The Zimbabwe Situation

On Hot Seat, Violet Gonda hosts a teleconference discussion on the issue of mass action and unity in the pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwe. For the next three weeks she will be talking with a panel of guests: Zimbabwe women’s activist and former chairperson of the NCA Thoko Matshe (top left) ; deputy secretary-general of the Mutambara MDC Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (bottom right) ; Secretary for Policy and Research Sekai Holland (bottom left) of the Tsvangirai MDC and Jenni Williams (top right) the coordinator of the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise. What is the state of preparedness for mass action in Zimbabwe right now? Is unity an absolute pre-condition for mass action and is it possible for the stakeholders in the pro democracy movement to participate as equal forces?

Transcript of SW Radio Africa’s Hotseat Programme in which Violet Gonda speaks with Zimbabwean women activists and opposition leaders Priscilla Misihairambwi Mushonga, Thoko Matshe, Sekai Holland and Jenni Williams

Violet: We welcome Zimbabwean women’s activist and former Chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, Thoko Matshe; Deputy Secretary General of the Mutambara MDC Priscilla Misihairambwi Mushonga; Secretary for Policy and Research Sekai Holland from the Tsvangirai MDC and Jenni Williams the Co-ordinator of the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). We welcome you all on the programme ‘Hot Seat’.

Now, the International Crisis Group released a report stating that, to avoid an explosion in Zimbabwe that could cost thousands of lives and shatter Southern Africa, the opposition may need to launch a risky strategy of nationwide non-violent protests. Now, the Think-Tank said if the political opposition and civil society manage to use the general dissatisfaction in the country effectively, they may become the spark that finally sets Zimbabwe towards the road to change. Now, our discussion today will centre on this issue. So, first I’ll go to Priscilla. It’s been said that the chance for change is in our hands as Zimbabwean people, so change must come from our hands. Now, what’s the state of preparedness or preparations for mass action in Zimbabwe right now?

Priscilla: Well, it’s difficult to indicate whether people are prepared to go into the streets or not. What we know is that people are very angry; we know that things are quite difficult; but whether that translates into getting people in the streets is something else. A lot more work would have to be done; a lot more planning, a lot more co-ordination between the progressive forces would need to be organised for us to launch a successful mass protest.

Violet: Now, Amai Holland, your party has been consulting with the masses since last year. Why is it taking so long to mobilise people and what are the problems that are preventing mass action from taking off?

Sekai: Actually Violet I want to say something about the media in Africa. When you are cooking a pot for a wedding - you are an African woman - and, people keep saying to you ‘You! When is this going to be ready for us? You! You! You!’ Eh, in Zimbabwe, people went to war for sixteen years; independence was won. Why are we suddenly getting this whole thing from the press of when people are going to be ready? People are consulting when people are going to be ready. Consulting has different stages, and during those stages you have set-backs, you have progress that you make. I want to salute the people of Zimbabwe that the process we are on, as far as I can see myself, is on course. Because, as Zimbabweans try to get things right, we have too many intervening variables which actually keep distracting people out of the correct way. So, when you ask me ‘why is it taking so long’, things which have got results that are actually positive in life, those things actually take time, and they take a long time because you have to actually get to everybody. You have to have consensus; consensus building and then you have to find your way together as a people. And, that’s what Zimbabweans are doing, whatever it may look like to other people.

Violet: With all due respect Amai Holland, some may say this is just the usual rhetoric over the issue of mass action. ‘How do you postpone an exam date because you are still preparing’ others would ask. You know, how many lives must be lost?

Violet: So why is it still taking so long because people have been hearing the issue of mass action since the opposition said the elections were rigged in 2000?

Sekai: I don’t know how old you are but when the Vietnam war was on, when the struggle for Aboriginal rights was on, when the struggle for the removal of apartheid in South Africa was on, when the removal of the minority regime was on in Zimbabwe, people used to call people all sorts of names in those struggles for being slow, and really they were very insulting and very abusive. But, because the people who were involved in those struggles were focused, they knew what they were doing; you’ve got good results there which we all admire. Zimbabwe is no exception.

Violet: Jenni, what can you say about this? You know, just last week when more than 190 WOZA activists, including children, were arrested, you asked “Where the hell is the opposition?” Do you remember asking that question when we interviewed you? Now, do you agree with what Amai Holland is saying in connection with this?

Jenni: Yes I remember you putting me in the spot and demanding me an answer, which is why I gave you the one I gave. I think, for us, the bottom line as WOZA is that we do not believe mass action is a one-day event. It is a process and there we agree very much with all the political people. But, what we believe, and it has been a journey we have seen as the women of WOZA, that, if you are going to say you want to be successful you have to have confidence building activities. And, we don’t have a lot of confidence in the fact that mass action is definitely on the agenda and being planned when we do not see those confidence building measures and also when we do not see a real consultative process at grass roots level because we know, if those processes were being done by the political parties, that we would, ourselves, be recipients of some of that consultation, and we are very surprised that we have never been. So, I think, for us, we are still seeing it as rhetoric and we haven’t seen the confidence building measures, and we haven’t seen the community based mobilisation which is vital if there is going to be any mass action.

Violet: What about your own strategy where you have taken to the streets and you have been promptly arrested? Is it working? Do you see this as working?

Jenni: It’s an incredible thing, yes. But our activists understand and because we go through a lot of training exercises consultations and meetings, they understand that if they are to be successful, they have to put pressure. And, if they are going to put pressure, there is going to be a consequence of that pressure, and the arrests is the consequence of that pressure and the fact that when we find police wanting to just arrest five or six people and they fail miserably to do so because hundreds of people are willing to be arrested, then we know that people have understood the mentality of that pressure. And, more so, our activists have understood that if they are going to pull the pillars of the dictator’s support away from supporting him and holding him in position as a dictator, that they have to be able to go into the police stations, to go into those spheres of his influence and be able to persuade people on to their side, and that is the work that we do when we are in custody.

Violet: And Thoko, what are your thoughts on all this? Do you think there is a need for some change in structure and strategy and what will it take to shake people into action?

Thoko: For me I think there is a need for the average Zimbabwean in the street to be more involved than they are involved, because, there is a tendency of thinking other people will do it for themselves. When the MDC was set up, after a couple of years, there was a lot of ‘what is the MDC doing’ kind of thing. To me that kind of thing is ‘what is the MDC doing, what are you doing as well?’ and I think for Zimbabweans, Zimbabweans as much as we sit over our glasses of beer and cry about the situation, my feeling is that the average person out there is not putting action into what we should be putting action into to change what is there. People are expecting other people to do. There are too few people struggling and on the front line, being hit over and over again. And, until we get out of our comfort zone, because, even if we talk of mass action, in other countries you just need a bold leadership that can call for that and people rally. Whereas here, if that kind of thing is called, people start seeing it as a day off for themselves or going off somewhere. I think the average Zimbabwean realises that it’s not just the MDC. The MDC has got to be peopled and it has got to be other people around who most probably can take. Yes, I do agree, in the sense that the environment as well, and the timing of whatever mass action is important. Our environment is very repressive. There’s subtle and overt actions that make people fearful and we need to go beyond that fear, we need to go beyond our comfort zone.

Violet: What about you, as the leaders? And still, on your point, when you were leader of the NCA, you led successful mass protests you know that led to a successful ‘No’ vote during the referendum, and like all the women on this panel you have technical know-how on how to demonstrate. Now, if you have this, why aren’t you using it especially since you sit on the boards of several women’s organisations and why have you not mobilised the other women to join WOZA for example?

Thoko: Um, I’m not a member of WOZA, Ok? And, in organising, we organise in different ways of organising. And, also what I’m saying in the earlier things that I’m saying is also that we are organising as different pockets, so the coming together and the mass-ness of it is not coming out. Civil Society as civil society, in its different elements as the opposition political parties, the women’s movement, the other movements that are there is not coming together. But, that is also about the nature of the politics here which is about divide and rule in a way, and I think we have also allowed ourselves to be divided and ruled in a way. And, like I always say in the women’s movement, that there are certain things that together, as women, we should organise together, beyond our party affiliations. But, also it goes back to what Jenni said. What is the confidence that people have in us as leaders, Ok? Maybe people do not have confidence in us as leaders in the women’s movement or they just don’t care.

Violet: I don’t know, Amai Holland, what can you say about this? You know, there are others who say that the most visible and the most vocal protest group in Zimbabwe at the present is the WOZA women with their persistent demonstrations. Now, there are people who ask where are the other women’s voices? What can you say about this Amai Holland?

Sekai: My feeling is that in Zimbabwe from the time we came home in 1980, we have never had the opportunity to have the great debate, and that while this forum is denied Zimbabweans, most people don’t know what really happened during the war for us to gain one person one vote which was why the war was there. Vote, get transition from colonialism, semi colonialism into independence and become Zimbabwe. Most people don’t know the strategies that were used to get that. A lot of us, because there is no great debate, still don’t understand why we have deteriorated to where, even at our lowest level now, you get international delegations coming to Zimbabwe and saying ‘why are you complaining, you are not really badly off, because you are better than where we come from.’

The great debate in Zimbabwe must take place for Zimbabweans to bond as a society the point that we are greatly divided is a very correct one. I believe that in different sectors of Zimbabwean life there is a coming together that is taking place. In politics, it might look as if we are fragmenting in the opposition. I don’t agree with that. I think that the process in the opposition is very necessary to happen because there has never been a great debate. People are really wanting to define why they are in one party and not the other. It’s a huge democratic leap forward in Zimbabwe where we have been brainwashed, both by our men and by the colonial period that we all have to think the same. People are now voicing how they want to see Zimbabwe. I think it’s fantastic. It’s very painful but it’s fantastic, it’s part of the great debate which never took place. In the Churches, people might think that they are fragmenting, they are disintegrating. Oh no! There are huge changes taking place in western society within the different Churches; in Africa as well. In the NGO community; the same thing. I think that as we agree more and more to talk with one another, this great process which we never had at independence makes us understand what is a Zimbabwean.

Is it correct that if your father was a farm labourer and you had a father from Malawi you are not a Zimbabwean when your mother was a Zimbabwean? Is it correct that if you are married to a white person urimukadzi wemurungu umfazi wekiwa, you are a white man’s wife; therefore you have no right to be here? The great debate is fantastic, it’s stimulating! And, as we talk more and more you will be very surprised to see the energy that will come out of the women’s movement; to take us to what, Thoko Matshe, you have been talking about for a long time. To do what I came to Zimbabwe, saying in 1980, about women’s rights, and people thought ‘Ahh, if you are doing women’s liberation ndivana Mai Holland. We are really coming together I believe through a great debate that was denied by the people who came into Zimbabwe from the war and lied about what the war was about. So, my feeling, and I know it’s not shared by many, is that the process we’ve been going through since 1980 is one of trying to open up space so we can bring the change which took Zimbabwe to a sixteen year war. And, I believe myself, that while people may think they are doing different things and not getting results; they really are, and, that these results are actually joining people at the grassroots level as they hear and activate themselves from different angles. And, I believe that when mass action comes into Zimbabwe it will be something that is a big, big volcano; a super volcano.

Violet: Priscilla, you said earlier on, when we started this discussion that Zimbabweans are hungry for change, but, you know, what’s most puzzling is that Zimbabweans have reduced themselves to mere spectators and Thoko alluded to this fact earlier on? Now, what then are the chances of mass action and also, where does your party fit in all this?

Thoko: Well, Violet, I think we need to be clear about one thing. When you talk about mass action people tend to think it’s one thing that will happen on one particular day. I think it’s about putting pressure on the regime so that it can begin to open the democratic space in Zimbabwe and that’s where at least my party is coming from. I think there are a number of things that are happening. It would be unfair to try and create a picture that because you have not seen people being arrested in droves there isn’t anything that is going on. I think mass action is about different things that people are doing. When people participate in elections and get beaten up, when people struggle to go and get food and have demonstrations, when people like Jenni do the kind of things that they are doing, when political parties stand up to question things in parliament, in senate, in local government elections, I think all those are activities that people are involved in. I think it is unfortunate to then paint a picture that says there isn’t anything that the people of Zimbabwe are doing, especially given the political context that we are going through. What is important there, and this is what I am getting to hear from all my colleagues, is that we should have more co-ordination…

Priscilla: more coming together, so that whatever an individual or a group is doing links up to the other activities that people are doing. It is unfortunate therefore for anybody to begin to paint a picture. When I go to Nkayi, there is a woman who travels, who is 85 years old, who will travel and walk maybe 40, 50, or 60 kilometres to attend a rally knowing full well that their attendance at that rally will mean that they will not get their food ration for that particular time. In my opinion, that is mass action, that is a way of standing up, that is civic disobedience. So, there is something going on. It may not be happening at the scale that we want to see, but it certainly is happening where Zimbabweans are standing up to a regime that is largely repressive.

Sekai: This change in currency, just the struggles that are going on. In rural Zimbabwe, in the cities yesterday we had to get some things in the shops, and before that, in Harare, and people have no change. People are saying in the queues ‘you are businesses, you agreed to go into this thing without training, without adequate change. Go to Gono and get the change!’ There are a lot of struggles on the queues where people are politically conscious now that they don’t have to accept anything with out their participation and consultation, consensus and consensus building. Second example; when we were going by bus in the last three weekends and the police were stopping people and actually taking their money. I was on a bus where people were going from Harare to Gweru where people were being told that if you have more than $35 million it will be taken away from you. And a very, old, old man at the back who’d been in Harare at a Church and was told that it’s $100 million, above that, if your money is taken you get a receipt etc. There was a struggle in that bus as people were refusing to hand over there money above $35 million and there was nothing the police could do because if they had done anything there was going to be trouble on those roadblocks. So, I’m just saying to you there are lots of struggles within struggles.

However, I want to say to you, Zimbabweans at home, there is not one spectator! One third of the population of Zimbabwe is out of the country. Of that one third who are out of the country, we still don’t know the proportion of who is actually doing well and who is not doing well out there. But, what we know is that the majority of our people there are having a very hard time. We also know that because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we have got 3000 to 4000 deaths per week and that people are left to actually carry on with emigration, with death and with an extremely oppressive regime. Such a big struggle there! So, I’m just saying to you Violet, it’s insulting and it’s abusive for the media to keep saying Zimbabweans are spectators. Every Zimbabwean here in Zimbabwe is struggling to survive and is struggling to struggle for change. Everybody! The Zimbabweans outside are fighting for the same thing that where they are they make their contribution; it is recognised and they fight so that at home things become ok. Those who want to come home, come home! It’s about choices. Those who want to stay overseas, stay there with legitimate papers.

Violet: Now, Amai Holland, the reason why I said it seems people in Zimbabwe have reduced themselves to mere spectators is because of what they actually see on the ground. For example, as I said before, last week we heard that the WOZA women were on the streets. They were giving out flyers and people were actually receiving these handouts - these flyers, but they didn’t actually join in the demonstrations.

Thoko: I really think there’s a level where people are not engaging, seriously, I really don’t think there is. Because, yes people are concerned with issues of survival and they have put there all in survival, and I think they have struggled. The people of Zimbabwe are not lazy, and they are very innovative, but their innovation you can see now that ‘Ah, it’s really been too long innovating and struggling’. But we are more in a survival mode and in a getting to just move on. We are not really in a mode of change for democracy and building that democracy – all of us.

Violet: Be sure not to miss the second segment of this three part series with the women activists and opposition leaders. Next Tuesday, among other issues, we will discuss whether the feminist and intellectual agenda is relevant to the daily existence of people in Zimbabwe at present.

Zimbabwe plumbs the depths with police brutality towards children

How low can we go? We condemn in the strongest of terms the arrest and torture of minors by the police in Bulawayo last week. 26 minors and 13 babies were kept in police custody with the nearly 200 WOZA activists for protesting against the monetary reforms.
Although the mothers with babies and the children were allowed to go home each evening, they had to report back each morning and spend the day with the others at the police station.
During that time some of the children were assaulted with broomsticks and batons, according to WOZA coordinators Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu. We have no reason to doubt their word. They said the officers were trying to extract information about how WOZA mobilised, and were not satisfied until the terrified youths 'confessed' to fabricated information.
In a society where traditionally the welfare of the children is a sacred responsibility entrusted to the entire community, such behaviour by the police is beyond belief. More than anything, this despicable incident is a barometer of just how far the Mugabe regime has succeeded in debasing ordinary Zimbabweans.
Surely the cops who perpetrated this outrage are themselves fathers, uncles or brothers who have been raised to respect the cultural norms of our society. What on earth could have happened to them to cause them to behave in such an appalling manner?
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the UN declaration on the protection of children. This is just another example of Mugabe regime paying lip service to UN and other international charters and treaties, to which they have no intention whatsoever of adhering.
The raft of unconstitutional legislation – POSA, AIPPA and the new outrageously draconian Criminal Procedures and Evidence Act – are all in direct contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which grants human beings, by their virtue of being human, fundamental rights such as freedoms of assembly, choice and association.

Government blamed for failure to issue licenses

HARARE - The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has blamed the Ministry of Information and Publicity for the delays in the issuing of broadcasting licenses to private players and for community radio stations.
BAZ chairman Pikirayi Deketeke says the licensing authority submitted its recommendations on the enabling amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) to the Ministry. Deketeke said the amendments in question would make it much easier for would-be private broadcasters to meet the licensing requirements as opposed to the existing restrictive provisions under the BSA.
"It becomes difficult if we are to call for applications when we know those eager to apply fail to meet the criteria and requirements," said Deketeke. We have made recommendations for the amendment of the BSA but we have not had any input from the ministry.
"The amendments we have recommended to the ministry will assist in allowing new players. As things stand it is difficult to accuse the BAZ of being in contempt of parliament or the Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications," he said.
No private players have been issued with broadcasting licenses since the enactment of the BSA in 2001.
Committee chairman Leo Mugabe said the BAZ was in contempt of court for failing to fulfill an undertaking it had given under oath following the expiry of the July deadline.
In its report tabled before parliament on 1 June 2006, the Committee conceded that the country's broadcasting laws were prohibitive to the entry of private players. The BSA among other restrictions bans foreign funding and investment in the otherwise capital intensive broadcasting sector making it almost impossible for private players to set up television and radio stations.
The Committee recommended then that the BAZ should concentrate and focus on issuing licenses to private players especially for community radio stations. - MISA

CIO chaps thrash cops and blow cover on jamming center

BY MAGAISA IBENZI
WARD 12, PARIRENYATWA HOSPITAL, HARARE – So now we know where Mugabe's jamming station is. It didn't take long for our over-zealous CIO chaps to blow the cover. They recently beat up an innocent passer by because he was too close to the spy center housing the jammers opposite Makro in Hillside.
It is interesting that it is the CIO who are guarding the jamming station, and not police or army details who usually guard strategic buildings. When the poor man reported the incident to the police, even the officer in charge of Braeside Police Station, along with 10 other armed policemen, were given a thorough beating by CIO agents.
Their crime? They had dared to investigate the assault charge laid by the innocent civilian. Their investigations led them to the secret jamming center where the CIO guards promptly disarmed them and gave them a vicious thrashing.
Magaisa's own surveillance agents have informed him that the policemen were made to lie down on the ground and were kicked and sjambokked. The officer in charge, an ex-combatant, tried to pull rank but failed to impress the thugs with his liberation history. He was heard screaming in anguish "Maiweeee" as the sjambok fell again and again.
While I feel sorry for these guys I can't help thinking that it is about time some representatives of the police force at least had a little taste of their own medicine. After all, this is what thousands of Zimbabweans have suffered during the past six years at the hands of the police.
Commissioner of Police Augustine Chihuri complained about the incident to superspook Happyton Bonyongwe. But he was fobbed off with an explanation that a few cadres had been a bit overenthusiastic and there was nothing to worry about. "It's not serious," said Happyton dismissively.
Whereupon Augustine rushed to the president's office to complain – but was once again given short shrift. It seems the police are no longer in the pound seats.
While Chihuri is busy trying to ensure assurances of protection for CIO bully-boys for his officers, nobody is out there attempting to protect the ordinary Zimbabwean – men, women and children – from such thuggery. Chihuri is unable even to secure a promise that such incidents will not happen again in the future. In other words, even the Zimbabwean police cannot defend themselves against Zanu (PF) thugs on the state payroll – never mind the person, or child, in the street.
What this means, basically, is that Zimbabweans going about their daily business could be assaulted by these over-enthusiastic spooks in shiny suits and nobody can or will do a damn thing about it – not even the president. What a sad day for our country.

'Free and fair' Yengeni jailed for corruption

BY SIBANENGI DUBE
JOHANNESBURG - Tony Yengeyi, a disgraced ANC heavyweight, who most Zimbabweans would love to hate for declaring the fraudulent 2000 parliamentary elections in Zimbabwean as 'free and fair' was last week sent to jail for four years for fraud.
The flamboyant for ANC chief whip, Yengeni arrived at the gates of Pollsmoor prison accompanied by his party bosses, cabinet ministers and ANC supporters.
Yengeni stunned the international community when he indorsed the violence-plagued Zimbabwe general elections of 2000 as free and fair. All other election observer missions were hesitant to bless the election results, which were narrowly won by President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF). Candidates and supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were subjected to intense violence, which left hundreds dead and maimed during the election period.
Yengeni was the head of the South Africa parliamentary observe mission by then, before he got embroiled in a scandal which landed him prison.
He was convicted for fraud after he failed to disclose to parliament the 47% discount he got on the luxury 4x4, metallic green Merdeces-Benz ML32 worth R359 000, from a European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), a bidder in the multibillion-Rand arms deal.
Yengeni who was the chairman of the parliamentary joint standing committee on defence only paid R182 563 for the flashy wheels.
Speaking at the prison gates soon before swapping his trendy suit for an orange prison garment, Yengeni declared his incarceration as an act of "injustice".
The Zimbabwe Refugees Forum Chairman, Tawanda Mswazi, described Yengeni's imprisonment as "free and fair."
"If Yengeni had any sense of justice, he would have realized that hundreds of Zimbabweans who were raped, tortured, murdered and cheated by Zanu (PF) in 2000 elections, were being subjected to injustice," said Mswazi.

the zimbabwean

Human rights lawyers slam Mahoso

HARARE - Zimbabwe's media hangman Tafataona Mahoso has drawn the ire of human rights lawyers over weekend claims that certain members of the Law Society of Zimbabwe are attempting to bring colonial rule back to Zimbabwe.
In an article replete with his usual drivel and conspiracy theories that appeared in the last issue of the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper, Mahoso, who is also the chairman of the government-appointed Media and Information Commission, asserts that the LSZ is little more than a puppet of Western organisations with an agenda to return Zimbabwe to the days of colonial rule.
As part of his argument he derides the LSZ's statement condemning the 2005 parliamentary elections as being "prejudicial and prejudiced."
Mahoso, who has presided over the closure of a record four newspapers in as many years, infers that the LSZ will be subject to government action if it continues to work in opposition to the policies of President Robert Mugabe's government.
The International Bar Association's (IBA) Human Rights Institute said it was "deeply concerned" by the "virulent and unjust criticism" of the LSZ.
Justice Richard Goldstone, Co-Chair IBA Human Rights Institute, and retired South African Constitutional Court Judge told The Zimbabwean: "The Law Society of Zimbabwe is a democratic and independent institution performing a very necessary role in a particularly difficult period in Zimbabwe's history," Justice Goldstone said. "The LSZ should be completely separate from the Executive, accountable to the law, and above all else to the nation's Constitution.
"For a law society to face criticism from a government-appointed official for carrying out this essential role in this environment carries all the outcomes of a threat."
Award winning human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga, who is also the LSZ's executive director said he was shocked that a high-ranking appointee of the Zimbabwean government can have the temerity to defame a law society, which in essence is an independent organization created by Zimbabwean statute to regulate the legal profession.
"The legal profession has largely been standing in between the unbridled power of the state and the people of Zimbabwe and offering a safety net to human rights defenders facing persecution," Tsunga said. "It therefore comes as little surprise that the state is now angling itself for an attack on the independence and self regulation of the legal profession in Zimbabwe."
Tsunga said he was concerned that the statement by Mahoso signalled an imminent legal threat to the existence and independence of the Law Society itself.
Mark Ellis, IBA Executive Director said: "It is unacceptable that the Law Society of Zimbabwe should be subjected to vilification of this type. The criticisms levelled against LSZ, by Tafataona Mahoso, displays both a level of ignorance as regards the role of a law society, and a somewhat selective and limited understanding of matters of law."
Zimbabwe Lawyers of Human Rights in a press statement said it was clear from Mahoso's article that he had a rudimentary understanding of the functions and relevance of the LSZ.
"The LSZ is an autonomous body," the statement said. "It is not an extension of the executive and owes no allegiance, unlike Mahoso in his regulation of the media, to the executive. A body like the LSZ should be a model for media practitioners and ZLHR has no doubt that given the choice on how to self-regulate in the media, people like Mahoso would be part of a tiny and insignificant minority."
Mahoso has closed down independent radio stations, television channels, and four newspapers in Zimbabwe. He has openly rejected efforts by Zimbabwean journalists to self-regulate. – Own correspondent

Power in the Voice

BULAWAYO - At 2.30pm on Thursday 7 September, the Intwasa Festival will need to have the City of Bulawayo fire brigade unit on standby at the Bulawayo Theatre. 16 talented artists from 11 schools in Bulawayo will be competing for top honours in the British Council supported Power in the Voice schools' competition. Entrance to this event is free of charge and all are welcome.
Power in the Voice is a programme that provides an opportunity for young people to celebrate and express themselves creatively through their voices. It taps into the wealth of oral and performance traditions, the rhythms, the sounds and the messages of speech and song. As in Great Zimbabwe where the "stones will speak to you" if you listen carefully, this festival also lets us hear the power of the human voice.
Albert Nyathi, in line with the ethos of the Power in the Voice project, will perform at the event, inspiring the young people to "blow life into dead words."
The finals at the Bulawayo Theatre are a result of competitions at district level involving secondary schools in metropolitan Bulawayo. There are two categories in the competition – individual and group (3 to 5 performers). Individual performances last for a maximum of 3 minutes, group performances for a maximum of 5 minutes. The following rules apply to both categories.
i) The poems should be in any one, or a mixture of the following languages – English, Ndebele, Shona and isiTsotsi.
ii) Musical instruments can be part of the performance
iii) The poem may be on any subject
iv) Entrants are encouraged to render energetic and expressive performances
v) The poems may be original, translated or from published works.
Power In the Voice seeks to bridge the gap between traditional forms of story telling and modernity through secondary school students, thus to also nurture the artistic instinct in them as they are the custodians of future aesthetic forms. Performances by the school children at the district competitions have been show-stopping. Commenting on the quality of performances, Bulawayo writer and Intwasa Literary Arts committee member Chris Mlalazi said, "lantinta ibhubesi….(you have slapped a lion)".
Power in the Voice is being run by a special Intwasa Festival committee comprising of British Council, graduates of the British Council creative writing programme (Crossing Borders), practising secondary school teachers and the Deputy Provincial Education Director of Bulawayo District administrators were appointed to each of the five secondary school districts within Bulawayo to work with the forty four schools involved. Electric performances at district competitions were held in July before schools closed.
Winners of the Power in the Voice finals at the 2007 Intwasa Festival will, together with their mentors and teachers, attend a regional Power in the Voice festival in 2008 in South Africa. - For more information, please contact: Ignatius Mabasa, British Council Zimbabwe. Tel: +263 4 775313-4/756668 Fax: +263 4 756661 Ignatius.mabasa@britishcouncil.org.zw

Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association

LONDON - Over the last week the situation regarding Removals has remained steady. There have been no reports of significant increases in numbers of detainees. We have not heard of any new cases of people being picked up. If you know of anyone who has been detained and you haven't yet spoken to us, please give us a call. A couple of people have had their Removal Directions (RDs) to Zimbabwe cancelled. We do not know of a single case of a person being removed to Zimbabwe since the August 2 ruling. If you know otherwise, please tell us.
Our main message at this time remains much the same. Keep calm but get yourselves organised. Make sure you have a complete set of your papers and that a trusted friend or family member has a copy. We have updated our Removal Guidelines which are now available on our website www.zimbabweassociation.org. You can also ring the ZA office and ask for a copy if accessing a computer is difficult for you. Carefully go back through your determination (reasons from the adjudicator or immigration judge for dismissing your appeal for asylum).
Have they found you credible? If you were found credible and refused some years ago it may be possible to renew your case. Take legal advice on this matter. Local law centres are usually a good place to start if you don't have a lawyer. Alternatively you can ring the legal advice line at the ZA office (see times below). Remember that living quietly in accordance with the laws of the UK and avoiding travelling in fast cars is the best way to have a peaceful problem-free existence.
Readers who have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain and come from a teaching background may be interested in a Refugee Teacher Training Project being run by Empower Teachers Ltd from September 2006. The project aims to provide training, work experience placements and individual support exclusively to overseas qualified refugee teachers based in London who are unemployed or employed (less than 16 hours a week).
On Saturday 16 September there is the opportunity to get together at the University of London Union at the BZS Open Forum 2006. Discussions will centre on positive ways of using skills and abilities to bring about peaceful changes and reconstruction within Zimbabwe. Be there.
At the Zim vigil last week we met up with a number of people who had been granted refugee status in recent months. After a long battle they had eventually reached a position of some security in the UK. It is always heartening when such people continue to participate in the struggle to make the world aware of what is happening to fellow countrymen in Zimbabwe.
We can be contacted at the office on 020 7549 0355 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, messages may be left on the answer machine at other times, or by fax 020 7549 0356 or email: zimbabweassociation@yahoo.co.uk.
ADVICE LINE: Wednesday 2 – 5 pm
Asylum queries: 13 September
Support queries: 30 August, 27 September

Silent Voices

Last week a book was launched in Harare about the struggle of minority language groups in Zimbabwe to have their languages taught to their children in their schools. The keynote speaker arrived for his first day of school twenty-five years ago to discover only English and Ndebele were spoken. He is a Tonga. The book is called Silent Voices (published by Weaver Press). This event was in the back of my mind when a colleague told me of a meeting yesterday about development in Zimbabwe. There are many organizations wanting to contribute to the growth of our country. The problem is bureaucracy. If you want to do something with your own resources you have to have an 'understanding' with the relevant ministry, local government office and party officials. In the end you can be so overwhelmed by the 'red tape' that you give up. Someone said to the government officials at the meeting ‘you are treating us as enemies, not as partners.'
The reply given was that 'you people' are always bringing in politics. This charge, thrown at development workers, church leaders and anyone who says anything about the present situation, is an expression of fear. It is true that politics are involved; the price of bread, the slashing of zeros, the availability of fuel, the rise of school fees – all of these are 'politics.' What is wrong with 'bringing in politics'? It is the air we breathe. It is the sign of a scared government when it gets worried when people ask questions. Or that wants to have endless ‘understandings.'
The ordinary life of people is boxed in by restrictions and in their desperation people turn on each other. Since those above squeeze us we squeeze those below. When someone dies – and many are dying these days – relatives are easy prey. You have to get the body out of the mortuary. You have to buy a coffin. You have to buy a grave. It is a seller's market. The seller is tempted to push the price as high as it will go. Fairness, equity, justice. What are they? There is the story of the boss who shouts at his worker. The worker is afraid to reply so he bottles up his frustration inside only to release it on his wife when he gets home. She is shocked but afraid to answer him back and shouts at their child. He is hurt but swallows his anger and goes out and kicks the dog, which chases the cat and a mouse dies that day.
So there is always the tendency to transfer our anger to 'softer' targets. But something has been happening these six long years. People are interrupting the transfer sequence. They are finding their voice. They are no longer silent. They are speaking up directly against those who constantly call for submission. They are challenging the climate of control and heartlessness prevalent in government structures. Media reports abroad often report the apparently hopeless situation in Zimbabwe. It is far from hopeless. People are wide awake, searching, questioning, struggling and speaking. It is only a matter of time before the new struggle for freedom, a deeper one that the former, gives birth.
23 August 2006

Chideya case adjourned

HARARE - The hearing into the case of the suspended Harare Town Clerk Nomutsa Chideya has been adjourned to today, following detailed submissions by Chideya's lawyer Sternford Moyo that the committee hearing the matter was illegal because the people who appointed it were in office illegally.
He also made submissions on the tenure of the commission led by Sekesai Makwavarara saying three court rulings have made it clear that the principle of re-appointing commissions beyond their mandatory six months was illegal.
"The Makwavarara commission has been re-appointed on four occasions, meaning they are more illegal than the word illegal," said CHRA spokesman, Precious Shumba.
For the commission, lawyer Tivaone said he needed to be given enough time to consult his principals, the commission and also read case law before he could make counter submissions. It was a public hearing. A couple of residents witnessed the proceedings. – Staff reporter

CHRA breathes fire over Makwavarara

BY WILSON BUTETE
HARARE - The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has blasted the Harare City Council for proposing to sell a city house to Sekesai Makwavarara, the chairperson of the government-appointed commission running the affairs of the capital.
In a statement released to the media, Harare's acting town clerk, Stanley Mungofa, said the council intended to sell a council house in Highlands suburb to Makwavarara at a cost of $13.750 billion (old currency).
However CHRA described the proposal as irregular and corrupt.
"We are urging residents to object to this corrupt practice because Makwavarara is not an employee of the Harare City Council", said CHRA spokesman Precious Shumba.
By any virtue, said Shumba, the local authority has no right to sell the house to Makwavarara.
"Urban council statutes clearly state that all council houses shall be sold to sitting tenants and Makwavarara is not a tenant at Number 17 Nigel's Lane in Highlands. The property is being occupied by the Mlambo family not Sekesai (Makwavarara)" said Shumba.
The CHRA official complained that the concerned property was undervalued by the council describing it as "daylight robbery to ratepayers".
"We have realized that houses in that area cost not less than $20 billion (old currency) instead of what the council is asking for" said Shumba.
But the local authority says Harare residents have up to 13 September to agree or disagree with the council's proposal in writing to the town clerk's office as required under the Urban Councils Act.
Makwavarara also came under the microscope recently when she wanted to buy curtains worth $45 billion (old currency) for the mayoral mansion that she is occupying.
Meanwhile CHRA called on local government minister Ignatius Chombo to immediately fix dates for the election of councilors and the mayor of Harare adding that the commission has failed to deliver and does not have mandate of the majority.
"The Makwavarara commission has been in office for two years and it's illegal under the Urban Councils Act for her commission to be still in office. We want elections for Harare now", said CHRA chairperson Israel Mabhoo.
Under the Act, Chombo should have called for elections after the expiry of the commission's term of office but the MDC accuses government of frustrating its opposition-led councils.
However Chombo remains adamant that the opposition led councils where he has appointed commissioners were failing to meet his expectations. The minister has appointed commissioners in Harare and Mutare where the MDC had trounced Zanu PF in council elections. He has harassed the elected mayor of Chitungwiza, Misheck Shoko, who term of office expired while he was on suspension.
Former Chegutu Mayor, Francis Blessing Dhlakama was also harassed by Chombo.

the zimbabwean

Government ministers predict more food shortages next year

HARARE - Zimbabwe could again fail to produce enough food during the 2006/07 season unless adequate measures are put in place to address projected input shortages and clear the air over land tenure of newly resettled farmers. These revelations were made by ministers Didymus Mutasa, Joseph Made and Munacho Mutezo during a public hearing in Harare last week by the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture, land reform, water and infrastructural development.
The three ministers are responsible for land reform, agriculture, and water and infrastructural development, respectively. They were grilled by the parliamentary committee on the continued decline in Zimbabwe's agricultural production at a time when a lot of money was being pumped by the government into the sector.
Made admitted that Zimbabwe could again face "serious fertilizer shortages" due to a breakdown at one of the country's major producers of the commodity. Zimbabwe has over the years experienced shortages of fertilizer and other inputs due to a crippling foreign currency crisis. Earlier this year, the government unsuccessfully attempted to nationalise the fertilizer industry, accusing players in the sector of sabotaging its land reform programme by deliberately under-supplying the market. Mutezo told the portfolio committee that the country would experience problems in meeting tillage requirements due to the shortage of diesel. Mutasa revealed that one of the issues hampering production was "outstanding land issues such as the security of tenure" on farms allocated to new farmers. Most of the newly resettled farmers cannot borrow money from financial institutions because they do not have title deeds.
The land reform programme has been dogged by administrative problems, with some farmers already allocated land by Mutasa's ministry finding themselves being removed by the same ministry, casting a cloud of insecurity among most newly resettled farmers. - ZimOnline

Govt insists French fuel deal still on

HARARE - Zimbabwe authorities at the weekend insisted that a US$50 million fuel supply fund arranged with French bank, BNP Paribas, was still active, even as a long-running fuel shortage that worsened in the last three weeks threatens to bring the country to a complete halt.
Under the fuel procurement deal, the French bank provides the state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) with cash to import fuel. In return President Robert Mugabe's virtually broke government uses earnings from Zimbabwe's lucrative nickel mining industry to repay BNP Paribas.
Zimbabwe's giant nickel producer, Bindura Nickel Corporation, has pledged a percentage of its export earnings to meet the loan repayments.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono, a key architect of the fuel deal, at the weekend told ZimOnline that the deal was still in place, adding that the country was set to receive 37 million litres of fuel supplied under the arrangement.
Gono, who refused to answer more questions pertaining to the fuel supply deal, would not say when exactly the fuel shipment he said was on its way to Zimbabwe would arrive in the country.
"The fuel is coming but the authorities at NOCZIM can confirm that," was all Gono would say.
NOCZIM chief executive officer, Zvinechimwe Churu, also told state media at the weekend that Zimbabwe had over the past week taken delivery of 25.7 million litres of fuel worth US$15 million, which was supplied under the deal with BNP Paribas.
Previous fuel supply deals with oil suppliers from Libya and Kuwait collapsed after Harare failed to pay.
And there was little evidence at the weekend that Zimbabwe was getting any substantial supplies of diesel or petrol, with long and winding queues of motorists at the few garages - mostly operated by small companies who source their own fuel - that were selling fuel in Harare and other cities.
Fuel queues had disappeared in most cities and towns in Zimbabwe following the deregulation of the energy sector last year.
But the government has re-imposed controls on the fuel industry ordering suppliers two weeks ago to lower pump prices of diesel and petrol to levels fuel firms say are below cost and would condemn them to financial ruin. - ZimOnline

Informal traders accuse Zanu (PF)

HARARE - The association representing informal traders is accusing Zanu (PF) of politicizing the issuance of operating stalls set up by the government as part of its reconstruction program in the aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina.
The Zimbabwe Informal Sector Association (ZISA) says ruling party officials are denying its members a chance to earn a decent living through this partisan allocation of properties.
ZISA president, John Masekesa, says a senior ruling party official has ordered that no one shall be allocated a stall without producing his party's membership card.
Masekesa said Zanu (PF)'s Harare provincial chairperson and former Zengeza legislator Christopher Chigumba is working in cahoots with the party's local structures in Glen View 8 to disenfranchise his organization's members of the right to work for themselves.
"The criteria they are using is that they are now dealing with what they call local political leaders, those are the people who introduce you to Christopher Chigumba then after that you will be allocated a stand and without having a card or a recommendation from these local political leaders you won't be able to get a stand".
As a result, Masekesa said his organization is dismayed that its members are not producing anything since their structures were destroyed at the height of Operation Murambatsvina last year which displaced over 700 000 people and left them without sources of income, according to a report compiled by United Nations special envoy Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka who assessed the impact of the "clean-up" exercise.
Although Chigumba refused to give his side of the story, Masekesa said several ZISA members were turned away for failing to produce Zanu (PF) membership cards.
Masekesa says the de-politicization of the allocation of operating stalls will help ease unemployment which is hovering at over 80 percent while. The ZISA official said a production boom in the informal sector gives life to the country's economy adding that his organization's membership is prepared to play a part in economic development.
The ZISA president urged government not to allow Zanu (PF) activists to interfere government-initiated programs adding that doing so would only discredit it and affect people who are not affiliated to the ruling party.
Meanwhile, Masekesa said the politicization of the allocation process is not only affecting Harare but all areas countrywide.
"We have received reports of the politicization of the issuance of stalls from all corners of the country and we are worried that if this trend continues, all apolitical would suffer at the hands of Zanu (PF)". He claimed that members of his organization are not affiliated to any political party.
Efforts to get a comment from local government minister Ignatius Chombo were fruitless. – Wilson Butete

Victory for WOZA

HARARE -The 63 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) charged with breaching the peace while conducting a peaceful Valentine's Day protest outside Parliament on February 14, 2006, have been found not guilty.
The Provincial Magistrate read out a 10-minute ruling after a 14-day trial that saw four police officers and 55 women take the stand to testify. This is the fourth court case won by WOZA members.
The women were facing charges under Chapter 9:15 of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Section 7 © - "acting in a manner which is likely to lead to a breach of the peace or to create a nuisance or obstruction"
In his ruling the magistrate acknowledged that the women had been part of more than 200 women arrested on that day. He also accepted that they had refused to pay fines as they testified that they had not been appraised of charges against them when arrested. The women were then detained for over four days in inhuman conditions and for an extra 48 hours beyond that allowed for by the Public Order and Security Act.
He confirmed that none of the police were able to identify any of the 63 at the demonstration or link them to any evidence of banners, placards, fliers or roses. He also admitted that no member of the public had testified as to a breach of their peace or that giving roses and singing was a nuisance. He went on to say that police details "force-marched the women to the Anglican Church" without regard for anything else except that they were women and that they were "victims of time - in the wrong place at the wrong time". Police ill-treated the women and their babies and exposed them to poor and inhuman conditions and "incarcerated them before trial and convicted the accused before trial".
"The police are supposed to maintain law and order but they failed to do so and went on a 'fishing expedition' to arrest any women in the vicinity of the protest. They did not use reasonable doubt in the manner of arrest and provided no evidence to incriminate the accused. It is better to set free a guilty person than to convict an innocent one." So in the absence of reasonable doubt he found the accused not guilty.
The WOZA membership was exultant at the victory and vowed to continue the battle for a free and democratic Zimbabwe. - Own correspondent

African WW2 heroes celebrated

Zimbabwean RAPHAEL CHIKUKWA, curator of the Imperial War Museum North, has been on a journey of discovery across eastern and southern Africa uncovering the forgotten stories of African veterans.
"In the past we had other people writing our History and today we are writing our own"
LONDON - Imperial War Museum North presents a small but powerful exhibition charting the often overlooked experiences and contributions of Second World War African veterans. Featuring newly-commissioned photographic portraits, images from Imperial War Museum's own archives, film footage and the words of the men themselves, this exhibition, along with an un-missable series of accompanying events, marks Black History Month in October.
Both an exploration of family history (Chikukuwa's father served in Burma in the Second World War and his grandfather served in the First World War), and other previously untold stories of African Heroes, Chikukwa interviewed veterans and visited war graves across Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia. Their personal stories create a unique and personal view of African participation in the Second World War. They are a reminder of how war shapes lives and the hidden histories among the people around us.
During the Second World War forces from the Empire and Commonwealth were involved in campaigns across Southern & Western Europe, the Mediterranean, North and East Africa, South East Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, in the air and all the major oceans of the world, as well as working tirelessly on the home front. Their contribution played a major part in the Allied victories.
Forces from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Tanganyika (now Tanzania) served in the East African Divisions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Others served in all branches of the British Armed Forces and others produced large amounts of goods and raw materials for the war effort. In 1943 and 1944, African troops of the East and West African divisions were sent to South East Asia to fight the Japanese. The African soldiers fought alongside other Empire and Commonwealth troops in the jungles of Burma. In January 1944, troops from the Royal West African Frontier Force were one of the first Allied units to force Japanese soldiers to surrender. African troops were excellent jungle fighters and were feared by the Japanese. Nearly 120,000 African troops served in South East Asia.
This project means a lot to me and to the African people at large. During my O Level Studies in Zimbabwe we studied European History. The contribution of Africans towards the First and Second World Wars was not mentioned at all and even today very little is known about them fighting for the Empire. Today I am happy that they are telling their story and that as the son of a veteran that I am doing it for them.
These are some of the Forgotten Heroes of the Commonwealth telling their stories. The recognition by Imperial War Museum North, for us as Africans, to rewrite our own History is very important to all of us. In the past we have seen the West writing about us and now it's high time we as Africans write our own History. This is a new chapter about the contributions of Africans towards the First and Second World Wars . - http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/11/together/index.htm.

Mujuru's daughter grabs farm

HARARE -Kumbirai Madzima, the daughter of vice-president, Joyce Mujuru, and her husband Tapiwa have reportedly kicked farmer Darryl Zietmann off his property, Ashcott farm, situated on prime agricultural land about 150km northeast of Harare.
Tapiwa Madzima denied that they were already occupying the farm, saying the couple had applied but were still waiting "to get a farm like any other citizen".
Mujuru herself is known to be a staunch supporter of the government's expulsion of white farmers, and has herself benefited from the policy, living on the requisitioned farm, Alamein, 70km south of Harare.
And while the land resettlements continue unabated, President Robert Mugabe has recently warned that new black farmers should produce food on farms taken from whites or have the land seized by the government.
Former Grain Marketing Board chief executive, now opposition Movement for Democratic Change secretary for agriculture, Renson Gasela, has expressed his concern that most of the land reform beneficiaries "haven't got the slightest idea about farming". -Staff reporter

No political will to tackle corruption - MDC

BY GIFT PHIRI
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has scoffed at the arrest of the head of Zimbabwe's state-run grain company on charges of corruption saying government's blitz was only harvesting "small fish."
Samuel Muvuti, the acting chief executive officer of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), was arrested last Friday and charged under the country's Prevention of Corruption Act. He is alleged to have used workers from the grain company to work on his private farm in northern Zimbabwe. The GMB boss allegedly paid the workers close to Z$1 million out of GMB funds.
The MDC said the arrest of Muvuti confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that the ruling Zanu (PF) party was the "breeding ground of corruption" and unbridled political patronage.
"The MDC believes that his arrest is a token attempt by a cornered regime to be seen to be taking action on a serious scourge that has taken root in the higher echelons of Zanu (PF) and the government," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
"The MDC is convinced that this regime has no genuine political will to tackle graft and unmitigated theft that has become the hallmark of this government. Muvuti and ZUPCO boss (Charles) Pearson Nherera are just but small fish in a bigger pond replete with corrupt sharks and tigers."
The arrest of Muvuti, the head of a key parastatal, comes hard on the heels of the incarceration of Nherera, a chairman of a state-owned bus company on charges of soliciting for a US$85 000 bribe from a manufacturer of buses seeking a tender to supply coaches .
In a speech earlier this month President Robert Mugabe, whose government is pursuing an anti-corruption drive - warned his lieutenants that wrongful self-enrichment will not be allowed to go unpunished.
However, Chamisa said the blitz has only netted small fish as big fish have tended the escape the net.
"Until the ministerial sharks and Zanu (PF) politburo tigers are targeted and brought to account, the war against corruption will be mere rhetoric and sloganeering," Chamisa said. "Zanu (PF)'s so-called anti-corruption crusade is merely targeting the small fish and leaving the bigger fish to continue looting state resources with reckless abandon."
Known government and Zanu (PF) officials have been implicated in the looting of farms and farming inputs, the War Victims Compensation fund and the Pay-For-Your-House scheme but they continue to freely roam the corridors of government, the MDC spokesman said.
An explosive UN report has named several cabinet ministers and senior army personnel in the looting of diamond in the DRC while one of Mugabe's close relatives has reportedly received kickbacks from those who constructed the Harare International Airport.
"Everything has been swept under the carpet while small fish continue to be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency," Chamisa said. "The nation has not lost its memory and still believes that all these cases should be revisited if this regime is serious in tackling corruption."
The recently formed Anti-Corruption Commission still has no functioning office, landlines and other basic requirements to enable it to meet its constitutional mandate.
"A genuine commitment to arrest unbridled corruption would basically mean this regime would have to incarcerate itself," Chamisa said.

Concealing the police state

BY A CORRESPONDENT
HARARE - The state-run media's attempts to conceal the extent to which Zimbabwe has become a police state led to the regime mouthpieces not only making no mention of acts of brutality against the public over money searches, but even censoring crude threats made by Robert Mugabe himself.
Mugabe's threat that the "army was ready to pull the trigger" to quell protests - made during his Defence Forces' Day speech evidently sounded a shade too awful even for the state media.
The threat was carried only by the electronic private media, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said in its report covering August 14-20. The state's Spot FM, for example, merely reported Mugabe as warning opponents of the regime that the defence forces "are willing and ready to defend the country's sovereignty."
The privately owned media featured nine stories on new cases of rights violations, including the continued harassment by police and youths searching members of the public for currency under the Reserve Bank's policy of cutting three zeroes off Zimbabwe dollar notes and replacing them with new ones, the so-called Project Sunrise.
The private radio stations, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa, also reported that as well as beating up and carrying out degrading searches on regular members of the public, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Wellington Chibebe, was assaulted by police at a road block when he questioned the legality of the searches.
The Herald turned this incident on its head by saying that Chibebe assaulted the police. Chibebe's lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, said that what happened was that a policeman at the road block recognised Chibebe. The police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, realising it was a potentially damaging incident, then told the police to claim that Chibebe had assaulted them.
On the economic front, ZBH and ZTV bombarded audiences with Mugabe rhetoric about the currency reforms being some kind of panacea to the crisis.
"Almost all their reports on government's strategies to resuscitate the economy were either based on the authorities' self-evaluation of their plans or passive amplifications of the policy statements," said MMPZ.
"The government press 30 stories on the Reserve Bank's monetary reforms were equally unquestioning. They almost simply allowed Mugabe to blame everyone outside of government for Zimbabwe4's economic ills, and allowed him to claim his administration as having prescribed the right medicine for the country's ailing economy," said MMPZ.

MDC unity talks denied

the zimbabwean

BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE - Zimbabwe's bickering opposition splinter groups have flatly denied reports that they met in South Africa at the weekend to strike a unity deal, although diplomatic sources insist that the leadership of the two factions met to strike a deal aimed at closing ranks and working out a united plan to dislodge President Robert Mugabe from power.
A delegation from the Mutambara-led faction of the MDC, led by secretary-general Welshman Ncube, flew to SA on Saturday, hardly 12 hours after another contingent led by Ncube's opposite number in the Tsvangirai-led MDC, Tendai Biti, also quietly slid out of the country headed for the same destination. Ncube was accompanied by elections director Paul Themba-Nyathi, while Biti had chief policy advisor Eddie Cross in tow.
Although both factions have flatly rejected claims that there were behind-the-scenes maneuvers to broker a unity pact, sources in South Africa insisted that the two delegations had met for talks "with a view to securing a cooperation agreement" but "stressed the importance of confidentiality."
Gabriel Chaibva, the spokesman of the Mutambara-led MDC insisted that there were no preliminary talks on any co-operation, possible reunion or power-sharing deal with the Tsvangirai faction.
"There are no talks directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in daylight or pitch darkness," Chaibva said on Tuesday. "Our delegation in SA is on a different mission. There are no talks going on."
Political analysts say hope is dwindling that the opposition factions, which broke ranks last October over a controversial decision to contest the senate polls, can unite to defeat Mugabe.
The main MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said: "It's just talk. There is no dialogue taking place."
Deputy secretary general of the Mutambara faction, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga was quoted by the authoritative South African-based news wire Zimonline confirming the meeting but insisting unity was not on the conference agenda.
She said: "Indeed there is a delegation that met the Tsvangirai (faction) people in South Africa over the weekend but the issue of unity was definitely not on the agenda.
"The discussions centred on the Zimbabwe Institute that we had set up. It is a policy-making group that we had set up when we were still together. It is all about policy - we want to see if we can disband it (the institute) or find a way (to maintain it) now that we are split."
The Zimbabwean heard that the Mutambara-led provincial leadership met in Harare on Saturday where a position was taken that "we are not desperate for unity."
The Harare prefecture later tasked its provincial chairman Edwin Mushoriwa to consult Arthur Mutambara to clarify whether he had canvassed Tsvangirai on cooperative governance. Sources said that at a consequent meeting, the Harare leadership wanted to secure a commitment from Mutambara that he was not joining any other political grouping in the context of unity.
Chaibva said there were no disagreements between the leadership of the Mutambara-led MDC about the need for unity of all democratic forces but said it was “mischievous” to suggest that the president was " defecting" as has been peddled by some people.

SW radio : Sponsor of reign of terror(Bindura) & Zimbabwean journalism

Behind the Headlines
Political violence in Bindura claimed the life of a 19-year old irrigation assistant. Four houses belonging to MDC supporters were burnt to the ground. Elliot Manyika the local MP has been pinpointed to be the major sponsor of that reign of terror. Lance Guma speaks to an MDC spokesman in the area who narrates to the programme all that has been happening in the area. 9 Zanu PF supporters have been arrested but will the police have the bottle to nab Manyika?

Reporters' Forum
The president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) Matthew Takaona continues the discussion with journalist Matthew Nyashanu on the chalk and cheese factor of whether public and private media journalists can work under the same union. Last week they drew up their lines of argument with Nyashanu remaining adamant Zimbabwe needed a separate union for independent journalists. Does ZUJ need fulltime staff members who do not work for any of the media houses?

For the programme schedules visit: http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/schedule.php

Lance Guma
Producer/Presenter
SW Radio Africa
+44-777-855-7615
www.swradioafrica.com

Zimbabweans still homeless after 2005 demolitions

By Africa correspondent Zoe Daniel

A new report shows hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are still without anywhere to live, 15 months after a government campaign that demolished their homes.

The report has been prepared by a group of churches known as the Solidarity Peace Trust.

It says that of the 700,000 people who lost their homes in the demolition campaign that started in May last year, most are still living under little more than plastic tarpaulins or sheets of corrugated iron.

The report says thousands of new houses promised by the Government have not been built or have been given to soldiers or government supporters.

The clean-up campaign, known as Drive Out Filth, was part of a plan by President Robert Mugabe's Government to clean up slums and push urban dwellers into rural areas.

The report says neither aim has been realised.

Churches are urging the UN and the international community to help mount a large-scale housing project in Zimbabwe.

I am starving as Mugabe lives like a king

BY WILSON BUTETE
HARARE - Over one year after her house was destroyed by state agents during Operation Murambatsvina, Tendai Mwoyoweshumba has not known a roof over her head.
She sleeps on the pavement along Jason Moyo Avenue with her two year-old child outside a famous food outlet with her stomach almost empty.
She survives on left-overs from this store's clients. She has been unable to locate her husband since their rented cottage in Mbare high density suburb was demolished by authorities during the operation estimated to have displaced more than 700 000 people and left them without any source of income.
She describes her husband as someone who was very caring and could provide for her.
"He is someone who could take great care of me and my kid but at times life is very unfair – you lose such a person and you don't know whether you are going to meet him again," she explained her situation with tears rolling down her cheeks like rivulets at the peak of the rainy season.
"When our house was destroyed by the police and army, my husband had gone to look for a part-time job since he was not gainfully employed and I had to sell second-hand clothes in kumakorokoza (gold panners) near Kwekwe. When I returned, all I saw were piles of rubble at what used to be our home. I lost all my belongings including my identity documents in the mishap," explained Mwoyoweshumba.
"I then sought refuge here (in the street) because I had nowhere to go. My parents were of Malawian origin but they all died before they could take us to Malawi to show us where we originally come from and right now we don't even know anyone or anywhere there," added the woman.
"I don't begrudge my husband for he is in the same predicament as I am in. He came from Mozambique with his parents when he was still young. He also doesn't know his roots neither does he know where I am. There is no means of communication as we were all displaced, but I continue to pray that one day we will be together again aaaand," said Mwoyoweshumba who could not continue as she started crying again.
With unemployment hovering around the 80 percent mark, Mwoyoweshumba says she has no hope of finding a job and currently has no source of income.
"I used to buy food with money that I beg for here but people no longer have it owing to the ongoing blitz in the financial sector."
She can no longer practice vending because urban council by-laws prevent her from doing so, and although she tried to secure accommodation under the government's accelerated housing delivery program, codenamed Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, all her efforts were in vain.
"We were asked to pay registration fees and I could not find a cent. I am just surviving by the grace of God and what worries me most is that most of the beneficiaries of Operation Garikai are those in Zanu (PF) and their immediate friends and relatives".
"I have been reduced to a pauper when in actual fact I could fend for my family, despite the economic hardships in Zimbabwe. How can a government that claims to represent the interests of the people goes ahead to violate the interests and wishes of those same people? Those who sanctioned Operation Murambatsvina are living in villas like kings yet we, the people who voted them into office, are destitute. Honestly, this is unheard of in a democracy!" she fumed.
But Mwoyoweshumba is not the only one in this situation; the Combined Harare Residents Association's acting chairperson Israel Mabhoo says hundreds of people are still homeless in and around Harare.
Mabhoo said those who were displaced by the government-sponsored exercise in Mbare and sought refuge on the shores of Mukuvisi River continue to receive eviction threats from authorities while those living in Glen-Norah's former home industries area have also been told to vacate immediately or face forceful eviction.
"Several people have no accommodation as we speak. Some have to pile their valuable items worth millions of dollars in a single room offered by friends or relatives and the quality and value of the items continue to deteriorate as they are not being stored properly," said Mabhoo.
Mabhoo said the right to property, including decent accommodation as guaranteed in the United Nations Human Rights Charter, has been taken away by the Harare administration.
Local government minister Ignatius Chombo says all those without accommodation will soon have a roof over their heads. "We are encouraging everyone who needs a place to stay or stand to contact our offices so that we can deal with these matters as a block and that would assist the government in planning effectively for its people," said Chombo.
Mabhoo dismissed these comments as rubbish.

Hot Seat teleconference: Debate on mass action and unity in the pro-democracy movement (Segment 1)