Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Tuesday 11 December
2007
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s private schools may fail to reopen
for the new term in
January because a state commission that regulates fees
and prices has not
approved new fees.
Private schools are the surest
source of a good education in crisis-hit
Zimbabwe where a once brilliant
public education sector is crumbling after
years of under-funding and an
acute brain-drain that has seen the best
qualified teachers leaving for
better paying jobs abroad.
The Association of Trust Schools (ATS), a
grouping of private schools, on
Monday said the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission (NIPC) was yet to
respond to applications by the 62 private
schools for permission to raise
fees in line with galloping
inflation.
"Not even a single school is yet to get a response from the
NIPC," said ATS
chairman Jameson Timba. "There is real danger that the
schools may not open
next year if their fees are not reviewed upwards in
line with inflation."
Inflation, a hallmark of Zimbabwe’s eight-year
economic recession, is
officially estimated at nearly 8 000 percent as at
the end of September but
independent analysts say the figure could now be
anything above 15 000
percent.
Timba said more than 30 000 school
children and nearly 7 000 teachers and
support staff would be affected in
the event that private schools failed to
open for the new term that begins
about two weeks after New Year’s Day.
"If the schools fail to open next
year what will happen to the over 30 000
pupils enrolled, 1 800 teachers and
the 5 000 supporting staff?" Timba
questioned. "We have no option except to
take NIPC to court for them to be
compelled to come up with a fee structure
before next year."
NIPC chairperson Goodwills Masimirembwa sought to play
down the matter
saying his commission was working on the fee structures for
schools and
there was no need to panic.
“We are working on the fee
structure," he said. "There is no need for panic.
Why should we hurry? We
are still in December and the next term opens in
January."
The
government, which does not fund private schools, last August banned the
schools from hiking fees without approval from the NIPC. Officials of
schools which breach the fee rule can be jailed for up to six months, fined
or the government simply forfeits the overcharged fees.
Analysts said
the move was meant to curry favour with a restive population,
which has
watched helplessly as the country’s economy slides. Zimbabwe is in
the grip
of its worst ever economic crisis marked by hyperinflation,
deepening
poverty, shortages of food and hard cash.
Zimbabwe’s education system is
modelled along that of former colonial power
Britain and was rated among the
best in Africa but critics say state
interference in the running of private
schools, coupled with its failure to
adequately fund government-run schools
threaten that legacy.
Private schools have the best academic and sporting
facilities, with most of
the students excelling in both academia and
sports.
Government schools and church-run schools enroll the highest
number of
students and have recorded high pass rates despite dwindling
resources, but
analysts question whether this is sustainable. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Patricia Mpofu Tuesday 11 December
2007
HARARE - The Chinese Communist Party is invited to a
special congress of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF
party, but not
surprisingly, no Western ruling party is welcome in
Harare.
In a stark reminder of how Beijing's "see no evil, hear no evil,
speak no
evil" policy was wining it the battle for the hearts and minds of
Africa's
leaders, ZANU PF officials said the Communist Party and a pack of
other
Asian ruling parties were invited because they were considered
friendly to
Mugabe's party.
Ruling parties from European Union (EU)
countries and other Western nations
that have criticised Mugabe's
controversial human rights record are viewed
as "enemies' and were excluded
from the four-day conference whose main
business is to endorse the 83-year
old Zimbabwean leader as candidate in
next year's presidential
election.
"We have invited those countries and organisations that have
cordial
relations with Zimbabwe and ZANU PF," said Kumbirai Kangai, ZANU
PF's
secretary for foreign relations.
He added: "We have relations
with most of these countries' liberation
movements and organisations some of
which date back to the days of the
struggle for liberation (from European
colonial rule)."
The ZANU PF conference comes days after an European
Union-Africa summit in
Lisbon that leaders from both sides said was held to
promote a new and
stronger partnership.
However, EU officials and
businessmen also admitted the summit was prompted
by fears that growing
Chinese investment in Africa could displace Europe as
the continent's
largest trading partner.
China has expanded economic links with Africa
and last year held a summit
for African leaders, wooing them with
multibillion-dollar trade investment
contracts.
Beijing, which is
looking increasingly to Africa for raw materials to fuel
its economic boom,
has however been accused of casting a blind eye to human
rights abuses by
the rogue governments of Zimbabwe and Sudan in its bid to
gain access to
their raw materials.
It has since 2000 paid particular attention to
Zimbabwe, selling Mugabe's
government fighter aircraft and agreeing to a
number of business deals in
exchange for mining and other
concessions.
Mugabe has cultivated relations with Asian countries as part
of his
government's "Look-East" policy since Western countries imposed
targeted
sanctions on his government five years ago over his failure to
uphold human
rights and democracy.
However, analysts are skeptical
over China's intentions, saying rather than
seeking genuine partnership
Beijing looked more attracted to Zimbabwe's huge
platinum and uranium
deposits it needs to keep fuelling its rapidly
expanding
economy.
Other notable invitees to the Harare congress are the ruling
parties of
Namibia, Angola Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho,
Malawi and
Democratic Republic of the Congo - which are all allies of Mugabe
and ZANU
PF.
Curiously, Zambia's opposition United National
Independence Party is also
invited with ZANU PF officials saying this was
because of the former ruling
party's strong ties with liberation movements
when it was in government.
Critics say Mugabe has plunged Zimbabwe into
disaster with controversial
policies that have led to an eight-year economic
recession and isolated his
government from former Western donors, prompting
it to scramble for aid from
the East.
The crisis has left Zimbabwe
with severe foreign currency shortages and the
world's highest inflation
rate at more than 8 000 percent, keeping the local
dollar a pariah on
international markets. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Ntando Ncube Tuesday 11 December
2007
JOHANNESBURG - The Australian government is
planning to set up two
schools to cater for hundreds of thousands of
Zimbabwean refugees living in
Johannesburg, South Africa, ZimOnline has
learnt.
The idea to set up the schools has the explicit backing of
Methodist
Church bishop Paul Verryn who has been at the forefront in looking
after
Zimbabwean refugees at his Central Methodist Church in
Johannesburg.
A senior diplomat from the Australian embassy in
Pretoria who
requested anonymity confirmed the plans to set up the schools
for exiled
Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers.
"The
situation in Zimbabwe is critical with hundreds of students
leaving home to
come here in South Africa where they are finding it
difficult to access
education opportunities.
"Given this crisis, our (Australian)
government is planning to start
at least two schools for Zimbabweans
especially asylum seekers and refugees
at Central Methodist Church in
Johannesburg," said the diplomat.
Bishop Verryn said there were
hundreds of qualified Zimbabwean who can
offer their services to fellow
Zimbabweans who have been finding it
difficult to find places in schools
because they did not have proper
documentation.
"At this moment
all I can confirm is that the Australian government
has pledged to open two
or three school for Zimbabwean asylum seekers and
refuges in South Africa,"
said Verryn.
At least three million Zimbabweans are said to be
living outside the
country, the majority of them in South Africa after
fleeing hunger and
political persecution at home.
The majority
of them have however faced difficulties in to accessing
services such as
schools because they do not have temporary residence
permits to allow them
to enroll in South African schools. - ZimOnline
The Times
December 11, 2007
If Hugo Chavez was
watching Robert Mugabe in Lisbon he may have foreseen how
his life would
turn out
David Aaronovitch
Gordon Brown was right not to go to Lisbon at
the weekend, but even so,
there was something marvellous about seeing Robert
Mugabe being Merkelled in
the flesh by the German Chancellor. There,
impassive, he was forced to sit
while Frau Angela told him, in front of 70
African and European leaders,
what a shower he was. Whether it improves
anything or not, is another
matter, but it felt good.
Four weeks
earlier there had been a rather similar moment during the
Ibero-American
summit in Chile. Hugo Chávez, the populist President of
Venezuela, had been
laying about him with his characteristic lack of
restraint. José Aznar, the
former Prime Minister of Spain, was, according to
President Chávez, a
fascist, and, he added, “fascists are not human. A snake
is more human”.
When the current Spanish PM � an opponent of Mr Aznar's �
objected to this
abuse, Chávez continued to shout. It was at this point that
the King of
Spain, Juan Carlos, leant forward and told Chávez to shut his
big, fat,
sloppy gob. My Spanish is poor, but it was something like that.
JC's
admonition has become a popular ringtone around the world.
This symmetry
appealed to me because, though Chávez's Venezuela is not yet
anything like
Mugabe's Zimbabwe, I cannot help thinking that Mugabe is
Chávez's possible
future, and that the 83-year-old former liberation fighter
is the former
general's Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Mugabe, like Chávez, took power
after elections that were widely agreed to
have been fairly conducted. Over
time his governing philosophy came to
consist of an economic nationalism
underpinning a state socialist system,
mobilised by exploiting resentment
towards a privileged minority (the
whites), treacherous elites (journalists)
and interfering foreign powers
(Britain).
Background
a.. A
fortnight full of shallow populism
a.. I’m sick of fizzy populism
a..
Voters snub Chavez bid to be life president
a.. Mugabe isolated as European
leaders attack
To varying degrees in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, the same
national-Left
populism is today in power. Industries are nationalised,
oligarchies are
excoriated, journalists are traitors and behind every
reversal and problem
is the demonic power of the Great Gringo in the White
House. Powers are
sought by the populist presidents, which, while they are
argued to enhance
the power of the people, unarguably enhance the power of
the president.
The week before last, by a small margin, the people of
Venezuela refused
Chávez the extension to his powers that he had sought.
Encouragingly, Chávez
seemed to concede with good grace. Impeccable grace,
actually, saying: “I
recognise the decision a people have made.” A week
later and more ominously
the President was describing the people's decision
as “a shitty victory, and
our � call it, defeat � is one of courage, of
valour, of dignity,” adding:
“We haven't moved a millimetre and we won't.”
Several times now he has
seemed to suggest that the proposals, in some form,
will return. “This
Bolivarian Republic will keep getting stronger,” he
predicted.
Incidentally it is almost always bad news when the word
“Republic” is
preceded by an adjective. Ask those who have dwelt in
Democratic, People's
or Islamic Republics.
Before the Venezuelan vote
there had been a convocation of British
Signaturistas lining up behind
Citizen Chávez. Exuding a reflexive sigh of
admiration for the Bolivarian
Revolution were the inevitable Pinters and
Loaches, as well as Jon Cruddas,
MP, who ought to know better, and Ken
Livingstone, who never does.
Anticipating a “Si!” vote, however, and
demanding that the international
community live with it, these progressives
now contemplate the possibility
that its is Chávez who cannot live with the
result.
Of course, this
may turn out to be wrong, but Mugabe suggests the
trajectory: start with
foreign sequestration, use the proceeds for internal
bribery, watch the
economy collapse and blame first the outsider and then
the traitor. Finally,
watch your people starve.
And Mugabe also suggests the trajectory of the
apologists. There's a new
dawn, shiny new clinics, optimism in each eye,
power to the people and
expropriate the expropriators. And if there are
problems, such as a shortage
of powdered milk in Caracas, then, according to
Richard Gott, of The
Guardian: “No one knows for certain if this is the
result of opposition
manoeuvre and malice, or of government incompetence.”
Seventy years on and
the class traitors are still putting glass in the
worker's butter. Possibly.
But, as Julia Buxton, of Bradford University,
reminds us, we must not judge
Bolivarian democracy by our own lights.
According to her there is a
difference between “popular perceptions of
democracy on the ground in
Venezuela, and �elite' perceptions, articulated
by the media and US
�democracy-promotion' groups”. “Venezuela,” she
explains, “cannot be
understood through the lens of liberal democracy,”
because democracy itself
cannot be “judged through reference to the
procedural mechanics of liberal
democracy.” The implication here is the
superior development of some other
kind of democracy.
So Professor
Buxton might have added that: “It is the people themselves, who
are
incessantly called upon to participate personally in the decisions, not
merely by expressing opinions about them in innumerable popular meetings;
not merely by voting for or against their exponents at recurring elections;
but actually by individually sharing in their operation.” In fact this was
Sidney and Beatrice Webb on the Russia of 1936, headed by a Stalin who, in a
familiar inversion, the Webbs regarded as being more collegiate than the
British Prime Minister. “A shrewd and definitely skilful manger,” as they
described him. Or was that Gott on Chávez?
The other day I was asked
if, given what had happened since, it had been
wrong to support the
Lancaster House agreement that led to majority rule in
Zimbabwe. The problem
was, of course, that it came too late. Mugabe was
partly made possible by
the conditions that created him: racism, colonialism
and tribalism. So in
South America the conditions for Latin Mugabeism were
partly created by
rampant exploitation, racism and the support given by the
US to “our
bastards”.
The alternative to Mugabeism will not be a return to the
status quo ante,but
, as in Chile, the painful and compromising development
of good old, boring
old, liberal social democracy. You know, with votes and
MPs and stuff.
The Times
December 11, 2007
Bronwen Maddox, Chief Foreign Commentator
The row over the
presence of Robert Mugabe at the weekend’s EU-Africa summit
served only to
conceal the other bitter divisions between the two
continents. Most serious
is the failure of their five-year attempt to agree
rules for trading with
each other.
This summit, the first in seven years, was suppposed to put
colonial history
firmly in the past. On that, it was a sour disaster. Some
African leaders
persisted in blaming former colonial rulers for all the ills
of the present;
many demanded special terms of trade; all had an eye on
China as a more
attractive partner.
There is a chance to repair the
damage, at least in relation to new trade
deals, at the European Union
summit on Friday, although that will be
consumed by members’ own rifts over
the EU constitution.
The EU-Africa row over trade has been five years in
coming and is no easier
to solve. At the moment, Britain, France, Belgium
and Portugal give former
African and Caribbean colonies privileged trading
terms, granting them easy
access to European markets while letting them
shield their own. Under World
Trade Organisation rules, these deals become
illegal on January 1, when a
waiver allowing special treatment
expires.
The EU has proposed a patchwork of replacements, called Economic
Protection
Agreements (EPAs). They offer African, Caribbean and some Pacific
countries
full access to EU markets while allowing them to protect about a
fifth of
their own industries, including some of the most vulnerable.
Exposure to
competition from Europe would be phased in only gradually. It
would be a
gentle introduction to the world of free trade, said the
EU.
No way, said African leaders: too much, too fast. President Abdoulaye
Wade
of Senegal said: “It’s clear that Africa rejects the EPAs.”
They
have some good points. South Africa and others, objecting to the
opening of
services markets, can argue that they simply cannot compete. They
are
justified in saying, too, that their agriculture could not compete
against
grotesque EU subsidies.
The poorest countries have a powerful case,
backed up by many development
academics, that their markets should be
protected until they are better able
to compete.
The excuses have
come too fluently, however, and from the biggest and most
competitive, not
the poorest. The EU argues that some African governments
are shielding their
own big businesses — and are blocking services, such as
cheaper mobile
telephones, or transport — which could help Africans
enormously.
The
deadline is not a real one. There is the option to strike an interim
agreement while working on a more solid deal; a dozen African countries have
already done just that. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, hinted that
there might be room for improving Europe’s offer on Friday. The EU meeting
must at least decide whether to impose punitive tariffs on some African
countries, or to keep talking.
But there is a contradiction in the
position of some African leaders:
wanting, in spirit, for Europe to treat
Africa as an equal, yet wanting
anything but that when it comes to formal
trade deals.
Post-colonial rancour was a running theme of the summit,
with Europe blamed
for Africa’s underdevelopment and thus for the current
wave of migration
northwards. President Wade also warned Europe that it was
in danger of
losing the competition for the new Africa to China, which is
rushing to pour
billions into resources deals, no strings
attached.
Guilt and fear: African leaders may extract something from the
EU by pulling
those strings. But they would do better with an argument based
on the
economics of trade and development — and only the poorest among them
can
make that.
Reuters
Mon 10 Dec
2007, 22:14 GMT
WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice on
Monday denounced Zimbabwe's human rights record while
honoring a lawyers'
group for fighting government repression in the southern
African country.
"In Zimbabwe, civil society remains under siege amid a
political and
economic crisis caused by the irresponsible policies of the
regime," Rice
said at an award ceremony to mark International Human Rights
Day.
Rice gave the State Department's annual Freedom Defender Award to
the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization that
has
given legal help to activists who oppose President Robert
Mugabe.
"Over the past several months, the authorities have engaged in an
intensified campaign of repression, characterized by harassment,
intimidation, arrests and violent assaults against peaceful opposition
activists, professionals, independent labor leaders and other members of
civil society," Rice said.
She said the lawyers' group, represented
at the ceremony by its president
Arnold Tsunga, had taken on the dangerous
task of defending those persecuted
by Mugabe's government.
"We thank
you and your colleagues for your courage," Rice told Tsunga as she
handed
him the award, which is symbolic and has no monetary value.
The United
States says this year is the worst on record for human rights in
Zimbabwe,
with about 6,000 instances of abuse and over 90 politically
motivated
kidnappings and abductions.
Last week, the United States imposed travel
and financial sanctions on about
40 more people with ties to Mugabe, who has
been in power since independence
from Britain in 1980.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Thank you
very much, Jonathan. It�s a pleasure to be here. And I am especially to be
joined by Senator Lugar, who is a tireless defender of human rights and I might
say also a tireless defender of diplomacy. Thank you so much for being here,
Senator.
This week, we join in solidarity with nongovernmental groups and other human
rights defenders across the globe in making the 59th anniversary of
the adoption of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As
President Bush has said, �Respect for the inherent right of all members of the
human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.� Today, on every continent, men and women are working, often against great
odds and at great risk, to secure their fundamental rights. Regrettably, some
governments have responded to growing demands for personal and political freedom
not by accepting their obligations to their people, but by oppressing those
seeking to exercise fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and
peaceful assembly. If the great promise of the UN Universal Declaration of Human
Rights is to be fulfilled, the United States and other democratic nations must
align ourselves with those who defend human rights and advocate for peaceful
democratic change. To that end, last year, in commemoration of International Human Rights Day, I
announced the creation of a set of annual human rights awards. The Freedom
Defenders Award goes to a foreign individual or nongovernmental
organization that has shown exceptional courage and leadership. The
Diplomacy for Freedom Award goes to a U.S. Chief of Mission who has shown
exceptional ability in promoting democracy and working to end tyranny. I now have the privilege of presenting the awards to our first recipients.
The honorees were chosen out of an impressive group of nominees across the
globe. The recipient of the 2007 Freedom Defenders Award is the NGO
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. In Zimbabwe, civil society remains
under siege amid political and economic crises caused by the irresponsible
policies of the regime. Over the past several months, the authorities have
engaged in an intensified campaign of repression, characterized by harassment
and intimidation, arrests and violent assaults against peaceful opposition
activists, professionals, independent labor leaders, and other members of civil
society. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has worked tirelessly and fearlessly to
advance democratic principles, and in particular, it has taken on the dangerous
task of providing legal representation to persecuted human rights and democracy
defenders. Mr. Arnold Tsunga, the current President of this organization, has
traveled from Harare to accept the award on behalf of his fellow members. Mr.
Tsunga, we thank you and your colleagues for your courage, your commitment to
securing the rights of your fellow citizens. (The Award is presented.) (Applause.) SECRETARY RICE: The recipient of the 2007 Diplomacy for
Freedom Award is Karen Stewart, our Ambassador to Belarus. Ambassador
Stewart inspired her entire embassy to provide encouragement to embattled
defenders of freedom. The Belarus regime has stepped up persecution of the
opposition and ordinary citizens pressing peacefully for change. Karen has
ensured that U.S. assistance is targeted to democracy initiatives, and she has
found innovative ways to bring the message of U.S. support for freedom directly
to the people of Belarus. Ambassador Stewart, you and your dedicated embassy
team exemplify what transformational diplomacy is meant to be. Last week, I had
the honor to receive several Belarusian human rights and democracy advocates,
who were greatly heartened by the efforts of the United States, represented by
our Ambassador there, Karen Stewart. Thank you for your outstanding leadership
in this important cause. (The Award is presented.) (Applause.) SECRETARY RICE: Ladies and Gentlemen: I have no doubt that
the brave men and women around the globe who are working for the cause of
freedom will prevail, as the Havels and the Mandelas did before them -- for the
great mover of history is the power of the human spirit. So as we join men and
women throughout the international community in marking the anniversary of the
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we resolve to work with other free
nations worldwide to defend the defenders of human dignity and democracy. Thank
you for joining us. (Applause.) 2007/1116
moneyweb
They hail from both Africa and
Europe.
Marian L. Tupy, Wall Street Journal
11 Dec 2007
01:56
VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe -- Robert Mugabe's participation in the
European
Union-Africa summit in Lisbon over the weekend was a triumph of
Zimbabwean
diplomacy. Both African and EU leaders must share the blame for
this farce.
Zimbabwe's foreign ministry managed to portray the octogenarian
dictator,
who has presided over widespread violations of human rights and an
astonishing economic collapse, as the victim of a Western
conspiracy.
The once charming town of Victoria Falls, which used to hum
with travelers
from around the globe, is now derelict and largely empty of
tourists. About
half of the shops in town are either empty or closed
altogether. The fear
among ordinary Zimbabweans is palpable. Few people in
this police state will
talk about politics, and no one does so without
looking nervously for the
dreaded agents of Mr. Mugabe's Central
Intelligence Organization.
The response of the African leaders to this
man-made catastrophe has been to
close ranks around Zimbabwe's leader. Some
have publicly agreed with Mr.
Mugabe's claim that his country's economic
woes are due to (targeted)
Anglo-American sanctions, rather than the
government-sponsored destruction
of Zimbabwean commercial agriculture. Of
course, supporting Mr. Mugabe does
not further the cause of African
brotherhood; most of the victims of his
disastrous policies are black
Zimbabweans.
Then there is the shambolic negotiation between Mr. Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party
and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led
by Morgan
Tsvangirai. The talks, which are supposed to pave the way for free
and fair
parliamentary and presidential elections in March 2008, take place
under the
auspices of South African President Thabo Mbeki. Zimbabwe is
economically
dependent on South Africa, so Mr. Mbeki is in a position to
force change or
end Mr. Mugabe's reign overnight. Unfortunately, Mr. Mbeki
has done more
than any other African leader to help Mr. Mugabe hang onto
power. It was Mr.
Mbeki whose back-room meddling split the MDC and whose
"election observers"
declared two stolen elections in Zimbabwe as free and
fair.
Mr. Mbeki claims that the negotiations between ZANU-PF and the MDC
have made
much progress. He hopes to have them successfully concluded by
this
Saturday, but that is unlikely to happen. The MDC representatives I met
two
weeks ago in Johannesburg, though, do not believe that Mr. Mugabe will
allow
a free and fair election. The U.S. State Department echoes this
pessimism,
saying the human-rights situation in Zimbabwe is "becoming worse
every day."
Washington last week imposed financial and travel sanctions on
38 Mugabe
cronies.
Sadly, EU officials succumbed to the blackmail of
African leaders who
threatened to boycott the Lisbon meeting unless Mr.
Mugabe was invited as
well. The EU officials should have called their bluff:
From trade to foreign
aid, Africa depends on Europe far more than Europe
needs Africa. Refusing to
budge would have forced African leaders to make a
very public choice between
going to Lisbon in order to negotiate pressing
issues, such as further
opening Europe's markets to African goods, and
self-defeating "gesture"
politics by staying away in solidarity with a
tyrant. In the event, the
trade talks broke down anyway. Some African
leaders felt that gradual -- in
some cases, decades-long -- opening of
African markets to EU goods in
exchange for immediate duty-free access of
African goods to the EU was too
high a price to pay. They chose instead to
walk away with nothing.
In fairness, some EU leaders broke ranks over Mr.
Mugabe's presence in
Portugal. The British and Czech prime ministers didn't
attend the summit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that "the current
state of Zimbabwe
damages the image of the new Africa." Unfortunately,
African leaders don't
seem particularly worried. Senegalese President
Abdoulaye Wade noted that
"Zimbabwe is not in the process of collapsing, nor
is Mugabe in the process
of collapsing." He continued: "Who can say that
human rights are being
violated more in Zimbabwe than in other African
countries? No one can say
that."
Still, the EU leadership cracked and
overturned their travel ban on Mr.
Mugabe, who was only too happy to
confront in person what he called his
"irrational" and "stupid" critics.
Africa's leaders have, once again,
successfully exploited Europe's guilt
over its colonial past. Europe's
leaders have, once again, failed to hold
African rulers up to universal
standards of human rights.
Mr. Tupy is
a policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Global
Liberty and
Prosperity, and author of the April 2007 study "Troubling Signs
for South
African Democracy under the ANC."
Source: Wall Street Journal
VOA
By Irwin Chifera and Carole Gombakomba
Harare and
Washington
10 December 2007
Police in Harare,
Zimbabwe, allowed activists of the Zimbabwe Human Rights
Association to
observer International Human Rights Day on Monday - but only
allowed them to
assemble for 20 minutes in Africa Unity Square in the city
center.
Correspondent Irwin Chifera of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
reported from the
scene.
In a related development, the South
African-based Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
issued a statement calling on the
international community to stand behind
Zimbabweans facing human rights
violations which it accused the Harare
government and state agents of
committing on a regular basis. It expressed
the hope that a political accord
emerging from South African-brokered crisis
resolution talks will usher in a
new Zimbabwe in which the rule of law,
democracy and human rights are fully
respected.
Elsewhere, the Zimbabwe Peace Project, a leading human rights
group, said it
has documented an upsurge in internecine violence within both
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change and the ruling ZANU-PF
party.
In a report on political violence in October, the Peace Project
said it
recorded one case of politically inspired murder and a number of
cases of
assault, intimidation, harassment and unlawful detention. It cited
two cases
of politically-motivated rape in Harare and the Midlands. It said
an
opposition member in Kambuzuma, a suburb of Harare, raped a girl because
her
mother belonged to the ruling party.
Zimbabwe Peace Project
Director Jestina Mukoko told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that despite such evidence the
government refuses to
acknowledge the rise in rights violations across the
country, including the
denial of food aid to political opponents at a time
of widespread food
shortages.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
10 December
2007
Talks between Zimbabwe's ruling party and its
opposition were said to be
hanging in the balance with President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF formation,
having made some key concessions, insisting the
accords be signed only after
March 2008 elections.
Sources close to
the South African-brokered talks said ZANU-PF officials
have asked President
Thabo Mbeki to consider the talks a work in progress so
the elections can go
ahead in March, insisting time is too short for
implementation by
then.
The sources expressed confidence that Mr. Mbeki would be able to
resolve the
latest impasse in the talks. Parties to the talks have set Dec.
15 as a new
target date for completion of the negotiations, which have been
in progress
for eight months.
Negotiators said they may push the date
back again if agreement eludes them.
Tapera Kapuya, a fellow at the
National Endowment for Democracy in
Washington, told reporter Blessing Zulu
of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe he
believes Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was
never negotiating in good faith in
the first place.
ZANU-PF agreed to
the talks under pressure from the Southern African
Development Community,
which called an extraordinary summit after an upsurge
of political violence
in Zimbabwe in March in which one opposition activist
was shot to death and
MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai was severely beaten in
police custody. The
regional organization at that summit handed Mr. Mbeki
his brief to mediate
the talks.
New Zimbabwe
By
Albert Makoni
Last updated: 12/11/2007 11:42:19
A SHOWDOWN is looming
between Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party over the drawing up
of new
constituency boundaries.
The opposition party this week rejected new
constituency demarcations
announced by the government-appointed Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC).
The electoral commission last
Thursday announced new boundaries for
parliamentary constituencies for the
country’s 10 provinces, openly
disregarding demands by MDC to suspend the
exercise until the conclusion of
ongoing talks between the two parties under
South African President Thabo
Mbeki’s mediation.
Giving the clearest
signal that the opposition party and the electoral
commission are on a
collision course, MDC spokesman and Kuwadzana MP Nelson
Chamisa distanced
the opposition party from the delimitation exercise by the
ZEC, describing
it as a scandal.
“What we are witnessing from ZEC right now is a major
scandal that has
shocked all Zimbabweans who are looking forward to a free
and fair election
next year. These are senseless shenanigans by Zanu PF in
its attempt to rig
next year’s harmonised elections”, said
Chamisa.
Zimbabweans vote in key presidential and parliamentary elections
next March.
The elections will be held concurrently for the first time in
the country’s
history after both the MDC and Zanu PF voted for a
constitutional amendment.
The amendment also increased the number of
parliamentary seats from the
current 120 to 210.
Chamisa vowed that
his party will not recognise the new demarcations
announced by the
illegitimate electoral commission.
“As a party we maintain that the
commission is biased because its
composition does not accommodate the spirit
of the current inter-party
talks. Because the commission has refused to
recognise our concerns, it
remains an illegitimate commission and as a
result its actions and
pronouncements will also be treated as illegitimate”,
said Chamisa.
The ZEC said last Thursday that according to its newly
collated figures, the
total number of registered voters in Zimbabwe now
stands at 5 612 464.
The commission said following the signing of
Constitutional Amendment No 18
last October, the country has now been
divided into 210 parliamentary
constituencies -- 90 seats more than the
current 120 elected parliamentary
seats -- for the House of
Assembly.
As a result of the new demarcations, the ZEC announced that
Bulawayo
Province now has 12 constituencies invariably making it the
smallest
province in Zimbabwe in terms of registered
voters.
Matabeleland North Province now has 13 constituencies,
Matabeleland South
13, Mashonaland West 22, Midlands 28, Manicaland 26,
Mashonaland East 23,
Mashonaland Central 18, Masvingo 26 and Harare
29.
The MDC elections directorate says the new demarcations show a deliberate
bias against the opposition with Zanu PF strongholds gaining more
constituencies as compared to traditional MDC strongholds, mainly urban
centres and Matabeleland.
MDC officials protested that its major
stronghold, Bulawayo Province, had
been delimited to become the smallest
province in the country because of “a
fictitious voters’ roll being used by
ZEC”.
The MDC secretary for elections, Ian Makone, claimed that vote
rigging by
Zanu PF and its arms is now in full swing as evidenced by the
allocation of
constituencies which “demonstrates a trend of bias towards the
ruling
party.”
The MDC official says most of the 90 new
constituencies have been allocated
to rural provinces which are traditional
strongholds of the ruling party
giving Zanu PF an unfair advantage ahead of
the crunch plebiscite.
According to the new allocations, Harare and the
three Matabeleland
provinces which are regarded as traditional MDC
strongholds have gained a
paltry 28 of the 90 new constituencies while 62
have been taken up by the
rural Mashonaland provinces.
The MDC
elections directorate noted that of the 210 constituencies, 143 were
rural
constituencies (Zanu PF strongholds) while only 67 were urban or
peri-urban
(MDC strongholds) which automatically gave the ruling party a
technical
two-thirds majority.
The commission says it is forging ahead with the
controversial exercise of
delimitating constituency boundaries.
ZEC
chairman Justice George Chiweshe on Thursday said the delimitation of
constituencies and ward boundaries had already started adding that the
commission had set up provincial and district committees to spearhead the
process.
“The process of demarcating constituency boundaries has
started in earnest
and the commission has set up provincial and district
committees to
spearhead the process. ZEC is the authority of the
delimitation exercise
with a specific mandate to demarcate constituency
boundaries”, said
Chiweshe.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the
MDC wrote a letter to ZEC last week
demanding that the delimitation exercise
be stopped in order to allow for
the conclusion of the inter-party
talks.
The protracted talks which are aimed at creating common ground
between the
political parties and springing permanent solutions to the
country’s
political and economic crisis are scheduled to wind up by 15
December.
The MDC has demanded the dissolution and the demilitarization
of the
electoral commission.
The MDC is calling for the appointment
of an independent electoral
commission to preside over the demarcation of
constituency boundaries
charging that the current body is staffed with
former military personnel,
Central Intelligence Organization (CIO)
operatives and Zanu PF
functionaries.
Commission chairman, George
Chiweshe, is a former military lawyer having
served the Zimbabwe National
Army (ZNA) as a court marshal judge.
The opposition has also called for
the establishment of a new voters’ roll
insisting that the ZEC is using a
flawed voters’ roll to delimit
constituency and ward boundaries.
But
Chiweshe says the commission will not be bogged down by the MDC
protestations suggesting that the opposition party is playing to the gallery
of the international community by making scurrilous allegations against his
commission.
“The MDC has written to us raising its concerns on the
composition of the
commission and the voters’ registration exercise and we
have responded to
them in confidence. We know that there will be complaints
and compliments
along the way, some valid and some not valid,” said
Chiweshe.
The ZEC chairman accused the MDC of making specious allegations
“without
giving facts and evidence.”
Observers say the MDC and Zanu
PF are headed for collision as they approach
the last stretch of the
inter-party talks with opposition demanding
“tangible deliverables” while
the ruling party is bent on making minimum
concessions.
Monsters and Critics
Dec 11, 2007, 6:14 GMT
Johannesburg -
South Africans rioted in a squatter camp near Pretoria,
setting about 60
shacks belonging to Zimbabweans on fire, police said
Tuesday.
Residents of the Mooiplaas squatter camp who were
responsible for the
rioting Monday night accused the immigrants of being
involved in crime,
police said.
At least one Zimbabwean was attacked
before police arrived and dispersed the
rioters. No fatalities were
reported.
The number of people who have left Zimbabwe - whose president,
Robert
Mugabe, has been accused of abusing human rights and destroying the
economy - and are now living in South Africa has been estimated at 2 million
to 2.5 million.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 10 December 2007 21:51
BY TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU
There is sense in
which writers and artists in Zimbabwe have resigned their
creative energies
to the whims of politicians. Several European and African
writers have been
lobbying other African governments to 'raise their heads'
in condemning the
Zimbabwe crisis while local writers are taking the back
seat. In breaking
the silence, Cont Mhlanga has teamed up with other local
artists in
establishing Voices For Change a movement that is aimed at taking
political
theatre to a new level and is open to every artiste in the country
He said:
"People no longer have a voice in Zimbabwe. Media is tightly
controlled by
the government. The weekly independent papers are
prohibitively expensive,
while the national television station is controlled
by the government.
Silence and fear have replaced dialogue and discussion in
Zimbabwe. A new
movement is needed to restore a voice to the people of
Zimbabwe."
Voices
For Change will give artists the platform to reflect on people's
daily
struggles, and inspire them to speak out against oppression without
fear.
"Fear in Zimbabwe has risen to alarming proportions to the benefit of
the
government. It is a way of suppressing the majority to organize
themselves
to change the difficult conditions that the government has
created for
them," he said in a written overview of the movement.
"The voices, or shall I
say the whispers, of those who have a different
thought or a different
opinion to that of government is not allowed to
access daily newspapers or
24/7 radio and television channels. No one in my
country is allowed by the
state to access mass media to talk about and
express the conditions in which
they live in, let alone discuss the causes
of the conditions."
Mhlanga, a
veteran playwright and artist, has been at the forefront of
fighting for a
just society. Several of his productions have been banned for
performances
in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 10 December 2007 21:17
BY CHIEF REPORTER
HARARE - Babies are dying in
Zimbabwe hospitals at an alarming rate every
day because of an acute
shortage of health staff, medicine and medical
equipment.
Investigations
by The Zimbabwean have revealed the grim reality of shocking
child mortality
rates at children hospitals and wards in Harare.
It is hard to believe,
especially because the young resident doctors who are
talking about the
problem in the small, shabby common room at the Harare
Children's Hospital
are smiling and chuckling.
For a moment their laughter stuns us into silence.
A small TV flashes in the
corner with a music video that zooms in and out
gospel sensation Mercy
Mutsvene.
A half-broken fan whirls drowsily above.
The faint wailings of infants from
the wards down the hall echo as if they
are coming from a deep well. Finally
someone speaks.
"There are so many
disasters," says a junior doctor whose lab coat looks a
size or two too
large. "We must laugh, because it is better than crying."
During the junior
doctor's shift the day before yesterday at Harare Children
Hospital, two
kids died because he lacked the right supplies to treat them.
One had
septicaemia; the other died of respiratory failure. The junior
doctor told
The Zimbabwean he had no luminal to treat the septicaemia
patient.
"The
baby's seizures worsened and it died," he said. "I had no ventilator
machine
for the child whose lungs had given out. I also did not have any
surfactant
to help get oxygen into the child's arteries."
The junior doctor and his
peers gathered in the common room for lunch say at
least one baby dies in
the hospital every day, but they can't estimate how
many of those die
because of the lack of drugs. "Many," is all they can say,
shaking their
heads, smiles lingering on their lips.
Basic medicines are missing, the
doctors tell us.
"In the case of newborns, whose immune systems are still
weak, these
medicines can mean life or death," says the doctor.
The
Zimbabwean was shocked with the story of Sarudzai Gumbo, an innocent HIV
positive child whose face is being devoured by cancer. She cannot access
health care because of shortages at the hospital. Sarudzai is currently
reeling from diarrhoea. But she is failing to access medication.
The
doctor tells The Zimbabwean it is the height of diarrhoea season, a
common
ailment during summer because of the blistering heat and lack of
clean water
cause by ZINWA's incompetence.
"It is the worst possible time to run out of
ringer lactate, a fluid to
revitalize severely dehydrated babies, but that's
what is happening here,"
said the doctor. "We are giving the children a much
less effective saline
solution as a substitute."
One doctor called it
"show business" to fool parents into thinking they were
doing something to
address their child's ailment. They've watched scores of
children die of
diarrhoea, some of it HIV-related.
"I have seen 20 die with my own eyes,"
says another doctor. "You ask another
doctor, you get a different
number."
He said children in Zimbabwe's hospitals were dying of highly
curable
ailments such as diarrhoea because of the Mugabe regime's corrupt,
bureaucracy-plagued, crime-ridden healthcare system - and its failure to
address continued isolation from the community of nations, cutting off
crucial medical assistance.
Hospitals sources said health staff, choked
by appallingly low remuneration,
have been pilfering the medicines to sell
on the black market - and
government has failed to stem the rot.
In the
meantime, children continue to die needlessly every day. Many die
because
there is no medicine or equipment. Premature newborns die, the
doctor says,
because frequent electricity blackouts cut off power to their
incubators.
Some children get renal failure and die because there are no
dialysis
machines. At Parirenyatwa Hospital, the country's largest referral
hospital,
not a single dialysis machine is working.
"This is the life,"
said the doctor.
The last donation this hospital received was in May when
President Robert
Mugabe's Health advisor, Timothy Stamps, donated Z$25
million. - *Anybody
wishing to help Sarudzai may get in touch through
gift@thezimbabwean.co.ukThis
e-mail address is being protected from
spambots, you need JavaScript enabled
to view it or call 0912594770