Yahoo News
by Fanuel
Jongwe Sat Aug 30, 8:50 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's party has rejected new
demands by the opposition following meetings
with South African mediators to
get power-sharing talks back on track, state
media said Saturday.
"The only new but absurd suggestion from the MDC
was that the cabinet be
co-chaired by President Mugabe and Tsvangirai,"
state daily The Herald
quoted a source by Mugabe's ZANU-PF as saying,
referring to Movement for
Democratic Change opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
"ZANU-PF dismissed the suggestion, not just as insolent, but
also stunning
ignorance on how government works."
A delegation from
Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC met in Pretoria Friday with
South African
mediators separately to "gauge feelings and thereafter decide
on the way
forward", the source told The Herald.
The opposition would not comment on
its demands while the negotiations are
continuing.
"I am not at
liberty to outline any of our positions (...) until I get the
green light
from my authorities," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP.
On Friday
South African mediatiors tried to revive power-sharing talks which
were
officially suspended in mid-August by talking to the opposing parties
separately.
A source close to the negotiations told AFP Saturday that
the meetings would
not be continuing later this day. The South African
presidency refused to
comment.
In Harare a spokesman for a dissident
faction of MDC said he believed the
meetings were ongoing.
"Our
negotiators are still in Pretoria which suggests to me that the
consultations are still going on. I have not been in touch with any of them
today so I cannot confirm the exact position of the talks," Edwin Mushoriwa
said.
The faction, which holds 10 of the 210 seats in the Zimbabwean
parliament
can swing the balance in favour of Tsvangirai, whose MDC faction
has 100
seats, or Mugabe's ZANU-PF which has 99 seats.
Mugabe has
hinted he would soon form a government without the opposition,
because of a
lack of progress in the talks.
Divisions remain over how Mugabe, 84, and
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
would share power in a national unity
government, including what authority
they would have as president and prime
minister.
Analysts believe Mugabe is reluctant to yield responsibility
for sensitive
security ministries like the army, police and intelligence,
given that
Zimbabwe's military are strong backers of the veteran
president.
According to The Herald ZANU-PF is not willing to budge. It
argues there is
already a deal trashed out and all that remains is for the
MDC to sign.
"It (ZANU-PF) said from its perspective all that remained
was for the MDC to
append its signature to the document or withhold it for
as long as it likes
knowing fully well that the process of forming a
government would proceed
unhindered," the newspaper quoted the source as
saying.
Power-sharing talks began after both sides signed a memorandum of
understanding on July 21.
Mugabe won the June 27 run-off election
after first-round winner Tsvangirai
withdrew from the vote in protest at
widespread election violence. The
opposition says some 200 people were
killed and thousands were displaced.
Tsvangirai has repeatedly said he
would not agree to any power-sharing deal
that would not give him real
political power.
"It's better not to have a deal than to have a bad
deal," he said in a New
York Times interview before the talks were
suspended.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
Aug 30,
2008, 14:29 GMT
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) claimed
Saturday that it had unearthed a 'plot' by
government lawyers and
intelligence agents to secure convictions against its
lawmakers in a bid to
reverse its majority in parliament.
'Johannes
Tomana, the deputy attorney-general is leading this plot,' the
party said in
a statement, without giving details.
Tomana could not be reached for
comment but deputy information minister
Bright Matonga dismissed the
claims.
'We are now used to these malicious claims by the MDC. They are
meant to
make their Western sponsors happy and tarnish our government. There
is
nothing like that going on. The attorney-general's office is independent
of
the government,' said Matonga.
Fourteen MDC MPs on a police
'wanted list' are either on remand or in police
custody on charges linked to
a spate of political violence after March
elections that claimed mainly the
lives of MDC supporters.
Five MDC MPs have been arrested since Monday,
when the new 210-seat lower
house of parliament was sworn in. Four are still
being held on charges
including attempted murder and rape - charges the MDC
say mask a bid by
President Robert Mugabe to overturn his party's defeat in
the March
elections. Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC faction - the larger of two -
took 100
seats in the election to Zanu-PF's 99.
The plot claim comes
a day after talks between the MDC and Zanu-PF on the
formation of a
government of national unity resumed in South Africa.
The last round
ended in deadlock after Tsvangirai refused to sign a draft
agreement that
would have made him prime minister but without the powers of
a head of
government.
State media accused Tsvangirai, whose party was emboldened by
its victory in
a vote Monday for parliament speaker, of making fresh demands
in the talks.
The Herald quoting unnamed sources as saying that
Tsvangirai was demanding
to co-chair cabinet with Mugabe and wanted to have
the constitution changed
to have three vice presidents instead of
two.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the MDC, refused to be drawn on The
Herald
story, saying the party was interested only in the democratization of
Zimbabwe and in turning around the battered economy.
Before the talks
resumed Mugabe had been threatening to forge ahead with
forming a government
without the MDC - a move the MDC said would kill the
talks.
On
Friday, in a sign of a more conciliatory stance, the government lifted a
nearly three-month ban on field work by aid agencies, whom it had accused of
stumping for the MDC.
The lifting of the ban means the agencies can
resume distributing food to
around 2 million people in need.
Reuters
Sat 30 Aug 2008, 9:23
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean power-sharing talks, which resumed in
South
Africa on Friday, have hit a snag over a proposal for President Robert
Mugabe and his opposition rival to jointly chair the cabinet, state media
reported on Saturday.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) made the new proposal
when negotiating teams separately met South
African President Thabo Mbeki on
Friday, the state-owned Herald newspaper
said, quoting sources.
"The only new but nonetheless absurd suggestion
from the MDC was that
Cabinet be co-chaired by President Mugabe and (MDC
leader Morgan)
Tsvangirai. ZANU-PF dismissed that, not just as insolent, but
also stunning
ignorance on how government works," a source told the
Herald.
The power-sharing talks have stalled over how executive power
would be
shared by President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai,
who refused to sign an agreement two weeks
ago.
Tsvangirai outpolled Mugabe in a March 29 election but did not get
enough
ballots to avoid a run-off poll, controversially won by Mugabe after
Tsvangirai pulled out citing violence and intimidation against his
supporters.
Under a proposed deal agreed to by Mugabe and a smaller
breakaway faction of
the MDC, Mugabe would chair the cabinet while
Tsvangirai as prime minister
would be deputy chairperson.
The MDC'S
new proposal would see him and Mugabe jointly chairing the
cabinet, the
Herald said.
ZANU-PF opposed this proposal and insisted that all that
remained was for
the MDC to sign up to the deal.
Mugabe would form a
government should the opposition fail to accept terms of
the power-sharing
agreement, the source said.
MDC officials in South Africa and Mbeki's
spokesman were not available for
comment.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya;
Editing by Angus MacSwan)
http://www.radionetherlands.nl
Published: Friday 29 August 2008
18:55 UTC
Last updated: Friday 29 August 2008 18:55 UTC
Zimbabwe's
power-sharing talks have resumed in the South African capital
Pretoria more
than two weeks after negotiations broke down. The ruling
ZANU-PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change are not involved
in direct talks,
but are negotiating separately with South African President
Thabo
Mbeki.
The major stumbling block is the role of President Robert Mugabe
in any
future power-sharing government. Mr Mugabe angered the opposition
earlier
this week by saying he would form a government alone if
necessary.
The Zimbabwean authorities are allowing aid organisations to
distribute
supplies again. In June, the government suspended aid agencies'
work, saying
they were involved in political activities.
http://www.un.org
29 August 2008 -
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed Zimbabwe's
announcement on
lifting the suspension of field operations of aid agencies,
which have a
vital role in the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the
southern
African nation.
"This positive development will help ensure that neutral and
impartial
humanitarian assistance is provided to the people of Zimbabwe,"
Mr. Ban's
spokesperson said in a statement.
The Secretary-General
also welcomed the Government's invitation to all
non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and private voluntary organizations
(PVOs) as well as
UN agencies to discuss the operational modalities
following the lifting of
the suspension, which has been in place since June.
"He would like to
emphasize the importance of ensuring that people in need
have full access to
humanitarian assistance essential to their health and
well-being and that
humanitarian organizations have full and unhindered
access to vulnerable
populations in order to carry out vital relief
operations," the statement
added.
Prior to the ban, many Zimbabweans were already suffering from
food
shortages and rampant inflation, a situation made worse by the violence
that
plagued the country ahead of the June presidential run-off
election.
Earlier this month Mr. Ban had warned that not lifting the
suspension could
worsen the already dire humanitarian situation. With these
organizations
unable to operate, only 280,000 people of the 1.5 million in
need of food
assistance were being reached with distributions.
"The
United Nations stands ready to work together with the Government and
NGO/PVO
partners to continue provision of humanitarian assistance in
Zimbabwe,"
today's statement noted.
SABC
August 30,
2008, 07:00
President Thabo Mbeki has told Zimbabwe's negotiating parties
that the
continent is pinning its hopes on them to find a speedy resolution
to the
political crisis in their country. Talks to secure a power sharing
deal
continued in Tshwane yesterday.
Representatives of the two
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions and
Zanu-PF have been
attending the talks. The President however remains
confident that the
parties will soon reach a settlement.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe did not announce the new cabinet
yesterday as expected.
Instead President Mugabe postponed the move for
further consultation. The
delay is attributed to the power-sharing
negotiations which are continuing
in Tshwane.
Aid agencies in Zimbabwe say they can resume distributing
food in Zimbabwe
as their ban has been lifted. Oxfam and Save the Children
said the
government had ordered them to stop work before a presidential
run-off
nearly three months ago.
The lifting of the ban came the same day
as power-sharing negotiations
resumed.
SW Radio Africa
(London)
29 August 2008
Posted to the web 30 August 2008
Lance
Guma
The tragic after effects of a violent ZANU PF campaign continue
to be felt
in the country with the death of 2 more MDC activists who
succumbed to their
injuries this week.
Annette Chiremba, who was
hospitalised at Rusape hospital after being beaten
up, and Justice
Gundumura, also beaten by ZANU PF militia before being
illegally detained at
Mutare Central Prison, both died on Thursday. They
were attacked in the
run-up to the June 27 one man presidential run-off from
which MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew citing the violence.
Speaking to Newsreel
on Friday MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said because
some areas were sealed
off by ruling party militia, the death toll continues
to mount as more
information trickles in on what happened. So far the party
has accounted for
131 activists and officials killed including Chiremba and
Gundumura who
passed away this week.
Maxwell Magoche Tongodiwa from the Chibara area of
Mashonaland West
succumbed to his injuries on the 6th August. Militia led by
L Chikede the
ZANU PF district coordinating chairman, assaulted Tongodiwa
after accusing
him of bringing MDC campaign posters and fliers into the
area. Christine
Chinozingwa, Zanu PF Women's League Chairlady was accused of
instigating the
attack. According to the doctor's report Tongodiwa died from
liver puncture
caused by a broken rib. His liver later swelled leading to
his painful
death.
Asked if there were still incidents of violence
now that talks between ZANU
PF and the MDC had resumed Chamisa said there
were still pockets of violence
in some areas. "There is still a lot of
tension around and the
infrastructure of violence remains intact," Chamisa
said. He argued that
ZANU PF's engagement in the process of dialogue was
clearly a very
'un-natural' process for ZANU PF because, "the default
setting of this
regime is violence."
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/1733
The MDC
has unearthed a plot by the Attorney General's office and members of
the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to secure convictions against
MDC
MPs in a bid to reverse the MDC majority in Parliament.
Deputy Attorney
General, Johannes Tomana is leading the plot in which the
Zanu PF regime is
planning to secure convictions and lay more trumped-up
charges against MDC
MPs to reverse our majority in Parliament.
This week five MDC MPs were
arrested in Harare during the opening of the 7th
Parliament of
Zimbabwe.
Four of them, Pearson Mungofa, the MP for Highfield East, Eliah
Jembere,
Epworth; Bednock Nyaude, Bindura South and Trevor Saruwaka, Mutasa
Central
are still in police custody. They were denied bail.
Hon
Nyaude was granted bail by a Bindura magistrate but the State has
appealed.
Via an MDC Press Release.
This entry was
written by Sokwanele on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 3:21
pm
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Saturday, 30
August 2008 12:07
29 August 2008
The speculation over
Zimbabwe's 'real' inflation figures is likely to
add more zeroes to the
already revalued Zim dollar as analysts say blocking
the figures is pushing
the inflation rate higher.
Three weeks ago Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono announced that ten
zeros would be slashed from the rapidly
weakening dollar. The move saw many
old notes and coins re-entering the
currency fray, causing confusion and
chaos across the country.
But since then, the zeroes have already started reappearing as the
political
and humanitarian crisis continues to ravage the economy. At the
same time,
while speculation around the 'real' inflation figures is rife,
producers and
retailers continue to increase their prices daily to keep up
with the
assumed inflation figure that is well beyond the official one.
The
secrecy surrounding the figures is leading to more suffering for
average
Zimbabweans who are already dealing with a severe currency and food
shortage. Many local businesses are also battling as their future
projections are based on an inflation figure that is purely
speculative.
Economic analyst John Robertson told Newsreel on
Friday that it is
likely another ten zeroes will need to be slashed off the
currency because
of the current 'fierce rate of exchange'. He said
significant 'behavioral
patterns' are also driving up the inflation figure,
explaining that most
retailers are pushing up their prices to deal with
expected rate changes
rather than actual ones. Robertson added that such a
situation means there
is a 'self fulfilling economic prophecy' as
Zimbabweans are paying inflated
prices, creating higher inflation
changes.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE - THE annual Harare
Agricultural Show (HAS) held by the
Zimbabwe Agricultural Show Society, is
now just a white elephant and should
be used for other purposes, a top
agricultural expert has said.
In an interview at the
end of the show on Friday, he said there were
no cattle at the show and
there was very little activity in the showgrounds.
The Harare
Agricultural Show used to be the second biggest event in
Zimbabwe after the
Zimbbabwe International Trdade |Fair (ZITF), Zimbabwe's
premier investment
show case, annually held in the second manjor city of
Bulawayo.
The Agricultural Show had gone down in terms of attendance and
activities.
At some stage pigs were being exhibited by farmers instead of
top cattle -
once the the pride of Zimbabwe.
The official said the Show grounds
should be used for other events
during the year such as motor shows, cattle
sales and not only wait for the
annual event as this had become a waste of
time.
President Robert Mugabe officially opened the lacklustre
event on
Friday in which he praised Zimbabwean farmers for their resilience
at a time
when the economy had crumbled.
However political
analysts blame the 85-year-old leader for the
falling standards in Zimbabwe
an accusation he denies. The chaotic land
invasions of 2000 saw many of the
predominantly white farmers being driven
out of their farms, resulting in
current acute food shortages in the country
and an inflation which is the
the highest in the world at more than 22
million percent.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare - Teachers across the country are expected to
boycott classes
when schools open for the third term on Tuesday, in protest
over their
continued neglect by the government.
"We
are going on strike from day one and we are not going back until
after the
government shows some commitment to address our grievances," said
the
militant Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe PTUZ Secretary General
Raymond Majongwe.
The teachers, who were in August paid Zd 934
(revalued), are demanding
a minimum salary of USd 797, which they say is the
prevailing rate across
the southern African region.
"Teachers'
salaries have for long been determined arbitrarily. No
realistic formula or
plausible factors have been used to fix the salaries;
all what is in use is
the rule of thumb. The PTUZ has scientifically
determined that a teacher
needs a minimum equivalent of US797 in Zimbabwe
dollar terms per month,"
said Majongwe.
The heftily built activist added that they would
only go to work when
their grievances have been addressed.
In
addition to the salary reviews, the teachers want the government to
urgently
"pay teachers a rescue package so that they can survive". They also
want
"all those who instigated and perpetrated political violence against
teachers should be brought to book".
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/news/seven-prisoners-die-of-hunger/
Local News
August 30, 2008 | By Staff
Seven
inmates at Mutimurefu prison in Masvingo died of hunger related
diseases,as
the government reversed a food aid ban on Friday.
Zimbabwe Prison
Services (ZPS) public relations manager, Gransinia Masango
said the seven
died on separate days last week.
The deceased are Pedzisai Muvengwa,
Howard Erika, Patrick Bhumera, Cleopas
Hasuma, Almon Dzaromba, Sikubekile
Masuku and Joseph Mahumbile.
"It is true that some prisoners in Masvingo
died, but not of hunger. I was
informed that they were already ill," said
Masango.
However, top prison officials at the jail, revealed that the
seven had
suffered from malnutrition and later died for lack of a balanced
diet.
"They died of kwashiorkor after spending a long time without a
balanced
diet.owing to the lack of food at most jails. The situation was
also
worsened by the fact that they did not get medical attention as most
prisons
do not have doctors, who fled the country citing poor remuneration
and bad
working conditions," said a source.
He added that many other
prisoners were suffering from Pellagra due to the
food shortages as the
authorities were now only providing one meal a day.
He said this was in
addition to inhuman conditions in the country's cells,
such as lice infected
blankets and same sex rape.
"It's a disaster in the making, a time bomb
ready to explode. Many prisoners
are suffering from Pellagra. We used to
provide three meals a day, but now
they eat a daily dosage of vegetable soup
or porridge once a day. If you
have a relative detained, you better provide
your own food everyday," warned
the prison official.
Other prisoners
were getting pauper's burials, as no relatives would have
come forward to
claim their bodies. Theres is no mortuary at Mutimurefu
prison.
-VOP
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk
Zanu-PF threatens retribution for MDC
'harassment'
Zimbabwe security minister Didymus Mutasa stood outside the
Harare
headquarters of Zanu-PF yesterday, Thursday, and threatened violent
revenge
for the humiliation that President Mugabe endured both inside and
outside
parliament this week.
Referring to those Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) supporters who
heckled the President when he arrived
to open parliament, and to the MPs who
jeered during his speech, Mutasa
said: "They know what we are capable of
doing, and they should not cry foul
when we deliver that blow as symbolised
by the party's symbol of a
fist."
His open call for revenge is an indication of how deeply Mugabe
and his
Zanu-PF colleagues were hurt by the unprecedented scenes in
parliament, when
for the first time the President faced open ridicule, and
the entire episode
was broadcast on national television.
Mutasa told
his audience: "It was a painful experience to watch our
president, your
president, being subjected to that kind of treatment. We
know that you were
as pained as your leadership and there should be some
recourse for that kind
of behaviour. We will do all we can to feed you, so
you will be strong when
you hit back."
He said that Mugabe, who was expected to appear himself
but failed to do so,
would personally give guidance on the nature and form
of the retribution.
"I cannot speak about the things that will be done,"
he said. "But...what we
are working on now is a strategy that can see us
revenging for that
episode."
The people of Zimbabwe are only too
aware of the steps Zanu-PF and its
fearsome militia can take. During the
run-up to the recent farcical election
hundreds of MDC supporters were
attacked, beaten, driven from their homes,
and murdered.
Observers
believe that Mutasa is openly threatening more of the same.
Posted on
Friday, 29 August 2008 at 09:31
http://www.cathybuckle.com
Saturday 30th August 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
It's
a noisy afternoon as I sit writing this letter. The Msasa trees are
throwing
out their seeds in preparation for the new season. Every few
seconds another
pod loses control and cracks. There is a distinct click and
then the pod
splits, curls and falls onto the hard, dry ground, scattering
shiny brown
seeds into the dust. Summer is almost upon us and change is in
the air.
Smoke is also in the air as yet again uncontrolled fires burn in
every
direction and on every horizon but we look upwards as we wait for
clouds and
rain and pray for relief from the tragedy engulfing our country.
Amidst
our desperate struggle to survive eleven million percent inflation
and with
so very many people going to bed hungry every night, there have
been some
dramatic developments in Zimbabwe this week that bring change
another step
closer. Just when we'd given up hope of the people's March 29th
votes ever
being respected, Parliament was suddenly re-convened and MP's
sworn in.
Then, for the first time in 28 years, Zanu PF lost control of the
House of
Assembly as an MDC MP was voted Speaker of The House.
The ceremonial
opening of Parliament was a spectacle not to be missed and
unbelievably the
electricity stayed on during the entire procedure. Even
more amazing was
that ZBC TV filmed all the events that followed, live and
uninterrupted.
Zimbabwe saw Mr Mugabe arrive in the black open topped Rolls
Royce alone,
without his wife. We saw the long, long line of MP's going into
Parliament.
The MDC MP's were easily recognisable as they smiled and waved
to the crowds
- perhaps acknowledging that it was their votes and their
sacrifices that
had resulted in this day. The MDC MP's have not yet got that
arrogant, I'm
indestructible look that is so common to Zimbabwean
politicians.
Many
shocking things followed in the next hour, filmed live by ZBC TV for
all to
see. When Mr Mugabe walked into the House of Assembly only the Zanu
PF MP's
stood up. For half an hour Mr Mugabe's voice was drowned out by
talking,
jeering, singing and clapping MDC MP's. Never, in 28 years, has
Zimbabwe
seen their elected MP's do anything like this. Never, in 28 years,
have
Zimbabweans seen Mr Mugabe being openly challenged like this.
The final
wind of change that blew into Zimbabwe this week came with the
government
lifting its ban on international and local charitable
organisations.
People who are hungry, sick and desperate have been given
back the right to
ask for and receive help from people other than a bankrupt
government.
Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy
The Telegraph
Return of tourism may provide respite for Zimbabwe's beleaguered
citizens,
say Group Travel Editor Graham Boynton.
By Graham
Boynton
Last Updated: 11:38AM BST 29 Aug 2008
News of the lifting
of the Foreign Office ban on travel to Zimbabwe is both
welcome and
premature.
It is welcome because the major victims of the Western tourism
stay-away
over the past five or six years have been ordinary Zimbabweans.
These
battered people have consistently since 2000 voted the despot Mugabe
out of
office, but he simply refuses to go and uses his ghastly henchmen and
thuggish hirelings to suppress those he claims to represent.
Thanks
to Mugabe, their country is broken and bankrupt and they are
struggling to
feed themselves.
It is premature because any international gesture that
suggests
normalisation of relations with the country while Mugabe remains
president
may encourage him to continue clinging on to power. And every day
he is in
power is another day of suffering for this beautiful
country.
I have visited Zimbabwe twice in the past 12 months - once to
cover the
rigged election and the other time to take part in a canoe safari
along the
Zambezi River. Obviously, there was no moral conundrum in
reporting on the
election - Mugabe did not want Western journalists there
and that was reason
enough to be in the country.
The safari was
another matter, for I have spent years debating whether we
should travel to
Zimbabwe for pleasure. I ended up feeling comfortable about
making the trip,
mainly because our small group had made significant
financial contributions
to the local operators, guides and camp staff. They
were desperate, not only
for money, but also for contact with travellers
from the outside world. They
told us that the trickle of Western visitors in
recent years had enabled the
camps to keep operating and to maintain a
presence in an area that has
suffered from serious poaching in the past. In
Africa, tourism and wildlife
conservation are inextricably linked.
So, on balance the decision was a
good one. It is my view that the old
tyrant is finally losing his grip on
power and that Zimbabwe's long
nightmare is coming to an end. If I am right,
the time has come for tourists
to pour back into this marvellous country -
they will doubtless enjoy the
holiday of a lifetime and at the same time
help the beleaguered Zimbabweans
to get back on their feet.
http://www.ipsnews.net
By Ephraim Nsingo
HARARE, Aug 30
(IPS) - In 2006, there was shared concern among donors and
women's
organisations over the fragmented approaches to gender and women's
empowerment programmes in Zimbabwe.
"This resulted in lack of clarity
on what was happening, who was doing what,
where, with whom, with what/whose
support and what was being achieved," says
Eunice Njovana, head of the
United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) in Zimbabwe.
"This
led to duplication of efforts, inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in
programming. The lack of a co-coordinated approach to programming also made
it difficult to identify gaps and priorities in the sector, to assess the
strategic value of the different efforts and to ensure that the different
programmes performed to expected standards."
In an attempt to solve
this anomaly, the UNIFEM office in Zimbabwe convened
a meeting of donors and
civil society organisations to identify ways of
harmonising activities and
funding of women's organisations. The meeting was
held in the capital city
Harare in the run up to the Women's Day
commemorations in March
2007.
The engagements with such major donors as Britain's Department for
International Development (DfID), Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA) and the European Commission
culminated in a Gender Scoping Study to "profile women's priority needs,
identifying key actors and institutions to address them, and provide a
roadmap for strategic and comprehensive support".
The study started
on Feb. 13, 2007 and a report was published slightly over
two months, on
Apr. 24.
The study resulted in the establishment of a Basket Fund, which
was to be
implemented by UNIFEM in partnership with the Women's Coalition of
Zimbabwe
(WcoZ) - an umbrella organisation representing women's
organisations in
Zimbabwe, beginning on Aug. 1. The Basket Fund was to
provide "a common
financing mechanism to address essential needs and sustain
gender equality
support within development planning".
But as August
draws to an end, the Basket Fund -- sponsored to the tune of
1,035,000 euros
by the European Commission and an additional along 50,000
pounds from DfID
for a six-month planning and inception period -- is not yet
being
implemented. According to officials in a non-governmental organisation
(NGO)
close to the project, it may not be implemented at all this year.
The
reason: the implementers are "still building capacity and putting
systems in
place". The erratic political situation in Zimbabwe has also had
a
significant negative impact on the fund.
"While UNIFEM has had previous
fund management experience, as a UN arm, the
same cannot be said of the
Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe (WcoZ)," explained
Rutendo Hadebe, the deputy
chairperson. Hadebe is the former director of the
Women in Politics Support
Unit (WiPSU) - an NGO that educates and provides
technical support to women
politicians.
"This new role means setting up systems, transformation of
the (Women's)
Coalition from just a coordinator of the women's organisation
to playing a
pivotal role. This also means that key personnel has to be has
to be
hired... that which has fund management experience". Fund managers
would be
recruited mostly from consultants already working in the UN system
in
Zimbabwe and civil society organisations.
The situation, noted
Hadebe, was compounded by the political and economic
crisis.
"Although Aug. 1 was set as the beginning of the
implementation date, the
whole programme and inception phase envisaged late
2007 and beginning of
2008 had not anticipated a rather unpredictable and
stretched election
period," she noted.
At the beginning of June, the
government banned the fieldwork of all NGOs.
This, said Hadebe, crippled the
consultative processes.
"In addition the resulting political violence and
victimisation saw women's
organisations having to take up the role of
offering humanitarian support to
hundreds of women victims, as opposed to
continuing the inception phase
which had become impossible under the then
prevailing conditions."
The government of Zimbabwe also played an active
role in the project through
the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and
Community Development, led by
Oppah Muchinguri. Muchinguri was recently
dropped from her position as
minister, and this, said gender activists, was
likely to "impact negatively
on our activities as she pursued these issues
with a passion". During her
tenure, Muchinguri spearheaded the enactment of
the National Gender Policy,
which provided the framework for the
study.
As a result of the challenges, beneficiaries of the programme are
yet to be
finalised.
"We have yet to identify the grant recipients
because we are still in the
process of developing the project document and
the systems, tools and
procedures for Basket Fund management," said
Njovana.
"What we can say though is that the fund will specifically
target multiple
sectors as per the identified thematic areas. It will seek
to support a
broad range of issues in the thematic areas as well as
involvement of a
broad range of players among civil society organizations.
As this is a
national programme, it is expected that there will be wide
geographical
coverage of the basket fund."
In an interview with IPS,
Emma Mahlunge, the director of Kunzwana Women's
Association - which brings
together 240 clubs representing 3000 mostly rural
women -- said although she
was "aware of such a programme", they had not
been consulted.
"This
is a good initiative, it gives organisations with shared objectives to
work
together, identify problems together, thus using minimum funds on a
wide
range of projects. But I do not know why we still haven't been
contacted.
Our organisation has the widest representation of rural women,"
said
Mahlunge.
But Njovana said they were not neglecting any organisations,
saying they
were targeting mostly "marginalised groups, specifically rural
women, and
women living with disability".
"Special attempts will be
made to involve the smaller, erstwhile
neglected/marginalised
organisations/groups working in remote and
underprivileged communities to
ensure that they receive some grants.
Examples of such groups are HIV
positive women, women informal sector
workers, migrant women, indigenous
communities, women survivors of gender
based violence and women with
disabilities," said Njovana.
Given all these challenges, will the
programme take off any soon, if at all?
"In this respect the Inception
Phase, that is, project design, strategy and
tools for implementation,
continues to take place but is expected to be
concluded in the next two or
three months with implementation phase set to
begin thereafter," said
Hadebe.
According to Njovana, although mostly women's organisations would
benefit,
men would also benefit.
"Consistent with the recommendation
of the Gender Scoping Study that
preceded the development of the National
Gender Equality and Women's
Empowerment Programme, the basket fund will also
reach out to men's
organisations for example Padare/Enkundleni Men's Forum
on Gender to promote
a systematic and structured approach to men's
involvement and contribution
to gender equality and women's empowerment,"
she added.
Officials from the Ministry of Women's Affairs Gender and
Community
Development were reluctant to comment on the issue. A new minister
is
expected when President Robert Mugabe announces a new Cabinet.
Saturday Tribune, Nigeria
Sat. 30th August,
2008
By Bayo Alade
Food crisis has always been a problem facing
most countries in the world
today, especially in Africa. The irony has been
that most governments in the
third world countries fold their arms doing
nothing while depending on
foreign aid to feed their population. In Nigeria,
for example, over 90
million hectares of arable land is available.
Unfortunately, only about one
third of that is currently being put to use;
yet we complain of shortage of
food.
However, somebody decided to
take a bold step and confront the issue
headlong with the hope that, this
time, the problem would be solved once and
for all. Roughly, after one year
of being voted into office, Kwara State
governor, Alhaji Bukola Saraki, took
a long look at the almost
forty-year-old state he has started governing and
decided that if the state
was going to rank among the leading states in the
country its agrarian
status must change to that of a 21st century
economy.
Governor Saraki discovered that Kwara State must grow its
agricultural
potentials. He also discovered that employment of the peolple
must be
diversified and this could be easily done by industrialising the
state
through agriculture. Meanwhile, just as Robert Mugabe, president of
Zimbabwe
was playing politics with land, forcefully taking it from the white
farmers
(who had made a success of commercial agriculture in that country)
and
giving them to black Zimbabweans which made the farmers to seek their
fortunes elsewhere, Saraki took the opportunity to invite them over. One of
the farmers, Paul was not happy to have been forced out of the country
despite the fact that he is a Zimbabwean. He was born there. He described
Mugabe as "a terrible man" who had succeded in "destroying the total
infrastructure of Zimbabwe faster that any dictator in
Africa".
Governor Saraki's invitation was not only to help Kwara State
develop its
agriculture but also to train the local people in the modern
commercial
agriculture. "We have shown commercial agriculture in its true
sense; we
have shown that the private and public sectors could work together
to
finance agriculture and bring about development", the state Commissioner
for
Agriculture, Prof Mohammed Gana told Saturday Tribune, adding that about
five banks, the state government and the farmers financed what has come to
be known as Tsonga Commercial Farm Project. In 2004, the farmers, 13 of them
in number berthed in Nigeria; in fact, there are 14 of them. 13 at Tsonga
and the remaining one at Malete Farm Project where young people are being
trained in all aspects of commercial farming. Each of the farmers is given
1000 hectares, on which they all practise agriculture in their own area of
specialisation.
There is a diary farm which is already producing milk
for the markets in
Kwara State and hoping to branch out as the stock and
milk production
expand(s); others produce soya beans, maize, cowpea and
others. Chicken
farms would soon be springing up. The feed mill and
processing units are
also being set up. The good thing about these farms is
that they are all
self-sufficient -nothing is wasted. Every inch of the land
is being put to
use. Paul who specialises in dairies has employed about 100
members of the
local population to help him on the farm. He has no less than
400 exotic
cows which had produced a set of 125 calves. "We produce 3,500
litres of
milk per day," he said, adding that Nigeria has a culture of
drinking milk,
so he is optimistic that his farm would meet the needs of the
market no
matter the demands.
However, the story had not been a
plesant one all along because of
challenges which were not there when the
farmers were in Zimbabwe. Some of
the challenges as enumerated by Paul are
harsh weather which is affecting
the cows including the volume of their milk
production. Also, there are
livestock diseases which were not there in
Zimbabwe and most importantly
malaria is common here and the farmers could
only wish they don't fall
victims too often. If the New York and Jersey
stocks are hard to raise here
in Nigeria, why don't the farmers go the local
ones? one might be tempted to
ask. The fact is that the local ones do not
produce as much milk as the
exotic ones. While the local ones produce three
litres of milk per day, the
exotic ones produce 24 litres per day. In
commercial farming, that
difference is too much to ignore.
To develop
a hybrid stock, Paul says it would take up to between 10 and 15
years. "That
is a long time to wait, so we have to continue with what we
have and see
what we could do", Paul said, noting that the prospect of a
thriving diary
market is high. The harsh environment had taken its toll on
the livestock.
Of the 125 calves born few months back, about thirty-five had
died. For
some, it was because they were born prematurely, while for others,
the
weather simply took its toll on them. Once the calves are born they are
taken to a special place provided for them. One of the reasons, a farm
supervisor said was because if they were left with their mothers, their milk
intake would affect the volume of milk available to produce yoghurt and
other by-products.
At one week old, they are given concentrates and
about two litres of milk
per day up to four weeks. At 15 weeks old, they are
fed once a day with four
litres of milk. Within the next one year, one could
only imagine what would
be coming out of the Tsonga Farms -the output is
limitless. What the
livestock would be eating for the next few years is
already being preserved
as at today so that not even drought would be able
to affect the cows let
alone human beings when the farms begin to run full
trot. Farmer Paul gives
an insight into why the Tsonga Tarm Project is
succeeding. "Nigeria has an
enlightened leadership which allows people to
work without government's
interference, an enabling environment and when you
do that the people would
fly." The Kwara State Commissioner for Agriculture,
Prof Gana also states
why the project has succeeded. "The governor of Kwara
State has shown
commitment -rare commitment and he was determined to make it
succeed. If any
state would succeed in a venture like this the leader must
be committed and
that is what Governor Saraki has demonstrated."
The
Sacrifice For Tsonga
Siting the commercial farm project at Tsonga was not
an easy task at all.
The village called Tsonga (Shonga) before the project
was not easily
accesible. Today, it is one hour drive from Ilorin but before
the project
became a reality it was deep in the savannah and the access road
could make
a traveller's back ache for days.
As soon as the indigenes
of Tsonga heard that their land had been earmarked
by the state government
for the farm project they were up in arms against
such a move and anybody
who would come into their community to start the
project. Saturday Tribune
learnt that they used all the weapons in their
arsenal in order to defend
their land from being supposedly taken over by
the government.
At a
point, it was as if Governor Saraki's pet project was moribund, but he
was
not one to give up at this stage -at least not when everything looked
set
for one of the most revolutionary and promising agricultural effort so
far
in the history of the country. At this point, there was a pause, ST
learnt,
and diplomacy was employed to break the logjam. Some of the
indigenes of the
village were sent to Mecca and a school was also built. For
the first time
in the struggle, the indigenes decided to take a second look
at the intent
of the state government having seen some glitter of sincerity
in the
government's approach. To make sure that the project did not go the
way of
other white elephant projects, Governor Saraki himself made several
trips to
Tsonga and even slept on the farm, ST learnt. Several times even at
odd
hours he visited the farmers to re-assure them that they had nothing to
fear
as far as the project was concerned.
Apart from the compensation they
were promised, the indigenes were also
given bicycles and motorcycles which
they still use till date. Having
arrested the attention of the indigenes,
the multiplier effect of the farm
project was further shown to them and by
the time the white farmers started
settling down and the first set of farm
employees were engaged, they knew
the project was in their favour after all.
Today, the indigenes were the
better for it. One of the farmers alone has
about 100 of them in his
employment let alone the remaining 13 farmers. Some
of the indigenes who are
into farming have direct contact with the white
farmers who teach them
modern methods of farming.
Today also, Tsonga
is easily accesible to the outside world. Though the
farms are yet to be
linked with electricity and that is costing some of the
farmers a lot of
money for alternative power supply such as power generating
sets, the
government is promising that in a few month's time the power
problem would
be over. On the whole, the sacrifice had been worth the gains.
As at today,
the first set of trainees at the Malete project have graduated.
About five
hectares each according to the Commissioner for Agriculture, had
been
cleared for them so that they could practise what they had learnt and
later
on some would go to their local governments where they would further
teach
the local people modern methods of farming.
Having seen the success
recorded by the Tsonga experiment the state
government is thinking of
replicating Tsonga in other areas of the state so
that Kwara State could
truly be a state notable for commercial agriculture
and food production with
the potential of feeding a large part of the
country's population. Even the
farmers are not thinking of going anywhere
else, having made up their minds
that Nigeria is the place to be. One of the
farmers, Paul is even thinking
of bringing his whole family, including
children and grandchildren from
Zimbabwe and Mozambique to Tsonga for the
xmas period. In other words,
Tsonga is gradually easing its way into the
world map.
Zimbabwean politics has
always been very adaptive and fluid when it comes to
dealing with difficult
national questions. Rooted in the need to eradicate
the ills of colonialism
and to equate the citizens of our great nation in
every aspect of life from
economics to social wellbeing, the nature of our
politics has always created
heroes and villains alike. Most importantly
though the shaping of our
politics and the making of our politicians has
always been a natural process
with no human hand dictating the fate of the
men and women who have chosen
the rocky path that is politics.
When the struggle against
discrimination kicked off in earnest in the 1950's
with the formation of the
very first political group that was the then
Rhodesian African National
Congress of 1952, there were all the tell-tale
signs that it was going to be
a long and difficult process. There were
always checks and balances to make
sure that those at the fore front of the
struggle were people of the right
calibre and integrity. The founding
nationalists also sought to eliminate
rigidity and pettiness and there was
little time for name
calling.
This is why the long walk to the independence that came
about in 1980 was
littered with the formation, re-formation, break-up as
well as re-union of
political parties and politicians alike. This was done
in the search of the
right leaders as well as the right calibre of movements
to champion the
cause for independence. On the same token the individuals as
well as the
political movements that were not up to the job were left on the
wayside of
our national politics. There are quite many of
them.
It was a natural process of selection that was never
instigated by any
particular group or persons but it was an automatic and
self regulating
process that would trigger itself whenever necessary. There
were people who
chose to align themselves with certain movements and
political parties for
different reasons and these either fulfilled their
ambitions to serve their
country, or had their political existence destroyed
as necessary. Those who
were true to their values and their devotion to the
mother land stayed the
course and led Zimbabwe to independence and majority
rule in 1980.
Today our country is back again to that point where
a large sieve in
filtering through the political landscape with the mere
intention of
retaining those politicians who are true to their values and
devotion to
their country. When the MDC was formed in 1999 it was welcomed
as a
necessary political movement to steer Zimbabwe from a looming
dictatorship
to multiparty democracy. The new party was welcomed in similar
fashion to
the way ZAPU and later on ZANU had been welcomed as the ultimate
vehicles to
steer the then Rhodesia from similarly looming apartheid to
plural democracy
that brooked no racial bounds.
Just like in
the years of the struggle against colonialism, there were bound
to be
splinter parties stemming out of the MDC as well as new other parties
being
explored by either genuine or opportunistic politicians. When the MDC
party
split in 2005, there were at first mixed views about the split of the
party
among ordinary Zimbabweans. As for the MDC faithful, there were
seemingly
fundamental differences and this was why at the very onset of the
split,
different sets of people went either side of the divide.
But with
time, the seemingly fundamental differences then boiled down to
purely
national interests with people close to the MDC making very hard
choices as
to what really mattered to the national cause. This was why there
was
movement backwards to the wing of the MDC that would emerge as the main
one
led by founding President Morgan Tsvangirai. When the party split there
was
no main wing as such. The two halves of the party all had a somewhat
fair
share of party heavyweights as well as founding figures. However, with
time
the weight of some of the heavy weights would be drastically reduced to
lightweights.
At the time of the split, there were a lot of
people who felt that
Tsvangirai did not handled the whole thing properly
especially the fateful
vote that set the split mode in motion as well as the
after math. I was one
of those people and my main bone of contention stemmed
from what I thought
was Tsvangirai's failure to reign in on Welshman Ncube
in the earlier stages
just before the split. I was particularly incensed
with the way Ncube had
clearly sought to undermine Tsvangirai during their
last trip to Europe and
the UK while the party was still united. It was
there for all to see and the
members of the then MDC UK executive were
clearly unhappy about that.
However on the outlook, the trip was
a resounding success because everything
else was extremely well organised.
We even organised one of the biggest ever
rallies to be addressed by
Tsvangirai in the UK at Friends Hall in the
East-end of London. But
internally we could all see that there was a huge
problem and that the party
was tottering on the blink of a split because the
Secretary General and the
president were clearly at logger heads. But most
importantly, we could see
that the problem was definitely Ncube because we
had clashed with him before
on other issues that we felt he was over-arching
on
Tsvangirai was due back to the UK in the coming weeks
after that animosity
filled trip. I was going to be involved in organising
that trip. I wanted to
set things straight with him so I phoned him in
Harare to discuss the trip
and the other issues. Then I told him about the
need to deal with Ncube
before they came again on another visit and
Tsvangirai told me that Ncube
had to be left to the people to judge and only
time would tell. In fact
Tsvangirai went on to say that instead of coming
with Ncube to the UK he
would be accompanied by the Youth and Women's wing
representatives. By that
he obviously meant Chamisa and Mativenga who still
headed those wings at
that time.
However, that trip never happened
because the next thing the MDC party had
split and the rest is just history.
I explore this further in my impending
book, Zimbabwe - The Road to Ruin. I
just said to myself what sort of party
president is this who would really
says he won't do anything about his
errant Secretary General only leaving
him to the people? I asked myself what
people? When the skirmishes that
occurred in the MDC when people like Ncube
were roughed-up by fellow members
such that he had to go into hiding for
days, I said to myself was that what
Tsvangirai meant when he said he would
leave Ncube to the people? But again
it did not make sense.
What Tsvangirai actually meant was that
the people of Zimbabwe would have a
referendum on Ncube's political
existence at their own time. According to
Tvsangirai, it was not up to him
to cut short Ncube's supposedly promising
career and have another
Zimbabwean's political blood on his hands.
Effectively Tsvangirai left Ncube
to posterity. That is one thing I failed
to see then but I now see very
clearly because had Tsvangirai fired Ncube
from his coveted post of SG every
Zimbabwean maybe including myself, would
have accused him ending the
promising career of an emerging politician.
But came March 2008
and the people of Zimbabwe, Matabeleland to be specific,
gave Ncube and
overdue red card. I don't know how many times I told Ncube
that his politics
no matter how seemingly colorful was never inspired by
national advancement,
but rather personal self interest. I was proven right
as well because
regardless of how seemingly confident Ncube was to win back
his seat, he was
defeated at the hands of Thokozani Khupe.
The post March 29 08
events also drew parallels between the politics of the
1970's and now. Even
after the split of the MDC when I joined the faction
led by Mutambara, my
main reasoning to do that was clear. I wanted something
that could end what
was seemingly becoming stagnation in the party. I really
thought that there
was real need for a rejuvenation of the MDC and I am
adamant that I was not
the only one who felt like that at that time. But I
was equally clear that
that kind of new direction would never come from
Ncube. Therefore I made it
very clear and in no uncertain terms to Mutambara
when he came on the scene
that if he did not deal with Ncube effectively
then this whole rejuvenation
and re-unification of the MDC thing would never
happen.
In a
matter of weeks I was satisfied that it was not going to happen and I
left
that faction with my colleagues and we issued a statement to that
effect.
Ncube was the one who was running the show and that is why there was
never
going to be any prospect of the party being re-united. But even then I
still
doubted Tsvangirai's capability to be an effective leader who would be
able
to make really essential decisions because I still felt he had not
dealt
with Ncube effectively. However in March 2008 Tsvangirai's idea of
dealing
with Ncube was brought into full action in the form of a resounding
rejecting of the Bulawayo legislator by his own people. The people dealt
with Ncube according to Tsvangirai's political manual.
The
other faction was never about Mutambara because he was not and is still
not
the one in charge. Instead, it is Ncube who is in charge and this is why
even after losing his parliamentary seat he is still commanding a lot of
essential duties. No matter what happens from now and how the protracted
negotiations between the MDC and ZANU PF would be concluded, it has been
made abundantly clear that at least Tsvangirai has taken the right stance on
the kind of power arrangements that need to be made between the MDC and ZANU
PF post March 29. This is what has won a lot of former Tsvangirai doubters
over to his side. At the moment there are a lot of people who do not
necessarily belong to the MDC but are firmly behind Tsvangirai. These are
people who were never on his side before March 2008.
The tide
of protest support that the MDC has been riding on for years has
been
significantly turned into real support as a result of the very
nationalist
stance that Tsvangirai has taken to conclude our very long
overdue crisis.
As a result Zimbabwe is a much more unified country from the
one it was
before the March poll and had Tsvangirai taken over then, he was
going to
inherit a very porous country than the one he will surely take over
anytime
now. However, this is politics and these talks have to be handled
with care
because Mugabe is proving to be as relentless as ever.
In the
next part I will be explaining why I supported Makoni's campaign.
This is
the campaign that also helped to show the extent of Tsvangirai's
popularity
and I will be exploring more.
Silence Chihuri is a
Zimbabwean who writes from Scotland. He can be
contacted on 07706376705 or
silencechihuri@googlemail.com
http://www.modernghana.com
By PanAfrican Visions -
panafricanvisions.com
Feature Article | Sat, 30 Aug 2008
By Tunji
Ajibade*
Europe often sets the pace. That includes economics and
politics. Its
continental union, the EU, didn't start out with the latter in
the closing
years of the 1950s.
It did with the former. Economy of
scale was a strong motive. But it wasn't
the only one. A political union was
left in the bag. That time, going it
alone economically was deemed to be to
the disadvantage of small nations. A
large economic community made sense. It
did to European nations that stood
no chance of competing with the likes of
United States of America which
economy was a raging bull in the post-war
years.
Yet some nations remained suspicious of such an association.
Britain was
one. It stayed out for many years. The possibility of losing its
national
sovereignty was the concern. Then the political union card was
brought out
of the bag and the EU was born. 'One Europe' that does things
from a central
point, have standardized rules, effectively a continental
state is in the
making. The EU has become a politico-economic model that
other continents
are copying. Africa is one of them.
When the AU was
ushered into existence a couple of years back, travelling on
the EU highway
was the intention. When it met last year, however, majority
of its members
shied away from forging ahead full steam to form the United
States of Africa
that some AU leaders called for.
Old talk of integrating first at the
regional level and gradually move on to
a united continent was the shell
into African leaders retreated. Last June,
the Southern African region's
SADC made much noise about the efforts it is
making towards integrating
specified matters at its own end. West Africa's
ECOWAS sang much the same
when its leaders met weeks back. In East Africa,
the drumbeat has the same
tone and rhythm. When fifty-three members of the
AU gathered in Egypt days
back, bread and butter issues such as an AU court
and something close to the
same with respect to human rights were at the two
ends of their menu list.
And there were a host of other issues ranging from
water to Darfur
in-between. But Zimbabwe overshadowed them all. The
situation in that
Southern African country was such that a UN Deputy
Secretary General came to
lecture AU leaders about it. Accepting what
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe had
done in his country would send a dangerous
signal across the African
continent, she had warned.
It was not as if African leaders were blind to
what happened in Zimbabwe.
But they were such set of leaders that they could
not tell Mugabe to stay
away from their gathering. In fact, when the host of
the AU meeting, Hosni
Mubarak of Egypt spoke, he mentioned every flash spot
on the continent but
left out Zimbabwe. The vocal Zambian president who had
condemned what
happened in Zimbabwe before he arrived Egypt for the meeting
took ill and
ended up in hospital bed. Liberia's woman president made her
displeasure
known. Botswana's president too did the same. Kenya's Prime
Minister, Rhaila
Odinga, a victim of the ruling party gimmicks in his own
country and
speaking from Nairobi lambasted AU leaders for allowing Mugabe
to sit with
them. Other leaders were less direct. It is understandable. Only
a few of
them have good democratic credentials.
In the end, AU
leaders only resolved that Mugabe talk to the opposition,
share power with
them and come up with a government of national unity. But
would it be headed
by Mugabe? In that case a formula is already provided for
other sit-tight
rulers across the continent.
It worth pointing out that what happened in
the present context is larger
than Zimbabwe. For how AU deals with political
and political transition
problem such as this will affect whatever the union
sets out to achieve.
It's clear that all other items on AU's menu list for
integration can't come
through when the leadership invites political
instability by their failure
to adhere to civilized democratic
standards.
What meaningful integration can AU achieve in economic and
social or human
rights terms when its member states are trouble spots, made
so by the
unending rule of the likes of Cameroon's Paul Biya, Chad's Idris
Derby,
Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore, Gambia's Yaya Jammeh, Egypt's Hosni
Mubarak,
Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Kenya's Mwai Kibaki, and Zimbabwe's
Mugabe among
others.
Staying put in power by any means apart from the
wishes of the people is one
thing EU member states have overcome. It's a
major factor in whatever
progress the union has made in other areas in their
move toward one Europe.
The AU cannot wish it away. It's strange how the
African continent copies
good things only to conveniently bastardize them.
Peer review mechanism was
an idea in the early days of AU. It was closely
linked with the New
Partnership for Africa (NEPAD) arrangement. It was meant
to checkmate
excesses, set minimum standard of governance as well as monitor
progress
made in agreed areas among AU members.
Significantly, the
leaders that initiated it were the first to break the
rules. Nigeria's
former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was at the forefront
of NEPAD
initiative, for instance, tried to extend his term in office. He
could have
got away with it. He didn't. Others did. Many still do - by using
diverse
gimmicks. But must they be allowed to get away with it? This is
where some
form of standard simply needs to be set and stuck to by AU.
The EU
begrudges no European leader the right to rule for long periods. How
they
came about their democratic mandate is what borders Brussels. It is
difficult for any politician to fraudulently tamper with the electoral
process. All in all however, who stays or goes out of office is decided in
free and fair elections. It is the wish of the people that prevails. Free
and fair elections as well as performance are two factors that have come
together to produce the quality of governance enjoyed by EU
members.
If there must be a turn around in everything negative Failure on
the part of
members should be met with stiff sanctions. The EU ensures this.
It is one
reason Turkey is still out in the cold. The argument among African
leaders
that foot-drag, claiming they want to resolve blatant misrule by
their
fellows the African way is a waste of everyone's time. This laid-back
approach should discarded.
*The Writer can be reached
at,tunjioa@yahoo.com
http://www.modernghana.com
By PanAfrican Visions -
panafricanvisions.com
Feature Article | Sat, 30 Aug 2008
By Herbert
Ekwe-Ekwe
DESPITE the unprecedented overdrive of its diplomatic pressure on
African
heads of regime during the recent African Union assembly in Egypt,
Britain
failed abysmally to persuade the summit to condemn Zimbabwe's June
2008
rigged elections. For the Brown administration, this failure was a
disappointing anticlimax in a season of sustained publicity blitz across
Britain in which the state and media found a rare common purpose and a
convergence of opinion on the subject of the demonisation of Robert Mugabe.
The typecasting was unmistakeably swift and assured: Mugabe became the
purveyor or indeed inventor of election rigging in Africa, the grotesque
human rights violator, the quintessential, fiendishly-sutured African
dictator.
Even provincial newspaper editors and commentators as well
as their radio
and television counterparts, usually concerned with more
mundane local
issues, became instant experts on Mugabe and Mugabeism - such
was the frenzy
of the times! Thanks to this bizarre British offering of
"African history"
of the past 50 years, the plaque of shame that lists the
cabal of Africa's
notorious heads of regime and genocidist personages of the
age appear
casually erased for the occasion: Muhammed, Gowon, Danjuma,
al-Bashir, Idi
Amin, Mengistu, Bokassa, Awolowo, Buhari, Compaore, Aminu,
Eyadema, Haruna,
Mobutu, Toure, Enaharo, Abubakar, Akinrinade, Patasse,
Obasanjo, Are, King,
Habre, Adekunle, Ayida, Ali, Babangida ...
The
irony of the awkward bind in which Britain currently finds itself in the
Zimbabwe saga is fascinating. Britain is absolutely right that Mugabe rigged
those elections. But everybody knows that. The African "leaders" at the
Sharm el Sheikh summit also know that. More importantly though, they also
know that, like Mugabe, each and everyone of them (total of 53 heads of
regime), except, possibly, the leaderships of Senegal, Botswana, Ghana and
South Africa, is presently head or beneficiary of a rigged
election/no-election regime. Not even Hosni Mubarak, the host of the
gathering, could distinguish between a rigged election and one designated
"free"/"fair". It is therefore not surprising that, on the eve of the
conference, Mugabe dramatically capitalised on these well-known facts on
bogus elections-that-"elect"-bogus leaders in Africa and dared any of his
fellow summiteers to criticise his own signature of poll
rigging!
Hardly anyone of them took up that challenge. In the end, it was
left to
Britain, a supposedly non-member of the AU, to lobby delegates hard
in hotel
suites, conference hall, committee rooms and corridors to sign up
to its
"Mugabe illegitimate re-election" resolution quest but without
success. For
African "leaders" and quite a few other observers, Britain
still had to
explain the rationale for its policy of pick and choose from
Africa's
rigged-election catalogue. Whilst it recognised and fraternises
with the
regimes that emerged from the rigged elections in Nigeria (April
2007) and
Kenya (December 2007), it demonises and wants the rest of the
world to
ostracise the regime that took power after the rigged poll in
Zimbabwe (June
2008).
Yet, no independent assessments of the three
"polls" have shown that the
charade in Zimbabwe was any worse than either
the one in Nigeria or in
Kenya. This is the case if one evaluates the
comparative data available on
the three countries focusing particularly on
such key indices as a
competitive environment for all contestants and their
affiliate
organisations, genuine and free access to vital campaign resources
including
the ability to form independent political parties, raise finance,
access to
publicly-owned media outlets for party broadcasts and advertising,
access to
private media institutions, unhindered campaigns in time and
space,
intimidation, pre-"poll" levels of violence, "poll" day/post-"poll"
day
levels of violence, number of persons murdered, number of persons
injured,
homes/other properties damaged or destroyed, displacement of
persons, and
the overall state of stability and security within the country
in the
aftermath of the "poll".
On the very crucial subject of
fatality in these "polls", for instance, more
Africans were murdered in
Kenya than in Zimbabwe; more Africans were
murdered in Nigeria than in
Zimbabwe. Finally, it should be stressed here
that for the regime in
Nigeria, unlike its counterparts in Kenya and indeed
Zimbabwe, its April
2007 "election" was nothing short of a military
campaign - aptly, albeit
ominously code-named "operation do-or-die" by
regime head Olusegun Obasanjo,
a genocidist general in the Nigeria army
during the 1966-1970 Igbo genocide.
This was Obasanjo's third election
rigging in eight years.
Except
Britain is perhaps much more concerned with the destiny of Africans
in
election-rigging Zimbabwe than those in the rest of other equally
election-rigging African countries which include Nigeria and Kenya, the June
2008 rigged presidential poll in Zimbabwe does not, in itself, sufficiently
explain the basis of the present British hostility to Robert Mugabe. One of
the myths peddled along the stream of mutual propaganda by both sides in
this crisis is to exaggerate the timeframe of the "confrontation". Contrary
to current popular perception, Mugabe has generally had a close and warm
relationship with successive British governments during most of his 28 years
of absolutist power. Few African "leaders" of comparable disposition have
had such ties with Britain in recent history.
We mustn't forget that
the overwhelming majority of victims of Mugabe's
ruthless rule, right from
the outset, have been Africans. In 1982-83, two
years after he came to power
following the "restoration" of Zimbabwean
independence, Mugabe ordered the
notorious Gukurahundi or the 5th brigade of
his military forces to embark on
a devastating, murderous campaign against
the Ndebele people in the south of
the country. A total of 20000 Ndebele
were slaughtered during the pogrom.
Mugabe essentially assumed supreme
political power across Zimbabwe after
these murders. The Ndebele were the
core electoral constituency for the ZAPU
liberation movement, which, in
alliance with Mugabe's ZANU, had won the
pre-"restoration" of independence
election organised and supervised by
Britain.
At the time of the Ndebele massacre, the British still exercised
some
administrative "oversight" on Zimbabwean security and land resources,
an
important feature of the "restoration" of independence settlement worked
out
in London in 1979/early 1980. Britain was therefore fully aware of the
Ndebele atrocity. The Gukurahundi campaign was comprehensively and
extensively covered across the world's media then. In 1984, barely one year
after the Gukurahundi outrage, the prestigious Edinburgh University awarded
Mugabe an honorary degree for "services to education in Africa".
Ten
years later, the Zimbabwean "leader" made an official visit to London.
The
British state used the grand occasion to crown its special relationship
with
Mugabe by awarding him the prestigious knighthood, Knight Grand Cross
in the
Order of Bath (Following the June 2008 revocation of this honour,
there was
consternation and disappointment among some in African-centred
intellectual
circles in Britain who were unaware that Mugabe had all along,
until very
recently, been a proud recipient of British knighthood!).
This cosy
relationship began souring in the late 1990s. The Blair government
that took
office in 1997 reneged on making the annual British financial
payment to the
Mugabe regime (that had been paid since 1980 - part of the
London
pre-"restoration" of independence settlement) to enable it engage in
the
perverse venture of "buying back" African lands expropriated by the
British
invasion of Zimbabwe during the course of the previous century.
Mugabe
responded by implementing a "land recovery programme", which should
have
been part of the strategic goal of the liberation project back in
1980.
The Mugabe "version" being executed 20 years later was clearly
opportunistic, a hardly disguised stratagem for the personal survival of a
dictator! The compelling lesson of the belated Mugabe-British discord
couldn't be clearer: Mugabe could murder and murder as many Africans in
Zimbabwe and trample on their other human rights as he deemed fit but there
was a "red line" he mustn't cross - harm Europeans in Zimbabwe. For Britain,
Mugabe's "land recovery" exercise was just "land robbery" that harmed
Europeans in Zimbabwe. He had crossed that "red line" and must be
punished.
It is not inconceivable that Britain decided to focus on the
rigged Zimbabwe
poll, rather than address all the others in Africa, as the
start to
challenging pervasive election-robbery in Africa. After all, one
must start
somewhere! Maybe Premier Brown wants to re-launch a new "ethical
foreign
policy" that focuses on Africa after the disastrous collapse of the
one
initiated by his predecessor (Blair) in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
Under
the aegis of the former, paradoxically, Britain, in the
August-September
2001 conference on racism in South Africa, vehemently
opposed African
peoples' calls for reparations from Britain for its central
role in the
pan-European execution of the African holocaust and the
phenomenal wealth it
accrued in the process.
In the same period,
Britain emerged as the leading arms exporter to Africa,
now earning at least
US$2 billion per annum. At the height of the dreadful
wars in the Africa
Great Lakes region in 2000, Britain sold weapons to both
sides of the
conflict. Charles Onyango-Obbo, the respected Ugandan
journalist, recalls:
Britain ... supported both sides - it just robs them of
any moral authority
and a lot of people rightly do despise the British
government in this
affair.
To be continued
Dr. Ekwe-Ekwe is a leading scholar of the Igbo
genocide, 1966, 1970
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own
Correspondent Saturday 30 August 2008
JOHANNESBURG - A
Zimbabwean has been arrested in Australia after he
allegedly attempted to
smuggle heroin into the country.
The Australian Customs Service said in a
statement on Friday that if
convicted the 45-year-old Zimbabwean man, caught
after an X-ray scan
revealed that he was carrying foreign objects in his
stomach, faces up to 25
years in jail.
"It will be alleged in court
that the man passed a total of 91 packages
containing approximately 800g of
powder believed to be heroin," said the
statement, as the man was due to
appear in the Perth Magistrates Court later
on Friday facing charges of
importing a marketable quantity of a
border-controlled drug.
Customs
officials at Perth airport became suspicious that the man could be
concealing drugs internally following his conduct during a routine physical
examination of his baggage after arriving on a flight from South Africa on
Wednesday.
The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years
imprisonment and/or a $550
000 fine.
Zimbabwe, which was once a model
African economy, is in the grip of an
unprecedented economic recession that
in addition to hyperinflation is also
seen in shortages of food, rising
unemployment and poverty that has forced
millions to leave the country in
search of greener pastures.
Western governments and the opposition MDC
party blame President Robert
Mugabe - in power since 1980 - for ruining the
economy through repression
and wrong policies.
Mugabe denies ruining
the economy and instead says his country's problems
are because of sanctions
and sabotage by Britain and its Western allies
opposed to his land reforms.
- ZimOnline
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 29 August
Chief K Masimba Biriwasha
Harare, Zimbabwe's
capital, is full of buildings that look like giant
matchboxes at night. Dusk
was falling when, after attending a poetry session
at the Book Café - an
artist's hangout at the edge of the city centre - I
decided to take a walk
through the streets. They rang with the patter of
feet as the Saturday night
crowds criss-crossed and changed direction.
Because I am carrying a backpack
with a laptop and a top-of-the-range
camera, I keep glancing around to make
sure that no mugger is lurking in the
shadows of the moonlit night.
Fortunately, I soon walk into a street with
lamps that shower light onto the
pavement. I feel safe. Two men standing
outside a city apartment/business
office gesture at me and inquire about the
latest forex rates. When I tell
them I'm not a forex dealer, one of the men
begins to wax lyrical about the
qualitites of his favourite politician -
Morgan Tsvangirai. We chat,
furtively, about politics for a while before I
bid him farewell and continue
on my journey towards the rank to catch a
minibus home.
The dark has
now fully gathered; around me the matchboxes look as if they're
waiting to
explode under the weight of the nation's groaning. I cross a wide
street at
a little trot to avoid being hit by a fleshy black Mercedes-Benz
that slides
down the street at full speed. As I reach the other side, at the
edge of a
street named Kwame Nkrumah, a tall soldier appears from nowhere
behind me,
walking with wide strides. I almost miss a heartbeat, thinking he
is coming
after me to confiscate the wide-lens camera in my backpack. I keep
my cool
and he strides past; I try in vain to imitate his walk simply to
test if I
have a soldier in me. I am lost in my soldier thoughts for a while
until a
bald man beckons to me and asks for a match to light his cigarette.
I offer
him one. We end up talking (dialogue is a currency on the streets)
about my
pregnant wife and how our baby is due anytime now. Just then a text
message
beeps on my cellphone. Perhaps this is "the call", I think, and I'm
instantly relieved that it is just a friend asking where I am. I walk
towards the Supreme Court. Opposite it stands a group of soldiers
silhouetted in the dark who suddenly scream loudly into the night that a
hare is crossing the street. For a moment, I stand frozen, wondering how on
earth a hare could have ended up in a city filled with rock-solid buildings,
until I notice that the so-called hare is just a cat. In fact, it's two
cats; one scampers away behind the court building and the other, on seeing
me, dashes towards the chuckling soldiers.
Cats have joined
soldiers in my thoughts as I walk on quickly towards the
shop that sells one
of the best things still available in Harare - ice
cream. It's usually
packed, but surprisingly, tonight it is deserted.
Perhaps it's the price
increase; overnight price hikes in Zimbabwe can bring
on a heart attack and
new tactics have to be employed all the time. Anyway,
I purchase a huge cone
of clear white ice cream that tastes like real cream;
of all the things in
Zimbabwe, I daresay, the ice cream at that shop
competes with any other in
the world. As I lick away, my photographer's eye
can't help but notice the
post-election posters still plastered all over the
city walls. They're an
eyesore given that the election was a stillborn. I go
for my camera to take
a picture of the posters for posterity or perhaps just
to record a piece in
the process of human history. At the back of my mind I
know I could get
arrested and spend a night in jail in this
expression-stifled city if the
police or soldiers see me. I put the camera
back. Walking on I suddenly sink
into a mass of human flesh. On the
pavements are numerous men and women
selling an assortment of agricultural
produce in season - it makes sense for
them to trade at night because the
municipal police have already gone home.
I buy a green maize cob for a total
of Z$20, approximately US$0,05. And then
I careen my way through the madding
crowd, till finally I reach the rank
where I find a minibus to take me home
through the Harare
night.
Chief K Masimba Biriwasha is a children's author, poet,
philosopher and
playwright. His first book The Dream of Stones won
Zimbabwe's National Arts
Merit Award in 2004