The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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VOA

      Police Investigating Charges Against Zimbabwe Journalists
      By  Peta Thornycroft
      Harare
      19 April 2005

In Zimbabwe, journalists from a privately owned weekly newspaper are being
investigated by police for what they say is a false story in connection with
last month's general election.

Police in Harare have asked Davison Maruziva, the editor of Zimbabwe's
leading Sunday newspaper, The Standard, and one of his reporters to present
themselves to detectives.  The two have spoken to detectives, but they have
not gone to the police station to be interviewed.

During the past three years, most journalists who comply with police
requests to go to a police station for questioning are detained.

According to police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, Mr. Maruziva and reporter
Savious Kwinika are being investigated for what he said was a false report
published two-weeks ago.  Mr. Bvudzijena said he did not know whether the
two faced arrest.

The report carried in The Standard was in connection with allegations of
illegal possession of ballot papers by a government official in a voting
district south of Harare.  Mr. Maruziva says police had visited him at his
office and that the company's lawyer was handling the matter.  He said he
did not know if he or Mr. Kwinika would be arrested.

The Standard is the only Sunday newspaper, which does not support President
Robert Mugabe's ruling party, ZANU-PF.

Mr. Maruziva was the founding deputy editor of Zimbabwe's short-lived Daily
News, the country's only independent daily newspaper, which was effectively
banned in September 2003.

He took over editorship of The Standard last month.  His predecessor,
Bornwell Chakaodza, has been accused by the government of violating the
Zimbabwe's tough media law and appeared in court last Friday.  Though he is
not being held in prison, the case against Mr. Chakaodza remains open.

Late last week, two journalists from a British weekly, the Sunday Telegraph,
were acquitted of charges of working without accreditation after spending
nearly two weeks in prison.

Scores of journalists, both local and those working for foreign media, have
been harassed since 2002, when the media law was introduced by
then-Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.  But no journalist has been
convicted under the law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act.

But analysts say the law is having an effect.  They say the fear of arrest
and of heavy jail sentences has led many Zimbabwean journalists, and the
majority of foreign correspondents, to leave the country during the past
three years.

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Sunday Times (SA)

Land reform fails rural Zimbabwe

Tuesday April 19, 2005 13:22 - (SA)

HARARE - Thousands of Zimbabwean families are still sharing small patches of
farming space five years after their government launched land reforms to
allocate white-owned farmland to black families, a newspaper reported today.

Zimbabwe embarked on its land redistribution programme in February 2000,
taking away prime farmland owned by some 4,500 white farmers and handing
them over to the landless black majority.

Five years after the launch of the land reforms, at least 75 percent of
Zimbabweans live in rural areas with limited farming land, according to
independent analysts.

"The government intended to resettle 50 percent of peasants onto farmlands
created after white commercial farmers moved out," The Daily Mirror said.

But the newspaper said only a fraction of those targeted for resettlement on
larger tracts of farming land have done so while the remainder is still
living in congested areas.

"The fast-track land resettlement programme has failed to decongest the
densely populated rural areas by at least 40 percent," the newspaper said.

"Estimates vary from province to province but at national level, a rate of
10 percent decongestion has been achieved," the newspaper quoted Sam Moyo,
director of the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, as saying.

The government's land reforms have been blamed for compromising food
production in what was once the southern African region's breadbasket.

White farmers owned some 70 percent of the most fertile land in the country
before they were implemented.

But critics say the land reforms have benefited members of Mugabe's inner
circle and their cronies.

A government land audit report released late last year showed that some 4.2
million hectares (10.4 million acres) of land had been allocated to fewer
than 200,000 black commercial farmers and ordinary agriculturists.

Of some 4,500 large scale commercial white farmers operating in Zimbabwe
five years ago, there are about 600 now left, accounting for three percent
of the country's land.

Many have relocated to neighbouring countries and as far afield as Nigeria.

AFP

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Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe

Zimdollar to be devalued

Business Reporter
issue date :2005-Apr-19

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono, has finally bowed
to mounting pressure by industry to devalue the local dollar in a last-ditch
attempt to boost export earnings, the main tributary feeding his drying
foreign exchange auction floor.
At its present Z$6 200 weight against the US dollar, the Zimbabwe dollar is
overvalued by more than 240 percent.
Official sources privy to the issue told The Business Mirror that the
central bank governor - who initially hoped to initiate a systematic
devaluation financed by envisaged incremental foreign exchange (forex)
inflows - has finally thrown in the towel after failing to stimulate
meaningful foreign currency generation.
The sources said the RBZ governor - who has had to fall back on the Homelink
institution to feed his drying foreign currency auction floor because of low
export receipts, falling foreign direct investment and cut-backs in foreign
aid - would be announcing a huge devaluation of about 90 percent in his next
monetary policy review, pencilled in for the end of this week.
Devaluation, apparently infamous with the government, entails cheapening the
country's exports on the export market relative to competitor prices, with a
view to boost demand and foreign exchange receipts on goods that have a
perfect price elasticity of demand.
The policy claimed the scalp of former Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, who
was booted out of cabinet in 2002 after a glut of harsh reprimands from
fellow government officials including President Robert Mugabe for
purportedly being "obsessed" with a "dirty" and "unworkable" policy.
But the proliferation of foreign currency grey markets, since then, remains
a structural symptom of exchange rate overvaluation that still feeds on the
extreme exchange controls.
Said the sources: "The Reserve Bank (of Zimbabwe) after consulting widely
has finally decided to heed the demand of exporters to devalue the Zimbabwe
dollar by a substantial percentage in its effort to stimulate exports.
"Although the initial idea was to embark on a step-by-step devaluation
through a gradual unification of our exchange rates, continuous shortages of
foreign currency have made it necessary to try devaluation. There is no
other way out of the crisis in which we are stuck."
Gono has devalued the local dollar thrice since taking office, but only to
margins far shy of the parallel market rate, technically regarded as the
real exchange rate.
Zimbabwe currently runs a multiple, defacto fixed exchange rate regime that
forces exporters to forfeit more than 50  percent of their earnings at
sub-economic exchange rates, including the mandatory government Z$824:US$1
rate.
Local economists sampled and interviewed by the Business Mirror said these
sub-market exchange rates have completely hamstrung exporters by
perpetuating a grave profitability crisis created by lower local dollar
earnings.
They unanimously concurred this week that a prompt and huge devaluation of
the exchange rate to points close to Z$15 000 against the US dollar, was the
only conceivable macroeconomic option trustable to restore export
profitability.
They said the weekly deficit conditions on the foreign exchange auction
floor, reflected the magnitude of exchange controls.
Said the economists: "Companies are now forfeiting more than 50 percent of
their earnings because of diminishing earnings caused by an overvalued
exchange rate. This has created grievous price incompetitiveness negatively
impacting on exporting companies who have had to export less and less.
"There is a urgent need therefore for monetary authorities to stop
interfering with the exchange rate and let it be determined by market
forces. That is the only way we can restore export competitiveness," they
added.
The ungainly interference with the exchange rate has paradoxically
disenfranchised a sizeable chunk of exporters from the export market.
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Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe

Agrarian reforms fail to meet target

Shame Makoshori recently in Kadoma
issue date :2005-Apr-19

THE fast track land resettlement programme the government embarked on in
February 2000 has failed to decongest the densely populated rural areas by
at least 40 percent, contrary to government pledges, according to an
agrarian research institute.
At least 75 percent of Zimbabweans live in communal areas with limited
arable land.
At the onset of the agrarian reforms, government intended to resettle 50
percent of peasants onto farmlands created after white commercial farmers
moved out.
However, the African Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS) told a land and
agrarian reform-reporting workshop in Kadoma, Mashonaland West, last week
that research had since revealed a national achievement of about 10 percent
decongestion had been registered, with the bulk of the intended
beneficiaries still clamouring to be resettled.
While Mashonaland West and Central, for example, had higher rates of about
25 percent, the AIAS said there were worst cases. Regions such as Manicaland
had decongestion pegged as low as five percent.
Statistics indicate that communal farmers constituted 65 percent of all
resettled families with 98 176 households, followed by urban workers who
constitute 23 percent of new farmers as 34 739 families in this group
accessed land.
The numbers also show that 10 573 war veterans and their families were
resettled, while 3 021 former farm workers also benefited from the
programme. A total of 22 656 female applicants also benefited.
Of these women, 17 percent were resettled under the A1 model while 12
percent joined the A2 programme, figures which the AIAS said although
significant, had failed to reach the target due to several factors.
"The estimates vary from province to province but at national level, a rate
of 10 percent decongestion has been achieved, there were worst cases like in
Manicaland but the general trend is that you can only decongest to a certain
limit, I think the 50 percent target was wrongly set," AIAS director Sam
Moyo said.
He pointed out that one of the factors militating against the movement of
farmers to plots was that of inheritance where family members would take up
land left by relatives upon death or relocation. Although this was another
way of decongestion, it, however, limited the number of landless people who
got farms.
"When people hear the word decongestion, they expect big percentages, but
this is not the case. There is a limit to which you can decongest, you
cannot achieve 100 percent decongestion," Moyo told journalists at the
workshop.
Zimbabwe has a total land area of almost 40 million hectares put under
different uses such as forestry, wildlife and national parks, covering 2.4
percent of the total land area, agriculture gobbles 85 percent and urban and
state land and mining taking up 0.5 percent as of 2002.However, Zimbabwe's
colonial history resulted in most Zimbabweans being relegated to
nonproductive marginal areas, while a few white farmers utilised the most
productive land, hence government moves to effect adjustments.
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The Star

      Zimbabweans 'happy and content' - Mugabe

      President turns his back on the West during speech to mark
independence
      April 19, 2005

      By Michael Hartnack

      Harare - Chinese-made jet fighters flew over independence celebrations
at which President Robert Mugabe declared he had no need for Western help or
Western-style democracy.

      "We have turned East, where the sun rises, and given our back to the
West, where the sun sets," Mugabe told a crowd of 8 000 at the Chinese-built
national sports stadium in Harare yesterday.

      He was referring to efforts to seek new economic partners among the
"Asian tigers".

      Newly acquired Chinese jet fighters and older Russian fighters had
flown overhead in salute as Mugabe arrived to deliver a 35-minute,
nationally televised address marking the 25th anniversary of independence
from Britain.

      Hawk jets bought from Britain in the 1980s have been grounded because
Zimbabwe has been unable to get spares since a 2000 embargo.

      Mugabe also thanked friendly African states for endorsing the results
of the March 31 presidential election.

      The 81-year-old leader spoke emotionally of the legacy of British rule
and referred to the "strangled shrieks of brave guerrilla fighters facing
execution". He told the crowd: "To this day we bear the lasting scars of
that dark encounter with colonialism, often described in the West as
civilising."

      Scorning accusations that the parliamentary poll was rigged, he said:
"We made our own democracy and we owe it to no one, least of all the
Europeans."

      "Let it be for ever remembered: it was the bullet that brought the
ballot. Our ballots have not needed Anglo-American validation."

      The celebrations yesterday included the awarding of state honours to
past presidents of Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

      "We proclaim our pan-African spirit, stressing that we shall never be
a colony again," Mugabe said as he announced the awards.

      Conspicuously absent from the list was Nelson Mandela, who has
repeatedly criticised Mugabe's human rights record during the past five
years.

      The president listed the redistribution of 5 000 white-owned farms to
black Zimbabweans as among major achievements of his rule.

      "We have resolved the long outstanding land question and the land has
now come to its rightful owners, and with it our sovereignty as well," he
said. "Our people are happy and contented, that is all that matters."

      Agriculture, the mainstay in a country once known as the breadbasket
of Southern Africa, has collapsed and the economy has shrunk 50% since 2000,
when ruling-party militants began invading white-owned farms. Unemployment
is at least 70% and at least 70% of the population live in poverty.

      In his speech, Mugabe attributed his country's economic problems to
"induced skills flight". Today, 3,6-million of Zimbabwe's 15-million people
live abroad, most of them economic refugees in South Africa and Britain.

      Mugabe said Aids constituted the nation's biggest challenge and that
the epidemic had "really strained our health delivery system as well as our
financial resources". - Sapa-AP.

      a.. South Africa saluted its troubled neighbour yesterday on its
achievements in 25 years since independence.

      "The government and the people of South Africa salute and congratulate
you on your achievements," Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Sue van der Merwe
told an anniversary celebration hosted at the Zimbabwean Embassy in
Pretoria.

      In a prepared speech, Van der Merwe committed South Africa to
consolidating relations with Zimbabwe. - Sapa.

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The Herald

Ball in Zim's court: IMF

By Jeffrey Gogo
GLOBAL moneylenders are ready to resume financial aid to Zimbabwe as long as
the country plays its part, says International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy
director, African department, Mr Siddharth Tiwari.

"I think there is a lot of goodwill in multilateral institutions and
bilateral countries to help Zimbabwe, but they (Zimbabwe) need to make the
first move," Mr Tiwari told a Press briefing in the United States last
Thursday.

The briefing focused on the 2005 economic outlook for sub-Saharan African
countries.

Added Mr Tiwari: "What Zimbabwe needs is fairly clear. I was there late last
year. A mission has been there since then. And the authorities know that
they need to implement one comprehensive programme that revives economic
activity in Zimbabwe.

"Structural policies and investment climate is at the heart of the issues in
Zimbabwe. From the commitments we have from the authorities, they have a
desire to move in that direction. And you know, the election finished, what,
a couple of weeks back, and now is the time for the authorities to move in
that direction."

Zimbabwe owes millions to global lenders such as the IMF, World Bank and the
African Development Bank. The IMF debt alone stands at US$306 million.

However, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr Gideon Gono has pledged to
knock down the debts by increasing quarterly payments to international
financiers to US$5 million. Until recently, the country has been paying
US$1,5 million with a cumulative figure of US$30 million having been repaid
since January 2004, when the new monetary policy framework came into effect.

Acute foreign currency shortages have frustrated Zimbabwe's efforts to
service its debts, and subsequently re-engage the Bretton Woods
institutions.

Mr Tiwari's optimism comes just ahead of the IMF May visit to Harare to
assess progress made in turning around the economy, which will be used as a
yardstick to decide Zimbabwe's fate with the Bretton Woods institution.

The IMF has threatened to terminate Zimbabwe's membership ranks citing a
rising debt, but an initial meeting by the world institution mid-last year
agreed to give Zimbabwe a six-month reprieve. Zimbabwe was expected to have
made significant headway in addressing pressing economic challenges within
this period.

The deputy director expressed some satisfaction with Zimbabwe's progress in
addressing economic problems, such as lowering inflation, but indicated the
country would have to do much more to re-engage the international world.

"As you know, the relations between Zimbabwe and us is at the critical
juncture. There are a series of sanctions that the membership has agreed to
impose on countries in arrears to the Fund, the final stage of which is the
Managing Director's Complaint on Compensatory Withdrawal, and that's where
Zimbabwe is," he said.

"There was improvement in 2004, but went short of comprehensive adjustment.
Given the severity of the sanctions, the Board has given Zimbabwe and us
another six months to consider it.

"The other side of this is that Zimbabwe needs to integrate itself with the
international community. It's a two-way street. It's from Zimbabwe to the
rest of the world, but also the rest of the world to Zimbabwe," he said.

The IMF is, however, not alone in its wish to see Zimbabwe return to the
international fold, at least as far as financial assistance is concerned.

Early this month ADB vice-president Mr Olabisi Ogunjobi said the continental
institution would engage Zimbabwean authorities on the country's arrears
with the bank, with a view to resolving the long-standing debt.
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Another Chance

Will we ever get a chance to show what we can really do?

Zimbabwe is a fantastic country - with wonderful people living in it. It has
a diversity of climate, some areas are quite high and temperate with good
rainfall and there are the bits down below 500 m above sea level that are
hot and dry. They all have their own charm.

April and May are my favorite months - the wet season is over but the veldt
is still green and lush, the days are warm and the nights cool and it is
mostly bone dry. Blue skies and fresh mornings complete the picture.

We are also a rich country - we produce 32 minerals, of which 4 have global
significance. We used to have an advanced and progressive agriculture
supported by a sophisticated supply chain and marketing agencies and
supported by world renown research and extension services. Until 2000 we
were largely self sufficient in basic goods and over 90 per cent of what we
bought in an average store will come out of our own farms and factories.

Our people were the best educated in the region and were accepted as
motivated and hard working. We played hard and produced many individuals
with world-class skills. Migrants from this country were highly regarded
wherever they went and were quickly absorbed into the economic structures of
the countries they went to. There was no real class system and race
relations were by and large, very good.

So why are we now so far down in the scheme of things? We are cited as a
frightening example of just how quickly a country can be destroyed by bad
governance - I guess that has some value as a warning to others not take
such things for granted. We are now the subject of global concern as a
country that is unable to feed itself, support its own health and education
systems and where the quality of human life is at best, short, nasty and
blighted.

But then we need to remember that this country has never had it easy. My
father who spent his life here said to me once that he could hardly remember
a time when we were not dealing with a crisis of one kind or another. The
Shona and Ndebele rebellions at the end of the 19th century, the Boer War,
the First World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War, the
aftermath and then a brief 10 years of stability and growth during the
Federation followed by the crisis in 1962 then UDI and that was followed by
15 years of sanctions and the civil war from 1972 to 1980.

When finally the country obtained democracy in 1980, we should have seen
better days - it was not to be. In 1983 the struggle between Zanu and Zapu
came to a head and was only settled when Zapu was absorbed into Zanu in 1988
under the "Unity Accord". Even then there was little real peace and
progress. The new government ran up a huge public debt and experimented with
all sorts of economic policies - none of which really worked.

Faced with a faltering economy and growing unrest in the labor unions and in
civil society, the ruling elite - growing older but reluctant to allow any
sort of succession or real democracy simply clamped down on the peoples
freedoms and rights until eventually the MDC was formed and successfully
challenged the ruling elite for power in the year 2000. That experience
triggered an outburst of violence and repression that continues today and
which has led to the country being increasingly isolated internationally and
it put the economy into a steep decline.

So today we look back on 25 years of independence under a government which
has held onto power by the skin of its teeth in the past 5 years and in the
process become ever more unpopular and myopic. It is a tragedy of enormous
proportions that the great promise of 1980 has not been realized and to
appreciate that our failure as a country is due entirely to our own bad
governance.

The country is still great - the people terrific but we just do not seem to
get it right. A business leader I once worked with said to me that in real
life you need a bit of luck. We seem to have been unable to find that
singular ingredient in our search for a better life and prosperity for our
people.

I have no doubt that our leaders are entirely to blame for this state of
affairs - we cannot blame the country as it has all that we need to succeed.
The question is how do we change them and get ourselves a new set of
leadership that will allow Zimbabwe - the real Zimbabwe, to stand proud
again.

We - the democrats - have given democratic principle our very best in the
past five years with little or no help from anyone outside and certainly not
from the region. We have won all the democratic contests in the past 5 years
starting with the referendum which we won by a 5 per cent margin - I
estimate that the real margin was closed to 20 per cent. We won the 2000
election - we actually got 52 per cent of the vote but if you factor out the
rigging element, we actually won handsomely. Then in the 2002 presidential
election we won again - I estimate that Tsvangirai was actually elected by a
margin of 65 per cent to 35 per cent. Now in the 2005 election there is
growing evidence that we took close to 75 per cent of the real vote.

But none of this makes any difference - Mugabe still took the elections by
rigging the final counts and there is absolutely nothing we democrats can do
about it except suffer the consequences.

We are all agreed that there will be no chance of the legal route yielding
any sort of justice to the efforts of the MDC and its supporters to elect a
new and more accountable administration. So what do we do? More of the same
is not enough this time, there is simply no way we can accept another 5
years of Zanu PF misrule and corruption. Perhaps the economy and the
deepening food and foreign exchange crisis will do it for us, but in the end
I suspect we are going to have to do something more to put our beloved
country back where it belongs.

Eddie Cross

Bulawayo, 18th April 2005

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Zimbabwe Needs YOU!

 

Have you ever been frustrated and depressed by the disastrous situation in Zimbabwe but felt powerless to help?  Now is your chance to make a difference!

 

Following the recent elections, Zimbabweans are in a state of shock and confusion.  Those of us outside the country, who have the ‘luxury’ of freedom of speech, need to act to help those who do not have such freedom. 

 

Reflecting this, a peaceful demonstration is being held on 30th April outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London to protest against the stolen elections and to launch a campaign for Zimbabweans in the UK to work together to take a more active role in helping our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe. 

 

The protest is being co-ordinated by the Zim Vigil who coordinate a weekly protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe.  http://www.zimvigil.co.uk


PLEASE COME AND JOIN US AND ADD YOUR VOICE TO OURS!

 

We would also be grateful if you could pass this message on to anyone who lives in or has connections with Zimbabwe as they may know people in the UK that you do not.  Our action will only make an impact if we can show the strength of our numbers and conviction. 

 

Time : From 14.00 to 18.00, 30 April 2005

Place : Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London

 

For suggestions for banners, placards etc, please visit the Zimbabwean forum on www.thebottomhalf.com under the title ‘ZIMBABWE VIGIL – STOLEN ELECTIONS DEMONSTRATION – 30TH APRIL’.

 

‘The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. Albert Einstein

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Zim Online

Mugabe unleashes wrath on private radio stations
Wed 20 April 2005
  BULAWAYO - Thabani Moyo frantically turns on the knob on his small radio.
Frustration is slowly building up as the minutes tick away.

      The 36-year old Moyo, who lives in Zimbabwe's second biggest city of
Bulawayo, is battling with his radio to get the signal on his favourite
radio station that he relies on as a source of news on Zimbabwe for the 7
o'clock evening programme.

      But all he gets is an indecipherable, highly distorted reception.

      "I wonder what the hell is happening?," Moyo mumbles to himself as he
quickly turns the tune-in knob, switching from one frequency to the other
but without success.

      All his efforts to access the channel come to nought. It finally dawns
on him that he has missed the two-hour broadcast from his favourite channel,
a private radio station operating from abroad.

      Moyo also realises that there is more to his failure to access the SW
Radio Africa channel than what meets the eye - the station is being
deliberately jammed.

      Moyo quickly switches onto another radio channel which also broadcasts
news about Zimbabwe.

      "This one is called Studio 7," explains Moyo, "and it's another
reliable source of credible news that has become my alternative. Even my
relatives in rural Nkayi listen to it," he says.

      The two private radio stations, SW Radio and Studio 7, are run by
exiled Zimbabweans after an increasingly panicky President Robert Mugabe,
through his former information minister Jonathan Moyo went on the offensive
and shut down all private radio stations which were operating in the
country.

      Moyo went on to purge the state media of all journalists who were
suspected of backing the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party during his four-year grip on the state media.

      The former information tsar fought a bruising propaganda war against
Zimbabweans on behalf of the government and deliberately sought to close all
democratic space by shutting down divergent voices in the face of a stiff
challenge from the MDC.

      But he lost his post in government late last year after seeking to
block the rise of Joyce Mujuru to the country's vice-presidency, a key post
in ZANU PF's succession war.

      About four private newspapers, including the country's biggest daily
The Daily News, were also shut down by Moyo for breaching the country's
tough media legislation, condemned internationally as an affront to
democratic ideals.

      Up to now, there are no private broadcasting stations in Zimbabwe.
Moves to open up the sector to more players hit a brick wall as the
government maintained a tight monopoly on the broadcasting sector. The
state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings is notorious for its sycophancy
in churning out virulent government propaganda against anyone who dares to
challenge Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.

      SW Radio Africa was founded in 2000 and now broadcasts from London
after the Harare authorities shut down the "pirate" radio station. Its
jamming has rekindled the spectre of its clampdown that has returned to
haunt its founder and director, Jerry Jackson, who says the station is
paying for its criticism of Mugabe's wayward policies.

      An independent probe by local media watchdog, the Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ), the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) a
United States federal entity and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Monitoring have revealed that the station's signal is being deliberately
drowned by a powerful transmitter and they suspect the government, which has
a record of clamping down on the private media, is behind the jamming.

      "We don't know anything about that. It's just a lie," said government
information boss Nathan Shamuyarira.

      Although Harare authorities have denied the allegations that they are
jamming the network, the MMPZ and ordinary Zimbabweans seem not to be
convinced by the government's feeble denial.

      "The government now wants to deal with the electronic media that does
not toe its line. They have totally won the war with the print," says Enoch
Dube a journalism lecturer at a local college.

      Critics accuse Mugabe of presiding over the collapse of the country's
once vibrant economy which has seen inflation hovering above the 123 percent
mark. Seventy percent of Zimbabwe's labour force is out of employment.

      The health delivery system has virtually collapsed and the country has
survived on food handouts from the international community after Mugabe
seized large swathes of commercial farms for redistribution to landless
blacks.

      "The blocking is part of the government's onslaught on the independent
minded media that are not supportive of President Mugabe and his policies,"
Jackson said. - ZimOnline

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Zim Online

Central bank governor reprimands banking executives
Wed 20 April 2005
  HARARE - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono, who last year
forcibly shut down more than seven financial institutions for unethical
conduct, last week severely admonished banking executives, accusing them of
fuelling the forex black market on the upsurge in the last three months.

      Banking industry sources told ZimOnline that Gono last Friday summoned
top executive officers of all the country's banks and told them to stop
dabbling in the illegal foreign currency black market or face stern measures
from the central bank possibly including cancellation of their licences if
caught.

      The tense meeting also discussed an impending monetary policy
statement by Gono at which the RBZ boss is expected to announce a
devaluation of the local currency in a bid to boost the export sector as the
country's six-year old hard cash crisis deepens.

      "The contentious issue at the meeting was the resurgent foreign
currency parallel market. The sentiments from Gono are that banks are
fuelling the parallel market, so he was cautioning the executives on ethics
and professionalism," said one bank chief executive officer, who spoke
anonymously for professional reasons.

      "We discussed the impending monetary policy and the need to revise the
amount on offer at the auction to US$30 million," added the bank official.

      Gono could not be reached for comment on the matter while Bankers'
Association of Zimbabwe official said the association does not discuss
details of confidential briefings with the central bank boss in the press.

      But Gono, who had several banks and other financial institutions
closed down and their top executives arrested last year for corruption and
other unethical conduct including illegal dealings in foreign currency, has
in the past publicly accused banks of resorting to the black-market to raise
scarce hard cash for clients.

      Zimbabwe has grappled an acute foreign currency crisis since the
International Monetary Fund withdrew balance-of-payments support in 1999.
President Robert Mugabe's chaotic and often violent land redistribution
programme only helped worsen matters by destabilising the mainstay
agricultural sector which generated a huge chunk of export earnings.

      A forex auctioning system introduced by Gono last year in a desperate
bid to end the black market has failed with both individual and businesses
shunning the auction floors where rates are fixed around Z$6 200 to one US
dollar compared to the parallel market where the greenback fetches upwards
of Z$15 000.

      In the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans, the foreign currency crisis has
manifested itself through shortages of all life supporting commodities such
as essential medical drugs, food, fuel and electricity because there is no
hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. - ZimOnline

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Zim Online

Mugabe markets Zimbabwe in Far East
Wed 20 April 2005
  JOHANNESBURG - President Robert Mugabe, who this week declared that
Zimbabwe had turned its back to the West to seek new friends in the East,
yesterday took up full page adverts in Indonesian papers as he seeks to turn
the upcoming Asia-Africa summit into a marketing platform for his country.

      In the bold adverts, Zimbabwe is an investment paradise boasting a
good infrastructure and economy. At the convention centre in Jakarta, where
the summit begins on Friday, huge pictures of a smiling and confident Mugabe
can also be seen as the Zimbabwean leader who is battling western sanctions
tries to lure Asian capital.

      During celebrations to mark 25 years of independence from Britain
earlier this week, Mugabe told Zimbabweans and foreign dignitaries that the
country had "turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the
West, where the sun sets."

      Mugabe, grappling his worst ever economic crisis, hopes to lure the
powerful Asian tiger economies to come in and fill the void created when the
International Monetary Fund and Western governments withdrew aid and
development assistance to protest Harare's controversial land policies, poor
human rights and democracy record.

      But to date, Mugabe's "look east" policy has brought in little, if
any, reward with shortages of nearly every other basic commodity because
there is no foreign currency to pay foreign suppliers.

      The IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report that Zimbabwe's
economy, in its sixth year of recession, will this year contract by 1.6
percent. The economy contracted by 4.5 percent last year.

      Zimbabwe's inflation, currently pegged at 123.7 percent and among the
highest in the world, will average 187 percent this year, according to the
IMF. - ZimOnline

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Daily News online edition

      Soccer fans run riot in Bulawayo

      Date: 19-Apr, 2005

      BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe's second largest city was turned into a battlezone
on Monday as soccer fans ran riot after failing to gain entry into
Barbourfields Stadium, the venue for the Independence Trophy final between
local favourites Highlanders and Motor Action.

      Dozens of people were reported injured and the wailing of ambulance
sirens filled the air as the victims were transported to hospital. Cars were
stoned, traffic lights vandalized and the streets strewn with broken glass
as the police staged running battles with the rioters, scores of which were
arrested.

      Dozens of riot police trucks poured into the high density areas to
prevent the disturbances spreading to other areas. Some observers mused over
the fact that it took the love of football to drive the people to riot where
three rigged elections have failed.

      The trouble started at noon when the gates were shut and over 20 000
mainly Highlanders supporters failed to gain entry into the stadium, which
in the morning had hosted the Bulawayo edition of Zimbabwe's 25th birthday
celebrations.

      Traditionally, most people ignore the Zanu PF-propaganda filled
morning celebrations only to turn up in large numbers for the free football
in the afternoon. Bulawayo is a major support base for the opposition
Movement for democratic Cange, which swept all the seats available in last
month's polls.

      The ruling party's youth brigade is reported to have turned away the
latecomers, angering the people into a violent reaction.

      Highlanders lost the match 2-0.

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Daily News online edition

      Ambassador to SA defends Zimbabwe

      Date: 19-Apr, 2005

      PRETORIA - Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo,
has told the South African media that Zimbabwe is a stable and peaceful
environment for business, despite the ongoing anti-Mugabe media hype.

      Speaking at a reception to mark Zimbabwe's silver jubilee of
independence yesterday, Moyo said: "Those who have been in Zimbabwe lately,
including during the recent parliamentary elections, can testify to the
peace and tranquilityin my country."

      He added that those who had visited the Southern African nation were
obviously alive to the growing and bountiful business opportunities waiting
to be harnessed, and extended an invitation to the South African business
community to continue doing business with Zimbabwe.

      He also told guests, including South African Deputy Foreign Affairs
Minister Sue van der Merwe, that despite the picture painted by some
sections of the media, the "excellent" relations between Zimbabwe and South
Africa were much deeper and broader.

      "I am very happy to report that our relations continue to blossom in
the areas of trade, transport, health, agriculture, mining, manufacturing,
tourism, among others," Moyo said.

      South Africa is by far Zimbabwe's largest trading partner and is also
one of the most important gateways to the outside world for its northern
neighbour.

      Moyo said now that Zimbabwe's elections were over, his government had
turned its attention to address developmental challenges and intensify
economic recovery.

      He said the country's land reform was complete and irreversible.

      "The policy of one person one farm (black or white) will be
scrupulously adhered to. We are on the march forward never to be a colony
again," Moyo said.

      Speaking on behalf of the South African government, Van der Merwe
said, "the government and the people of South Africa salute and congratulate
you on your achievements. An occasion like this reminds us to take stock on
how far we have come and ensure that our people reap the fruits of their
struggle for liberation, peace and development."

      In a prepared speech, Van der Merwe committed South Africa to
"consolidating" relations with Zimbabwe.

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Xinhua

      SADC Air Forces to hold joint disaster exercise

      www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-20 02:32:19

          HARARE, April 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Air Forces will participate in a disaster preparedness
exercise to be hosted by the Air Force of Zimbabwe from April 25 to 30.

          AFZ said in a statement on Tuesday that the disaster
managementexercise was part of initiatives by the SADC Standing Aviation
Committee (SAC) to come up with standard operating procedures for the
region's Air Forces in disaster preparedness and disaster management.

          The exercise would be held at the Regional Peacekeeping Training
Center and would see the regional Air Forces and their respective Disaster
Management Units responding to simulated flooding along the Zambezi River,
before coming up with the recommended standard operating procedures for such
a disaster.

          The AFZ director of training, Group Captain Antony Viyano,
saidthere was an urgent need to train and prepare for disasters, especially
against the backdrop of last December's tsunami disaster which killed about
300,000 people, and most recently the earthquake in Indonesia.

          "We do not have the capability to prevent natural disasters from
occurring but we can be able to minimize their effects by training on how
best to respond and manage the disasters, which iswhat the SADC Air Forces
are doing," he said. Enditem

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thecrimson.com

Published on Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Everyone's Favorite Evil Dictator
The charade of democracy in Zimbabwe does nothing for progress

By PIOTR BRZEZINSKI

According to election results, Zimbabweans recently turned out in record
numbers to vote in favor of economic collapse, starvation, corruption,
government thuggery, and a spiraling AIDS epidemic.
Remarkable.

In reality, the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the ruling
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) simply stole
another election. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for 25 years, and-despite the
fact that the former breadbasket of Africa has become the famine-ravaged
basketcase of Africa-his iron-fisted grip on power seems unassailable.

It is no mystery why the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC)
parliamentary seats fell from 57 to 41; the election deck, as always, was
stacked wildly in Mugabe's favor. Mugabe directly appoints 30 members of the
parliament, which means that the MDC needs to win 76 seats to have a simple
majority while the ZANU-PF only needs 71 seats to have a two-thirds
majority. The ZANU-PF supports this structural advantage through gang
violence, voter intimidation, and shameless abuse of food aid. Simply put,
voting for the MDC is a death sentence in rural areas, where famine-thanks
to Mugabe's land-grabbing policies-enables the ZANU-PF party to condemn MDC
voters to starvation. The MDC was further emasculated through a hopelessly
outdated voter roll which enabled two million ghosts to vote for ZANU-PF, in
addition to those non-existent voters who cast their ballots through some
good old fashioned ballot box stuffing.

In the face of Mugabe's half-crazed will to power and institutional
invulnerability, the MDC should abandon its attempts to achieve change
within Zimbabwe's democratic system. Mugabe has stolen three successive
elections, and hoping for a sudden change of heart from Mugabe is
self-destructive; participating in unwinnable elections weakens the MDC and
disillusions its supporters. Why risk life and limb for a hopeless cause?
The MDC's hopeless campaigns only legitimize the ZANU-PF's dictatorship; an
impotent opposition provides Zimbabwe with the façade of a democracy.

The struggle against Mugabe demands a much more drastic action from the MDC.
In the face of Mugabe's institutional invulnerability, if the MDC is not
willing to go to war, the only effective alternative is to completely refuse
to engage and cooperate with Mugabe. The MDC should withdraw from Zimbabwe's
sham democracy. Yes, this would cost the MDC its voice in the Parliament,
but currently that voice is effectively silenced regardless. If the MDC,
with its widespread popular support and significant (albeit useless)
representation in the Parliament, had refused to participate in the past
elections, Zimbabwe would have faced a political crisis. Not even the
ever-sympathetic South African President Thabo Mbeki could have deemed such
and election fair. Instead, the MDC engaged in a futile campaign that only
lent credibility to the farce elections in Zimbabwe. The MDC must learn from
this mistake and refrain from inadvertently further validating Mugabe's
dictatorship.

Piotr C. Brzezinksi, a Crimson editorial comper, is an economics
concentrator in Currier House.

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Plaudits And Criticism At Birthday Bash

Business Day (Johannesburg)

April 19, 2005
Posted to the web April 19, 2005

Jonathan Katzenellenbogen
Johannesburg

DEPUTY Foreign Minister Sue van der Merwe presented a two-sided
congratulatory speech on the occasion of Zimbabwe's 25th independence
anniversary at the country's embassy in Pretoria yesterday.

While pointing to the significance of Zimbabwe's liberation for SA's own
struggle, she also gave subtle hints of the need for Harare to improve
governance and delivery to its people.

While congratulating Zimbabwe on its achievements, Van der Merwe said, "an
occasion like this reminds us to take stock on how far we have come and
ensure that our people reap the fruits of its struggle".

She refrained from calling Zimbabwe's disputed parliamentary elections free
and fair, in line with President Thabo Mbeki's stand last week in answering
a question from the Democratic Alliance in Parliament. "We congratulate the
people on Zimbabwe and encourage them in their tireless efforts to
contribute to the continental drive to bring about democracy."

And in what came across as a reminder about Zimbabwe's poor record on a wide
range of issues such as confiscation of property and absence of judicial
independence, she said that this year's independence anniversary coincided
with ongoing "key global reform processes" in these areas.
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How You Too Can Become a Cabinet Minister

The Daily News (Harare)

OPINION
April 19, 2005
Posted to the web April 19, 2005

Munodii Kunzwa

A HARARE man was asked if he had not attended the Independence celebrations
at the National Sports Stadium because he felt there was little to
celebrate.

"No. It was because I couldn't find petrol."

"But the government had laid on buses from the usual pick-up points."

"I didn't know that."

"But they were announced on the radio."

"I don't listen to that...radio any more."

After a while, the first man said: "Come to think of it, you would not have
fitted into the buses anyway."

"Why not?"

"You are too tall. They are Chinese buses."

Notwithstanding the gloss which the State media tried to put on the
celebrations there is little doubt that most people in the urban areas felt
they could sleep through it all.

Reuben Barwe, that rabidly pro-government journalist, tried his best to give
the story the kind of spectacular coverage that the international media has
been giving to the election of a new Pope.

But even he, trying to convince people of the good times we are allegedly
having by displaying his famous girth, failed miserably. I saw him gag a few
times, missing a few words. Perhaps he is becoming finally aware of how
reckless it is to continue to pretend that life is still beautiful in
Zimbabwe.

Before the celebrations, a man who spent the last 25 years of his life
mostly in the government, Enos Chikowore, was buried as a national hero.
There will always be debate on the criterion of a hero. But one fact is
incontrovertible: membership of Zanu PF is a foregone prerequisite, although
George Nyandoro may not have been one by the time he died.

But most people interred at the Heroes Acre did so only after the
endorsement of the Zanu PF politburo. Those who knew Chikowore in the early
1960s, when he was a young Highfield landlord were not surprised that, after
independence, his portfolios in the Cabinet included housing, transport and
urban development.

While in the United Kingdom in exile he worked in those fields for many
years. One of his major achievements (?) was the introduction of the
emergency taxi. Admittedly, this eventually spawned a new breed of crooks,
some of whom became millionaires overnight. The Zimdollar was strong then,
not today when millionaires are a dime a dozen.

In the 1990s, Chikowore hired a transport guru from the UK to produce a plan
for revamping urban transportation. The end-product should have included a
completely new department dealing specifically with urban transport, with
its own Commissioner. This department would ensure the efficient but speedy
and safe transportation of passengers in the cities and towns.

One recommendation was the preference for larger buses rather than the
minibuses that were eventually unleashed on the roads, resulting in the road
carnage that followed. The debate has raged since then over whether a
political element was introduced into the transport imbroglio.

Minibuses meant more players, more jobs and more potential political
supporters for the ruling party. But the minibuses have spawned their own
breed of crooks. And there are now billionaires and trillionaires among
them.

Chikowore was well-meaning - that could be said to have been his hallmark.
But he was also a politician and when he ceremoniously turned the first sod
of soil on the site of what was to be the new Chitungwiza-Harare railway
line a few years ago, he could not have realised how soon it would return to
haunt him, his party and his government. As long as this remains one of the
most abominable falsehoods ever perpetrated against the people of
Chitungwiza, Zanu PF will never win a seat in the suburb.

As a cabinet minister, Chikowore may not have performed with spectacular
success, but people have said his heart was in the right place. His
resignation over the fuel crisis came as no surprise to some of his former
lodgers and tenants.

Before him, the fuel crisis had caused another former cabinet minister,
Simba Makoni, a lot of headaches and stomach aches. But he did not resign.
To be a cabinet minister in Zimbabwe is generally a reward for some
achievement. At independence, all the major figures of the struggle were
rewarded with cabinet posts. There were a few exceptions, among them Bernard
Chidzero. There was no questioning his credentials and his integrity. But
economics is not an exact science, in spite of how much Adam Smith you have
read.

In Africa perhaps more than in any other continent, economics must begin and
end with the eradication of poverty - and there is still so much of it 48
years after Ghana's independence. Chidzero once remarked the budget had to
take care of the soldiers in case they became disgruntled. He might have
made it as a joke, but it couldn't have settled right with the politicians
on the government benches.

You just didn't make such jokes about soldiers - not in Africa. Chidzero
enjoyed massive international backing because of his reputation on the world
economic stage. But in the early days of independence, politics ruled the
roost - nothing was done because it made economic sense. It had to contain a
large dose of political sense. Cabinet ministers who are not politicians
have not fared well.

Nkosana Moyo was an early casualty. Simba Makoni suffered the humiliation of
being dropped over the devaluation fiasco. Leonard Tsumba, the former
governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, is said to have fallen out with
the President over the same issue. "Enemies of the state", Mugabe called
them.

The government used to be made in the image of the President. Today, there
appears to be a noticeable change in that image. A government media news
report said before the announcement of the cabinet that Mugabe and his two
vice-presidents, Joseph Msilka and Joyce Mujuru, were closeted in a room,
going through the names. What eventually came out was almost universally
pooh-pooed as a "non-event", "more deadwood" and, most uncharitably, "a
bunch of tired, old politicians looking for their last meal ticket". Mugabe
called it a "development cabinet".

Instead of just his own image, the cabinet is now lumbered with the
additional images of the two vice-presidents, both from Mashonaland Central
province, although Msika represents the old PF Zapu. The cabinet, in
reality, is a "reward cabinet", probably the worst in Mugabe's unspectacular
administration. Some would say for the people, it is their dubious reward
for spinelessness.

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New Zimbabwe

      CHIDO MAKUNIKE: WORD ON THE STREET

      Political power without the means to use it

      Last updated: 04/19/2005 21:40:38
      THE uproar over Zimbabwe's 2005 general election was truly free and
fair may keep us occupied for some time to come, but there is little doubt
that the dust of the election is settling. Even among those who believe this
was another brazenly stolen election, I have not encountered any who believe
that any facts they bring to light will make the slightest bit of practical
difference. Zanu PF is firmly entrenched as the ruling party for the next
five years, although it is not likely to be an enjoyable nor easy five years
for them. An old-look, business-as-usual cabinet has just been announced and
things are quickly falling back into their old routine.

      President Mugabe is triumphant, the state and allied media are crowing
in relief at the humiliation of the MDC, the "revolution" is on course.
There is little doubt that if the MDC were to organize any sort of street
protests at what they allege were widespread rigging and falsification of
results, they would be met with the enthusiastic, ruthless force of the
state. There is little indication that there is much public appetite for any
such protests among that section of the public disillusioned with the state
of the country under Mugabe and Zanu PF but increasingly frustrated with the
MDC anyway.

      So there is no doubt that Zanu PF is top dog at the moment. Yet they
have won an election at a time when their ability to exercise the power that
should come with a strong victory has never been weaker. It is an odd
situation where they have a type of power, but not that required to make
much difference to reversing the poor state of the country.

      For the umpteenth time in several years, the Zim dollar has in the
last few months plummeted in value not just against hard currencies but
against formerly laughing-stock currencies like the Zambian kwacha and the
Mozambican metical. The utterly predictable effects of that pre-election
crash of the local currency are beginning to be felt with a vengeance in
shortages of goods and their dramatic increase in price.

      "Drought" has become a much-loved word by Mugabe and his ministers
because it provides such a convenient excuse for the many failures in
agriculture and the economy. But even if one were to accept drought as the
main cause of the food shortages and the great suffering being experienced,
it is quite reasonable to ask why "drought" in any year should still catch
the nation by surprise and so unprepared.

      There has been much crowing by Mugabe and the official press about how
Britsih Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected the opportunity to take his
assigned seat next to Mugabe at Pope John Paul II's funeral at the Vatican,
predictably being portrayed as a psychological triumph of wills by Mugabe.
Nothing about the saga suggested that there is about to be any softening of
the world's distaste for the regime of Mugabe. If Blair and Britain are
beyond the diplomatic blandishments of Zimbabwe, there certainly was no
suggestion that the rest of the world that has been so hostile to Mugabe's
regime sees the recent election as a great watershed proffering legitimacy
on Mugabe. The great effects of international isolation will continue.

      What then precisely are Mugabe and Zanu PF going to realistically do
for Zimbabwe? Are then signs, any prospects that the great problems of the
last five years are now closer to being solved by those who arguably played
a great role in creating them? Is political power really useful in a mainly
militaristic sense; in the sense of "I can prohibit/prevent you from doing
this or that?"

      After RBZ Governor Gideon Gono's pioneering work to try to mop up
whatever foreign currency was unofficially in the country into the system,
there are not going to be any dramatic sources of new forex. Production in
key areas of the economy is declining, not increasing and there does not
seem any prospect at all of a return of international lenders and donors.
Whatever future earnings will be generated will for years go to pay off the
massive debts being incurred to our new colonizer, China, to pay off jet
fighters, electric transformers, vehicles and all sorts of equipment from
one of the few countries in the world willing to gamble on extending credit
to Zimbabwe.

      More than ever since the much trumpeted war on inflation spearheaded
by Gono, the official inflation figures are embarrassingly at odds with what
consumers are experiencing. Apart from the increased hardship caused by the
new round of shortages and sharp, dramatic increases prices of all manner of
goods, there is also an increasing credibility gap for government in
general, the Central Statistical Office and Gono himself in regards to
inflation figures.

      Perennially we now hear about the crisis of agricultural inputs that
prevent increased production. The continuing collapse of the currency, the
ever more critical situation in regards to foreign currency availability and
a still outrageous inflation rate among several other factors do not point
to any prospect of a great agricultural revolution on the horizon.

      So apart from the ministries ruling party officials will be parceled
out and their attendant perks, what that is useful and for the good of
Zimbabwe is Zanu PF going to be able to do given the corner it has corralled
itself into in the last few years; a corner that the recent election will
not have done a thing to help them get out of?

      Whatever our party leanings if any, in the post-election period it
would be a relief to believe that the ruling party and government had some
kind of plausible plan to move the country forward from its many crises,
whether they are self-inflicted or "caused by Blair." Where is the sign of
such a plan? We seem condemned to keep on stumbling under a regime that is
in power but has no real clue how to do anything useful with it -
chidomakunike@yahoo.com

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Daily News (SA)

      Name change will be a tricky task
      April 19, 2005

      The article on a proposed name change for South Africa needs comment.

      Apart from the fact that the name South Africa is inoffensive and
world renowned as the "rainbow nation", a land of victory and freedom since
1994, the powers that be would have to be extremely careful in choosing a
name.

      The fact that "Zimbabwe" means "grave-yard" (pre-1872) has not been of
help to our neighbours.

      According to a learned dissertation on the etymology of African place
names by Dr Cyril A Hromnik (Africa Insight, Vol 10, Nos 3 and 4, 1980), the
name "Azania" means "country of ignoramuses" (Ignoramus - ignorant person,
one who is lacking knowledge, uninformed - Oxford Dictionary).

      Andy
      Hillcrest
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Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 4:31 PM by Mr M
Subject: RE: Stolen - and comment below

I want agree with you to an extent. I, however, think that all Zimbabweans, wherever they are should DO something. It also important to note that Mugabe did and still does not allow voter education unless it is done by him. He has all the state machinery to oppress his own people, and he continues to do that.  We should not split the opposition when we have a common enemy to deal with, we must have a united voice, a united approach to overcome. We should also not dine with the enemy by accepting some of what he can give (land, money etc) and many have done this. It is better, in my opinion, to be poor and go by one’s principles, than compromise one’s independence and freedom. These people want power for themselves forever. They think they are the only ones who can best rule the country; they think they are the only liberators. Many people fought in the war, be it that they supported the freedom fighters from within the country at great cost to themselves. The true heroes are those that fought and died at the front, facing the Rhodesian forces. Some of the so called leaders, if not all of them, are opportunists and were in hiding or in safe houses in Maputo and elsewhere. Some were in colleges in the US etc.

 

My point is that the MDC is not a perfect organization, but it is an alternative. The people in the MDC are doing something at least. What we need to do is to enrich the organization by adding value, not by running them down surely! I admit that they have made a number of bad judgments and political moves. We are not saying that we have the next Government in the MDC as currently constituted. There is need of refining the organization, and also coming up with other alternatives if necessary.

 

Before a free and fair, internationally supervised election, there will be a need to come up with a truly people’s constitution. I do not believe that the current constitution is usable.

 

Back to the MDC and its operations, I feel we should rightfully give credit. None of us has been man enough to stand up and be counted when it mattered. At best we are armchair political critics, and worse still, critics of the alternative, with us offering nothing. I accept that criticism is good provided it is constructive.

 

The MDC should not be going into parliament. This is driven mainly by self-centeredness, and personal gain. Instead, it should be lobbying with the African countries, with the AU, they (we) should take the Zimbabwean fiasco to the UN. Why are we not doing that? We may not get much from the body as it is pretty much useless, but at least we will be bringing about awareness. We should ask for political and other help from the west. Yes from the US, UK and other strong world forces! The Zimbabwean problem is not a black versus white matter, it is a matter of individual greed and political survival, and it is a matter of a paranoid aging group of individuals who know that they will have to answer to human rights abuse charges, the many murders and raping. It is not a matter of Zimbabweans wanting land, Zimbabweans want food, jobs, good health delivery, good schools, a viable economy, high standards of living, and above all, a good democracy. That is what they want. Farming is big business and you need capital and expertise, and can only be done by the suitable few. The destruction of the previously productive farms and the wholesale deforestation must stop. There is little meaningful farming taking place.

 

Mbeki has his motives and can never help our situation. He is benefiting from the whole fiasco in Africa. He now goes around “resolving” African problems!!! South Africa has economic interests in most of the southern African states; in fact Mbeki is re-colonizing Africa! South African companies are now covering most of Africa. In a way there is nothing wrong with the strong taking over, for as long as there is no abuse. (That is a subject for much more discussion!) The strong survive and dominate! So we can not expect Mbeki to help us, whatever his motivation.

 

We come together intellectually, we become a strong force, we become unstoppable, and we control our destiny.

 

lfm  

 

From: SS
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 8:21 AM
To: Mr.M
Subject: RE: Stolen

 

Austin has a point when he says MDC have failed, where were they when Zanupf was cheating, was there a clear and well defined election strategy, less than 50% of the registered voters bothered to cast their vote, what message were the silent majority sending, what role if any did both parties play in the voter education process ( in their post mortem on the elections MDc are recommending civic groups playing the critical role of voter education, where have they been the last 5 years!!!! On the other hand Zanupf knows very well about voter apathy in Zim and that has always been their trump card in all post 1980 elections, how do you celebrate an electoral victory based on less than 50% turn out?????) 800,000 people were turned away from voting not because of some fraudulent efforts but because they had seriously not bothered to register after being told that their party was not going to contest the elections, surely we know the voter registration process by now? I have heard arguments that we will wait for the next election in 5 years time!!! What about the wasted opportunity we have just thrown away? To show that we do not have a clue of where we have come form and where we are going we are saying MDC’s loss was entirely due to cheating!!! When are we going to have ownership of our mistakes, see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, bury heads in the sand and cry for Mbeki to intervene?????? Enough chat, bp yakwira izvozvi.

 

 

From: ZWNEWS [mailto:ironhorse@zimnews.net]
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 4:27 PM
To: Mr.M
Subject: Stolen

 

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