Zimbabwe has passed new laws imposing sweeping curbs of the media ahead of presidential elections in March.

 

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill was passed without a vote in the 150-seat Harare Parliament. The parliament has been adjourned to May 26.

 

The bill is part of a series of government measures intended to stifle dissent ahead of presidential elections scheduled for March 9-10.

 

President Robert Mugabe, 77, is fighting for political survival after holding power since independence in 1980.

 

He is being challenged by Morgan Tsvangirai, 49, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, whose party narrowly lost parliamentary elections last year.

 

The legislation gives the government and the information minister broad powers to license journalists, register media organisations under strict terms laid down by the state and impose severe penalties for infringements.

BBC

 

Friday, 1 February, 2002, 03:08 GMT

Mugabe appears undeterred by international pressure

MSNBC

Britain, U.S. condemn Zimbabwe media law  
  
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 — Britain and the United States condemned the tough media bill passed by Zimbabwe's parliament on Thursday and Britain said it should count in a decision on whether the European Union imposes sanctions. 
 The revised bill is the last of a series of bills that critics say will suppress criticism of President Robert Mugabe in the run-up to presidential elections in March and give security forces broad powers to deal with Mugabe's opponents.
       British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking after talks in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said: ''I wholly condemn the passage of these press laws. I find it almost impossible to comprehend how free and fair elections can be held in Zimbabwe when such laws have been passed.''
       ''That will be a matter which will have to be weighed very carefully in the balance by the European Union to decide whether the sanctions which in principle were decided upon early this week ought to be triggered,'' he added.
       On Monday the European Union gave Mugabe one last chance to ensure free and fair elections, threatening to impose sanctions on the country's ruling elite if Zimbabwe prevents the deployment of EU election observers by Feb. 3.
       The EU would impose a travel ban on the top 20 individuals in Mugabe's inner circle and their families, freeze their assets and ban the export to Zimbabwe of arms and other equipment, which could be used for internal repression.
       Powell said he agreed with Straw.
       ''I've spoken out strongly in the past with respect to the actions President Mugabe is taking within Zimbabwe and I've also condemned the press laws. We are in close coordination with our British colleagues and with others as to what action might be appropriate as we go forward,'' he added.
       The United States has said it too could impose sanctions on Zimbabwean leaders if the elections are not free and fair. But U.S. officials say no decisions have been taken.

Business Day

 

 

HARARE As Zimbabwe's government tries to block out independent media ahead of the March presidential election, a new short-wave radio station has managed to bypass the regime and take to the airwaves.
Barred by legislation from broadcasting in Zimbabwe, SW Radio Africa has set up in Britain, but is run by Zimbabwean expatriates and people who moved from Harare to work on the station.

 

Since mid-December the station has aired three hours a day of music, news and a phone-in programme where listeners dial a local number in Zimbabwe and get a call back to talk on the show.

 

Callers have flooded the line, talking about food shortages in Zimbabwe, the widespread political violence, and the trouble finding jobs during the nation's worst economic crisis to date.

 

One other station, Voice of the People, had already turned to the shortwave solution before the June 2000 parliamentary election. Its programmes are prerecorded in Zimbabwe, and then transmitted from outside the country.

 

There is no effective way to measure the number of listeners in Zimbabwe, but 300000 people have visited SW Radio Africa's website, which offers a simulcast and archives of the broadcasts, said station spokeswoman Gerry Jackson.

 

The last time Jackson helped start a radio station, in October 2000, Zimbabwe's government sent armed police to shut it down and seize its equipment in Harare after less than a week on the air.

 

Government's response to her latest venture has not been kind.

 

"They want to willy-nilly continue to beam their illegal broadcasts in the vain hope of rendering Zimbabwe ungovernable by promoting political violence, tribal division and ethnic hatred," said Information Minister Jonathan Moyo in the state-run Herald newspaper.

 

President Robert Mugabe has even convinced neighbouring states' leaders to criticise the broadcasts. Sapa-AFP.

News24

 

 

Harare - Zimbabwe's presidential candidates have started filing their nomination papers at the adminstrative court in the capital ahead of the election in March.

 

First to file was President Robert Mugabe of the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), whose papers were handed in by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.

 

Next was Mugabe's fiercest rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the leading opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

 

He was followed by Shakespeare Maya of the smaller opposition National Alliance for Good Governance (NAGG).

 

Before they filed their papers, the candidates met with visiting foreign ministers from the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC), who were in Zimbabwe to check on the nation's worsening crisis.

 

The ministers are discussing whether Mugabe has followed up on promises he made at a SADC summit two weeks ago to ensure the vote is free and fair.

 

Artifical boudaries laid down

 

Tsvangirai told the ministers the elections would not be free and fair because of political violence, inaccessibility to the public media by the opposition and impediments created by the newly legislated security act.

 

"Our rallies have been disrupted. There are areas which are not accessible to the opposition ...(because of) artificial boundaries laid to prevent us from campaigning," said the MDC leader.

 

Chinamasa, speaking on behalf of Mugabe, said his Zanu-PF party was committed to a free and fair poll and said the tough security law was meant to deal with the political violence for which he blamed the MDC.

 

"It was passed to deal with the violent situation," he said.

 

At least 13 people have died in political violence since late December.

 

"We in SADC ask you to stop the violence," said SADC foreign ministers spokesperson, Lilian Patel, foreign minister of Malawi.

 

At least five candidates are expected to run for president, but Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the two main contenders. - Sapa-AFP

 

Xinhuanet 2002-02-01 06:03:22
 
   HARARE, January 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Five candidates registered with
the Nomination Court on Thursday presided by the Registrar General
Tobaiwa Mudede to stand for the presidential election set for
March 9 and 10.
   The candidates will be Robert Mugabe of the ruling Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), Morgen
Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Shakespear
Maya of the National Alliance for Good Governance, Wilson Kumbula
of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Ndonga and independent
candidate Paul Siwela.
   Kumbula and Siwela were barred by the High Court on Wednesday
to stand as the presidents of their parties.
   Kumbula will stand for ZANU in his personal capacity after the
High Court interdicted him from standing as president of the party
following a petition by some members to the High Court, arguing
that they had not mandated him to represent the party as its
president. This was the same case with Siwela of Zimbabwe African
People' Union.
   Mudede referred Kumbula to Justice Sandra Mungwira to have the
interdict clarified before he accepted his candidature.
   The interdict, said Kumbula, could either stand as an
independent or as an ordinary person of the party and not as the
president.
    According to the constitution, one should be at least 40 years
old and must be a registered voter to qualify for the candidacy.
And the prospective candidates would bring at least 10 nominators
from all the 10 provinces in the country to qualify for candidacy.

 

News24

'Mugabe would heed Mbeki only'

 

    
 
Cape Town - President Thabo Mbeki had the power to influence events in Zimbabwe and was a man whom President Robert Mugabe could not deny, according to Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

 

But he had done too little and left it almost too late, MDC secretary for economic affairs Eddie Cross said in Cape Town on Thursday.

 

Cross was one of the guest speakers at an SA Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) meeting on the crisis facing Zimbabwe in the run-up to that country's March elections, and the likely impact this will have on the southern Africa region.

 

He shared the platform with party colleague Ian Makone, who is personal assistant to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

 

Cross described the coming elections in Zimbabwe as a "fight to the death". "Mugabe is prepared to do whatever it takes to win," he warned his audience, mainly SAIIA members, journalists and former Zimbabweans.

 

He said he was amazed the South African government was taking Mugabe and what he was doing in Zimbabwe so lightly.

 

He described the Zimbabwean president and his Zanu-PF ruling party as "massively corrupt".

 

'You control the economies of the region'

 

Cross said Zimbabwe was "totally broke".

 

But Mbeki could have halted the economic crisis - which had also affected South Africa, as witnessed by the falling rand - and what was happening in Zimbabwe. "You could have stopped it. Mbeki is the one man Mugabe could not say no to. But Mbeki has not used his power, and has cost his country hundreds of billions of rands."

 

He could have done this because South Africa was the regional superpower. "You control the economies of the region; you control the ports and the infrastructure."

 

Mbeki needed to "sit Mugabe down and tell him, `enough is enough. this has to stop, and this is what I want', and Mugabe could not say no", Cross said.

 

He could not "tell Mbeki to go to hell".

 

"If Mugabe wins this election it will be a catastrophe for southern Africa. It will almost certainly threaten your (economic) stability," he said.

Los Angeles Times

 

Mexico Ends Practice of Giving Land to Poor
 
Latin America: Government scraps program that symbolized nation's revolution but became mired in corruption and disputes.

 

      
By CHRIS KRAUL, TIMES STAFF WRITER

 

MEXICO CITY -- President Vicente Fox's administration has declared an end to the 85-year-old practice of making land grants to the poor, a program that embodied the spirit of the Mexican Revolution but was rife with corruption and property disputes.

 

The agrarian reform movement, which had faded in recent decades, transferred more than half of Mexico's arable land to the indigenous and poor, most of them organized into communal groups called ejidos. About 30,000 such communal groups exist today, and there is little unoccupied land left to redistribute.

 

The move comes at a time when Mexican agriculture is in crisis, hampered by urban migration, foreign competition resulting from free-trade agreements and low productivity caused by laws that restrict individual farm sizes to 256 acres, too small for the economies of scale enjoyed by international giants. Agrarian Reform Secretary Maria Teresa Herrera Tello said Monday that redistribution of land had failed to solve rural poverty and that the government must redirect efforts into making farming more productive.

 

While addressing rural Mexicans' yearning for land, the program's vague ownership rules left a morass of title disputes. More than 343,000 such conflicts are now before special agrarian tribunals. Some of them date to the 1940s, said Arturo Alvarado, a sociology professor at Colegio de Mexico here.

 

"It's a program that has pretended to deliver social justice but, unaccompanied by government support or technical assistance, has often just been a tool for political demagoguery," Alvarado said. Members of the ejidos were perennially subject to political pressure from local or federal bosses who threatened eviction, he said.

 

The general disorganization and uncertainty of Mexican real estate laws compounded the confusion. Ejido members fight among themselves as much as with neighbors over property rights.

 

Previous owners of land awarded to ejido members in the 1970s have successfully gone to court to recover their property. One successful appeal led to the eviction of hundreds of Baja California homeowners south of Ensenada, many of them U.S. retirees, who had bought houses on disputed land.

 

Fox said Monday that the government will try to make legal reforms that would settle ownership disputes. He said about 23,000 disputes were resolved in 2001, his first full year in office.

 

Fox is only the latest Mexican president to try to clarify property ownership. As part of his extensive land reforms in 1992, then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari ordered a census of all ejidos and their members. The initiative did little to untie the legal knots that plague land ownership nationwide.

 

Mexico's 1917 constitution guaranteed land to all citizens who could prove they were poor, landless and bona fide members of certain communities. With varying degrees of commitment, Mexican presidents thereafter redistributed land, which frequently had been under the control of huge estates.

 

Land grants have slowly come to a stop since the early 1970s, when the last spurt of transfers was made under President Luis Echeverria.

 

Salinas' 1992 reforms included a clause that gave ejido members the right to sell off entire grants or individual shares for private development if they could establish ownership. The reforms also eliminated the government's obligation to make land grants to qualified groups, making it more discretionary.

 

"Salinas tried to restore authority in these matters to the communities themselves, for them to manage their land grants as they chose, including selling land into the local real estate market," said John Womack, a Harvard University history professor who has written extensively about Mexican land policy.

 

But less than 1% of all ejido land has been privatized during the past decade, according to a spokesman for the Agrarian Reform Ministry, partly because of the ownership disputes.

It is your Right to Vote!  Take Action to secure that Right!


It has come to our attention that many people, including those who renounce their Zimbabwean Citizenship in preference of their foreign citizenship in compliance with the Electoral Amendment Act 2001, have been receiving NOTICE OF OBJECTION letters from District and Provincial Registries around the country. 

This is in direct violation of the High Court Order granted by Justice Rita Makarau on 25 January, in the case of Morgan Tsvangirai v. the Registrar General and 10 other respondents. 

In order to effectively use this court order, however, anyone receiving these notices must appeal the removal.  This email contains information on your rights as a voter, and suggests ways in which you can respond to a notice of objection, should you receive one. 

Please forward this message to any one else who might benefit from it, and please keep us informed if you receive these notices, or face any difficulty in being reinstated, as it will assist with any further legal challenge.

The letter reads as follows:

Electoral Act Chapter 2.01 (Sect 25)
Notice of Objection

You are notified that I have reason to believe

a) that you are not to be entitled to be registered as a voter in ….. (area)
b) that you are not qualified for registration as a voter in ….. (area)

on the grounds that you have in terms of schedule 3 section 3 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe ceased to be a citizen of Zimbabwe and that, unless you give notice of appeal on the form annexed hereto before the expiration of seven days from the date of this notice, or unless on representation made by you, I withdraw the objection:

c) your claim to be registered as a voter will be rejected
d) your name will be struck off the roll.

If you give due notice of appeal, the matter will be set down for a hearing before a magistrate of the province in which you reside and the day and place appointed for such hearing will be notified in due course.

Signed by constituency registrar, (area)



Your rights
Permanent residence is an implicit part of citizenship. Prior to renunciation in the latter part of 2001 you would have been a de facto permanent resident.

Regardless of the fact that you may have chosen to retain your foreign citizenship over your Zimbabwean citizenship, you are nonetheless eligible to vote as evidenced by the following relevant details extracted from the High Court judgement handed down by Justice Rita Makarau on January 25, 2002:

1. In order to comply with section 28(2) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, for the Presidential elections scheduled for 9 and 10 March 2002, the Registrar General shall ensure that there is in place a common roll.
2. The common roll referred to in 1 above, shall contain the names and such other information as may be necessary, of all persons who have attained the age of 18 years, are citizens of Zimbabwe or, since 1985, have been regarded by a written law to be permanent residents in Zimbabwe and who meet the residential requirements of any particular constituency or have satisfied him that for reasons related to place of origin, political affiliation or otherwise, it is appropriate that they be registered in a constituency in which they do not reside;
3. The Registrar General shall restore to the voters roll of any constituency all voters who, on or before 18 January 2002, were on that roll or were eligible but were refused to be on that roll, who may have lost or renounced their citizenship of Zimbabwe, but who since 1985, have been regarded by a written law to be permanently resident in Zimbabwe;
4. The Registrar General shall make adequate and reasonable administrative arrangements for all voters registered on the common roll who will not be in their constituencies on the polling days, to exercise their vote.



Notes regarding the draft Notice of Appeal Against Objection to Registration
1. The draft is included at the end of this document.  It was prepared with assistance from the Legal Resources Fund, but should not be seen as the end of legal advice.
2. The grounds specified in this draft may not apply to everyone. 
· If, for instance, a person has been removed from being a citizen simply because they have a right to a foreign citizenship, then they should argue that they are still a citizen of Zimbabwe and they are entitled to be registered on that basis.
· Alternatively, they can also say that if they have been a permanent resident in Zimbabwe since 31 December 1985 they qualify on that ground as well, to be a voter.


What you should do if you receive one of these letters
1. Respond immediately.
2. Use the following draft Notice of Appeal Against Objection to Registration - it has been provided by a lawyer with plenty of experience.
3. Preferably hand deliver your response to the relevant registrar's office AND request a receipt for the document OR;
Post your response by registered post
4. Keep us informed of:
· which city/district you reside in and
· when you received your Notice of Objection
· how you submitted your response
· what happens to you next in this regard
This will assist with any further legal challenge.



Electoral Act (Chapter 2:01)

Notice of Appeal Against Objection to Registration

The grounds of my appeal are as follows:

I have been a permanent resident of this country since . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . that is before 31 December 1985.    I am therefore entitled to register as a voter on the common roll in terms of section 3 (1) (b) of Schedule 3 of the Constitution.  I would be grateful therefore if you will retain my name on the voters' roll.

I should mention that although your letter is dated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  I note that the postmark on the envelope containing your letter is dated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   In fact I only received your letter on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  from which date I presume the seven day notice period commences.


Signed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MSNBC

 

Zimbabwe moves to shut down independent press as elections loom 
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan. 30 — Media groups declared Zimbabwe's free press dead after parliament passed a bill essentially gagging independent journalists ahead of the country's contentious presidential election in March. 
The legislation passed Thursday makes it illegal for journalists to operate without government accreditation and allows foreign correspondents into the country only to cover specific events.
       Critical reporting of the government effectively would be banned under the proposed law. It still must be signed by President Robert Mugabe, who has dominated the country's political system since independence in 1980.
       ''The purpose of the bill is to silence the media and to make sure the only voice that is heard is President Mugabe's,'' said Iden Weatherell, editor of the Zimbabwean Independent.
       Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also condemned the proposed law.
       ''I wholly condemn the passage of these press laws,'' Straw said Thursday after meeting with Powell in Washington. He raised the possibility of European Union sanctions against Zimbabwe.
       Powell said the Bush administration is working with Britain and other countries on possible joint steps against Zimbabwe.
       Presidential spokesman George Charamba did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press for comment.
       The bill creates a state-appointed commission with disciplinary powers to withdraw licenses, confiscate equipment and jail journalists for up to two years.
       It is considered symbolic of Mugabe's efforts to wipe out dissent ahead of the elections. The independent press has harshly criticized the former revolutionary.
       The bill shows ''the complete powerlessness of journalists in this really repressive machine Mugabe has managed to build,'' said Yves Sorokobi, the Africa coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
       The organization said it was helping journalists who believed they were in danger to get out of the country.
       Independent newspapers have been essential in exposing the country's economic collapse, the wave of political violence by ruling party militants against opposition activists and the violent occupation of white-owned farms by those militants.
       In March, Mugabe faces Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whose party won nearly half the seats in the 2000 parliamentary elections despite a campaign marred by violence blamed on the ruling party.
       Even before the bill, human rights activists doubted the presidential election could be free and fair amid the violence and chaos of the country.
       Now there is concern that voters cannot make an informed choice if the independent press does not cover the elections.
       ''We defy everything in this (bill). It prevents us from reporting the issues,'' said Basildon Peta, who heads Zimbabwe's union of journalists. ''It's a fascist piece of legislation ... with the main purpose of gagging the media.''
       The government-controlled media barely covers the opposition. During the 2000 election campaign, 92 percent of the stories were on Mugabe's ruling party, said the Media Monitoring Project tracking coverage in Zimbabwe.
       Andrew Moyse, who heads the organization, said the media bill symbolizes that Zimbabwe is ''becoming one of the most repressive societies on the continent.''
       The bill makes ''being a journalist impossible,'' he said.
       About 100 reporters and editors work at independent newspapers and agencies in Zimbabwe. There are no independent radio or television stations as efforts to create them have been squashed by Mugabe.
       Peta and other independent journalists have said they would risk jail by not registering for the required accreditation.
       The government has refused requests from many foreign reporters, including several representing the AP, to enter Zimbabwe. Officials have described previous attempts at regulating the media as efforts to ensure reporters act responsibly.
       Mugabe's information minister, Jonathan Moyo, pushed for the proposed law by attacking white journalists and international news organizations, including the AP, as racially biased.
       Even before the bill's passage, independent journalists only had restricted access to officials and operated under the threat of violence. State authorities refuse to talk to them and the police rarely divulge information.