09:18 GMT, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 10:18
UK
As Zimbabweans wait for the outcome of the presidential vote, some of the
country's remaining white farmers have reported incidents of harassment by "war
veterans" in scenes that seem to echo the land invasions in 2000. This woman,
who prefers to remain anonymous, tells her story.
I live with my parents, my husband and our young child on our farm in
Masvingo province.
At about 1500 on Saturday a group of about 50 people - I can only describe
them as thugs - arrived at the gates of our farm.
They said they were "war veterans" but they obviously did not fight in the
war leading up to independence (in 1980) because they looked too young.
|
It was orchestrated from very high up |
They threatened to repossess our land and confiscate all our farm equipment.
They said we could leave but only with a suitcase.
I have no doubt that their action was orchestrated from very high up, because
some of our friends who live on neighbouring farms said they had experienced the
same treatment.
I know they are just "rent-a-mob" who have been paid to intimidate us.
The people at the gates started singing and "toi-toying" (military-style
traditional dancing). They carried on throughout the night.
They seized our farm labourers and harassed them with verbal threats about
how they were working for the whites. Luckily we have quite vicious dogs which
deterred them from approaching our house.
The next morning a bus came at about 0545 and collected them.
Everything then went quiet until at about 2100 a smaller group of about 10
people arrived. They started singing Zanu-PF songs and slogans.
After many attempts to contact them, the police finally arrived at about 0100
on Sunday and arrested five people.
But at about 0830 on Monday morning they returned. This time there were about
75 people. They remained on the outskirts of our farm - about 60 metres from our
farmhouse. We stayed inside.
They abducted some of our workers. Again we contacted the police support unit
and when they arrived, they made two arrests and dispersed the crowd.
It has become relatively quiet now but there are many rumours flying about.
Intimidation
It has been very difficult to sleep. We were under siege. At least one of us
has to stay awake to keep an ear to the ground in case something happens.
The last three nights have been terrible. It has been a type of psychological
intimidation to try to wear us down.
It is sad that those who have born the brunt of this have been our farm
workers.
My father is in his sixties and some of his workers have been here for more
than 40 years.
It is very reminiscent of what happened here in 2000 when a lot of land was
grabbed. Then it was even more aggressive than what is happening now.
We had to get rid of a lot of our land so that we have only a small area now.
War veterans were a powerful force in
2000 | In 2000, this area
around where we live was the first place to be targeted by the "war veterans"
and then the land invasions spread like wild fire to other parts of the country.
So perhaps a similar thing will happen again.
The difference between the events of 2000 and now is that there are so few
farmers left that we don't see the point in any more land invasions.
I mean what is the point of it? What message can it possibly send?
As we wait to hear what will happen about the elections, we are anxiously
hoping for change.
We hope there is a return to the rule of law but we fear that martial law
will be imposed and the government will deploy the army.
'Mugabe's plan'
We went to vote on 29 March but my mother and I found that our names had been
taken off the voters' roll for some reason.
There had not been any intimidation up until 29 March, so perhaps now Zanu-PF
realised that it has not worked and they are trying the tactic this time.
I think Mugabe definitely has a plan up his sleeve.
The opposition got a foot in the door and he did not like that so this is the
start of a backlash against the remaining white farmers.
I saw someone from Zanu-PF on television saying that they had so far only
used about 25% of their power so now they would come out and use the remaining
75%.
We also heard that one young white farm manager has been abducted and several
others have been harassed.
We feel extremely isolated. We hear that the MDC want the United Nations to
step in before there is bloodshed.
|
White farmers flee for their lives
Zimbabwe Today
While the government
warns of a white invasion, exactly the opposite is taking
place
Zimbabwe's few remaining white farmers are either barricaded in
their homes, waiting in a state of fear, or running for safety today. In
scenes reminiscent of eight years ago, chanting gangs of so-called war
veterans, encouraged by Zanu-PF propaganda, are threatening both their
property and their lives.
The new wave of invasions began on
Saturday, in Masvingo province, 160 kilometres south of Harare, when five
farms came under attack, and a game lodge was occupied. It started shortly
after Mugabe himself issued a warning that land must not be allowed to "slip
back into the hands of whites."
Today it is thought that at least 20
farms have come under attack, leaving less than 200 in white hands. This
compares to a total of 4,000 when the original attacks began at the turn of
the centiury.
Meanwhile, as the country waits for a High Court ruling on
the publication of the presidential election results, expected some time
today, police have arrested polling officials from three different areas.
They are accused of falsifying voting totals, to the detriment of Zanu-PF.
The MDC have dismissed the allegations as yet another means of buying
time.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, currently in South Africa, maintains
that his victory in the parliamentary elections was clear and fair - and as
a result, he has been making plans for the restoration of stability in the
country when the MDC take over. And these plans do indeeed include some
white faces.
My sources tell me that the first priority of the new MDC
government will be sort out the financial chaos that exists within the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, responsible for printing money and inducing the
hyper-inflation that is wrecking the economy.
First, he will fire the
present governor, Gideon Gono, and replace him temporarily with one of his
deputies. Then, under an arrangement already in place with the German
government, two German financial experts will fly in, as advisers to the new
governor. They will be expected to stay for a period of six
months.
Other MDC plans include changes in the leadership of the security
forces, with new commanders for both the army and the air force, a new
director-general of the CIO (the secret police) and a new
commissioner-general of police. All these appointments will be on an
"acting" basis only.
The current Chief Justice, George Chigausiku,
will also be removed. But not immediately. He will have one last important
duty to perform - to swear in Morgan Tsvangirai as the new President of
Zimbabwe.
Posted on Tuesday, 08 April 2008 at 07:43
MDC condemns Zanu PF's
senseless propaganda war
zimbabwejournalists.com
8th Apr 2008 07:59 GMT
By a Correspondent
THE MDC condemns
the malicious and grossly false allegations in today's issue of The Herald
that President Tsvangirai wants to give control of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe to German agents when he becomes State President.
We note that
there has been unprecedented panic within Zanu PF when President Morgan
Tsvangirai was overwhelmingly elected President of Zimbabwe in an election
whose results the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has refused to announce more
than a week after the poll.
Zimbabweans should note that the people's
victory has shaken the regime. Zanu PF's propaganda machinery, spearheaded
by Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, has been mandated to use the State
media to engage in a senseless and futile smear campaign against the MDC and
President Tsvangirai. Those at the RBZ who have been at the forefront of the
regime's vote-buying antics and the illegal quasi-fiscal activities are
panicking at the prospect of a new MDC government which believes in
transparency and accountability.
There is certainly no prospect of the
MDC government giving control of a strategic national institution such as
the central bank to foreigners. We believe that the RBZ is a strategic
national institution that must operate above board for the betterment of the
country's economy. No amount of shameless propaganda will derail the
people's overwhelming support for the MDC.
The regime is making all
sorts of malicious accusations to cause a sense of insecurity to key figures
in strategic national institutions in order to complicate the transitional
process and create panic in key areas of government.
Last week, the
regime's megaphones shocked the nation when they spread laughable lies that
the MDC had brought back the white commercial farmers to take back their
farms. The MDC's position on the land issue is that there cannot be a return
to the pre2000 era but at the same time, the current chaos on the farms
cannot be condoned.
The phantom theories that an MDC government will
remove the RBZ governor, the Commanders of the Army, the Airforce, the CIO,
the Commissioner General of the Police and the Chief Justice are meant to
cause national panic and cause unnecessary political instability in
Zimbabwe.
The people of Zimbabwe are aware that the malicious allegations
are evidence that the outgoing regime is in a state of panic. The people's
victory has shocked the regime to its foundations. Hate speech and
propaganda will not change the fact the people of Zimbabwe overwhelmingly
voted for the change they can trust.
MDC Information and Publicity
Department
Veterans call on
colleagues and army commanders to respect poll results
zimbabwejournalists.com
8th Apr 2008 08:04 GMT
By Zimbabwe
Liberators Platform
WE THE undersigned senior war veterans, former
senior commanders and members of the ZANLA and ZIPA High Command, founder
members and members of the Board of Trustees of the Zimbabwe Liberators
Platform (ZLP), wish to express our feelings on the current constitutional
crisis bedeviling the country.
We have watched with anxiety,
apprehension, dismay and disbelief the comical circus surrounding the
announcement of the results of the just ended harmonized elections held on
29 March 2006 which has left the country in limbo.
Zimbabwe has no
legislature at present as the new members of the House of Parliament and
Senate have not been sworn in whereas the old ZANU PF dominated Parliament
was dissolved on the eve of the Election on 28th March 2008 and the country
has no legitimate head of state and government, hence the crisis
The
current crisis has been precipitated by :-
i) The inexplicable failure by
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to announce expeditiously the
results of the just ended harmonized elections in particular the outcome of
the presidential election as required by law. It is the sovereign right of
the people of Zimbabwe to be informed of the outcome of the election without
having to beg for them or to resort to legal recourse to attain them. No one
has the power to deny the people of Zimbabwe their sovereign right to the
result of their election.
ii) The failure by the ZANU PF party and
government to accept and admit defeat in the election is a flagrant flouting
and violation of the popular will of the Zimbabwean electorate. It was
Robert Mugabe himself who unilaterally called for elections on 29 March
against wise counsel from President Mbeki of South Africa and protestations
from both factions of the Movement for Democratic Change MDC hoping to catch
the opposition flat footed. Now the stratagem has backfired and the people
of Zimbabwe have spoken with a powerful voice saying NO! to Mugabe and his
party. Robert Mugabe is on record as saying on Election Day that “when
people reject you it is time to quit politics”. He should do the honourable
thing and eat humble pie and leave the people of Zimbabwe in peace. He is
also on record as saying that it is only the opposition that alleges rigging
in Zimbabwean elections. Alas in a twist of irony, it is Mugabe who is now
accusing his very own Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) of manipulating the
election in favour of the MDC. Is this an inadvertent admission that ZANU PF
has now indeed become the opposition in Zimbabwean politics?
Zimbabwe
now finds itself at the crossroads. The core objective of the national
liberation struggle was self determination which found expression in freedom
and democracy as the ideals of the struggle, for which many sacrificed their
lives, liberty and depravation. It is these same noble ideals that stand
threatened from Robert Mugabe and his henchmen. We of the Zimbabwe
Liberation Veterans Forum stand ready to side with the people of Zimbabwe,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), civil society and all progressive
forces in Zimbabwe in defence of these ideals. We are determined to send the
tyrants packing, like their predecessors, to the dustbin of history where
they belong.
President Mbeki of South Africa, SADC and the African Union
are on record as saying that it is up to the people of Zimbabwe to resolve
the political crisis bedeviling their country. The people of Zimbabwe have
overwhelmingly delivered a resounding NO to Robert Mugabe’ tyranny and who
is Mugabe to impose his will against the Voice of the People of Zimbabwe?
Surely what more, in the circumstances, should the peace loving people of
Zimbabwe be expected to do? It is the highest time the SADC Heads of State,
the African Union and the international community raised their voice in
support of the popular will of the people of Zimbabwe. The ball is entirely
in their court and they cannot escape responsibility for any consequences
arising from the constitutional crisis through their inaction. Zimbabwe is
not Mugabe’s farm over which he holds title deeds nor did he single handedly
liberate this country.
ZANU PF has now gone into a frenzy talking of
a presidential run off election. We take it to be irresponsible and the
height of cynicism by those who should know better to talk of an election
re-run in the absence of an official announcement of the outcome of the
presidential election. Should the election result point to a re-run of the
presidential election, we demand that members of Parliament and the Senate
be sworn in immediately to oversee the re-run, as the House of Assembly will
have the casting vote in the event of a tie in the outcome. Furthermore, the
re-run should be conducted within twenty one days of the date of election as
stipulated in the Electoral Act.
We note with concern the strange and
discordant noises coming from paid state agents and rogue elements
purporting to be speaking on behalf of former liberation war fighters. These
sycophantic and misguided political misfits have no statutory role in
Zimbabwe and no say whatsoever in the conduct of elections. Their statements
and noises should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. We also note
with concern the frantic mobilization of the forces of reaction to descend
on the people as punishment for voting Mugabe and his ZANU PF out of power.
We call on the people to remain calm, vigilant and steadfast in defence of
their vote and their sovereign right to choose their leaders
democratically.
Finally, we call on all genuine and self respecting
former liberation war fighters and on all the commanders of the various
state security arms to uphold their constitutional duty to respect the
outcome of the election as the genuine sovereign expression of the popular
will of Zimbabweans. To act otherwise would be a treasonable offence for
which they will stand accountable and answerable jointly and
severally.
Happyson Nenji (Webster Gwauya) - ZLP Trust Board
Chairperson
Wilfred Mhanda (Dzinashe Machingura) ZLP Board Trust
Secretary
Bernard Manyadza (Parker Chipoera) ZLP Board
Treasurer
Zimbabwe needs an answer
The Guardian
Robert Mugabe's desire to cling on
to power is dishonourable and undermines his own pronouncements on his
country's liberation
Cameron Duodu
April 8, 2008 9:00
AM The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - which won a majority of seats
in Zimbabwe's parliament in the elections - has gone to court to try and get
the electoral commission to release the result. The commission argued in the
high court that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter. The
court disagreed and decided to hear it. But rather strangely, it said it
would wait till Tuesday before announcing whether it wants to hear the case
as an "urgent" one or not.
I find the court's decision extraordinary.
Zimbabwe has a held a presidential election whose result has been withheld,
probably illegally, for over a week, and the country's judiciary needs time
to decide whether the matter is an "urgent" one or not? Where was the
judiciary when violence broke out in Kenya in January and over 1,000
innocent people lost their lives, while nearly half a million were rendered
homeless? Does the court want the same thing to happen in Zimbabwe before it
decides the matter is urgent?
Maybe the former secretary-general of
the UN, Kofi Annan, should pack his suitcase, ready to go to
Zimbabwe.
And maybe he should stop over in Kenya on his way back home,
since the agreement he secured there has broken down and most probably will
still not have been fully implemented by the time he finishes with
Zimbabwe.
Some of these African "leaders" show so very little concern for
the safety of the ordinary person whose welfare they have sworn to promote.
When violence breaks out, they stay safe within strongly guarded palaces.
And ordinary folk see their neighbours coming at them with machetes and guns
and torches - ready to butcher them for merely belonging to the ethnic group
of one or other of the contestants for power, who has no intention of
sharing the spoils of office with other ordinary mortals.
The
withholding of the election result confirms what many have suspected
throughout the hiatus in which the result has been placed, namely, that
Mugabe's Zanu-PF is dictating the decisions of the electoral commission - a
body that the Zanu-PF leadership would have us believe is "independent" of
any political party.
This seeming manipulation is dishonourable. No
self-respecting organisation - least of all a movement such as Zanu-PF,
which gained worldwide support in its struggle against Ian Smith and his
murderous "cowboy cabinet" - should do that.
Unfortunately, Zanu-PF
has now irrevocably surrendered the moral high ground to the MDC, which is a
pity because the MDC definitely contains racist remnants of the Smith
regime, and should not have gained any ground at all in Zimbabwe, if Zanu-PF
had not governed in such an incompetent manner.
Zanu-PF should know that
you cannot allow inflation to reach over 100,000% and expect people to
tolerate it. It has failed to guarantee fundamental rights to Zimbabweans,
such as food and wages. One apolitical nurse I spoke to in a London hospital
recently told me: "I fear civil war, you know. People who don't have anyone
outside to send them money are starving. It will lead to war."
She is
right. Millions of Zimbabweans have crossed into South Africa, where some of
they have to make do with sleeping in churches, prey to xenophobic elements
within the South African police, who make occasional raids to arrest them
and send them back. No sooner are they on Zimbabwean soil than they plot to
go back again, risking life and limb to do so.
The bottom has also fallen
out of the value of the Zimbabwe dollar in an unimaginable manner. In 1991,
I spoke to the then finance minister, Bernard Chidzero, during which I told
him about how low the Ghanaian currency, the cedi, had been allowed to sink
by the PNDC regime. "What!" Chidzero exclaimed. "The people of Zimbabwe
would never tolerate that."
Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, Chidzero stepped
down as finance minister in 1995, due to ill-health, and died in 2002. His
successors have not all possessed the steadfastness with which he would have
defended the integrity of his nation's currency, and today, the Zimbabwe
dollar is so valueless that Zimbabweans need millions of it just to buy a
loaf of bread. When they can find a loaf of bread to
buy.
Nevertheless, until the current election, they had - contrary to
Chidzero's prophecy - more or less "tolerated" the incredible devaluation of
their currency. Now, they have said "enough is enough" and officially
divested Zanu-PF of its majority in parliament.
It is inconceivable
that having booted out so many Zanu-PF grandees out of parliament (about
nine ministers have lost their seats) the electorate would spare the leader
of the pack himself, Mugabe, from a similar fate. He has only himself to
blame. His current manoeuvres to reverse the people's decision indicates
that perhaps he didn't quite understand the term "liberation" when he was
throwing it about in relation to "freeing" the people of Zimbabwe from
oppression.
"Liberation" means setting people free - free to take their
own decisions regarding who to vote for and who to vote against; free to
declare people heroes and free to rescind their decision when they think
fit.
Of course, the people are difficult to serve. They threw Winston
Churchill out in Britain, after he'd led the country to victory in the
second world war. Russians grew to hate Josef Stalin, although he too fought
valiantly against Hitler. War leader though he was, he incarcerated them, in
their millions, in gulags.
It is individuals who offer themselves as
capable of serving the people. When these individuals fail and the people
reject them, they should accept it and step down. Kenneth Kaunda did it in
Zambia. Mugabe should now follow suit. For what can he do in the next six
years that he couldn't have done in the past 28 years?
Manipulating
election results in particular, and thereby exposing the people to the risk
of an ethnic conflict on the scale that we saw in Kenya, is a criminal act
unworthy of any person in whom the people once reposed trust. And, for the
"leader" concerned, it is indisputably dishonourable.
African Union concerned it cannot contact Mugabe says EU's
Solana
Forbes
04.08.08, 6:45 AM ET
BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - African
Union (AU) leaders are concerned that they have been unable to contact
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said
Tuesday.
He said he had spoken on Monday with Tanzanian President Jakaya
Kikwete, the AU's president and that his 'big concern' is that the African
leaders 'have not been able to be in contact with President
Mugabe.'
'All the efforts that have been made, have been a failure,'
Solana told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee in Brussels.
'So it is a concern of the leaders of the region.'
He said Tuesday
was a very important day for Zimbabwe, speaking ahead of a high court ruling
in Harare on a petition by the opposition demanding the electoral commission
immediately declare the outcome of the March 29 polls.
'We have to keep
our eyes very open to see how the situation evolves and in particular in the
coming hours,' Solana said.
In Harare the court said it would treat the
petition as an 'urgent' matter.
A European diplomat said Monday that
fears were spreading in Brussels and beyond that Zimbabwe could descend into
the kind of post-election violence seen in Kenya if the electoral impasse
persists.
Last Friday, the EU's Slovenian presidency called on Zimbabwe
to issue the results of its presidential election 'without further
delay'.
Zimbabwe opposition leader meets S.Africa's Zuma
Reuters
Tue 8 Apr
2008, 5:40 GMT
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai met South African ruling party leader
Jacob Zuma on Monday after appealing for help from outside powers to end the
28-year rule of President Robert Mugabe.
A spokeswoman for the ruling
African National Congress said Tsvangirai had met Zuma in Johannesburg but
gave no details.
Tsvangirai, who says he defeated Mugabe in the March 29
presidential election, wrote in a newspaper article earlier that Zimbabwe
was on a "razor's edge" because of the veteran 84-year-old leader's attempts
to cling to power.
Although Zuma has no formal position in the South
African government, he is the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki
and his role as ANC leader gives him influence in the development of the
party's domestic and foreign policies.
Some analysts expected the new
ANC leader to take a tougher stand on Zimbabwe after defeating President
Thabo Mbeki for the leadership late last year. Zuma won with strong support
of trade unions that have been sharply critical of Mugabe's
government.
But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal carried out
before the Zimbabwe election, Zuma said South Africa should continue Mbeki's
controversial policy of quiet engagement with Mugabe to find a solution to
his northern neighbour's crisis.
"We can't change that stance," the
newspaper quoted Zuma as saying in an article published on Monday. But Zuma
also told the Journal he thought political leaders should not stay in power
for more than a decade.
COURT CHALLENGE
While Tsvangirai engaged
in shuttle diplomacy, his Movement for Democratic Change continued legal
efforts to force election officials to finally make public presidential poll
results.
Earlier on Monday the High Court in Harare again postponed a
decision on whether to take up the case on an urgent basis, while rejecting
a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) argument that it had no jurisdiction
over the release of results.
The court will reconsider the issue on
Tuesday.
Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of planning violence to overturn
results of the presidential and parliamentary votes. Official results show
Mugabe's party, ZANU-PF, lost control of the lower house of parliament for
the first time.
ZANU-PF has said it will challenge the parliamentary
results in court, arguing election officials made mistakes and committed
fraud. It also wants the release of the presidential results delayed pending
a recount of the votes.
The situation became murkier late on Monday
when Zimbabwean police announced they had arrested seven election officials
for undercounting votes cast for Mugabe in four provinces.
"We're
still investigating, but we have established that there was deflation of
figures in respect of one candidate ... the ZANU-PF presidential candidate
(Mugabe)," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said.
RUN-OFF
LOOMS
The opposition and Western powers blame Mugabe for reducing the
once prosperous country to misery by economic mismanagement.
Zimbabwe
has inflation of more than 100,000 percent -- the highest in the world -- an
unemployment rate above 80 percent and chronic shortages of food and fuel.
The Zimbabwean dollar is a virtually worthless currency.
Millions of its
people have fled into exile.
Tsvangirai wrote in Britain's Guardian
newspaper on Monday: "Major powers here, such as South Africa, the U.S. and
Britain, must act to remove the white-knuckle grip of Mugabe's suicidal
reign and oblige him and his minions to retire."
Mbeki, who failed
last year to mediate an end to the crisis, said last weekend the
post-election situation was "manageable".
Although Tsvangirai is
demanding Mugabe step aside, ZANU-PF and independent monitors' projections
show the challenger failed to win an absolute majority despite outpolling
Mugabe and will be forced into a run-off.
Electoral rules say a runoff
must be held three weeks after the release of results, meaning the longer
the delay the more time Mugabe and his supporters, which include a group of
liberation war veterans, have to regroup.
The re-emergence of the
former soldiers, often used as political shock troops by Mugabe, has
increased concern he plans a violent response to his election
setback.
The veterans led a wave of violent occupations of white farms as
part of a government land redistribution programme that began in 2000, and
some Mugabe opponents say they have again begun occupying farms to
intimidate those loyal to the MDC.
"It's basically happening the same
way it happened in 2000 and thereafter, where groups of people come to your
farm and tell you to leave your business and equipment," said Trevor
Gifford, president of the Commercial Farmers' Union.
Meanwhile in
Harare two Western journalists arrested last Thursday were granted bail on
Monday, though a lawyer for New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak said
he had been taken to hospital after suffering back injuries in a fall in
jail.
Bearak, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a British reporter were
arrested at their hotel and charged with covering the election without
accreditation.
Mondli Makhanya speaks with Tony Jones
Australian Broadcasting
Corporation
Broadcast: 08/04/2008
Reporter: Tony
Jones
Editor in chief of the South African newspaper The Sunday Times,
Mondli Makhanya, joins Lateline to offer his thoughts on the election
turmoil in Zimbabwe.
Transcript TONY JONES: Mondli Makhanya is the
Editor in Chief of the South African newspaper the 'Sunday Times'. I spoke
to him in Johannesburg just a short time ago. Mondli Makhanya, thanks for
joining us.
MONDLI MAKHANYA, EDITOR IN CHIEF, SUNDAY TIMES: Thank you,
good morning.
TONY JONES: As Robert Mugabe clings to power refusing to
admit defeat, and the situation in Zimbabwe worsens, the world is waiting to
see whether South Africa will finally take some serious action to intervene
here. Do you think that will ever happen?
MONDLI MAKHANYA: What we do
know is there are very frantic behind the scenes talks between the South
African authorities, the Zimbabweans and elements of the Opposition about
finding resolution to the Zimbabwean crisis. But the nature of these
discussions is trying to find an accommodation, to get the MDC and ZANU-PF
to shape our going forward and not so much as to get ZANU-PF to accept
defeat. Which obviously the MDC is not accepting because the MDC wants
acknowledgement that they have won these elections and that the formation of
a government of national unity has got to be on their terms. But at the same
time you've got a very hardline ZANU-PF establishment which is at this
particular point in time being led the security chiefs, the intelligence
operatives and the military basically saying that Mugabe must hold on and
they can't find any accommodation with the Opposition. Which they obviously
see as agents of the West, agents of the British colonialists that they
refer the MDC as and to current day Britain as.
TONY JONES: Do you think
that Thabo Mbeki is actually prepared to see the election result manipulated
so that some sort of power sharing happens whether or not Morgan Tsvangirai
actually won the election?
MONDLI MAKHANYA: What you are getting from the
South African Government at this particular point is a proclamation of
victory for their policies. The fact that the elections took place under
relatively peaceful conditions under relatively free and fair conditions,
the South African Government is claiming that as their victory. The going
forward bit is what they are more not very firm on. I think they would be
prepared at this particular point to let ZANU-PF actually and I put this
quite strongly, to let ZANU-PF crook these elections as long as there's an
accommodation, a government of national unity. I don't think the South
African Government will actually come down hard on ZANU-PF, and I think that
is the only way I think, South Africa needs to take charge. South Africa
needs to lead the region in actually getting ZANU-PF and the Mugabe
Government to accept the outcome of a democratic process. The only
alternative at this particular point to that is, would be bloodshed, would
be the encroachment of a virtual military regime in Zimbabwe because of the
power that the generals are wielding over Mugabe and his
government.
TONY JONES: There was an article over the weekend in the
British Times or Sunday Times that suggested that Thabo Mbeki is trying to
get Mugabe to stand down in favour of Simba Makoni so that he actually
maintains a ZANU-PF leader but a younger one, not so corrupt possibly in
Zimbabwe?
MONDLI MAKHANYA: The strategy of the South African Government
since 2000 when this crisis really began has been to get a cleaner, a purer
ZANU-PF to run Zimbabwe and basically to get Mugabe out of the way. The ANC
has been very unhappy, the ANC and the South African Government have been
very unwilling to let the MDC who basically do not come from the same
liberation movement tradition that they come from. They've been very unhappy
to let them take control of Zimbabwe. And, the Simba Makoni element that has
come through now is something that the ANC was hoping would emerge. Before
these elections they were hoping that Simba Makoni actually would emerge as
the stronger opponent to Mugabe than Morgan Tsvangirai. And before the
ZANU-PF bureau on Friday picked up that there were indications that talk
among leaders in the region were that at least ZANU-PF get Mugabe to step
aside and let Simba Makoni take charge, lead the ZANU-PF campaign in the
run-off. But Mugabe obviously is resisting that and the hierarchy of ZANU-PF
and the military also do not trust Simba Makoni now as a true and loyal
ZANU-PF person. They think that he, too, can be manipulated by the West who
they obviously fear greatly.
TONY JONES: Mondli Makhanya, the thing
that is shocking about what you're saying to us here in Australia is that
that essentially means that South Africa, just like Robert Mugabe, the South
African leadership are not prepared to accept the results of the election if
they put Morgan Tsvangirai into power.
MONDLI MAKHANYA: Well, I think
what the South African Government fears, and the ruling party here, I think
what they fear, they fear a ZANU-PF outside of power. Because ZANU-PF,
because the military in Zimbabwe is very loyal to ZANU-PF because the
militias, the war veterans are all very loyal to ZANU-PF, they fear ZANU-PF
out of power will be an extremely dangerous destabilising force that will
affect the rest of the region. So they would rather ZANU-PF actually hold
onto some segment of power, to some semblance of power and be inside the
tent rather than be outside the tent. And I think they are prepared to even
compromise on basically the outcomes of a democratic process to achieve that
end. And there is a genuine fear when you speak to people in the government
in South Africa there is a fear that if ZANU-PF is out of power they will
become a very strong destabilising military force and an uncontrollable one
at that.
TONY JONES: Is there another side to this, as well? Is President
Mbeki also afraid that if a non-liberation movement government takes root in
neighbouring country like Zimbabwe that there could be a sort of domino
effect in southern Africa and he could lose his position and other
liberation presidents could lose their position?
MONDLI MAKHANYA: I
think in the early days of the crisis there was that fear among all the
governments in the region. They didn't want a party that came from a
non-liberation movement tradition to take charge of any of their countries
and they feared that domino effect. And they feared a party also that had
roots in the Labor movement taking charge, because that's where the MDC
comes from and that it may encourage other elements such as our own trade
union movement in South Africa actually having political ambitions. So in
the initial days that was the greatest fear and I think that is still there.
But I think right now I really believe that the major government do not know
what to do. They have run an eight-year policy that is taking them nowhere
and they have run out of options and they actually don't know how to deal
with this monster that they've allowed to grow and this monster they've
allowed to become uncontrollable and I think they're just hoping for a
miracle to happen and they're hoping that somehow Mugabe will listen to
them. He has not listened to them for the past eight years and each promise
that he has made over the past eight years he has broken and he has actually
made them look like fools in the eyes of the world and I think that's them
trying to get him now to accept some sort of compromise deal is a very long
shot. And they actually I believe, the only way is they actually have to
come down very hard on them. They actually have to force him out of office
at this particular point.
TONY JONES: Interesting thing is, I think
this is little understood in the Western public at least, Thabo Mbeki was in
talks with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the past few days
and with other Western leaders and they have been trying to convince him to
intervene to make sure that democracy actually takes its proper course in
Zimbabwe. It doesn't sound like he has any intention at all in allowing that
to happen?
MONDLI MAKHANYA: Well, that is the great tragedy of it. If a
free and fair election was held in Zimbabwe, and one has to give credit to
some of the interventions of the South African Government and other
governments in the region for the fact that this time round the conditions
were much better than in previous elections. An election has taken place.
There is an outcome and an outcome that has been deemed by the regional
trading group, as well as the African union, as having been free and fair.
But now the ruling party is unwilling to accept that and they are actually,
they're actually willing to entertain the unwillingness of ZANU-PF to step
away from power. And the noise that has been coming out of Pretoria which
was articulated also by President Mbeki in London, was that " let us wait
and", and actually saying to Gordon Brown that the package that the United
Kingdom has, wants to put forward for a reconstructed Zimbabwe was actually
premature; that it is actually destabilising the sensitive talks that the
South African Government may be having with ZANU-PF, because ZANU-PF is now
interpreting Gordon Brown's offer of help for a post Mugabe government as
actually for a reward for Morgan Tsvangirai for having ousted Mugabe and now
it's being used as an excuse for destabilising the talks. And unfortunately,
I think the South African Government is actually buying that
talk.
TONY JONES: A final question, we understand that Morgan Tsvangirai
is actually in Johannesburg at the moment, although we don't know who he's
speaking to because both the President of South Africa and the Foreign
Minister is still out of the country. Do you have any idea what Morgan
Tsvangirai is actually doing there?
MONDLI MAKHANYA: Well, there is a
major media scramble in South Africa in Johannesburg at the moment to find
out who has been meeting. It has been said he's here for private meetings.
There's a strong Zimbabwean community here, both business and refugees. So
the indications that he may have been speaking to some of them. But the
indications are that these are official talks that he is having, probably
with some senior officials in the South African Government. The people who
have been dealing with the Zimbabwe matter more directly are the Deputy
Minister of foreign affairs and the Local Government Minister. They have
been involved in the mediation talks in Zimbabwe, so it could well be that
he was talking to them and obviously there is also a strong diplomatic
community that's based in Pretoria. So he could be speaking to them. But at
this particular point it is still very unclear, it is very secretive at this
point who Morgan Tsvangirai was talking to. And his arrival in South Africa
was also very sudden. It was not expected and it leaked while they were
trying to keep it very secret.
TONY JONES: Mondli Makhanya, no doubt your
own journalists are on the trail of that story trying to find out why he's
there and who he's speaking to as we speak. We'll leave you there for now.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to speak to you again some time.
MONDLI
MAKHANYA: Thank you
Mugabe's bloody descent
Los Angeles Times
He could have been
another Mandela, but power became his only goal. By Martin Meredith April
8, 2008 The careers of two of Africa's most prominent politicians -- Robert
Mugabe and Nelson Mandela -- have striking similarities. Both were born in
an era when white power prevailed throughout Africa, Mandela in 1918, Mugabe
in 1924. Both were products of the Christian mission school system. Both
attended the same university, Fort Hare in South Africa. Both emerged as
members of the small African professional elite, Mandela a lawyer, Mugabe a
teacher. Both were drawn into the struggle against white minority rule,
Mandela in South Africa, Mugabe in neighboring Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Both
advocated violence to bring down white-run regimes. Both endured long terms
of imprisonment, Mandela, 27 years, Mugabe, 11. Both suffered the anguish of
losing a son while in prison, and both were refused permission to attend the
funeral.
But whereas Mandela used his prison years to open a
dialogue with South Africa's white rulers in order to defeat apartheid,
Mugabe emerged from prison bent on revolution, determined to overthrow white
society by force. Military victory, he said, would be the "ultimate
joy."
Even after seven years of a civil war in which at least
30,000 people died,Mugabe, having gained power through elections, expressed
disappointment that he had been denied the kind of power that military
victory would have given him. For Mugabe, power was not the means to an end
but the end itself.
This year, Mandela celebrates his 90th
birthday, acclaimed around the world as one of the great leaders of his
time, while Mugabe battles on grimly after 28 years of power, like a
prizefighter whose eyes are blinded by his own blood -- and the blood of
many others. The early years of Mugabe's rule seemed full of promise.
Instead of the angry Marxist ogre the white minority had feared, Mugabe
appeared as a model of moderation after winning the 1980 election, pledging
to work for reconciliation and racial harmony. Even the recalcitrant white
leader, Ian Smith, who previously had denounced him as "the apostle of
Satan," found him "sober and responsible."
Western governments
lined up with offers of aid. In its first year of independence, Zimbabwe was
awarded $2 billion in aid, enabling Mugabe to embark on ambitious health and
education programs. The white population also benefited from growing
economic prosperity. Given large increases in commodity prices, white
farmers -- the backbone of the economy -- became ardent supporters of
Mugabe's government and his ruling ZANU-PF party.
But Mugabe's black
political opponents fared less well. Within weeks of gaining power, Mugabe
set out to crush political opposition in Matabeleland province and establish
a one-party state. The military campaign he unleashed there in the 1980s
culminated in mass murder -- as many as 20,000 civilians are estimated to
have died -- but it gave Mugabe the total control he had always
sought.
In the capital of Harare, meanwhile, Mugabe's inner
circle scrambled for farms, businesses and government contracts. Mugabe
joined the fray, but his real obsession was not personal wealth but power.
Year by year, he acquired ever greater control, ruling the country through a
vast system of patronage and ignoring the spreading blight of corruption. "I
am rich because I belong to ZANU-PF," boasted one of Mugabe's proteges, a
millionaire businessman. "If you want to be rich, you must join
ZANU-PF."
Under Mugabe's one-party system, his tentacles reached
into every corner of the land. One by one, parliament, the state media, the
police, the civil service and the courts were subordinated to his will. In
dealing with dissidents, his secret police were licensed to harass,
intimidate and even murder at will.
By the mid-1990s, Mugabe
had become an irascible dictator, brooking no opposition, contemptuous of
the law and human rights, surrounded by sycophantic ministers and
indifferent to the incompetence and corruption around him. Whatever good
intentions he had started out with had long since faded.
By 2000,
Zimbabweans were generally worse off than they had been at independence:
Average wages were lower; unemployment had tripled; public services were
crumbling and life expectancy was falling.
As opposition to his
rule mounted, Mugabe struck back with increasing ruthlessness. His first
target was white farmers who, worried about title to their land, had shown
signs of supporting a new opposition coalition, the Movement for Democratic
Change. Hoping to bolster his popularity, Mugabe sent gangs of ZANU-PF
activists to seize white-owned farms and distribute them to his supporters,
but it led only to the collapse of the agricultural
industry.
His ultimate objective, however, was to crush all
opposition and remain in power. Since 2000, he has used all the government's
resources to attack his opponents, sanctioning murder, torture and
lawlessness of every kind; rigging elections; violating the courts and
suppressing the independent press. In a speech in 2003, he warned that he
would use even worse violence if necessary, threatening to act like a "black
Hitler" against the opposition: "If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler
tenfold."
Zimbabwe has been reduced to a bankrupt and impoverished state,
threatened by economic collapse and catastrophic food
shortages.
But still Mugabe fights on. "No matter what force you
have, this is my territory, and that which is mine I cling [to] unto death,"
he said during a previous election campaign. And he is far from finished.
Though losing control of parliament in last month's election, he can still
rely on party militias, youth groups, war veterans, police and army generals
to help him win the next round of the presidential election. Violence has
been Mugabe's stock in trade for more than 30 years. It is not a pleasant
prospect for Zimbabweans yearning for something better.
Martin
Meredith, the author of "The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of
Independence," has written biographies of Robert Mugabe and Nelson
Mandela.
Hero to Tyrant – Uncle Bob’s Strange Story
The Sowetan
08 April
2008
Martin Meredith provides what I think is the best record of the
struggle for Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe’s heroism, his tyranny and how he
crushed his enemies.
These include Joshua Nkomo and
his Zapu party, the independent press and MDC, and how his government
sponsored farm attacks and invasion and destroyed the country’s
economy.
Meredith takes us on the journey of when Mugabe was a
young hot-blooded freedom fighter, supported and educated by
missionaries.
With the help of a priest who was sympathetic to the
liberation cause, he fled the country to Mozambique with Rhodesian security
in hot pursuit.
Mugabe was forced into negotiating Zimbabwe’s freedom
at Lancaster House by then president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda, Tanzania’s
Julius Nyerere and Samora Machel of Mozambique.
They threatened to
end their support if Mugabe and Nkomo failed to negotiate with Ian
Smith.
We are also told about the Chimurenga – the liberation
struggle undertaken by Zanu-PF, Zapu and their military wings – the
Lancaster House talks, compromises and the final liberation of
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe became president promising reconciliation with whites.
He even appointed a former minister in Ian Smith’s cabinet, David Smith, and
farmer Dennis Norman, a former president of the Rhodesian Commercial Farmers
Union, as ministers of agriculture.
Whites were generally impressed
by Mugabe and started hero worshiping him.
Mugabe’s tyranny emerged
when he deliberately initiated a split with his comrade-in-arms Joshua
Nkomo. Within a year or two after independence he accused Nkomo of plotting
to overthrow him.
He told Nkomo in 1982 that his security forces had
found arms caches on Zapu farms. Yet it was known and accepted that both
Zipra, Zapu’s military wing, and Zanla, Zanu-PF’s military wing, had weapons
caches.
The anti-dissidents, or gukurahundi, were Mugabe’s ploy to crush
Zapu and remove it from government so as to form a one-party
state.
It was a sad turn of events when the North Korean-trained 5th
Brigade went on a killing spree in Matebeleland.
The reign of terror
was politically led by Mugabe’s close allies Edgar Tekere and Enos Nkala,
then police minister, himself a Ndebele who stoked up violence against the
Ndebeles .
Mugabe called Nkomo a “sellout” and a “cobra in the
house”, and demoted him – and finally fired him from his cabinet.
The
merger of Nkomo’s Zapu with Zanu-PF to form one party, Zanu-PF, was in fact
Nkomo’s compromise because he wanted peace or to avoid conflict with
Mugabe.
Mugabe never stopped. His security forces detained all
opponents, tortured them and locked them up at will.
Judges were told
to toe the line or resign. Chief Justice Gugbay was forced to step down
while other judges resigned out of fear because they were being harassed by
Zanu-PF officials.
The land invasion and attacks on white farmers
started in 2000. War veterans led Zanu-PF supporters in daylight invasions
on white farms throughout the country at the instruction of some cabinet
ministers.
Farmers were attacked and their land and homesteads forcibly
taken . One cabinet minister even ordered the Geldenhuys family off their
farm.
When the farmers reported to the police they were arrested and
accused of provoking the black invaders. Some police officers used official
vans to ferry loot from the white farms.
Then entered Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. He became a thorn
in Mugabe’s side.
The MDC defeated many Zanu-PF politicians and took
several constituencies in elections. He was to be dealt with severely, and
since then MDC supporters have been persecuted.
If you want a
vivid understanding of Mugabe’s rule and how he destroyed the economy of his
own country, this is the book for you.
'My Zimbabwe Experience'
Totally Jewish
By Cassie Williams - Tuesday
8th 2008f April 2008
World Jewish Relief's Cassie Williams
recounts her time spent helping the Jewish community and other people in
need in Zimbabwe.
I have worked as Programme Manager for WJR (World
Jewish Relief) for 16 months. Prior to joining the team, I spent two and a
half years in Rwanda and Ethiopia, working with street kids and destitute
citizens. However, nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced in
Zimbabwe in February, when I went to visit the project WJR
supports.
I didn’t go to Zimbabwe armed with statistics and percentages,
or with a clip board to fill out mundane forms and cross the appropriate
boxes. I spent a week in this fascinating country to learn more about the
daily turmoil of its citizens. The reports of the situation pale in
comparison to the reality - life for the average Zimbabwean is unimaginably
difficult today.
Everything is in short supply - from basic food
stuffs to petrol. The March/April harvest has been blighted by a serious
drought. In the country’s second city, Bulawayo - where WJR is active - the
majority of people are surviving on food aid and other assistance. Across
much of the city, roads are falling in to disrepair; refuse is no longer
collected, posing a serious health risk; water is in short supply and prices
rise by the hour. The health system has almost entirely collapsed and the
supermarket shelves remain empty.
I spoke to a number of elderly
people buckling under the responsibility as the official guardians to their
orphan grandchildren - they doubt that they will ever be able to provide for
these children. The young people I spoke to were startlingly frank about how
hard it is to concentrate at school on an empty stomach – schools continue
to function nominally, despite the dramatic exodus of teachers who have fled
the country in search of different jobs for better pay.
People wait
patiently for change, clinging onto hope.
Currently, WJR is supporting a
Jewish old age home called Savyon Lodge, where 24 Jewish residents and two
non-Jewish residents are somewhat sheltered from the horrors befalling the
population. They live in relative comfort; receiving three decent meals a
day and medical support thanks to WJR and our partners on the ground. They
are, perhaps blissfully, ignorant to the fact that their life savings are
worthless and that they are barely able to contribute to their upkeep. As
the shortages and economic crisis expand to unthinkable levels, the home
faces severe difficulties in securing food and medical equipment and is
compelled to source goods from South Africa. WJR provides the funds to
enable them to do this – but sadly, many Zimbabweans do not have access to
the kind of support WJR provides.
There is nothing, so they have nothing.
Inflation is spiralling out of control: in the middle of February a loaf of
bread cost Z$3.5 million - then, Z$10 million was worth approximately £1. On
3rd April, a loaf of bread cost Z$10.5m and Z$100m was equal to
£1.
It is estimated that some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the
combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition. Life expectancy is
one of the lowest in the world; since 1994 it has fallen from 57 to 34 for
women and from 54 to 37 for men. Industry has all but collapsed, causing
millions to flee the country in search of a better life elsewhere, while
those who remain are trapped in poverty, unable to provide for their
children or themselves. Over 80% of those who remain in the country are
unemployed.
WJR considers it both a duty and an honour to help the Jews
in need in Zimbabwe. However, the needs of the majority black population are
undoubtedly far more pressing and as such, WJR is currently working with
local agencies to find ways to assist the wider community of
Bulawayo.
If you are interested in finding out more, or donating to WJR,
please call 020 8536 1250, email info@wjr.org.uk or visit www.wjr.org.uk.
Cassie Williams is WJR
Programme Manager
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