South Africa, Zambia cut power supplies to Zimbabwe

Zim Online

by Tedious Muchenje Thursday 06 December 2007

      HARARE - Zimbabwe faces more power cuts after South Africa and Zambia
stopped supplies to their cash-strapped neighbour over an outstanding US$42
million debt.

      According to a parliamentary report on mines and energy shown to
ZimOnline on Wednesday, only Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo continue to supply Zimbabwe "out of goodwill" despite also being owed
huge sums of money by the virtually bankrupt Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA).

      "The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has been unable to pay this debt
because of the unavailability and cost of foreign currency. As a result,
South Africa and Zambia have discontinued supplies," said the report.

      The unpaid debts cover the period from March to August 2007.

      South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and DRC power firms have previously
supplied a combined 600 megawatts to Zimbabwe or about 35 percent of total
consumption.

      However, the foreign power firms that are struggling to meet own
domestic demand as an energy crisis long predicted to hit the region begins
to bite, this year reduced exports to Zimbabwe to only 150 megawatts.

      ZESA's inability to boost generation capacity at its ageing power
stations and a critical shortage of foreign currency to import electricity
from neighbouring countries has left Zimbabwe grappling with severe power
shortages.

      ZESA's only response has been to implement a punishing power rationing
regime to save on the little electricity available while ensuring key
sectors of the economy are supplied.

      Under the rationing schedule, supplies to domestic consumers can be
cut for up to 20 hours a day while power is supplied to industry and other
productive sectors.

      However, the parliamentary report said even the key sectors of the
struggling economy were feeling the pinch since South Africa and Zambia cut
supplies.

      "It is estimated that businesses are operating at less than 30 percent
of capacity. Mines are operational for only four hours out of the 24-hour
schedule. The communication networks have been experiencing continued
congestion, partly due to power shortages adversely affecting business,"
said the report.

      The parliamentary committee urged the government to pay the Mozambican
government US$20 million to avoid further disconnections.

      The report accuses President Robert Mugabe's government of playing
with time on power related initiatives saying the administration knew as far
back as the early 1990s that Zimbabwe would face power shortages.

      Ironically, Mugabe only last week told supporters of his ruling ZANU
PF supporters that the shortage of electricity would soon be a thing of the
past, saying his government planned to build more hydro-power stations.

      He did not say how the government would raise funding for the power
stations.

      Zimbabwe makes use of about 2 200 megawatts, but power plants in the
country can only generate about 1 500 megawatts leaving a huge deficit,
which previously has been filled up with power imports from neighbouring
countries.

      The report, which was presented in the upper house of parliament last
week, brought to the fore the enormity of Zimbabwe's power crisis which
could prove to be the final straw for an economy on the verge of total
collapse.

      However, the worsening energy crisis is only an addition on a long
list of hardships bedevelling Zimbabwe as the country grapples with a severe
economic recession seen in hyperinflation, a rapidly contracting GDP, the
fastest for a country not at war according to the World Bank and shortages
of foreign currency, food and fuel. - ZimOnline

While Most of Africa Prospers, Zimbabwe Implodes

 

05 December 2007

United States takes aim at Zimbabwe human rights abusers

  

With food shortages rampant, Zimbabweans must wait for hours to get a loaf of bread. (© AP Images)

By Jane Morse
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- Stella Chikava distributes advertising pamphlets on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa.  It’s a long step down for the 41-year-old graduate with more than 10 years’ experience as a physics and chemistry teacher in Zimbabwe.

But after experiencing detention, rape and torture under Mugabe’s government, she feels lucky to be alive.

Chikava’s fate, along with that of many thousands of other Zimbabweans, is graphically described on Web sites such as that of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an international media development charity that supports local journalists reporting on democracy and human rights.

According to Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports freedom and monitors political rights and civil liberties around the world, Zimbabwe is one of the world’s most repressive states.

FROM PROSPERITY TO POVERTY

Rich in natural resources such as chromite, platinum, gold, silver and nickel, Zimbabwe experienced a moderate economic boom in the 1970s.  But poor management has plunged the country into poverty, according to the U.S. State Department’s background notes on the country.

Both government and academic experts say that although many countries in Africa are experiencing increasing prosperity, Zimbabwe is imploding.

Zimbabwe is among the few African countries that are not enjoying an average of 6 percent growth, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said at a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on December 3.

Eighty percent of Zimbabwe’s citizens are unemployed; one-fourth of the population has left the country; there are food shortages and hyperinflation, she said.

Adding to the dismal economic picture is the brutal repression of human rights proponents.

WORST YEAR EVER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

The 2007 crackdown by the government of President Robert Mugabe has been the worst ever for defenders of freedom in Zimbabwe, Frazer said.  Nongovernmental organizations have reported more than 6,000 instances of human rights abuses; 3,463 victims of government attacks have required medical treatment.

As recently as November 22, cadres of ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, Mugabe’s socialist party) members severely beat 22 members of the National Constitutional Assembly, a pro-democracy civil society organization, Frazer said.

UNITED STATES TO IMPOSE ADDITIONAL SANCTIONS

“Given Mugabe’s escalated use of violence,” Frazer said, “the United States will be imposing additional sanctions against the worst perpetrators of the regime’s brutality.

U.S. sanctions won't affect humanitarian aid. More than 150,000 Zimbabwean orphans have been helped by U.S. assistance. (USAID)

“Financial sanctions will be imposed in the coming days against several additional Zimbabweans not yet sanctioned who played a central role in the regime’s escalating human rights abuses and two additional companies that are owned or controlled by specially designated individuals,” she said.

“The United States will also impose travel sanctions against 38 additional individuals, including nine state security officials involved in human rights abuses and anti-democratic activities in recent months.  The affected individuals will include at least five adult children of the Mugabe government officials implicated in the December activities who are currently studying in the United States,” Frazer said.

“It is intolerable,” she added, “that those closest to Mugabe are enjoying the privilege of sending their children to the United States for an education when they have destroyed the once outstanding educational system in their own country, thereby depriving ordinary Zimbabweans of a decent education.”

Zimbabwean schoolteachers are leaving the profession by the thousands, driven out by hyperinflation and political violence.  According to the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, 5,000 teachers left their jobs in 2005 alone.

“At one point Mugabe sent children to school,” Frazer observed. “Now he is beating them as free-thinking adults.”

Frazer emphasized that U.S. sanctions will be lifted quickly once Zimbabwe implements reforms needed “to restore Zimbabwe to what it once was: a democratic and prosperous country that was jewel of the region.”

She also emphasized that U.S. food aid, assistance to HIV/AIDS victims and other humanitarian aid will continue despite the increased sanctions, in order to help ordinary Zimbabweans.

In 2007, Frazer said, the United States will deliver more than $170 million in food aid to feed more than 1.5 million Zimbabweans.

DEALING WITH ENABLERS

Frazer said the United States continues to encourage the governments of Zimbabwe’s neighbors, particularly South Africa, to take an active role in pressuring Zimbabwe to return to democracy.

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, despite his own political problems at home, is a leader in the region, Frazer said, and she expressed the hope that Mbeki will listen to his own constituents, who have said South Africa needs a tougher approach to Zimbabwe.

John Makumbe, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said that the Zimbabwean diaspora is inadvertently propping up President Mugabe’s repressive regime.

More than 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s families are alive today thanks to remittances sent to them from some 5 million family members working outside the country, Makumbe said.  “If they would stop sending funds for six weeks, Mugabe would collapse,” Makumbe said.

Sydney Chisi, founder of the Youth Democracy Initiative of Zimbabwe, acknowledged the existence of “conflict entrepreneurs,” who have benefited from of the current crisis in Zimbabwe.  “Most of them are not willing to let go,” Chisi said.

But most ordinary Zimbabweans are eager for change, Chisi said, whether it comes via a street movement or the democratic process.

See also "Freedom Defenders Under Attack in Zimbabwe, United States Warns."

For more information, see Zimbabwe: Escalating Violence and Timeline of Human Rights Violations in Zimbabwe in 2007.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Officials meet in Egypt, hopes high ahead of EU-Africa weekend summit

International Herald Tribune

The Associated PressPublished: December 5, 2007

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt: Officials meeting here Wednesday to prepare for the
upcoming EU-Africa summit this weekend expressed high hopes, lauding that
envoys from both the European Union and the African Union will convene again
after seven years.

The first gathering of the EU and AU was held in Cairo in 2000. The Dec. 8-9
EU-Africa summit in Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is
to address governance and human rights, peace and security, migration,
energy and climate change, and trade.

Ahead of Lisbon, Egypt hosted 45 African foreign ministers and 15 European
state ministers and senior officials at Wednesday's preparatory conference.
They agreed summits should be held every three years, with preparatory
meeting in between.

Officials also "underlined the importance of the strategic relations between
EU and Africa," according to a statement, and expressed "confidence and
aspiration that the upcoming summit in Lisbon ... would enlarge the scope of
their cooperation for a wide ranging and people-centered partnership of
equals."

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Wednesday's meeting was
"very successful" and would "contribute a lot to securing success for the
Lisbon summit." Aboul Gheit talked to reporters with his counterparts from
Ghana and Belgium, and also Louis Michel, EU's top development official.

Aboul Gheit also said that they decided on two documents that would come out
of the Lisbon summit — The African-European Agenda Strategy and the "Lisbon
Declaration."
Much is expected from Lisbon. But unlike the EU-Africa gathering in 2000,
new issues now top the global agenda, such as terrorism and illegal
migration.

The past also continues to tug at the EU-AU relations, with colonial wounds
still painful, and many African countries continuing to have tense relations
with their former colonizers that affect trade deals and foreign policy.

Another divisive issue ahead of Lisbon is the attendance of Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe, 83, who declared Tuesday he was going to Portugal
in defiance of some European leaders and the United States. This has
prompted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to stay away from Lisbon.

Host Portugal and Spain have also said they would prefer Mugabe to stay away
but Portugal bowed to AU's wish that leaders of all its members be invited.

In Washington, Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African
affairs, said Monday the U.S. disagreed with the decision to invite Mugabe
to the summit.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch expressed doubts Tuesday that Lisbon
would make a difference for the people in Darfur and Somalia, and urged that
it "commit to specific actions."

"Darfur is an immediate test for the leaders of Europe and Africa," said
Reed Brody from the Human Rights Watch.

Although Darfur by itself is not on the summit's agenda, Aboul Gheit said
human rights would still be addressed in Lisbon under the topics of "peace
and security."

Africa can't stop EU from discussing Zim

Mail and Guardian

Pretoria, South Africa

05 December 2007 08:55

Africa cannot stop the European Union if it wants to
discuss the issue of Zimbabwe during the weekend's European Union
(EU)-African summit in Lisbon, Portugal, South African Foreign Affairs
Deputy Director General Gert Grobler said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media at the Union Buildings in Pretoria,
he said Zimbabwe was not part of the agreed agenda between the two groups.

"I don't think Africa can stop Europe if they decide to
raise under that particular theme [governance and human rights] the issue of
Zimbabwe," Grobler said.

"South Africa and Africa would want this summit to focus
on the substance of expanding the strategic partnership between the
continents -- that must be the key focus. It is on that issue that we want
tangible outcomes," he said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is staying away from
the Lisbon summit because Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe plans to
attend.

Officials from host Portugal and Spain are among those who
said they would prefer Mugabe to stay home, so as not to divert attention
from the economic and political issues on the agenda.

But host Portugal bowed to the African Union's wish that
leaders of all its members be invited.

Grobler said he hoped attention would be on the political
issues which would focus on peace and security, human rights, good
governance, trade and development and climate change.

"Our hope is that we will come away from this summit, not
only with a common vision, but with a tangible plan of action," he said.

President Thabo Mbeki will lead the South African
delegation to the summit.

Mugabe sees 'new dawn'
Meanwhile, Mugabe said Brown had lost the stand-off over
who would attend the summit.

In his annual State of the Nation address, Mugabe said
Zimbabwe, suffering chronic shortages of basic goods and worsening power
failures and water shortages, continued to defy predictions of economic
collapse and social upheaval.

He said the nation had in the past year moved toward what
he termed "sustained economic recovery notwithstanding the suffering endured
by many of our people".

"The sinister campaign by Britain to isolate us continues
to disintegrate. I wish to thank European Union and African countries for
their support and I thank Portugal for their corrected reading of the
situation," Mugabe told lawmakers in the Harare Parliament in the nationwide
address broadcast by state television and radio.

In Harare on Tuesday, Mugabe blamed his country's economic
woes on successive drought, Western economic measures against Zimbabwe and
profiteering at home.

"The night of trials and tribulations has undeniably been
long. We are, however, confident a new dawn is on the horizon," Mugabe
said. - Sapa

Merkel to rebuke Zimbabwe at EU-Africa summit

Monsters and Critics

Dec 5, 2007, 17:11 GMT

Berlin - Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday she would
explicitly criticize human rights breaches in Zimbabwe when she attends this
weekend's EU-Africa summit in Lisbon.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, emerging from talks with Merkel in Berlin,
said his neighbour Zimbabwe was a problem for African nations, but not
necessarily the most important problem.

Mwanawasa said he found the way that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had
cancelled his Lisbon attendance because of Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's presence was somewhat 'unfortunate.'

'The solution cannot be to boycott Zimbabwe,' he told reporters. It would
have been better if Brown had attended and addressed the issues. He said the
stay-away was not a good decision.

Merkel told reporters the topic would not be swept under the carpet with
her.

She would raise both human rights in Zimbabwe and its conduct of government,
she said, identifying the problems in Zimbabwe and contrasting this with the
progress being made in other African nations.

Mwanawasa, who is currently chairman of the Southern African Development
Community, was to stay till Friday on a four-day visit to Germany. Leaders
of the European Union and African states meet in Lisbon December 7-9.

Merkel termed the weekend meeting, the first such summit for seven years,
historic, saying it involved the full range of cooperation between the two
continents.

Almost 80 heads of state and government from the EU and African Union (AU)
are set to meet in Lisbon.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Mugabe won't listen

From News24 (SA), 4 December

Brussels - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is unlikely to listen to his
European critics at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon this weekend, the
Zimbabwean Human Rights Association warned on Tuesday. "Mugabe is not going
to listen and I think as much as they (Europeans) are planning on giving him
a lesson, he is also planning on giving them a lesson," the group's
president Arnold Tsunga told a human rights conference in Brussels. "He is
going to be referring to historical disadvantages Africa has suffered from
the colonial process, out of slavery. He is going to divert from the real
issues," he said, adding Mugabe uses the same rhetoric with his own people.
The nation's institutions "are made to brainwash Zimbabweans and to portray
Zimbabwe as a country under siege and penalised for trying to allow for
blacks to be in control of their own economic destiny," the lawyer added.
The Portuguese presidency of the European Union invited Mugabe to the
EU-Africa summit on Saturday and Sunday despite a warning from British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown that he and his cabinet would boycott the event if the
Zimbabwean leader attends - which Mugabe says he plans to do. During a state
of the nation address to Zimbabwe's parliament on Tuesday, Mugabe suggested
his invitation to the summit amounted to the failure of an allegedly
"sinister campaign led by Britain to isolate us". A debate on Zimbabwe's
political situation and its deep economic woes is expected to be on the
summit agenda. Portuguese leaders argue it is preferable for the EU to have
the chance to give Mugabe its opinion of his regime than to ban him from
what will only be the second such EU-Africa summit. "I greatly doubt that in
relations with dictators the best policy is ostracism," Portuguese European
Affairs Minister Manuel Lobo Antunes said on Sunday.

MDC defers decision on talks to 16th December

By Tichaona Sibanda
5 December 2007

The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai has ten days before it makes a decision on
whether or not it will take part in next year’s elections, according to
party spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

Speaking to Newsreel soon after the party’s extra ordinary meeting of the
national executive, Chamisa said a meeting of their national council on the
16th December would ratify whether the party will sign a resolution with
Zanu-PF.

Chamisa, the MDC MP for Kuwadzana, said his party has given Zanu-PF yet
another chance to rescue the Zimbabwe crisis by agreeing to their demands.
The MDC still demands that a new constitution be in place before the
elections, as well as a new voters’ role.

Chamisa said; ‘You don’t just pull out of talks. This is a process and
millions of Zimbabweans are banking on us to force Mugabe to deliver a free
and fair election. If we walk out now, Mugabe will just go ahead with
elections, but we will not let him decide our fate,’ Chamisa said.

The MDC spokesman noted that his executive was concerned with the
deterioration of both the economic and humanitarian situation in the
country, including the shortages of basic commodities and general erosion of
incomes.

‘Violence is continuing unabated against democratic forces in the country.
Zanu-PF continues to institute a media blackout on the opposition with
journalistic freedoms curtailed. As such we have outlined our demands to
Mugabe and his party and it’s up to them to rescue the situation the country
is in now,’ added Chamisa.

The national executive council tacitly agreed a new Constitution must be
place before the March elections and that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
has to be reconstituted, according to what was agreed in the Constitutional
Amendment number 18 Bill.

Chamisa reiterated in the interview that their demands have remained the
same, but during the past 6 months of talks Mugabe and Zanu-PF have ignored
them. The regime has also unilaterally gone ahead and implemented decisions
that tilt heavily in the ruling party’s favour in next year’s elections,
despite the ongoing talks.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

An act of Stone Age politics

The Crisis Coalition
5 December, 2007

Statement on Zanu PF’s ‘one million men and women march’

The so called one million men and women march stage managed by the ruling
party as a mythical exhibition to the world that President Robert Mugabe is
the ruling party’s one and only candidate has come and gone. An average of
40 000 gullible supporters who were bused from the rural areas, marched from
the city centre of Harare all the way to the high density suburb of
Highfields chanting Mugabe’s name the loudest.

The mob repeated ‘Viva President Mugabe 2008’ mantra in a well recited
chorus as if to say reprisal would befall them if they stopped the robotic
programming which was in motion. They were escorted by the army, police and
the notorious state operatives in cooperative manner.

Whether the ruling party had acquired police clearance as is required for
the opposition party, civil society and the rest of the progressive
movements is unknown. One could only distinguish the police from the ruling
party supporters with the uniforms. The levels of police cooperation or
participation in the activities of the ruling party blares the demarcation
between its engagements in the government or state affairs with those of the
ruling party. The police force has become an arm of the ruling party by
circumventing its oaths of serving the government impartially and
objectively.

Instead, the police are devoting their energies in pursuing the ruling party’s
narrow political interests at the expense of protecting the nation’s laws
and interests. The police’s bias is indisputable. On the 11th of March 2008,
the police attacked civil society leaders under the Save Zimbabwe Campaign
in Highfields who wanted to hold a prayer meeting for the nation. The
leadership was arrested before they reached the venue and tortured whilst in
police custody. Gift Tandare was shot in cold blood but to this end, the
officer responsible for the murder has not been brought to book. Ironically,
the same police force escorted the ruling party supporters all the way to
the same venue without any arrests, shootings and beatings what so ever.

Ruling party officials and supporters have become holly cows, enjoying
special treatment from the unformed forces. The police must equally allow
the opposition, civil society leaders and the general public to enjoy the
same protection accorded to the ruling establishment without fear or favor.
The citizenry has a right to be protected by the police from criminal
elements within the society, rather than the citizenry fearing the criminal
elements within the uniformed forces.

Our country’s police uniforms are now harboring criminal elements that have
lost their mandate to safe guard the country by implementing instructions
from the Zanu PF Headquarters. This is a cancer to national development and
peace; the police force must be reformed.

The Coalition also deplores the wisdom found by the ruling party’s callous
strategy of evicting students from the halls of residence and opting to
accommodate the Zanu PF supporters who are not stakeholders in the
University of Zimbabwe.

Students are walking miles to their alternative accommodation for sanctuary
after they were denied their constitutional right to reside on campus.
Students’ rights are under siege from a government which is supposed to
protect the very same rights.

Due to the current housing crisis facing the country, which was exacerbated
by state sponsored Operation Murambatsvina, accommodation is proving to be
out of reach for the students. This has left them vulnerable to abuse
especially the female students.

There is no merit thereof, for Zanu PF to celebrate the so called one
million march especially when the students are still facing the crisis of
forking out exorbitant rentals when their hall of residence are being abused
by the ruling party rogue elements. The government must go on a soul
searching mission.

As noted in our statement issued a day before the march, the event had
nothing to do with improving the macro economic indicators of growth such as
increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment levels, reduction in
inflation among others but rather an event of settling the party’s
succession wrangle which has become an albatross on its neck, threatening
the party’s own existence. If the process was being funded from the party’s
coffers it would not have warranted our attention. However, the ruling party
is misappropriating the tax payers’ money into party events without any
national significance. This is a crisis of governance and legitimacy, since
the ruling party’s hold on power is not a show of popularity, due to the
contestations of the 2000, 2002 and 2005 election results.

The march came a day after the national budget was presented by the Minister
of Finance, Samuel Mumbengegwi announcing an earth shuttering budget of
quadrillions (15 zeros)[1]. As if to indicate the depth of the country’s
economic crisis, the Minister failed to pronounce the budget which he had
crafted, misleading the nation that the budget 7.8 trillion as opposed to
7.84 quadrillions the highest budget allocation ever prepared under the sun.

Confronted with such a crisis, there is no merit in the ruling party
straining the already wounded national fiscus to fund such insignificant
party events. The funds could have been allocated to other developmental
activities which are in dire need of cash injections such as health,
education, agriculture and industry which have been crippled by the ruling
party policies for the past 27years of its tenure.

Three days after the stage managed event of creating a picture of Mugabe as
the one and only candidate in the 2008 election, the long queue of
depositors waiting in vain for their cash in banks are intensifying while
queues for transport and other basic commodities still punctuate our
day-to-day activities.

These are the indications of a failed state which cannot produce for its
citizenry. The economy’s supply side has become barren and has been
exacerbated by the state authored price blitz of June 2007. Demand of goods
and services is increasing on a daily basis; these are elementary components
of economics which signal economic collapse to any rational government. If
the establishment has the concerns of the people at heart, it will have
every reason to worry and start implementing economic policies to rescue the
situation from the precipice of demise.

We therefore call upon the government to halt its militant style of running
the country. 20th Century politics has shifted drastically from the period
of World War I, the cold war era and the colonial establishments. This is an
era of engaging in the advancement of democratic principles as a fundamental
component of social, political and economic development. It’s a time to act
responsibly.

By McDonald Lewanika

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition

Spokesperson

MDC says Mugabe should walk the talk on dialogue

Zim Online

by Wayne Mafaro and Simplicio Chirinda Thursday 06 December 2007

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on
Wednesday demanded that the government shows commitment to dialogue with
action on the ground, a day after President Robert Mugabe hailed talks with
the party as heralding a new era in the country’s politics.

The main wing of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai said it was impossible to
reach agreement in the inter-party talks that are mediated by South African
President Thabo nor would it be possible to hold free and fair polls next
year unless Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party delivered on their end of
the deal.

The party that appears increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of dialogue
and what it says is Mugabe’s failure to act to end political violence and
human rights abuses said in a statement to the press that it wanted a new
constitution agreed by the negotiating parties enacted before next year’s
crucial presidential and parliamentary elections.

The opposition party said it wanted a reconstituted Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission to prepare “a new voters’ roll as a prerequisite for a free and
fair election (and carry out) delimitation of constituencies.”

The MDC called on ZANU PF to end political violence and said the government
should repeal tough security and press laws that have hampered the
opposition party from carrying out its political work.

In open contradiction to Mugabe’s Tuesday declaration that only friendly
countries will be allowed to observe polls, the MDC said the international
community must be allowed unimpeded monitoring of elections.

The MDC did not say whether it would pull out of the talks or boycott
elections if its conditions were not met but appeared to leave room for both
options, saying Mugabe and ZANU PF had to deliver on the demands before a
December 16 meeting of the party that shall “review the whole progress of
the dialogue.”

“The National Executive resolved that neither an agreement nor a free and
fair election would be possible unless there is delivery on the tangibles
listed,’ the party said.

ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira was not immediately available for
comment on the matter. However, the ruling party has in the past said it was
committed to dialogue and rejected as false, charges that it was behind
political violence against the opposition.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) last March appointed Mbeki
to lead efforts to end Zimbabwe’s long running political and economic crisis
by facilitating dialogue between ZANU PF and MDC.

The two factions of the MDC led by Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara are
represented by a joint-team in talks with ZANU PF.

Mbeki, who has always insisted talks will yield free and fair polls next
year, told journalists in Harare two weeks ago that he was happy with
progress in his mediation effort in Zimbabwe.

During his state of the nation address, Mugabe said the inter-party talks
had ushered in the dawn of a new era of constructive engagement across the
political divide.

But the Tsvangirai-led MDC says dialogue has achieved nothing with
Tsvangirai describing the talks last Sunday as “paper discussions”.

Tsvangirai, seen as the main challenger to Mugabe in next year’s
presidential run, said ZANU PF was neither sincere nor committed to
dialogue, accusing the party of escalating political violence and continuing
to deny food aid to MDC supporters as punishment for not backing the
government. - ZimOnline

Robert Mugabe: separating myth from reality

New Zimbabwe

By Jethro Mpofu
Last updated: 12/05/2007 23:39:34
IT IS the prophetic Reggae music guru, Robert Nesta Marley, who sang some
lyrics to the point that “you can fool some people sometimes, but you cannot
fool all the people all the time.”

For a long time now Robert Mugabe has been fooling some Zimbabweans, some
Africans and some entities within the global community by pretending to be a
gallant African statesman of the Nkrumah model.

In various regional and global platforms, the president, through his long
speeches, has been painting a picture of himself as a valiant pan-Africanist
who will stop at nothing to defend Zimbabwean and African economic and
political interests that are continuously being threatened by western
imperialism.

I think, in the interest of Zimbabwe’s recovery from the current economic
and political decay, the time has come for the democratic forces in Zimbabwe
and beyond to know and understand Mugabe for what he is and not what him and
his backers want to claim.

I posit in this short contribution to explode a few myths and confront a few
falsehoods that are being scattered around by Mugabe and his prefects
claiming that he is a good old wise leader who deserves to rule Zimbabwe
until Amen. I also wish to insist that the year 2008-or-never is the time
that all democratic forces in Zimbabwe and beyond should mobilise all their
resources, energies and focus and ensure that Mugabe comes face to face with
history when he is democratically and constitutionally voted out of office
by angry men and women of Zimbabwe.

At the latest United Nations general assembly, Mugabe took his criticism of
western imperialists to poetic heights. He lambasted the leaders of the west
for perpetrating evil against the people of Africa. Ordinarily, there is
nothing wrong or sinister with an elected African leader making his
contribution to the long struggle against the evil of western economic and
political expansionism at a United Nations platform.

In Mugabe’s case, it is painfully paradoxical and rudely ironic that
standing on the mass graves of more than 30 000 victims of his Gukurahundi
genocide, he pretends before the world that he loves Africans. It is also
important for us to remember that this man is standing not on the shoulders
of Zimbabweans but on the tears of many Gukurahundi orphans and dispossessed
victims of the cruel operation Murambatsvina. So, before Mugabe can
represent Africans at the United Nations level, he must first prove his love
and respect for African lives at local level. We must not be fooled.

There is also a falsehood that is being peddled in some uninformed African
corners that Mugabe is the African statesman who restored the land in
Zimbabwe to the natives. The merchants of this falsehood claim that Mugabe
is an African liberator who liberated colonised commercial land and used it
to economically empower the indigenous people. This is a lie that smells to
the high heavens.

What Mugabe did in Zimbabwe, which no sane African leader should emulate, is
that he violently and disorderly seized land from white commercial farmers.
He then partitioned it out and parceled out pieces of land to his supporters
and cronies in Zanu PF to buy political support and votes for himself. The
historical and spiritual Zimbabwean heritage of land has been reduced to an
object that is used to bribe individuals and communities for Mugabe’s
partisan political goals. At the end of the day, whilst Mugabe continues to
pretend to be a Zimbabwean national hero, the truth is that through his
partisan and sectoral policies and habits, the man has reduced himself to a
Zanu PF party hero and not a national political icon.

Mugabe also loves to market the falsehood that Zimbabweans are now leading
far happier economic and political lives than they used to enjoy during the
life and times of Ian Smith in Rhodesia. He is always imploring Zimbabweans
to be electorally grateful to him and his party by voting Zanu PF, the party
that he says liberated Zimbabwe. Under normal African circumstances, it is
really important for African men and women to celebrate independence from
colonialism.

What Mugabe is not innocent of in the Zimbabwean political and economic
landscape is that his poor and primitive economic policies and his bad
political practices have impoverished and reduced Zimbabweans to the
embarrassing position of dearly missing Rhodesia, which is a national shame.
In fact, Mugabe must be told that as opposed to being an icon of African
independence, he has worked overtime to give African Independence a very bad
name. It is sad and shameful that there are ordinary Zimbabweans who now
long for and miss the colonial and slavish economic and political times.

All the political actors in Zimbabwe who differ with Mugabe on his chaotic
land reform programme and most of his racist propensities are brutally
labeled unpatriotic sell-outs who are puppets of the west intent on
reversing the “gains” of independence. He is quick to deal violently with
his real and imagined opponents. However, if the truth be told, Mugabe
himself has many questions to answer concerning unholy relations with some
western powers.

During the 1980s when ZAPU supporters were being slaughtered like goats at
Christmas, the then western governments said nothing and did nothing to
oppose or to condemn, let alone to sanction Mugabe for the genocidal
operation that he executed in Matabeleland. It left Zimbabwe a painfully
divided country, which is exactly what heroic statesmen do not do. There was
a loud conspiracy of silence from the western corners and Mugabe went on
with his operation as if even God had gone on leave. At the time Mugabe had
secured the economic and political interests of the westerners in Zimbabwe
and he was their man while Joshua Nkomo, who at time was talking about “land
to the tillers”, was sent scampering from pillar to post in fear for his
dear life.

Before Mugabe labels others puppets and pawns of the west, he really needs
to check his own record in that direction. Those who are calling Mugabe by
all sorts of heroic names and glorious labels are actually the enemies of
Zimbabwe and also the enemies of Mugabe himself because they mislead him.

The once booming Zimbabwean economy is now at an advanced stage of
decomposition as Zimbabweans have been reduced to paupers. The education
sector, as important as it is, has collapsed to sorry levels. The essential
health sector has also collapsed as Zimbabweans die in their thousands of
curable ailments only because the doctors have gone to the Diaspora to
escape poverty. Basic drugs are not in stock as our government channels
funds to buying guns, bullets bombs, baton sticks and anti-riot tankers.

As we talk, Mugabe has concretely ruined the Zimbabwean economy and
collapsed the essential education and heath sectors, so those who think
Mugabe is a good investment for Zimbabwe are actually merchants of myths and
falsehoods who must urgently be told to go to hell or somewhere near there.
These are the enemies of Zimbabwe whose work must soon come to an end.

There is another myth and falsehood that is being sold and bought in some
Zanu PF circles and in some civic society groups that Mugabe will romp to
victory come 2008. This falsehood has been circulating for some time as
Mugabe and his supporters pathetically try to imitate the Jacob Zuma
movement in South Africa by putting up pretences that Mugabe has crowds
behind him. They have hired some persons to march across towns and have even
tried to reinvent mathematics by claiming that thousands who march with them
are millions.

The truth is that Mugabe faces defeat in next year’s elections. The hired
support that Mugabe has displayed is totally what he has and is not enough.
The silent and angry Zimbabweans will not March or sing songs but they will
vote next year. To assume that the democratic forces of Zimbabwe are doing
nothing about the economic and political conditions of Zimbabwe except to be
spectators of the marches and listeners of long speeches from Zanu PF is to
but practice in political somnambulism. All the conditions and signs on the
Zimbabwean political atmosphere point to Mugabe’s defeat.

Another falsehood is that the whole of Zanu PF and government are 100%
behind Mugabe. The truth is that Mugabe has disgruntled many presidential
and other hopefuls in Zanu PF. They will not shout about it or sing it out.
They will even join the marches and utter some solidarities yet the truth is
that there are many hearts and minds within the leadership ranks of Zanu PF
who after the much awaited Mugabe endorsement at the extra ordinary congress
at the weekend, will join together with other Zimbabweans in the opposition
and the civic society to create a new Mugabe free Zimbabwe.

I forward that Mugabe has never been and he will not be a genuine
pan-African liberator, he has many innocent Africans below the soil. Mugabe
cannot be a genuine representative of African economic and political
interests at global level; he has injured and wounded the African people
that he leads at local level. He has impoverished them and used the
historical Zimbabwean heritage of land to buy votes and cement his partisan
interests and has divided the Africans in Zimbabwe almost beyond repair. He
has killed the economy of Zimbabwe and has in the past conspired with
western forces against the economic and political interests of the Africans
in Zimbabwe. Him alone has reversed the gains of independence.

It is for that reason that I humbly suggest that all Zimbabweans, Africans
and others must be very much careful to separate reality from pretences and
the democratic forces in Zimbabwe must take it as a challenge to consign
Mugabe to where he belongs -- to the dustbins of history.

Jethro Mpofu is a political activist who writes from Bulawayo. He is
contactable at bayethej@yahoo.com

Parallels between ‘million man march’ and Muzorewa’s Huruyadzo rally

New Zimbabwe

By Garikai Chimuka
Last updated: 12/06/2007 00:11:49
THE so called, “million man march”, ostensibly carried out in support of
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF candidature in next year’s presidential elections,
is nothing beyond a propaganda stunt to hoodwink the world (particularly in
the run up to the EU-AU summit) that the long suffering masses of Zimbabwe
are behind Mugabe and his failed policies.

If anything, there are very interesting yet striking parallels with the
three-day Huruyadzo rally that was held at the same Zimbabwe Grounds on the
eve of the 1980 elections by the then president of the short lived
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, before his burial into the dustbins
of history.

That the Zanu PF government fronted by lunatics masquerading as war
veterans, youth and women’s league would waste taxpayers’ money on the back
of a disastrous national budget running into zillions of worthless Zimbabwe
dollars, defies logic and common sense.

Thousands of unsuspecting rural folk especially from far flung areas such as
Uzumba–Maramba-Pfungwe were frog marched and bused to partake in the useless
march on the back of empty promises of free maize seed, scotch carts and
ploughs for the so called “mother of all farming seasons”, which has already
turned into a “grandmother of all farming disasters”. This is a serious
abuse of the poverty stricken poor and hungry folk who were used for the
personal yet unnecessary pursuit by Robert Mugabe to be life President at
all costs.

The sorry sight of barefooted villagers clearly on empty stomachs being used
as cheap cannon fodder for sloganeering and political posturing is a serious
indictment on the moral bankruptcy of Mugabe and his storm troopers. Any
government, the world over, that inflicts poverty on its people through
policy kwashiorkor and unmitigated hunger for power and then goes on to
exploit the same people, has lost the legitimacy to claim that it is a
government.

However, what is significant from this big non-event is that just like
Muzorewa’s Huruyadzo rally in 1980, Mugabe has clearly read the mood of the
people and the writing is on the wall, yet he is still in denial. Such cheap
arrogance combined with ignorance is a sure recipe for a thunderous defeat
in a free and fair election, come March 2008.

Just like in 1980, the people of Zimbabwe are not foolish. Although they
were forced to attend the Huruyadzo rally, they knew in their hearts and
minds that Muzorewa was history for he never stood for the aspirations of
the people. The people knew that he had no capacity to stop the armed
struggle and they had not forgotten the atrocities he had committed against
the people through his notorious Pfumo Revanhu bandits.

In Zimbabwe today, the people will never forget the Gukurahundi ethnic
cleansing, Operation Murambatsina, Operation Reduce Prices, corruption by
Mugabe and his cohorts and indeed civil servants will never forget that they
are earning less than US$10 dollars per month which is decreasing every
hour. They may attend the so called million man marches, but come March
2008, in a free and fair election, Mugabe will be taken to the cleaners.

Just like in 1980 at the Huruyadzo rally, Muzorewa was in fiery form,
lambasting the dangers of communism and Marxist socialism which the
liberation movements were articulating. At the so called million man march,
Mugabe was also lambasting the dangers of neo-colonialism, vowing that
Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.

At Huruyadzo, Muzorewa claimed that the Liberation movements were mere pawns
of the Russians and Chinese who wanted to plunder the country’s resources
and at the ‘million man march’, Mugabe was also lambasting the opposition as
puppets of the British and Americans. The people of Zimbabwe now know better
for poverty is a great teacher, a powerful force for change, and Mugabe has
created that force and he will reap the whirlwind.

In 1980, Muzorewa pretended that the people were willing to die fighting
“terrorists” and at the ‘million man march’ Mugabe is also lying to himself
that the people are ready to die of hunger in order for him to be life
President when his time is clearly up.

A confident Muzorewa in 1980 thought that victory was in the bag, what with
the divisions in the Patriotic Front into PF Zapu and Zanu PF after Mugabe,
due to insatiable appetite for power and tribalism, had rejected a united
Patriotic Front that the late Nkomo and late Tongogara had agreed at
Lancaster. There was also confusion surrounding the name ZANU for Sithole
was also claiming it. On the back of poor literacy levels at that time,
Muzorewa thought that the confusion was going to hand him victory on a
silver platter.

At the ‘million man march’, Mugabe made it clear that the current
factionalism within the MDC will give him victory. Surely like Muzorewa in
1980, he is underestimating the ability of Zimbabweans to separate wheat
from chaff for indeed Morgan Tsvangirai remains the undoubted
personification of the struggle for change in Zimbabwe. He is also
underestimating the ability of democratic forces to unite at the opportune
time and endorse Tsvangirai for a decisive opposition victory in a free and
fair election come March 2008.

Muzorewa was not ashamed to marshal state resources, busing people and
slaughtering thousands of beasts for the three-day extravaganza. At least he
can be forgiven, for despite the battering of the economy by war which was
now costing $1million a day at a time when the British pound was equivalent
to the pound, the economy could still afford it. Today at the so called
‘million man march’, Mugabe has no shame to abuse state resources when the
economy he has presided over the past 27 years is on its knees.

The message that comes out is that the hour for a new Zimbabwe is nigh. It’s
high noon in Zimbabwe. No person, no ambition, no force however big,
determined or “revolutionary’ can stop an idea whose time has come and that
national and patriotic idea is that at 83 years, after 27 years of failed
and uninterrupted rule, Mugabe must do what his peers and generation like
Kaunda , Nyerere, Mandela, Chissano, Masire and Nujoma did, bow down for the
national interest before it is too late!!

Chimuka writes from the Netherlands

Govt denies scrapping Zim traders' border passes

Mail and Guardian

Michael Hamlyn | Cape Town, South Africa

05 December 2007 03:50

.The Department of Home Affairs said on Wednesday that it had
not abolished border passes for Zimbabweans, as was reported in a number of
newspapers.

"There is no such thing as a border pass," said a statement from
the department.

It tried to clear up the confusion by saying that bilateral
discussions with Zimbabwe had agreed that Zimbabweans in possession of a
visitor's permit stamped in their passports would be endorsed so as to allow
cross-border traders to work here.

Normally visitors' permits do not allow the holder to take work
in this country, which means that they are not allowed to go, for example,
to Bruma Lake in Johannesburg and trade from there, unless they get specific
permission from the director general.

Jacky Mashapu, acting head of communications for the department,
said that the new system would not allow Zimbabweans on visitor's passes to
take actual jobs here. But all that would be required from someone coming
across the border to trade will be for them to declare themselves to be
traders. -- I-Net Bridge

EU talks must place focus on Zimbabwe - Tearfund

Christian Today

Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 12:40 (GMT)

As Zimbabwean leader, President Mugabe, flies into Lisbon for the joint AU /
EU Summit this week, UK relief and development agency Tearfund is urging
that the talks should focus on the devastating humanitarian situation in
Zimbabwe.

Gary Swart, Director, Tearfund commented, “We fully support Prime Minister
Gordon Brown’s boycotting of the talks due to Mugabe’s attendance at the
summit.

"We are disappointed that the EU has allowed President Mugabe to attend the
summit. However, since he is attending, we would call on the leaders present
at the summit to challenge Mugabe on the failure of his government to
address the crisis in his country.”

Tearfund is calling for the critical humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe to
be urgently addressed. Useni Sibanda, National Coordinator, Zimbabwe
Christian Alliance said, “As Mugabe flies off to Lisbon, he leaves his
country in crisis.

Four million Zimbabweans are in desperate need of food relief in a country
that has the highest number of orphans per capita in the world.”

Sifiso Mpofu lives outside Bulawayo with her six children and says, “The
situation is just too difficult. We don’t have food. The money is not enough
for anything now. I could buy food enough for three meals a day in 2005 but
nothing now.”

Tearfund has launched an emergency appeal to support Zimbabwe churches
bringing help to the poorest families affected by Zimbabwe’s spiralling
crisis. Many have gone without food for weeks with even basic items
unavailable in shops.

The World Food Programme has warned that over four million people are at
risk of severe food shortages. The appeal has so far raised over £1.2
million.

Regaining dignity in Zimbabwe

Trócaire

Date: 05 Dec 2007

Trócaire supports a number of feeding programmes in Zimbabwe and feeding
programmes are absolutely essential in the short-term. They can however,
also have the effect of stripping people of their sense of self worth and
dignity if they extend beyond a necessary period.

Because of this Trócaire is also working to secure people's livelihoods so
that they are able to prepare for and survive such shocks as food shortages
and economic or political instability in the future. But the present food
shortage is now entering a critical stage, coupled with hyper inflation
rates and a volatile pre-election climate. It is now unclear how much people
who have benefited from Trocaire funded projects in the past year will
actually be able to cope with these multiple shocks or whether they will
become some of the millions who will need food aid to survive over the
coming months.

People such as Jane Mapongno and her neighbours who live in a ward 10 in the
Mhondoro district of Zimbabwe and are part of the Cheziya self help group
run by a local NGO, Tsungirirai, meaning perseverance. Tsungirirai, a
Trocaire partner, works with the most vulnerable people in the community to
encourage self-sufficiency, particularly for people affected by HIV/AIDS
through self-help projects. They also work to reduce the stigma attached to
HIV/AIDS. Jane supports her family of seven and four of her grandchildren
whose parents have both died. Prior to joining the self-help group Jane and
her friends would have been seen as the most vulnerable people in the
district as they all lived below the poverty line, were either widowed or
had no means of earning a living, and many are caring for extended families
as a result of HIV/AIDs.

The Mhondoro district is one of many in Zimbabwe that continues to suffer
the consequences of 2005's Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Restore Order
or literally translated 'clear the filth') when many people were forced back
to their rural roots with nothing but the clothes on their back. During
Operation Restore Order, with little or no warning, often with great
brutality, tens of thousands of houses, and thousands of informal business
structures were destroyed without regard for the rights or welfare of the
evictees.

As an already vulnerable group, Jane and her friends became even more
challenged and vulnerable following Operation Restore Order as resources for
few needed to be shared out among many more. Some even found themselves
having to resort to begging. Because of this they were identified within
their community as people who would benefit from participating in the self
help group where they have been able to secure additional resources through
the growing of vegetables for sale as well as participating in a savings and
lending scheme.

However while their livelihoods have been improved, the women spoke
emotionally about how this project gave them much more than that. In Jane's
words ' before we were begging, now we are the same as others. We have our
dignity back. Instead of crying for help we can plan and have a better
future'. Our hope is that this future is not put on hold yet again due to
the deteriorating conditions in Zimbabwe.

To contact Trócaire's press team:

Republic of Ireland Meabh Smith Press Officer, Trócaire.

T: +353 1 505 3238

M: 086 277 6064

Northern Ireland & UK David O'Hare , Press Officer, Trócaire.

T: 028 90 80 80 30

M: +44 7900053884

Britain: Failed Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers Will Not Be Quickly Deported

VOA

By Tendai Maphosa
London
05 December 2007

The British Home Office says the ruling against a Zimbabwean asylum seeker
does not mean automatic removal of people who failed to gain asylum in the
United Kingdom.  Tendai Maphosa reports for VOA from London that a recent
ruling has sparked concern among other failed asylum seekers that they will
be deported.

A Home Office spokesperson told VOA that removal of failed asylum seekers
would not be automatic.  She said an appeal of a ruling against asylum would
halt the removal process before it begins.  If there was no appeal, she
said, the government would encourage those affected to go home voluntarily
before being forcibly removed.

A Home Office statement said it was pleased by last week's Asylum and
Immigration Tribunal ruling dismissing an appeal by a Zimbabwean asylum
seeker.  She had appealed against being sent back to Zimbabwe.  She said she
feared persecution for having sought refuge in the United Kingdom.

The statement added that the British government has grave concerns about,
what it called, the appalling human rights situation in Zimbabwe, and said
it continues to press for an end to abuses.  It also said refuge for asylum
seekers with a genuine need for protection will continue to be given.

The ruling caused anxiety among failed asylum seekers who had been awaiting
the appeal result.  Under British law, a legal appeal results in other
similar cases being put on hold while the courts decide.

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has the same standing in British law as
a regular court.

Since the appeal was launched in 2005 there have been no deportations of
failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe, except some who had committed crimes or
used third-country passports to enter the United Kingdom.

Deri Hughes-Roberts of The Refugee Legal Center, which represented the
woman, said the tribunal's ruling contained some positive elements that
would allow Zimbabweans who oppose their government to seek refugee status,
if not asylum.

"In many respects the ruling is quite helpful, for example, because it
accepts that even a low-level supporter of the opposition in Zimbabwe may
well be deserving of refugee status," she said.  "So the decision does not
affect the principle [that] every case should be considered on its own
merits and there is a lot in this judgment to support individual claims."

But Hughes-Roberts said high-profile political activists, who could be
imprisoned or persecuted for their views or actions, stood a better chance
of being granted asylum prior to the ruling.

Magistrates’ strike derails journalist’s trial

Zim Online

by Nqobizitha Khumalo Thursday 06 December 2007

PLUMTREE – The trial of a Zimbabwean editor, Bright Chibvuri, who is accused
of violating the country’s tough press laws failed to kick off in Plumtree
yesterday due to the ongoing strike by magistrates.

Chibvuri is being charged under the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) that bars journalists from practising their profession
without accreditation from the Media and Information Commission (MIC).

The trial, which had been set for yesterday after being postponed for the
same reasons last November, has now been pushed to 31st January 2008.

Chibvuri, who is the editor of The Worker, a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) publication, was arrested in Plumtree on 3 March while
attending a ZCTU workshop.

Chibvuri first appeared before a Plumtree magistrate two days after his
arrest on charges of violating Section 83 of AIPPA that makes it an offence
to work as a journalist without accreditation from the MIC.

The editor argued that although he was still to be registered, he had
already submitted his application to the MIC as required by the law.
Chibvuri has since been accredited by the MIC.

At least a hundred journalists have been arrested and harassed by state
security agents over the past seven years for allegedly violating the
country’s tough press laws.

Zimbabwe, which has also banned four newspapers including the country’s
biggest circulating daily, The Daily News, is considered among the worst
violators of press freedom in the world. - ZimOnline

Zanu PF Businessman Severely Assaults MDC Activist

SW Radio Africa (London)

5 December 2007
Posted to the web 5 December 2007

Henry Makiwa

A Zanu PF businessman severely assaulted an MDC activist in Marondera last
week after an MDC rally.

Regina Silas had attended a rally by the opposition party at Dhirihori
Shopping Center near Marondera town, when Isiah Mpazviriho beat her up,
accusing her of bringing agents of "western imperialists" near his business.
Mpazviriho is understood to own a general store at the shopping centre and
is an influential family member of the clan that heads the village.

According to witnesses at the scene, Mpazviriho struck Silas with bricks,
clenched fists and booted feet. She had to be taken to hospital in nearby
Marondera.

MDC member Ian Kay said: "This incident happened after a police sanctioned
and attended rally by the MDC, so the police are aware of it. We have
reported to Igava Police Post and Marondera Police Station and we now await
police action into the matter. So far we have not heard much from the police
except an assurance that they will act upon the case."

The partisan police force has in the past allowed Zanu PF's supporters to go
free after perpetrating violence against the opposition. The case again
raises questions about the sincerity of the ruling party in it's talks with
the MDC, due to the on-going violence against the opposition.

Students arrested, assaulted for wearing Learnmore Jongwe T-shirts

From SW Radio Africa, 4 December

By Henry Makiwa

Police in Kwekwe on Sunday arrested and severely assaulted five student
leaders for wearing T-shirts with a portrait of the late MDC spokesman,
Learnmore Jongwe. Mehluli Dube, Laswet Savadye, Whitlow Mugwiji, Stephen
Chisungo and Gordon Mukarakati were arrested at a police roadblock while
travelling from a Zimbabwe National Students Unions (ZINASU)
leadership-training workshop in Bulawayo. Police accused them of inciting
public disorder by wearing Jongwe’s T-shirts and detained them overnight at
Kwekwe Central Police Station. They were later released without charge on
Monday morning. Dube, who has pending treason charges against him, for
allegedly calling for the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, sustained a fractured
tooth. He said fellow student leaders Mukarati and Savadye, incurred bruises
and lacerations all over their bodies from the beatings. Dube said: "We were
given some rough treatment indeed. The police kept us in the open cold by
the roadside from 8:30pm to around 11:00pm when we were then taken to the
police station and detained for the night. While in the hands of police, we
were subjected to severe beatings by the police officers who used clenched
fists and baton sticks." Jongwe, who was a former legislator of Kuwadzana
constituency, died in prison in 2002. He was the first spokesman of the MDC
at its formation in 1999 and an outspoken student activist. Harassment of
students has escalated as the government refuses to address critical issues
in the education sector, including unaffordable fees and accommodation.

ZCTU condemns Tsvangirai over Matibenga ouster

New Zimbabwe

By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 12/06/2007 01:19:25
ZIMBABWE’S biggest labour union has joined a growing chorus of condemnation
of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s leadership style.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) joins the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe National Students Union
(Zinasu) which have both lashed out at Tsvangirai over the
 “unconstitutional” dissolution of the women’s assembly of his faction of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The ZCTU secretary general, Wellington Chibebe, told the Voice of America’s
Studio Seven that the dissolution of Lucia Matibenga’s executive to be
replaced by one led by Theresa Makone, a Tsvangirai ally, was ill-advised
and ill-timed.

Chibebe blasted: “What kind of father are you who removes the roof of a
house when it is just about to rain and you don’t even know where you will
get the thatching for the house? The rains will come and lash your
 children.”

Chibebe was questioning Tsvangirai’s wisdom of dissolving the women’s
assembly which has sparked internal disharmony, barely four months before
key presidential and parliamentary elections next March.

Chibebe said the women’s advisory council of the ZCTU was totally against
the dissolution of Matibenga’s executive. Matibenga is also the second
vice-president of the ZCTU.

Said Chibebe: “Our slogan in ZCTU is: an injury to one is an injury to all.
So, in a nutshell that is the position of the ZCTU leadership regarding the
MDC women’s assembly.”

Matibenga’s executive was replaced by one led by Makone -- hastily elected
at a restaurant in Bulawayo. Makone is the wife of Tsvangirai’s advisor, Ian
Makone.
Makone’s election has been contested and the MDC is yet to confirm her as
the new head of the women’s wing.

The NCA, one of the MDC’s traditional allies, has already warned that
Tsvangirai’s position is now open to challenge because he had many “too many
mistakes”.

The March 2008 presidential elections, according to NCA chairman Lovemore
Madhuku, are Tsvangirai’s last chance saloon.

The NCA chief said Tsvangirai had now become a “difficult candidate” to
replace President Robert Mugabe following his blunders, the latest being the
violence against Matibenga’s supporters last month.

Said Madhuku: “If he can’t respect his colleagues and members of the party,
then there is no need for his people to have confidence in him.

“You have the MDC on one hand complaining to South African President Thabo
Mbeki of violence against its members by Zanu PF. On the other hand, you
have violence within the MDC perpetrated against the same members of the
same party by thugs within the same movement.

“It’s like taking two guns and you give one each to Tsvangirai and Mugabe
and then decide to be killed by the one held by Tsvangirai, fully knowing
that both are killers.

“Whichever gun fires at you, it will kill you. So violence is violence and
it does not cease to be that because it is coming from the MDC. If you
condemn violence in its strongest terms, then it must be stopped in
totality.”

Reacting to Matibenga’s ouster, Promise Mkhwananzi, the Zinasu president,
said “the people will punish us by voting for Zanu PF, justifiably so” if an
end was not found to “this mudslinging”.

“What kind of government do we want to be when we cannot honour our own
covenants and respect the will of the people? What guarantee is there that
the MDC as it currently stands will deliver a new constitution to the
country and bring back our freedoms?,” Mkwananzi asked.

Outlook grim for Zim SIM users

telegeography.com

Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Following the news that Econet Wireless had raised its mobile call tariffs
by 450%, another Zimbabwean cellco, state-owned NetOne, has also massively
increased its rates with immediate effect, after operating at a loss under a
government price freeze. AllAfrica reports that NetOne is now charging
ZWD35,000 per minute for ‘all calls’, compared to Econet’s new rate of
ZWD45,000 per minute for domestic calls; Econet’s SMS messages now cost
ZWD11,500 each. The increases are due to hyperinflation; according to the
paper, one US dollar currently fetches around two million Zimbabwean
dollars. It is not yet clear whether the country’s smallest mobile operator
Telecel has increased its tariffs.

ZPDP to Hold Press Conference on Thursday Dec. 6th, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Zimbabwe People's Democratic Party to a Hold Press Conference

Harare, Zimbabwe

On Thursday December 6, 2007, the Zimbabwe People's Democratic Party (ZPDP)
will hold a Press Conference to announce the ZPDP renewed vision for
Zimbabwe and the re-launch of its brand to meet the present challenges that
come with Zimbabwean politics today. The Press Conference will take place at
10am.

Date:
Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 10am

Location:
EAST 24 Restaurant
Samora Machel Avenue East
Harare, Zimbabwe

For additional information, please contact the ZPDP Information Dept:
mail@zpdp.org or visit our website at www.zpdp.org

www.zpdp.org

The ZPDP proposes a holistic approach to the economic, political and social
challenges facing Zimbabwe today. Please take a moment to visit our website
and view some of our Policies, Statements and Campaign Programmes.

SA billboard activists are fighting for a free election

By Lance Guma
05 December 2007

The Zimbabwean group behind a series of billboards sprouting up in South
Africa has finally opened up to the media and spoken about their campaign.
Although still concealing his real identity, Reverend Nkululeko from
Zimbabwe Democracy Now, spoke to our Behind the Headlines programme this
week and says they are motivated by a desire to see democratic elections in
Zimbabwe. He said elections should meet the SADC guidelines, which are there
specifically to promote an environment for free and fair polls.

Reverend Nkululeko says a coalition of church and NGO groups is behind their
organisation and helped them erect over 5 billboards in areas like Musina,
Park Station in central Johannesburg and Diepsloot and Thembisa in Soweto.
Two months ago their billboard in Musina hit the headlines when the local
council ordered it be pulled down. Nkululeko told us they had information
that pressure from Mugabe’s government led to the Musina council making that
decision. Within days Zimbabwe Democracy Now had put up a new one and this
led to armed South African police, accompanied by 9 soldiers in a troop
carrier, swooping on the two advertising workers erecting the billboard at
the site.

Since then the courts in South Africa have protected their right to free
expression and the billboard was left intact. Now emboldened by the success
of the first Musina billboard, Zimbabwe Democracy Now have commissioned
their advertising agency to put up more billboards. They are planning one
that will greet visitors on their way to top tourist attraction Robben
Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life in jail. Robben
Island will be changed into the shape of Zimbabwe on the billboard and a
message will ask people to ‘remember those who are still not free.’

The messages on the billboards have gone right to the heart of Zimbabwe’s
problems. Reverend Nkululeko admits a lot of strategic planning is going
into deciding the location and content of the messages. Thembisa in Soweto
for example has a huge migrant population of Zimbabweans and many will be
exposed to the messages. He said: ‘We are asking why there are so many
Zimbabweans in South Africa? The answer is freedom.’ He urged all
Zimbabweans in exile who are able to go back home, to use the opportunity
and vote in coming elections. He says this is the only way to bring about
democratic change.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news