Mr Mugabe, who has likened gays to
"pigs and dogs" and claims Zimbabwe is being destabilised in a conspiracy
orchestrated by the British government of "gay gangsters", in league with
international capital, white Zimbabweans and black opposition
fifth-columnists.

Obasanjo, however, was clearly unimpressed by his visit - and Zimbabwe
remains barred from the Commonwealth.

Mugabe, meanwhile, has stepped up a crackdown on his opponents by arresting
more than a dozen people over e-mails supporting anti-government protests.

Zimbabwean state media reported on Friday that 14 people had been arrested
in the past week and charged with "circulating a subversive e-mail inciting
the public to oust President Mugabe from office".

They were later freed on bail. But the report did not give details of how
the authorities had found the message, which said: " Starting on November 24
there would be nationwide violent demonstrations and strikes to push
President Mugabe out of office."

Riot police detained the country's main labour leaders and some rights
activists for two days this week after they tried to stage street
demonstrations against Mugabe's policies. They were later released.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Lovemore Matombo said after his
release from custody on Thursday that Mugabe was bent on clamping down on
critics.

After Obasanjo's departure from Harare, Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan
Mudenge still insisted that the country was back as a full member of the
54-nation organisation.

He said its 12-month suspension had lapsed on March 19 - despite an
announcement by Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon on March 16 that
it had been extended for a further nine months.

In a reference to Nigeria, Australia and South Africa, Mudenge told
parliament that the "troika" which had imposed the year-long suspension had
not renewed it.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth after presidential elections in
March last year were declared neither free nor fair by many international
monitors.

Mudenge launched a spectacular attack on white Commonwealth leaders, saying
McKinnon's statement on March 16 was "based on falsehood and therefore
without effect" because South Africa and Nigeria had rebutted his claims.

"Put blatantly, the secretary-general lied," said Mudenge, accusing
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and McKinnon of "breathtaking
arrogance" and of being "consumed by racist emotionalism".

"There are many who regard Mr Howard as a notorious international outlaw who
was recently involved in the illegal invasion of Iraq, murdered innocent
women and children and effected unauthorised regime change," Mudenge said.

"In fact they believe that he should be told clearly and firmly that 'regime
change' is not a Commonwealth policy or principle and that he must stand
trial at the Rome International Criminal Court for his crimes."

But Zimbabwe's continued suspension appeared to hinge on Mugabe's refusal to
meet Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai for discussions
about the country's future.

Earlier, Mugabe had announced that his ruling Zanu-PF party was, in fact,
engaged in talks with the MDC.

Obasanjo tried in vain this week to secure a meeting between Tsvangirai and
Mugabe. Tsvangirai, according to Nigerian diplomatic sources, was prepared
to meet Mugabe.

However, Mugabe insisted that he could only meet the MDC leader in February
after consulting other Zanu-PF leaders.

Tsvangirai informed the Nigerian president that there had been no progress
in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis since Obasanjo visited the country with
President Thabo Mbeki in May.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that in the national budget presented to the
Zimbabwean parliament this week, it was announced that inflation was
expected to reach 700% next year.

'Club for despots' in last ditch reform bid

TREVOR GRUNDY

WHEN it was formed after the Second World War, the Commonwealth was applauded as a crucial way to maintain prosperous trading links and close political relationships between the former members of the British Empire.

Millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world were told that Britain would help economies prosper and democracies grow by promoting international trade and free enterprise.

But today the Commonwealth has gained a reputation as a club for ageing despots more interested in political posturing than promoting the coalition’s founding spirit.

And so next month’s biannual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Nigeria is seen as a crucial chance to turn around the 54-nation organisation Prince Charles recently said was "drinking in the last chance saloon".

Prince Charles is not the organisation’s only critic. Others believe its days are numbered because it spends more time disciplining errant members such as Zimbabwe and Pakistan than helping the world’s poor. The first big Commonwealth meeting in Africa took place in Nigeria in 1966. Then the talk was about how to control Ian Smith, Rhodesia’s prime minister. Nearly 40 years later, Zimbabwe, as it is now, is still the cause of acrimony.

The Queen will seek to set the tone when she delivers her keynote speech in Abuja by highlighting the need to give the 1.8-billion-member club a new meaning and a set of moral goals for the 21st century.

For one expert it is the lack of leadership and interest from Britain which has contributed to the Commonwealth’s lack of direction. Sir Andy Chande, a Tanzanian businessman who has been an economic affairs adviser to three Tanzanian presidents since 1967, said: "It’s as if the British were embarrassed about their old Empire. I travel the world and can talk to children in Botswana, India, Pakistan and Australia about the Commonwealth. You can’t do that in Britain. No one seems to care whether it survives or sinks."

	It’s as if the British were embarrassed about their old Empire

The challenges for the Commonwealth are great if it chooses to tackle them. Hunger and famine afflict many of its member states and the Aids epidemic and social unrest are having a profound effect on others.

Marianne Haslegrave, the director of the Commonwealth Medical Services, said there were elements of the Commonwealth that still worked, but that tensions were growing.

She said: "It’s good at providing opportunities for governments from developed and developing countries to talk about the things that really impact on people’s lives... and how richer countries can help poorer countries in the Club."

But she added: "One of the big problems the Commonwealth faces is it’s made up of so many countries with utterly different backgrounds and traditions. In Britain, we expect everyone to be democratic in the Westminster sense of the word… Most Commonwealth states are de facto one party states."

But it is the issue of Zimbabwe which threatens to tear the organisation apart and prevent it tackling these issues. Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March last year after the presidential elections, which he won, were rigged. But he has mobilised support among other African leaders, including South African president Thabo Mbeki and CHOGM’s Nigerian host President Olusegun Obasanjo, and plans to turn up on December 5.

This is likely to overshadow any agenda Tony Blair, Australian Prime Minister John Howard or the New Zealand-born secretary general, Don McKinnon, are pushing. Indeed Blair could decide not to attend if Mugabe turns up.

Mugabe’s actions are causing a black/white split in the Commonwealth. He has recently called on all African governments to throw white landowners off their farms and return them to their original people, a policy he has carried out with terrible effect in Zimbabwe.

And he remains defiant. Only last week in Harare he raged against Blair and Howard for blocking his entry back into the Commonwealth, calling on other members to reject their "arrogant position".

And President Obasanjo has agreed that Mugabe has every right to attend the gathering as a private individual. "It’s a move supported by senior African leaders in Lusaka, Dar-es-Salaam, Johannesburg and Windhoek," said Chande. "Robert Mugabe has massive and growing support throughout Africa."

Many observers believe the Commonwealth will survive of it institutes radical changes, but ominous voices in Africa suggest time might be running out.

Oh, shut up

Once again, Zimbabwe's ruling elite have demonstrated their extraordinary
grasp of the complexities of international relations - and so eloquently,
too.

Dealing with those who continued to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth,
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge singled out Australian PM John Howard, a man
apparently "consumed by racist emotionalism", and told parliament:

"There are many who regard Mr Howard as a notorious international outlaw who
was recently involved in the illegal invasion of Iraq, murdered innocent
women and children and effected unauthorised regime change."

Gee. And we thought the suspension might have had something to do with the
fact that mampara Mudenge and his chums were hell-bent on basket-casing both
his country and the region. Silly us.

      LAST Wednesday's burial of Zimbabwe's first President Reverend Canaan
Sodindo Banana at the Banana family homestead in Esigodini, Matabeleland
South Province instead of the national shrine has once again revived the
debate about whether the Politburo of the ruling Zanu PF party is the
appropriate body to confer national hero status on distinguished
Zimbabweans.

      Zimbabweans owe a great debt of gratitude to Rev Canaan Banana. As
speakers from across the political divide and those representing the
Christian community said, Rev Banana was, despite his weaknesses, a good and
patriotic Zimbabwean. He played a very crucial role in the liberation
struggle and in the unification of the country following the early 1980s
Matabeleland troubles. He did justice, he loved mercy, he walked humbly with
his God.

      His burial in his ancestral lands, though important culturally, does
nothing to salute his national standing in pre and post independent
Zimbabwe. And this is where things went badly wrong. It is a poor end to a
man who did so much and in retrospect, testimony to and vindictiveness of a
body of men and women who feel that they are ordained to rule Zimbabwe
forever.

      It happened to Rev Ndabaningi Sithole. And it will happen to many
others in the future unless a stop is put to it. The brutal truth is that
Zanu PF is not Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is not Zanu PF. The ruling party is
entitled, of course, to choose its own party heroes but when it comes to
national heroes, it must be the responsibility of a body representative of a
wide spectrum of the Zimbabwean society.

      Members of such a body must be distinguished Zimbabweans drawn from
government, the opposition, the churches and civil society. Once selected,
neither the ruling party nor the government should have any say. This is the
only way that we can ensure the utmost impartiality, objectivity, fairness
and transparency in the conferment of national hero status.

      The present system is deeply flawed. Some so called national heroes
laid at the national shrine do not deserve to be there. There are there
simply by virtue of being members of the ruling party - nothing more.
Examples abound of such people whose only claim to fame was their
willingness to be used as tools of violence and repression by the ruling
party.

      It is most unfortunate that Zimbabweans have come to accept that a
national hero only becomes a national hero when it suits the ruling party.

      History is history and it must not be abused or misused to suit the
government of the day or a political party that happens to be in power at a
particular point in time. Heroes are heroes. For an independent Committee of
eminent Zimbabweans, it will not be a difficult card to play. Heroes come
naturally. They do not need godfathers like President Mugabe or any member
of the Politburo.

      National heroes must be authentic and nationally and universally
acknowledged and accepted regardless of the party that is in power. And this
will prevent chopping and changing in the future.

      In any event, attempts to draw up a balance sheet on individual
Zimbabweans as currently being done can never be done by one political party
alone. No one in Zanu PF including President Mugabe can speak from a high
moral ground; from a position of moral superiority. Yes, we must maintain a
certain level of public morality and behaviour but who indeed in Zanu PF can
throw the biblical first stone? No one.

      Almost all members of Zanu PF have skeletons in their cupboards. We
can name and shame them but we prefer not to . In trying to expose the
weaknesses and shortcomings of others, let us not forget about our own.
Nobody is faultless. The world is not that perfect. The pot must not call
the kettle black. A sense of perspective is what was needed as far as both
the cases of Rev Banana and Rev Ndabaningi Sithole were concerned.

      Their blemishes and weaknesses pale into insignificance compared to
the immense contribution they made in bringing about the independence of
Zimbabwe. Rev Banana and Rev Sithole were neither saints nor paragons of
virtue. But neither is President Mugabe and indeed any Zanu PF man and woman
sitting in judgment over others. This is the bottom line.

      So it is that time has come to reflect on the whole system of
declaring national heroes. Zanu PF leaders must examine their own
consciences and look at themselves in the mirror and see if what they are
doing is the right thing.

      Zimbabwe belongs to all who live in it. Abandon the situation in which
you see your party being identical to Zimbabwe. It is not and it will never
be. We ask Zanu PF: What has happened to the vast web of generosity,
magnanimity and selfless love manifested in our Zimbabwean way of life?

      To Rev Canaan Banana and Rev Ndabaningi Sithole before him, we say:
You are great Zimbabweans. You appear to have been forgotten as the Zanu PF
boots went into your groins. It is indeed a shame that the whole system of
national heroes has been sullied by the folly and weakness of one political
party. We, who are myopic did not see as clearly but history will relate.

      Our love, prayers and condolences go out to your families. Rest in
peace comrades.

There has been no decision taken yet about the participation of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe in next month's Commonwealth summit to be staged in
Abuja, Nigerian presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo said on Saturday.

"There is nothing definitive yet about his invitation or participation.
Consultations are still going on with leaders of Commonwealth countries on
this issue," she said in a telephone interview from Abuja.

This year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is scheduled to
take place in the Nigerian capital Abuja from December 5 to 8, but Zimbabwe
has been suspended from the Commonwealth's councils for the past 20 months
because of a controversial presidential election.

Obasanjo, speaking after the two presidents met on Monday in Harare, did not
rule out the possibility of an invitation to Mugabe despite fierce
opposition from mainly white Commonwealth countries, and said he is
consulting as widely as possible on the question.

"I am consulting," he said when asked whether Zimbabwe would attend the
meeting.

"I have undertaken to consult as widely as possible. One has to learn from
first hand what exactly the situation is here in Zimbabwe," said Obasanjo,
adding that he is consulting "with Commonwealth leaders as to what should be
the line of action before CHOGM, during CHOGM or after CHOGM".

Nigeria is yet to invite Mugabe to the summit, a top official of the
Nigerian Foreign Ministry who did not wish to be named said on Saturday.

"It is a sensitive issue, considering the fact that Nigeria, the host, was
also suspended from the Commonwealth in 1995 following the execution of
writer and minority rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa."

Saro-Wiwa, president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, was
executed along with eight of his companions after a military-led special
tribunal convicted them of the murder of four Ogoni personalities.

Saro-Wiwa always insisted he was innocent.

Meanwhile, Obasanjo on Saturday in Abuja inspected venues and facilities to
be used for the Commonwealth summit and the visit of the head of the
Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, officials said.

Among those he visited were the international conference centre, the
building where the queen will be accommodated, a public "millennium" park,
media centre, banquet and reatreat hall, as well as Nasarrawa, a Nigerian
state near Abuja that the queen will visit, they said. -- Sapa-AFP