africaonline
Mugabe regime launches new attack on
opposition
Luke Tamborinyoka, News
Editor, Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe
HARARE, 13
April 2003
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has come under
fresh siege, in what
analysts say is an attempt by the government to
intimidate the party's top
leadership and instil fear in the nation ahead of
mass action to press for a
resolution of Zimbabwe's political and
economic
crises.
HARARE: Since the MDC
called for a job stay-away that shut down
industry for two days in the middle
of last month, the party says several of
its supporters and top officials
have been arrested or harassed.
The
opposition party says about 500 of its supporters have been
detained in the
past two weeks, as have been its vice president, Gibson
Sibanda, and
spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi. Sibanda has been charged with
contravening the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA) by organising a mass
action, while
Nyathi is also due to be charged under
POSA.
"The arrest of Nyathi adds to a
growing list of MDC leaders and party
activists who have become victims of
(President Robert) Mugabe's incited
crackdown on the opposition, aimed at
crushing the MDC," the opposition
party's secretary-general Welshman Ncube
said in a statement after Nyathi's
arrest on
Monday.
"This crackdown, which involves
the militia, the army, state agents
and the police, has resulted in torture
in police custody, rape (and) broken
limbs. At least 500 MDC supporters and
leaders have been arrested and
tortured in the last two weeks. One MDC
supporter, Steven Tonera, has died
as a result of torture in the last two
weeks while at least 100 supporters
are in hospital
today."
MDC officials say several party
supporters have fallen victim to a
campaign of retribution perpetrated by
state security agents after the
ruling ZANU PF lost parliamentary
by-elections in the Harare high-density
suburbs of Highfield and Kuwadzana at
the end of last month.
University of
Zimbabwe lecturer Lovemore Madhuku told the Financial
Gazette: "The intention
is obviously to cow the opposition leaders, send
fear right across the
ordinary people and spread the message that if people
proceed with any action
detrimental to the government, the security forces
will deal with
them."
Political analyst John Makumbe
added: "They want to show Zimbabweans
that the government will deal with them
if they dare attempt to unseat it."
Party
officials have indicated that the mass protests are still on the
cards since
Mugabe had not responded to the MDC's demands by the expiry of
the
ultimatum's deadline on March 31. Political commentators said mounting
public
pressure on the MDC to announce a date for the protests and not to
lose the
momentum of last month's overwhelmingly supported stay-away had
contributed
to the latest crackdown against the
opposition.
Warning
Analysts said the latest siege
against the opposition was in line with
Mugabe's terse warning to the MDC at
the burial of Higher Education Minister
Swithun Mombeshora in March, and was
aimed not at merely intimidating the
party but in completely crushing
it.
"Let the MDC be warned that those who
play with fire will not only be
burnt but consumed by that fire," he
said.
Commentators said the government's
objective was to cripple the MDC's
structures from the top to ensure that
once destroyed, it would not be able
to resurrect
itself.
They pointed out that three of the
party's top leaders, president
Morgan Tsvangirai, secretary-general Welshman
Ncube and shadow minister for
agriculture Renson Gasela, were already on
trial for treason.
The three are accused
of plotting to assassinate Mugabe in the run-up
to last year's presidential
poll, charges that they deny.
MDC
treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube is also facing murder charges
relating to the
abduction and killing of war veterans' leader Cain Nkala,
while several of
the party's members of Parliament also have cases pending
in the
courts.
Escalation
The analysts said the detention
of MDC leaders and supporters was
likely to escalate in the next few weeks
following the arrest of alleged
army deserters who claim to have links with
an alleged underground military
wing of the opposition
party.
The so-called deserters allege that
they were recruited by the MDC to
bomb service stations, among other
terrorist acts, during last month's
stay-away and to pose as soldiers to
terrorise members of the public and
discredit the
army.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena
indicated this week that more people
accused of participating in the terror
campaign would be arrested in a
countrywide
operation.
"It (confession of alleged
deserters) provides the appropriate excuse
to justify repression and to send
everyone scurrying for cover," Madhuku
said. "It's a systematic way of
diverting the MDC's focus from the national
crisis and get it bogged down in
a litany of court cases battling for its
own survival and its
leaders'."
Commentators said the growing
repression would test the resolve of the
MDC, but could also ultimately work
against the government by forcing
Zimbabweans to rally around the opposition
party.
Makumbe said the arrests would
attract the attention of the
international community, which is focused on
attempts to unseat Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein by a United States-led
coalition. Arrests draw attention
to
abuses
"The arrests make the MDC
leaders popular among the people and are a
meaningful prize to carry for the
opposition," Makumbe told the Financial
Gazette. "For ZANU PF, they have the
effect of bringing Zimbabwe back in the
net of conflict-ridden areas
deserving international attention.
But
political analyst Heneri Dzinotyiwei said ordinary Zimbabweans
were likely to
be the worst affected by the stand-off between the country's
two main
political parties, which could result in a violent
confrontation.
He urged dialogue, which
some analysts say is Zimbabwe's best chance
of overcoming the political
impasse.
He said: "We have two parties
obsessed with the issue of power. One is
so worried about getting into power
while the other is prepared to use
whatever means to maintain it, including
repression.
"We definitely have to move
away from this kind of politics because we
are likely to see a bloody
confrontation which benefits no-one. There must
be a paradigm shift from this
to a more dialogical approach between the
two
parties."
news24
MDC: Final freedom call
14/04/2003
00:35 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader on
Sunday told his supporters to
be ready for a "final call" for freedom, as the
party confirmed it would
press ahead with mass action against President
Robert Mugabe's government.
In an Easter message, Morgan Tsvangirai, the
leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) said that peaceful mass
action and defiance of
Zimbabwe's security laws was the only way to achieve a
"peaceful,
compassionate, caring and prosperous country."
But he
warned: "If you want change, expect pain. There is gain at the end
of
pain."
The party's spokesperson confirmed that there would be more
mass action. A
strike called by the MDC last month to protest alleged
misgovernance was
widely heeded.
Speaking after a five-hour meeting of
the MDC's national executive
committee, Paul Themba Nyathi said it was
decided that "the MDC would have
to implement yet another mass action for the
government's failure to respond
positively to those demands."
He was
referring to a set of 15 concerns over democracy, the rule of law
and
governance that the MDC had asked the government to address before the
end
of March.
Mugabe dismissed the ultimatum.
Reports of a
split
There have been unconfirmed reports that the MDC was split over
whether or
not to press on with mass action. Tsvangirai was said to be in
favour of
dialogue with the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union -
Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF).
Nyathi could not confirm when the action
would take place, or what form it
would take.
The party said that
after last month's stayaway, the government launched a
vicious crackdown on
the opposition's supporters, arresting at least 500.
Scores of others were
assaulted, the party claims.
Six legislators have also been arrested in
the wake of the mass action. The
last two were released on Saturday in the
country's second city of Bulawayo.
Tough security laws introduced last
year forbid unauthorised political
gatherings. The MDC says the laws have
been designed to prevent opposition
protests.
"Throughout our history
unjust laws had to be defied in order to achieve our
freedom," Tsvangirai
said.
news24
Zim bribes farmworkers
08/04/2003
22:13 - (SA)
Liesl Louw
Pretoria - The Zimbabwean
government is trying to bribe farm workers with
food and promises of work to
return to the farm of a member of the
Zimbabwean opposition after the workers
were earlier violently removed from
the farm.
The situation on the
farm of Roy Bennet, MP of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), has
become an embarrassment for the Zimbabwean government and
it is trying to
convince the farm workers to return to the farm.
This comes after a
high-level delegation of international non-governmental
organisations
announced that they would be visiting the farm on Tuesday.
Bennet said
the governor of the Madika Land district, Opa Muchingure, drove
to his farm
near the Mozambique border in her luxury vehicle on Friday to
speak to the
workers and their families.
The workers and their families, about 1 200
men, women and children, have
been living in "terrible conditions" at a bus
stop near Chimanimani, Bennet
said.
One of Bennet's workers said
Muchingure told them that they were now rid of
Bennet and could return to the
farm. The farm would be taken over by
government.
"The workers phoned
me to ask whether they should accept the governor's
food. I told them to take
the food as it could do no harm."
However, the workers refused to return
to the farm unless Bennet himself
came to fetch them.
Bennet said
media reports in South Africa have caused the government to
"wake up" and
that they were now trying to salvage the situation.
"It has had a huge
impact, because it now focuses attention on what is
really happening here.
The fact that ministers from the South African
Development Community (SADC)
are now asking questions, definitely plays a
big role," he said.
A
delegation of SADC ministers will visit Zimbabwe this week on invitation
of
the Zimbabwean minister of foreign affairs, Stan Mudenge.
"The
international community has been aware of the situation in Zimbabwe for
some
time. What we need is for SADC countries, and especially South Africa,
to
criticise the government, then we will see a reaction."
Bennet is still
the lawful owner of the farm under a court interdict that
prevents police
from setting foot on the farm.
He and his workers were threatened and
assaulted several times during the
confiscation of
farms.
The
Star
Witnessing more deprivation
in Zimbabwe
April 14,
2003
I have just returned from a business
trip to Zimbabwe. During my stay
I was fortunate enough to play golf at a
beautiful golf course in Ruwa (30km
east of Harare). Eighteen holes cost
Z$800 (about R8) and a caddie just
Z$500 (about
R5).
But what was disturbing during my
round of golf was when I met three
black children, aged 13, who were selling
golf balls. When I asked them why
they were not at school, they said that
although they wished to attend
school, they could not afford to go as their
fathers were not working.
I then asked
them what it cost to go to school. They said that for one
term it costs
Z$3000 each (about R30). They also said that they were at a
farm school the
previous year, where their fathers worked, but the farmer
was evicted by war
veterans and emigrated to South Africa. The school no
longer exists and their
fathers no longer have jobs.
This is only
a small example of the deprivation of human rights that I
happened to witness
during my short stay.
The hopes of just three
young people to receive an education were
crushed. Massive petrol queues
remain in Zimbabwe. Subsistence farming is
evident on all farms that I passed
by. Human rights groups rate the level of
state torture the worst in the
world.
Sixty percent of the Zimbabwean
population is starving, while Mugabe
has his groceries flown in from London.
The independent judiciary has been
destroyed. Over 2-million Zimbabweans live
in SA and 1 500 flee Zimbabwe
every
day.
Zimbabwe gets poorer every minute
while the megalomaniac remains in
power. However, there appears to be hope
among Zimbabweans that I met who
feel that soon they will be free and the
world will start investing in their
beautiful country once
again.
Maybe history will repeat
itself.
Andrew
Tyndale-Biscoe
Houghton,
Johannesburg
JAG OPEN LETTER
FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw;
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Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter
Forum to
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Letter Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1:
IT HAPPENED TO A WHITE LADY AND A COLOURED LADY LAST WEEK GOING HOME
FROM
WORK AROUND 6PM AT A ROAD BLOCK.
They arrived at a roadblock, not
expecting anything, thinking they would
ask for a drivers licence. To
their surprise they were asked what the Cock
(Chicken) stands for on the Zanu
pf slogan. They could not reply. They were
asked again, this time the police
were shouting at them, they could not
reply. They were poked on their heads,
called names and were spat at. They
were then told to jump out the car
and dance for Zanu pf showing their
hands in a fist. These women were
terrified as the police laughed at them.
They danced for sometime while they
watched on as their car was searched.
They were then told to smack each other
hard one for one this lasted for
about 2 minutes then were told to go, but
before they left the police told
them to learn the calls of Zanu
pf.
Please be alert
If you get caught:-
1. What does the Cock
stand for:- JONGWE
2. The fist is for Zanu pf
3. If they ask who is your
president start with Comrade not Robert -
Comrade R. G. Mugabe.
They
could ask other questions if you don't know then you could be
beaten
up.
Please be careful - be alert at all
times.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
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AFP
US wants Mugabe out, transitional government in
Zimbabwe: senior official
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United
States is urging Zimbabwe's neighbors to step
up pressure on President Robert
Mugabe to hand power to a transitional
government to pave the way for new
elections, a senior State Department
official said.
"What we're
telling them is there has to be a transitional government in
Zimbabwe that
leads to a free and fair, internationally supervised
election," the official
said.
"That is the goal, he stole the last one, we can't let that happen
again,"
the official said, referring to a widely condemned election last
March in
which Mugabe won re-election.
"It has to be internationally
supervised, open, transparent with an
electoral commission that works," the
official told reporters on condition
of anonymity.
The official would
not say whether Washington had gotten positive reactions
to its call from any
specific country in the region, but said generally the
"neighborhood" was
increasingly aware of the problems posed by Mugabe's
rule.
"The
neighborhood -- meaning southern Africa -- is realizing that this is
not
going well, this is breaking bad," the official said. "The food
situation is
going to get nothing but worse, the economic scene is
disastrous."
The
official noted that Zimbabwe's economy was now crippled by
hyperinflation and
an unemployment rate of 80 percent and that Zimbabweans
were fleeing their
country in droves to become refugees in Botswana,
Mozambique, and South
Africa.
In addition, the situation in Zimbabwe is hurting the economies
of other
countries in the region as potential investors steer clear due to
fears
about the spread of the crisis.
"The neighborhood is starting to
realize that there is a downside to giving
aid and protection to Comrade
Bob," the official said, using a derogatory
nickname for
Mugabe.
"There is stuff happening, there is stuff happening behind the
scenes," the
official added, declining to elaborate.
However, the
official said Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Walter
Kansteiner would be heading to two of Zimbabwe's neighbors --
Botswana and
South Africa -- later this month in part to discuss the
situation.
The
United States has been a vociferous critic of Mugabe in recent months
and led
a charge at the UN Human Rights Commission to condemn the
Harare
government.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose country
is seen as wielding the
most influence with Mugabe, has been reluctant to
enter the fray and
restated his support over the weekend for so-called "quiet
diplomacy" in
encouraging reforms in Zimbabwe.
Although he broke his
silence in late March after hundreds of people, most
of them opposition
supporters, were arrested, detained and assaulted after a
national
anti-government work stoppage, Mbeki said Sunday that he would not
use his
position as chairman of the African Union (AU) to condemn human
rights abuses
in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki said the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
was dealing
with the situation, including the issue of press freedom and
various pieces
of legislation related to press, general and political
freedoms.
Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe say they are planning another
nationwide
"mass action" against Mugabe's government but have not said when
it will
take place.
New York
Times
Mugabe's Recruits Flee Brutal Zimbabwean
Past
By GINGER THOMPSON
JOHANNESBURG, April 10 - It's
neither the week they spent in jail nor the
nights on the streets that most
torment the dozen or so young Zimbabweans
standing like scared deer in a park
at the center of the city. Their
nightmares, they said, come from the demons
inside.
They look like common vagabonds, dressed in ripped T-shirts and
shoes with
no laces. But since they abandoned their homeland last December,
they said,
they have lived like hunted prey: on the run from their
government, harassed
by the South African police and despised as traitors by
Zimbabwean
immigrants here.
The young men, who range in age from 18 to
22, explained that they are
runaways from Zimbabwe's National Youth Service,
whose graduates are known
and feared as the "green bombers," a nickname that
comes from the group's
military-style uniforms and capacity for
devastation.
Human rights groups and Western diplomats accuse President
Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe of turning the recruits into violent thugs and
unleashing them on
political opponents. President Mugabe, who has governed
since the end of
white rule in 1980, dismisses the accusations. He has said
that he
established the youth league three years ago as a kind of poor boys'
Peace
Corps, enlisting his country's sizable 18-and-under population
for
desperately needed community service projects.
In an interview
today, Makhosi Ngusanya, 19, said he answered President
Mugabe's call to
service when his teachers filled his head with visions of a
noble way out of
poverty.
"They told us that if we became good green bombers then they
would make us
soldiers and give us land," Mr. Ngusanya said. "But they didn't
give us
anything. And all they taught us was to kill.
"For me it got
too bad," he added. "There was too much beating - old people,
young people,
our own aunts and uncles. I had to run away."
Allegations of escalating
abuses by the green bombers - whose numbers are
estimated at 10,000 by human
rights investigators - have led Western leaders
and human rights groups to
criticize the Mugabe government. But for
President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa, political analysts said, the arrival
here of a small band of green
bomber defectors compounds a complex foreign
policy problem.
President
Mbeki has so far clung to a policy of quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe,
issuing
statements of concern that have the effect of playing down
allegations of
government abuses.
Meanwhile, mounting evidence of a brutal Zimbabwean
reality pervades South
African society, turning up pressure on President
Mbeki to take a tougher
stand.
Human rights groups report a violent
crackdown by President Mugabe against
the opposition that forced nearly 1,000
people to flee their homes. An
opposition representative in the Zimbabwean
Parliament arrives in
Johannesburg showing reporters how he was tortured by
Zimbabwean security
agents with electric shock. Three Zimbabwean women who
had participated in a
rally here against President Mugabe report they were
later raped by
Zimbabwean agents operating in South Africa. A popular
Zimbabwean cricket
player flees to South Africa saying he received numerous
death threats after
wearing a black armband - a symbol of mourning for what
he considered the
death of democracy in his homeland.
At the
University of the Witwatersrand last week, researchers held the
premier of a
documentary called, "In a Dark Time," about sexual attacks by
the green
bombers against women and girls linked to government opposition
groups. "We
need to break the silence of academia and human rights
institutions in South
Africa about what is happening in our neighborhood,"
said Dr. Sheila Meintes,
a member of South Africa's Commission on Gender
Equality.
Now, young
men like Henry Nyathi, trained in Zimbabwe's youth service camps,
have begun
talking publicly in Johannesburg about the cruelties they
committed in Mr.
Mugabe's name.
In Zimbabwe, where an estimated seven million people go
hungry, Mr. Nyathi
described how he chased men away from food lines if they
were not
card-carrying members of the governing political party.
"If
the people refused to leave the lines," he said, "we beat
them."
The
Times
April 15,
2003
Mugabe loses support of Catholic
Church
From Jan Raath in
Harare
PRESIDENT MUGABE has finally lost the vital support of the
Zimbabwean Roman
Catholic Church, the largest in the country, after it
condemned the
"frightening" corruption, lawlessness and abuse of power of
his
Government.
An Easter pastoral letter from the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops'
Conference said
that he had "failed to provide leadership that enables the
creation of an
environment that enhances truth, justice, love and
freedom".
Instead, most Zimbabweans were "drowning in abject poverty",
were still
"suffering social and political violence" and were being harassed
by
officials who "have placed themselves above the
law".
It expressed outrage over the regime's practice of demanding
that people in
famine relief queues "produce a party card before
receiving
food".
"People's lives are at stake and the nation cannot afford to
entertain the
politicisation of food while people are starving," the bishops
said. The
Government's "corrupt practices, poor planning and bureaucracy"
were largely
to blame for the famine, which is affecting seven
million
people.
Observers say that the report, the most critical in the past
three years of
state-driven lawlessness, is an indication that Mr Mugabe has
lost the
support of the most powerful Church in the
country.
They say that its silence over his abuses during most of the 23
years of his
rule - including the persecution of the outspoken Archbishop
Pius Ncube of
Bulawayo - has lent him respectability and the ability to
deflect censure
from Western
governments.
In January 260 Catholic clergy denounced most of the Catholic
bishops for
"compromise with an evil
regime".
The bishops' stand endorses damning reports in the past week by
the
Commonwealth secretariat and the US State Department. The report calls
for
"meaningful dialogue" and for "a balanced constitution that removes
unjust
structures". Both echo demands from civil society organisations and
the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Publication of the report coincided with an announcement from Mr
Mugabe's
ruling Zanu (PF) party yesterday that its top executive body, the
Politburo,
was due to meet to consider whether to declare the late
Archbishop Patrick
Chakaipa, the head of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, a
"national hero". He
died of cancer last week. A decision to grant him "hero
status" would
embarrass the Church. Mr Mugabe's "heroes" are all ruling
party officials,
relatives or cronies. Archbishop Chakaipa solemnised the
controversial
marriage of Mr Mugabe, a Catholic, and his young wife, Grace,
38, a divorcée,
after lobbying for a special dispensation from the
Vatican.
He also refused to allow the Church's Commission for Justice and
Peace in
Zimbabwe to publish a report revealing the massacre of about 10,000
civilians
in the western provinces of Matabeleland in the early 1980s. It
was
eventually released by its co-authors.
Daily
News
War vets threaten to disrupt
festivities
4/15/2003 1:43:00 AM
(GMT +2)
From Sandra Mujokoro in
Bulawayo
A WAR veteran splinter
organisation, the Zimbabwe Liberators' Peace
Forum (ZLPF), has threatened to
violently disrupt Independence Day
celebrations on Thursday this
week.
The group said there should
instead be a national memorial service
between 17 and 19 April, for the
victims of the massacre of unarmed
civilians during the Gukurahundi campaign
in Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces in the
1980s.
ZLPF broke away from the Zimbabwe
Liberators' Platform (ZLP) last year
after leadership wrangles. Its
membership nationwide is reportedly 6 000,
smaller than the ZLP's and even
smaller than that of the Zanu PF-backed
Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA).
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the Zanu PF secretary for administration, said
although he was
hearing about the group for the first time, the police would
be ready to deal
with them.
Max Mkandla, the president of
the ZLPF, said: "We'd like to warn
people not to risk their lives by
attending Independence Day celebrations
because we will certainly disrupt
them and they will regret attending
such
gatherings."
He said people should
remain at home to remember all the victims who
died in what he called
President Mugabe's "moment of madness", when unarmed
civilians were killed
under the guise of crushing an armed
dissident
insurgency.
Endy Mhlanga, the
secretary-general of the ZNLWVA, said it would not
be proper to disrupt the
activities of such an important event.
He
said: "Whatever problems Zimbabwe is facing, the best way to solve
such
problems is not by ignoring Independence
celebrations.
"In any case, these people
have no capacity to disrupt the event. That
organisation is illegal because
it is not registered. It does not represent
war veterans, therefore it has no
mandate from any genuine war veteran.''
About 20 000 civilians were killed when the North Korean-trained 5
Brigade
was deployed in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces to put down an
armed
dissident uprising in the 1980s.
Mkandla
said the ZLPF was mobilising its members in Harare, Mutare
and
Masvingo.
"We have been waiting for
the compensation of Gukurahundi victims to
come through as promised by
thegovernment, but we realise now it was a
political campaign
gimmick.
"Committees were set up to look
into the compensation issue, but
nothing has come out of them and we are
tired of waiting."
Victor Ncube, the
deputy secretary-general of the organisation, said
they were not happy that
people continued to celebrate Independence Day when
only a small clique was
enjoying the fruits of independence.
"This
is not what we fought for. We fought against the oppressive
Rhodesian
constitution and that is the same weapon that is being used
against us
today," said Ncube.
A committee led by
Moffat Ndlovu, the Bulawayo town clerk, said they
were continuing with plans
for the celebrations to be held at White
City
Stadium.
Ndlovu said they were not
concerned with ZLPF's threats and would
forge ahead with their
plans.
The organising committee is made up
of representatives of various
organisations, including the city council, Zanu
PF, the MDC, business
organisations, war veterans and government
ministries.
The committee has so far
raised $300 000 for the celebrations.
Daily
News
MDC to sue police officers
for arrests
4/15/2003 1:50:32 AM
(GMT +2)
From Ntungamili Nkomo in
Bulawayo
THE MDC yesterday said it planned
to sue a number of Bulawayo police
officers for $5 million for last week's
arrest and subsequent detention of
David Mpala, the Lupane Member of
Parliament.
Mpala and Jealous
Sansole, the Hwange East MP, were arrested on
Wednesday at a roadblock when
they drove into the city from Joshua Mqabuko
Nkomo
airport.
The two were detained at Hillside
and Entumbane police stations
respectively for four days and were allegedly
denied food. The police
charged Sansole with possession of a list of names of
the Zanu PF youths
whom he had allegedly threatened. Mpala was released
without charge. Sansole
was eventually released on $50 000
bail.
Daily
News
Top officials implicated in
flouting one-farm policy
4/15/2003 1:55:05 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
SEVERAL senior government and
Zanu PF officials have been identified
as having breached the one-farm policy
in the illegal occupation of prime
commercial farms, according to a document
leaked to The Daily News.
An
undated and unsigned addendum to the land audit conducted by Flora
Buka, the
Minister of State for Land Reform in the Vice-President's Office,
also raises
concern over the displacement of people who had been settled
under the A1
model by A2 small-scale commercial farming models. Those
mentioned under the
A2 category are Sydney Sekeramayi, the Minister of
Defence, businessman
Mutumwa Mawere, Alex Jongwe, the Barclays Bank boss and
Ibbotson Mandaza,
publisher and editor-in-chief of The Mirror
newspaper.
Repeated efforts to get
clarification from Buka yesterday
were
fruitless.
Among those named as
having grabbed at least two farms are: Ignatius
Chombo, the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing,
(Allan Grange and Oldham farms
both in Chegutu.), Joram Gumbo, the Zanu PF
chief whip in Parliament (Lot 12A
of Nuanetsi Ranch A in Mwenezi and
Wolewehoek in
Makonde).
Masvingo provincial governor,
Josiah Hungwe, was mentioned as having
taken Lot 21A of Nuanetsi Ranch in
Mwenezi and Bryn Farm in Chegutu.
Edna
Madzongwe, the deputy Speaker of Parliament, reportedly helped
herself to
Bourne and Corburn 13 farms in Chegutu.
Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity,
took over
Little Cornemara 1 in Nyanga, Patterson in Mazowe and Lot 3A of
Dete Valley
in Lupane.
Others mentioned under the
multiple farm ownership are Air Marshall
Perence Shiri, Commander of the Air
Force of Zimbabwe, Mount Darwin MP
Saviour Kasukuwere, Shuvai Mahofa, deputy
minister of Youth Development,
Gender and Employment Creation, Obert Mpofu,
the governor for Matabeleland
North and Peter Chanetsa, the governor for
Mashonaland West.
The report concluded:
"The list is not exhaustive as the people
interviewed were scared to reveal
any information least they might be
victimised by the multiple farm owners
who seem to have their loyalists
within the various land
committees.
"It is very urgent to take
urgent corrective measures particularly
where the leadership is the
perpetrator of anomalies as the general public
is restive where such cases
exist and a multitude of people are still on the
waiting
list."
The report recommended that its
contents be "utilised to take
corrective measures immediately" so that the
land reform and resettlement
can be brought back in tandem with the
policy.
"Perpetrators of all cited
anomalies should be censured and
institutional arrangements strengthened so
that all land committees can
operate freely within the policy guidelines,"
reads the report.
The land reform audit
was carried out to identify anomalies and policy
violations in the
implementation of the reform and resettlement programme
with a view to
realigning the anomalies and violations.
Observers say they suspect this was meant to attract international
donors who
have withdrawn their funds since the government embarked on the
controversial
and chaotic land reform exercise in 2000.
At the burial of Dr Swithun Mombeshora, the Minister of Higher and
Tertiary
Education last month, President Mugabe said his government was
setting up a
new land audit team.
He repeated the
statement when he met Zanu PF youths the next day -
there would be a thorough
audit, he said.
Daily
News
Chimhini condenms haphazard
detentions
4/15/2003 1:50:06 AM
(GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
THE police have been condemned
for the recent "haphazard detention" of
members of the
public.
In a statement yesterday,
David Chimhini, the executive director of
the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust
(Zimcet), said: "It is sad to note that
the police officers who are supposed
to be protecting people are involved in
detaining
civilians.
"And in some cases these people
are released with no charge as they
will have committed no
crime.
"Zimcet is especially worried about
the incident that took place in
Mutare where a lecturer at Mutare Teachers'
College has alleged that he was
illegally detained overnight and assaulted by
the police after visiting a
relative in police custody in
Sakubva."
Chimhini said Zimbabwe was a
signatory to several human rights
conventions and should play the game
according to the rules.
He, however,
commended the police for arresting 10 members of the
notorious Chipangano
group, made up of professed Zanu PF supporters, which
had been terrorising
Mbare residents suspected to be MDC
members.
"Zimcet is urging the police and
the relevant ministries to be on
guard.
"A lot of violent crimes have not been exposed while the majority of
them are
still said to be under investigation," Chimhini said.
Daily
News
Judgment reserved in
Tsvangirai poll petition
4/15/2003 1:50:59 AM (GMT +2)
Court
Reporter
JUDGMENT was reserved yesterday
in MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's High
Court application to have
Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede and Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa's
opposition to the MDC presidential election
petition thrown
out.
Justice Susan Mavangira said
she needed time to consider the
submissions made by Tsvangirai's lawyers,
Advocate Adrian de Bourbon and
Bryant Elliot and the opposing submissions by
Yvonne Dondo, of the Attorney
General's Office, representing Mudede and
Chinamasa, and President Mugabe's
lawyer, Terence
Hussein.
Tsvangirai wants the High Court
to nullify the results of the March
2002 presidential election which he said
was fraught with violence and
electoral
irregularities.
Mugabe is the first
respondent while Mudede and Chinamasa are second
and third respondents,
respectively.
Tsvangirai last year made
several requests through the High Court for
the production of various
material and information relating to the election
but Mudede and Chinamasa
failed to comply with court orders to provide
the
material.
On 12 October, Justice
Lavender Makoni ordered Mudede to direct
constituency registrars countrywide
to secure all ballot papers and
counterfoils used in the election in separate
sealed packets and surrender
the material together with all voters' rolls to
him for safe custody.
Mudede did not
comply, Tsvangirai's lawyers said.
In a
separate case, Justice Antonia Guvava granted an order sought by
the MDC
leader to compel Mudede to make available documents and information
such as
correspondence to the police and other "stakeholders" on the
administration
of polling stations.
In responding to the
order, Mudede said notices on polling stations,
voting hours and dates were
published in newspapers and did not submit the
requested correspondence. "It
was the newspapers that dictated the hours,"
de Bourbon
said.
"That's what Mr Mudede is telling
the court. He has abrogated the
responsibilities given to him in terms of the
Electoral Act. He is in
continuous default. The question is what can be done
about the default.
"If the person who
breaches court orders is a government official and
if Mr Mugabe wants a
situation where this court imposes no form of sanction
for breaches of its
rules, the court is undermined."
Dondo
said the ballot papers and other election material were bulky
and Mudede did
not have transport to ferry them and space in Harare to keep
the requested
election material.
Mudede could not be
held to be in willful default, she said.
She said the information requested from Chinamasa was privileged and
that
David Mangota, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice,
Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, had explained the
position.
Hussein said the court could not
issue the default judgment sought by
Tsvangirai.
Daily
News
Don't be used as propaganda
tools, editors tell state media
4/15/2003 1:54:24 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
African editors who met in
Johannesburg over the weekend said
state-owned media should desist from being
used as their respective
governments' propaganda
mouthpieces.
One hundred and
twenty editors from 30 African countries who met in
Midrand resolved that the
independent media required appropriate legal
mechanisms for it to remain
afloat. An interim steering committee of the
African Editors' Forum
consisting of representatives from the five regions
of the continent was set
up to ensure the resolutions were
implemented.
The committee is chaired by
Mathatha Tsedu of South Africa and Kenya's
Macharia Gaitho is the
secretary.
Other members are Diallo
Souleymane (Guinea), Cyrille Kileba Pok-a-mes
(Democratic Republic of Congo)
and Hassan El-Hawari (Egypt).
Part of the
editors' declaration reads: "The AU (African Union) and
Nepad (New
Partnership for Africa's Development) both mark important
milestones in
Africa's evolving political terrain and
development.
"They provide new thresholds
for performance and accountability in an
environment notoriously lacking in
both, and create a new optimism about the
future of the continent. "The
genesis of the AU and Nepad requires a
critical examination of the role of
the media in the new
continental
architecture.
"It is
important to subject this role to critical scrutiny for
purposes of a clearer
definition and a more coherent programmatic
focus."
John Gambanga, The Daily News
Editor also attended.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Lessons
from the Iraq war
4/15/2003
1:44:20 AM (GMT +2)
By Cathy
Buckle
For the last three weeks the world
has watched the incessant
international news coverage of the war in
Iraq.
At first there was a lot of
talk about finding chemical and other
weapons of mass destruction but it soon
became apparent that the main
objective was simply to free the people of Iraq
from a crippling and
oppressive twenty-five-year-old
dictatorship.
The parallels between
Zimbabwe and Iraq are chilling and I should
think that the leaders of our
country, in power for almost as long as Saddam
Hussein, have been watching
events in the Gulf very closely.
Twenty
days into the war, the Iraqi Minister of Information continued
to peddle his
propaganda. As British bombs rained down on towns and cities
and American
tanks fired countless missiles, the minister insisted the
regime could not be
broken and would last forever. As plumes of smoke
blackened the sky and made
day appear like night, he said the Iraqis would
crush "these stupid
invaders".
Baghdad Airport was taken over
and American tanks bombed government
buildings. Coalition soldiers lay dead
on the lawns of presidential palaces
but the Iraqi Minister of Information
was still adamant that the Iraqi
leadership would last forever. Until the
bitter end, the Minister of
Information lied and lied and then lied some
more. I wonder if Zimbabwe's
Minister of Information was
watching?
The moment it became apparent
that Iraq really was going to be rid of
its dictator, the Minister of
Information and the entire Iraqi
leadership
disappeared.
For over two
decades they had been in complete control of every man,
woman and child's
destiny but when the world finally told them their regime
would no longer be
tolerated, they ran like headless chickens. I wonder if
Zimbabwe's leaders
were watching?
At first people in Baghdad
could obviously not believe that liberation
was real; they were scared and
did not know who to trust. When Iraqi
television with its incessant
propaganda was finally silenced, the people
knew they were free at last. They
went out into the streets in their
hundreds, waving, cheering, weeping and
thanking the world for giving them
back their country and their
lives.
It is not really known what
happened to the people who did their
master's bidding and spread propaganda
via Iraqi television but they too
must have run away and are now despised
fugitives.
I wonder if ZBC-TV's presenters
and reporters were watching?
With their
oppressors gone, the people of Iraq went on a massive
looting spree of
government buildings. They took chairs and tables,
computers and televisions.
They ran through the streets with carpets and
chandeliers, plastic flowers
and dinner plates. The people of Iraq took back
everything that their taxes
had bought for the last 25 years.
Some
Iraqis took international journalists down into the cells below
the
headquarters of the secret police. They told how they were
tortured,
electrocuted and abused at the hands of state officials and how
many of
their relatives had died down there. They described the inhumane
methods
that had been used to suppress them - behaviour very similar to
events
occurring every day in Zimbabwe.
The leaders of Iraq were not the only ones who fled when freedom
arrived.
Government sympathisers and supporters also fled very rapidly. The
army
disintegrated, as did the Presidential Guard and the secret
police.
They ran from their homes and
deserted their jobs and businesses,
knowing that if they stayed they would
have to face the wrath of very
angry
people.
They knew that now there
was no one left to protect them or sanction
their abuse of fellow human
beings.
A lot of lessons have been learned
from Iraq: propaganda never works,
dictators never last and no one can ever
be indestructible - not presidents,
Green Bombers, secret police or even
Ministers of Information.
We hope that the
men and women in Zimbabwe who have grabbed farms and
homes, raped, tortured,
looted and murdered have been watching TV for the
last
month.
Cathy Buckle is a housewife based
in Marondera.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Retirement
of key civil servants: what next?
4/15/2003 1:43:40 AM (GMT +2)
TO belong to
the highest echelons of the government of President
Mugabe today is to risk
being on the blacklists of many countries in
the
West.
Some countries will
bar such people from entering their borders - for
any reason. Others might do
the same to their close relatives.
Still
others might ban such people from owning any property in their
countries,
while others might not want them to enter their borders on their
way to other
destinations.
In other words,
international travel for many of the top people in
Mugabe's government is not
as easy as it was before 2000, when Zimbabwe was
not the pariah state that it
is today.
The European Union, the United
States, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand have barred most of Mugabe's
Cabinet ministers, his top military
brass, entrepreneurs who have long backed
his autocratic rule and top civil
servants from entering their
countries.
This is the price the
government must pay for refusing to conform to
international norms of
democracy, among them the sanctity of private
property, the rule of law and
free and fair elections.
For this
defiance, Mugabe and his supporters have had "smart
sanctions" imposed
on them by many countries.
Most of them
may shrug off this action as being of little consequence
to their ability to
do business with the rest of the world. But they must
recognise that their
international reputations have been tarnished
permanently. They will,
henceforth, be listed as members of what some
critics have called a "rogue
regime", a government notorious for
disregarding the basic human rights of
its citizens.
Two recent retirements from
the Civil Service of this beleaguered
government deserve comment. Certainly,
there can be no questions asked over
the retirement of Charles Utete as
secretary to the President and Cabinet.
The man has reached the official retirement age of the Public Service.
Yet
his long service and the crucial role he played in ensuring the
smooth
implementation of the government's policies would suggest his services
would
be needed long after his
retirement.
There is always the suspicion
that when the President and his Cabinet
ministers criticised civil servants
for not diligently implementing Zanu PF
policies, that criticism could have
included Utete as the No. 1
Civil
Servant.
But he himself has not
let on that he was discontented in any way with
his work or the government's
view of his performance. So, until people read
his much-awaited memoirs, they
have to take his word for it.
But not so
with Andrew Chigovera, the attorney-general, who retired at
50 years of age,
expecting a sceptical world to believe there is nothing
unusual about his
retirement. Unlike Utete whose role was always in the
background, Chigovera's
position was high profile.
As the
attorney-general, he was in the frontline of most of the legal
gymnastics in
which the government had to indulge as it sought to remove the
legal hurdles
of its land reform programme.
In its
conduct of the parliamentary election in 2000 and the
presidential election
of 2002, the government was not at all exemplary in
sticking to the letter
and spirit of the Constitution.
There was
much cutting of corners, which a meticulous examination
might reveal gross
irregularities. An attorney-general who had these things
done under his very
nose might not feel comfortable enough to defend them
among his professional
peers.
All this is pure speculation and
people are bound to ask questions:
why are these retirements of key civil
servants taking place now and one
after the other? Is there something in the
offing?
Utete is on the EU sanctions and
travel ban list, right next to
Mugabe. Chigovera is not - for the
moment.
Natal
Witness
NALINI
NAIDOO
Lessons from next door
South Africa
can't afford to misread what is happening in Zimbabwe, says a
visiting
expert.
These opening lines, by Professor Stephen Chan at a South
African Institute
of International Affairs (SAIIA) lunchtime meeting
recently, formed part of
an eloquent and finely argued talk that held the
audience captive. Chan, who
is Professor of International Relations at the
University of London, is in
KwaZulu-Natal on a speaking tour sponsored by the
Maurice Webb Memorial
Trust. His book, Robert Mugabe: A life of Power and
Violence, was published
earlier this year by the University of Michigan
Press.
An underlying theme of his talk, similar to what many analysts of
the
current Iraqi war are arguing, is that there is a tendency to
oversimplify
issues.
Zimbabwe, he said, is not just about a leader who
has degenerated into a
petty despot. "We demonise Mugabe too simply. There
are two sides to this
man: one side positive, the other, a leader who has
been derelict in his
duties and the welfare of his people." Chan added that
Mugabe has always
shown a tendency to be ruthless and cited the atrocities
committed in
Matabeleland to quell the uprisings there. The West turned a
blind eye then
because the overall economy was progressing
smoothly.
Chan said the situation started changing in 1992 and this is
when the story
of Zimbabwe today begins. A drought that gripped the country
caught the
government ill-prepared and the lack of planning remains a
hallmark of
Mugabe's rule. In the middle of the drought, the death of his
wife, Sally,
saw him go into hibernation and he left things to his deputy,
Joshua Nkomo.
This is the time when Mugabe started making overtures to the
South African
government in order to obtain drought relief. This period also
saw him
playing a key role in the peace process in Mozambique.
1992
was also the year when the Zimbabwe Land Acquisition Act was passed.
The
government bought 3,3 million hectacres for settlement. The act proposed
to
nationalise for compensation an additional 5,5 million hectacres that
would
have been half of all the land owned by white farmers. This would
have
brought about a situation where 60% of the land would have been owned
by
blacks and 40% by white farmers; however, the bulk of agricultural
land
would have remained in white hands. If this plan went through, it would
have
still left the agricultural economy intact, said Chan.
Mugabe was
planning to fund land reform with money the British had indicated
they would
pay once Zimbabwe had a policy in place on the issue. However,
this agreement
was never written down.
The land-reform plan took a backseat as economic
conditions spiralled
downwards. The International Monetary Fund persuaded
Zimbabwe to put it on
the back burner and the Commercial Farmers' Union
successfully opposed the
legislation. "Maybe the white farmers were too
successful in 1992. If a
measured, orderly transfer had started then, what
happened in 2000 may not
have happened," said Chan.
By 1997, Blair was
the new prime minister of Britain and Mugabe approached
him during a
Commonwealth meeting about formalising the package of
assistance that Britain
had promised. Blair was brusque and indicated that
these historical problems
were baggage of the past and had nothing to do
with his government. The
personal animosity that exists between Mugabe and
Blair started then. Chan
said Blair entered power with a great deal of
naivety. "He was terribly
unworldly in his approach to people. The new
Labour government has made many
mistakes and history will judge Blair's
policy on Zimbabwe as one of these. I
think the Blair government was too
hasty and naive, and did not think about
how to deal with Mugabe."
According to Chan, Mugabe went home and
immediately declared that farms
would be taken over as part of the land
reform process. For the first time,
individual farms were named. To a certain
extent he was posturing and the
British government failed to read the
situation.
This was also the time when the Mass Democratic Movement (MDC)
was gaining
popularity. As it was an urban-based party, Mugabe decided to
take the fight
to the rural areas on turf where he presumed his opposition
was weak. Hitler
Hunzvi, leader of the war veterans, was waiting in the wings
and, a week
after Mugabe lost the referendum to change the constitution,
Hunzvi's raids
on the farms took place. "The police were caught offguard,
senior government
officials did not know what was going on and Mugabe was
silent.
"It was clear that popular sentiment was caught by the so-called
war
veterans. Mugabe realised that he had better jump on this bandwagon and
this
was probably when he decided to ride the tiger to the bitter
end."
Chan went on to say that what Zimbabwe illustrates is how simple
rhetoric,
the kind used by Hunzvi, plays well in certain deprived
communities. They
were ready material for recruitment. What this means for
South Africa is
that there is a need to pay attention to the engine of
growth. The
government has to make a commitment that there will be a
trickledown effect
for the have-nots. "If there is no true integration of
economic, social and
political policies, then, with Zimbabwean refugees
coming across the border
and with ideas filtering down, you will have in this
country a breeding
ground for simple ideologues."
In response to a
question on what Zimbabwe will look like in five years,
Chan said that the
MDC will move to a more powerful position but the problem
is that the party
does not have enough talent and sufficient expertise. "I
told [Morgan]
Tsvangirai [leader of the MDC] that there are just five people
in his party
capable of being cabinet ministers."
Chan speculates that eventually
there could be some arrangement with the
technocrats in Zanu-PF. "Not that
they will be much better but at least they
know the limits of what government
can and cannot do."
You will
see above two articles - "Mugabe loses support of
Catholic Church" from the
Times and "Don't be used as propaganda tools,
editors tell state media" from
the Daily News. Now look what I find in the
Herald!
The
Herald
Church leaders blast opposition parties
By
Moses Magadza
Senior Roman Catholic Church officials have blasted opposition
parties in
Zimbabwe for contributing to the violence that has marred recent
elections.
The clerics also criticised some unnamed Government officials
for allegedly
being partial by refusing to serve people other than supporters
of their own
party.
In their latest pastoral letter published last
month but only just released,
the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference,
without specifically naming the
Movement for Democratic Change, took a swipe
at job stay aways, which they
said were also responsible for weakening the
Zimbabwe dollar and causing
economic decline.
The MDC is arguably the
most violent opposition party in Zimbabwe.
The clerics acknowledged that,
in addition to teething problems bedevilling
the Government's land reform
programme such as "poor" planning, drought was
to blame for the country's
precarious food situation.
Prolonged dry spells have seen Zimbabwe, once
the breadbasket of Southern
Africa, experience one of its worst food crises
ever, prompting the
Government to import thousands of tonnes of yellow
maize.
The clerics' sentiments apparently fly in the face of the MDC
which, for
years, has been at pains to spread itself before the international
community
as a pitiful victim of so-called State-sponsored
violence.
The local and foreign opposition-aligned Press has played a
part in propping
this falsehood, painting the situation in Zimbabwe in dark
colours and using
isolated incidents of people masquerading as Zanu-PF
supporters and
harassing civilians as a stick with which to beat up the
Government.
Events on the ground, however, show an entirely different
picture.
MDC leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai who is now facing treason
charges has called
for the violent removal of President Mugabe from
power.
Mr Gibson Sibanda, the MDC's vice president is on record urging
his party's
supporters to beat up Zanu-PF activists.
Other MDC
parliamentarians have been in and out of court for either
organising or
perpetrating violence against political rivals or spouses.
Other supporters
are now facing kidnapping and murder charges.
MDC organised stayaways
have resulted in the injury of scores of Zanu-PF
supporters and the
destruction of millions of dollars worth of public and
private
property.
Cashel violence: Zanu-PF thugs on the loose -
swradioafrica
Violence has started up again in the Cashel Valley area of
Manicaland. On
April 3rd, families whose homes were burned some months ago
were given a
court order allowing them to return and continue farming. 2 days
later, they
were severely assaulted by war veterans and youth militia who
live at the
Cashel police camp.
The victims reported the case to the
police, who know exactly who the
perpetrators were, but no arrests have ever
been made. As a punishment for
reporting them , the families were assaulted a
second time, and this time
their injuries were so serious that several people
had to be taken to
Mutambara hospital. One of them, a grandmother over 70
years old. War
veterans and militia led by John Chitozho and Dudzai Pishiri
allegedly were
the offending war vets. They actually live and work at the
Cashel police
camp under the guise of community service.
When the
victims reported the case to Assistant Inspector Jackson, the thugs
returned
and attacked again, causing serious injuries. There was no
medication
available at the hospital and police reports were required in
order to
receive treatment