Zim Online
Monday 16 April 2007
By
Brian Ncube
BULAWAYO - The cash-strapped Zimbabwean government has
awarded Z$3 trillion
to its Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) spy
agency to intimidate and
monitor the opposition ahead of next year's
watershed elections, ZimOnline
has learnt.
In a three-page internal
memorandum written by CIO director general Happyton
Bonyongwe, dated 10
April 2007, the state security agency says the funds
will be used on
surveillance activities against opposition activists.
The confidential
memo, whose reference number is HB46/2007, was addressed to
State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is in charge of the CIO.
"This memo serves
to express the organisation's gratitude to your office for
positively
responding to our request for extra funds to effectively equip
the
organisation ahead of next year's elections.
"Part of the $3 trillion has
already been used to import new high powered
vehicles for use by our
operatives on their surveillance and information
gathering missions as we
intend to reach all corners of this country," read
part of the
memo.
The government has in the past strongly relied on CIO agents to
brutally
suppress the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
that has
presented the biggest challenge to President Robert Mugabe's grip
on power.
Mugabe, in power since the country's independence from Britain
27 years ago,
will square off against the opposition in a key presidential
election next
year after his ruling ZANU PF party's central committee
endorsed him as the
party's candidate for the election.
The MDC and
independent human rights groups accuse state security agents of
intimidating
voters and torturing opposition supporters during key
elections, a charge
the government denies.
Sources within the secret service confirmed that
the all-terrain vehicles
which include Toyota double cabs, had already been
distributed in the
provinces ahead of the elections.
"The main aim is
to have us highly mobile in covering all corners of the
country, including
the rural areas. We have also been assigned to carry out
special
surveillance missions on opposition leaders when they visit
neighbouring
countries," said an intelligence source who cannot be named for
security
reasons.
Under the surveillance campaign, the state agency will also
stalk
journalists and security officers suspected of leaking sensitive
information
to the media, our sources said.
Mutasa refused to comment
when approached at the weekend and instead
threatened the ZimOnline
correspondent with unspecified action for "selling
state
secrets."
"We will get you, your masters and those you pay to get that
information one
day," Mutasa said before switching off his mobile phone. -
ZimOnline
Reuters
Sun 15
Apr 2007, 9:17 GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, April 15 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe marks 27 years of independence this
week, but for many the
celebration will be overshadowed by the country's
economic meltdown and a
political crisis over President Robert Mugabe's
plans to remain in
power.
Mugabe, 83, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from
Britain in
1980, is accused by his critics of wrecking the southern African
state by
pursuing controversial policies and rigging major elections in the
last
seven years.
Political analysts say Mugabe's decision to seek
another five-year term in
2008 -- which would extend his tenure to 33 years
-- has compounded a
national crisis.
Zimbabwe will mark its
independence anniversary on Wednesday with rallies,
military displays and
sports festivities around the country. Mugabe will
address the main rally in
Harare.
But for the majority of the population, the focus will be their
daily
struggle to put food on the table.
"I don't think there is any
question of people wishing to go back to
colonialism or white racist rule,
but for many of us these celebrations have
become muted because we are
worrying about survival," said Alec Banda, a
salesman in a Harare shoe
shop.
"It's food, rent, transport, school fees ... and in the end, that's
what is
occupying your mind, and you have no time to think about these
things," he
said when asked whether he was going to this year's independence
festivities.
Critics say Mugabe should accept responsibility for an
economic crisis that
has seen Zimbabwe's inflation top 1,700 percent and
unemployment soar above
80 percent as urban residents struggle with
shortages of food, fuel and
power.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation
rate in the world, and the World Bank
says the southern African state has
the fastest shrinking economy outside a
war zone.
BLEAK
FUTURE
Mugabe says he is not to blame for Zimbabwe's economic problems,
pointing
instead at what he calls illegal sanctions by Western opponents in
retaliation for his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for
blacks.
Analysts say Zimbabwe's future looks bleak due to the economic
woes and a
government onslaught on the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
which it accuses of launching a "terrorist campaign" to oust
Mugabe.
While South African President Thabo Mbeki is trying to mediate in
the
Zimbabwe crisis on behalf of the 14-member Southern African Development
Community, a solution is likely to be some way off, they say.
"The
future looks gloomy in the short term because the economic meltdown is
accelerating ... and the general elections next year will make compromises
more difficult," said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at
the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.
A police crackdown on Mugabe's
opponents, which left some opposition figures
with broken limbs and MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai with head and facial
wounds, has sparked a storm of
international condemnation.
But the veteran Zimbabwean leader has
remained defiant, telling Western
critics to "go hang" and warning the
opposition about playing "monkey games"
with his government.
Despite
talk of some growing opposition to his leadership within his own
ZANU-PF
movement, Mugabe last month won his party's endorsement to contest
new
elections next year, and analysts say the wily political operator will
not
go easily.
"Democratic forces in Zimbabwe have an onerous task ahead,"
the private
weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper says in its latest edition
in a
commentary on how to tackle Mugabe.
Reuters
Fri 23 Mar 2007
15:25:41 GMT
By MacDonald Dizrutwe
HARARE, March 23 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe vowed on
Friday to survive any Western
attempt to dislodge him from power as regional
heavyweight South Africa
defended its "quiet" approach to the gathering
crisis.
Mugabe said
Britain and the United States would never overcome the support
he enjoys in
his ruling ZANU-PF party, which led the former Rhodesia to
black majority
rule in 1980.
"Nothing frightens me, not even little fellows like Bush
and Blair. I have
seen it all, I don't fear any suffering or a struggle of
any kind," Mugabe,
83, said to cheers from ZANU-PF supporters at a meeting
in Harare.
"I make a stand and stand on principle here where I was born,
here where I
grew up, here where I fought and here where I shall die,"
Mugabe said,
accusing the West of sponsoring the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) to overthrow his government.
One of
Zimbabwe's top Roman Catholic clerics, Archbishop Pius Ncube of
Bulawayo, on
Friday repeated his call for mass peaceful protests to end
Mugabe's 27-year
rule.
Police, meanwhile, accused MDC supporters of petrol bombing a
police station
in Mutare city, the latest in a series of violent acts which
officials have
attributed to opposition activists.
International
criticism of Mugabe has sharpened this month after police
cracked down on
opposition supporters attempting to attend a banned prayer
rally, arresting
several MDC activists including party leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
MDC
officials say Tsvangirai and a number of other detainees were badly
beaten
while in detention.
Western critics including Britain and the United
States have threatened more
economic sanctions on Mugabe and his government,
which is already battling
Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis in decades with
inflation now topping 1,700
percent.
'TOTAL HEAP OF
MISERY'
Western countries have also increased calls for a tougher African
stand,
with Australian Prime Minister John Howard saying the world was being
too
soft on the ageing Zimbabwean ruler.
"We pussyfoot around far too
much using diplomatic language. This man is a
disaster. His country is just
a total heap of misery," Howard told
Australian radio.
But South
Africa, the regional power, on Friday defended its "quiet"
approach to
Zimbabwe, saying it was the only way to keep lines of dialogue
open with
Mugabe's government.
"It is not our intention to make militant statements
to make us feel good,
or to satisfy governments outside the African
continent," Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad told a regular news
briefing.
Pahad said a Southern African Development Community (SADC)
meeting on
Zimbabwe tentatively set for Tanzania next week had been pushed
back to
allow more time to prepare, adding that the meeting could end up as
a
presidential summit.
Western denunciations of Mugabe also drew
criticism from one of the MDC's
two main factions, with factional leader
Arthur Mutambara saying Africa must
lead the drive for change.
"We
appreciate the support from Western powers but the double standards of
the
West undermine our struggle," Arthur Mutambara was quoted by South
Africa's
SAPA news agency as saying in Johannesburg.
"The only ones who have the
moral authority to speak out on Zimbabwe are
Africans," Mutambara
said.
Ncube, who has used his archbishop's pulpit to become one of
Mugabe's most
vocal and fearless domestic critics, on Friday said again he
was ready to
lead mass peaceful protests.
"This dictator must be
brought down right now by the peoples' power but not
in a violent manner. If
we can get 30,000 people together Mugabe will just
come down," Ncube told a
news conference. "I would put myself on the line."
Reuters
Sun 15 Apr 2007, 9:57
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government has cancelled a United
States
assistance programme for parliamentary reforms over a report
suggesting that
Washington is working to oust President Robert Mugabe, a
state newspaper
said on Sunday.
Political relations between Mugabe's
government and Western countries, but
mainly the U.S and former colonial
power Britain, have deteriorated sharply
in the last three months over
Zimbabwe's crackdown on the political
opposition.
In a statement in
the Sunday Mail newspaper, Zimbabwe Clerk of Parliament
Austin Zvoma said
the legislature had "terminated forthwith its agreement
with the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID)
following claims by the
State Department that it is working with some
portfolio committees of
parliament to discredit the government."
U.S. officials in Harare were
not immediately available on Sunday to comment
on the story, and details of
how much aid the Zimbabwe parliament was
receiving were not
published.
"The attempts by the U.S. government to create the impression
that one arm
of the state, namely parliament, is collaborating with a
foreign government
to undermine and discredit its executive is gross
misrepresentation,
mischievous and irresponsible," Zvoma said, adding the
Zimbabwe parliament
was in control of all its programmes and
policies.
Two weeks ago, the Zimbabwe government highlighted a U.S. State
Department
human rights report indicating that Washington was working with
opposition
and civic groups, journalists and the clergy "in an attempt to
topple"
Mugabe.
Washington, London and other Western powers say they
are merely trying to
restore democracy in Zimbabwe.
Last month,
Mugabe said Western powers critical of his crackdown on the
opposition could
"go hang" and he threatened to kick out Western diplomats
accused of
interfering in Zimbabwe's domestic affairs.
Western nations called for
more sanctions against Mugabe after several
opposition figures, including
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were badly
beaten after being arrested while
trying to attend a March 11 protest rally.
Critics accuse Mugabe of
plunging the southern African state into a severe
economic crisis through
controversial policies.
But Mugabe, 83, and in power since independence,
blames the economic
collapse of Zimbabwe's once thriving economy on Western
sabotage seeking to
punish him for seizing and redistributing white-owned
farms to indigenous
blacks.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: April 15,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: An independent doctors organization
said Sunday that
hundreds of Zimbabweans have been injured, maimed or
traumatized in a surge
of political violence in the past month by security
authorities.
Those injured since police violently crushed a prayer vigil
in Harare on
March 11 include political activists, six of who suffered
gunshot wounds,
including one activist shot dead, the Zimbabwe Association
of Doctors for
Human Rights said.
At least 49 pro-democracy leaders,
including Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the
main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, needed hospitalization for
serious injuries, it
said.
The doctors group, whose members include health services staff and
most of
the nation's independent physicians and who have treated victims of
assault,
publicized an international petition Sunday calling for an end to
state
orchestrated violence and torture.
Members of the organization
trying to record the tally of treated cases were
routinely intimidated, the
petition said.
"Efforts taken by health professionals to document and
prevent human rights
abuses met further intimidation by security forces," it
said.
In one incident, eight victims of police assault were forcibly
removed from
a private health facility, where police had first taken them,
without the
consent of doctors there. All eight had been denied medical care
in custody,
the doctors said.
"Such behavior by security forces
continues to intimidate health workers who
treat victims of organized
violence and torture," the petition statement
said.
The doctors said
Tsvangirai collapsed in police custody after being
assaulted March 11. He
was taken to a government emergency unit where a
junior night duty doctor
was made to examine him under the guard of armed
police without consulting
senior colleagues.
The emergency unit was cordoned off and treatment was
superficial and
ineffective. The opposition leader was taken back to jail
"despite have lost
sufficient blood to lose consciousness again," the
organization said.
It said such abuses came amid already collapsing
health services and
"fragile living conditions" of ordinary
Zimbabweans.
The doctors noted life expectancy for women in the troubled
southern Africa
nation was now 34 years, the lowest in the world, maternal
mortality was
rising and 21 percent of adults were officially estimated as
being HIV/AIDS
infected.
In the worst economic crisis since
independence in 1980, employment stood at
80 percent and inflation exceeded
2,000 percent, the highest rate in the
world.
"People do not have the
funds to buy medication and good nutrition is almost
impossible to afford,"
said the petition, signed so far by top physicians at
leading medical and
academic institutions in South Africa, the United States
and
Europe.
The petition said that since March 11, Zimbabwe doctors recorded
182 cases
of severe to moderate soft tissue injures from beatings; four
people,
including Tsvangirai, suffered head injuries; 11 had fractures to
the arms,
legs and ribs, three of those with multiple fractures and at least
34 others
were treated for swelling, bruising and lacerations.
Six
were wounded when police fired live ammunition. Opposition official Gift
Tandare was shot dead on March 11 in the Harare township of
Highfield.
"There are hundreds of others who have been injured, maimed
and traumatized"
in a continuing clampdown against government opponents by
police,
paramilitary officers, security agents of the Central Intelligence
Organization and ruling party militants, the doctors group
said.
Armed security authorities targeting opposition supporters have
imposed
informal curfews in several township suburbs, shutting down bars and
shops
after dusk, and searching homes.
The opposition insists at
least 600 of its officials and supporters have
been arrested and were open
to assault since early March.
President Robert Mugabe has admitted
Tsvangirai was assaulted March 11,
saying he was "thoroughly beaten up by
police" and had "asked for it."
He told youth militants of his ruling
ZANU PF party the injured opposition
leaders would "get arrested and get
bashed" again if they protested against
the government because the "police
have a right to bash."
Mugabe also described the youth militants as a
"big hard-knuckled fist" that
could be easily summoned into action by party
leaders against opponents.
Police say six officers have been injured in
the month of unrest and what
they call "an orgy of violence" in an alleged
campaign of terror and
gasoline bombings by opposition, allegations
Tsvangirai denies.
Comment from The Sunday Times (SA), 15 April
Under cover of a news blackout,
torture squads are roaming Zimbabwe, sowing
terror and mayhem among those
who dare to oppose the ruling Zanu PF, writes
Trevor Ncube
I have
just come back from two weeks home in Zimbabwe and my heart is sore.
I am
troubled by what is going on, much of it away from the glare of local
and
international media. Zimbabweans are under siege from a political
leadership
that fought to liberate them from colonial oppression. And I am
afraid that
the current oppressors are proving to be no different in their
tactics and
cruelty than Ian Smith's settler regime. Because of the absence
of an
independent daily press and private radio and television outlets, many
Zimbabweans are totally oblivious of the reign of terror that President
Robert Mugabe has unleashed on the opposition and civil-society activists.
However, the victims of this violence are telling their story and the word
is spreading, and so is fear.
In certain instances there has not
been any attempt to mask the violence, as
happened in broad daylight at
Mbare Musika bus terminus and Fourth Street
commuter rendezvous on the eve
of the Easter holiday. In both instances, for
no reason, riot police armed
to the teeth randomly assaulted people waiting
for transport to their
holiday destinations. There have been countless other
instances of
indiscriminate police and army violence against civilians. The
government
media pretend all is well and ignore the state-sponsored terror.
The
independent press is handicapped in recounting the unfolding orgy of
state
violence by publishing weekly. Since the arrest and brutal attack on
Morgan
Tsvangirai and other Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials,
President Robert Mugabe's government has unleashed a ferocious campaign of
violence against journalists and political and civil-society
activists.
Evidence indicates that he has set up a paramilitary unit
whose main brief
is to abduct, torture and murder opposition activists and
unarmed civilians.
This is the same unit that has embarked on a petrol-
bombing campaign whose
main purpose is to portray the opposition MDC as a
terrorist organisation.
Fortunately, only the insanely gullible have been
taken in by this
propaganda ploy. There is practically an undeclared state
of emergency in
the townships where, after dusk, residents venture outside
their homes at
great risk. Initially this terror campaign was concentrated
in and around
Harare, but it is spreading countrywide. Gangs of heavily
armed state thugs
prowl the townships in unmarked vehicles, hunting for
their targets. It is
believed these are the same people that assaulted MDC
spokesman and MP
Nelson Chamisa at Harare International Airport three weeks
ago.
The petrol-bombing campaign has also been used to trump up
charges against
opposition elements, who have been abducted and tortured in
police detention
to try to extract evidence from them. Senior MDC officials
like Ian Makone
and Last Mayengahama have been victims of this campaign.
While the MDC are
not angels, few believe they have the capacity to organise
the alleged
bombing campaigns. So far one television journalist, Edward
Chikomba, and an
MDC activist, Gift Tandare, have been abducted, tortured
and murdered.
Another journalist, Gift Phiri, was abducted and tortured
after being
accused of involvement in the spree of bombings. At the last
count, more
than 600 people were known to have been beaten and some tortured
in
detention and the figure continues to rise. Indications are that about 30
people a day are admitted to hospitals around the country, mostly at night
and in the morning, following brutal assaults under the cover of darkness.
The poorly equipped and cash-strapped state hospitals are failing to cope
and the MDC this week launched an appeal for funding and medication to take
care of its members.
All this violence is seen as evidence that
President Mugabe, who boasts of
"degrees in violence", has launched his 2008
election campaign. Since he has
nothing to offer the electorate, his powers
of persuasion are limited to
violence. It worked for him during Zimbabwe's
liberation struggle and in
Matabeleland in 1982- 83, and he is sure this
tried-and-tested strategy will
not fail him. This is the same violence
witnessed in the run-up to the 2000
and 2002 parliamentary and presidential
elections in the name of land
reform. The purpose of this violence is to
intimidate and it is working. The
vigilante groups aim to break the backbone
of trade unions and paralyse the
MDC's structures. There is a palpable sense
of fear across Zimbabwe. The
assault on Tsvangirai sent a clear message that
nobody is out of reach. The
public is justified in asking: "If they can do
it to Morgan, who am I to try
to stand up to the regime?" Thus the rigging
of the March 2008 parliamentary
and presidential elections has started in
earnest.
The campaign of violence 11 months ahead of the elections,
the repressive
and punitive media laws, an undemocratic Electoral Act and an
oppressive
Public Order and Security Act are all vital steps on Zanu PF and
Mugabe's
road to victory. The situation is likely to get worse. This is no
environment to conduct democratic elections. But it is opportune for
President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mandated by SADC to broker talks between
Zanu PF and the MDC. It should open his eyes to the enormity of his task. So
what is the way forward? The wave of state-sponsored terror must be brought
to an end before Mbeki gets the talks going. Mbeki, with the backing of
SADC, must seek to have a broad-based national dialogue that includes church
leaders, business, trade unions and other civil-society players. A durable
solution to Zimbabwe's problems requires the involvement of more players
beyond Zanu PF and the MDC. A SADC mission must be dispatched to Zimbabwe
with haste and report back to Mbeki. Time is of the essence and any delay in
ending this violence will put Mbeki's efforts at a negotiated settlement in
great jeopardy.
Mugabe is itching for a fight and would love the
MDC to respond in kind to
enable him to kill the national democratic project
once and for all. He has
the instruments of the state to do this. It must be
remembered that Mugabe
has vowed that the MDC will never rule Zimbabwe for
as long as he is alive.
He is prepared to do anything to achieve that goal.
The Electoral Act will
have to be reviewed and all electoral functions taken
away from state
security operatives. A transparent voter education and
registration exercise
must be put in motion to include Zimbabweans in the
diaspora. All military
personnel heading state companies and other
organisations will have to be
sent back to the barracks or retired. As part
of his strategy for victory in
March 2008, Mugabe has announced that he
plans to expand the House of
Assembly and the newly created Senate from 150
to 210 and 66 to 84
respectively. He must be dissuaded from embarking on
this self-serving
project whose sole purpose is to reward the Zanu PF
faithful and continue to
abuse the rural electorate.
In the past
Mugabe has used promises of talks with the MDC as a ruse to buy
himself time
and he must not be allowed to do this again. For these talks to
be
successful, Mugabe would have to concede a lot of ground on the stumbling
blocks to a free election. The media laws, the Electoral Act, the violence
and intimidation and the security laws have been pivotal in his winning
elections and to do away with them would be akin to committing political
hara-kiri. I doubt that Mugabe is ready to negotiate himself out of office.
Without these key pillars it is not possible for Mugabe to win an election.
This means that these negotiations will be sticky if they do take off at
all. Indeed, if the list of concessions sought sounds like a surrender
document, it is because over the years Mugabe has heavily loaded the
political dice in his favour and this simply needs to be undone. It is not
likely that the stubborn Mugabe will succumb to this, thus setting the stage
for stillborn talks and controversial elections next year. But there is no
harm in giving the talks a chance. The violence must be ended not as a
condition for the talks but simply because it is barbaric and does not
belong to the future that most Zimbabweans desire. It goes against
everything SADC and Mbeki and his African renaissance project stand for and
must be condemned in the strongest terms.
Ncube is the chairman
of the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard
newspapers and chief executive
of the Mail & Guardian
Christian Science Monitor
Amid
allegations of torture and harassment, refugees say they had no choice
but
to flee.
By Scott Baldauf |
Staff writer of The Christian Science
Monitor
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - In the early hours of Jan. 11,
Zimbabwean
schoolteacher Sifanekiso Magwegwe reached the Limpopo River,
which forms
part of the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Behind her
was a
country whose security forces had already broken into her home and
beaten
her up because of her family's politics. Ahead of her was a country
(South
Africa) that didn't want another refugee. In the river itself were
crocodiles.
But like dozens of other illegal refugees on that day and
hundreds of
thousands of other Zimbabweans, Magwegwe plunged into the
river.
"There were hundreds of people doing it," she recalls, sitting in
the office
of an relief agency that helps Zimbabwean political victims. "I
just told
myself, what will happen will happen. I put myself in God's hands
and swam."
The growing tide of refugees - and particularly torture
victims like Ms.
Magwegwe - raises uncomfortable questions for a South
African government
that came to power in the name of human rights but that
has refused to
criticize its hard-line neighbor, led by President Robert
Mugabe. But as
South African President Thabo Mbeki takes criticism for his
"quiet
diplomacy," hopes are being raised that Zimbabwe's government may
finally be
ready to talk with the opposition and that Mr. Mbeki's bid to
mediate a
political solution between Mr. Mugabe and the opposition will bear
fruit.
"The South African government recognizes that the flood of
refugees along
their quite open border will occur, unless there is a
political solution
inside Zimbabwe," says Chris Maroleng, an expert on
Zimbabwe for the
Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria (now known as
Tshwane.) "But the
problem for South Africa is that if they make provisions
to allow Zimbabwe
refugees in, they have to make a statement of why they are
doing that, to
criticize the Mugabe regime." That, he says, would scuttle
Mbeki's chances
of negotiating a settlement between the government and the
opposition.
"The problem with the South African government is that it
cannot effectively
communicate their policy," says Mr. Maroleng. "It always
ends up looking
like the ... government supports Mugabe."
Zimbabwe is
marking 27 years of independence from Britain this week - all
under Mugabe's
rule - but the celebration has been marred by the country's
devastated
economy and a political crisis sparked by Mugabe's plan to seek
another
five-year term in 2008. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, said last week that he would talk with Mugabe's party to try to
end the crisis, which he says has resulted in the abduction and torture of
600 political activists this year.
Western input
hurts
Sikhumbuzo Ndiweni, a retired Zimbabwe Defense forces lieutenant
colonel and
political analyst, says that the Western countries have
unintentionally made
the human rights situation worse in Zimbabwe by harping
on the need for
Mugabe to step aside.
"There's no road map," he
complains. "You expect Mbeki to say, 'I support
you,' but they have no idea
how to achieve the new dispensation. If you
don't have a road map, and if
you haven't helped the opposition come up with
a strategy over the long
term, then five weeks later, there will be a coup,
and the ruling party will
all come back again."
Yet rights activists inside Zimbabwe and outside
have kept up the drumbeat,
calling on the world to keep up pressure on the
Mugabe regime to step aside.
In their Easter joint statement, the Roman
Catholic bishops of Zimbabwe
wrote, "Many people in Zimbabwe are angry, and
their anger is now erupting
into open revolt in one township after
another.... In order to avoid further
bloodshed and avert a mass uprising,
the nation needs a new people-driven
constitution that will guide a
democratic leadership chosen in free and fair
elections."
But for
many Zimbabwean political activists, the only solution has been to
flee.
James Lunga, newly arrived in South Africa, has spent the past
four years as
a refugee in Botswana - part of that in prison for crossing
the border
illegally. He says he fled Zimbabwe after being arrested and
tortured for
his activities as a leader in the youth wing of Mr.
Tsvangirai's opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic
Change.
Today he lives in a friend's apartment with nine other refugees.
"We sleep
like people in prison, you don't turn or roll over," he says. "We
haven't
got papers, so I'm afraid of getting arrested and deported to
Botswana or to
Zimbabwe," where he would be imprisoned once
more.
Hard to live in South Africa
Ephraim Mugande, a teacher from
the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe, fled
after he and his wife were beaten
and raped for their involvement in the
MDC.
"My wife was raped in
front of me, and I was also raped at the same time,"
says Mr. Mugande.
Mugande took his wife to his in-laws' and fled to
Botswana, where he was
jailed for 18 months. His wife, who was raped three
more times by policemen,
also fled to Botswana, and was jailed for a year
before being granted
refugee status. In March, Mugande fled Botswana, after
facing arrest there
for organizing a peaceful protest in sympathy for
Zimbabwe.
"I don't
regret involving myself with the MDC," Mugande says, but says that
his move
to South Africa is "a disaster." "I don't have proper
accommodation, no
meals, I don't have a jacket and the weather is chilly.
And again, I'm
separated from my wife. It's really paining now."
Richard Nyasvimbo left
his hometown of Manyika after being beaten by ZANU-PF
activists and
threatened with death unless he stopped his support for the
MDC. But now in
South Africa, with no papers and no legal way of obtaining
work, he's
wondering if he's really better off.
"If I stay in South Africa and not
work, and fail to pay my rent here, it's
a problem," he says, shaking his
head. "Right now, I don't have a future."
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12 April
Stephen Chan
With or without Robert Gabriel
Mugabe, Zimbabwe is not at a point where it
can sink no further. Zaire under
Mobutu Sese Seko, Uganda in the aftermath
of Idi Amin, genocide in Rwanda,
and the civil wars of Liberia and Sierra
Leone all stand as examples of what
could still come. Powerful actors on all
sides in Zimbabwe are realising
that the worst must not be allowed to
happen. If their interests are to
survive, the future has to be rescued from
the hands of the current
president. The last sacrifice in the struggle for
national liberation will
be Mugabe himself, the father of the nationalist
movement. Within Mugabe's
own party, Zanu PF, frantic realignments are
taking place. Among the likely
successors, several share a common history.
Solomon Mujuru, the retired army
commander, and his wife Joice Mujuru,
currently Vice-President, command
significant military credentials. The top
soldiers are behind them. Their
hands would be stronger still if Didymus
Mutasa, Minister of Security and
architect of much of the current internal
repression, chooses to throw his
hat into their ring. An alliance with
Mutasa would bring the Central
Intelligence Organisation on to the side of
the Mujurus. The chief rival to
the Mujuru camp is Emmerson Mnangagwa. As a
former defence minister, he can
draw on his own military alliances. If
Mnangagwa opts to cooperate with the
Mujurus, their combined resources would
command decisive coercive force in
the military and security agencies.
Together, these factions would present a
formidable inducement to Mugabe not
to persevere beyond 2008. But their
triumph would become the triumph of
coercive powers. Securocrats will run
Zimbabwe and that is not a good omen
for democracy.
Mugabe has
good reason to seek to divide and rule these two factions. His
efforts to
date have not been decisive, making it likely that he will
endeavour to
fashion his own presidential force from Zanu PF's youth
militia - the "Green
Bombers". This tactic would mimic the last act of prime
minister Abel
Muzorewa, who assembled a personal militia in the final days
of Ian Smith's
minority white regime. Relying on this method of brutal
political policing
to build Mugabe's political leverage would be a sign of
desperation. The
Bombers are neither disciplined nor heavily armed. If
Mugabe refuses to go
without a fight, it won't be civil war - the Bombers
cannot withstand an
organised military push. But they could cause much
bloodshed in a showdown.
Will it come to this? Certainly, Mugabe is in a
belligerent mood. His
fighting talk has become more militant and the lashing
out - both verbal and
in attacks on the opposition - is a departure from his
usual style. Mugabe
has always sought to give the impression of being in
control. He acts
calmly, preferring to taunt his opponents with disdainful
sarcasm. There is
no sarcasm now. The opposition - the two MDCs - are edging
towards unity.
How they can sustain this momentum from the protests of early
March is not
clear, although they have a powerful incentive to cooperate if
they are to
secure an effective role in the political brokering that lies
ahead. Morgan
Tsvangirai has, as ever, shown immense courage - and even
Arthur Mutambara
has now been blooded. They are closer together than before.
But the two MDCs
have been ineffectual for so long that a single explosive
moment is no
reason to predict a last push sufficient to topple the old
president.
The larger ambition of the opposition movements was
not just to bring down
Mugabe but to democratise Zimbabwean politics. Here,
it will be the South
Africans who will call some decisive shots. But,
whatever the outcome, the
horse-trading that must follow Mugabe's departure
will not be very
democratic. South Africa has long sought a unity
government. They would be
happy with a coalition involving the Mujurus,
Mnangagwa and Tsvangirai.
While they do not have a strong view on Mutambara,
they will assume that it
is better to have all the "name" actors inside the
government, rather than
outside. This emphasis on inclusivity will make it
easier, in the
post-Mugabe period, for South Africa to guide Zimbabwe into a
new era of
political transition. There is not much Zimbabweans will be able
to do to
resist. The great nationalist project will have led to foreign
influence of
a new - and greater - sort than ever before. For the
international
community, this is likely to be enough. Whether one of the
Mujurus,
Mnangagwa, Tsvangirai or Mutambara is president is a smaller issue.
The
departure of Mugabe will be a symbolic moment for the West. Aid and
investment will, slowly, resume. But this begs a terrible question: is the
West prepared to sacrifice so many Zimbabwean lives merely because of its
argument with Mugabe? The answer is probably "yes". The synchronicity of
Mugabe and Tony Blair both leaving office within 12 months would be truly
symbolic. The timing, however, remains far from certain. Dissidents within
Zanu PF are not yet ready to force out Mugabe. The two MDCs are not
sufficiently organised. The president, meanwhile, is fiercely resisting. An
alternative strategy for Mugabe's opponents is to prevent him from running
again for president in 2008. That would mean another 12 months of Zimbabwe
in meltdown. It might seem abstract, but there really is a big difference
between inflation at its current rate of about 1 800% and say 5 000% in a
year from now. At that rate, many in today's Zimbabwean elite will not feel
like much of an elite by next March.
Perhaps some combination of
the dissidents and the MDCs will invite a
visiting delegation of high-level
African Union presidents to "persuade"
Mugabe to accept honourable
retirement. There may be a promise of immunities
and protection, even exile.
But this would imply an escape from
accountability for those who have caused
great hardship, just as Smith was
allowed to at independence. The image of a
bitter old black man as an exact
parallel of that bitter old white man is a
miserable record for posterity.
But this is the image history is likely to
retain. Mugabe, the ruthless
liberation leader who, after the war was won,
combined ruthlessness with,
for a time, highly successful government, but in
the end sacrificed reality
for his dream of a completed nationalism. The
president, with his defiant
moustache and beautifully cut suits, has soft
hands. I have noticed these
hands. They are not hands that hold a hoe or
spade. They do not remember
how. They are hands that are used to eat
daintily with good manners.
Perhaps, when he embarked upon the seizures of
land in 2000, Mugabe felt the
angel of death at his shoulder. He wanted to
complete his life's work.
Instead, his actions have overturned the economic
foundations of an
independent country. Whoever next holds power in Zimbabwe
might still think
like a Jesuit, but should plan like a farmer - and grow
food for his
neighbour.
Stephen Chan is a professor of
international relations in the University of
London and Dean of law and
social sciences at the School of Oriental and
African Studies. He is the
author of Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and
Violence and was a member of
the Commonwealth Observer Group to Zimbabwe in
1980
Delaware Online
By
MARTIN MEREDITH
Posted Sunday, April 15, 2007
After 27 years
in power, President Robert Mugabe is finally losing his grip
over Zimbabwe.
Economic disaster has provoked mounting criticism not only
from opposition
groups but from powerful factions within his own party.
Mugabe's customary
tactics for dealing with his critics have been violence
and repression. But
so dire has the plight of Zimbabwe become recently that
there are signs that
even violence is no longer sufficient to keep the
increasingly unpopular
president in power.
Zimbabwe has the world's fastest-shrinking economy
outside a war zone.
Agricultural production has declined by half since 2000,
when Mugabe sent
militia groups to seize white-owned farms in the hope of
restoring his
popularity. Vast tracts of land now stand unused. The
inflation rate has
soared to 1,700 percent and is expected to reach 5,000
percent by the end of
the year. Three-quarters of the population is
unemployed; more than 3
million have moved to neighboring countries. Foreign
diplomats are warning
of mass starvation.
Opposition groups convened
a "Save Zimbabwe" prayer meeting in Harare on
March 11, defying a government
ban on public rallies. Mugabe ordered armed
police to break up the meeting
-- to "bash them," as he likes to say.
Last week, opposition leaders
charged that scores more advocates of
political and civic change had been
abducted and badly beaten in recent
middle-of-the-night assaults by
unidentified assailants -- widely believed
to be part of a government
campaign to stifle dissent. Nelson Chamisa,
spokesman for the Movement for
Democratic Change, was attacked at Harare's
airport last month by four men
who fractured his skull with iron bars,
according to the New York Times. But
far from intimidating opposition
groups, Mugabe's use of violence has
emboldened them. "They are losing their
fear, despite every effort of the
government to build that fear over the
last eight years," Christopher Dell,
the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, told a
reporter.
This latest bout of
repression has led to a torrent of foreign condemnation,
even from Mugabe's
allies in Africa. The South African government,
Zimbabwe's largest trading
partner has been reluctant to criticize Mugabe's
regime. It has made it
clear that it wants him to retire when his term
expires in 2008. Mugabe, of
course, has other ideas. The 83-year-old leader
is determined to hold onto
power beyond 2008. He has even talked of
continuing in office until
2014.
But it will be increasingly difficult. These days, prominent
figures within
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party are trying to maneuver him
toward an exit,
fearing that their private wealth amassed during the Mugabe
years could be
lost in an economic collapse. Mugabe previously retained
their loyalty by
rewarding them with farms, government contracts and other
perks, but he no
longer has the ability to offer such patronage because the
government, mired
in debt, is bankrupt. When Mugabe recently tried to
postpone next year's
presidential elections for two years, to keep himself
in power for an
extended term, he was thwarted by Solomon Mujuru, a former
army commander
and one of Zimbabwe's richest men.
Nevertheless,
Mugabe has long experience in outmaneuvering his critics
within ZANU-PF. As
long as he maintains control of the army and police, the
option of violent
repression remains at hand.
For much of Mugabe's career, violence has
been his stock in trade. As leader
of one of the guerrilla armies that
fought to overthrow white-minority rule
in Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was
previously called, he became obsessed with the
power of the gun, telling
supporters that even when they had the vote, the
gun would always be ready
for use. So proud was he of his record that he
once boasted about having "a
degree in violence" to add to his six
university degrees.
Mugabe came
to power in 1980 in an atmosphere of hope and optimism. In the
early years,
he strove to build a good working relationship with his former
white
adversaries; he reassured white business about the future, stressing
the
need for foreign investment. Buoyed by a huge influx of Western aid, he
embarked on an ambitious program to extend education and health
services.
But as the years passed, he turned viciously on his black
opponents and his
good will toward the white community evaporated. He has
crushed his
political opposition, rigged elections, corrupted the courts,
trampled
property rights and suppressed independent media.
Now,
however, his style of government has become a matter of embarrassment
for
other African leaders. In return for Western aid, they have repeatedly
promised to adhere to strict rules of governance and to bring an end to the
era when Africa's "big men" could rule the roost with impunity.
But,
like other big men before him, Mugabe has no intention of going
quietly.
Martin Meredith is a journalist and historian whose books
include "The Fate
of Africa" and "Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the
Tragedy of
Zimbabwe."
icNewcastle
Apr 15
2007
By Phil Doherty, The Sunday Sun
Tendai Musariri fears he will be murdered if he is sent back to Zim-
babwe.
He is a member of the Movement for Democratic Change,
MDC, the
political party opposed to president Robert Mugabe.
Tendai says he still bears the scars on his legs of the beatings he
endured
at the hands of the ruthless Zimbabwean secret police before he fled
in
2001.
And he claims his brother Simba disappeared after arriving
back at the
airport in Harare, the country's capital.
He too
was an active member of the MDC and has not been heard of since
he was
deported back to the former British colony.
Tendai, 39, said:
"I left Zimbabwe because of persecution by the
ruling party - Zanu PF - and
the government after being attacked by the
secret police and Zanu PF
supporters.
"They took me to a police station along with around 15
others and they
beat me on my legs with iron bars all
night.
"In the morning they let those who survived go and told
us that we
could `disappear' at any time. At least two others died in the
beatings.
"My brother Simba was snatched by the secret police.
I'm very fearful
about what will happen to my family if we are
deported."
Tendai lives in Benwell, Newcastle, with wife Grace,
27, and children
Bongani, nine, and Ehren, five.
He is a
qualified accountant and has a university degree, but hasn't
been allowed to
work because of Home Office rules governing asylum seekers.
Instead, he and his family - along with thousands of other asylum
seekers in
the region - survive on £108 a week.
He is currently organising
a MDC rally to be held in the North to help
highlight the ongoing human
rights abuses by the Mugabe regime.
Recently, police allegedly
savagely beat MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
while they held him in
custody.
Tendai added: "I used to support Zanu PF as they
helped liberate my
country.
"But I changed my mind because
it was just a one-party state and I
wanted true democracy for my
country.
"We used to believe Mugabe was a hero and we admired
him. But he
turned cruel and wicked. Thousands of people have disappeared .
. . yet
Britain still sends us back."
Another country with
an alleged appalling human rights record is
Turkey.
Despite
wanting to join the European Union, there are still
accusations that it
treats members of the Kurdish minority as second-class
citizens.
This is something that Turkey denies strenuously
and says it has the
right to defend itself against armed groups seeking to
split the Kurdish
areas from the rest of the country.
Baran
Dogan, 42, his wife Ashren, 40, and their two children Ayse, 16,
and her
brother Bahroz, 15, are detained in a detention centre in Scotland
while
they appeal to the High Court for leave to stay.
Ayse, who
spoke to the Sunday Sun on behalf of the family, who used to
live in
Newcastle, said: "If they send us back to Turkey then my father will
be
arrested because he had connections with a Kurdish political
group.
"We had to flee because of political persecution and
came here in
2000. Most of our family live in the UK and have been here for
many years.
"We are now in a detention centre after immigration
came for us about
six weeks ago.
"We are very unsure what
is going to happen to us and this is putting
great strain on all the family.
My dad has heart trouble and we are very
worried what the stress is doing to
him.
"This has effectively ruined my life as the immigration
people came
just before I was going to sit my GCSEs. I wanted to take my
A-levels and go
to university. I miss my English friends, the school and my
school teacher."
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Exiles group spearheads bid to bring their plight to the attention of
the
international courts.
By Zakeus Chibaya in Johannesburg (AR No.
108, 13-Apr-07)
Still visibly traumatised and walking with the help of a
stick, Zimbabwean
Silibaziso Tembo vividly recounts being tortured by ruling
party Zanu-PF
agents, which has left her paralysed.
Her main sin was
her participation as an election agent for the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change, MDC, party in the resort town of Victoria
Falls in the
2005 parliamentary election.
After surviving several attacks in 2000 from
the youth militia and war
veterans who spearheaded the Zanu-PF orgy of
violence, she finally succumbed
during Operation Murambatsvina, a clean-up
campaign which left 700,000
families homeless and without a source of
livelihood.
Her back-yard house and tuck shop was targeted by the Zanu-PF
activists who
gang raped her, and destroyed her home.
Tembo fled to
South Africa across the dangerous Limpopo River to seek
medical treatment
and refuge. Her dream is to see her perpetrators brought
to book. As the
justice and police system in Zimbabwe has failed to
prosecute the culprits,
she is putting her hopes on the international
justice system.
"I
would like to see the culprits brought to a trial court and answer for
their
crimes. The government of Zimbabwe should take responsibility for the
brutality, rape and torture, which was orchestrated by the Central
Intelligence Organisation and Zanu-PF thugs. I am prepared to stand in the
courts to give evidence of torture," said a sobbing Tembo. "I used to work
for myself but Mugabe's brutality reduced my life to a
destitute."
The period between 2000 and 2006 has witnessed an upsurge of
political
violence, which has left many women activists supporting the MDC
raped and
tortured. Women form a large number of Zimbabweans fleeing the
country.
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum's executive director Gabriel Shumba, who
is
spearheading the litigation process to bring the matter to the attention
of
international courts, said, "We have filed three communications
(petitions)
with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights against
the
Republic of Zimbabwe, which we hold vicariously liable for the
perpetration
of these violations through its agents."
The majority of
the victims were abused by members of the Zanu-PF state
security machinery,
such as the CIO, the army intelligence department and
youth militia,
commonly known as the "green bombers". ZEF has also prepared
three more
communications for the commission and two complaints will be
shortly placed
before the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.
The commission
was established under the terms of Article 30 of the African
Charter on
Human and Peoples' Rights. The body consists of eleven
independent members
elected for a term of six years. It normally holds two
ordinary sessions
annually, one around March/April and the second around
September/October,
each meeting lasting two weeks.
"More abused women are coming forward and
we are determined to take their
cases to the international courts," said
Shumba.
Since 2003, Zimbabwe civic organisations based in South Africa
have received
numerous reports of cases of women who say they have been
raped and tortured
either directly or indirectly by state agents. Zimbabwe
Political Victims'
Association, ZIPOVA, an exiled Zimbabwe organisation that
is assisting in
the litigation project, said they are seeing between five to
ten abused
women a week.
A project has been launched at ZIPOVA to
give abused women confidence to
stand up for their rights. The women meet
once a week to receive counselling
and to discuss their experiences of
torture and brutality.
Giyatri Sigh, of the Witwatersrand University's
Forced Migration Department,
who has carried out preliminary research on
exiled, abused Zimbabwe women,
said, "There is rampant abuse of Zimbabwean
women, even in South Africa.
There is a need to document the abuses and seek
recourse."
A young woman living in exile in South Africa told IWPR of how
she was
intermittently abducted by CIO operatives between 2004 and 2006 when
she was
still in high school. She reported that she was forced to join them
because
her father was a member of the Zimbabwe National Army and she was an
MDC
activist. She was moved between army barracks and shown people who were
viewed as anti-government being tortured and sometimes killed. During her
captivity she was repeatedly raped.
ZEF has established through
extensive research that an alarming number of
Zimbabwean women suffer sexual
and other physical abuse in the country, and
by border officials while
trying to escape from Zimbabwe.
One of the most horrific cases is that of
Muchaneta Gomo, who was gang-raped
by four members of the youth militia at
Mushagashe Youth Militia Training
Centre near Masvingo. One of the group
forced the barrel of a rifle into her
private parts during the
ordeal.
"I know my culprits very well. Some of the CIO's and youth
militias I have
seen in South Africa on a mission to spy on exiled
Zimbabweans. We are ready
to demand justice for women. I no longer feel
intimidated by the regime,"
said Gomo, who is in her early 20s.
Gomo
had enrolled at Mushagashe to train as a carpenter, but then discovered
that
the centre is used to train and teach youths about Zanu-PF ideology. On
many
occasions they were sent on missions to attack opposition supporters.
When
she asked questions about her studies, she was beaten and raped.
There
are about fifteen youth militia centres in the country that operate as
training facilities. Women are abused at the centres as the supervisors take
advantage of the vulnerability of the young girls.
Shumba is
optimistic that the abused women will triumph at the international
courts.
He successfully took his case to the commission and the Zimbabwean
government was asked to respond to the allegations.
Tembo said, "We
are ready to face Mugabe in the courts to answer for his
brutality and I
have enough evidence to prove my case. Someone has to pay
for the atrocities
inflicted on Zimbabwean women. We will be representing
many Zimbabwean women
who have died because of Mugabe's brutality."
Zakeus Chibaya is a regular
IWPR contributor.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
They want the SADC to force Mugabe to let them take part in key
ballot.
By Zakeus Chibaya in Johannesburg (AR No. 108,
13-Apr-07)
Zimbabwean exiles are intensifying their efforts to force the
Zimbabwe
government to allow them to vote in the 2008 presidential election,
and have
vowed to put pressure on Southern African Development Community,
SADC,
countries to take a stand on the issue.
It is estimated that
there are more than two million Zimbabweans in South
Africa alone and many
others live in surrounding countries, but the Zimbabwe
Supreme Court ruled
in 2002 that those not in Zimbabwe cannot vote in
presidential
elections.
The exiles say they will pressure SADC to force Zimbabwe
president Robert
Mugabe to give exiles the right to vote. They argue that
most SADC countries
allow postal voting for citizens that are living in
other countries. Under
Zimbabwe's electoral laws, only citizens outside
their home constituencies
on official national duty can cast postal votes, a
requirement critics say
has disenfranchised more than four million
Zimbabweans.
The Zimbabwean National Constitutional Assembly, NCA, is
spearheading the
campaign for exiles to fight for their right to vote. It
has started
educational and awareness programmes to ensure that citizens
understand the
need for a new constitution that will give exiles the right
to vote.
Tapera Kapuya, the Coordinator for NCA in South Africa, said,
"The reality
is that an estimated fifth of our national population is
located outside the
borders of Zimbabwe. They have been disenfranchised of
their citizenship and
statehood, and cannot be excluded from contributing to
the national vision."
It is estimated that 49,000 Zimbabweans enter South
Africa each month. With
inflation in Zimbabwe reaching 1,700 per cent and
prices of basic
commodities soaring every day, many risk death, rape and
robbery as they
cross into South Africa illegally. The exiles say that they
are going to use
this influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa to force SADC
to put pressure
on Mugabe to accept the exile vote.
Tichaona Mutero
from Mutoko north of Harare, who fled the economic turmoil
in the country,
said, "We need to claim our stake as we are contributing to
the country by
sending foreign currency back home. There is no way the
opposition can win
the election without our participation and that's why
Mugabe is boasting of
winning the election next year. He knows that his
policies and violence has
forced millions of his enemies out of the
country."
Now operating a
makeshift kitchen at the Zimbabwe-bound buses terminus near
Park Station in
Johannesburg, Mutero has missed two consecutive elections
and like many
Zimbabweans, he believes his vote is crucial.
"We will fight for our
rights to vote and we are now prepared to pay the
supreme price: death. The
SADC leaders know about the influx of Zimbabweans
in their countries and
they need to force Mugabe to accept postal voting.
The people are now
prepared to take Mugabe head on and the exiles have been
keeping quiet for a
long time, acting as if we are Zanu-PF [ruling party]
supporters," said
Mutero.
Thompson Temba, a Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, opposition
party
activist from Bikita, southeast of Zimbabwe, said, "We are going to
demand
our right to vote. We have been silent for too long. Mugabe has
brutalised
and disenfranchised opposition voters but we are regrouping to
claim what
belongs to us. Mugabe has robbed me of my vote for the past two
elections."
Temba was a ward coordinator for the MDC but fled the country
in 2001 during
the by-election, which left many opposition activists
brutally tortured by
the late war-veteran leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi. "I know
the importance of my
vote to change the country and I had to fight for it.
If the San people in
Botswana could claim their land back, how can we fail?"
he said.
Makanaka Shoko, a farm worker living near the Musina border town
in South
Africa, complained bitterly of his treatment at a border post
during the
election period.
"When I arrived at Beit Bridge [border
post] at midnight, I was detained
with hundreds of Zimbabweans and we were
only released in the late
afternoon. When I arrived in my hometown at
Nembudziya, Gokwe, the polling
stations had closed. Hundreds of people are
prevented from voting through
Mugabe's dirty works," he said.
Gabriel
Shumba, the executive director for the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, ZEF,
said, "If
countries like Mozambique and Botswana can have postal ballots and
if
Zimbabwe can allow diplomats postal voting there is no sense in requiring
those in exile to be physically present in the country before they can
register and vote."
Shumba added that since the largely pro-Mugabe
Supreme Court has rejected an
earlier application by exiled Zimbabweans for
their right to vote, it seems
the legal route in Zimbabwe has been closed.
However, ZEF is taking the case
further to the African Commission on Human
Peoples' Rights in May.
The ZEF was formed in South Africa in 2003 and
says it is a "non-political,
non-profit and non-partisan organisation with
an eye on the future of
Zimbabwe".
Kapaya said, "Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora, like most people back home, may
be focussed on mere survival
issues and unwilling to put themselves at risk
by engaging in the struggle
of converting ideas into action. But if a new
constitution is not crafted
with speed the sitting government will continue
to close the democratic
space as it has total power in the country.
"Zimbabweans in the diaspora
have no space in the present constitution as
the dual citizenship that was
scrapped by the Zimbabwean government is
effectively barring a significant
number of Zimbabweans from participating
in the electoral processes," he
said.
A group of Zimbabwean exiles calling themselves the Diaspora Vote
Action
Group petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse a government policy
barring
exiles from casting their votes a number of years ago. Chief Justice
Godfrey
Chidyausiku dismissed the application.
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa said that Zimbabweans outside the country
would not be
allowed to vote in any election. "The law in our situation is
explicit.
Citizens of Zimbabwe who are resident will be allowed to vote," he
said.
Zakeus Chibaya is an IWPR contributor.
Mail and Guardian
Fanuel Jongwe | Harare, Zimbabwe
15
April 2007 09:48
Noriah Masukume weaves her way through the
crowded hall at
Harare's international bus terminus as she notes orders from
a customer on
the cellphone before boarding a bus to South
Africa.
On the bus she exchanges pleasantries with fellow
travellers
engaged in small talk around escalating prices in the local
stores, their
families and how difficult it is becoming for traders who go
on shopping
sprees in South Africa.
"It's not easy,"
Masukume, a nurse at a private hospital in the
capital who doubles as a
cross-border trader, told an Agence France-Presse
correspondent when the
coach stopped in the town of Masvingo for a brief
recess during the
16-hour-plus journey to Johannesburg.
"From the long hours on
the bus, the hostility we sometimes
encounter and tugging the luggage along
at the border when we head home.
This is supposed to be my time off from
work but I can't afford the luxury
to relax.
"I cannot
afford to feed and clothe my family on my salary alone
so I have to do an
extra job. There are many professionals in similar
circumstances."
Masukume is among thousands of
Zimbabweans who earn a living by
buying goods from neighbouring Botswana,
Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia but
mostly South Africa for resale back
home.
"This is the only job I have known," said 23-year-old
college
leaver Ngoni Chimhowa, who travels to the northern South African
town of
Musina to buy cooking oil and soap for resale.
Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn spiral over the past
seven years
characterised by four-digit inflation which stood at 1 730% in
February and
an unemployment rate which has left four in every five people
jobless.
At least 80% of the population is living below
the poverty
threshold with the average worker earning Z$90 000 (about R2
500), according
to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, while an average
family of five
needs at least one million dollars for basic foodstuffs and
toiletries.
While in the past cross-border traders were
mainly elderly women
with little formal education, professionals struggling
to stretch their
salaries to the next pay day have taken to moonlighting to
supplement their
pay.
Among familiar faces on the bus,
Masukume points at three
schoolteachers, a fellow nurse and several
government employees.
The transfrontier shoppers spend
hundreds and sometimes
thousands of dollars buying anything from cartons of
cooking oil and laundry
soap, perennially in short supply in Zimbabwe to
gadgets like top-of-the
range television sets, computers, fridges, solar
panels and car spares.
"Zimbabweans are in the majority of
our customers," says Abel
Tsikwa, a Zimbabwean immigrant working as a sales
assistant in a
wholesaler's shop in Johannesburg's Crown Mines
district.
"They are known for spending huge amounts of money
-- up to
thousands of rand on grocery. One is left wondering whether these
people are
coming from a country with an ailing economy."
Zimbabwe is facing an acute shortage of basic goods like sugar,
cooking oil
and milk as factories reeling under ever-rising operation costs
have either
pulled down the shutters or have scaled down their
operations.
The chronic shortages have spawned a burgeoning
black market
where cross-border traders supply goods quoting prices at the
parallel
market currency rates -- in some cases up to 10 times the official
price.
So lucrative is the trade that some traders shuttle
between
Harare and South Africa up to four times a month and supply scarce
goods to
leading chain stores back home.
At
Johannesburg's Park Station, Zimbabwean cross-border shoppers
stand out as
they bring in carts full of groceries and gadgets with help
from pushcart
operators who shuttle between nearby lodges and the bus
station.
On the buses returning to Harare or the second
city of Bulawayo
boxes, bags of groceries which cannot fit the side
compartments occupy seats
on the bus.
"There is usually
more luggage than passengers on the buses to
Harare and Bulawayo," a bus
driver who regularly plies the Harare --
Johannesburg route said while
helping travellers load their goods onto the
bus at Park
Station.
Economists have bundled the importation of basics
together
withother factors such as depleted exports, among the propellers of
the
country's run-away inflation.
Victor Zirebgwa, an
economist with the financial think tank
Techfin Financial Research, said:
"The importation of goods has a negative
bearing because most of the money
used to buy these goods is sourced from
the black market." -
Sapa-AFP
zimbabwejournalists.com
15th Apr 2007 18:26 GMT
By Patrick Chikwende
HARARE - The
sight resembled the "diamond rush" that was recently hit people
in the
Marange area.
Many flock to this open place in the morning and they mill
around until they
get what they want. And many more come to join them as the
numbers of the
unemployed in Zimbabwe continue to soar.
This is not
Marange but Harare and the diamonds are the scarce US dollar,
the British
pound, the South African Rand, the Botswana Pula and other hard
currencies.
The unemployed are trying to make ends meet through
illegal trading and are
prepared to go to any lengths to ensure they reach
their targets to feed
their extended families, send their offspring to
school and related issues.
They have turned themselves into foreign
currency traders and removed their
families from the vagaries of
poverty.
The trade becomes increasingly lucrative by the day as the Zimbabwe
dollar
continues to weaken.
Though there are risks of arrests, the
highly educated and jobless traders
say they know when and how to evade the
police as the law enforcement agents
have proved complicit in the illegal
trading.
"We pay the police bribes for us to operate illegally and at
times they
phone us to inform if there will be a pending raid," says one
dealer.
In their hundreds found across the city, foreign currency dealers
lean on
walls, they stand on street corners and some sit on pavements while
others
simply move around whispering to passer's by in low toned voices;
"Tochinja
here" (we deal in foreign currency) or simply "Boss toita sei
nhasi,mati
todyei" (What can we do for you today Boss, what are we going to
eat).
It takes seconds for a dealer to get a client and soon they would
be moving
to a safe transacting place to seal their
deal.
Transactions are carried out in food outlets, shops, cars, on
stairs, in
elevators and even in toilets.
Such is life for Talent
Ndoro, 26, an unemployed history and developmental
studies graduate from the
Midlands State University.
For Ndoro illegal foreign currency trading has
been his source of income for
the past year and claims he earns more than
most people who are formally
employed.
Ndoro wakes up early in the
morning like everyone else starting work at 8am
and winds up his day anytime
after 6pm. His clients range from travellers,
civil servants and recipients
of foreign currency from money transfer
agencies.
Ndoro says his
mobile phone has proved handy as he normally gets calls from
his clients who
feel safe to transact in the comfort of their offices, cars
or
homes.
The foreign currency dealers have their own corners that they
fight for on
the streets of Harare. As Ndoro does his own thing in the
corner, Trish
Gama, 37, a mother of two is clad in the familiar white
regalia of the
Apostolic faith church, does her own thing in the
other.
They are all fighting to get the scarce foreign currency that has
seen many
changing their lives instantly.
Gama says the official rate
paid out to people with foreign currency by
banks and financial institutions
falls far short of what the dealers on the
streets pay, thereby making her
new-found trade profitable.
"Banks pay $250 for US$1while we pay up to
$20000.The same goes with other
hard currencies. Our rates attract people,
"Gama said, adding that as long
as there is a big difference between the
official rates and the parallel
rate she will remain in
business.
Reserve Bank Governer, Dr Gideon Gono refused to devalue the
local currency
in his last monetary policy statement claiming it would not
improve the
inflow of hard currency in the country.
He chose to
concentrate on the much-publicised "social contract " as the
panacea to the
country's woes.
Roadport regional bus terminus and Fifth street have also
proved to top the
list of sites where illegal foreign currency trading is
rampant.
Other hubs include the corner of Robert Mugabe and Third Street and
the
opposite of the main entrance of the Meikles Hotel.
Forex dealers
have however shunned their traditional trading places such as
the Ximex mall
shopping complex and the Africa Unity Square garden citing
constant police
raids.
The traders say it is difficult for the police to arrest them in
an open
area than in a building like the Ximex mall, which has since been
taken over
by mostly Nigerian traders.
A blazing hot day for April. The
temperature was in the upper 70s. Some
people were caught out wearing winter
clothes but everyone loved the
sunshine, especially the kids. Vigil
Co-ordinator Dumi and his wife Gugu
brought their baby son Zizi from
Southampton and were glad to see the Moyos
from Birmingham with their
baby.
We were an object of fascination for a number of people. A rasta
(and his
dog) spent most of the day with us, attracted by the singing and
dancing.
We have been cheered by the growing awareness in the Afro-Caribbean
community that Mugabe is a tyrant whatever his image has been in the past.
It's not only rastafarians who have become a feature of London life.
Apparently we ourselves are now on the London sights list. We have long
been used to coach drivers on the Strand saying "and here you see the
Zimbabwe Vigil". Well someone was with us today to film us for a programme
on London. We also had a BBC researcher working on a programme about
migrants and a BBC producer enquiring about Gukuruhundi.
There really
is great interest in Zimbabwe, especially since the brutal
crackdown on the
opposition. We are suddenly attracting more white
Zimbabweans living in the
UK. Welcome to Shane, who played drums. She said
how much coming to the
Vigil cheered her up. It is not only black
Zimbabweans who can feel
isolated living in this country. But although we
have been protesting
outside the Embassy for going on 5 years, there are
still many Zimbabweans
in this country who have never heard of us. James
spotted a Zimbabwean
family he knew from his church walking past today. He
invited them to join
us and they plan to come again. The small daughter was
impressed by Wiz's
ability to sing Shona songs. Wiz asked her she could
speak Shona. Sadly the
little girl said "Not very well".
We noticed a distinguished-looking
gentleman watching the Vigil for some
time and so went over to chat to him.
He turned out to be Peter Hopkirk,
retired journalist from the Times and
author of several well-respected books
on Asia (Foreign Devils on the Silk
Road, Trespassers on the Roof of the
World etc). He said he often came and
watched the Vigil because of his
strong affection for Africa and the way
Africans dealt with situations. He
served with the armed forces in Somalia
and Kenya shortly after the Second
World War. He said how impressed he had
always been by the bravery of
Africans.
In connection with our prayer
Vigil next week, we have been contacted by
Loveworld TV and Evelyn, Dumi and
Jeff are to be interviewed by them.
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 85 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
- Monday,
2nd April, 7.30 pm. Central London Zimbabwe Forum. This
week's forum will
be focusing on action planning including finalising
arrangements for the
Vigil Day of Prayer which will take place outside the
Zimbabwean Embassy on
Saturday April 21st. Please come and give us your
suggestions, hear the
latest news and join in the preparations. Upstairs at
the Theodore Bullfrog
pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand
from the Zimbabwe
Embassy, go down a passageway to John Adam Street, turn
right and you will
see the pub).
- Wednesday, 18th April - MDC UK Demonstration and
March on Zimbabwe
Independence Day: Join MDC UK in expressing 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.
- Wednesday, 18th April, 2 - 5 pm - the second Belfast Vigil
(to
mark Zimbabwean Independence Day) outside the gates of City
Hall.
- Saturday, 21st April, 2 - 6 pm outside Zimbabwe House -
special
Vigil to pray for Zimbabwe (but with the usual singing and
dancing!)
- Monday, 23rd April, 7.30. We hope to have members of the
Zimbabwean Christian Alliance at the Central London Zimbabwe 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.
- Saturday, 28th April, 11 am - 3 pm. The Bristol Vigil
meets under
the covered way, just near the Watershed, Canon's Road,
Harbourside.
Vigil co-ordinator
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
Dear friends,
We have some great new e-cards available on our website.
These have been
designed to mark Zimbabwe's Independence Day on the 18th
April.
Please can you circulate information and, of course, feel free to
start
sending them to friends and colleagues!
http://www.sokwanele.com/sendcard/
We
hope you enjoy them!
Sokwanele
--
SOKWANELE - ZVAKWANA -
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Visit our website at: www.sokwanele.com
Visit our blog at: www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe
Please
help us build our mailing list by asking your friends to subscribe to
our
newsletter. They can do so automatically via our website, or they can
send us
an email at newsletter@sokwanele.com.
Thank
you for your support.
Reuters
Sun 15 Apr
2007, 7:26 GMT
By David McMahon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Africa is
increasingly turning not just to the West,
but eastward to China for
financing to help its economic development, and as
a role model in combating
the continent's poverty.
Trade links between fast-growing economic
powerhouse China and Africa have
taken a leap forward since 2004, when
President Hu Jintao announced a drive
to strengthen relations with the
continent -- the world's poorest despite
being rich in energy and
minerals.
"Clearly we all have a lot to learn from China," Liberian
finance minister
Antoinette Sayeh said at a news conference in Washington on
Saturday. "China
has made more progress than anywhere in the past few
decades in combating
poverty."
Some Western observers are wary of
China's growing role in Africa, which
they say helps support dubious
governments, and also risks plunging some
countries in the continent into
another vicious circle of indebtedness.
But African nations are embracing
China with open arms, and international
lenders like the World Bank are
talking with the Chinese about working
together there.
"Ghana,
Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania -- these are countries that have pretty
good
economic management and in those, the World Bank is interested in
working
with Chinese partners," David Dollar, World Bank China country
director
said.
Dollar said the World Bank was interested in working with the
Export-Import
Bank of China in some African countries to help finance
infrastructure
projects like the construction of roads and power
plants.
PERFECT PARTNERS?
China's economy, which has grown at an
annual rate of close to 10 percent
over the past three decades, is heavily
reliant on imported natural
resources to support the breakneck speed of
growth in its manufacturing
sector.
China's top offshore oil producer
CNOOC last year paid $2.3 billion for a
stake in a Nigerian oil and gas
field, its largest ever overseas
acquisition. Africa already supplies China
with around a third of its crude
oil needs.
And China said in January
it would lend Africa $3 billion in preferential
credit over three years and
double its aid and interest-free loans. Signs
are that there is more to
come.
Over the next three to four years, Zambia expects Chinese firms to
invest
$800 million in a new economic development zone near a
Chinese-operated
copper mine, Zambia's finance minister Ng'andu Magande said
on Saturday.
The zone will include facilities for copper processing and
for the
production of cables for export back to China, and likely other
markets
including the United States, he said.
Not all African
countries are rushing headlong to take on further debt.
Liberia, for
example, is still struggling with around $3.7 billion in
foreign debt
accumulated by past regimes. But China could play a key role in
financing
large scale Liberian infrastructure projects in the future, Sayeh
said.
China's growing role could also point to a longer-term shift in
the global
pattern of trade, African officials say.
"Historically the
pattern of trade has been north/south, but we think the
east/west, or
south-south axis can be a good complement to this," said Rama
Sithanen,
finance minister of Mauritius.
In 2006, trade between China and Africa
reached $55.5 billion, a jump of 40
percent on the previous
year.
Africa's relative openness to Chinese investment contrasts with a
wary
attitude in the United States, which relies heavily on China to finance
its
large trade deficits but has so far shown resistance to Chinese attempts
to
buy U.S. companies.
In 2005, CNOOC was forced to withdraw a $18.5
billion takeover bid for U.S.
energy firm Unocal Corp., due to heavy
opposition from lawmakers who said
the deal could threaten U.S. national
security and violate rules of fair
trade.
Zambia's Magande said
Africa had no such concerns, and that the partnership
between the two
nations was based on long-term mutual interests.
"It's not a military
issue and it's not a political issue. It's a
development issue," said
Magande. "China is a good partner."