http://www.businessday.co.za
26
November 2008
Wilson Johwa and Dumisani
Muleya
TALKS to end the deadlock in Zimbabwe's power-sharing
agreement got off to
slow start yesterday amid reports that the Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) had taken offence at the tone of a letter written to
Morgan Tsvangirai
by the mediator, former president Thabo
Mbeki.
Party insiders said the letter, dated November 22, had so
upset the MDC that
officials had sought an audience with President Kgalema
Motlanthe, who is
also current chairman of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC).
In the 10-page letter, which is a response to a
letter sent by MDC
secretary-general Tendai Biti, Mbeki made comments that
did not go down well
with the MDC, sensitive to the common Zanu (PF)
accusation that it took its
cue from the west.
Biti had described the
decision on Zimbabwe taken by the extraordinary SADC
summit earlier this
week as "a nullity", a rejection that appeared to have
irked
Mbeki.
"It may be that, for whatever reason, you consider our region
and continent
as being of little consequence to the future of Zimbabwe,
believing that
others further away, in western Europe and North America, are
of greater
importance," Mbeki wrote.
The SADC meeting compelled
Zanu (PF) and the MDC to seek ways of jointly
running the much-contested
home affairs ministry, a position rejected by the
MDC. Mbeki, whom the MDC
has long accused of bias, said the MDC did not
respect decisions made by
African leaders.
"Realistically, Zimbabwe will never share the same
neighbourhood with the
countries of western Europe and North America, and
therefore secure its
success on the basis of friendship with these, and
contempt for the
decisions of its immediate African neighbours," Mbeki went
on.
He also accused the MDC of publicly denouncing SADC leaders as
"cowards".
"Such manner of proceeding might earn you prominent media
headlines.
However, I assure you that it will do nothing to solve the
problems of
Zimbabwe," Mbeki said.
He also told Tsvangirai that in
accepting large numbers of Zimbabwean
exiles, "in a spirit of solidarity",
neighbouring countries had displayed no
characteristics of
cowardice.
The parties were also at odds about the scope of
yesterday's negotiations.
Sources said Mugabe's negotiators from Zanu
(PF) insisted they were in SA
only to discuss an amendment of the
constitution to facilitate
implementation of the power-sharing pact as
recommended by SADC.
But Tsvangirai's MDC faction wanted to include a
far wider number of issues,
including the distribution of ministries, the
appointment of provincial
governors, top government officials and diplomats,
the composition and
function of the National Security Council and the
correction of "fraudulent
changes" to the original power-sharing
agreement.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondents Wednesday 26 November 2008
JOHANESBURG -
Zimbabwe's opposition said the ruling ZANU PF party's
"intransigence and
lack of sincerity" have blocked political settlement in
the crisis-sapped
country as the two rivals began a fresh round of
power-sharing talks in
South Africa on Tuesday.
Negotiators from the ruling party and the two
opposition MDC formations were
meeting mediator ex-South African leader
Thabo Mbeki to discuss a draft
constitutional Bill that would allow
President Robert Mugabe to form a unity
government outlined under a
September 15 power-sharing agreement.
The power-sharing agreement has
stalled as the Morgan Tsvangirai-led
opposition MDC party and ZANU PF fight
over control of key ministries,
distribution of gubernatorial posts,
ambassadorships and other top
government posts.
"The MDC notes with
concern ZANU PF's intransigence and its continued lack
of sincerity which
have stood in the doorway of an amicable political
settlement; a settlement
which does not reduce the MDC to a junior partner,"
the opposition said in a
statement as talks were due to begin.
The MDC, which has accused ZANU PF
of wanting to take control of all the
most powerful ministries and consign
it to a peripheral role in government,
said it wanted the new talks to go
beyond the constitutional amendment Bill
to look into all outstanding
issues, including the equitable distribution of
government posts.
It
said: "The MDC resolved that the party will not join the inclusive
government until all the sticking issues are addressed. The sticking issues
include the equitable distribution of ministerial portfolios, the
composition and powers of the national security council.
"(And) the
outstanding issue of the provincial governors, the appointment of
permanent
secretaries and ambassadors, the correction of ZANU PF's
fraudulent
alteration of the Global Political Agreement of 15 September 2008
and the
enactment of Constitutional Amendment Number 19."
Mbeki's spokesman
Mukoni Ratshitanga was not immediately available on
Tuesday to shed light on
whether the meeting will be limited to reviewing
Constitutional Amendment
Number 19 Bill or it would discuss all issues
pertaining to the
power-sharing agreement.
The regional SADC grouping ruled two weeks ago
that MDC and ZANU PF jointly
control the ministry of home affairs that had
been in dispute and ordered
the rivals to immediately form a unity
government - a ruling that appeared
to close debate on the other issues that
the MDC wants discussed.
The MDC rejected the ruling and accused SADC -
which is the guarantor to the
power-sharing accord - of siding with
Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks resume as a cholera and anthrax
outbreak that
has killed close to 300 people highlights a worsening
humanitarian and
economic crisis in the country and which is spilling to
neighbouring
countries.
A delegation of international figures led by
former United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan on Monday described the
crisis in Zimbabwe as "worse than
it could have had imagined," and called on
SADC to act urgently to avert
humanitarian disaster in the
country.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe has also urged a quick
political
settlement in Zimbabwe, saying the unprecedented outbreak of
disease was
sign a new power-sharing government could not be delayed any
longer.
Analysts say a power-sharing government could help ease the
political
situation and allow Zimbabweans to focus on tackling an economic
crisis
marked by the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent,
severe
shortages of food and basic commodities. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondents Wednesday 26 November 2008
JOHANNESBURG -
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders
should find a
speedy solution to the political impasse that has worsened the
country's
economic and humanitarian situation, some of the region's former
liberation
movements said on Tuesday.
"The parties called upon the leaders to find a
speedy solution to the
impasse," said five former southern African
liberation movements in a joint
statement issued after their meeting at the
ANC headquarters in
Johannesburg.
Frelimo of Mozambique, MPLA of
Angola, Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania, ZANU
PF of Zimbabwe, and ANC of
South Africa - discussed, among other things, the
situation in crisis-torn
Zimbabwe and raised concerns about the current
economic and humanitarian
situation.
"The parties also made an appeal to the international
community to lift
sanctions, and assist in alleviating the plight of the
Zimbabwean people."
Speaking to journalists after the marathon meeting,
ANC spokesperson,
Ishmael Mnisi, said the meeting was a follow up to
previous meetings where
it had been agreed to strengthen ties among the
former liberation parties,
and to develop common approaches to challenges
facing their countries and
Africa.
"Among other current matters, the
meeting discussed the situation in
Zimbabwe and raised concerns about the
ongoing economic and humanitarian
plight," said Mnisi.
He added: "The
meeting also reaffirmed the need to develop a strong
progressive movement in
Southern Africa, with the former liberation
movements at its core, to
further advance the interests and aspirations of
the peoples of this
region."
The former liberation parties also discussed the situation in
the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and agreed that the region and the
international
community should work hand in glove to find lasting
peace.
Mnisi said the ANC President Jacob Zuma would be sending a fact
finding
mission to Zimbabwe with a view to assist in terms of providing
humanitarian
aid to the estimated six million starving
people.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious humanitarian crisis with more than
half of the
population facing starvation and is battling to contain an
outbreak of
cholera that started in September and, according to the World
Health
Organisation, has since claimed 294 lives.
Compounding the
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe is the fact that the country's
once admired
health system has totally collapsed while doctors and nurses
are grossly
underpaid because the government does not have money.
Analysts say a
power-sharing government would be best placed to help ease
the political
situation and allow Zimbabweans to focus on tackling an
economic crisis
marked by the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million
percent, severe
shortages of food and basic commodities.
Mugabe, Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and Arthur Mutambara who heads a
rebel faction of the MDC in September
agreed to form a unity
government.
But the power-sharing accord has stalled as the main
formation of the MDC
and ZANU PF fight over control of key ministries,
distribution of
gubernatorial posts, ambassadorships and other top
government posts. -
Zimonline
http://voanews.com/
By Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
25 November
2008
Negotiators from Zimbabwe's three political parties are
meeting in South
Africa to try to reach agreement on an amendment to the
constitution that
would enable the formation of a government of national
unity. Peta
Thornycroft, reporting from Harare, says in the streets of the
capital many
people are aware that this is a crucial make or break round of
negotiations.
In Harare's streets, many people know that a constitutional
amendment is
necessary to enable formation of a government of national
unity. If it is
agreed upon, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai will become prime
minister of
Zimbabwe.
Negotiators in South Africa are faced with two
amendments, one written by
the ministry of justice and one by Mr.
Tsvangirai's MDC.
The two are very different and this gap, analysts say,
will be difficult to
overcome, as the amendment has to accurately cover the
Global Political
Agreement signed on September 15 by leaders of the three
parliamentary
parties, Mr. Mugabe, Mr. Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara.
Lawyers say that the 37-page MDC document is a well crafted
piece of
legislation which widens the democratic scope of the agreement, and
addresses many of its imperfections.
But they warn, some of the
clauses, particularly those involving human
rights, were not agreed by
President Robert Mugabe during negotiations, and,
therefore are likely to be
rejected again by Mr. Mugabe's negotiators.
In the streets of Harare,
many people say they know these negotiations are
crucial.
One
professional man said while these negotiations represent hope, if the
talks
fail he believes the MDC will have to become more militant.
"The next
round of talks is a ray of light of hope to the ordinary
Zimbabwean," he
said. "This comes back to the core principles of the MDC of
narrowing their
options of removing the dictator through democratic means.
Mugabe knows he
cannot go it alone."
"The people are frustrated. They have been stretched
to the limit. It needs
a stimuli to put light into the frustrations of the
people and that stimuli
can only come about by the people in the MDC
presidium to mobilize the
people, in the bank queues everywhere, the people
are ripe for change," he
added.
A clerk at a security company said
that these talks were crucial
Zimbabweans.
"I think this should be
the last round of talks, and if they are not going
to agree upon that
amendment, then I don't think that it will be of any use
to have any other
talks," the clerk said.
She was gloomy about the future should the talks
on the amendment fail and
said Zimbabweans would then have to wait until Mr.
Mugabe, who is nearly 85,
died.
"It means we are going to suffer more
than we are suffering right now if the
UN is not going to do anything. If
nature doesn't take its course we are
going to die," she said. "We don't
want to die and we don't want to fight
anyone. Because we thought that he
was going to listen to reason on his own,
and now we don't know what to
do."
If these talks fail to produce a constitutional amendment there will
then be
no basis for establishing a government of national unity.
As
a result, several people said they may have to go to war to end Mr.
Mugabe's
rule.
A street vendor selling vouchers for mobile phones said people
would have to
change tactics and fight for a new government.
"People
are dying and the issue of having another round of talks should come
to an
end and so many people are complaining about the credibility of the
talks,"
the vendor noted. "Mugabe needs a militant approach if he fails the
dialogue. The suffering and the crisis in Zimbabwe is unprecedented. This
must come to an end as soon as possible."
MDC spokesman Nelson
Chamisa cautioned against any optimism about the
outcome of the talks until
all the party's demands were met.
If the talks fail, no one is sure what
the next step will be. If they
succeed then Mr. Tsvangirai will be sworn
into office. The amendment will be
presented before parliament a month later
where it will voted on. A
two-thirds majority is needed in the parliament
for a transitional
government of national unity to be a reality.
http://africa.reuters.com
Tue 25 Nov 2008, 19:55
GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
described the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe on Tuesday as "desperate"
and urged the country's rival parties meeting in South Africa to reach a
rapid deal on a new government.
A statement read by U.N. spokeswoman
Michele Montas said Ban was "alarmed
that the humanitarian situation in
Zimbabwe is now desperate and will worsen
in the coming months," with nearly
half the 12 million population needing
food aid.
Zimbabwe, whose
rival political parties have so far failed to agree on a
power-sharing
government, is suffering from an economic crisis with
inflation topping 230
million percent. A recent cholera outbreak has killed
more than 300
people.
"The Secretary-General urges all parties to support and provide
humanitarian
assistance leaving political considerations aside," Montas
said.
Negotiators from President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a breakaway MDC faction
were
meeting in South Africa on Tuesday with President Thabo Mbeki to
discuss
breaking the deadlock.
Montas said Ban called on them to
rapidly reach an agreement in line with a
Sept. 15 power-sharing deal which
has still not been implemented amid
disputes over who should control key
ministries.
"The people of Zimbabwe cannot afford another failure by
their political
leadership to reach a fair and workable agreement that would
allow Zimbabwe
to tackle the formidable challenges ahead," Ban was quoted as
saying.
Ban regretted a decision by Zimbabwe's government to bar entry
last weekend
to a humanitarian mission by "the Elders" -- a group including
former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan.
"The Secretary-General hopes that another mission can take place
in the near
future, given the rapidly deteriorating situation in the
country," Montas
said. (Reporting by Patrick Worsnip; editing by Jackie
Frank)
http://www.canada.com
AFP
Published: Tuesday, November
25, 2008
LONDON - Botswana's foreign minister suggested in an interview
Wednesday
that his country would be prepared to allow Zimbabwe's opposition
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai to operate there as leader in exile.
Foreign
Minister Phandu Skelemani also told BBC World News that regional
powers must
admit they had failed to resolve the deadlock between Tsvangirai
and
President Robert Mugabe and should now bring economic pressure to
bear.
Asked whether Botswana would offer Tsvangirai a safe haven if
power-sharing
talks collapse, Skelemani said: "Anybody who comes to Botswana
saying that
they fear for their life, from their own country, we will not
chase them
away."
Pressed about what Botswana would allow Tsvangirai
to do from its soil, the
minister said he would not be permitted to launch a
military attack on
Zimbabwe from there, but could possibly lead a democratic
resistance
movement.
"That would be the lesser of the two evils, which is
probably, taking up
arms and getting innocent people killed," Skelemani
said.
Botswana's President Ian Khama is one of the few African leaders to
openly
criticize Mugabe, saying his re-election in June was not
legitimate.
The foreign minister also said the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) regional bloc must admit that its mediation
efforts have failed.
"The international community, SADC first of all,
must now own up that they
have failed - which we have said, that we as SADC
have failed. The rest of
us should now own up and say yes, we have failed,"
Skelemani told the BBC.
After that, it should "call upon the
international community and tell Mugabe
to his face, look, now you are on
your own, we are switching off, we are
closing your borders, and I don't
think he would last," he said.
"If no petrol went in for a week, he can't
last."
Negotiators for Mugabe and Tsvangirai met in a new round of talks
in South
Africa on Tuesday over a stalled power-sharing deal, that calls for
Mugabe
to remain as president and Tsvangirai to take the new post of prime
minister.
Tsvangirai won a first-round presidential election in
March, but pulled out
of the run-off accusing Mugabe's party of
orchestrating deadly attacks
against his supporters.
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com
Opinion
November 25, 2008 |
By Icarbord Tshabangu
As the Zimbabwe impasse continues we can still look
into the future and hope
for a better country.
Exasperated by the
excesses of the state Kropotkin, a scholar, once
commented that, Either the
State for ever, crushing individual and local
life, taking over in all
fields of human activity, bringing with it all its
wars and domestic
struggles for power, its palace revolutions which only
replace one tyrant by
another, and inevitably at the end of this development
there is.death.or the
destruction of States, and new life starting again in
thousands of centres
on the principle of the lively initiative of the
individual and communities
and that of free agreement, - choice residing
among citizens.
Statism
and centralisation of power often breed suppression of individuals
and
communities. Such statism as obtains in Zimbabwe manifests in
totalitarian
democracy, where the state, under the guise of sovereignty,
brutalizes the
minority, the opposition and the individual. Such democracy
becomes
characterised as 'everything for the state, from the state and by
the
state'. In such a polity citizens become relegated to powerless mere
onlookers as their life and destiny is negotiated and decided. The
intransigency that has characterised the ailing and failing political deal
between Zanu PF and the MDC as some of us predicted at the time of its
signing is also rooted in statism and totalitarian democracy bedevilling
Zimbabwe today.
While it is widely acknowledged that every political
system has its flaws,
it is the case that some political systems are better
than others and that
instituting democratic governance systems as a measure
is better than
trusting in human beneficence, whether this person be Morgan
Tsvangirai of
the MDC or Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF. Statism in Zimbabwe has
led to
traumatic times, such as government-orchestrated massacres in
Matabeleland
and the Midlands in the 1980s, operation Murambatsvina (remove
the filth) in
2005, the government's sponsored violence pre June 2008
presidential
election, particularly in Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland
and state
sponsored violence at other election periods prior. When an
opportunity
presents itself such as in crafting the country's constitution,
the people
of Zimbabwe have to choose between trusting persons of power or
systems of
governance. Many Zimbabweans may agree that for far too long we
have trusted
persons of power and the charisma these personalities exude, at
the expense
of systems of governance that may reign in those
personalities.
In retrospect, it is quite clear that the excessive
bestowal of executive
presidential powers in one person in Zimbabwe, at the
expense of
strengthening other arms of government such as the parliament and
the
judiciary or the decentralisation of power to regions/provinces under a
federal framework has led the country to its current ruin. One 'moment of
madness', (as Mugabe once referred to the Midlands and Matabeleland
massacres), unchecked by systems of governance, has consequentially led to
other 'moments of madness' too many to count. If the people of Zimbabwe are
to be free from tyranny in the future they will have to reclaim control of
the state possibly through a constitutional framework, which guarantees
decentralisation of power to regions, and insulates the judiciary and the
legislature from executive interference. The democratic processes in
federalised states such as in South Africa and the United States of America
bear testimony on how the executive powers can be kept in check. Peaceful
countries such as Ghana, though not federal have a constitutional framework
that empowers citizens through district assemblies.
It is noted that
traditional forms of democracy in Africa existed largely in
the
communitarian mode and still exist in some parts of rural Africa. In the
villages there is what they call 'inkundla' in Ndebele or 'pa dare' in Shona
where the villagers have an open forum accessible to all sexes and age
groups (except for children who are still at play stage). In these meetings
there is hardly any dictatorial tendencies as people from all levels guided
by the love and respect of their immediate community seek to reach consensus
through genuine inter-subjectivity. In these meetings everything directly
affecting the village is discussed and the group takes decisions. Under the
current constitutional arrangements the Zimbabwean citizens at the lower
echelons of power find themselves disenfranchised from determining their
destiny and that of their children. Under a federal system, were
regional/provincial leaders are elected by local people and not political
appointees who are only beholden to the one appointing, there is likely to
be accountability as state power is distributed to districts and
communities.
The empowerment of regions should be done in a way that
neither they
(regions), nor the state dominate the other. It is noted that
while
conscious of universal principles, regional communities will use local
custom to address local and specific general realities and afford citizens
active participation in decision-making processes. As Popper once noted, it
is often the lack of rationality and active participation by citizens in a
polity, which often leads to the brutalities of totalitarian regimes as we
have witnessed in Zimbabwe.
There are some who may think that
decentralisation of power to provinces and
districts is pre modern and looks
backward. What they forget is that the
centralisation of power as we now
have in Zimbabwe was inherited from
colonial rule and it suited the colonial
oppressor in harnessing the black
masses. Politically, the goal of
decentralisation is to 'provide the social
bonds that sustain the moral
voice but at the same time avoid tight networks
that suppress pluralism and
dissent.' With the rise of statism where some
governments have gradually
concentrated power in themselves through
republicanism and majority rule,
the rights of individuals and some regional
constituents often become
threatened thus negatively affecting various forms
of liberty in the nation.
Since our rulers fear that the decentralisation of
power leaves them less
powerful, they have often use media in their control
to demonise and poison
such discourse.
Often times the subject of federalism and
decentralisation of power within
Zimbabwe has been attended by unnecessary
tribal rhetoric. This is also not
surprising because under the British's
'divide and rule' policy also
inherited by the current regime, differences
particularly between the Shona
and the Ndebele were magnified as a
self-preservationist strategy by the
colonizer and later at independence (or
even during the war) by certain
nationalist leaders as a tool for control.
Further animosity has at times
been engineered or incited by those in power
even within these major tribes
(e.g. between Karangas and Zezurus). The
people of Zimbabwe may need to wake
up to a realisation that the issue
besetting the nation has never been that
of Shonas versus Ndebeles as Joshua
Nkomo (even under state persecution)
strived to make people understand.
Neither is it that of sub-tribal
friction. The issue has been 'statism' and
the excesses of the state - the
government crushing citizens and local life.
If the issues bedevilling our
political discourse were tribal, Morgan
Tsvangirai of the MDC would not be
enjoying the support he has in
Matabeleland, nor would Joshua Nkomo had
enjoyed considerable support in
provinces outside Matabeleland. Furthermore,
the state sponsored violence as
seen prior to June 2008 presidential
election would not have occurred in
parts of Mashonaland, but it did.
Federalism should therefore not be seen
through a prism of tribalism but a
moral and democratic act that empowers
local people and ensures state
accountability. It is an act of giving back
rights and power to communities
across the country.
In federalism,
structures of power at any level of governance will be
negotiated by those
directly affected and citizens would be regarded as
participating on an
almost equal footing. As a community centred approach to
governance, the
decentralisation of power would discourage an obsession with
mere allocation
of power to a few individuals who seek to rule others, but
instead it would
involve citizens learning about, reviewing and determining
how to reform
decision making processes at local level but in ways that
positively affect
central government institutions.
Icarbord Tshabangu, PhD is a Researcher
on Citizenship and Education
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=7866
November 25, 2008
By Raymond
Maingire
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has reappointed Gideon Gono to
the position
of governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for another five
years.
Gono's current term of office expires this week at the end of
November and
his new term kicks in the following day, 0n December 1, 2008 to
run until
November 30, 2013.
State controlled television announced
Tuesday the controversial central bank
chief has earned another term at the
helm of Zimbabwe's central bank.
"The reappointment is for five years and
takes effect from the 1st of
December 2008 and is up to the 30th of November
2013, as provided for in
terms of Section 15 of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Act," ZTV announced.
Appointed in 2003 at the height of unprecedented
cash shortages, Gono earned
the admiration of many Zimbabweans for what then
appeared to be his noble
policies. But his term has since been blighted by
controversy due to his
continued meddling in fiscal issues.
The
49-year-old central bank chief has continued to stoke more controversy
by
printing huge quantities of bank notes, ostensibly with the full support
from President Mugabe.
He has been accused of using the cash to buy
scarce foreign currency on the
thriving black market to fund partisan
activities of Zanu-PF.
This practice has also been blamed for fueling
hyperinflation in the
country, now pegged at an all time 231 million
percent, the highest in the
world.
Under Gono's term, the bank
deposits of many Zimbabweans have ballooned to
quadrillions of dollars. They
are, however, allowed to withdraw only small
amounts stipulated by
Gono.
Gono was once the chief executive of the Commercial Bank of
Zimbabwe (CBZ)
and in that capacity was at one time the personal banker of
President
Mugabe.
His name appears on the black list of top Mugabe
loyalists banned from
travelling to the United States of America and EU
member states because of
their role in the oppression of the people of
Zimbabwe.
Under his term, some banks have shut down for alleged
corruption while top
bankers and prominent business persons have been forced
to skip the country
for fear of persecution.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Robert Mugabe is trying to hide the scale of
the deadly epidemic sweeping
the country. But its impact can today be
revealed
By Basildon Peta
Wednesday, 26 November
2008
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's President, is trying to hide the real
extent of
the cholera epidemic sweeping across his nation by silencing
health workers
and restricting access to the huge number of death
certificates that give
the same cause of death.
A senior official in
the health ministry told The Independent yesterday that
more than 3,000
people have died from the water-borne disease in the past
two weeks, 10
times the widely-reported death toll of just over 300. "But
even this higher
figure is still an understatement because very few bother
to register the
deaths of their relatives these days," said the official,
who requested
anonymity.
He said the health ministry, which once presided over a
medical system that
was the envy of Africa, had been banned from issuing
accurate statistics
about the deaths, and that certificates for the fraction
of deaths that had
been registered were being closely guarded by the home
affairs ministry.
Yet the evidence of how this plague is hurting the
people of Zimbabwe is
there for all to see at the burial grounds in this
collapsing country. "When
you encounter such long queues in other countries,
they are of people going
to the cinema or a football match; certainly not
into cemeteries to bury
loved ones as we have here," said Munyaradzi
Mudzingwa, who lives in
Chitungwiza, a town just outside Harare, where the
epidemic is believed to
have started.
When Mr Mudzingwa buried his
27-year-old brother, who succumbed to cholera
last week, he said he had
counted at least 40 other families lining up to
bury loved ones. He said:
"That's sadly the depth of the misery into which
Mugabe has sunk
us."
Unit O, his suburb, has been without running water for 13 months.
The only
borehole in the area, built with the help of aid agencies,
attracted so many
people day and night that it was rarely possible to access
its water.
Residents were forced to dig their own wells, which became
contaminated with
sewage. The water residents haul up is a breeding ground
for all sorts of
bacteria, including Vibrio cholerae, which causes severe
vomiting and
diarrohea and can kill within hours if not treated.
The
way to prevent death is, for the Zimbabwean people, agonisingly simple:
antibiotics and rehydration. But this is a country with a broken sewerage
system and soap is hard to come by. Harare's Central Hospital officially
closed last week, doctors and nurses are scarce and even those clinics
offering a semblance of service do not have access to safe, clean drinking
water and ask patients to bring their own.
As the ordinary people
suffer Mr Mugabe is locked in a bitter power struggle
with the opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai over who should control which
ministries in a unity
government. The President has threatened to name a
cabinet without the
approval of the Movement for Democratic Change, which
could see the whole
peace deal unravel.
Talks were continuing between the two parties in
Johannesburg yesterday with
little sign of a breakthrough, but pressure is
growing from around the
region and beyond to strike a deal as the
humanitarian crisis deepens.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans have streamed into
South Africa, desperate for
medical care. Officials in the South African
border town of Musina say their
local hospital has treated more than 150
cholera patients so far. "[The
outbreak] is a clear indication that ordinary
Zimbabweans are the true
victims of their leaders' lack of political will,"
the South African
government's chief spokesman Themba Maseko
said.
Yesterday Oxfam warned that a million of Zimbabwe's 13 million
population
were at risk from the cholera epidemic, and predicted that the
crisis would
worsen significantly in December, when heavy rains start. "The
government of
Zimbabwe must acknowledge the extent of the crisis and take
immediate steps
to mobilise all available resources," said Charles Abani,
the head of the
agency's southern Africa team. "Delay is not an
option."
The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights has
accused the
government of dramatically under- reporting the spread of the
disease.
Doctors and nurses - whose salaries can just buy a loaf of bread
thanks to
hyperinflation - tried to protest last week against the health
crisis, but
riot police moved in swiftly.
It is not just cholera
victims who are suffering. Willard Mangaira, also
from Chitungwiza,
described how his 18-year-old pregnant sister died at home
after being
turned away at the main hospital because there were no staff and
no
equipment to perform the emergency Caesarean operation she needed. Yet he
added that if the situation in Chitungwiza was deplorable, what he had left
behind in his village of Chivhu, 100 miles away, was beyond description.
Adults and children alike were now living off a wild fruit, hacha, and
livestock owners are barred from letting their animals into the bush to
graze until the people have fed first.
Bought foodstuffs are beyond
reach. The official inflation figure is 231
million per cent and the real
level is higher: some estimates say basic
goods double in price every day.
Few can afford to give their deceased
relatives a proper funeral. Death used
to be a sacred time, with families
taking a week to celebrate the life of
the deceased before burial. Now the
dead are buried
instantly.
Lovemore Churi buried his father within an hour of his being
confirmed dead.
"I did not have the money to let mourners assemble and then
start to feed
them," he said. "If mourners hear that someone is already
buried, they don't
bother coming and one does not have to worry about how to
feed them. That is
the way we now live."
The disease: Deadly, but
preventable
* Cholera is caused when a toxin-producing bacterium, Vibrio
Cholerae,
infects the gut. It is carried in water containing human
faeces.
* In its most severe form, and without treatment of antibiotics
and
rehydration, it causes acute diarrhoea and dehydration, and can kill
within
hours of symptoms showing.
* John Snow, a doctor in
19th-century London, was the first to link it with
contaminated water when
he studied an outbreak in Soho in 1854, which had
killed more than 600 in a
few weeks.
* Until then, it was thought to be spread by a mysterious
"miasma" in the
atmosphere. Snow showed the outbreak came from a single
contaminated well in
Broad Street. He had the handle of the well removed,
and the epidemic
stopped almost overnight.
* Preventing cholera
relies on proper sewage treatment, sanitation and water
purification.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za
US Treasury - OFAC
25
November 2008
Statement issued by Office of Foreign Assets Control
November 25 2008
The following individuals have been added to OFAC's
SDN list:
BREDENKAMP, John (a.k.a. BREDENKAMP, John A.; a.k.a.
BREDENKAMP, John
Arnold), Thetford Farm, P.O. Box HP86, Mount Pleasant,
Harare, Zimbabwe; 10
Montpelier Square, London SW7 1JU, United Kingdom;
Hurst Grove, Sanford
Lane, Hurst, Reading, Berkshire RG10 0SQ, United
Kingdom; New Boundary
House, London Road, Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire SL5
0DJ, United Kingdom;
Middleton House, Titlarks Hill Road, Sunningdale,
Ascot, Berkshire SL5 0JB,
United Kingdom; Mapstone House, Mapstone Hill,
Lustleigh, Newton Abbot,
Devon TQ13 9SE, United Kingdom; Dennerlei 30,
Schoten, Belgium; 62 Chester
Square, London, United Kingdom; DOB 11 Aug
1940; citizen Netherlands; alt.
citizen Suriname; alt. citizen Zimbabwe;
Passport ND1285143 (Netherlands);
alt. Passport Z01024064 (Netherlands);
alt. Passport Z153612 (Netherlands);
alt. Passport 367537C (Suriname)
(individual) [ZIMBABWE]
KECHIK, Mahmood Awang, Ampang Puteri Specialist
Hospital, 1, Jalan Mamanda
9, Selangor Darul Ehsan 68000, Malaysia; DOB 22
Aug 1954; citizen Malaysia;
nationality Malaysia; Dr. (individual)
[ZIMBABWE]
RAUTENBACH, Muller (a.k.a. RAUTENBACH, Billy; a.k.a.
RAUTENBACH, Muller
Conrad); DOB 11 Nov 1950; alt. DOB 23 Sep 1959; citizen
Zimbabwe; Passport
ZE26547 (Zimbabwe) (individual)
[ZIMBABWE]
TAVEESIN, Nalinee (a.k.a. TAVEESIN, Nalinee Joy; a.k.a.
TAWEESIN, NALINEE),
14th Floor of Modern Tower, Tower 87/110 Sukhumvit 63,
Wattana, Bangkok
10110, Thailand; 33 Soi Soonvijai 4, Rama IX Road, Soi 26,
Success Tower,
Huai Khwang, Bang Kapi, Bangkok 10320, Thailand; 19-8 Soi
Passana 3,
Sukhumvit Road, Pakanong Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand;
33 Soi
Soonwichai 4 Bangkapi, Huaykhwang, Bangkok 10310, Thailand; DOB 12
Feb 1960;
citizen Thailand; nationality Thailand; Passport Z066420
(Thailand);
Managing Director (individual) [ZIMBABWE]
The following
entities have been added to OFAC's SDN list:
ALPHA INTERNATIONAL
(PRIVATE) LTD (a.k.a. ALPHA INTERNATIONAL (PRIVATE)
LIMITED), Flat 1, Aileen
Gardens, 51A Park Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2SP,
United Kingdom
[ZIMBABWE]
BRECO (ASIA PACIFIC) LTD, First Floor, Falcon Cliff, Palace
Road, Douglas
IM2 4LB, Man, Isle of; Business Registration Document # M78647
(United
Kingdom) [ZIMBABWE]
BRECO (EASTERN EUROPE) LTD (a.k.a. BRECO
(EASTERN EUROPE) LIMITED), Falcon
Cliff, Palace Road, Douglas IM99 1ZW, Man,
Isle of; Hurst Grove, Standord
Lane, Hurst, Reading, Berkshire RG10 0SQ,
United Kingdom; Business
Registration Document # FC0021189 (United Kingdom)
[ZIMBABWE]
BRECO (SOUTH AFRICA) LTD, Cumbrae House, Market Street,
Douglas IM1 2PQ,
Man, Isle of; 9 Columbus Centre, Pelican Drive, Road Town,
Tortola, Virgin
Islands, British; Business Registration Document # Q1962
(United Kingdom)
[ZIMBABWE]
BRECO (U.K.) LTD (a.k.a. BRECO (U.K.)
LIMITED), New Boundary House, London
Road, Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire SL5
0DJ, United Kingdom; Business
Registration Document # 2969104 (United
Kingdom) [ZIMBABWE]
BRECO GROUP, Hurst Grove, Sandford Lane, Hurst,
Reading, Berkshire RG10 0SQ,
United Kingdom; Thetford Farm, P.O. Box HP86,
Mount Pleasant, Harare,
Zimbabwe; 10 Montpelier Square, London SW7 1JU,
United Kingdom; Middleton
House, Titlarks Hill Road, Sunningdale, Ascot,
Berkshire SL5 0JB, United
Kingdom; New Boundary House, London road,
Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire SL5
0DJ, United Kingdom; Mapstone House,
Mapstone Hill, Lustleigh, Newton Abbot,
Devon TQ13 9SE, United Kingdom;
Dennerlei 30, Schoten, Belgium [ZIMBABWE]
BRECO INTERNATIONAL, 25 Broad
Street, St. Helier JE2 3RR, Jersey [ZIMBABWE]
BRECO NOMINEES LTD, New
Boudary House, London Road, Sunningdale, Ascot,
Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United
Kingdom; Business Registration Document # 2799499
(United Kingdom)
[ZIMBABWE]
BRECO SERVICES LTD (a.k.a. BRECO SERVICES LIMITED), New
Boundary House,
London Road, Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United
Kingdom; Business
Registration Document # 2824946 (United Kingdom)
[ZIMBABWE]
CORYBANTES LTD, New Boudary House, London Road, Sunningdale,
Ascot,
Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United Kingdom; Middleton House, Titlarks Hill
Road,
Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 0JB, United Kingdom; Business
Registration
Document # FC21190 (United Kingdom) [ZIMBABWE]
ECHO
DELTA HOLDINGS LTD, Thetford Farm, P.O. Box HP86, Mount Pleasant,
Harare,
Zimbabwe; Hurst Grove, Sandford Lane, Hurst, Reading, Berkshire RG10
0SQ,
United Kingdom; Newboudary House, London Road, Sunningdale, Ascot,
Berkshire
SL5 0DJ, United Kingdom [ZIMBABWE]
KABABANKOLA MINING COMPANY (a.k.a.
KMC), Nr. 1106 Avenue Lomami, Lubumbashi,
Katanga, Congo, Democratic
Republic of the [ZIMBABWE]
MASTERS INTERNATIONAL LTD., New Boundary
House, London Road, Sunningdale,
Ascot, Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United Kingdom;
Business Registration Document #
2927685 (United Kingdom)
[ZIMBABWE]
MASTERS INTERNATIONAL, INC., 1905 S. Florida Avenue, Lakeland,
FL 33803; US
FEIN 133798020 (United States) [ZIMBABWE]
PIEDMONT (UK)
LIMITED, Newboundary House, London Road, Sunningdale, Ascot,
Berkshire SL5
0DJ, United Kingdom [ZIMBABWE]
RACEVIEW ENTERPRISES, Zimbabwe
[ZIMBABWE]
RIDGEPOINT OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED (a.k.a. RIDGEPOINT
OVERSEAS
DEVELOPMENTS LTD), C/O: Mossack Fonseca & Co. BVI Ltd, Akara
Building, 24
DeCastro St, Road Town, Tortola, Virgin Islands, British; P.O.
Box 3136,
Road Town, Tortola, Virgin Islands, British
[ZIMBABWE]
SCOTTLEE HOLDINGS (PVT) LTD, 124 Josiah Chinamano Avenue, P.O.
Box CY3371,
Cauaseway, Harare, Zimbabwe; New Boundary House, London Road,
Sunningdale,
Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United Kingdom [ZIMBABWE]
SCOTTLEE
RESORTS (a.k.a. SCOTTLEE RESORTS LIMITED), 124 Josiah Chinamano
Avenue, P.O.
Box CY 3371, Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe; Newboundary House,
London Road,
Sunningdale, Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United Kingdom [ZIMBABWE]
TIMPANI LTD
(a.k.a. TIMPANI EXPORT LTD; a.k.a. TIMPANI LIMITED), Mapstone
House,
Mapstone Hill, Lustleigh, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ13 9SE, United
Kingdom;
Falcon Cliff, Palace Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, Man, Isle of;
Moorgate
House, King Street, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 2LG, United Kingdom;
Business
Registration Document # 3547414 (United Kingdom) [ZIMBABWE]
TREMALT LTD
(a.k.a. TREMALT LIMITED), Virgin Islands, British; Thetford
Farm, P.O. Box
HP86, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe; Hurst Grove, Sandford
Lane, Hurst,
Reading, Berkshire RG10 0SQ, United Kingdom; New Boundary
House, London
Road, Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 0DJ, United Kingdom
[ZIMBABWE]
Issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, United
States Treasury,
November 25 2008
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by
Nokuthula Sibanda Wednesday 26 November 2008
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an application by a
Danish
citizen to block President Robert Mugabe's government from seizing
his farm
outside Harare because it is protected under a bilateral investment
protection agreement between Harare and Copenhagen.
In a landmark
ruling that could render bilateral investment protection
agreements (BIPA)
between Zimbabwe and other countries useless, Deputy Chief
Justice Luke
Malaba dismissed the application by Kim Birketoft but said
reasons for the
ruling would be provided in due course.
"The order being sought is hereby
dismissed. Detailed reasons would be
handed in due course," ruled
Malaba.
Malaba pointed out that Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, and
senior judges
Wilson Sandura, Misheck Cheda and Paddington Garwe were in
agreement with
his ruling.
Birketoft had sought relief from the
country's highest court after the High
Court had earlier ruled that the
government could seize his Nyahondo farm in
Trelawney and hand it over to a
top army officer in total disregard of a
BIPA between Zimbabwe and
Denmark.
Nyahondo farm was allocated to Brigadier General Kim Tapfumaneyi
just as
most of the best farms seized from whites under Mugabe's
controversial land
redistribution programme have ended up in the hands of
top officials of his
government and ruling ZANU PF party and trusted
military officers.
Several countries among them Austria, France, Germany,
Mauritius, Holland,
South Africa, Sweden and Malaysia signed investment
protection agreements
with Zimbabwe before the land reform programme began
in 2000. The Supreme
Court ruling could render these agreements
useless.
Mugabe's chaotic and often violent land redistribution programme
- that he
says was necessary to ensure blacks also owned some of the best
land
previously reserved for whites by former colonial governments - is
blamed
for destabilising the mainstay agriculture sector and knocking down
food
production by about 60 percent.
Zimbabwe has largely survived on
food handouts from international relief
agencies since the land reforms
began seven years ago.
Mugabe however denies his land redistribution
exercise caused hunger and
instead puts the blame on poor weather and
Western sanctions he says are
responsible for shortages of seed and
fertilizers for farmers to produce
enough food. - ZimOnline
Zimbabwean woman carrying her on her back walks over stagnant sewage water at
Mbare in Harare, Zimbabwe, Friday Nov. 21, 2008. About 160 people have died of
disease because of bad sanitation in recent weeks, independent groups say. The
lack of clean water and poorly maintained sewage systems have seen the water
borne disease thrive. The state-run Herald
newspaper, yesterday (20 November 2008) featured an article which alleged that
“Cholera is under control” while people continue to lack clean tap water and to
die from cholera, a bacterial disease. It is paradoxical that this mishap comes
at a time when the state is desperately propagating untrue information in a bid
to cover up the statistics and magnitude of the Cholera pandemic. The pandemic whose
nucleus in Harare is Budiriro suburb is distressingly spreading to other
neighboring residential suburbs and is also wreaking havoc across the country,
thus exposing the de facto government’s disaster management and preparedness
incapacity and the need for help; suffice to say; the cholera pandemic must be
declared; A National Disaster . ZINWA, the “government” parastatal responsible
for water provision and sewer management has, despite the resources it received
from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), failed to meet the residents` tap
(clean) water demands. The “government” has also failed to timeously act on the
ZINWA failure i.e. reverse the disastrous decision of the water and sewer
takeover and return the management of these to the local authority. These
failures, coupled with the collapse of the country’s public health sector have
resulted in the massive infections and deaths from cholera. The Combined Harare
Residents Association demand that the “government” acts responsibly; i.e.
relieve ZINWA of the sewer and water management duties and return them to the
City of Harare Local Authority. The residents cannot bear another day of ZINWA
failure, “government laxity and the Cholera pandemic. CHRA will continue to
rally the residents around demanding, quality service delivery and a responsible
leadership/government. We stand by the Cholera victims and hold ZINWA and the
“government” liable! The residents shall continue seek recourse for their
violated rights.
The residents in the
suburb of Glen Norah reported a disquieting spread of cholera in the area this
week, with more than 4 people dying in Glen Norah B, as at yesterday (20
November 2008).
http://www.radiovop.com
BIRMINGHAM, November 25 2008 - As the
Zimbabwean political and
economic crisis continues with no end in sight,
Zimbabwean Christians in the
United Kingdom (UK) held a mass prayer meeting
for Zimbabwe, at the Mount
Zion Community Church Sanctuary building in
Aston, Birmingham on Saturday.
Among other issues, the
church leaders and Christians from many parts
of Birmingham, prayed for the
empowerment of Christians and their leaders in
Zimbabwe, a peaceful
settlement to the political crisis in Zimbabwe and an
end to violence.
Prayers were also made for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora,
many of whom are
living in desperate situations, and facing immigration
problems.
Speaking after the meeting, Rori Masiane of the
Mount Zion Community
Church said the meeting had gone a long way in proving
that Zimbabweans in
the UK can work together, hence dispelling the negative
stereo typing of
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.
Qobo Mayisa
of the Council of Zimbabwean Christian leaders UK said
although the church
in Zimbabwe has grown rapidly during the past few years,
the unfortunate
issue that needs redressing is the fact that the church in
Zimbabwe is not
doing much to offer practical help to many destitute
Zimbabweans and those
in need.
Many speakers at the prayer meeting emphasized the
need for
Zimbabweans in the UK to be more united and prove their capability
to form
strong community organizations similar to those of Somalis and other
Africans.
The prayer meeting whose theme was "Keep Hope
Alive" was organized
jointly by Qobo Mayisa, the General Secretary of the
Council of Zimbabwean
Christian Leaders UK and Rori Masiane of the Mount
Zion Community Church.
This mass prayer meeting was also a big success due
to the sterling efforts
of Sihlangu Tshuma and Xolo
Khabazile.
The power struggle between President Robert Mugabe
and Morgan
Tsvangirai has overshadowed daily hardships in Zimbabwe including
food, fuel
shortages and hyperinflation that has driven millions of
Zimbabweans out of
the country and strained regional economies.
hyperinflation that has driven millions of Zimbabweans out of the
country
and strained regional economies.
A Cholera outbreak that has killed
at least 294 people has seen
hundreds of Zimbabweans infected with the
disease streaming across the South
African border to seek treatment.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
25th
Nov 2008 17:47 GMT
By Chenjerai
Chitsaru
UNTIL the very end of last week, there must have been a
faint glimmer of
hope that Robert Mugabe's beleaguered government would not
cross the
Rubicon - bar The Elders from entering the country.
But the
embattled regime did, thus beginning a journey through a dark tunnel
that
could lead to the regime turning this once beautiful, free country into
either Africa's modern-day Forbidden Kingdom, or the advent of an Iron
Curtain on the continent's shores.
Fortunately for the rest of the
world, the funds for the equivalent of The
Great Wall of Zimbabwe are not
available. Mugabe's government has seen to
this bankruptcy.
For that
matter, the absence of satellite states, coerced or vanquished into
a union
with the regime, will ensure there is no impregnable curtain of
totalitarianism around a number of states in the region.
But what the
barring of Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Gracia Machel from
entering the
country on a humanitarian mission signifies is a heightened
sense of
desperate isolation by the regime.
These three civilians, unarmed and not
necessarily representing the hated
West, cannot possibly be the deadly
political foes that Harare has tried to
portray them to be. Two of them have
long-time relations with the Mugabe
regime going back to the days of the
struggle.
Gracia Machel is the widow of Samora Machel, without whose
undiluted support
the struggle against the illegal regime in Rhodesia would
never have
succeeded.
To many chroniclers of the southern Africa
struggle against colonialism, he
paid the ultimate price for his dedication
to the battle against the forces
of evil in the region.
The plane in
which he died in the mid-80s was believed to have been downed
by enemy fire
or other sophisticated devices. Even after she married Nelson
Mandela, many
Zimbabweans still harbour a deep love for the woman who met
her husband in
the trenches of the struggle against the Portuguese.
Kofi Annan, a
Ghanaian international diplomat and Nobel laureate, was always
considered a
brother-in-law to Mugabe, whose first wife, Sally, was from
Ghana where she
met Mugabe when was teaching there.
There was always a high regard for
Sally among most Zimbabweans, a highly
educated, intelligent woman, said to
have influenced her husband towards
pragmatism in his political
thinking.
Towards the end, Sally must have lived a rather lonely,
loveless life, dying
of kidney disease while her husband was romancing a
former secretary, the
present first lady, the former Grace
Marufu.
Most Zimbabweans believe Mugabe fell out with Annan after the
former UN
chief unequivocally condemned Mugabe's government, ironically,
over its
rickety human rights record after the notorious Murambatsvina
debacle of
2005.
Jimmy Carter is a former president of the US who
later visited Zimbabwe at
the height of the regime's anti-American
obsession. His organisation has
been critical, as many other former
supporters of Mugabe and his government
have been, of the regime's
deteriorating human rights record over the years.
All three were denied
visas to enter Zimbabwe. The government mouthpiece,
The Herald, gave what
many considered a grotesque excuse for barring the
visit: the cropping
season and other such outlandish state preoccupations.
But, in the end,
even the official mouthpiece of the government, The Herald
newspaper could
not avoid telling it like it is: The Elders were critical of
the regime's
policies and were not welcome to visit the country precisely
for their
opposition to those policies.
A fourth member of The Elders was
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African
Nobel laureate whose
characterisation of Mugabe as "the caricature" of a
typical African leader
seems to have deeply wounded Gushungo's massive ego.
The regime's action
against The Elders must have been influenced by the same
psychological and
ideological aberrations that created The Great Wall of
China and Winston
Churchill's Iron Curtain of the Soviet era - a
pathological aversion to
outside probing or even the mildest attention.
Like the Mugabe regime,
their desire was to be "left alone" to do as they
wished, not only to their
own people, but even to the outside world.
The analogy may sound
hyperbolic, or gratuitous. But for a long time, the
government has chafed at
criticism of its foreign policies, even from
hitherto friendly
nations.
Mugabe has always insisted that he should be left alone to
pursue a foreign
policy that suits his style - not necessarily in tandem
with the political,
economic or even social interests of the country or the
people.
The price he has paid is very high. In a small way, the decision
by the
South African government to withhold funds intended to help the
regime with
its development programmes, is another example of allies
feeling insulted
by Mugabe's arrogance.
It's difficult to imagine
that such punitive action will have any impact on
the man, who has fooled
many into believing that he is the paragon of
pragmatism, when all the
evidence is to the contrary.
Since 2000, Mugabe has increasingly resorted
to crude methods to assert his
peculiar rationalisation of what ought to be
Zimbabwe's political thrust.
Although he seems to enjoy the tacit support of
China and the Russian
federation, these former Marxist-Leninist states are
quietly cultivating
relations with their former enemies in the West to
advance their economic
and political interests.
There have been
hiccups in this campaign, but China has reaped such rich
rewards it is now
counted among the four major economies in the world. Only
a few years ago,
it was classified as a developing country.
Mugabe, on the other hand, is
still wallowing in the mud of the Cold War, in
which many believe he may
soon drown. When even leaders like Muammar Gaddafi
have turned over a new
ideological leaf, Mugabe insists life is more
beautiful as a dictator than
as a democrat.
There can now be doubt that the leaders of the Southern
African Development
Community (Sadc) now recognise that Thabo Mbeki's
mediation style on
Zimbabwe was so skewered in Mugabe's favour it was the
root of its failure.
Few can imagine Mbeki, as president of South Africa,
deciding on the action
taken by the new president in suspending aid until
there is tangible
progress in the negotiations towards a new government in
which the
opposition MDC plays a decisive role.
What now seems clear
is that some of the men and women around Mugabe are so
frightened of losing
their ill-gotten fortunes in the new dispensation they
are willing to have
the process drag on until they have salted their filthy
lucre somewhere safe
- outside Zimbabwe.
There are no reliable statistics on just how much of
the state's wealth some
of the people around Mugabe have gouged out for
themselves in the nearly 30
years Zanu PF has been in power.
But if
the pathetic state of the economy today is any indication, then there
must
be many Zimdollar trillionnaires among them. Certainly, some of them
have
many expensive houses in the wealthiest suburbs of the cities of
Harare,
Bulawayo, Gweru and Mutare.
Others may have business enterprises
operating in relatives' names,
including hotels and lodges in most of the
game parks scattered around a
country whose abundance of game has been one
of its major sources of tourism
revenue.
The role played by the
state-owned banks and even the central bank in all
this activity remains
fuzzy, but when the facts are finally unearthed, there
may be a few
shocks.
What remains to be calculated is how much will be left for the
country
itself to make a new beginning. Will there be anything in the
national
coffers, or will it all have been siphoned off by the Zimbabwean
oligarchs?
Mugabe knows that if he agrees to a power-sharing which truly
gives the
opposition a decisive voice in the running of the country, there
will soon
be aid flowing in, even at a time when there is a global economic
crisis.
The world knows that to let another African country go the same
catastrophic
way of Somalia, the DRC or any of the other such countries
would be an
unconscionable act of human betrayal.
In those countries,
people who believed their independence had ushered them
into a new era of
abundance now know their compatriots who died fighting
colonialism
sacrificed their lives for nothing.
In fact, they died so that a few men
and women and their children could feed
lavishly on the fat of the land -
while they and the real heroes' children
die in squalor worse than that they
endured before independence.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Leading
article:
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
First
the famine; now the disease. Zimbabweans are being subject to
afflictions of
a truly biblical ferocity. An outbreak of cholera, as we
report today, is
likely to have already killed thousands. New cases are
appearing
daily.
Zimbabwe's health system was once the best on the African continent.
But a
decade of neglect has left it is unable to cope. Clinics and hospitals
are
under unbearable pressure. They lack the basic facilities to treat
patients.
Cholera sufferers are now spilling into South Africa in search of
medical
help.
It is, of course, little wonder that there has been an
outbreak of the
infectious disease. Sewage and draining systems across
Zimbabwe have long
been inadequately maintained. Garbage is not being
cleared from streets. The
proximate cause of the crisis is the onset of the
rainy season. Raw sewage
is seeping into drinking water
supplies.
There is little sign of the Zimbabwean political system riding
to the
rescue. A power-sharing deal between Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and
Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was reached two months
ago. And
a new round of talks, brokered by South Africa, began yesterday.
But the two
sides are deadlocked over the composition of the proposed unity
government.
The African National Congress leader, Jacob Zuma, has warned
that the delay
on a political deal is costing lives. South Africa's
caretaker president,
Kgalema Motlanthe, who took over from Thabo Mbeki in
September, warned that
Zimbabwe could "implode and collapse" unless
agreement is reached soon. But
the sad truth is that Zimbabwe has already
collapsed as a functioning state.
That is why this disease has taken hold.
South Africa must take a
considerable burden of responsibility for allowing
its neighbour to reach
such a state of degradation. If the ANC had withheld
economic supplies from
Mugabe's regime before now, it might never have come
to this.
The South African government needs to tell the Zimbabwean tyrant
that enough
is, finally, enough. He must agree to the MDC's demands for
proper
representation in the new government or be cut off for good. And the
new
administration's first responsibility is to address Zimbabwe's
spiralling
public health emergency.
http://www.morningmirror.africanherd.com
It was one of life's enchanted orchestral
moments ....
We heard it every few kilometers, it was not consistent but
very strange and
very loud.... at
first we thought, with dread ... that
there was something wrong with the car
... and we
were all alone on the
very quiet BeitBridge to Bulawayo road, it was after
all, 5 a.m. and
we
had been up since two am, so nervously we tried to pretend it was not
happening.
The border crossing had been particularly stressful, we
had thought that
arriving at the
Beitbridge border post at 2.30 in the
morning, would ensure we avoided the
endless
queues, but we were
seriously mistaken.
There were literally dozens of buses and the silent
line of border crossers
wound its way
for hundreds of meters nearly to
the gate !!
HeeHoo is a Patient Man and whilst I fretted, fumed and sat
fed-up in the
car, he stood
stoically in the line in the pitch dark
outside the customs and immigration
hall.
Eventually, curiosity got
the better of my bad temper and I wandered off to
investigate and
chat
with the populace. I had my camera, as always, but was too nervous to
take
pictures
of the horrendous mishmash at the border post.
There were
people sleeping in every nook and cranny, blankets spread out in
full view
of
the "authorities". Every pavement was covered in goods, chattels and a
seething mass of
humanity, it is after all, a 24 hour border post, and
people have 24 hour
needs.
However it was amazingly quiet, we Zimbos
are an exceptionally peaceful
people except
for the likes of me, and
apart from the occasional murmur when the queue
jumpers were
just too
brazen, conversation was limited and it was quite cool, thank
goodness.
Beitbridge at midday is hell on earth, but as the dawn
broke, it had an
appeal all of its
own.....but I could almost smell the
cholera boiling under the surface of it
all ....
Previously on
Morning Mirror I have made a point of being positive about Zim
for the
sake
of the few tourists who might possibly still come and visit our
beleaguered
country, but
right at the moment I am ashamed of my country
and I would not want you to
see just
how dreadfully it has deteriorated.
If the world does not help us somehow,
there is going
to be an
humanitarian tragedy of hideous proportions.
We got through in record
time, only two whole hours ... this very week
HeeHoo met some
folk at the
airport, they were flying back home instead of driving, because
their
cross
border trip had taken ten hours !!
It is actually not the Zim
side that is the problem, it is the SA side
"going slow in
solidarity
with their Zimbabwe brothers" I hope not, because one could
develop cholera
just
standing in that line for so jolly long
!!!
Do us a favor, we are hungry, that's why we are crossing the border
in such
vast numbers,
there is nothing, nothing, nothing to eat in
Zimbabwe, at least nothing we
can afford, as
we have no money to buy it
with !!
Anyhow, back to that strange noise, it was like a continuous,
deafening,
harsh, singing
sound.
Whenever we heard it, we would
open the window to listen, but the strange
sound would
suddenly retreat
into the distance. Maybe the wheel was rubbing on something
? Maybe
the
engine was about to seize, maybe the canopy of the truck that we were
driving,
(packed full of essential staple foods for the 75 elderly
residents of the
Edith Duly Nursing
Home,) was lifting somehow, and
making this strange, discordant harshness ?
Eventually we could ignore it
no more. We stopped, got out, and the sound
hit us like a
brick wall. It
was shrill, screeching, massive, unending ..... a cacophony
of
gigantic
proportions, it was on one side of the road only, although the sound
echoed
on the other,
absolutely deafening.
It was of course, the
call of the Christmas Beetle, the African Cicada,
Albanycada
albigera
......
It is a sound so familiar to all of us Africans but we had
never ever heard
it so loud and so
unending.
Beitbridge had just
received its first rains, tinges of green were creeping
through
the
packed hard earth, early-bird goats were tugging frantically at the first
real food they had
seen in many months, and the Cicadas were multiplying
by their millions, by
the second....
What an amazing sound, we stood
in awed silence devouring the most poignant
of all
African sounds,
memorizing each sacred minute, savouring the cool ethereal
dampness of
a
land so beautiful and yet so desolate, so deserted, so incredibly
sad.
The sun was still way down on the horizon but it was already
scorching,
another day had
started in Zimbabwe, where body and soul has
to fight every moment of every
day to stay
alive. Dante's Inferno has
nothing on life in Zim at this moment in time.
"Abandon hope all ye who
enter here",
but Hark !
Hark at the Christmas Beetles, all is not
lost .... another day is dawning
.....
There are far worse things in
the world than border queues and no food, we
have found
that out in a big
way just recently.
'Tis but a blimp on life's curved ball and we will
survive it, we all know
that .... it is just a
matter of time.