 |
|
IOL
April 14 2007 at 04:33PM
Harare - Zimbabwe police allowed an
opposition prayer meeting to take
place on Saturday in the second city of
Bulawayo despite earlier threats to
stop the gathering as an illegal
anti-government protest.
President Robert Mugabe's government has
in the last two months used
riot police to break up opposition
rallies.
Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and dozens of
other members
of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) sustained serious
injuries on
March 11 after being arrested by police at an aborted prayer
rally in the
capital Harare.
In Bulawayo, journalists said
police officers, in uniform and in plain
clothes, watched opposition
figures, labour and student leaders, rights
activists and clerics filing in
and out of a township church for the protest
prayer
meeting.
"They did not stop the meeting but they
watched from some distance,
from a police station near the church," one
journalist told Reuters by
telephone from Bulawayo, southwest of
Zimbabwe.
On Friday the government said it might stop the gathering
because it
could be turned into an illegal opposition protest.
Organisers of the vigil, the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, said in a
statement on
Saturday they were determined to defy any attempt to stop the
prayer meeting
despite fears of a police crackdown.
"The leadership of the
campaign once again reiterates its commitment
to the resolution of the
Zimbabwean crisis in total defiance of the
brutality being perpetrated by
the state security agents," it said. "We
deplore the use of violence by
those that are in power."
Tsvangirai, who is nursing wounds
sustained in police custody, did not
go to Bulawayo but some of his MDC
deputies went to the meeting which was
co-organised by Catholic Archbishop
Pius Ncube, one of Mugabe's most
vehement critics.
The
influential Zimbabwe's Catholic Bishops' Conference last week
joined Ncube
-- who has largely been a lone voice from the Catholic
leadership to tackle
the government publicly -- in accusing Mugabe and his
officials of running a
corrupt government and abusing the political rights
of
Zimbabweans.
Mugabe and his officials have not responded publicly
to the criticism
by the Catholic Church, which some analysts believe could
have a greater
influence in persuading him to discuss political reform than
attacks from
elsewhere.
Mugabe, a practising Catholic, has
traditionally taken a hands-off
approach to critics within the Catholic
Church, the largest Christian
denomination in Zimbabwe.
The
83-year-old Mugabe accuses Zimbabwe's former colonial power
Britain of
leading a Western campaign to oust his government as punishment
for seizing
and redistributing white-owned commercial farms to landless
blacks. London
denies there is such a plot, and the MDC says it is not a
puppet
party.
Reuters
Yahoo News
Sat Apr 14,
11:17 AM ET
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AFP) - A leading rights activist on
Saturday castigated
the Southern African Development Community and the
African Union for their
inaction in the political and economic crisis in
Zimbabwe.
The secretary general of the World Alliance for Citizen
Participation Kumi
Naidoo told a prayer meeting in Zimbabwe's second city of
Bulawayo that the
"SADC and AU should be closed down if they cannot take
action in the
collective interests of the citizens they represent.
"Even
minus the politics, the economic meltdown is evident and as Southern
African
citizens we are getting fed up of their non assertive action."
Zimbabwe's
economy has been on a downturn for the past seven years
characterised by
world-record inflation, high unemployment with the majority
of the
population living below the poverty threshold.
Scores converged at a
church in Zimbabwe's second city Saturday for the
prayer meeting convened by
a coalition of rights and opposition groups for
an end to the political and
economic crisis in the country.
The meeting, organised by groups under
the aegis of the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign, was attended by at least 300 people
including Church leaders, from
Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries, rights
activists and leaders of the
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
The three-hour service held at St Patrick's Catholic Church in
Makokoba
suburb came just over a month after security beat up MDC leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai and scores of party activists and gunned down a local
party
official as they blocked a prayer rally in Highfields township in the
capital.
Several opposition activists were hospitalised following the
crackdown which
was followed by a ban on political rallies in most parts of
Harare.
Police had initially declared the Bulawayo church meeting illegal
saying the
organisers did not get mandatory police clearance.
But the
organisers argued that the prayer meeting was exempted under the
Public
Order and Security Act which outlaws political rallies or processions
without police clearance.
A spokesperson for the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign, Useni Sibanda, said they
received a call late Friday saying the
meeting could go ahead.
Sibanda said the latest police decision was a
victory for the Church in
Zimbabwe. "We never applied and did not have to go
to court. To us it means
the church's space is still being
protected."
Outspoken Roman Catholic Archibishop Pius Ncube said the
State's decision to
allow the service to go ahead "shows they (the
government) realize
resistance is growing and if they stopped the meeting,
they would have
provoked trouble because people are suffering and are
becoming more
militant."
The actual service itself was a solemn event
with clerics from various
denominations giving updates of the social
situation in Zimbabwe.
Representatives of political parties and civic
organisations were also given
time to speak despite police instructions that
political leaders should not
speak.
Yahoo News
Sat Apr 14, 5:27 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - A Zimbabwean
opposition lawmaker and 12 activists arrested in
a crackdown last month
appeared in court charged with terrorism, banditry
and sabotage, their
lawyer said Saturday.
Lawyer Alec Mucahdehama said the prosecution
claimed Member of Parliament
Paul Madzore and his co-accused underwent
training as "bandits, saboteurs,
insurgents or terrorists."
"The
prosecutor Austin Muzivi alleged that between December last year and
March
this year, the 13 went to Pretoria and Orange Free State in South
Africa to
undergo military training on how to terrorise the government,"
Muchadehama
told AFP.
The prosecutor "added that they were taught to make and use
firebombs", said
Muchadehama.
The group was among scores of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC,
opposition) officials and supporters
who were arrested in what police said
was a crackdown on fire bombers
accused of a series of attacks across the
southern African
country.
Harare magistrate Gloria Takundwa remanded the suspects in
custody until
Monday, when their lawyer is expected to protest against the
assault of the
MDC activists during their arrest and while in
detention.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has denied accusations
that MDC members
were behind the spate of bombings, saying they were were
framed.
"The false allegations against the MDC are not new," Tsvangirai
said in a
statement on Thursday.
"You will recall that a few months
after the presidential elections of 2002,
malevolent charges of treason were
bought against me. These things are not
new to us. For months in 2002 we
were labelled terrorists and saboteurs".
Long-standing political tensions
deteriorated last month when state security
agents assaulted Tsvangirai and
scores of supporters and shot dead an
opposition activist as they broke up
an anti-government rally.
The Telegraph
By Byron
Dziva in Harare
Last Updated: 1:16am BST 14/04/2007
Zimbabwe's authorities are risking the life of Simon Mann, the Old
Etonian
and former SAS officer accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial
Guinea, by
denying him critical surgery, say his lawyers.
Mann, who has spent
the last three years in a high security prison
outside the capital, Harare,
needs an urgent hernia operation to avoid
"life-threatening
complications".
His lawyers wrote to Patrick Chinamasa, the justice
minister, asking
for Mann to be transferred to a private hospital for the
operation. The
specialist who had agreed to carry it out, Dr Edwin Muguti,
is also deputy
health minister in President Robert Mugabe's
regime.
"Our client has been very sick and after undergoing some
tests he was
identified to be suffering from a hernia by the prison doctor,"
wrote Mann's
lawyers.
They asked for "permission for our client
to be operated on" and to
remain in hospital for a recovery period. This
request was made in January.
So far, the authorities have not replied and
Mann has not received any
treatment. The alleged mercenary leader was
arrested at Harare international
airport three years ago. Mann was detained
along with 69 other alleged
mercenaries who were supposedly bound for the
oil-rich West African state of
Equatorial Guinea, where they planned to
overthrow the regime.
Mann, who holds dual British and South
African citizenship and lived
in Cape Town, was convicted of trying to buy
illegal weapons, allegedly for
use in this abortive coup. His friend, Sir
Mark Thatcher, later admitted
helping the planned coup by paying for the
hire of a helicopter which -
without his knowledge - would have been used in
the attempt to overthrow
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mann
is due to be released from prison next month. But he is fighting
an attempt
by Equatorial Guinea's regime to extradite him.
If his latest legal
battle fails, Mann will be consigned to Black
Beach prison in Equatorial
Guinea's capital, Malabo, where conditions are so
harsh that some inmates
have starved to death.
Ifound Batsirai sitting on a pile of
her belongings by the side of the road, in the Harare suburb of Hopley. Her baby was strapped to her back in the
traditional 'mbereko' or shawl. And she was in tears. "Two men and a lady knocked down my door and threw all my
things out. They said I have a poisoned political mind because I attended an MDC
rally," she told me. "Now I am homeless." Batsirai is the victim of a new wave of political evictions, a
Mugabe election tactic to disperse supporters of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), making it difficult or impossible for them to vote in
next year's elections. For Batsirai and many of her friends and neighbours this is
the second time they have been victimised. In 2005, Mugabe's notorious Operation
Murambatsvina (Clear Out The Trash) resulted in hundreds of thousands of destroyed homes and displaced
families. The international outcry was so great the
government hurriedly built basic dwellings for the homeless. In Harare the new buildings - some
little more than rough shelters - were sited in the Hopley and Whitecliffe
suburbs. These areas are now being targeted again
by the militia of the ruling Zanu-PF party. The exercise is
co-ordinated by government minister Ignatius Chombo, who is in charge,
ironically, of local government, public works and urban development. The evictions are also designed to
terrify. Another MDC man told me: "We no longer wear our MDC badges around here.
To do so is to risk your house - and even your life."
Already
more than 20 families in Hopley have been
evicted, all previously identified as MDC
supporters. Without a permanent address they will be unable to vote. 
SABC
April 14, 2007,
08:00
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now predicting that
inflation in
Zimbabwe could reach the 5 000% mark by the end of this year.
That is 1 000%
higher than initial predictions.
Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane,
the IMF director for Africa, says if the situation
does not change soon
Zimbabwe will be among the poorest of the poor nations
in the world.
Zimbabwe is already grappling with the highest inflation in
the world, far
above those of countries that are in conflict.
Neighbours to pay the
price
Bio-Tchane says neighbouring countries are still going to pay a heavy
price
for Zimbabwe's deteriorating situation. An estimated 2 million
Zimbabweans
have crossed into South Africa seeking a better
life.
However, the IMF revealed that besides Zimbabwe, all other
countries on the
continent are doing exceptionally well. Mozambique is the
only country that
has managed to reduce rural poverty, and achieved 8.8%
growth irrespective
of increases in oil-prices and natural disasters which
hit that country
early this year.
The Herald
(Harare)
April 14, 2007
Posted to the web April 14,
2007
Harare
VISITING Sadc executive secretary Dr Tomaz Salomao
continued with his
mission yesterday as he met senior Government officials
and representatives
of multilateral agencies in the country.
Dr
Salomao met Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono, Finance
Minister Cde Samuel Mumbengegwi and European Union commission
representatives.
Although details of the meetings were not
immediately available, sources
close to the diplomat said the meetings
centred on how the country could be
assisted from the economic challenges it
is facing.
This was in line with the mandate from the recently held Sadc
extraordinary
summit in Tanzania.
The summit also appealed to Britain
and her Western allies to remove illegal
sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and
recognised the legitimacy of President
Mugabe who was re-elected in 2002
presidential elections by beating MDC
faction leader, Mr Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The meeting with the EU Commission was to impress upon the
bloc on the need
of the International Monetary Fund to give financial
support to Zimbabwe
since the country cleared its arrears under the General
Resources Account.
Discussions with the EU also centred on the need for
the grouping to lift
the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
"This
is just a preliminary visit the executive secretary is undertaking. He
will
return soon with his team of technical experts for a week-long working
visit
and tour farms to assess the land reform programme.
"The team will also
visit other cities, small towns and rural areas to
assess the situation,"
said a Government spokesman.
Dr Salomao, who is set to return to his base
in Botswana today, also toured
Sadc projects in the country.
He
visited the Southern African Power Pool and the Sadc Research and
Documentation Centre.
The executive secretary on Thursday met
President Mugabe.
Key members of the Zimbabwean
Christian Alliance which spearheads the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign are arriving
in the UK next week. The Save Zimbabwe
Campaign is the umbrella organisation
from which the MDC and civic bodies
are campainging for change. Their date
of arrival is not certain as visas
and flights are still being sorted out
but we are hoping they will be here
on Wednesday.
Wednesday, 18th
April - MDC UK Demonstration and March on Zimbabwe
Independence Day
MDC
UK has asked us to pass on an invitation to all Vigil supporters to join
them in expressing their anger at what 27 years of Mugabe have done to
Zimbabwe. At 10 am meet outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London
WC2. At 11 am the group will march to the South African High Commission in
Trafalgar Square. From SA House, they will march to the House of Commons.
In the afternoon they will move on to the Lesotho High Commission (7 Chesham
Place SW1) and the Ghana High Commission (13 Belgrave Square SW1). Contact
Jaison Matewu, MDC UK Organising Secretary (07816 619 788) for more
information and the whereabouts of the group during the
day.
Saturday, 21st April, 2 - 4 pm - Special Prayer Vigil for
Zimbabwe
Please join us in prayer for Zimbabwe. We have invited many
churches and
groups to be with us this day and we are very pleased that
Christian
Alliance members will also be able to join us (subject to their
travel
arrangements going to plan).
Monday, 23rd April, 7.30
Zimbabwean Christian Alliance at the Central London
Zimbabwe Forum
If the
Christian Alliance members are in the UK on this date they will be
coming to
speak at the Forum. Please book this date to hear at first hand
what is
happening back home. Provisional Venue: first floor, main bar,
Strand
Continental Hotel, 143 The Strand WC2R 15A. From the Vigil, a 10
minute walk
along the Strand away from Trafalgar Square after Waterloo
Bridge but before
Somerset House. Nearest underground: Temple (District and
Circle lines) and
Holborn (Piccadilly and Central lines). If the Venue
changes it will be
posted on www.zimvigil.co.uk by the end
of Sunday, 22nd
April.
More Armchair Activism
Visit http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/974640253?ltl=1176052292
to
sign a petition saying "Boycott 2010 World Cup if South Africa continues
to
ignore human rights abuses in Zimbabwe".
Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
African Path
April 13, 2007 09:10 PM
In this day and age
when Africa is
faced with countless problems and calamities. The people of
Africa and their
friends (If any) MUST work tirelessly to bring peace and
stability. Peace in
this case forms the foundation of everything else to
follow. Looking back to
the trend, we see there are always wars and rumors
of war almost all the
time in Africa. Whatever and WHOEVER the cause of such
must be exposed and
be held accountable. Accountability here sounds very
suspicious to me as I
write this due to the fact the very people who are the
culprits are the same
ones who head the institutions of law and
power.
Peace must be pursued by all means. Case in point -
Zimbabwe, all the
suffering is being caused by one man. No one's life is
worth two lives so;
we should never sit and watch while people keep dying
all because of one man
or a group of them. Robert Mugabe the President and
dictator of Zimbabwe
needs to be given two alternatives. Leave peacefully or
be removed. Let's
not forget that while we listen to all the noise being
made, someone's bank
account is growing and they will do everything possible
to protect their
interests.
Do we have to wait for another
Iraq? I am against killing human beings, but
I also have some brains. If
Saddam Hussein had been had been taken care of,
Iraq would never have been
where it is now. Hundred of thousands of Iraq's
and coalition forces have
died, all because of one man? I never get this
reasoning and finally they
hanged the guy. My point is, problems needs to be
taken care of before they
get out of hand. Everyone with common sense knows
that while solving a
problem, you fix the source. Likewise, all these
problematic regions in
Africa needs an alternative means to bring peace.
They have tried diplomacy
enough times and we all know that doesn't yield
the expected results
anymore.
For one, we need to look at our problems as
Africans and come up with our
own alternate solutions. If that means
throwing democracy out of the window,
so be it further more its democracy
only when it's in the best interests of
the west. Zimbabwe's economy has
gone down the drain, the common man is
suffering, Institutions are falling
apart, and children are dying. After it's
all said and done, this country
will be left at a stone age state. Nothing
will be working, the entire
infrastructure will have broken down and of
course the human capital will
all be lost. This is why there is urgency is
this matter. This man needs to
be taken care of soon and very soon.
The west is watching and
have been watching but I don't think they see much
for them in there so they
are going to watch from the sidelines. Let's not
forget Rwanda and Burundi
where thousands of lives were lost. This is a
ticking time bomb, once the
old man grows desperate, you never know what he
will do, and that's why I
suggest action as soon as possible. After Mugabe
is gone, focus will shift
to the next hot button (Darfur, Somalia, Chad) in
the continent and before
long, Africa will be a safer and better place to do
business and fulfill its
people's dreams.
I still believe that Africa's problems are
common sense problems, one
doesn't need to think too hard to get a solution.
DON'T GIVE UP ON AFRICA;
STOP THE PLUNDER BY THE FEW.
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12 April
(The introduction to a collection of essays on Zimbabwe's
future)
Mark Ashurst and Gugulethu Moyo
This week is the
27th anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence - an occasion,
as often before,
for President Robert Mugabe to remind his beleaguered
countrymen of their
many achievements. The former schoolmaster has sought to
fashion a people in
his own image. Most Zimbabweans are industrious,
principled and often
socially conservative. For two decades they voted,
overwhelmingly, for
Mugabe. In the classroom of their new nation, the
country's founding father
embodies a spirit of relentless striving. His
severity and unflinching
resolve are hallmarks of a man who notched up six
university degrees.
Discipline was always a priority, enforced -
sporadically - by violence of
surgical precision. Educated by Jesuits, he
remains an observant Catholic.
He is a regular congregant at Sunday Mass in
Harare - even while religious
leaders, at home and abroad, denounce him.
Zimbabwe today is bereft
of optimism and self-confidence. But as recently as
a decade ago, Mugabe's
record was routinely cited as an inspiration to his
neighbours. A nation
that boasted just two black engineers at independence
in 1980 has nurtured
an educated middle class, which, as a proportion of
population, is the
biggest in Africa. As their homeland deteriorates, these
model pupils have
turned against their president. The professionals and
technocrats who might
lead an economic recovery now swell the ranks of an
ever-growing diaspora -
many of them in South Africa and Britain. The
economy they have left behind
is out of control. Most Zimbabweans eke out a
living at the margins of the
formal sector, their efforts ravaged by
hyperinflation. A large proportion
of the rural population survive on what
they can grow from the soil,
insulated from spiralling prices but
perpetually hungry. Even those who have
work rely increasingly on
remittances of foreign currency from family and
friends abroad.
This supplement offers an assessment of what has gone
wrong and what might
be done to revive Zimbabwe's fortunes. Many of its
problems will outlive the
83-year-old president, and the remedies will bring
more pain. The end of
apartheid has fundamentally changed the economic
landscape of Southern
Africa, and Zimbabwe is out of step with the
liberalising agenda of its
neighbours. The proud claim that Zimbabwe is the
"breadbasket" of Africa is
now, at best, an anachronism. For all its fertile
farmland, Zimbabwe is a
small and landlocked country. When a "new
management" finally takes power
from Mugabe, its first tasks will be to
diversify an economy still dependent
on a few key crops. The contributors to
this supplement are united in their
criticism of Mugabe, but this supplement
is not cheerleading for Zimbabwe's
battered opposition. Nor do these pages
aspire to optimism. Their first
purpose is to assess the prospects for
lasting change. Zimbabweans are in
desperate straits, but this is not a
counsel of despair. As we go to press,
there is encouraging, albeit
tentative evidence of renewed effort to break
the gridlock in
Harare.
The vicious beatings meted out last month to opposition
leaders appear to
have been a tactical mistake by Mugabe. As Brian
Raftopoulos observes in
these pages, the president's self-styled posture as
a latter-day folk hero
has been reduced by the television pictures of his
African critics battered
in police custody. The image of a brave nationalist
doing battle against
imperial domination is harder to sustain when the faces
emerging from
hospital are black. Mugabe, of course, is determined to fight
on. He plans
to stand again for re-election in 2008. For him, stepping down
would not be
just a political concession, it would also represent total
defeat - the loss
of a lifetime's accumulation of power as well as the
complete deflation of a
megalomaniacal sense of pride and self-importance.
He would rather gamble
another election to legitimate his
rule.
He has long been sustained by the support of party loyalists
who, given a
choice, would prefer to see him retreat to a quiet retirement,
if not a
state funeral. That choice may at last become reality as rivals
with close
ties to the military and state security services contemplate a
challenge -
although Mugabe has outmanoeuvred them before. An alliance of
Joice Mujuru,
wife of the former army chief Solomon Mujuru and probably the
military's
choice, with her chief rival, the veteran securocrat Emmerson
Mnangagwa,
would pose a formidable threat to Mugabe. Their perspectives are
regrettably
absent from this survey, although not for want of trying by the
editors to
solicit contributions from within the ruling party. Some analysts
now see a
handover from Mugabe to one or an alliance of these contenders as
the best
way of assuring an orderly transition and avoiding civil strife.
This would
provide a "dignified" exit to Mugabe, especially in the wake of a
2008
election victory. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has adopted a
similar
strategy for his own retirement, just months away. But even though
there is
rampant speculation that he will hand over to those known to covet
political
power, there is little evidence that Mugabe is, at this stage,
ready to hand
over to the contenders.
In the meantime, the
opposition has little option but to watch and wait.
Divided and, until
recently, subdued, the "two MDCs" have failed to learn
from past mistakes.
Joram Nyaathi counsels a renewed effort to bring about
electoral reform,
coupled with a nationwide programme of voter education.
But even if they are
spared the repression and retribution of Mugabe's state
security, opposition
prospects rest more on the hope of mistakes by the
ruling party than on any
initiative or strategy of their own invention.
Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe's
former minister of information, ascribes Zanu PF's
enduring support in rural
constituencies to the influence of its "political
commissars". These are
conduits for a system of political patronage that
encroaches on every aspect
of public life - a "de facto one-party state",
according to Moyo. If only he
could be trusted to mean what he says. Moyo's
abrupt metamorphosis, from
presidential apologist-in-chief to independent
agitator, has more than
justified Mugabe's long-standing suspicion of this
political
maverick.
Such are the contradictions of Zimbabwe today. South
Africa's northern
neighbour is a burlesque outpost of dead empire, a place
where illusion vies
constantly with reality. Officially, Zimbabwe is a
functional democracy.
Opposition MPs sit in Parliament and the MDC runs
local government in urban
and rural centres - nominally so, in most cases,
as its elected officials
are almost powerless. In this ossified regime,
dissent becomes synonymous
with treachery - a proposition that, inherently,
leads to violence. In
reality, Mugabe sits at the helm of a finely
calibrated system of executive
dictatorship, where power is a shifting
centre, located somewhere between
the president, the army, the state
security apparatus and a diffuse network
of party patronage. In this violent
and stubbornly undemocratic universe,
Stephen Chan, a seasoned chronicler of
Zimbabwean nationalism, detects a new
irony in the likely influence of
Pretoria.
Armed with a new mandate from the Southern African
Development Community,
President Thabo Mbeki has spoken with renewed
confidence of his chances as a
mediator. He is "sure" that Mugabe will
retire. Mbeki's policy of
encouraging negotiation between the main parties
looks certain to bring
greater leverage for South Africa. A curious end to
Mugabe's lifelong
campaign for national sovereignty, but some kind of
progress all the same.
Western influence has not helped Zimbabwe, and never
less then when Britain
turned a blind eye to the massacres in Matabeleland
by Mugabe's notorious,
North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade in the 1980s. But,
as Richard Dowden
suggests, relations with the old colonial master are not
beyond repair. Once
South Africa has brokered a successor, the international
development
agencies will return, armed with fast-increasing aid budgets.
Some of the
white commercial farmers, descendants of the old Rhodesia, will
follow them
into new, managerial roles - alongside the Chinese and Libyans,
who are
Zimbabwe's new settler class.
The transition to a new
kind of country will not be rushed. But such is the
constitutional and
economic bankruptcy of Mugabe's regime that sweeping
change has become
inevitable. Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Nobel laureate,
recently compared
Zimbabwe to the slave plantations of the 18th century.
Now, as then, a
condition of serfdom cannot go on forever. Soyinka's
comments followed a
speech to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Britain's
abolition of the
slave trade. Addressing the Commonwealth Society in London,
he pointed to
the sorry legacy of colonial settlement and the economic
slavery apparent in
the poorest parts of the developing world. The weary
promises of "never
again", uttered first in the wake of the Holocaust and
again after the
Rwandan genocide, have proved unequal to the rape and
pillage in
Darfur.
During questions, a Zimbabwean regretted that Soyinka had
made no mention of
the recent beatings of opposition leaders in Harare.
Another objected that
Britons should feel proud of their country's part in
sending Royal Navy
ships to stop the traffic in slaves - it was only fair,
after all, to judge
the protagonists of history against the standards of
their own time. Soyinka
disagreed. He replied that it would be quite wrong
to interpret the past
according to the standards of any other era. This was
the first condition of
progress. Enlightenment is a critique of the past.
"And that," he added,
"deals with the Mugabe question." It is a vivid
analogy, as Zimbabweans
contemplate 27 years of independence: Robert Mugabe,
the great liberator, a
captive of his own violent history. "He is still
living on a slave
plantation," Soyinka concluded. "All we can do is pray for
him."
Mark Ashurst is director of the Africa Research Institute,
London. Gugulethu
Moyo is a Zimbabwean lawyer who works on Southern African
issues for the
International Bar Association
http://africantears.netfirms.com/thisweek.shtml
A Letter from the diaspora.
Saturday 14th April
2007
Dear Friends,
The South African papers over the Easter weekend were
full of comment and
analysis of how Thabo Mbeki was going to tackle the
problem of Zimbabwe and
what particular hurdles he might face in dealing
with Mugabe. It was pretty
much agreed that it was not going to be easy for
the South African President
to influence Robert Mugabe. Demonising him as
just another crazed African
dictator is not helpful; the truth is that
Mugabe is a complex and enigmatic
character who inspires both fear and
respect. It is sometimes hard to
remember when one hears the claims of
near-deity from some of his followers,
that Mugabe is human with ordinary
human as well as political problems.
Reports that Mugabe had flown off to
Malaysia to spend Easter with Grace and
the children combined with a piece
in the British tabloid The Sun that the
trip was intended 'to rescue his
marriage' set me thinking. Then, last
week's Zimbabwean carried a story
which suggested that Grace had been out of
Zimbabwe since the middle of
March, supposedly on a business trip. According
to usually 'reliable'
sources, Grace had gone off in a huff after a
disagreement with her husband
over the country's political situation and his
stated intention to contest
the 2008 election.
At first glance it seemed no more than salacious
gossip, irrelevant to the
current political crisis in the country but the
story might have more
significance than at first appears. Consider the
facts; Grace is Mugabe's
second wife, the mother of his children and some
forty years younger than
her 83 year old husband. Over the years Zimbabweans
have consistently
dismissed her as unintelligent, greedy and a shopaholic
whose only interest
is in being First Lady with all the privileges and power
that entails. Her
public appearances have shown her unsmiling, generally
behind large dark
glasses and seemingly completely bored with whatever
ceremony is taking
place. Such is her public persona; if indeed Grace is
'just in it for the
money' then it seems curious that she is opposed to her
husband staying in
office where she can continue to enjoy all the perks that
go with his job -
despite the occasional boredom.
I tried putting
myself in Grace's expensive shoes and I think it must be
quite an
uncomfortable place to be! She must know that her husband is the
most feared
man in the country, she can't move around freely, her life is
not her own
and she can never be quite sure that she or her children are
safe. 'Well,'
you might answer, ' She knew that when she married him'. Ah,
but she didn't
know then - none of us did - that the country would descend
to near
bankruptcy, lawlessness and violence. I am certainly not suggesting
that
Grace deserves our sympathy; what I am saying is that perhaps, her
state of
mind may have some relevance in the current stalemate. Here's an 83
year old
man who has enjoyed absolute power for 27 years. As his wife, Grace
has
never been loved, by her husband or the people in the way Sally Mugabe
was
and she must know that. Mugabe's personality, characterised as it is by
arrogance and messianic self-delusion, is such that he is never going to
admit it's time for him to go. As the wife of the President of a pariah
state, Grace has very little to look forward to and maybe that's why she
wants him to 'take the gap' now - before it's too late and she is the wife
of a convicted war criminal.
Will this have any effect on Robert
Mugabe? Is it possible that his young
wife's opinion will have any sway with
him or will his stubborn desire to
remain in power for life combined with
his fear of prosecution prove
stronger than the desire to save his marriage?
Whichever way you look at it
the truth is that Mugabe is beset with problems
- personal and religious. He
is a practising Catholic and last weekend the
Roman Catholic Bishops'
Pastoral Letter was forthright in its condemnation
of the violence being
meted out on the opposition. Mugabe's ministers may
deny that the violence
is happening - Kemba Mohadi's recent interview on SW
Radio was yet another
laughable example of ministerial idiocy - and Mugabe
himself may claim that
the onslaught is justified because the opposition are
no better than
terrorists. But when even his wife and his Church are acutely
uncomfortable
with his behaviour, perhaps the old man will be forced to
listen before it's
too late? Miracles do happen!
More later.
Ndini
shamwari yenyu. PH
Iran Daily
HARARE, Zimbabwe,
April 14--Zimbabwe stands to lose millions of dollars in
potential earnings
from tobacco as international buyers are flocking to
Malawi, shunning the
local auction floors where a dispute over prices and
the exchange rate have
delayed the selling season.
According to AllAfrica.com, this comes as it also
emerged that local farmers
are smuggling their tobacco out of the country to
get better prices. The
farmers say they will hold on to their crop until the
central bank agrees to
their demands for a special exchange rate.
Farmers
who spoke to business digest said merchants who had arrived a week
after the
scheduled opening of auction floors on March 14 left the country
for Malawi
a fortnight ago where auction floors opened last week. Some
former
commercial white farmers displaced by the land reform program are now
based
in Malawi.
The Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association (ZTGA) confirmed that
international
buyers had become impatient with the prolonged deadlock and
are seeking
better deals in Malawi.
"Zimbabwe stand to lose millions of
dollars to Malawi if the stalemate
continues. The country's traditional
international buyers are flocking to
Malawi whose crop production has been
increasing over the years," ZTGA said.
ZTGA said farmers are also smuggling
tobacco to Malawi to seek better
returns to remain in business and to
prepare for the next season.
Zimbabwe has lost its place among the world's
top five tobacco exporters due
to dwindling output largely caused by
disturbances on farms, lack of
critical inputs and a fixed exchange rate.
The Raw Story
dpa German
Press Agency
Published: Saturday April 14,
2007
Johannesburg- Competition is fierce among South
Africa's
neighbours to attract business around the 2010 football World
Cup,
the Saturday Star newspaper reported.
Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland
and Zimbabwe are all vying for a
share of the World Cup pie by seeking to
attract qualifying teams to
train in their countries in the run-up to the
tournament, the
Johannesburg paper reported.
The potential tourism
revenue of the World Cup has also not gone
unnoticed in the region, prompting
governments to step up plans for a
single travel visa for the
region.
Botswana's Environment, Wildlife and Tourism Minister
Kitso
Mokaila said he was optimistic that his country would benefit
from
World Cup tourism.
Botswana has also established a task force to
come up with a plan
on how to woo qualifying teams to train in the country,
the Star
reported.
Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe are also looking at
ways to
improve sports training and tourism facilities.
The world
football body FIFA has given Swaziland 10 million rand
(1.4 million dollars)
towards the upgrade of its only national
stadium, Somholo, and the country
also expects to have a new
international airport by
2010.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe has plans to built a new
world-class
soccer stadium as well.
Like South Africa, which has hired
former Brazil coach Carlos
Alberto Parreira to whip its Bafana Bafana side
into shape, countries
in the region are also keen to boost the performance of
their teams
for the first World Cup on the African continent.
The
14-country Southern African Development Community has plans to
launch a new
under-17 football tournament in 2007 and hoped to get at
least four teams
from the region into the finals, the Star said.
Meanwhile, in the host
country, a bid by an environmental group to
halt construction of a new
68,000-seater stadium in Cape Town
received a setback Friday when it failed
to get an urgent High Court
hearing.
Cape Town Environmental
Protection Association will make a fresh
bid Monday to obtain an urgent
interdict staying the partial
demolition of the current Green Point stadium,
the first phase in the
building of the 2.9-billion-rand arena.
The old
arena had already been 75 per cent demolished by Friday.
© 2006 - dpa
German Press Agency
The Herald (Harare)
April
14, 2007
Posted to the web April 14, 2007
Harare
RESERVE Bank
of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has issued a stern warning
on
manufacturers and retailers who continue to increase prices, saying the
days
for such misdemeanour are numbered.
The net was also closing in on
parallel market dealers, he said.
This comes in the wake of rampant
price hikes of most goods and services
despite previous warnings against
such malpractices.
Addressing the clergy and the business community in
Mutare yesterday, Dr
Gono said the full wrath of Government would soon
descend on them, adding
many had mistaken Government's civility for a
weakness.
"Don't think we don't know who is profiteering and who is doing
what. But we
have not acted out of tolerance hoping this madness would stop
but there
will come a day when we will say enough is enough. Such a day has
come,"
said Dr Gono.
Concerns were raised during the meeting that the
rate at which prices were
going up, with some products changing prices at
least six times a week, were
not sustainable.
"Businesses say costs
are rising everyday even those of products already on
the shelf. What
justification is there? These are paper profits and Zimbabwe
does not have
space for such traders," he warned.
Prices of most basic goods and
services have continued to skyrocket since
January, taking over from the
price spirals witnessed in November and
December last year.
The
unprecedented increases have left most basics beyond the reach of many.
A
person earning about $200 000 a month can only buy a 2-litre bottle of
cooking oil, two bars of laundry soap and a 10kg packet of unrefined
maize-meal from his or her salary.
This state of affairs had seen
consumers making a desperate call on the
Government to act to protect
consumers.
Chairman of the Heads of Christian Denominations in Zimbabwe
and the
presiding Bishop of Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe, Bishop
Trevor
Manhanga, also lamented the spirit of profiteering that has engulfed
some
members of the business community.
"To the business community, I
want to say that people are going to simply
refuse to take the services you
offer," he said.
Dr Gono also lamented instances where commuter omnibuses
were charging
double fares for a single trip.
A case in point was a
trip from Highfield to the city centre where commuters
would pay for a ride
to Rothmans along Simon Mazorodze Road and were made to
pay another fare for
the second part of the trip into the city.
"Such behaviour cannot be
explained by any economic fundamental. This cannot
be allowed to
continue."
Responding to questions on the merits and demerits of price
controls, Dr
Gono said it was not the Government's policy to introduce price
controls
willy-nilly but stressed that the business community had to meet
its end of
the bargain by coming up with sober pricing formulas.
"It
would be a sad day for our country were we to introduce wholesale price
controls. I do not believe we will do that but business should begin to be
sensitive to the plight of the consumers," he said.
On the foreign
currency parallel market, Dr Gono said there were a few
barons in the market
who, each morning, determined the trading rate of that
particular day,
holding the rest of the economy to ransom.
Such practices would not be
allowed to continue a day longer.
"The sad thing is that it's not the
barons themselves who go out there. No!
Ukada kuvatarira unoona varikutenga
vacho vasina kana bhutsu (If you look
closely at those buying foreign
currency you will notice that some of them
will not even be putting on shoes
as they are only used as fronts)," he
said.
However, some of the
barons were known and soon they would face the full
wrath of the
law.
Yesterday's meeting is the second such gathering as efforts for a
stakeholder buy-in on the social contract gain momentum.
The first
meeting was held in Harare last month and Rev Manhanga said many
such
meetings were lined up in other parts of the country as the church
seeks to
play an effective role in reviving the economy, in this instance,
through a
social covenant.
From SW Radio Africa, 13 April
By Lance Guma
On Friday High
Court judge Tedius Karwi denied bail to Glen View legislator
Paul Madzore
and 5 MDC office workers, including Luke Tamborinyoka and
Brighton Masimba,
saying the police needed more time to investigate. The
judge proceeded to
give the state up to 25th April to deliver its evidence.
In the meantime the
activists remain in remand prison. Defence lawyer Alec
Muchadehama queried
the system being employed saying the police should first
investigate before
arresting his clients. 'How do you arrest first then
investigate later?' he
said. He expressed concern that the judicial system
is being used to try and
sanitize what is clearly a campaign of terror
against the opposition.
Initially the activists were being charged with
masterminding and carrying
out a string of petrol bomb attacks on several
government targets. But on
Friday the state, as if unsure the initial case
would stick, decided to
place new charges saying the MDC officials received
military training in
South Africa's Orange Free State.
Muchadehama says they now have to lodge
an urgent chamber application in the
Supreme Court to have the matter
resolved. He says the state has absolutely
no evidence and his clients were
suffering in remand prison for nothing. As
if to emphasize his point Justice
Karwi ordered the release of one activist
Stanley Mutsembi because the
bombing in question took place while he was
already in police custody.
Muchadehama told Newsreel most of his clients
faced a similar situation.
Hospital and opposition sources estimate that
over 600 activists have been
hospitalized following brutal abductions and
torture. Mugabe's regime is
accused of trying to cripple the opposition by
targeting its entire
leadership. Several police stations, houses and
business premises owned by
Zanu PF sympathisers have been petrol-bombed in
the last few weeks. Mugabe
is accused of masterminding this wave of violence
to justify a brutal
crackdown on anyone who is in active opposition to his
rule. A Zanu PF
militia group called Chipangano, a newly created unit called
Department 5
and other groups in the security services, are allegedly being
used to
create the violence and abduct opposition officials.