http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=21613
August 23, 2009
HARARE
(AFP) - A cabinet retreat attended by Zimbabwe's unity government
collapsed
this weekend as President Robert Mugabe's ministers walked out
after a
deputy prime minister said last year's polls were fraudulent.Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's
comments during the retreat in the holiday resort town of Nyanga incensed
the Zanu-PF ministers, who stormed out.
"We walked out of the meeting
in protest to register our anger against
reckless statements by one of the
principals of the Global Political
Agreement," Chinamasa told
AFP.
"This is a government faction and there was no reason to undermine
the other
partner in the government. Besides this is not the first time he
has done it
and we felt that this was unacceptable."
Chinamasa added
that Zanu-PF ministers will refuse to attend government
meetings in future
unless Mutambara "is not given a role in the proceedings
of the
meetings."
Mutambara is a leader of a breakaway faction of the Movement
for Democratic
Change, who along with main MDC leader and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai
formed an inclusive government with Mugabe earlier this
year.
Tsvangirai - who chaired the retreat that was intended to review
the
performance of the unity government - later met with Chinamasa to find a
solution to the crisis, but Mugabe's ministers refused to return.
"We
explained our position to the prime minister and he understood our anger
and
feelings," Chinamasa said. "We explained to him that, not out of
disrespect
to him, we could not continue participating in the meeting."
The rest of
the meetings at the retreat were attended only by cabinet
ministers aligned
with Tsvangirai and Mutambara. Mugabe did not attend as he
is on a week's
holiday.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Clara Smith
Monday 24 August 2009
CHIPINGE - Zimbabwe has recorded a
dozen new cases of cholera in an outlying
rural district, days after the
United Nations (UN) raised fears of a fresh
outbreak of the disease in the
country with new rains coming in less than 12
weeks.
In an alert
circulated at the weekend among non-governmental organisations
(NGOs)
working in Zimbabwe, aid officials said 12 cases of cholera were
detected in
Chibuwe district near Chipinge farming town, more than 300km
south-east of
Harare.
There were no fatalities recorded, with 10 patients successfully
treated and
discharged from hospital while two were being held for
observation. But
NGOs - that quickly dispatched workers to Chibuwe last
Friday - expressed
fears the disease could spread especially with doctors on
strike.
"The outbreak of cholera in Chibuwe has caused panic among
community members
and health personnel. The cases are sporadic as they are
reported in
different villages. Nurse in charge at Chibuwe clinic fears that
there is
likely to be more cholera cases in the area," read the NGO alert
that was
shown to ZimOnline.
Zimbabwe Health Minister Henry Madzorera
was not immediately available for
comment on the matter.
A cholera
epidemic that coincided with a doctors strike killed 4 288 people
out of 98
592 infections between August 2008 and July 2009.
UN officials last week
said Zimbabwe's humanitarian situation remained
precarious and that the same
problems that helped spread cholera remained
unresolved, with six million
people or half of the country's total
population of 12 million people with
little or no access to safe water and
sanitation.
Doctors went on
strike two weeks ago to press the cash-strapped government
for more pay,
while Madzorera last week reported Zimbabwe's first confirmed
cases of
influenza A (H1N1) or swine flu, to highlight a looming health and
humanitarian crisis in the southern African country.
Zimbabwe's
power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai has promised to rebuild the economy and
restore basic
services such as water supplies, health and education that had
virtually
collapsed after years of recession.
But the administration, which says it
needs US$10 billion to revive the
economy, has found it hard to undertake
any meaningful reconstruction work
after failing to get financial support
from rich Western nations that remain
reluctant to help until they are
convinced that Mugabe is committed to
genuinely share power with Tsvangirai.
- ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=21589
August 23, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
MUTARE - Parliament's Constitutional Select Committee
co-chairman Paul
Mangwana of President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has said the
lifespan of
Zimbabwe's current inclusive government will be five years
because the
majority of legislators across the political divide want to
serve their full
term of five years.Mangwana's disclosure is in sharp
contrast to the widely
held belief that the duration of the hybrid
government was two years, with
the specific objective of writing a new
governance charter for the country
before fresh, free and fair elections are
held.
The Zanu-PF Chivi Central legislator warned journalists attending a
media
workshop in Mutare Thursday on electoral reforms in Zimbabwe that
linking
the process of making a constitution to elections was attracting
resistance
to the making up of a new Constitution.
"I have engaged
them (legislators) across party lines they still think that
we were elected
for five years and they want to serve for five years,"
Mangwana told
journalists attending the Zimbabwe Election Support Network
workshop. "That
is what is in their minds."
Mangwana, 48, said power was sweet, and urged
journalists not to link
elections to the Constitution-making process if they
wanted
parliamentarians, who have the final say in the adoption of the new
Constitution, to support the Constitution-making process.
"Please
help us journalists," he said. "If you link the process of making a
Constitution to elections, you are attracting resistance to the making of a
new Constitution. Nobody, and I must stress this emphatically, nobody wants
to be removed from power. Power is so sweet that no one wants to leave it. I
also don't want to be removed from Chivi Central constituency.
"So if
you continue to remind me that I am writing my own removal from
power, the
chances of me voting for a new Constitution will be diminished.
This is
across party lines."
Mangwana said the Constitution-making process must
be discussed in the media
without talking about elections, "because
according to our laws whatever
draft we will come up with must be voted into
law by parliamentarians."
"So don't continue to remind them, although we
know that its going to
happen, elections will be held in terms of the new
Constitution," Mangwana
said.
"But why remind one another all the
time? When people are married they don't
want to be reminded all the time
the husband comes up and says, 'You know
what, I can divorce you' or the
wife comes up and says, 'You know what, we
can divorce and share the
property equally'. All the time we are talking
about divorce. It removes
confidence in that marriage."
Mangwana was nominated by Zanu-PF as its
candidate for the House of Assembly
seat for Chivi Central constituency, in
Masvingo province, in the March 2008
legislative polls.
He won the
seat with 8,228 votes, defeating Chivhanga Henry of the MDC, who
received
6,471 votes, and Mufudzi Tinashe, an independent who received only
452
votes.
In January the State Press tipped Mangwana to take over as Acting
Minister
of Information and Publicity following the dismissal of Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu,
who failed to win a seat in the 2008 election. But Mangwana was
shunted
aside as Mugabe formed an inclusive government with Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara in
February.
Mangwana has however been appointed co-chair of the influential
Parliamentary Select Committee, charged with spearheading the writing of a
new constitution for the country.
Mangwana said: "So, I think when we
approach this issue of the election, let
us talk about writing a new
Constitution for the future generations of
Zimbabweans for ensuring that we
have democracy in our country for now or
forever. If that becomes our line
of thinking, I think we will make a lot of
progress."
Mangwana's
claims dovetail with recent utterances by embattled breakaway MDC
faction
leader Mutambara who also says the inclusive government will be in
office
for five years. Mutambara and Mangwana's claims contradict those of
the
mainstream MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai which is adamant
the
current political dispensation is transitional and should last the
duration
of the current Constitution-making process.
The inclusive government is a
product of painstaking power-sharing talks by
the parties following a hotly
disputed presidential run-off poll in which
President Mugabe muscled his way
back to power after a humiliating defeat by
once bitter rival,
Tsvangirai.
Critics say the new dispensation is not good for democracy as
it encourages
losing incumbents to reclaim power through undemocratic and
often violent
means.
The global political agreement which gave birth
to the inclusive government
says a new Constitution will be followed by
fresh, free and fair elections,
an assertion also categorically stated by
Mutambara at a recent investment
conference in Harare.
"When we were
doing the negotiations, we were coming from the opposition; we
wanted a
short and sharp government, 18 months, and then elections. That was
our
demand," Mutambara told delegates at the recent International Investment
Conference.
"But our brother Mugabe from Zanu-PF was saying, 'No I
was elected on the
27th of June (2008), I want my five years'. So we argued
back and forth.
"The reason why we did this in the end is to ensure that
people are not in
an election mode. We for once work for the country. If we
have 18 months or
two years as our horizon, we don't work, we
campaign."
Mutambara said there would be evaluation of the coalition
administration in
two years, and if it had done well on restoring democracy
and economic
progression, there would be no need to disband it, he
said.
"If we behave well as a government, we create conditions for free
and fair
elections," Mutambara said.
"After five years, there will be
elections which are free and fair and one
winner will be elected and the
losers will congratulate the winner and we
will have a stable, legitimate
government that will guarantee stability
forever. So to the investors,
stability is guaranteed for five years, at
best forever."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=21621
August 24, 2009
By Nkosana
Dlamini
HARARE - The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) has split
into two
bitter factions following strong differences on how to approach the
current
constitution making process driven by Parliament and on how to
manage funds
received from the union's benefactors. A breakaway group led by
incumbent
vice president, Brilliant Dube and ousted secretary general,
Lovemore
Chinoputsa is now claming to be the legitimate executive of the
student
movement.
An extra ordinary general council meeting called by
the group over the
weekend resolved to dismiss incumbent president Clever
Bere for alleged
unilateralism, misappropriation of union's funds and
violation of its
constitution.
But Bere remains adamant he still
enjoys the support of the majority
national executive members of the union
making him its rightful leader.
He further dismisses the other group as a
bogus executive.
The meeting convened by the rival group on Saturday
elevated incumbent Dube
to the post of the union's interim president pending
a congress in November
this year which it says shall see the election of
substantive leaders.
The group also retained in its executive,
Chinoputsa, who was expelled from
the then united ZINASU for alleged
incompetence.
Bere is opposed to participation in Zimbabwe's
constitution making process
under the current set up. He says the decision
is the collective decision of
students in Zimbabwe.
But Chinoputsa
favours student participation in the parliament-driven
process.
The
rivalry between the factions spilled into a Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC) meeting called by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai a week ago
to
diffuse tensions between his party and long time allies, the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
and ZINASU.
The three organisations, through which the MDC was formed
in 1999, are
campaign for government to relinquish control of the
constitution making
process which they say must be people
driven.
Bere enjoys the support of Madhuku and the ZCTU because of his
stance on the
constitution-making process while Chinoputsa is said to be
Tsvangirai's
"blue-eyed boy" within the student organisation.
During
the meeting, which was also attended by the MDC top leadership, Bere
interjected Tsvangirai during his opening remarks saying members of his
executive were not "comfortable" with taking part in the deliberations in
the presence of Chinoputsa, whom he referred to an
intruder.
Tsvangirai was forced to eject his backer from the meeting
after Bere and
NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku put pressure to have him thrown
out.
Tsvangirai, who is desperate to recover the support of his party's
closest
allies, was forced to take the decision in an apparent bid to rescue
the
meeting from collapse.
But that was not before the MDC leader had
scolded Madhuku for alleged
interference with the student movement's
political affairs.
Both Tsvangirai and Madhuku are fighting for the
support of the students, a
very vocal and powerful voice on issues affecting
the country. Both feel the
group can leverage their opposing
views.
ZINASU has produced very prominent personalities on the country's
political
landscape such as Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Finance
Minister
Tendai Biti, the late MDC legislator for Kuwadzana Learnmore
Jongwe, his
successor in the constituency Nelson Chamisa and former
Highfields MP
Munyaradzi Gwisai.
Other personalities that have made a
mark within the country's civic society
groups, also a vocal sector on
governance issues, are Harare lawyer Selby
Hwacha, MISA-Zimbabwe Chapter
director Takura Zhangazha and Hopewell Gumbo,
a Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt
and Development (ZIMCODD) employee.
It has also emerged some donor groups
could also be guilty of causing the
split of the student group.
Bere
all but admitted some donors were fanning divisions in the union.
He said
the donors could be making a mistake by supporting a splinter group
from the
union saying they should learn from their past mistakes.
The outspoken
student leader accused donors of fragmenting the opposition's
support
against President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party through sponsoring
sprouting
political parties during the run-up to Zimbabwe's presidential
elections.
He also accused some named donor groups of trying to seek
his ouster because
of what they found as his intransigence against
Tsvangirai's stance on the
constitution making process.
"I do not
understand donor politics. Our decisions are guided by our
aspirations and
beliefs," he said during a press conference last Friday.
"Donors have
always made monumental mistakes. Last year they backed Simba
Makoni
(Mavambo/Kusile leader) at the expense of Morgan Tsvangirai and now
we have
the inclusive government which is their product. If they had not
supported
Makoni, Tsvangirai would have won the presidential election.
"They have
been consistent in making mistakes. We understand them in that
this is not
their country so they may not be so passionate about these
issues."
http://www.radiovop.com
MASVINGO, August 23, 2009 - The
Masvingo ZANU PF Youth League has said
it only endorsed party first
secretary, President Robert Mugabe, and not the
other two presidium members,
vice president Joyce Mujuru and party national
chairman John Nkomo, in sharp
contrast to other provinces that have since
endorsed the whole presidium
ahead of the party's annual congress to be held
in
December.
"We are different from other provinces that
endorsed the whole
presidium. We endorsed President Mugabe only because he
has some qualities
that others do not have. He does not succumb to some
pressures, said Youth
League vice chairperson Cleopas Magwizi, at the youth
congress on Sunday
held in Masvingo. "Mujuru and Nkomo are dead wood. They
are of no benefit to
the party-in fact, they are turning out to be
liabilities, while Mugabe has
made a peculiar service to the party and the
nation as a whole."
Magwizi is deputized by
Yeukai Simbanegavi from Gutu and Talent Majoni
from Chiredzi and they will
be part of the five member team that will
represent Masvingo at the party's
congress in December.
Magwizi also accused Tourism and Hospitality
Minister Walter Mzembi,
who is also the Masvingo South legislator of
arrogance as he failed to turn
up for their conference.
"He (Mzembi) does not recognize our provincial executive. He is
arrogant. He
does not attend most of the party functions here, despite the
fact that he
hails from Masvingo, except a few ones." he
said.
Senior politburo members
Dzikamai Mavhaire and Minister of Higher and
Tertiary Education Stan Mudenge
attended the function.
The conference, which was supposed to be
held in Harare a fortnight
ago, was postponed after some fighting over power
struggles.
Mujuru, who is vying for Mugabe's top post
together with Defence
Minister Emerson Mnangagwa, was said to have a
conspiracy with the Saviour
Kasukuwere faction to influence the election of
Youth League leaders to
block any election of members from the Mnangagwa
faction.
http://www.radiovop.com
MASVINGO, August 23, 2008 -The country's first urban
settlement,
Masvingo, has gone for four days without water, triggering
fears of another
fresh cholera outbreak.
Last
Thursday, the whole town went dry, resulting in people collecting
water from
unprotected sources.
Masvingo lost 30 people to last year's cholera
outbreak which saw
about 4 000 people dead and over 100 000 infected
countrywide.
"This is a disaster. We last saw a drop of water from
our taps on
Wednesday morning. Now, this is the fourth day, all our reserves
in our
houses are finished, and the situation is now terrible, it is a
health time
bomb," said Mrs. Anacolleta Churu, a housewife from Mucheke high
density
suburb.
Masvingo Mayor, Alderman Femius Chakabuda
attributed the water
shortages to power cuts that saw their pumping machines
halting.
"We could not continue pumping owing to an electrical
fault at one of
our major pumping stations, Bushmead Waterworks. All our
water reservoirs
tanks are now empty owing to the slow reaction by ZESA,"
Chakabuda said.
He apologized to the residents and said normal
water supplies would
resume Monday.
http://www.zimguardian.com/?p=544
Written by MIRIAM MARUFU Aug 23,
2009
HARARE - The residents of Hopley Farm in Harare South constituency
are up in
arms against Zanu PF's MP for that area, Hubert Nyanhongo for
duping them
into believing that they had been allocated housing stands in
the run-up to
the March 2008 harmonised elections.
Thousands of
desperate home-seekers were last year given permission to build
houses by
Nyanhongo in a bid by the MP to buy votes.
However, a real estate
company, Pinnacle Holdings, which is owned by a
former Zanu PF MP, Phillip
Chiyangwa, last week ordered all people residing
at the farm to move away
from the site as they were the owners.
Pinnacle Holdings, with the help
of armed police officers, is razing to the
ground the makeshift homes that
the people had residents.
Affected residents at the farm said it was
unfair for Nyanhongo and Zanu PF
to use them in securing votes for the party
lying that they would give the
voters non-existence housing
stands.
"I was approached by Nyanhongo who asked me to vote for him in
return for a
housing stand, which I was given before the elections in March
last year.
However, I was surprised when armed police officers came and
told me to pack
our things and leave immediately as the houses we had built
were illegal and
that they belonged to Chiyangwa," said one irate resident
who added that he
had lost thousands of US dollars building his two
bed-roomed house.
The move to remove the families some with small
children has seen them
sleeping in the open as they are saying that they
have nowhere else to go.
Nyanhongo is also being implicated in causing a
wave of violence in the
run-up to the June 27, 2008 presidential run-off
after Zanu PF's Robert
Mugabe had been defeated in the Presidential polls by
MDC President Morgan
Tsvangirai.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by James Cochrane
Monday 24 August 2009
MUTARE - On a cold winter morning,
mothers with children on their backs
trickle into a clinic in Mutare's
low-income suburb of Sakubva.
There's no electricity, and the children
wail as they are stripped naked,
weighed and measured.
But they're
soon appeased by a meal wrapped in foil the size of a crisp
packet. They
suck at the contents through a bitten-off corner. Inside is
Plumpy'nut, a
peanut butter food that's having a dramatic effect upon
Zimbabwe's
malnourished children.
A mixture of peanut butter paste, vegetable oil,
sugar, milk powder,
vitamins and minerals, each packet of Plumpy'nut packs a
500-calorie punch
in an air-tight pouch. Calories are what these children
desperately need.
The 18 or so under-fives brought here every Monday are
part of Sakubva's
community-based nutritional care programme for
malnourished children.
The scheme has only been running for three months:
doctors say the number of
patients is likely to increase once other parents
hear about it.
Sixteen-month-old Wanga Musoka is a first-time visitor to
the clinic.
His mother undresses him to reveal wrinkled skin sagging off
a skeletal
frame. Wanga's face has the chiselled look of someone older. The
needle
barely moves when he's placed in the sling that hangs under the
scale: he
weighs "the same as a four-month old", whispers one
nurse.
After being scolded for not bringing him sooner, Wanga's mother is
given 21
sachets of Plumpy'nut to see her son through the next
week.
"There is medicine in it, so it keeps the body of the child
healthy," says a
nurse who would only identify herself as Mary Joyce. "We
see a great
improvement."
Plumpy'nut - which is defined by the World
Health Organisation as a
Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) - is
manufactured by Nutriset, a
company based in Normandy, France. It's been
used by aid agencies to curb
malnutrition and save the lives of children in
places like Niger and the
strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
In
Zimbabwe, which is slowly emerging from nearly a decade of political and
economic crisis, UNICEF has identified 22 000 children as suffering from
severe malnutrition. Many of those are now being given
Plumpy'nut.
"In terms of treating malnutrition Plumpy'nut does work
well," says UNICEF
spokesperson, Tsitsi Singizi.
Working with
Zimbabwe's health ministry, UNICEF runs a national therapeutic
feeding
programme in 205 inpatient and outpatient sites: the Sakubva site is
one of
them. The hospital has been receiving technical and material support
from
aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres for some time.
This year, close to 3
000 cardboard boxes full of Plumpy'nut sachets have
been distributed to
feeding sites countrywide, says Ms Singizi. Another 27
000 are ready for
distribution.
The outpatient feeding scheme is helping to "plug the gaps"
in treating
malnourished children, says Ms Singizi. She says children are
often brought
in with another ailment but then identified as suffering from
malnutrition
and treated.
"They can be monitored and they don't need
to be admitted (to hospital),"
she says.
When malnourished children
are admitted to hospital and put on Plumpy'nut,
they often begin to thrive.
At Mutare Provincial Hospital paediatrician
Geoff Foster and his colleagues
say hospital admission times for children
under five have been cut from
three weeks to 10 days - mainly thanks to the
introduction of Plumpy'nut
late last year.
Doctors have to be strict when prescribing Plumpy'nut:
although Zimbabwe's
food situation has improved since the formation of a
unity government in
February, high prices mean there is a very real danger
the life-saving
supplement can go to the wrong recipients.
"You've
got to give it to patients as a medicine otherwise it gets spread on
bread
or shared with other children. So you've got to say: 'This is a
medicine'
and prescribe it three times a day."
Twenty years ago working with aid
group Christian Care, Dr Foster helped set
up a scheme to distribute cooking
oil, mealie meal and beans to families of
malnourished children.
The
foodstuffs were distributed through clinics and mission hospitals in the
district. Though well-meant, the scheme was far from ideal: the food would
be shared.
"The great thing about Plumpy'nut is that it's very
transportable and you
can actually deliver it as a medicine," says Dr
Foster.
In many cases, Plumpy'nut's positive effects are plain to
see.
"Children are admitted with malnutrition. Then they're (treated and)
discharged and they pick up weight and energy" after being put on an
outpatients' feeding programme, says Simba Pfumojena, a doctor in the
children's ward.
"They come back two weeks later and they're doing
very well," he says. Six
weeks later "you'll be amazed - the child's up,
actually runs into the
consulting room and they're all over the place," he
says.
In the last decade, Zimbabwe's worsening food shortages have meant
many
doctors were able to do no more than give nutritional information to
distraught mothers, and counsel them.
"Up till now all you could do
was put a dot on a card - growth monitoring -
that's all you could do. You
could just watch the child's growth decline,"
says Dr Foster.
"Now
there is something that can make a difference." - ZimOnline
An alarming picture of life under the ‘unity’ government has emerged in the wake of a mention in the Vigil diary about ‘people’s poet’ Brian Sibanda. We reported (see diary of 1st August) how he had brought along a banner expressing skepticism about the ‘3 days of national healing’. His take was ‘3 days peace. On day 4 bullet sent via post’ – a reference to the bullet sent to Tendai Biti. Brian says that within days of our report (accompanied by a picture of him) appearing in the Zimbabwean, his family home in Zimbabwe was raided by 3 policemen. They compared photographs of him there with his picture in the newspaper (6-12 August) and spoke angrily about Zimbabweans in the UK.
Here is the text of an email that was sent to Brian: ‘Bhudi Tha.i hope i find you well.ndoda things arent happening doen this side.your picture appeared on one of our local newspapers this week and it has caused commotion in Lobengula even uDube usaBen saw it. Izolo emini 3 policemen were at home again yesterday. They were asking questions about our family most of them about you. They searched the house and took the copy of your Birth and also isithupha sako sezenge. They wanted to know where u stay in UK, what you do there and when your next visit diwn this side wa scheduled, and a whole lot more. They took a look at your pictures around our living room, and the post cards u sent last. Kadekusethuisa bhudi. They were saying bad things about zimboz living in the Britain. Ngiya koNjabu call me on his landline I will tell yoi more. Take care bra and uzinanzelele.’
On a lighter note, the Vigil was amused to see long-term supporter Priscilla Chakanyaka arrive in a London rickshaw. We had a good attendance despite rival factions of the MDC UK calling meetings today in Oxford and Midlands North. Most of the people who attend the Vigil are MDC supporters but we try to maintain a non-party political stand, concentrating on fighting for human rights in Zimbabwe.
Talking about human rights , today we launched a new petition aimed at the SADC meeting in Kinshasha next month which is due to review the Global Political Agreement: ‘A petition to Zimbabwe’s neighbours: We call upon the Southern African Development Community – as guarantors of the Zimbabwe power-sharing government – to put pressure on President Mugabe to honour the agreement. More than six months into the unity government, Mugabe is still resisting a return to the rule of law, deterring essential foreign development aid and investment.’
We will be sending it to SADC Executive Secretary Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão along with a petition on the prison holocaust. ‘A petition to Zimbabwe’s neighbours: We call upon the Southern African Development Community – as guarantors of the Zimbabwe power-sharing agreement – to put pressure on the new Zimbabwean government of national unity to stop the blatant abuse of human rights of prisoners in Zimbabwe who are dying of starvation, disease and torture.’
We are not holding our breath. Dr Salomão has never acknowledged anything we have sent to him and we have no illusions that Mugabe’s SADC cronies will ever do anything to help the people of Zimbabwe. What matters is that – at a time when Zimbabwe has dropped from the headlines – we continue to attract the attention of the thousands of people who pass by the Vigil. Many of them express their support by signing our petitions – which include one to the UK Government: ‘A petition to the UK government: We welcome the UK’s humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe but call on the UK government to withhold development aid until it is confident that the money will benefit the people rather than the corrupt Mugabe regime.’
The Vigil has been going for nearly 7 years and we will be marking our anniversary on 10th October – see below ‘For your Diary’ for details.
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE RECORD: 166 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
· ROHR Chelmsford general meeting. Saturday 29th August, 1.30 – 5.30 pm. Venue: Springfield Parish Hall, Chelmsford, CM1 6GX. Transport from train station to the venue provided. Contact: Faith Benesi 07958650670, Tobokwa Malikongwa 07533660621, Robert Mafigo 07944815190, Christina Zanji 07535791464, Matha A Magwaza 07748644911.
· ROHR Brighton general meeting Saturday 29th August from 2 – 4 pm. Venue: The Community Base, Queens Road, Brighton (5mins walk from Brighton train station). Contact: Sinikiwe Dube 07824668763, Sehlaphi Mpofu 07786164808, Wellington Mamvura 07956870547 or Phylis Chibanguza 07534626040 / 07535936460.
· ROHR Coventry party. Saturday 5th September from 4 pm till midnight. Venue: St Paul's Church, Foleshill Road, Coventry CV6 5AJ. Food, drinks, ne Doro available. Admission £3.50. Contact (Chairman) E. Nyakudya 07876796129, (Secretary) Pauline Makuwere 07533332306, (Organizer) Matambanashe Sibanda 07886660392, (Treasurer) V.J Mujeye 07534034594.
· ROHR Northampton and Kettering general meeting. Saturday 12th September from 1.30 – 5.30 pm. Venue: St Mary's Church Abbey Road, Northampton, NN4 8EZ. ROHR UK Executive present. Contact: Norian Chindowa 07954379426, A Chimimba 07799855806, Willard Mudonzvo 07591686724, Marshall Rusike 07884246888, Hazvineyi Masuka 07795164664. P Mapfumo 07915926323/07932216070.
· Zimbabwe Vigil – 7th Anniversary. Saturday, 10th October at 6.30 pm. The Vigil started on 12th October 2002 and we are marking this anniversary on the nearest Saturday to that date. There will be a social gathering after the Vigil, downstairs at the Bell and Compass, 9-11 Villiers Street, London, WC2N 6NA, next to Charing Cross Station at the corner of Villiers Street and John Adam Street.
· ROHR West Bromwich general meeting. Saturday 31st October from 1.30 – 5.30 pm. Venue: St Peters Church Hall, Whitehall Road, West Bromwich B70 0HF. ROHR Executive and a well known lawyer present. Contact Pamela Dunduru 07958386718, Diana Mtendereki 07768682961, Peter Nkomo 07817096594 or P Mapfumo 07915926323 / 0793221607
· Zimbabwe Association’s Women’s Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays 10.30 am – 4 pm. Venue: The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT, Tel: 020 7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury Park. For more information contact the Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355 (open Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Vigil Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.
From The Guardian (UK), 22 August
In
Zimbabwe, the shared reality of Jesus Christ is helping a whole nation to
transcend tyranny
Chris Chivers
Sitting recently
beside Lake Chivero in Zimbabwe, I was stunned once again
by the
incomparable beauty of an African landscape and the penetrating
quality of
the light that the continent always offers. But for all this I
felt as if I
was on the Mary Celeste. My hosts, Hugh and Muriel, had taken
me to a bird
sanctuary which seemed to have few birds. We selected food from
a menu most
of which was unavailable. We visited a tourist attraction
without tourists.
As the owner beckoned his one visible staff member to
fetch us a waiter, the
decaying atmosphere of Graham Greene slid seamlessly
towards Fawlty Towers.
After 10 minutes the same man appeared to take our
order. No doubt he then
cooked the delicious fish we ate.
My complaint may seem ridiculous
given that, despite the promises of a new
power-sharing government, most
Zimbabweans still lack food and water. The
vignette nonetheless hints at
some complex realities for the bread-basket of
Africa, now become its
twilight zone. An intimidating attempt by passport
control to claim that my
three-month visitor's visa had expired after 10
days - to elicit another
55-dollar payment - and the hassle I suffered
taking photographs near
so-called protected sites are all of a piece.
Negative learnt behaviour is
not being unlearnt very quickly. But it's easy
to succumb to a western
tendency to accidie, especially when one explores
the saga of Anglican life
in Zimbabwe.
A Mugabe-supporting and supported Anglican bishop,
Nolbert Kunonga - now
excommunicated - became so corrupt and crazed that he
led a rump of
parishioners, tried to seize church buildings, styled himself
archbishop and
then - while admitting the illegalities - continued to
contest the legality
of his successor. The plot is obscenely laughable, pure
Tom Sharpe or Alan
Bennett. But it's certainly not fiction. It points
straight to the
rottenness in the state of Zimbabwe. If the truly bizarre
and evil can't be
laughed off, can it be fought off? Heroic individuals,
such as the
chancellor of the Harare diocese, Bob Stumbles, believe so.
Despite the
politicised and often corrupt nature of Zimbabwe's courts, Bob's
faith that
even imperfect temporal justice can be transfigured by the divine
will is
simply unshakeable, and he has given his all to defeat evil in a
context
that's often Gilbert and Sullivan minus the jokes.
But
equally his beloved church has relied on countless ordinary Zimbabweans
having the courage to go to church when to do so could mean a beating from
Kunonga's thugs. Above all, the crisis in church and state has invited
everyone to deepen their faith and to rediscover the prophetic symbolism of
the broken bread and wine at the heart of the Christian shared meal, in the
presence of the one whose sacrifice enacts and enables real justice to be
both seen and done. That may sound like pious old hat in a west so
over-secularised it can't see the cross for the trees. But in Zimbabwe, the
shared reality of Jesus Christ is helping a whole nation to transcend
tyranny. I found myself using as a prayer this short hymn, which a
distinguished friend of mine, David Isitt, a former chaplain of King's
College, Cambridge, and canon of Bristol, wrote to help people grasp this
hope of transformation.
Lord, we receive /Your body and your
blood /And claim communion /in one bond
of love. In faith and hope /For all
your world we plead, /Where hungry
children /Cry for want of bread. Take in
your hands /Once more, O Lord of
Life, /This broken bread, /this cup of
sacrifice. So shall the world /In
mercy find relief; /Your children make
their /Eucharist in peace.
I returned from Zimbabwe to the sad news
that David had died. But the truth
of his song and the strength with which
countless Zimbabweans live its
reality endure and overcome.
Chris
Chivers is canon chancellor and director of ExChange at Blackburn
Cathedral