The
Star
Zimbabwe's torture adverts
hit a nerve
April 16,
2003
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change has
found a new way of embarrassing the
Zanu-PF government - it is publishing
full-page pictures of wounded and
beaten torture victims.
And underneath the
pictures there's a stark message in its "Action for
National Survival"
campaign: Change demands action.
The MDC
hasn't said what form that action will take, or when it will
happen, but
insiders have hinted it will resemble the ANC-United Democratic
Front
struggle against apartheid in the 1980s. They say the problems they
face are
almost identical, save for the colour of their
oppressor.
The tightly
government-controlled press responded to the advertising
campaign by claiming
the MDC had recruited army deserters to beat
township
residents.
The MDC hit back
with scathing attacks in its adverts. "Are we
expected to believe that the
MDC sponsors army deserters, hires trucks ...
all to attack its own members?"
it shouted in a full-page advert
yesterday.
The adverts featured two photos
of the MDC's Chitungwiza secretary for
information, Paul Shambira, his torso
showing the lacerations caused
by
whips.
"Mr Shambira was brutally
attacked by armed men in uniform in
Chitungwiza last week. The men were
moving around the area in army trucks,"
said the
MDC.
The opposition stops short of
accusing the Zimbabwe National Army of
carrying out the reign of terror that
has engulfed Harare's townships.
Instead
it refers to "men in military uniform", because the MDC
believes the
attackers and torturers who conduct the raids are actually
members of
Zimbabwe's notorious Border Gezi Youth Brigades, the so-called
Green Bombers,
who owe their allegiance and continued survival to
Zanu-PF.
The campaign comes amid growing
international pressure - especially
from the United States, which on Monday
called on Zimbabwe's neighbours to
step up pressure on President Robert
Mugabe to hand over power to a
transitional government in order to pave the
way for new elections.
Zanu-PF yesterday
told the US to "go to hell", saying it was the US
itself which had hold new
elections because George W Bush "was not
elected".
He was referring to Bush's 2001
appointment as president after the
outcome of the decisive Florida campaign
had to be decided by a court,
instead of by the votes
counted.
"Instead of shouting instructions
for Mugabe to step down, it's the
Americans themselves who need a
transitional government to hold fresh
elections and replace the unelected
Bush," said Zanu-PF secretary for
information Nathan
Shamuyarira.
He said anyone who wanted a
new election in Zimbabwe was daydreaming.
A senior unnamed US State Department official said: "What we're
telling them
is there has to be a transitional government in Zimbabwe that
leads to a free
and fair, internationally supervised election. That is the
goal. Mugabe stole
the last one; we can't let that happen again," the
official said, referring
to the widely condemned election in March last year
that Mugabe
won.
The situation in Zimbabwe was hurting
the economies of other countries
in the region as potential investors steered
clear because of fears about
the spread of the crisis, the official
added.
"The neighbourhood is starting to
realise that there is a downside to
giving aid and protection to Comrade
Bob," the official said, using a
derogatory nickname for
Mugabe.
Shamuyarira said the only way to
resolve the Zimbabwe crisis was for
the US and Europe to accept the results
of last year's presidential election
and "work with President Mugabe's
elected government".
The MDC's national
survival campaign started last month with a
full-page advert detailing the
names of policemen and state agents the MDC
said were known
torturers.
The opposition appealed to the
families of the torturers to "pressure"
them into changing their ways and to
think about a future,
democratic
Zimbabwe.
Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo responded with a scathing attack on
newspapers "that
should know better", saying the adverts were
illegal.
But, buoyed by the fall of Iraq's
Saddam Hussein, the MDC published
another advert, listing the demise of
dictators around the world.
"If you are
supporting the dictatorship in Zimbabwe today," it said,
"remember that you
will be alone, facing millions of angry people. The
dictator is certainly on
his way out. Look at yourself."
The
campaign, which is clearly upsetting Zanu-PF leaders, is the first
open
defiance the MDC has shown since its stayaway action last
month.
But the campaign of defiance has
not come without a cost. Police have
arrested at least 500 township residents
since the stayaway, while more than
250 suspected MDC supporters were treated
in hospital after being beaten,
raped or tortured. - Independent Foreign
Service, Sapa
IOL
When will Bush
save us, Zimbabweans
wonder
April 16 2003 at 06:02AM
Harare - Kenny
Kwaramba sells cellphone accessories at a fleamarket in
Zimbabwe - but Iraq,
and the ousting of its dictator Saddam Hussein - has
been on his mind
lately.
"When is Bush coming to save us?"
he asks, echoing the sentiment of
many others during a brutal crackdown by
President Robert Mugabe's
government on the
opposition.
War coverage in the state
media mainly vilifies the coalition,
speaking of invaders with imperialist
designs.
State media have also called for
the body of a black Zimbabwean
serving in the British army who was killed in
Basra, not to be allowed home
for burial. He has been called a traitor
working for the former colonial
power.
But Kwaramba says the images of jubilation among Iraqis at the fall
of
Saddam's regime have not been lost on his hungry and demoralised friends
in
his troubled country. "Ordinary people are poor. People are impatient. It
is
coming," he said.
Analysts say most
Zimbabweans don't think United States military
intervention would ever happen
in Zimbabwe, but see the coalition action as
a symbol of distaste for
dictatorships.
"Dictators can no longer
hide behind the smokescreen of sovereignty to
commit atrocities," said
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, a political scientist at
Zimbabwe University. -
Sapa-AP
Letter
to The
Times
April 16,
2003
Need for action on
Zimbabwe
From Mrs Glenys Kinnock, MEP for Wales
(Labour)
Sir, Although this Thursday, April 17, marks 23 years of
Zimbabwean
independence, the people of Zimbabwe have no reason to
celebrate.
Mugabe's corruption, kleptocracy, intimidation and
state-sponsored violence
are barely noticed as all eyes are trained on Iraq.
In the last couple of
weeks, at least 500 people who took part in a day of
peaceful mass action
have been treated for the effects of the beatings which
they received at the
hands of Mugabe's security agents (T2, April 14).
Millions are starving,
inflation is running at 220 per cent and there are a
million Aids orphans
struggling to survive. Zimbabwe is a failed state if
ever there was one.
There is, however, hope of
progress.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the UN Human Rights Commission will have
the opportunity
to vote on a resolution which could, at last, lead to the
serious response
which the situation in Zimbabwe demands. If a majority is
secured a UN
special rapporteur could be appointed and an assessment made of
the situation
in the
country.
I trust that full suspension from the Commonwealth will continue
as long as
Zimbabwe continues to flout the principles of the Harare
declaration.
Similarly, the Commonwealth Secretary-General's report on
Zimbabwe does, it
appears, take a strong position. The EU should also extend
the list of those
targeted by sanctions to include the family members of
those on the list, as
well as business people in Zimbabwe responsible for
financing the Zanu (PF)
regime.
The crisis in Zimbabwe is, I believe, entering a new and
probably final
stage. Mugabe has embarked on a course of economic and
political suicide and
no one should stand aside as the pitiful drama
unfolds. Africa's leaders in
particular should acknowledge that liberation
has been converted into tyranny
in Zimbabwe, and that all of Africa suffers
if there isn't a clear
condemnation of leaders who behave as if political
office is their personal
right.
Zanu (PF) should be counselled to step aside so that a
genuinely
representative government can take office. Only then can the rule
of law and
political legitimacy be restored. Africa, international donors,
the EU and
the UN must join together in the interests of the people of
Zimbabwe and
press for the solutions likely to stave off a complete
meltdown.
Yours
faithfully,
GLENYS
KINNOCK
(Group of the Party of European
Socialists),
European
Parliament,
Rue Wiertz, 1047
Brussels.
April 15.
Daily
News
Fuel price increase
shocker
4/16/2003 7:02:05 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff
Reporter
THE price of fuel went up by over
300 percent last night - barely five
weeks after the government announced
another hefty increase.
The price
of diesel rose from $119,43 to $250 (70 percent) a litre;
leaded petrol
jumped from $145 to $450 (320 percent) a litre, while unleaded
petrol leapt
from $176,53 to $500 (350 percent) a
litre.
Fuel prices last went up on 25
February.
Amos Midzi, the Minister of
Energy and Power Development, announced
the latest increases last night,
according to a report on the State radio.
Despite the February increases, the country has continued to face
severe fuel
shortages which have had a crippling effect on the
ailing
economy.
The latest increase is
likely to have a multiplier effect on commuter
fares, as well as goods and
services for workers whose incomes continue to
shrink under a 228 percent
inflation rate.
After the February fuel
price increase, fares were increased by more
than 100 percent for many urban
dwellers.
A commuter from Chitungwiza, for
example, was now paying an average of
$500 a
day.
Tapiwa Mashakada, the MDC's shadow
minister for finance, said: "We
note with surprise that the increases come
hardly two months after the first
round of increases which left the poor and
workers more marginalised."
He said the
government was insensitive to the plight of the poor who
are going to bear
the brunt of a new wave of price spirals which inevitably
follow fuel price
increases.
"This shows the government
cannot be trusted because these increases
subvert the whole idea of the
Incomes and Price Stabilisation Protocol,"
Mashakada
said.
The Tripartite Negotiating Forum in
January signed the protocol in
which the social partners agreed to manage all
wage and salary rises in line
with price increases in a bid to address the
current shortages of basic
commodities and relentless price
increases.
"But this," Mashakada said, "is
the second time the government has
violated the so-called
protocol."
In any case, the price hike
would not improve the availability of fuel
at filling stations because it
would not help make foreign currency
available, he
said.
"The fuel supply is inelastic to the
price increase in Zimbabwean
dollars, because the question here is that of
the supply of foreign
currency, not of the local currency
equivalent."
The increases, Mashakada
said, were likely to scuttle the government's
10-point National Economic
Recovery Programme which hinged on price
stability in order to reduce
inflation to 96 percent by December.
Daily
News
Sadc addressing violence,
repression in Zimbabwe: Mbeki
4/16/2003 7:09:23 AM (GMT +2)
By John
Gambanga Daily News Editor
President Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa says the African Union does not
have a position on the
crisis in Zimbabwe, but the Southern African
Development Community leadership
is doing something to address
the
situation.
In a
question-and-answer session with delegates to the recent All
Africa Editors'
Conference in Johannesburg, Mbeki, who is the current
chairman of the AU, the
successor to the Organisation of African Unity,
said: "There have been
several meetings at various levels between the Sadc
task force and the
Zimbabwean government following the violence before and
after the latest
stayaway."
He said the Sadc leadership had
registered its concern about the issue
of violence and repressive laws in
Zimbabwe.
"Right now, the Sadc task force
is looking at the proposed amendments
to the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act," Mbeki said.
The South African leader, however, sidestepped a question from this
reporter
on why he had not taken a strong position against his Zimbabwen
counterpart,
Robert Mugabe, for the breakdown of the rule of law and the
collapsing
economy in the country.
Instead he said
the solution to the crisis lay with the
Zimbabweans
themselves.
Outside
intervention would resolve African problems, he
said.
"The Sadc task force has tried to
engage the MDC and Zanu PF in
dialogue but the MDC has insisted in going to
court over President Mugabe's
victory in the June 2002 presidential
elections," Mbeki said.
He said the MDC
wanted to assert its right of recourse to court while
Zanu PF had agreed to
let the courts settle the matter.
"The
courts must make a determination on this matter. But what will
happen next, I
don't know," said Mbeki.
Mbeki, who was
the guest of honour at the three-day conference
attended by more than 150
African editors, urged the media managers to have
a good knowledge and
understanding of what was going on in Africa for them
to project the
continent objectively and accurately.
Urging the editors to be Africans first before they became
journalists, Mbeki
said they should form an effective Press association to
propagate African
opinions.
"We have, as Africans, a very
good opportunity to do something about
good governance, democracy, war and
conflict. I think the Africans have a
responsibility to address some of these
issues," he said.
Mbeki's position is
different from that of Australia whose Foreign
Minister, Alexander Downer,
last week said African nations must put more
energy into resolving the
problems in Zimbabwe.
Downer said although
the Commonwealth had put pressure on Mugabe to
end his chaotic rule, African
leaders had done nothing at all to
reprimand
him.
The conference,
organised by the South African National Editors'
Forum, attracted more than
150 editors from the continent.
Zimbabwe
was represented by four editors from The Daily News, The
Standard, The
Chronicle and The Manica Post, respectively.
Daily
News
250 treated for trauma say
NGOs
4/16/2003 7:10:26 AM (GMT
+2)
By Fanuel
Jongwe
AT least 250 people were treated in
emergency rooms at various
hospitals in Harare for trauma and injuries
suffered at the hands of
suspected State security agents and Zanu PF
militants following last month's
mass action, according to a coalition of
local NGOs.
More than 30 of the
victims had to be admitted to undergo
surgery.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said
in its report titled: Organised
Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe - From 20 to
24 March, the violence
allegedly perpetrated by uniformed police and
soldiers, was "more organised
than we have seen in the
past".
Crisis in Zimbabwe comprises more
than 350 non-governmental
organisations including trade unions and human
rights organisations.
"The lives of many
Zimbabwe citizens are at serious risk if this level
of State-organised
violence and torture is maintained or increased," the
report
said.
"The methods of torture and
interrogation were systematic. These
attacks are indicative of a systematic
trend of brutal retaliation
against
dissent."
The report said the
majority of the perpetrators were dressed in army
and police uniform and were
driven in military vehicles to the homes of
their
victims.
"The victims taken by the police
for questioning were handed over to
Zanu PF youth for further
assault."
The Zimbabwe National Army has
exonerated its members from the alleged
assaults.
Daily
News
Journalists worried about
judgment delays
4/16/2003 7:13:11
AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
THE Media Institute of Southern
Africa-Zimbabwe (Misa) and the
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) have
expressed concern over the
prolonged delay by the Supreme Court to deliver
judgments on cases affecting
its
members.
In a statement yesterday,
Misa appealed to the Supreme Court to
deliver judgements in cases in which
Capital Radio is challenging the
constitutionality of the ZBC's monopoly in
broadcasting.
Misa also appealed to the
court to deliver judgment on the Independent
Journalists' Association of
Zimbabwe (IJAZ) challenging some sections of the
notorious Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
The statement said: "Capital
Radio and IJAZ have gone to the
Constitutional Court crying that freedom of
expression is under siege in
this country. The Constitutional Court reserved
judgment in the Capital
Radio matter in June 2002 and the IJAZ matter in
October 2002.
"It is a fact that justice
delayed is justice denied. We, the members
of the Media Defence Fund and the
Media Lawyers Network, eagerly await
the
judgments."
Luke Tamborinyoka, the
ZUJ secretary-general, said while his
organisation believed in judicial
independence, it was concerned about the
delay of the
judgments.
"We are obviously concerned by
the slow delivery of the judgments.
While the cases are pending, the media
continues to remain in its unenviable
position under the boots of an over
excited junior minister who has made it
a personal project to create the
Zimbabwean media in his own image.
"In the
meantime, the journalists continue to be barred from certain
functions,
harassed and beaten-up when in fact they have done the proper
thing to
contest some of the laughable clauses in AIPPA, especially the
registration
of journalists.
"The more the judgment is
withheld and delayed, the more the media wil
l continue to squeak under the
boots of the junior minister."
Professor
Jonathan Moyo is the Minister of State for Information and
Publicity in the
office of the President and Cabinet.
Last
year, IJAZ, through their lawyer Sternford Moyo, challenged
the
constitutionality of many clauses of AIPPA, among them the registration
of
journalists.
The Supreme Court is
yet to deliver judgment.
Daily
News
Tsvangirai calls on nation to
disobey oppressive laws
4/16/2003
7:15:48 AM (GMT +2)
By Precious
Shumba
MORGAN Tsvangirai, the MDC
president, yesterday said the Easter and
Independence holidays signified the
importance of pain in the search for
change in the lives of oppressed
Zimbabweans.
In a statement to
mark the two events, which this year fall on the
same weekend, Tsvangirai
said throughout history, unjust laws had to be
defied in order to achieve
freedom.
He appealed to Zimbabweans to
"stand ready for the final call to
reclaim our dignity and freedom" because
they were the agents of change.
"We have
now realised that change demands action," Tsvangirai
said.
He said both occasions signified
hope and renewal of life.
Such repressive
pieces of legislation like the Public Order and
Security Act would never stop
the people's determination to create changed
circumstances in their lives
because there was no force in Zimbabwe stronger
than the people's peaceful
resolve to bring about positive change,
Tsvangirai
said.
"It is a time to remember our
freedom from colonial bondage," he said.
"A time to remember the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ for people's
eternal
freedom.
"From both epochal events, we
learn one lesson: if you want change
expect pain. There is gain at the end of
pain. Meaningful life is littered
with periods of suffering," he
said.
Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans have
been through difficult times which
the country's neighbours cannot
imagine.
He said people have daily
confronted death but "we shall never lose
hope or
surrender".
Life had become meaningless to
the majority of Zimbabweans and the
cherished freedom and liberty associated
with Zimbabwe's independence have
been destroyed through State-sponsored
violence.
Tsvangirai said democratic space
had been effectively abolished and
peaceful protests were answered with
bullets, teargas and bayonets.
He said:
"It is precisely this suffering, with its inherent cleansing
value, that will
give birth to a country and a nation that we all yearn
for - peaceful,
compassionate, caring and prosperous.
"The
bond between the MDC and the nation has been strengthened in the
face of
adversity. With our programmes of peaceful protests through mass
action, we
shall prevail and we shall overcome."
Tsvangirai said the scarcity of baby foods threatened to starve
children to
death with young men expecting nothing from President Mugabe's
illegitimate
regime but violence and death.
The MDC
president bemoaned the acute shortages of food, drugs in
hospitals, sanitary
wear and the spiralling costs of children's
clothing.
He said Zimbabwe's million
vulnerable HIV/Aids orphans and thousands
of child-headed households have
been totally ignored by Mugabe's regime.
Tsvangirai said unemployment has deprived people of the dignity to
provide
for their families where the majority has been forced to accept a
new culture
of poverty.
This year's 23rd independence
anniversary comes at a time when Mugabe'
s government has increased its
repression against real and suspected
political
opponents.
Daily
News
Police assault MDC
activists
4/16/2003 7:16:19 AM
(GMT +2)
By Precious
Shumba
OFFICERS from St Mary's Police
Station on Sunday arrested four MDC
activists and severely tortured them for
allegedly assaulting a policeman in
Chitungwiza and resisting lawful arrest
last month.
Immediately after
their arrest, the four opposition members were taken
to Chitungwiza General
Hospital for treatment under tight police
guard.
The activists' lawyer, Alec
Muchadehama, yesterday confirmed the
torture of Tonderai Richard Machiridza,
David Chipunza, John Mazhambe and
Lisbon
Mutandwa.
Muchadehama said the police
denied him and fellow lawyer, Godfrey
Sibanda, permission to interview their
clients who were bandaged all over
their bodies and visibly in
pain.
"The police arrested and tortured
these men before chaining them to
their hospital beds," he said. "On Monday,
there was a policeman guarding
each of the four men. At the time of our visit
to hospital, Machiridza's
head was covered in
bandages.
Muchadehama said an Inspector
Mbedzi, the officer-in-charge at St Mary
's Police Station, told him
yesterday that Chipunza and Mutandwa would be
transferred to Harare Central
Police Station's CID law and order
section.
Assistant Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, refused
to comment on the arrest of the MDC
activists and allegations being levelled
against the
police.
Muchadehama said when he was
eventually allowed to see the two, who
were being held at St Mary's Police
Station yesterday, they had difficulty
in speaking and
walking.
The reasons for the arrest of the
four activists remained unclear
because they had not been charged by
yesterday.
But Muchadehama had gathered
that the police wanted them in connection
with the alleged assault of a
policeman and resisting arrest.
He said
Machiridza and Mazhambe were still being held at the hospital
where they
remain chained to their beds.
Tariro
Shumba, the MDC spokesman in Chitungwiza, said the two were
severely tortured
immediately after their arrest before they were taken to
Chitungwiza General
Hospital for treatment.
Yesterday, the
police guarding the two hospitalised activists denied
The Daily News crew
access to them.
Daily News
Government designs another bridge at
Birchenough
4/16/2003 7:10:52 AM
(GMT +2)
By Sam
Munyavi
The government is designing
another bridge across the Save River at
Birchenough Bridge that can sustain
heavier loads than the present
suspension
bridge.
Birchenough Bridge was
opened to traffic on 20 December 1935. Vehicles
weighing more than 25 tonnes
are prohibited from using the bridge.
Responding to questions from The Daily News, Christian Katsande,
the
permanent secretary for Transport and Communications, said: "There are
plans
for another bridge that can carry loads to present-day requirements and
this
is at design stage.
"There are no
estimated costs since the preliminary designs are
in
progress."
Birchenough Bridge
vibrates each time a vehicle passes through
it.
However, Katsande said: "The shaking
of the Birchenough Bridge is
expected of a suspension bridge of this type and
size.
"The nature and amount of load and
the speed at which the load
traverses the bridge affect the magnitude of
shaking."
Katsande said the government had
first imposed a weight restriction of
40 tonnes in the 1980s, and this had
later been further lowered to
25
tonnes.
He said: "The reasons for
the reduction are that some rivets
connecting the main structural members are
failing due to the present-day
traffic loading which exceeds the design
loading of the bridge .
"The strength of
the rivets and any steel in general is affected by
corrosion and degree of
loading."
Katsande dismissed reports that
the last major inspection of the
bridge was carried
out
in the
mid-1980s.
He said: "Consultants carried
out two independent inspections.
"One was
done by BKS International Consulting Engineers of South
Africa in November
1992 and the last by Civil Consult of Zimbabwe in
1996.
"Inspections are also held by my
Department of Roads engineers every
six
months."
The bridge was named after Sir
Henry Birchenough, who was the
president of the British South Africa
Company.
He was was born in England in
1853 and died in 1937. His and his wife's
ashes are interred in one of the pillars of the
bridge.
Daily
News
UN agency to assess food
aid
4/16/2003 7:11:20 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff
Reporter
THE World Food Programme (WFP),
is now assessing whether or not
Zimbabwe will still require food aid when the
international organisation's
humanitarian assistance programme ends by
mid-year.
Luis Clemens, the WFP
public affairs officer, said an assessment
mission would measure the level of
last season's agriculture production and
come up with a report on food aid
requirements.
Clemens said: "We hope to
complete the crop and food supply assessment
mission by the end of the
month.
"The assessment will show whether
the country needed more food aid
than we have previously been
providing."
Clemens said more than six
million Zimbabweans had benefited from the
WFP humanitarian assistance since
the programme started at the beginning of
last
year.
Working with other 12 food aid
agencies, the WFP distributed 28 0000
metric tonnes of food valued at US$250
million (Z$1,375 billion) in
Zimbabwe.
"We managed to save a lot of lives during the last 13 months because
other
donors responded swiftly to the crisis," he
said.
Clemens said WFP mainly focused on
providing food aid to
rural
communities.
He, however, said
early this year they had started pilot projects in
Harare and Bulawayo to
assess the shortage of food in urban
areas.
Clemens said serious food shortages
would have been averted had the
government allowed other stakeholders to
import maize grain.
"Although the
government has been importing maize during the current
food crisis it should
also have allowed other players to import maize to
lessen the impact," he
said.
Kenzo Oshima, the United Nations
under secretary-general, during a
visit to Zimbabwe last year, said the only
way the country could have
avoided the non-availability of food would have
been to allow the private
sector to import grain through a foreign currency
facility created by the
United Nations Development
Programme.
However, this arrangement had
not be followed through.
Daily
News
Green Bombers turn Kamativi
into garrison town
4/16/2003
7:12:20 AM (GMT +2)
From Oscar Nkalain
Bulawayo
MEMBERS of the National Youth
Service, derisively known as Green
Bombers, have transformed Kamativi into a
garrison town complete with
checkpoints manned round the clock to regulate
the entry of visitors into
the former mine
compound.
The majority of the 350
families, including those of MDC MPs Jealous
Sansole (Hwange East), Peter
Nyoni (Hwange West) and Gabbuza Joel Gabuza
(Binga) were forced out of the
mine compound between November last year and
last
month.
The Youth, Gender and Employment
Creation Ministry has since last year
been denying that it wanted to convert
the compound into a provincial
training centre and garrison for Zanu PF
youths under the discredited
national youth service
programme.
A Daily News crew which visited
the centre on Saturday was subjected
to rigorous identity checks at a
checkpoint which is the only entry point
into the
compound.
The checkpoint, adjacent to a
police post, was manned by four youths,
two of whom were clad in green
fatigues of the national youth service and
the other two were in plain
clothes.
Visitors were also required to
supply names and residential addresses
of the people they were visiting, the
purpose of the visits, the duration of
the visit and their own residential
addresses.
"This place is no longer an
ordinary residential area. It is now a
military camp and, as you know, you
don't enter and leave such places at
will. We have to find information we
want because there are some MDC
elements who come here to disrupt
peace.
"We also have a number of people
undergoing training here. We carry
out these to prevent sabotage of our
installations," said one of the youths.
A
few residents who managed to speak to The Daily News said the
situation was
tense.
Efforts to get a comment from
Joshua Muzamba, the provincial officer
responsible for the national youth
service, were fruitless
Daily
News
Matombo raps
government
4/16/2003 7:12:45 AM
(GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
Lovemore Matombo, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions
secretary-general, has accused the government of
using the National Railways
of Zimbabwe "for political
expediency".
He said this had led
to the deterioration of the railway system.
Addressing a meeting of the
Railway Association of Enginemen in Bulawayo on
Sunday, Matombo said the
so-called "Freedom Trains" introduced by the
government in Harare and
Bulawayo last year were a vote-getting
ploy.
He said: "Workers need transport,
but it must not be provided at the
expense of the parastatal. We might
rejoice that we are having a cheaper
means of transport, but we are crippling
the railway system and it is us who
will cry in future when it
collapses."
Daily
News
Leader Page
So little
to celebrate, so much to regret
4/16/2003 7:03:21 AM (GMT +2)
IF THE
government's past contemptuous dismissal of threats from
various
organisations and special interest groups unhappy with its
stewardship of
State affairs is anything to go by, chances are that it will
not take
seriously threats by the little-known Zimbabwe Liberation Peace
Forum (ZLPF)
to violently disrupt Independence Day celebrations this week.
But that would
a big mistake.
In the past, the
government, in its trademark arrogant fashion, has
ignored threats by
teachers, nurses, doctors, the National Constitutional
Assembly and even the
country's umbrella labour body, the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions, as
well as the mighty MDC whose latest 15 demands President
Mugabe has scoffed
at.
Although it has always survived the
resultant industrial action more
or less unscathed as government, the country
has not been so lucky. It is as
a direct result of that unresponsiveness to
people's grievances that the
country now lies in ruins, with everything from
education, health, commerce,
agriculture and mining, to tourism and the
manufacturing industry, on
its
deathbed.
However, it is one thing
to ignore threats from civic groups, as
government will always be safe in the
knowledge that its anti-people,
heavily politicised and totally partisan
police force and army will always
be on top of the situation, ruthlessly
crushing protesters in the event of
those threats being carried out. But
threats from war veterans are a
different proposition
altogether.
And Mugabe will be the first
to acknowledge that because he will
forever be painfully aware that his
continued hold on power is virtually at
the pleasure of
ex-guerrillas.
Power was rapidly slipping
out of his grip when, in 1987, the late
Chenjerai Hunzvi and his restive
followers in the Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans' Association
(ZNLWVA) threatened to pull the rug
from under his
feet.
To retain their support, without
which his political career would have
been finished, Mugabe capitulated to
their outrageous demands which included
hefty lump-sum payments, monthly
pensions and free health care - never mind
that the dollar crashed instantly
as a direct result of that ill-advised and
unplanned
expenditure.
There is no basis for Mugabe
to believe that today, 15 years later,
the war veterans are not serious in
their threats, considering that the
country's economic situation is far worse
than it was back in 1987 in that
it is now affecting not just ex-combats, but
the entire population.
Of particular worry
to him must be the fact that these threats are
coming at a time when he has
lost the free and voluntary political support
of the people. He can therefore
ill-afford to allow his erstwhile allies to
take the lead in showing
disaffection for him.
It would be like
knowingly drinking from a poisoned
chalice.
There can be no doubt at all that
an overwhelming majority of the
people in this country harbour sentiments
similar to thoseexpressed by war
veterans in the ZLPF, though most probably
for very different reasons from
those advanced by the group. But, that
difference notwhistanding, theirs is
all the same a microcosm of Zimbabweans'
disillusionment with Zanu PF and
its
government.
Zimbabweans are generally
agreed that there is little, if anything at
all, to celebrate on Independence
Day and that, on the other hand, if police
brutality, lack of freedom,
erosion of human rights and the economic
hardships we are experiencing are
what independence is all about, there is
everything to regret for ever having
been granted it.
Mugabe might not want to
hear it, but it is a fact that, over the past
three years, many people have
been heard to openly wish for a return to Ian
Smith's Rhodesia Front
government era. They say Smith was far better than
Mugabe. This is a serious
indictment of the Mugabe regime.
And when
you consider that the people saying this are the same people
who gave Mugabe
a tumultuous welcome, thronging Highfield's Zimbabwe Grounds
in their
millions to dance and ululate in a show of affection that no other
leader had
ever been accorded before, then it is safe to say that life under
his regime
has become a nightmare to which everyone would want to see an
end. It is not
normal for people to celebrate misery.
Daily
News
Leader Page
The truth
about Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe
4/16/2003 7:04:25 AM (GMT +2)
By A Special
Correspondent
I have long wished to
enlighten people who associate
Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe with President Mugabe.
I happen to come from an area
in Murewa close to the so-called Mugabe
stronghold.
Let us remember that
the presidential elections were clearly rigged.
Those people could never have
voted for Mugabe, who has not done anything
for them. Even Mugabe himself had
run away, only to be told by Tobaiwa
Mudede that he had successfully done the
"right arithmetic". No wonder the
court case challenging the presidency has
been the last to be heard of all
cases!
This remote part of Zimbabwe is so underdeveloped that people just
live their
lives the way they lived soon after Rhodes came to Rhodesia.
There is not one
school that was built by Mugabe. Oh yes, some schools were
built after the
war, but by the locals. These poor people cannot afford
books for their
children and teachers are underpaid.
Very
little learning goes on there. Most pupils come to school on an
empty stomach
and dressed in rags. Those who fall ill are left to recover
naturally - no
clinics, no medicine. Not a single doctor reaches there
in
months.
The roads are so poor, most
places are inaccessible. There is so
little one can buy from the hut-like
shops. The people there are so backward
that at one time I bought salt very
cheaply in one of the shops. It was
because the shopkeeper had not yet learnt
that the commodity was causing
winding queues in
towns.
Most locals only read those
newspapers which are wrapped around
foodstuffs should a relative decide to
surprise their folk on a month-end.
These torn newspapers are the perfect
gift for the elderly, who guard them
like treasure since they use them to
roll traditional cigarettes.
The village
headmen were told they would be paid to mobilise their
people and make sure
they voted for Mugabe or they would be subjected to a
war far worse than the
struggle for independence. To reinforce this belief,
some thugs from faraway
Masvingo or Gwanda would be given AK rifles to
brandish in order to strike
fear into the hearts of these peace-loving,
poor
people.
During the voting days,
every village head was asked to line up with
his people and account for every
person. Everyone was told to vote for
Mugabe because Tsvangirai's party was
British-sponsored.
These places were no-go
areas for the MDC. Many people wished to know
who Tsvangirai was and what his
message was. But this was impossible. Many
did not even know of the existence
of an opposition political party. Mugabe
and supporters made sure roadblocks
were mounted. Even those who travelled
from these areas were censored. Those
who would travel to Harare were often
labelled traitors. Horrendous crimes
were committed in these areas.
Pungwe
(all-night vigil) camps, where perceived opponents were
tortured and left for
dead, mushroomed almost everywhere.
These
strange "comrades" often asked villagers to give money and
donate food to
them. There is a lot of evil Zanu PF and its supporters
inflicted on the poor
people of Murewa and
Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe.
But today the
latter remains one of the poorest areas in Zimbabwe. The
story of the rigged
elections remains fully untold yet people associate
Mugabe with these areas.
He did not even visit the people to thank them for
their decisive vote. He
knew they were forced to vote for him. He knows he
is illegitimate and is
afraid of even the people of
Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe.
His blind
supporters, the likes of Alexander Kanengoni, whose minds
were puffed away
together with marijuana smoke, may tell their sad stories
and continue to
idolise Mugabe, but the man has certainly changed. We all
supported this man
and many died for him to be our leader.
For 21 years this man was busy amassing wealth for himself. Only the
war
veterans fought hard to get a share of that wealth. Kanengoni should
remember
that the first war veterans who invaded farms in Bora were
imprisoned. Those
were the days when Mugabe did not want to associate
himself with "less
educated" war veterans.
Even the late
Chenjerai Hunzvi struggled under Mugabe's rule, trying
to get a piece of
Zimbabwe's wealth which was being spent at will by this
same Mugabe. Today
Mugabe is not ashamed to cast a vote in support of Joseph
Chinotimba. Are
there no Kanengonis whose genuine struggle is still on, who
could have been
chosen to represent Zanu PF? Is this the same Zanu of
the
70s?
Regardless of how bad the
British are, people today need freedom. They
want genuine land distribution.
None of the Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe people
have been relocated to fertile
land. The Kunzvi Dam project which hit the
headlines is still on the drawing
board, despite Joyce Mujuru's remarks and
joy after she was allocated enough
funds to start the project. Many
commissions have been appointed and none of
their recommendations have been
taken seriously by
Mugabe.
People should know that some of us
are prepared to come forward during
the presidential election case to testify
on all the atrocities committed by
Zanu PF. We, from Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe
and Murewa, will stand up and tell
the courts what exactly happened. We will
not care about the final outcome,
which is so obvious, given that Mugabe
himself has clearly said that those
judgments which are against him will be
ignored and the judges fired.
But a
correct record of what transpired should be maintained.
Daily
News
GMB turns to State to clear
$50bn arrears
4/16/2003 6:53:10
AM (GMT +2)
Business
Editor
THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB), is
turning to government to clear
arrears estimated at $50 billion that accrued
from the rolling over of grain
bills since
1998.
Pressure has intensified on
the parastatal to clear the arrears before
it can raise new money needed to
finance the current crop.
GMB has been
rolling over grain bills on maturity since 1998, instead
of clearing the
government-backed paper issued to raise money from
the
market.
The parastatal is now faced
with a situation where it cannot continue
to roll over the
bills.
GMB chairman, Enoch Kamushinda,
could not be contacted for
comment
yesterday.
Senior officials in
the Agriculture Ministry said they were aware of
GMB's
position.
"We expect the issue to be
tabled before Cabinet soon," a senior
official
said.
GMB needs to clear the arrears to
win the support of pension funds and
other institutional investors who
subscribe to the grain bills.
New money is
desperately needed to finance the current crop at a
reasonable price welcomed
by the farming community.
The producer
price of maize has been increased by 364 percent to $130
000 per tonne, while
the pre-planting price of wheat has risen by 144
percent to $150 000 a
tonne.
GMB will, however, continue to sell
maize and wheat to millers at $9
600 and $29
500
a tonne to curb increases in the cost of
mealie-meal, flour and bread.
"This
signals an urgent need for government to clear the arrears so
that GMB will
proceed with the purchase of the current crop," a source
said.
A local economist, Tapuwa Muchenje,
said the strategic nature of GMB
is such that it has to remain under
government control.
A way should be found
however, to deal with the inefficiency and
bureaucracy that has weakened
parastatals.
Muchenje said: "They should
commission a private organisation in which
government has a stake to manage
GMB. This would ensure proper management
and at the same time avoid
bureaucracy."
The Cabinet could also
consider making the grain bills a form of
security that would be accepted by
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
At the
moment, the RBZ does not accept grain bills as
security.
There is also some consensus
among banks that the RBZ should accept
security they get from lending to
institutions such as parastatals.
Daily
News
Feature
After Saddam,
others quake in their Gucci shoes
4/16/2003 6:50:15 AM (GMT +2)
billsaidi on
wednesday
PUBLIC EYE, the weekly column
Masipula Sithole wrote for The Financial
Gazette, would have tackled Saddam
Hussein's ignominious fall with the verve
and humour he always brought to his
contribution.
Sithole would have dwelt on
the certainty that all world leaders of
the ilk of Saddam Hussein, including
President Mugabe, must have quaked in
their Gucci shoes as the statue of the
Iraqi dictator was toppled and
smashed.
"Am I next?" must be the question they asked their spouses, or
their
confidants or their children - or the inanimate TV screen in their
sanctum
sanctorum, to which I hear some of them occasionally retire to
meditate, or
to decide on who next they want to consign to the
Hereafter.
Masipula's death was woefully
untimely. His brother, Ndabaningi
Sithole, died after what most would have
called a good innings, compared
with Masipula's 56
years.
But both brothers had fought the
good fight. It would be unfair to say
they lost both the battle and the war,
although neither lived long enough to
see the realisation of their dream - a
Zimbabwe brimming with true freedom,
the freedom of which Ndabaningi wrote in
his classic book, African
Nationalism.
But both bequeathed to posterity, in their writings, their incisive
thoughts
on their country and its future. Ndabaningi's party, Zanu, may
never muster
enough electoral clout outside Chipinge and Chimanimani to be
entitled to the
funds available under the Political Parties (Finance)
Act.
But the memory of his almost
single-handed challenge to the hegemony
of Zanu PF in the early days of
independence will inspire many to emulate
his gutsy
example.
Masipula might have commented
wryly of Saddam Hussein's fall that he
fell the way he lived - with a
bang.
That description is most
appropriate, of course, for the end of
Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania. He and
his wife, Elena, were shot in cold
blood in 1989 by the same soldiers who
might have, a few days earlier, sung
their
praises.
I remember a statue of Vladimir
Lenin being similarly savaged in the
aftermath of the fall of Communism in
the Soviet Union.
If the upheaval on
Tienanmen Square on 4 May 1989 in Beijing had not
been put down so brutally
by the Communist regime, the chances are high that
the statues of The Great
Helmsman himself, Mao Ze Dong, might have suffered
the same
fate.
As some people have said apropos of
the demise of Communism: "All it
needed was a human face." But then some of
the proponents of the ideology in
the Soviet Union and China would have
disowned it. For them, Communism was
faceless, merciless and
ruthless.
Mugabe remains a
dyed-in-the-wool Marxist-Leninist, hence the mess he
has made of a
once-gemlike economy. But his recent gushing praise of Adolf
Hitler must send
chills of terror down everybody's spine. That man would not
face his enemies
at the end of their combat. Like a cur, he slunk to his
lair in the Berlin
bunker and persuaded his woman to commit suicide
with
him.
Saddam Hussein is no suicide
bomber, strapping hand grenades around
his waist, then driving a car straight
at a group of British soldiers in
Basra or US Marines in
Baghdad.
Neither was Saddam a communist,
but what he demanded from the people
was almost the same: blind acquiescence
to his every whim. So, it is not
difficult to imagine why some of the people
who had ostensibly adored him -
or gave that impression to the world - went
wild with joy at his fall.
The knowledge
that he would never again impose his will on them must
have had an
intoxicating effect on their psyche. It's not difficult to
imagine the Green
Bombers being overwhelmed by the same sensation of utter
release at the
spectacular end of Mugabe's reign.
I can
see them smashing portrait after portrait of the President in
the First
Street Mall. Mugabe has had the good sense not to have any statues
erected in
his honour. This modesty is not compatible with what some people
have
described as his extreme self-absorption with the Mugabe myth
of
invincibility.
The reign of terror
of the dictatorship in Zimbabwe has altered people
's lives. To conform with
the weird and outrageous requirements of loyalty,
husbands will buy this
expensive clothing material with Mugabe's portrait on
it. Then they will pay
through the nose to have a politically correct tailor
sew the dresses for
them. Then, they will cheer the wife hysterically as she
leaves for the
airport or Shake Shake building, resplendent in her new
costume, to see off
the President, or just to see him - dancing and
ululating
wildly.
The sight is enough to make one
want to throw up with shame, unless
you have managed to camouflage your true
feelings as successfully as some
people in Zanu PF have
done.
Neither wife nor husband can believe
Mugabe has attained the spiritual
status of the Buddha, that he is
infallible. No.
Their reasons for
prostrating themselves before him are entirely
materialistic: he can open
doors for them, can make the impossible possible
for them. If they want a
house in the posh suburbs but cannot afford to buy
one, he could snap his
fingers and Hey, Presto! they can suddenly afford
the
house.
At work, if the manager
keeps docking the husband's pay because he is
always two hours late, the
husband could one day replace the manager. This
is called patronage: many
Zimbabweans have attained the status of chief
executive officers of large
corporations simply by sucking up to the
President, or his
representative.
On 18 April, such people
will celebrate Independence as lavishly as it
is possible to splash in these
hard times. While others will be gathered
around a small fire outside their
huts in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe, the
President's favourites will be dining on
lobster and caviar at the five-star
hotels of Harare with the entire family,
their reward for wiping the leader'
s feet - and other parts of his anatomy -
and singing songs from the Hondo
Yeminda album until they develop
laryngitis.
But come the day of reckoning,
and these same stooges could be the
ones to rip the President's portrait from
top to bottom in front of
Munhumutapa Building. They are a sick and sickening
breed: they could betray
their mother if the price was right. They are the
looters whose footage we
saw on TV, carting off goods from Uday Hussein's
palace in Baghdad. They are
as worthless as the Iraqis who helped prop up
Saddam's reign with murder,
rape, lies and
theft.
On the Day of Reckoning you need
people of Masipula Sithole's
integrity, whose clarity is not blurred by the
glitter of trinkets being
waved before their eyes. People who will not flinch
- whether the catalyst
for change are the alien warriors on a "regime change"
mission, or the youth
of the nation marching to State House armed with only
their determination to
triumph over evil.