ZANU PF functionaries still dominate Zim media: Report

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

by Own Correspondent Tuesday 14 April 2009

HARARE - Officials linked to President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party
and central bank chief Gideon Gono still enjoy unfettered publicity from the
country's public media two months after formation of an inclusive
government, a media monitoring organisation has said.

In its weekly media report, the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
(MMPZ) said people "linked to ZANU PF" continued to indulge in "abuse of
public media", citing the Herald's recent reproduction of comments made by
Gono during the era when ZANU PF used to rule the country alone.

"Nothing more clearly illustrates the continued abuse of public media
by senior government officials linked to ZANU PF than the Herald's coverage
of the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono's address to parliamentarians
during which he defended his quasi-fiscal policies that were partly to blame
for the country's economic collapse," MMPZ said.

"Instead of critically examining his statements, the paper (Herald)
published stories between Friday April 3 and Wednesday April 8 2009 merely
regurgitating his justification of discredited activities during ZANU PF
government reign."

The media body said although the daily supinely reported Gono as
having dismissed private media reports that he had run a parallel government
prior to the formation of the inclusive government on February 11, there was
no attempt to unmask Gono's statements of dishonesty when he diverted funds
meant to assist the Global Fund.

"There was no attempt to relate dishonest statements to documented
evidence of his abuse of money from Global Fund and his raids on foreign
currency accounts belonging to exporters and NGOs among other irregular
activities," MMPZ said.

"Neither did the paper seek independent corroboration of merely
executing his mandate as stipulated by law governing operations of the
central bank."

The problem was not confined to the Herald alone, MMPZ said as this
also spilled over to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's (ZBC) SpotFM
which changed its mid-morning programming to accommodate the live broadcast
of Gono's more than one-and-half-hour long address, which it repeated the
same evening.

"It is such blatant abuse of the public media that vindicates calls
for urgent media law reforms that would help Zimbabweans to reclaim public
media so as to ensure that they fully adhere to their mandate of serving the
interests of all citizens."

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government early this month undertook to open
up the media to more players within the next 100 days, agreeing to reform
Zimbabwe's restrictive media regulatory environment so as to ensure press
freedom.

State Minister Gorden Moyo told reporters after a ministerial retreat
in Victoria Falls that government had "resolved that the media laws be
reformed and that space be provided for more players".

"We are expecting that we will have a new media commission which will
oversee serious steps toward freeing the airwaves in terms of licensing TV
and radio stations and allowing other players from outside to come and
broadcast from Zimbabwe," said Moyo.

Government-controlled newspapers are the biggest and most dominant in
Zimbabwe after Mugabe's government banned four privately owned newspapers
including the Daily News, which was the largest circulating daily at its
forced closure in 2003.

There are no independent broadcasters in Zimbabwe. The state-owned ZBC
runs the country's only television and radio stations, all tightly
controlled by government, which has the final say on senior editorial and
managerial appointments.

The southern African country has some of the toughest media laws in
the world. For example, the government's Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) requires journalists to obtain licences
from the government's Media and Information Commission in order to practise
in Zimbabwe.

The commission can withdraw licences from journalists who fail to
conform. Journalists caught practising without a licence are liable to a
two-year jail term under AIPPA.

Besides journalists being required to obtain licences, newspaper
companies are also required to register with the state commission with those
failing to do so facing closure and seizure of their equipment by the
police.

Former opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
Mugabe formed a power sharing government in February to rescue Zimbabwe's
ruined economy and work to end a humanitarian crisis manifested in deepening
poverty and disease.

Article 19 of the power-sharing agreement signed in September by
Zimbabwe's major political parties acknowledges the need for a free and
diverse media environment. - ZimOnline

 

Saidi to the rescue of The Herald

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=15067

April 13, 2009

HARARE - Zimbabwe's longest serving journalist and one of President Robert
Mugabe's most strident critics in the media has been called from retirement
for the third time - this time to rescue the President's most fanatical
supporter, The Herald newspaper.

The Zimbabwe Times can reveal that veteran journalist William "Bill" Saidi
(77) has been offered the job of deputy editor-in-chief of the flagship of
State-run Zimbabwe Newspapers, The Herald.

The Herald has alienated thousands of once loyal readers over the years by
constantly feeding them on a diet of propaganda, cover-up and denial of
wrong-doing on the part of government. Company management watched in
consternation as the circulation of the newspaper deteriorated from 165 000
copies sold per day in 2000 to the current print-run of a modest 15 000.

Saidi, a veteran newspaperman, with experience going back to The African
Daily News under editor Nathan Shamuyarira before the newspaper was banned
by the Rhodesia front government in 1963, saw service as senior journalist
in Lusaka, Zambia. There he incurred the wrath of former President Kenneth
Kaunda before he returned to Zimbabwe at independence. He was appointed
assistant editor for a brief period on the Herald.

He was then promoted to the position of editor of The Sunday News in
Bulawayo. His no-holds-barred kind of journalism brought his career at the
government-owned weekly newspaper to an untimely end and the veteran
journalist into retirement.

The launch of The Daily News in 1999 brought Saidi back into active
journalism once more when editor-in-chief Geoffrey Nyarota took him on as
assistant editor. By the time The Daily News was banned in 2003 Saidi had
been appointed editor of the just launched Daily News on Sunday. With the
demise of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe titles in September 2003
Saidi went back into retirement once more. Publisher Trevor Ncube then took
him on as assistant editor on the Sunday Standard until he was finally
retired in 2008 after nearly half a century in the journalism profession.

With his new recall Saidi will become deputy to a man who was not born when
he cycled on assignment in the then African townships of Salisbury. Pikirayi
Deketeke, the journalist, who as editor presided over the final demise of
the once illustrious Herald is in his early forties.

Saidi confirmed to The Zimbabwe Times that he had been approached.
Sources say Saidi was approached by Isaac Zulu, assistant editor
(Administration) on The Herald, also a veteran of journalism in Zambia.

"The post of deputy editor-in-chief at the Herald has been open for ages,"
said one source. "Prior to the job being offered to Saidi there was fierce
jockeying for the post among the four assistant editors on the embattled
newspaper.

Actively jockeying for the post were Zulu himself, as well as Hatred
Zenenga, assistant editor (Business), veteran Gareth Willard, the longest
serving and by far the most experienced journalist on the Herald, who was
shunted sideways to assistant editor (Technical) and the mercurial Caesar
Zvayi, the assistant editor (News).

Zvayi was miraculously promoted from political editor to assistant editor on
his return from his brief sojourn in Gaborone, Botswana, where he jumped
ship to take up a teaching post. He was sensationally deported by Botswana
authorities and returned to an even more senior position and a bigger
package at Herald House.

Insiders say the controversial Zvayi, a school teacher of Geography by
profession, was vigorously campaigning for the plum job. Zvayi and editor
Deketeke are among a handful of journalists that have been slapped with
targeted sanctions by the United States administration for actively
supporting the Mugabe administration's election terror campaign last year
through articles that were published in their newspaper.

One source said Zvayi had been completely ruled out of the running for the
job of deputy editor because the inclusive government has demanded greater
professionalism at the State-run newspaper which has seen its sales plummet
dramatically over the years.

The Herald enjoyed an unchallenged monopoly in the newspaper publishing
industry until the arrival on the scene of the Daily News in 1999. The
newcomer  capitalised on a simple recipe - investigating and publishing the
news that the Herald swept under the carpet as well as denying Zimbabwe's
politicians the sacred-cow status customarily accorded to them by The
Herald.

Within a year The Herald circulation plummeted from 165 000 to 50 000 copies
sold per day, while The Daily News flourished from zero to 129 500 copies
sold within one tear. The Daily News also broke the stranglehold of the 100
year-old Herald on the lucrative advertising market.

Faced with the total collapse of its newspaper empire the government reacted
in drastic fashion. The Daily News printing press was bombed, the editor and
staff were harassed, some into exile and the paper itself was banned.

Saidi's brief is to rebuild a newspaper that now sells 15 000 copies a day
and prints only eight pages per issues, where it used to publish 36, 38 or
even more pages in the past. To achieve this he will have to attract back to
The Herald the qualified and experienced journalists who have jumped ship
over the years. As he faces this Herculean task Saidi must content with
other newspapers preparing for launch.

The publisher of The Zimbabwe Independent and the Zimbabwe Standard, Trevor
Ncube, has already announced the imminent launch of his first daily title,
to be called Newsday. Sources say Barnabas Tondhlana who served as news
editor at the launch of The Daily News 10 years ago will steer the new ship.

Embattled Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor has announced the equally
imminent launch of his own daily newspaper The Daily Evening Gazette. The
year ahead should see competition stiffen as more titles emerge, with
competition for staff and advertising creating unprecedented rivalry.

Saidi and Deketeke will have a head start. While addressing the challenge of
establishing internal stability on board their old and discredited ship,
they will constantly be checking on the horizon for the arrival of any new
rival, especially The Daily News. They also have to content with a
readership long disillusioned by the staid content of The Herald and its
sister publications.

"I am considering it," he told The Zimbabwe Times on Sunday. "Yes it's
something that has been proposed to me. We are still talking. I will talk to
them again on Tuesday (after the holiday)."

He declined to go into detail, saying he was still negotiating the terms.
However, a source privy to the negotiations said Saidi had demanded greater
editorial independence and insisted that he will not take instructions from
presidential administration or be told what to do. But the editor is
Deketeke and he has had no problem taking instructions from above in the
past.

A senior reporter at the Herald who spoke on condition of anonymity agreed
that the newspaper would be in great hands with Saidi, He said Saidi would
have to contend with a team of new and much younger reporters, a more
powerful audience and serious external meddling in editorial affairs.

Those who have worked with Saidi say he is not one to be suckered or seduced
by fads or peer pressure - a fact that makes the reporter confident Saidi
will have a clear and broader vision for a newspaper that has seen its
readership decline over the years.

Saidi is however likely to face philosophical differences with the
presidential administration which literally gate-keeps everything that is
published in the newspaper. He also risks sullying his own reputation by
association with a discredited newspaper if he fails to assert his authority
sufficiently to change the editorial thrust of The Herald, one observer
said.

The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee, a taskforce mandated with
keeping tabs on the inclusive government, has demanded that The Herald
starts reporting like a truly public medium of communication and stop acting
as a public relations mouthpiece for Zanu-PF. The newspaper has been
regularly used to lampoon the opposition.

To rescue the newspaper, which JOMIC asserts could earn desperately needed
revenue, heads had to roll. Saidi was said to have been given tough targets
to achieve such as making sure the newspaper breaks even and starts making a
profit.

The challenge ahead of Saidi and Deketeke is to convince the politicians
that for The Herald to make a profit their wrong-doing or failure must be
placed in the public domain along with their good deeds for the consumption
of the people.

Respected Zimbabwe Editor's Move Prompts Media-Reform Speculation

http://www.voanews.com

By Patience Rusere
Washington
13 April 2009

Interview With Matthew Takaona  - Download (MP3)
Interview With Matthew Takaona  - Listen (MP3)

News reports saying veteran journalist and former Zimbabwe Standard Deputy
Editor Bill Saidi would be joining the state-controlled Herald newspaper as
a top editor has sparked wide speculation that media reform may be under way
at the often tendentious Herald.

Saidi is respected among Zimbabwean journalists as a highly professional
editor of personal integrity, leading to the conclusion an overhaul was in
the works at the Herald.

But skeptics said Saidi had been forced to step down from the privately
owned Standard to make way for younger journalists, and that consequently
his reported move to the Herald might not be a harbinger of imminent reform
in Zimbabwe's state media establishment.

VOA was unable to reach Saidi immediately for comment.

President Matthew Takaona of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists told reporter
Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that there has been
widespread speculation as to Saidi's move, but said he doubts Saidi's hiring
would signal a major editorial shift.

Senior appointments made for NewsDay

http://www.hararetribune.com

Monday, 13 April 2009 20:11 Standard World - Media

ZIMIND Publishers, on Wednesday made four key appointments to the leadership
of NewsDay, a daily newspaper the group will be launching shortly.

Barnabas Thondlana has been appointed Editor of NewsDay, the third and
newest publication in the Zimind group. Moses Mudzwiti is the Managing
Editor. Dumisani Muleya, who has been Assistant Editor on The Zimbabwe
Independent, becomes the Group Political and Investigative Editor, while
Constantine Munyaradzi Chimakure is the News Editor. Chimakure held the same
position on The Zimbabwe Independent.

The appointments are with effect from Tuesday, April 14, 2009. Trevor Ncube,
the chairman of The Zimbabwe Independent and Standard, in announcing the
appointments said discussions with the authorities regarding registration of
NewsDay were on-going, adding indications were positive.

"We have been assured by the government following the GNU retreat that
normalization of the media landscape is a priority," Ncube said. "We have
been further assured that the process to get NewsDay registered is underway
and on course." Ncube said Thondlana and Mudzwiti are an experienced and
dynamic duo that will produce "an exciting newspaper for the Zimbabwe we
want".

"Chimakure is a hard-working journalist with a nose for news and will be an
asset to NewsDay, while Dumisani is by far the best investigate and
political journalist the country has produced in recent years.

"This is a winning team. The team, among other things, has been tasked with
sifting through the hundreds of applications we have received and emerge
with talent fit to produce a great newspaper," Ncube said.

"We have been overwhelmed by responses to our recruitment drive from both
the Diaspora and locally."

Thondlana has been in the newspaper industry for 20 years. He began his
career at the Financial Gazette in 1989 and rose through the ranks to the
position of News Editor.

In 1996, he left to launch The Zimbabwe Independent as its founding News
Editor. But two years later, he left to launch The Daily News, again as its
founding News Editor. A year later, he was back at The Zimbabwe Independent
as Deputy Editor.

In 2001, he left to launch The Daily News on Sunday as its founding Editor.
The paper was closed down in 2003 under Zimbabwe's draconian media laws.

Thondlana has also worked for international news organisations such as the
Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg News and Media24, among others.

Mudzwiti (36) spent the last 15 years working for major media houses in
Namibia and South Africa. These included Avusa, owners of The Sunday Times,
and Independent News & Media proprietors of The Star newspaper.

He started his career at The Daily Gazette in 1992 and a year later moved to
Namibia where he worked for the Windhoek Advertiser.

His final post in South Africa, before returning home last year, was that of
Deputy Editor of The Times, a daily, which is a sister publication to  The
Sunday Times.

Before that he worked as Night Editor of The Sowetan. By the time he left
The Sowetan to start The Times, he had been promoted to Senior Assistant
Editor.

Earlier on he worked as a Sub-Editor for Martin Creamer's Engineering News.
He later moved to the Cape Times, where he was Deputy News Editor.
Subsequently he was promoted to Night News Editor of The Star based in
Johannesburg.

He also had a stint as the News Editor for Business Report before moving to
The Sowetan at the persuasion of John Dludlu, then its editor.

Chimakure has worked in the media during the past 15 years. He worked for
the weekly Masvingo Mirror (1992 - 1996) as a reporter before joining the
weekly The Zimbabwe Mirror as a senior political reporter (1999-2001). He
was promoted to chief political reporter (2001-2002), but left The Zimbabwe
Mirror in May 2002 to join the Business Tribune as chief business reporter
until 2004 when the government shutdown the newspaper.

He joined The Daily Mirror in September 2004 as chief political reporter and
six months later was promoted to Deputy News Editor. In June to 2005 he was
promoted to News Editor - a position he held until the newspaper collapsed
in March 2007.

He joined The Zimbabwe Independent in June of the same year as senior
political reporter, but last year he was promoted to chief reporter.

Zimbabwe House Speaker Urges Civic Role in Drafting Constitution

http://www.voanews.com

By Ntungamili Nkomo & Jonga Kandemiri
Washington
13 April 2009

Zimbabwean House Speaker Lovemore Moyo on Monday urged civic groups to
cooperate with a parliamentary select committee named Sunday to lead
drafting of a new constitution, saying that those who choose to boycott the
process, as some have threatened, will miss out on the formulation of a
truly democratic, people-driven constitution.

Moyo took issue with civil society groups such as the National
Constitutional Assembly, which are opposed to the idea of parliament leading
the revision process. He said parliament was qualified to undertake this
task as it represents the majority of Zimbabweans.

Sunday he announced a special committee with 25 members drawn from the two
formations of the Movement for Democratic Change and the former majority
ZANU-PF party. He said additional members representing civil society will be
appointed next month.

But civil society sources say a number of organizations including the NCA,
the Christian Alliance, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the
Zimbabwe National Students Union have resolved to refuse to name
representatives to the parliamentary panel.

Moyo told reporter Ntungamili Nkomo of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe Moyo said
there is no going back as lawmakers are merely adhering to the existing
constitution.

The NCA has said it will not join the government-appointed panel, calling
for the naming of an independent commission to take up the task. The group
for years has been calling for a "people-driven constitution" as the
solution to Zimbabwe's ills.

This weekend the NCA launched a program it called "Take Charge" which
intended to raise popular awareness of current constitutional issues.

NCA director Earnest Mudzengi told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that while his
organization is opposed to parliament leading the constitution-making
process, it won't run a parallel process to the one that the government has
undertaken.

Zimbabwe seeks funds for landmark constitution

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk

Zimbabwe has appealed to international agencies and organisations to fund
the drafting of its first post-independence constitution that will lead to
new free and fair elections as outlined under a unity deal signed between
president Robert Mugabe and the opposition.

The southern African country's unity government between President Mugabe and
the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is broke and
failing to meet its various financial obligations such as paying civil
servants.

The unity government has resorted to diverting donated humanitarian funds to
finance various state operations.

"The constitution making process will require substantial financial and
human resources," Lovemore Moyo, Zimbabwe's speaker of parliament, said,
adding that parliament was finalising on the exact budget for the process.

"It is my fervent hope that development agencies and other foreign
organisations will take as much interest, if not more, as they took in the
challenges that our country has been facing and contribute financial and
material resources in support of the work of the select committee."

Mr Moyo on Sunday announced a 25-member committee drawn from both President
Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the two formations of the MDC that will oversee the
drafting of a new constitution.

Zimbabwe is still governed by the 1979 Lancaster House Constitution
negotiated between the rebel Rhodesian government of Ian Smith and the two
liberation movements, Zanu-PF of Robert Mugabe and PF-Zapu led by the late
Joshua Nkomo.

The 1979 constitution that led to Zimbabwe's independence has since been
amended a record 19 times. The drafting of new constitution is expected to
lead to free and fair elections in 18 to 24 months once the supreme law is
signed into law by the president.

Under the terms of a unity deal signed last year, the select committee that
will steer the new constitution making process will embark on a four month
consultation process after which a draft constitution shall be tabled to an
all-stakeholders conference not later than February 13th 2010.

The draft constitution and the accompanying report shall be tabled in
parliament before March 13th 2010.

The draft constitution emerging from parliament shall be gazetted before the
holding of a referendum between the period between April 13th and July 13th
2010. If the draft constitution is approved by the referendum, it shall be
gazetted within one month of the date of the referendum between July 13th
and August 13th 2010.

The draft constitution will then finally be introduced to parliament no
later than one month after the expiration of the period of 30 days from the
date of its gazetting in October 2010.

Zimbabwe last held a constitutional referendum in 2000 where Zimbabweans
rejected Mr Mugabe's constitutional proposal arguing that it gave him too
many new powers.
© Adfero Ltd
14 April 2009 00:03 GMT

Police : 10 travellers die in Easter Season road crashes in Zimbabwe

http://www.apanews.net

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) At least 10 Zimbabweans have been killed in road
accidents since the Easter Holidays started on April 10, police announced in
the capital Harare on Monday.

A police spokesperson said 120 vehicle accidents have been recorded since
last Friday, with Matabeleland South Province accounting for the highest
number of the casualties.

The capital Harare and Mashonaland East Province closely followed with two
deaths each, the police said, and blamed the accidents on reckless driving
and defective vehicles.

The death toll was, however, slightly lower than the 14 people killed in
road accidents in 2008 when 200 traffic accidents were recorded in Zimbabwe
during the Easter season.

  JN/nm/APA 2009-04-13

Bishop shines shoes for Zimbabwe on Maundy Thursday

http://www.inspiremagazine.org.uk

Maundy Thursday is a foot-washing day for Christians, emphasising mutual
service. But a bishop has given the tradition a new twist by shining boots
at St Pancras station to raise funds for Zimbabwe, reports Ekklesia.

The shoe-shining stall was set out on the main concourse of the
international train station, which acts as a gateway to Europe, on Thursday
and Friday to catch rush hour commuters.

Busily buffing the shoes and giving the boots a lick of polish for charity
were Bishop Michael Doe, General Secretary of the Anglican mission agency
USPG, and St Pancras chaplain the Rev Jonathan Barker.

The bishop explained: "Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at the Last
Supper on Maundy Thursday, on the evening before Good Friday. In doing so,
he demonstrated to his followers that they should be servants, willing to
live in humility and work for the good of others. This was his new
commandment or, in Latin, mandatum, from which comes the term 'Maundy'
Thursday."

He continued: "In Jesus' day, washing feet was a task normally reserved for
servants. Traditionally, many clergy wash the feet of their parishioners on
Maundy Thursday. It was felt that shoe-shining was a modern equivalent."

Money raised at the shoe-shining sessions will help to support social
projects in Zimbabwe, including orphanages, feeding programmes and
hospitals.

Mr Barker said: "I was a parish priest for a year in Zimbabwe, in 1991, and
what is happening there now is completely disastrous. However, in Holy Week,
we want to show that redemption is possible."

USPG's website is here: http://www.uspg.org.uk/

Little Impact From Suspension of Zimbabwe Currency - Economists

http://www.voanews.com

By Gibbs Dube
Washington
13 April 2009

The Zimbabwean government's decision to shelve the national currency for a
year doesn't change very much because the local dollar had lost virtually
all of its value and almost no one used it any more, economists said Monday.

Economic Planning Minister Elton Mangoma said on the weekend that the
government was suspending use of the currency for one year. The government
has adopted a currency regime under which the U.S. dollar, South African
rand and other hard currencies freely circulate.

Some said the suspension of the battered Zimbabwean dollar, which had
depreciated to an infinitesimal value amid hyperinflation caused by
profligate central bank money-printing, was one more piece of evidence for
the case that Zimbabwe has become a failed state.

Economists also voiced doubt that the Zimbabwe dollar will be reintroduced
in a year's time, noting that economic recovery has been slowed by continued
chaotic land invasions, political uncertainty and a lack of credit from
national and international financial institutions.

Economic and political commentator Themba Dlodlo told reporter Gibbs Dube of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the country has in effect lost its monetary
sovereignty.

Elsewhere, Zimbabwe consumers are happy to see prices of most basic
commodities falling, particularly that of the national staple maize meal.
But Zimbabwean millers have been feeling pressure due to a surge imports, as
correspondent Arthur Chigoriwa reports.

ZIMSEC still marking last year's (2008) exams

http://www.hararetribune.com

Monday, 13 April 2009 20:25 RadioVop Our Town - Education

Confusion still reigns supreme at the national examinations body, the
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC), amid reports that some
officials are manually marking last year's ordinary level multiple choice
examinations.

Usually, markers, normally teachers, are contracted by ZIMSEC to mark the
exams. But this time around, some officials are marking 'O' level Geography
Paper One multiple-choice exams, which are also supposed to be marked by
machines.

The two officials are marking the exams from the comfort of their offices
and at their own pace, a visit to the local ZIMSEC offices by Radio VOP
revealed.

But, ZIMSEC provincial head, Samuel Mapengo downplayed the issue.

"We are not marking the exams, but let me tell you that there is nothing we
do without the knowledge of our head office. Everything we do is above
board. But ask our head office, they are the ones who can answer you," said
Mapengo.

No comment could be obtained from the ZIMSEC head office in Harare.

But some ZIMSEC employees who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that
they are manually marking the examination scripts, which are supposed to be
processed by a computerised marking machine.

"We are about to finish marking the exams, as some schools did not use scan
sheets. That is a remedy which of course might not be validated, but it is a
cost cutting measure," said one official.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou
confirmed the developments, which he described as 'flawed', indicating that
specialized markers, in the event of malfunctioning marking machines, are
supposed to do the job.

Zhou said the move was unethical as the exam scripts should be marked at
examination centers, not ZIMSEC offices.

"This is an unethical and flawed process. It de-legitimizes ZIMSEC. I do not
think that there really were problems with computerized marking machines,
they just wanted to get paid for the marking," Zhou said.

Markers are paid R13 per script.

He said this has also added to the delay in the release of last year's
year-end exam results as ZIMSEC is 'legitimising inefficiency'.

"This has added to the delay in the finalization of marking. Teachers should
have marked the exams. It is high time the exams body started operating
professionally," said Zhou.

He said PTUZ had been led to believe that all exams had been marked and
ready for re-grading.

"After being led to believe that all exams were marked and ready for
re-grading, we later discovered that ZIMSEC had intentionally withheld
multiple choice question exam scripts," said Zhou.

Provincial Education Director (PED), Ms Clara Tariro Dube, could not be
reached for a comment.

Refugee reunited with her son, after five days in custody

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk


Monday, 13 April 2009

'Refugee reunited with her son, after five days in custody, Zimbabwean
woman finds boy in care of neighbours', Cape Argus

A Zimbabwean refugee mother who spent five days in police custody and
faced being deported, has been reunited with her four-year-old son.
Christine Muchenje, 25, was one of three people arrested at the Nyanga
refugee centre last week after they were told that their asylum applications
had been rejected on the basis that they had no claim for asylum and that
they would be deported.
The others were Petronela Hora, 28, and Lameck Mabaire, 30.
The three were taken from Caledon Square Police Station yesterday
morning to the Home Affairs' deportation offices in Barrack Street, from
where they were released after refugee lobby group People Against Suffering
Suppression Oppression and Poverty (Passop), aided by the Legal Resources
Centre, filed for an urgent court order for them to be released immediately.
A group of about 20 supporters held a vigil outside the offices while
they waited for the three to be released.
Most of those present were Zimbabweans who played drums and clapped
their hands.
The protesters were in chains and had their mouths covered with
crossed red tape, symbolising that they did not have a voice and were not
free.
An emotional Muchenje spoke in front of the Home Affairs offices after
her release.
She said she could not wait to return to her home in Harare,
Khayelitsha, to see if her son Tinotenda was in good health.
Muchenje said she was arrested after planned protest action at the
refugee centre.
She added they had been warned the previous day not to bring children
with them.
"I'm worried about my child because when I went to Nyanga he was in
crèche and now I'm not sure who is taking care of him.
"I hope the lady at the crèche or one of my employees at the salon has
taken care of him," she said.
Reunited with her son last night, Muchenje told the Cape Argus she was
happy to have found him at her hair salon in the care of her landlord,
neighbours, friends and her staff.
"I found him sitting in a corner in the salon and he jumped up when he
saw me.
"I'm hurt and happy at the same time because my child went from house
to house living with strangers.
"I'm thankful to everyone who helped," said Muchenje.
Explaining the events that led to their arrest, Hora said: "I went
there (to Nyanga) so that I could extend my asylum, only to be forced to get
into the police van and told that I would be deported because my application
had failed.
"This is ridiculous. We only need to be helped and not to be bullied
like this."
Muchenje said she did not understand how the Home Affairs Department
worked because she had applied for her papers in June last year and had
slept in cold weather with her child on the pavement outside the refugee
centre to ensure her papers were in order.
"When we go for papers we don't get them.
"They just arrest us. What do they want us to do?" she asked.
Passop co-ordinator Braam Hanekom said they wanted the deportation of
Zimbabweans to stop because it was "unacceptable".
He vowed that Passop would continue to fight for them.
"Given the situation that exists in their country, these people need
to be supported, not deported," he said .
Home Affairs spokesman Joseph Mohajane has yet to comment. - Legal
Resources Centre

Refugees to leave church this week

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=15074

April 13, 2009

By Mxolisi Ncube

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean refugees living in and around Johannesburg's
Central Methodist Mission are now set to be moved into temporary shelters,
starting with the neediest this week.

The selection process of the 4 000 refugees has raised fears that some of
the immigrants, considered less needy, might be left out in the open.

Responding to questions by The Zimbabwe Times on the relocation, which was
set to begin three weeks ago, Gauteng local government spokesperson Daniel
Ramarumo said the exercise would now commence this week.

He said the relocation would be undertaken in the order of priority.

"We have finished most of the modalities for their relocation and we expect
the first groups to be moved from the church starting Monday," said
Ramarumo.

"You have to understand that these shelters are not government buildings and
it took us time to enter into contracts with their owners, something that we
have finally done.

"There were also other outstanding issues like security, food, and other
basic needs like bedding, whose availability we also needed to ensure
 first."

Ramarumo added that when the relocation begins, it would be done in the
order of priority, with the most vulnerable being moved first.

"We will make sure that the most vulnerable, like unaccompanied children,
nursing women, the elderly and the disabled are moved to the new shelters
first," he said.

He also confirmed earlier reports that accommodation at the shelters would
be for an initial period of three months, but added that government would
review the situation with a view of extending the leases, if there was need.

The government official added that the Zimbabweans would be given free
skills training at the new shelters, in a bid to help them prepare for their
life after the shelters, and when they eventually return to their home
country.

Various charities are currently providing for the refugees' humanitarian
needs, but a greater part of the help has come from the Methodist Church.

However, Bishop Paul Verryn, who runs the refugee centre at the Church, told
The Zimbabwe Times that the local government authorities had not updated him
on the relocation progress by Friday evening.

The relocation of the refugees came after some local businesses, led by a
law firm - the Pitje Group, took the church to court, in a bid to have the
refugee centre closed.

The firm had wanted the refugees to be moved on allegations that they were
committing crime, creating a health hazard and killing business in the city
centre.

However, the Johannesburg High Court ruled that the matter should be
resolved out of court.  It is now feared that the local government
authorities might use the temporary relocation as a way of removing the
refugees from the church, after which they might be left homeless again.

The fact that buildings meant to accommodate the immigrants have a holding
capacity of only 300 people has worsened the fears among the refugees. But
local government authorities insist they can accommodate all them.

Apprehension among the immigrants comes after the South African government
left in the open thousands of foreign nationals after the xenophobic
violence which rocked Gauteng Province last May.

The government shut down refugee camps and asylum centres that had been set
up to accommodate them, and deported thousands of the immigrants.

That move drew the ire of some human rights organizations, resulting in
Lawyers for Human Rights taking the country's Home Affairs Department to
court for alleged human rights abuses.

The refugee situation at the church has given the 56-year-old Verryn two
contrasting personalities - he is regarded as a hero by most Zimbabweans
while some of his countrymen regard him as a villain.

Just last week, the bishop received death threats from two men claiming to
be assassins hired by local businessmen to kill the clergyman for
accommodating the desperate Zimbabweans at his church.

The two men, who say they were given R30 000 deposit and promised a total of
R200 000 after the mission, have since been arrested in connection with the
threats following a sting operation.

Police said the same men had previously been linked to similar threats and
an assassination attempt in the deadly taxi wars in South Africa.

Know Your Ministers: Holland, Shamu

Zimbabwe: A brave man's words keep his memory alive

 

Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times

Notes taken in a 2008 interview with Gibson Tafadzwa Elliott, an opposition supporter in Zimbabwe who withstood beatings and torture rather than talk.

Gibson Elliott made an impression with his clear mission to bring peaceful change to his battered nation. 'I just can't work with people who kill people,' he said. And he didn't, no matter what.

By Robyn Dixon
April 13, 2009

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa -- Stored for months, the creased pages are filled with untidy black ink, a scrawl of arrows, squiggles and scraps of shorthand. I've pulled out my notes to find a man named Gibson Tafadzwa Elliott.

Words leap from the paper, crows flapping out of a graveyard: Camouflage. Danger. Kidnapped. "Beat him up. He'll talk."

 

Touching fingers on the paper, I remember a warm July day last year in the garden of a friend's house in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. The light was hard, dazzling.

A go-between had brought Gibson Elliott in a battered old Toyota to meet me. He came with a man named Noel Mukuti, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change candidate in his area, Midlands province, whom he referred to quaintly as "my Honorable" (from the parliamentary term Honorable Member).

Elliott's clothes were shabby. He was tall and thin, with the face of a boy. From the smell of him it was obvious that the 23-year-old had been living badly. But there was something luminous about him.

I'd met plenty of young Zimbabwean men over many years who had been beaten or tortured. Gibson Elliott stood out.

Born five years after President Robert Mugabe took office, Elliott had a life-changing experience when he was 16, on the day the MDC held a rally near his home village in a small Midlands settlement called Nembudzia. Ruling party youths pelted the audience with stones. That's when he made up his mind.

A long squiggly mark down the left of the page marks his words, in tiny handwriting: "I put my whole heart in the MDC. I just can't work with people who kill people. I just loved working for the MDC."

I turn back a page or two in my notes, looking for his story of last year's election violence, when ruling ZANU-PF militias set up bases around the country to beat and torture MDC activists.

They grabbed him at the local store, tied his legs and hands. One of the thugs hoisted him over his shoulder and carried him about six miles through the bush like a sack of potatoes.

At their base he confronted a terrifying scene: hundreds of ruling party thugs carrying sticks and bars, dressed in blue uniforms, green uniforms, camouflage or ZANU-PF T-shirts and bandannas. There was a tent, one table, one chair, one boss, unshaven with long shaggy hair, wearing a red beret.

"I'm already dead," he thought.

A terrible thought, but comforting too. It meant the worst had already happened; there was nothing to hope for, nor to fear.

Slumped on the ground in the tent were six people, some crying, some covered in blood. He knew he would be next.

"My heart was beating now. Very fast.

"They wanted me to give them information about my Honorables -- the MPs. They asked, 'Where are they?' "

What made Gibson Elliott stand out? At a time when men were raping and killing MDC supporters for money, at a time when others joined in the violence because they were too afraid to stand up against it, he was brave.

"They beat me in water, they didn't want me to stay dry. They beat me too much. I was really confused. I was not going to tell them the information. They must kill me."

The second day they stripped him and beat him on the neck with copper wire. The next day they beat him and flicked his testicles with rubber. It went on twice a day, sometimes with sticks, sometimes with fists and boots.

He was beaten every day for a month.

Each day the commander in the red beret whispered seductively in his ear: If he surrendered, he could join them, beating people instead of being beaten.

"I refused. He said, 'I am just trying to save you. If you don't want me to save you, there's nothing I can do.' I said, 'I am not afraid to die. Nobody can take my heart from the MDC.' "

He escaped after a month. Sent behind the tent by his captors to go to the toilet, he saw with surprise that no one was on guard. He ran, naked, without shoes. They chased, but their heavy military boots slowed them down.

The last page of the notes tells of his flight to Harare. The notes end with his feelings about Mugabe: "He's sending people to kill people and beat people up. Some people hate him so much. I don't hate him. I just want people to have change."

Months later, in March, at a church in central Johannesburg, South Africa, where thousands of Zimbabwean refugees take shelter every night, I run by chance into Noel Mukuti, the man Elliott called "My Honorable," the man he saved. I thread together the last few pieces of Gibson Elliott's story.

In August, after hiding in Harare, Elliott and Mukuti went back to Nembudzia to distribute blankets and soap from UNICEF.

They were caught by ZANU-PF men almost immediately and taken with one other MDC activist to a different militia camp. They were beaten for days. Elliott began bleeding from his mouth and nose.

According to Mukuti, there was an MDC sympathizer among the ZANU-PF men, only participating in the violence to save himself and his family. At night, he crept up and untied the prisoners, urging them to flee.

But Elliott couldn't run. He told the others to go. He'd follow when he could.

A month later, after Mukuti made it to Johannesburg, he got a call from Elliott's twin brother.

Cattle herders deep in the bush had stumbled across a fly-covered corpse.

Hold a page of his words up to the light and it resembles a fragile leaf skeleton, a final trace of Gibson Elliott.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Zim's Unity government is not helping farmers yet

From The Star (SA), 13 April

MDC accepted land invasions and agreed they couldn't be reversed

Charles Lock is the only commercial farmer in Zimbabwe to be acquitted of
trespassing on his own land. Rusape Magistrate's Court in eastern Zimbabwe
early last year found him innocent of trespass charges laid against him
under complicated land laws declared "racist" by the SADC Tribunal last
year. There is also a warrant of arrest out for Brigadier-General Justin
Mujaji, the senior army officer who has often invaded Lock's farm over the
past three years. But Mujaji has not been arrested and has moved armed
Zimbabwe National Army soldiers on to Lock's property, destroyed R1.6
million worth of tobacco and beaten up his workers. Lock says the
trouble-shooting joint monitoring and implementation committee (Jomic),
established to mediate disputes arising from the establishment of a
multiparty government in February, intervened quickly and the soldiers were
moved off four days later. Lock returned to his farm and resumed curing what
was left of his tobacco, but Mujaji and the soldiers returned and again
stopped all farming operations as Lock was due to begin reaping 50ha of
maize. Lock has fought a marathon battle in the courts, has been locked up
by Mujaji's soldiers in his homestead at night and has escaped, and has been
forced off the farm at gunpoint. Yet he returns again and again to plant
crops and tend his cattle and provide employment for a loyal and
astonishingly resilient workforce. Mujaji has removed many tools and sold
many tons of Lock's 2008 maize crop.

"I can't prepare land to plant wheat next month or begin seedbeds for the
next tobacco crop," Lock said. "Mujaji has been trying to get me arrested.
He sent his driver to a house where I stay sometimes and the gardener was
grabbed and beaten up because he refused to say where I was. Mujaji wants
the police to serve charges and arrest me when I have already been acquitted
of the charges. The police will not even take a statement from me about what
is going on." Lock farms near Headlands, in a wooded district of cold
winters and mists and gentle banks of hills on the horizon, about 120km
south-east of Harare. The farm Karori is actually owned by his father-in-law
who emigrated to Australia after the land grab began. Lock handed over his
own 2 500ha farm to the state in 2003 and two thirds of Karori and is now
left with 367ha.

Veteran farmer Mike Campbell, beaten half to death with his son-in-law Ben
Freeth late last year by a well known local criminal who has since been
released from custody, was forced out of his homestead this week by thugs
loyal to Zanu PF stalwart Nathan Shamuyarira, who wants the farm. Lock,
Campbell and thousands of other mostly white farmers have been killed,
assaulted, robbed, persecuted and dispossessed by President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu PF for nine years. When the farmers' old ally, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), joined Zanu PF in a unity government in February,
many hoped their suffering would end. But it got worse. Invasions of the few
hundred farms still in white hands have intensified since September 15 last
year when the two MDC factions and Zanu PF signed the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) establishing the framework for the unity government. More
farm workers have been arrested and beaten over the past six months than at
any previous time in the nine-year land saga.

In a weary moment, Lock is infuriated with the MDC for not doing "enough"
now that it is in government. "I know the MDC are trying, but surely, surely
they could do more?" he asks. The list of farmers being summonsed to
magistrate's courts in small towns in central and eastern Zimbabwe to be
charged with trespass on their farms grows daily and will be concluded
before month end. They will be convicted of trespass, given days to abandon
their homes and livelihoods, dismiss workers, or face prison. Meanwhile 78
farmers were granted theoretical protection from Mugabe's marauders by the
SADC Tribunal in Windhoek on November 26 last year. The tribunal also
ordered Mugabe to pay compensation to more than 4 000 farmers already
evicted and to leave in peace those who remained. Trevor Gifford, president
of the Commercial Farmers' Union, has twice written to the SADC chairman,
President Kgalema Motlanthe, asking him to help enforce the SADC tribunal
judgment.

"As citizens of SADC we would appreciate being treated with respect and have
the same opportunities and protection as other SADC citizens," he wrote in
January. He also told Motlanthe that he was not seeking a return to the land
situation before 2000 when the land grab began. Gifford himself was in court
last week, and his trial is to continue after Easter. He received no reply.
The SADC has never raised the tribunal's ruling with Mugabe. Several South
African farmers under constant harassment say they communicate their plight
to diplomats at the South African embassy in Harare but receive no
assistance, even when they are in extreme distress. Louis Fick, a South
African pig farmer, is again under duress from a deputy governor of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Edwin Mashingwane, who has starved hundreds of
sows and piglets over the past two years. This week pig food was not allowed
on the farm - again. But the South African government is unlikely to be
sympathetic because it believes the MDC itself abandoned the farmers as a
sacrifice for its share of power when it signed the GPA.

In Article 5 of the agreement, the two MDCs "acknowledge that compulsory
acquisition and redistribution of land has taken place under a land reform
programme undertaken since 2000" and they accepted "the irreversibility of
the said land acquisitions and redistribution". Lawyers will no doubt argue
about which land falls under that agreement and whether or not the SADC
tribunal decision two months later overrules the agreement. But SA
government officials say that most of the current wave of farm invasions are
not new but are reoccupations by those who acquired the farms in the land
grab and are only now preparing to start farming because they believe the
new unity government is going to put resources into agriculture. Ayanda
Ntsaluba, Director-General of Foreign Affairs, said this week that at least
some of the farms now being occupied seemed to have been gazetted to new
owners before the September 15 agreement which meant the MDC had agreed that
those farms would not be returned to their original owners.

However, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has insisted often that farm
disruptions must end. Tsvangirai's MDC issued a statement saying: "The farm
disturbances and the wanton arrests of farmers are not only a threat to food
security but to the goodwill that the international community had started to
extend to the inclusive government." Western diplomats say Zimbabwe will get
no help from them while Mugabe continues to dispossess productive commercial
farmers who would be the anchor to turn around Zimbabwe's failed farming
industry - when half the population is getting Western food aid. Jomic,
which includes both MDCs, has had some success with another major grievance
of potential donors by getting all but three political detainees released on
bail. But Jomic has had little success with the farmers' crisis. Yet some
Western governments are also starting to change their minds, admitting that
the unity government is doing better than they predicted. And SA business
leaders under Business Unity SA visited Zimbabwe this week and came back
"encouraged". One businessman said he was now "cautiously positive" about
the future, noting that Tsvangirai's MDC - and especially his forceful
finance minister, Tendai Biti - seemed to be wresting control of the economy
from Zanu PF. So the unity government seems to be creaking slowly into
action. But the wretched farmers are going to be left behind once again, it
seems.

Farm invasions will never rebuild economy

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=15054

April 13, 2009

By Clapperton Mavhunga

THE video clip shown on The Zimbabwe Times website of one Mr. Kunonga,
apparently a civil servant, and his team of farm invaders ransacking someone
else's property is a very bad advertisement for a country begging for
financial help to rebuild its economy.

It brings home the sense of combat in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
rebuff, for the very first time, to Mugabe's attempt to use the MDC as a
weapon for the lifting of the sanctions while ratcheting up the pressure on
the West through continued racist and criminal farm violence.

Both the video and the statement James Maridadi released on the PM's behalf
illustrate just why SADC will never obtain from Western donors the US$8.5
billion it will seek, directly or by proxy.

At this stage, if there is any Zimbabwean or Pan-Africanist who still
believes that the farm violence is a justified action to take back land
stolen during colonialism and give it back to thousands of landless rural
blacks, they are either downright bigots or simply insane.

The video explains just why Tsvangirai is now taking the strong position he
has taken: to use sanctions maintenance as a weapon to force change in
Zimbabwe. In other words, Tsvangirai is shifting into a strategy of
"opposition within government".

This strategy can lead to at least three possibilities.

First, it allows the MDC to retain its soul and avoid being used as a goblin
to secure Western support for Zimbabwe. The trick is fast emerging: shower
them with rank and perks, give them Mercedes Benz E-Class vehicles, and dine
them in expensive places.

The Benz is a weapon in two ways: to corrupt them and, if they refuse, there
is always the burst tyre, the driver losing control, or that other unmarked
hump on the road.

If Tsvangirai is serious, he should order the return of this bribery. In
future, the Prime Minister must lead by example and avoid dining his juniors
in places so filthy rich with fanfare and toys.

Secondly, Tsvangirai's counter-demand can actually lead to a closing of
ranks with civic society partners in the most critical aspect of the GNU:
the constitution. Unless the MDC realizes that it is being lured by Zanu-PF
into accepting a very bad way of writing the constitution, this alienation
will continue even further.

Thus far, the MDC is caught in the middle ground between two alignments. The
first alignment is what it has chosen: the GNU with Zanu-PF. At the other
end is civic society which was excluded from the GNU altogether. On the
subject of the constitution, the MDC's challenge is to juggle these two
alignments.

The civic society position is very clear: the constitution-making process
must be people-driven and not led by politicians. It must be chaired by an
independent judge (retired), and it must have officers who are non-partisan.

The role of the politicians - be they parliamentarians, cabinet ministers,
or the so-called principals (this title which is gaining currency in the
media reminds me of school headmasters) should be to facilitate this free
dialogue and debate on the document when it is submitted for approval in the
two Houses.

A contentious issue in the Bill of Rights will be the right to property,
whose clarification is perhaps the most fundamental to the economy. It is
one of the conditions the United States, for example, set for the lifting of
sanctions under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act. This fact
explains the two positions of the "principals" here.

Mugabe is lying to people that all Tsvangirai needs to do is to "call off
the hounds" and the sanctions will be lifted. Tsvangirai's word is enough.
In so doing, he is more than just grandstanding. He is preparing excuses for
violating the GNU and justifying arbitrary action.

Tsvangirai is using the farm violence question to say: "I have no power to
stop foreign governments to lift sanctions when you are busy tolerating the
continued violation of human rights and property rights."

This is exactly where the video on the farm violence is illuminating:
camera, whether as freestanding video camera or camcorder or camera phone,
was deployed in that instance as a weapon of exposure. This courageous
farmer realized that the only weapon he had was one that was shot without
killing the persons assaulting him. With You Tube and all that technology,
the next day the video was being splashed all over the world.

This is hard core, incriminating evidence that presents a slam dunk case in
court, the sort of exhibit any prosecutor dreams of. It is not just a
property rights footage; it is an illustration of gross human rights
violations, the idea that someone can just walk up to your door and tell you
that your property is now their property when they did not break even a
sweat for it.

Mugabe is using-whether by tolerating or sanctioning-these farm invasions to
force the West to lift sanctions as well as to incriminate Tsvangirai. If
Tsvangirai continues to make statements that are endearing and conciliatory
to Mugabe, the strategy of Zanu-PF will work. If Tsvangirai starts making
the "tough love" but honest demands he is making about restoration of the
rule of law, the Zanu-PF strategy to tar him is dead in the water.

That's why it is crucial that the MDC should not compromise itself by
accepting largesse and taking lightly the civic society's call for an
impartial constitution-writing process.

The third possibility in Tsvangirai's tacitly confrontational stance is that
it can wreck the GNU. We would get back to where we were before the GNU. The
choice of "white" victims (Roy Bennett's arrest, then the attacks on
farmers) of attack is not random; it is calculated to paint the MDC response
as bootlickers of whites and Western countries, to prove once and for all to
Africa that these "puppets" cannot be dealt with through diplomacy but
violence.

It will be easy for the bigots to claim that Tsvangirai cannot call for
sanctions from his "masters" because he is their "puppet". His defence of
white farmers will be seen accordingly.

So if the MDC can't call off the sanctions they are responsible for the
collapse of the GNU, the justification would go.

What needs to be done would appear to all right-thinking patriots and
independent observers to be clear and straightforward: - no more invasions,
let's put in a process that guarantees the best constitution, and then, when
the people of Zimbabwe are satisfied with the success of the GNU, the
Western countries will see for themselves how happy we all are as a people,
ordinary folks, and then call of the sanctions from these few individuals.

In other words, the evidence that the GNU has succeeded lies further down
the road than the politicians want us to believe, and the reasons for
lifting these individual sanctions will come only from the smiling faces,
full stomachs, lush green fields on the farms, and the words from our
mouths, speaking democratically, without fetter or fritter.

Mugabe must realize that Tsvangirai's word alone, no matter how tear-filled,
will not be enough.

Churches warn GNU under threat

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com

13th Apr 2009 10:49 GMT

By a Correspondent

MUTARE - The current disturbances at the farms and the continued detention
of political prisoners threatens the success of the inclusive government in
Zimbabwe, church organisations have warned.

The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC), Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe (EFZ) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) warned the
government of national unity, formed by President Mugabe's Zanu PF and the
two MDC political parties led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, was under threat.

The organisations, under the banner Churches in Manicaland, said they were
concerned by the current happenings which they deem as a threat to the
success of the inclusive government.

They said threats to teachers returning to schools, the continued land
invasions, arrest and detention of political prisoners was harming the
spirit of the Global Political Agreement of 15 September 2009.

The church organisations are also concerned at the interference by law
enforcement agents with community peace initiatives aimed at remedying ills
committed during the run -up to the June 27 bloody presidential run-off.

"As churches in Manicaland we issue this statement in both solidarity and
support of the statement's pronouncements and would also want to take this
time to express our concern at current happenings which we deem as a threat
to the success of the all inclusive government of GNU," the church
organizations said in statement.

They said they were equally worried about the exorbitant pricing of goods
and services, pegged in US Dollars, SA Rands and Botswana Pula.

They said prices of goods and services in Zimbabwe were far much higher than
those charged within the region.

"Equally the service charges by both our local authorities and parastatals
are unreasonable," they said. "For example charges for rates, water by
ZINWA, telephone bills and television and radio licenses by ZBH are out of
this world."

Water charges can go up to US$100 per household while television and radio
licenses are pegged at US$50.
The majority of civil servants in Zimbabwe earn US$100 a month.

Re-invigorating our constitutional democracy - Arthur Gwagwa

http://www.thezimbabweobserver.com/

Zimbabwe's constitutional democracy system would have been ideal to provide
us with a fair system of governance but there is no doubt that it has
failed. The evidence is not far fetched but the recent political compromise
is the latest and heaviest assault on our democracy despite its
justifications either on the grounds of necessity or political expediency.
The major irony we now face is that the very people who failed our democracy
are now purporting to reinvigorate it. The question is, are they fit for
this purpose?

Zimbabwe has a huge pull of talent in constitutional matters and therefore I
can not teach the Constitutional committee on many forms that our democracy
can assume. However, my role as a citizen is to ensure that our voices are
heard loud and clear in the current constitutional making process.

Whatever mould the Committee finally chooses is not as material as the
people who will drive the process and those who will eventually be the
future custodians of our constitution. As I have pointed out, out
politicians have failed to ensure an adherence to the current constitution
and its founding principles. More than ever, the duty to ensure that our
future democracy is jealously guarded should now be transferred to the
shoulders of all citizens with the guidance of a disinterested no-partisan
committee of wise men and women.

This can only be done if the Constitutional Committee puts in place legal
provisions that would ensure that all citizens have the means and facilities
to deliberate and participate in the renewal and re-invigoration of our
constitutional democracy. Putting such systems in place would ensure that
citizens do not have to wait for the general elections to shape our
democracy but can voice their views by using systems that are parallel and
supplementary to the formal main framework. This has the advantage of
creating a responsive government that is constantly aware that a
constitution is a living document which, though set on marble, is there to
serve the needs of the citizens as and when they arise.

So far, the Prime minister's website is a good example of what I am talking
about but we can go further than that. For such a long time, the government
in Harare has been shroud in much secrecy and aura. That must end. We need a
transparent government which send the right message to the young generation
that there it nothing so special about being a politician. That way, they
will enter into politics for the right reason. I am shocked by the number of
young Zimbabweans who want to enter into politics for the wrong reasons
because politics has been associated with elevation of status.

In the UK, our current government believes that, "national policy
development can be a collaborative venture between people and the state
which is why they are developing a coherent constitutional framework,
compatible with the fundamental principles of representative democracy,
within which national public engagement activities can sit and take
strength."

Her Majesty's government believes that national issues that could benefit
from greater public participation include but are not limited to instances
where issues will result in significant constitutional change such as the
current creation of the Supreme Court and changes to the Monarchy. There are
different public engagement mechanisms they are currently putting in place
to ensure this.

In the case of Zimbabwe, we have a twin challenge of putting in place
similar and appropriate structures but our main challenge is to have people
in place that will ensure that our constitutional gains will not be reversed
by a stroke of a pen.

My proposal is that we need a broad based citizen movement that goes beyond
partisan lines to ensure that our walk towards democracy would be
irreversible. However someone has to set the ball rolling. Similar movements
we have had in the past such as the NCA are tainted by political patronage
therefore we are now in need of a committee of wise men and women who would
drive this parallel leadership agenda process. In creating this committee,
we should never be naïve that we can have a group pf people with ill
conceived agendas and discordant values but we need people who are bound by
a common sense of purpose to see Zimbabwe great again.

In putting this committee together, we should be aware that in any
adventure, not everyone will take the journey, not everyone should take the
journey and not everyone can take the journey. I am therefore appealing to
all Zimbabweans who have the following qualities to come together to form
this Committee that will help shape the future of our democracy. Such people
must be intuitive, communicative, passionate, talented, creative,
initiating, responsible, generous and influential. In short, I am appealing
to Zimbabwe's finest leaders to take the lead in mobilizing this broad based
civic participation that would shape the future of our democracy.

Zimbabwe, this is our finest hour. We are in the penalty shoot out phase, if
we fail this time I doubt if ever Zimbabwe will claim its premiership
position in Africa, not in our generation. Not everyone can take the
penalties. There are people who don't want to take the ball, some who want
the ball but shouldn't and those who want the ball and should be allowed to
take the penalties. I would like the ball and I can score. Do you wan the
ball and can you score? If you can, then your country desperately needs you
and when we score, it shall be our finest hour together.

Arthur Gwagwa ( Solicitor & Leadership trainer)

Bill Watch 14 of 13th April 2009 [Meeting Planned to settle Oustanding Issues Affecting Inclusive Government]