Tsvangirai sets conditions for next elections

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Guthrie Munyuki
Thursday, 28 October 2010 15:04

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has demanded a compliant voters’
roll and ordered the removal of intelligence operatives whom he claims are
working with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) as a pre-condition for
his party to take part in next year’s elections.

The MDC leader told his supporters that this time he is leaving no stone
unturned in his quest to become Zimbabwe’s next President.

“We must have free, fair and credible elections.  The CIO (Central
Intelligence Organisation) operatives in ZEC should be removed.  The voters’
roll should be updated and the delimitation exercise should be carried out
before the elections,” Tsvangirai said..

“Zanu PF has replaced itself with the police, army and CIO operatives as it
no longer has people on the ground.  We respect these institutions but they
must conduct their work without favour.  That is what the GPA says.”

Tsvangirai was addressing MDC supporters at Cyril Jennings Hall, Highfield,
Tuesday night, in defiance of a police ban which the law enforcement agents
had invoked on his meetings days after they had cleared him.

He is currently on the first leg of consultative meetings aimed at gauging
his supporters’ mood ahead of the elections which both him and President
Robert Mugabe have said would be held in 2011.

Tsvangirai’s meetings, which observers say have been necessitated by Mugabe’s
flagrant violations of the GPA and constitutional breaches, kicked off in
Mabvuku a week ago.

“Zanu PF has brought the country to its knees because of corruption,” he
said.  “It is the MDC that brought Zanu PF to where it is now.  But Robert
Mugabe is no longer interested in implementing outstanding issues agreed in
the GPA.

“We are taking three steps forward but Zanu PF is taking five steps back.
Although we know that this is a temporary agreement, the actions by Zanu PF
are meant to force us out of the inclusive government, but we will not quit
as it is you the people who said we should be part of this agreement,”
Tsvangirai said.

The MDC leader urged Zimbabweans to register for the 2011 elections,
insisting that big numbers would bring real change and end Zanu PF
domination of the political arena.

Said Tsvangirai: “The journey that we have travelled has been long but we
will not let you down.  We will continue fighting in this struggle until we
have succeeded.”

Tsvangirai’s allies in the civic society have told Sadc that it must be
heavily involved in the preparation of the elections which they say might
not reflect the will of the people.

“Zimbabwe’s political environment remains poisoned with violence,
intimidation and fear, despite the constitution of the National Security
Council, which has failed to ensure meaningful civilian oversight over the
security forces and check the existence, as an alternative-governing centre,
of the Joint Operations Command (JOC),” the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
said during its meeting with President Jacob Zuma’s representative team in
Johannesburg recently.

“Without external assistance from Sadc and its member states in the
management of elections and in setting up mechanisms to prevent violence,
the next election may be no different from the chaotic and violent June 2008
polls, if not worse.

Zanu heavies warn Mugabe against elections

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/

Written by Jane Makoni
Wednesday, 27 October 2010 12:59

HARARE - Top Zanu (PF) officials recently warned party first secretary,
Robert Mugabe, against holding elections next year as the former ruling
party would lose big time to MDC-T, a politburo member told The Zimbabwean.
“After Mugabe announced that elections would be held next year, as senior
politburo members we updated him about the true situation on the ground. We
told him Zanu (PF) as a party and he as an individual no longer commanded
support at grassroots level. It would be politically suicidal to go to the
ballot anytime soon,” said the source. He said Zanu (PF) politburo did not
deliberate or approve going to the polls. It was Mugabe alone who remained
adamant that the country should hold elections next year.
“If Mugabe takes a decision, nothing would make him change his position, no
matter how risky it is. Like sheep, we are being led to the sacrificial
alter come next elections. No Zanu (PF) legislative or Senatorial candidate
was willing to contest in the proposed elections as the outcome would not
favor Zanu (PF). Since the party lost its grip among rural communities,
MDC-T would easily romp to victory. Despite all these observations, Mugabe
dangerously stuck to his guns that his party was ready for elections,” the
source added. The party election machinery has already gone into action in
the  rural areas, where intimidation is Mugabe’s trump card.

Zim activists plead with Zuma to set election standards

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za

Eyewitness News | 2 Hours Ago

Worried activists in Zimbabwe are asking President Jacob Zuma to set the
benchmarks before any poll is held.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said on Thursday elections held under the
current system will result in violence similar to, or worse than that seen
in 2008.

President Robert Mugabe said elections would take place before the middle of
next year.

However, the coalition does not agree with this idea, saying it could be a
recipe for disaster.

The 300 civil rights groups said President Zuma – as the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) facilitator in Zimbabwe – must insist on
certain benchmarks being met before polls.

The activists want Zuma to keep SADC election supervisors in the country for
nine months – six months before the elections and three months after – to
prevent violence.

They also insisted there needed to be a new voters’ roll and a public
broadcaster that is not in the pocket of Zanu-PF.

Opponents of Mugabe believe that Zuma can and will be tougher with the
Zimbabwean president than his predecessor Thabo Mbeki ever was. However it
remains to be seen whether Mugabe will be receptive.

Traditional leaders summoned to army barracks for indoctrination

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
28 October 2010

The commander of 3 Brigade in Mutare, Brigadier-General Douglas
Nyikayaramba, last week summoned close to 200 traditional leaders from
Manicaland province for a two-day ‘indoctrination’ workshop.

The so-called workshop, held inside the Brigade barracks in the eastern
border town, was attended by chiefs, headmen and village heads from all the
seven districts of the province.

Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC-T spokesman for Manicaland, told SW Radio Africa
on Thursday that the summoning of the traditional leaders was confirmation
that ZANU PF, with the help of the security establishment, is readying
itself for another electoral battle with the MDC-T party and the familiar
tactics of persecuting the opposition is on the agenda.

Muchauraya said: ‘They were summoned for a workshop to look at issues to do
with sovereignty but it turned out to be straight forward indoctrination.
The military ended up telling the traditional leaders not to allow the MDC
to hold any meetings in their areas.’

‘The leaders were also given instructions that MDC supporters should not
have any access to farming from government. Fortunately we have many
traditional leaders sympathetic to the MDC who made us aware of this,’
Muchauraya said, adding that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was briefed
about the workshop during his visit to Mutare over the weekend.

It is believed Robert Mugabe has started mobilizing his party for next year’s
anticipated elections. The top brass of the army, police and intelligence
structures have been reactivated to push the ZANU PF agenda in the rural
areas, where the party is said to have lost considerable support.
The rural areas used to be the bedrock of the former ruling party, but its
modus operandi of using violence to coerce people to vote ZANU PF has
backfired.

Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba is one of the top military generals who
helped Mugabe retain power after his devastating electoral defeat in the
March 2008 poll.

The one star General covertly took control of the presidential election
machinery to ensure Mugabe’s victory in a sham one-man run-off poll,
following the ZANU PF leader’s electoral loss to Tsvangirai.
Prior to his posting to 3 Infantry, Nyikayaramba was commander of the 2
Brigade headquarters at Cranborne Barracks in Harare. During the 2005
legislative vote, he was the chief elections officer for the Electoral
Supervisory Commission.

Following Mugabe’s defeat two years ago, Nyikayaramba was placed in charge
of a national command centre in Harare, which became the headquarters of the
electoral machinery. This gave the military control of the collation and
publication of forged results from around the country, which eventually
declared that Tsvangirai failed to get past the 51 percent to be declared
the winner.

Three Arrested For Blocking Mugabe's Motorcade

http://news.radiovop.com

28/10/2010 11:47:00

Bulawayo,October 28,2010 - Police on Wednesday arrested three Zanu (PF)
youth for blocking President Robert Mugabe’s motorcade in Bulawayo last
Friday.

Mugabe was in Bulawayo last week to officiate at National University of
Science and Technology (NUST)'s 16th graduation ceremony.

However after the graduation ceremony when Mugabe’s motorcade - notorious
for its strict security procedures and high-speed travel – was on its way
back to Bulawayo Airport, a Silver Volkswagen Golf 4 vehicle which was part
of the motorcade and belonging to Butho Gatsi the Zanu (PF) Bulawayo
Provincial youth chairman, made an attempt to overtake another vehicle but
in the process blocked the highway which saw the Mugabe motorcade coming to
a sudden halt.

Gatsi, his deputy Lungisani Ngwenya and Mufindisi Dhewa who was driving the
vehicle were arrested on Wednesday, five days after the incident, for
negligent driving. Their vehicle was impounded and is at Ross Camp police
station.

Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said police are investigating the case.

Several motorists have in the past been assaulted by Mugabe’s security men
for not giving way to the Presidential motorcade.

Fifty Zim Villagers Left Homeless

http://news.radiovop.com

28/10/2010 11:45:00

Hurungwe, October 28, 2010 - Members of the Hurungwe lands committee on
Tuesday set ablaze 50 homesteads belonging to resettled farmers who occupied
Mazhake farm near Tengwe three years ago.

The Land Commitee comprising District Adminstrator Felix Muguni, officials
from police, prison, rural council and war veterans descended on the area on
Tuesday.  Owners watched helplessily as the commitee members set alight the
grass thatched huts.  Ten armed police officers were at the scene.

"They occupied the area illegally, defied council orders to vacate" said a
commitee member.

One of the affected settlers, however, Brian Mukuze, said Hurungwe council
had denied them land.

"Council and lands commitee do not want to recognise us formally. The
evictations are ill-timed as it is rain season already," he said.

Most of the settlers are from Chief Mjinga and Mazhake borders communal
farms and Tengwe farming 60kilometes south of Karoi town.

Currently the illegal settlers are sleeping on open space and said they will
not move away.

Starving villagers beg ambassador for food

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Godfrey Mtimba
Thursday, 28 October 2010 16:48

MASVINGO - Starving Bikita villagers yesterday asked for  immediate food aid
from the American government saying people in the district will die if there
is no  intervention soon.

Speaking at the official opening of a grinding mill donated to a group of
villagers living with HIV and AIDS,  by the United States embassy at Sosera
shopping centre Thursday, villagers appealed  to the US Ambassador, Charles
Ray to fund food aid programmes ahead of other projects before they starved
to death.

Project co-coordinator for Bikita People Living with HIV and Aids(BPLHA),
Stanley Chabvepi appreciated the US embassy's assistance to the people
through self help projects but underscored the need of immediate food aid in
his district.

"We really appreciate your efforts of empowering us through these projects
but we want to inform you that we do not have the maize to grind in the mill
so we appeal to your government to help us with food before we lose lives,"
said Chabvepi.

Chabvepi, a former diplomat, said hunger and starvation continue to stalk
Bikita following a poor agricultural season last year. He said the harvest
in the district was so poor that most families could not mange a single bag
of maize in their granary.

Scores of villagers cheered Chabvepi while he narrated their hunger ordeal
to Ambassador Ray, shouting that they were hungry.

Speaking at the same function,the Bikita West MP, Heya Shoko ( MDC) echoed
the same sentiments saying hunger was biting the arid Bikita district and
villagers needed urgent help.

"People are suffering from hunger and starvation and they need urgent help
from government and our partners like the US embassy. The situation is so
dire that action is needed now and we will work hard as leaders to make sure
that you get help before its too late," Heya said.

Ambassador Ray  promised the villagers  a fund of $57 million for next year
andtold them that his government would continue to assist them in self help
projects .

"The US government remains committed to helping the people of Zimbabwe
through the self help projects grant and next year we will be having another
fund amounting to 57 million dollars to help you," he said.

Housing minister denies threat to evict Hatcliffe residents

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tererai Karimakwenda
28 October, 2010

The Minister for National Housing and Social Ammenities, Giles Mutsekwa, has
denied allegations made recently by the human rights watchdog, Amnesty
International that the government had threatened to evict the residents of a
poor settlement outside Harare if they failed to renew their leases ahead of
a September 30th deadline.

Hatcliffe Extension is home to displaced people who were put there by the
government after Operation Murambatsvina, the government’s so-called cleanup
operation in which houses and businesses that were deemed to be illegal were
bulldozed back in 2005. Nearly one million people were displaced and many
others were dumped in rural areas by the roadside.

Responding to the recent allegations by Amnesty that the government had
ordered Hatcliffe residents to pay an exorbitant $140 by the deadline or be
evicted, Minister Mutsekwa said there was never any such plan and that hthe
lease renewal fee was actually only $15.00, which he stressed could be paid
in installments.
“Not at all. I am quite please that you sort to check with me first. And I
would have wished that Amnesty International had done the same before they
made that serious allegation,” said Mutsekwa.
“And even before the MDC came into government, I was one critic who never,
ever, ever, would have wanted to see Operation Murambatsvina take place. And
I think I’ve been on record for that.”

Mutsekwa said once he came into office as Minister for National Housing, he
pronounced that no-one shall be removed from where they are legally staying
unless alternative arrangements have been made for that person or family. He
stressed that he adopted policies that are “pro-poor” because the majority
of Zimbabweans are poor.

The minister also explained that there are 3000 residents at the Hatcliffe
Settlement and the land that they occupy is administered by the Ministry of
Local Government and Rural Development, because it is state land.
“And I have checked with my counterpart Minister Chombo because I was very
angry about it and he also pleaded ignorance in this affair,” added
Mutsekwa.

Simeon Mawanza at Amnesty told SW Radio Africa that the group their
allegation was based on the notice that was distributed to Hatcliffe
residents by the Ministry of Local government and on reports from the
Coalition Against Forced Evictions, which had approached the Local
Government ministry with alternative proposals.

Mawanza said the notice advised residents that their plots would be
allocated to applicants on a waiting list should they fail to pay the
renewal fees by the deadline. Members of the Coalition told Amnesty that the
ministry would not accept payment in installments. As for the fee, Mawanza
said the notice did not specify any one fee because the plots are of
different sizes. The highest fee was however, $140.

The Hatcliffe case went to court on Monday. But we were unable to contact
the Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights, who represented the Coalition Against
Forced Evictions at Hatcliffe. The outcome of this hearing and the nature of
the charges should provide more incite as to whether any of the ministries
that govern the residents at Hatcliffe had a case to answer.

High Court quashes MDC MP's jail term

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

28/10/2010 00:00:00
    by Staff Reporter

AN MP from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has had his 10-month jail sentence quashed by the
High Court on appeal.

Mathias Mlambo [Chipinge East] was suspended from Parliament in July 2009
following his conviction for attempting to defeat the course of justice.

The charges arose after the MP, who was attending the funeral of an MDC
activist in the Grassplain area of Chipinge, allegedly blocked police
officers from arresting a suspect wanted on an undisclosed charge among the
mourners.

“The High Court ruled that Hon. Mlambo had not committed any crime and was
acquitted,” the MDC said in a statement on Thursday.

The MP, who was out on bail awaiting a decision on his appeal, will now have
his Parliamentary rights restored.

Over a dozen MDC MPs have been arrested since the March 2008 elections on
what the party calls “trumped up charges” by President Robert Mugabe’s
loyalists in the police and court service.

Chinese demand $10m for non-existent water works

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by Sandile Maera
Wednesday, 27 October 2010 13:08

HARARE - A Chinese company with Zanu (PF) links is demanding millions of
dollars from the Harare City Council for payment of dubious and non-existent
water pipe replacement contracts signed before the formation of the
inclusive government.
Sources at Town House told The Zimbabwean that China Electrical and
Metallurgical Company (CEMC) was given a contract by the Zimbabwe Water
Authority (ZINWA)  and the government to replace obsolete water pipes in
Harare in 2007 and 2008, but the company hardly did any work and was now
demanding payment.
An official at Town House said the Chinese company was only involved in the
replacement of water pipes at a small portion of Gunhill suburb and Marimba,
but was now demanding payment of close to US$10 million. “Council is
resisting paying the Chinese because it was ZINWA and government which
engaged them in the first place and we have since discovered that on the
ground the company did close to nothing,” he said.
The official said the Chinese company has also constructed a massive
structure at the former Warren Park dump site, allocated to them by council
for the sole purpose of storing equipment. “Everyone is baffled at what the
Chinese are doing in this massive building which has not been approved by
Council. No one is allowed to enter this building. We suspect that they are
illegally manufacturing something there, but no one dares to enter the
premises because these guys have the protection of senior officials in
government,” he said.
The official said CEMC is linked to Vice President Joyce Mujuru, Local
government minister Ignatius Chombo and former minister of Water Resources,
Walter Mzembi, who were all said to have imposed the company on ZINWA. The
company was also said to have been promised council land in exchange for
doing other Zanu (PF) projects, including rehabilitating irrigation and dams
at farms of party officials. Both Harare town clerk, Tendai Mahachi and the
city's spokesperson, Leslie Gwindi, could not be reached for comment as
their mobile phones were off.
A few years ago, the Zanu government handed over the running of urban water
and sewer services to ZINWA, which was accused of giving tenders for the
procurement of vital water treatment chemicals to companies owned by ruling
party officials, resulting in the collapse of services.
One of the companies was Highdon Investments, owned by Macdonald Chapfika,
while President Mugabe's nephew, Leo Mugabe also had a contract  to provide
services to ZINWA. The running of water and sewer services has since
reverted to the local authorities after ZINWA failed dismally - largely due
to looting, mismanagement and interference by government.

No Returns before Elections!

Zimbabwe embassy in South Africa processing 1,000 passport applications per day

http://www.apanews.net/

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe’s embassy in South Africa said Thursday that
it was processing an average 1,000 applications a day for passports from
Zimbabwean immigrants trying to regularise their stay in South Africa.

Zimbabwe’s Consular-General in South Africa, Chris Mapanga told a
privately-owned newspaper, The Zimbabwean, that the increased demand for
documents had forced the embassy to open extra offices in Pretoria and Cape
Town to process the applications.

The South African government last month gave Zimbabweans until 31 December
2010 to formalise their stay by applying for work, business or study
permits, but the Zimbabweans need to have valid passports in order to be
eligible.

With applications initially received in Johannesburg only, most Zimbabweans
were increasingly getting worried that they might fail to meet the deadline,
after which the South African government is expected to resume deportations
of those without valid travel documents.

There are an estimated two million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, most
of them without proper documentation.

JN/ad/APA
2010-10-28

EU ambassador says sanctions to stay

http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Hendricks Chizhanje     Thursday 28 October 2010

HARARE -- European Union (EU) visa and financial sanctions against President
Robert Mugabe and his top allies are having the desired effect and will only
be reviewed once the political and human rights situation in the country
improves, the bloc’s top diplomat in Harare has said.

“If the measures are not hurting the people on the list, there would have
been less campaigns for their removal. These sanctions are not affecting the
Zimbabweans who are not close to the offices of political power,” EU
ambassador to Zimbabwe Aldo Dell Ariccia, told a meeting in Harare Tuesday
night to discuss the punitive measures.

The EU, alongside the United States, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand,
imposed targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his top officials eight years
ago as punishment for allegedly stealing elections, human rights violations
and failure to uphold the rule of law.

The sanctions include a ban on weapon sales to the southern African country.

The Western nations have however maintained humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe
including providing food relief and HIV/AIDS support mostly through
non-governmental organisations.

Mugabe, who denies violating human rights or stealing elections, says the
sanctions have had a wider impact beyond the targeted individuals to damage
Zimbabwe’s once vibrant economy. – ZimOnline.

Rio's Zimbabwe unit sees higher diamond output in 2010

http://www.reuters.com

Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:26pm EDT

* Output seen up in 2010, flat next year

* Says awaits mining sector empowerment regulations

HARARE, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto's (RIO.L) (RIO.AX)
Zimbabwe unit expects a rise in diamond output this year from 124,000 carats
produced in 2009, its managing director said on Wednesday, but production
will be flat in 2011.

The unit, Murowa, is 78 percent owned by Rio Tinto, while RioZim Limited
(RTNR.ZI) -- a wholly Zimbabwean-owned unit that spun off from Rio Tinto in
2004 -- controls the remainder.

"(There will be an) increase over last year following a small plant upgrade
to handle harder ore completed towards the end of 2009," Murowa managing
director Neils Kristensen said in an emailed response to questions from
Reuters.

He did not give details on how much the company expects output to rise.

Output at the mine was up at 85,939 carats during the first six months of
this year, compared with 67,000 carats in the same period in 2009.
[ID:nLDE67J0ZJ]

Kristensen said there will be "no significant changes" in output in 2011.

Murowa, with a design capacity of 300,000 carats, suffered a $5 million loss
during the first half of this year due to lower gem grades and a ban on
diamond sales by the government.

Zimbabwe had banned all diamond exports until stones from the government's
controversial Marange fields, where it now operates three joint venture
mines, were certified by industry regulators.

Certification includes ensuring there have been no human rights violations
in the diamond trade.

Kristensen said Murowa resumed diamond exports at the end of August, after
the government sold its first batch of certified Marange diamonds.

He said a feasibility study to increase output to 1.8 million carats was
still underway.

Kristensen also said the company was still waiting for regulations that
would determine the quantity of shares mining firms should transfer to
locals under a government empowerment drive.

The government early this year published rules forcing foreign-owned firms,
including mines and banks, to cede 51 percent of shares to blacks but has
since set up committees to recommend ownership levels for different economic
sectors.

Bodyguard’s death certificate leaked to counter Gono-Grace story

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Lance Guma
28 October 2010

Mugabe’s machinery kicked into gear this week as the death certificate of
his late bodyguard Cain Chademana was leaked to online media in an effort to
discredit newspaper claims his wife, Grace, was having an affair with the
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono.

Over the weekend the South African Sunday Times newspaper ran a story
claiming Gono had been bedding Mugabe’s wife over a 5 year period. The two
allegedly met as often as three times a month at Grace’s Gushungo Dairy
Estate, at expensive hotels in South Africa and on foreign trips to Asia.

The story claimed Mugabe’s 36 year old bodyguard Chademana was poisoned
because he admitted to the ZANU PF leader that he knew about the affair but
had decided to keep quiet about it. The allegation was that Mugabe had him
poisoned to keep the story quiet.

On Thursday the UK based New Zimbabwe.com website said they had ‘received
unprecedented cooperation from Zimbabwean authorities who released the
document (Chademana’s death certificate), on request, along with an
accompanying letter from a hospital where he was treated.’

These documents the website said showed that ‘Chademana, who died on August
26, suffered cardiorespiratory arrest, disseminated tuberculosis, pneumonia
and ‘retroviral infection’ -- a medical euphemism for HIV, according to a
death certificate dated August 28, and signed by Milcah Mapfumo for the
Registrar General.’

Mduduzi Mathuthu the editor of the website was a guest on our Behind the
Headlines series and we asked him if it was ethical to publish someone’s
death certificate and medical history. He said they had ‘agonized’ over this
but because the story was of ‘major national importance’ it demanded some
‘irregular conduct on our behalf’ to get the correct story out.

Mathuthu said they were not the first publication to do so citing the case
of late pop superstar Michael Jackson whose death certificate was published
online in the United States after members of the family and his fans had
questioned the cause of his death.

WiPSU angered by sexist article in The Standard

OPINION: What’s the fuss about the Chinese?

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Shepherd Mutamba     Thursday 28 October 2010

HARARE -- Anyone would easily have mistaken the Chinese actress Wendy Yang
for a Hollywood star when she debuted last week on Zimbabwe television in
the long running soap, Studio 263.

Wendy waltzed majestically as she appeared in her first episode, sweeping
away many viewers with sexy features and a pencil slim figure.

She becomes the first Chinese woman to take a lead acting role in Zimbabwean
film.

But as Wendy savoured her television moment-of-fame cultural activists were
firing broadsides at her and the filmmakers whom they accused of “helping
extend China’s cultural imperialism and hegemony in Zimbabwe”.

Wendy plays the role of May, a Chinese girl who finds herself in a black
Zimbabwean family after meeting and falling in love with Welly, a young
dreadlocked man, while both lived in South Africa.

Welly promises May heaven and earth in Zimbabwe and marriage. May comes from
a Chinese traditional background and demands to do things in Zimbabwean
Shona tradition like preparing traditional food and a traditional wedding.

Chinese plunderers

The arrival of Wendy on state television has not helped ease the disdain of
the Chinese by some Zimbabweans who see the Chinese as plunderers of
resources at the invitation of President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabweans wallowing in poverty, while the Chinese run thriving shops
literally on every street corner of Harare, including massive investments in
manufacturing and mining, have utterly rejected the Chinese and have not
made it a secret.

Locals write furious letters to newspapers taunting the Chinese in apparent
racist mockery telling them to go away.

Richard Musonza a cultural activist and author of Dynamics of Culture told
me: “The Chinese are shrewd business people and all over the world they are
now influencing the arts and culture sectors immensely. You could call it
purely cultural imperialism that the Chinese are extending to Zimbabwe just
the way Westerns have done.”

A traditionalist and private school teacher Rhoda Siziba said: “We sold our
souls to the West the day we were colonised and thought we were now trying
to retrieve a bit of what was left of our culture.

“But here we are now – the Chinese have invaded our culture and influencing
how we dress…just look at the number of their clothing shops and how that
has suffocated the local textile industry. Look at the traditional Chinese
clinics and their medicines they prescribe people and influence us to take.”

Look East Policy

President Robert Mugabe’s “Look East Policy”, which interprets to mean
favouring business with the Asian bloc particularly China and which he
adopted after the West imposed sanctions on Harare, is seen by his critics
as solely motivated by personal gain but inadvertently “mortgaging Zimbabwe
to China in exchange for crumbs of aid” to boost the political clout of the
veteran ruler.

The Chinese have landed in Zimbabwe in unprecedented numbers in response to
President Mugabe’s call to reinforce business and trade with the Asian
country after he told the West “to go to hell” as sanctions begun to hurt.

But Studio 263 producer and filmmaker Godwin Mawuru, renowned for his 1991
award winning co-production Neria, sees things completely differently saying
Zimbabwe had a deeply polarised political environment that had shaped
negative perception of Zimbabweans towards the Chinese.

Mawuru fell short of describing Zimbabweans, who had rejected the Chinese,
as xenophobic. He wanted the arts and particularly film and the casting of
Wendy to function as a powerful tool for uniting people.

Mawuru said negative criticism of the Chinese actress was naive and missed
the bigger picture.

“By bringing in Wendy  I am bringing people of the world together, saying
these are a new culture or new people coming into our midst and country and
how do we relate to them? Should we be afraid of them or should we interact
with them and get to know them better. And the foreigners should also know
us better,” Mawuru said.

“I think the Chinese phenomenon is not particular to Zimbabwe. If you look
across Africa the Chinese are coming big time in terms of business but I am
not sure at social interaction level. We need to embrace them and work with
them. They are human and will make mistakes like all of us.”

Mawuru said some Zimbabweans viewed the Chinese as plunderers of Zimbabwe’s
heritage and resources yet they were in search of business opportunities
like everyone else, the West included.

Global village

“At the end of the day we might see we are actually gaining more from the
Chinese than what they are taking away. But again being a global village you
can’t leave things to yourself and you have to work with others. ”

After watching Wendy, during her debut television appearance, I went in
search of the Chinese girl whose acting exploits have ignited so much
controversy.

It was agonising getting her to open up preferring her role in the soap to
speak for itself.

A daughter of a soldier Wendy grew up in a military camp and went to
university in Beijing. She is an economist now studying for an MBA with the
University of Zimbabwe but also operates a business venture from her plush
offices in central Harare.

Wendy has lived in Zimbabwe for five years and in South Africa for two years
and speaks Chinese, English and shona.

“Culture is culture and politics is politics. But you see, politics wants to
control culture and as artists we are saying no, politics can’t do that. As
an actor I want to bridge the gap and hate that has been created by politics
amongst the people of the world,” Wendy said.

“We are living in a global village and Zimbabwe is open to do business with
the world and why should anyone raise their eyebrows when a Chinese shop is
opened in the city? The Chinese are not as bad as some people would want to
portray.”

So much suspicion

Wendy said the Chinese were generally secretive but not necessarily a closed
society. Chinese culture, she said, was influenced at family level and not
by the government as widely believed.

She said her role in Studio 263 represented every Chinese woman and Chinese
culture in a positive way.

Has the world media’s own perception of China influenced how we see the
Chinese? Or has China itself helped its critics view it with so much
suspicion? What is the basis for the mistrust?

Nevertheless, Zimbabweans must destroy the disdain of foreigners and say
before we dislike someone let us listen to them and get to know them and
that we should never judge people by their race, creed, tribe or religion.

What Mawuru has done as an artist by casting Wendy in Studio 263 is putting
together what politicians have put asunder. Artists must create hope where
politicians have sown hate. Where politicians are self-seeking artists must
speak for the voiceless people. The voice of the people is the voice of God.

We often talk about luminaries such as Martin Luther King, Marcus Mosiah
Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Nelson
Mandela and many other African and Western icons who dedicated their entire
lives to build a better world. There is nothing wrong with that.

But we rarely acknowledge outstanding Chinese people such as Liu Xiaobo a
champion of democracy and winner of the Noble Peace Prize. Nobody talks
about Mao Tse-Tung who was a great writer and philosopher. We have even
forgotten Bruce Lee a key figure in international martial arts cinema whose
film genre greatly influenced western cinema and audiences across the world
including Zimbabwe.

And only recently the biggest crane that was used to safely rescue, from
underground the trapped 33 miners in Chile, came from far flung China.

So, what really is the fuss about the Chinese? – Zimonline.

**Shepherd Mutamba is a Zimbabwean journalist based in Harare specialising
in the arts and culture sector.

Zimbabwe election 2011: Mugabe and securocrats not invincible

Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London

The time has come now to tell Robert Mugabe and his securocrats that enough
is enough, the people of Zimbabwe are fed up with the ongoing siege
mentality, politically motivated violence, human rights abuses, impunity and
the disruption of the constitution drafting process ahead of an election in
2011. People’s patience is running thin amidst reports of police invoking
POSA to block public meetings and being instructed not to protect victims of
violence while security chiefs allegedly don’t want an election until
“Zanu-pf and the establishment have put their act together” sometime in 2013
according to Ibbo Mandaza (The Zimbabwean, 27/10/10). The threat of violence
on Zimbabweans by Zanu-pf’s Chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo should his party lose
the next elections is proof of what we said before that, Zanu-pf is
cornered, panicking, desperate and dangerous (Zimbabwejournalists,
10/12/09).

Although, armed to the teeth, thanks to extravagant defence spending,
sanctions busting and a ring-fenced budget for the President’s Office,
Zimbabwe’s military chiefs, Police, Prisons, Central Intelligence chief, are
not invincible in the face of  people’s power. Mugabe and his anachronistic
politburo leaders may one day have to eat the humble pie and surrender
without any bullet being fired. If the securocrats continue to use violence
against innocent civilians in the ongoing constitutional outreach and
election campaign, civil society would be justified in calling for a UN
peace-keeping force coupled with the transformation of targeted sanctions
into stratified travel bans for up to 10 years for the top 20 offenders and
5 years for the rest of the listed 200 individuals until they reform.

If Zimbabwe’s military chiefs continue to defy the democratic will of the
people, they will have only themselves to blame when civil society engages
another level of resistance in the form of a  unified online dossier or
Zimleaks. It would capture for posterity files on Mugabe regime’s military
role in the alleged human rights abuses and looting of diamonds in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who is who in Gukurahundi genocide,
Operation Murambatsvina, Makavhotera Papi, human rights abuses and looting
at Chiadzwa, who abducted, tortured, murdered people in 2008, who looted
which farm of what equipment and machinery, theft of businesses in the guise
of indigenisation and so on.

Nobody forced Robert Mugabe to announce recently that he wants elections in
2011 to solve the GNU problem. Equally, when his opponents agree to the
polls, they are not unaware of the uneven playing field, but only trying to
square-up to his grandstanding as they are expected to by their
constituents. However, if Mugabe has made his bed, he should lie on it. He
has called for elections therefore, he should let the political campaigning
commence peacefully and announce the date when people will vote.

Mugabe should show respect for the rule of law and allow people to express
themselves freely without intimidation. He is the one who should announce an
un-equivocal commitment to non-violence on ZBC radio and Television as well
as covered by Zimpapers for the sake of reaching his supporters who are
reportedly terrorising opponents all over the country. Of course opposition
leaders too should be given the same equal platform to address the nation
appealing for calm and tolerance. It is Mugabe who must tell the securocrats
to respect the will of the people because it is Mugabe who appointed them
and gave them all the powers they are now showing off with today.

A quick look at the possible issues that Zanu-pf will peddle in the proposed
election are land reform, targeted sanctions and indigenisation. Contrary to
pre-mature excitement by some Zanu-pf’s bloggers, those 3 issues will be a
hard sell. Evidence abounds of systemic failures of Zanu-pf’s chaotic land
reform programme to address the imbalances inherited from colonialism. One
is that of 80,000 people who were reported by the government owned Herald as
having joined the food for work programme in Masvingo where starving
villagers are trading their daughters for maize. There are fears that this
could be a well planned carrot and stick strategy of food for politics
(votes) in the aftermarth of a reign of terror in the area by self-styled
“war vet’ Jabulani Sibanda.

Since 2002, it was already clear that Mugabe’s land grab precipitated famine
as he seized white farms without compensation and turned them over to his
relatives and political cronies. When Grace Mugabe turned up at John and Eva
Mathews’ farm north of Harare, Adrian Blomfield wrote in September 2002, she
said: “I’m taking over this farm,” and to press home the point, the police
arrested 78-year-old John Matthews, whom they gave 48 hours to leave the
farm Other threats to food security are the ongoing murders and displacement
of white farmers, shortfalls of fertiliser, sorghum and millet seed as well
as revelations in parliament that households would be provided with inputs
for a quarter hectare with no tillage and no provisions for livestock
farming in the dry Matabeleland provinces and so on. Meanwhile, Malawi’s
President, Bingu waMutharika’s Bineth farm outside Kadoma is reportedly run
down and the cattle starving (Zimeye, 27/10/10).

As for the propaganda that travel bans against Mugabe and 200 of his
associoates are causing shortages of raw materials and spares leading to
unemployment just demonstrates the theory that if you tell a lie for a long
time or more often, you end up believing your own lies. It is not clear why
the brave Zanu-pf seems scared of getting its banned people submit
individual applications for delisting possibly fearing possible arrest
abroad as what happened to Patrick Chinamasa when he was detained for 6
hours in Germany in July last year. Obviously it is Mugabe’s allies who need
the coalition government more than they would like us believe.  They
hypocritically yearn to go on government missions to Western countries which
they loathe under the umbrella of the GNU despite undermining it in private
or on return home.

Another hard sell in the elections will be indigenisation in its present
racist and partisan format. With news that eight foreign banks have been
targeted for indigenisation, there are no prizes for guessing who will get
them with disastrous consequences for investor confidence. The banks are
Standard Chartered, Barclays, Stanbic, MBCA, CABS, Premier, Metropolitan and
BancABC. What could happen to these banks is already being experienced by
one of the early casualties of indigenisation in Zimbabwe,  Lobels Bakery.
One of the country’s largest bakeries, Lobels reportedly stopped bread
production after dismissing three of its top managers on allegations of
fraud. That came after the company had failed to pay its workers’ salaries
for three months (Greatindaba, 07/09/10).

Undoubtedly, there is need for a systematic, gradual and transparent redress
of economic imbalances in a way that does not scare away investors who help
to generate wealth, create jobs and raise tax revenue. It is very concerning
that South Africa’s 3rd largest retailer Massmart owner of Makro shops in
Zimbabwe might be forced to leave the country due to the Zanu-pf law of
empowerment. Even for those who have been supposedly empowered, Zanu-pf
endorsement is not always guaranteed 24/7 as Mutumwa Mawere seems to be
experiencing now, since returning to reclaim his business empire in
Zimbabwe. It remains to be seen if Mawere may not have been lured into ‘the
lions den’ by assurances of no prosecution.

Zanu-pf has many tricks up its sleave, however its traditional election
strategies include  violence, food-for-politics, impunity, blackmail and
jamming of SW Radio Africa and RadioVop apart from the politicisation and
militarisation of electoral administration. Although Morgan Tsvangirai told
his supporters in Mabvuku on Tuesday 19/10/10 that the next election would
be without violence, civic organisations think otherwise in view of what
happened during the constitutional outreach programme during which an MDC
supporter was killed. Confirmation that violence is still on was highlighted
on Tuesday 26/10/10 by the BBC Radio 4 in a five minute documentary called
“Zimbabwe a gathering political storm,” in which its southern Africa
correspondent, Karen Allen said there had been 83 cases of violence during
Zimbabwe’s constitution outreach programme. She interviewed a female victim
of suspected Zanu-pf violence who was hit on the head with a brick while
police just watched.

For Zanu-pf, it seems that controversy is in its DNA. According to the
Zimbabwean (07/10/10) Members of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) are
undergoing secret training at Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
offices across the country, allegedly in order to manipulate the running and
outcome of future elections. This comes when people’s memories are still
fresh about results of the March 2008 presidential elections which were
delayed for weeks and raised eyebrows when they were finally published.

Alleged electoral rigging has also been a problem.Contestants in the
forthcoming election might learn a thing or two from Edgar Tekere, who
described what happened when his party Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM)
contested the 1989 elections. “In Harare North District, Raphael Hamadziripi
(of ZUM) was contesting against Bernard Chidzero (of Zanu-pf). Chidzero
attended the counting of votes and, seeing that Hamadziripi was winning, he
went home. Later that evening, he was visited by his Zanu-pf officials who
told him that he had won. Chidzero argued that this was impossible, he had
seen the votes being counted, but his visitors informed him that there were
postal votes from the army which, when counted, resulted in his winning,” (A
Lifetime of Struggle, 2007:164).

Ndoro childrens Charity Gala

Dear Supporters

We would like to draw your attention to a special event being held this weekend to  support the Ndoro Childrens Charity. The event will be hosted and attended by some of the leading personalities in Britain and some of Zimbabwean community in the UK's most influential people. Details are on the attached flyer and you can findout more about the charity or contact them directly here.www.ndorocc.org.uk

Peace and love always

WEZIMBABWE
www.wezimbabwe.org