Reuters
Mon Feb 19, 2007
1:46 PM GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean riot
police patrolled a Harare township on
Monday to stop possible unrest a day
after crushing an opposition rally the
government feared would spark a new
street campaign against President Robert
Mugabe.
Heavily armed riot
squads prevented the Movement for Democratic Change from
holding a
court-approved rally in Highfield on Sunday, firing teargas and
water cannon
to drive away stone-throwing protesters and arresting 122
people.
Political analysts said the crackdown had stoked tensions in
the southern
African country, where people are struggling with a desperate
economic
crisis, unemployment is surging, and where critics say Mugabe is
trampling
over human rights.
The European Union on Monday
extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for another
year, including an arms embargo,
travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and
other top officials over charges
of rights violations.
The sanctions were initially triggered by the
controversial distribution of
white-owned commercial farms to mainly
landless blacks and Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002.
On Monday,
riot squads on foot and in armoured trucks were still patrolling
the streets
of Highfield, but in smaller numbers than on Sunday.
Police armed with
guns, rubber batons, shields, teargas canisters and
launchers were also on
guard at the poor township's main shopping mall,
traditionally a flashpoint
for political clashes.
"It's quiet here, but you can see there that they
are not quite sure yet,"
one resident told a Reuters journalist, nodding
towards one police patrol.
Tension has been rising in recent months over
Zimbabwe's deteriorating
economy and skyrocketing cost of living, prompting
some workers, including
doctors and teachers, to embark on wage strikes as
inflation tops 1,600
percent.
The High Court on Saturday ordered the
government to allow the MDC to hold
its rally, rejecting police arguments
that they needed more time to find the
manpower to monitor it.
RALLY
WORRIED AUTHORITIES
State media suggested the authorities were
worried that the MDC wanted to
use the event to launch a wave of
anti-government protests, and stopped it
"for security and political
reasons".
The media said the rally was to be part of a British-backed
drive "to
galvanise the regime-change lobby" and embarrass Mugabe, who turns
83 this
week and will celebrate his birthday at a huge party organised by
his
governing ZANU-PF on Saturday.
"I think the government's
heavy-handed approach yesterday, the decision to
ignore the court order and
use force has further damaged its image at home
and abroad," said Eldred
Masunungure, a political science professor at the
University of
Zimbabwe.
"Both here and internationally, they are reinforcing the
impression that
they are in trouble, and the use or show of force is just
going to worsen
the tension, it's adding fuel to the fire," he
said.
The MDC had said it planned to use the rally to launch its
presidential
election campaign. The election is due in March 2008 but the
ruling ZANU-PF
party plans to put it off until 2010 and to hold it at the
same time as
parliamentary elections.
The MDC says Zimbabwe cannot
afford Mugabe, charging that the man who has
led the country since
independence from Britain in 1980 is to blame for the
economic
crisis.
Along with the world's highest inflation rate, Zimbabwe has seen
unemployment climb to 80 percent while food, fuel and foreign exchange are
in short supply.
Critics blame the crisis on Mugabe's politically
driven policies, including
the farm seizures. The veteran leader says
Zimbabwe is the victim of
economic sabotage by his
enemies.
(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels)
19 Feb 2007 17:54:14 GMT
Source: IRIN
HARARE,
19 February (IRIN) - A tense calm prevailed in the Zimbabwean
capital,
Harare, on Monday after a police crackdown led to several clashes
with angry
supporters trying to attend an opposition party rally on Sunday,
sanctioned
by the High Court.
There were unconfirmed reports that three people died
in skirmishes between
the police and an estimated 50,000 supporters of the
Morgan Tsvangirai-led
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
who had congregated.
Police said they were investigating.
The rally
was to have seen the launch of the MDC presidential campaign at
the Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfields, a township known for political activism
since the
1950s. The running battles with the police spread to nearby
townships like
Glen View and Glen Norah.
Police deployed six Israeli-made anti-riot
water cannons to spray the MDC
supporters. The water from the cannons
contains chemicals that cause skin
irritation.
An IRIN correspondent
was caught up in the melee and witnessed heavily armed
police beating
opposition supporters with batons and firing teargas into the
crowds. Some
supporters who sought refuge in homes in the township were
followed and
beaten by the police.
All bars in Harare's suburbs were closed by the
police on Sunday. Most
residents in the townships remained indoors on
Monday, while an uneasy calm
lay over the city.
Nelson Chamisa, the
spokesman for the MDC faction, said more than 500
supporters had been beaten
up and had sustained severe injuries. "We are
still making our own
investigations on reports that three of our supporters
were beaten to death.
What we can confirm is that MDC supporters have come
to our offices and we
have referred them to private doctors, since hospitals
are not functioning
well because of the strike by doctors. Many have been
admitted to private
hospitals. A large number sustained broken arms and
legs; others had broken
ribs, while others lost their teeth. It was carnage
of the worst
order."
The police had refused to sanction the MDC presidential campaign
launch,
claiming they did not have enough officers to ensure security at the
rally.
In terms of the country's repressive Public Order and Security Act
(POSA),
police have to be informed of any public meeting.
Although
hundreds of opposition rallies have been barred by police, no
ZANU-PF rally
has ever been stopped from taking place.
The MDC took their case to the
High Court, where a judge ruled that
government had to allow the MDC rally,
but more than 2,000 policemen
barricaded roads leading to the venue and were
seen turning supporters back.
Political commentators said the ruling
ZANU-PF party was uncomfortable with
the opposition launching its
presidential campaign while they were still
locked in internal battles over
the issue of who is to succeed President
Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, who
has been in office since 1980 and turns 83 this week, was
expected to step
down in March 2008, but has suggested that his term be
extended to 2010 so
that joint parliamentary and presidential elections can
be held in that year
to save money.
However, Vice-President Joyce Mujuru and Rural Housing and
Social Amenities
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa are both believed to be intent
on becoming
president next year.
With annual inflation running at
nearly 1,600 percent, shortages of foreign
currency and food, tension has
been mounting in Zimbabwe over the past few
weeks: faith-based and
nongovernmental organisations, church groups, workers
in many economic
sectors, and students have all staged sporadic
demonstrations around the
country.
On 16 February, Tsvangirai's supporters held a lunchtime
demonstration,
during which they attacked and destroyed a police station in
Harare's
central business district and beat up four police officers severely
before
stabbing them in the buttocks with sharp instruments. Several
legislators
from the Tsvangirai faction have since been arrested on
allegations that
they spearheaded the destruction of the police
station.
MDC party secretary-general Tendai Biti was arrested on Saturday
outside the
High Court, where he was getting the court order preventing
police from
stopping their rally.
On 12 February, illegal vendors,
tired of having their wares confiscated by
municipal police, beat up 10
officers who wanted to take their goods.
At the end of this week, the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions will hold a
general council meeting, where
calls for a nationwide strike are expected to
be endorsed.
Doctors
and nurses have been on a strike for more than a month, demanding
better
salaries and working conditions.
According to the latest survey by the
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, a family
of six has to fork out at least
US$1,800 a month to meet basic living
requirements including food, shelter
and education. The average salary
earned by most Zimbabweans is about $100.
Reuters
Mon Feb 19, 2007
4:25PM GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, Feb 19 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader said on Monday
the fight against President
Robert Mugabe had reached a new level, a day
after police crushed an
opposition rally to prevent anti-government protests
from
spreading.
Heavily armed riot squads stopped the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
from holding a court-approved rally in the capital Harare on
Sunday, firing
teargas and water cannons at stone-throwing protesters and
arresting 122
people.
"May I take the opportunity to place on record
a growing mood of defiance
evident in the past week as our struggle for
change takes a new turn,"
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, said in
a statement.
"Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF (party) are at their weakest.
We must express
ourselves out of the crisis through action. We have had
enough. We say thus
far and no further," he added.
Political analysts
said the crackdown on the opposition had stoked tensions
in the country,
where people are struggling with a deep economic crisis,
marked by surging
unemployment and chronic shortages of fuel, food and
foreign
exchange.
The European Union on Monday extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for
another
year, including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on
Mugabe and
his top officials over the charges of rights
violations.
The sanctions were initially triggered by the government's
controversial
distribution of white-owned commercial farms to mainly
landless blacks and
Mugabe's disputed 2002 re-election.
On Monday,
riot squads on foot and in armoured trucks were still patrolling
the streets
of Harare's Highfield township as well as its city centre, but
in smaller
numbers than on Sunday.
Police armed with guns, rubber batons, shields,
and teargas canisters were
on guard at the poor township's main shopping
mall, traditionally a
flashpoint for political clashes.
"It's quiet
here, but you can see there that they are not quite sure yet,"
one resident
told a Reuters journalist, nodding towards a police patrol.
RALLY
WORRIED AUTHORITIES
The High Court on Saturday ordered the government to
allow the MDC to hold
its rally, rejecting police arguments that they needed
more time to find the
manpower to monitor it.
State media suggested
the authorities were worried that the MDC wanted to
use the event to launch
a wave of anti-government protests, and stopped it
"for security and
political reasons".
The media said the rally was to be part of a
British-backed drive "to
galvanise the regime-change lobby" and embarrass
Mugabe, who turns 83 this
week and will celebrate his birthday at a huge
party organised by his
governing ZANU-PF on Saturday.
Eldred
Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of
Zimbabwe,
said the government's heavy-handed approach toward the opposition
and its
decision to ignore a court order had damaged its image at home and
abroad.
"Both here and internationally, they are reinforcing the
impression that
they are in trouble, and the use or show of force is just
going to worsen
the tension, it's adding fuel to the fire," Masunungure
said.
The MDC had planned to use the rally to launch its presidential
election
campaign. The election is due in March 2008, but Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party
plans to put it off until 2010 to coincide with parliamentary
elections.
The MDC says Zimbabwe cannot afford an extended Mugabe rule,
charging that
the man who has led the country since independence from
Britain in 1980 is
to blame for the economic crisis.
Along with the
world's highest inflation rate at about 1,600 percent ,
Zimbabwe has seen
unemployment climb to 80 percent.
The veteran leader says Zimbabwe is the
victim of economic sabotage by his
enemies. (Additional reporting by Ingrid
Melander in Brussels)
SABC
February
19, 2007, 18:45
The European Union extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for
another year today
including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on
Robert Mugabe, the
Zimbabwean president, and other top officials. The list
of those affected by
visa bans and the freezing of assets includes more than
100 ministers and
officials. The EU accuses them of human rights violations,
and violations of
freedom of speech and assembly in Zimbabwe.
The
sanctions were initially triggered by the controversial distribution of
white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002. Critics say the seizures have destroyed Zimbabwe's
economy, turning the country from a regional agricultural leader to a nation
barely able to feed itself amid a deepening crisis marked by food and fuel
shortages and inflation nearly 1,600 percent.
EU-Africa summit on
hold
Mugabe says the sanctions are responsible for Zimbabwe's economic crisis
and
he says his land policy was necessary because former colonial power
Britain
did not make good on promises at the time of Zimbabwe's independence
in
1980. Plans for an EU-Africa summit have been on hold since 2003 because
Britain and several other EU countries refused to attend if Mugabe was
invited, while African states refused to attend if he was not invited,
diplomats have said.
Portugal hopes to stage such a summit in the
second half of this year but it
is not clear how it will get around the
Zimbabwe issue. - Reuters
Yahoo News
Mon Feb 19, 9:37
AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - The Zimbabwean government has shrugged off a
decision by the
European Union to extend sanctions against President Robert
Mugabe's regime,
saying the move would not have any
impact.
"Sanctions or no sanctions, it is not going to make any
difference at all,"
junior information minister Bright Matonga told AFP
Monday.
"It is the same old story, we have had sanctions for the past
five years.
"They can extend the sanctions whenever. We do not give a
damn actually."
The EU slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his coterie after
the long-serving
ruler won elections in 2002 which the opposition insists
were rigged.
The move to extend the sanctions for another year was taken
without debate
at the start of a ministerial meeting in Brussels, the EU's
German
presidency said.
The travel ban and also an assets freeze
extend to anyone who has "taken
part in activities which seriously
endangered democracy, respect for human
rights and the rule of law in
Zimbabwe".
Those measures cover some 130 people, including Mugabe, his
current and
former cabinets and leaders of his ruling Zimbabwe African
National
Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party.
The travel ban on
Mugabe has caused problems over the years, notably with
regard to EU-Africa
summits.
During the past weekend the 17th and 18th February 2007 both factions of
the
MDC attempted to hold meetings, as is their right in terms of section 21
of
the Zimbabwean Constitution, which were frustrated through the actions
of
the police, the courts and the Minister of Home Affairs.
In
Bulawayo the MDC (Mutambara faction) intended to launch its defiance
campaign
at the Bulawayo City Hall on Saturday afternoon the 17th February
2007.
Having initially received no objection from the police it was then
subjected
to a police raid on the 15th February 2007, the effective arrest
of its
administrator on the 16th February 2007, who was then advised that
the
meeting had been banned. When Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube
MP
appealed to the Minister of Home Affairs in terms of section 25 (5) of
the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA) he was told by the Minister that
a
decision had been taken to issue a blanket ban on all political meetings
due
to the " volatile situation prevailing in the country". Given the fact
that
the Minister has no right to issue blanket bans a decision was taken to
defy
the illegal banning of the meeting, whilst at the same time a
challenge
against the ban would be launched in the High Court.
An
urgent court application was made seeking an interdict preventing the
police
from banning the meeting. One of the points raised was that section
25 (5)
of POSA violates both sections 18 and 21 of the Zimbabwean
Constitution.
Section 25 (5) gives the Minister of Home Affairs the ultimate
power to
determine whether political meetings should be allowed to take
place or not.
It is common cause that the Minister of Home Affairs is also
a politician (in
the present case a politician who holds a very senior
position in the ZANU PF
party). To that extent the Minister of Home Affairs
is not a neutral
arbiter; indeed he is a person with an obvious bias.
Section 18 (9) of
the Constitution of Zimbabwean states that " every person
is entitled to be
afforded a fair hearing within a reasonable time by an
independent and
impartial court or other adjudicating authority established
by law in the
determination of the existence or extent of his civil rights
or obligations".
Section 25 (5) of POSA clearly violates this right as it
gives a member of
one political party the right to determine the affairs of
another competing
political party. This section also offends section 21 (1)
of the Constitution
which states that "no person shall be hindered in his
freedom of assembly and
association". The power given to the Minister of
Home Affairs in this regard
is an unreasonable hindrance in the exercise of
the right to freely assemble
and associate.
Regrettably the situation was further compounded when the
Registrar of the
High Court in Bulawayo was unable to locate a single judge
who could hear
the urgent application. It is common cause that judges are
expected to be
available 24 hours a day and at the very least a duty judge
should be
readily available at all times. It should be stressed that this is
a
constitutional obligation. The same section 18 (9) in the
Constitution
states that everyone is entitled to "a fair hearing within a
reasonable
time". It is a well established practice a duty judge should be
in place at
all times to hear urgent applications immediately. The absence
of a duty
judge in Bulawayo, either through dereliction of duty or through
deliberate
action, resulted in a serious breach of the MDC's constitutional
rights to
seek an urgent interdict against the police and the Minister of
Home
Affairs. The Judge President is urged to investigate the matter and
to
discipline those responsible.
What happened in Harare over the
weekend appears to confirm that the ZANU PF
regime is determined to flout the
rule of law. Unlike what happened in
Bulawayo the MDC (Tsvangirai faction)
was advised of the banning of its
meeting scheduled for Sunday the 18th
February 2007 early enough to lodge an
application in the High Court during
normal business hours. Commendably the
High Court in Harare granted an
application in favour of the MDC confirming
that its meeting could go ahead.
However in an apparent confirmation of the
general directive advised to
Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube by
the Minister of Home Affairs on
Friday the 16th February 2007, of that a
general ban on political meetings
had been imposed, it has now been reported
that the police disregarded the
High Court order and refused to allow the
MDC to carry on with its meeting.
Other news reports detail the deployment
of hundreds of police officers in a
determined effort to prevent the meeting
from taking pl
ace.
If
these news reports are correct, and we have no reason to doubt
their
veracity, the police must be condemned in the strongest possible terms
for
this flagrant disregard of an order granted by the High Court of
Zimbabwe.
In a statement I released last month I said "The truth is that the
Judiciary
will always be seen by Zanu PF as some cumbersome appendix which
is
necessary to maintain the façade of democracy and which on occasions can
be
useful in furthering a political goal. But the Judiciary will never be
an
institution which is revered by Zanu PF as an indispensable part of
a
Zimbabwean democracy". Sadly the events of this past weekend provide
further
evidence that that statement is true.
The wanton violence used
by the police against supporters of the opposition
in both Bulawayo and
Harare must also be condemned in the strongest possible
terms.
In any
normal functioning constitutional democracy the flagrant disregard of
an
order of court and its constitutional obligations by the police would
result
in the head of that police force being forced to resign. That of
course will
not happen in Zimbabwe because it is not a constitutional
democracy. However
we nevertheless call on both the Commissioner of Police
and the Minister of
Home Affairs to resign in view of the disgraceful events
which have occurred
in Zimbabwe this past weekend.
The Hon David Coltart
MP
Shadow Justice Minister
Bulawayo
19th February 2007
Zim Online
Tuesday 20 February 2007
By Brian
Ncube
BULAWAYO - A senior Zimbabwean army officer has ordered scores of
villagers
resettled Zimbili Farm in Membesi, some 45km east of the second
city of
Bulawayo to vacate the property or face dire consequences, ZimOnline
has
learnt.
Soldiers from Imbizo Barracks in Bulawayo are said to
have stormed the farm
and threatened to shoot the villagers unless they
moved out by Friday this
week.
Sources said the soldiers were acting
under orders from a senior army
officer, identified as Major General
Nicholas Dube. Dube could not be
reached for comment on the matter
yesterday.
The villagers say they were resettled on the farm in 2000 as
part of
President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme under which vast
tracts of
land were seized from whites for redistribution to landless
blacks.
Trouble for the villagers began last November after the army
officer told
the villagers to move out of the property arguing that the farm
had been
allocated to him.
Attempts to broker peace between the
villagers and the army officer by
Matabeleland governor Angeline Masuku, are
said to have failed leading to
Dube seizing the farmhouse last
month.
"The soldiers accused us of disrupting farming activities at the
farm which
they said belonged to their boss. They said they will shoot us,
including
our wives and children if they found us here next
Friday.
"We don't know what to do because it was the government that
brought us
here. It appears we have two difficult options to choose from,
either we
leave or we die here," said Lot Moyo, one of the
villagers.
Masuku confirmed the rift between the villagers and the army
officer saying
she was still consulting her records to check who is wrongly
occupying the
property.
"I am aware of the conflict but cannot act
now because I am still trying to
consult the land ministry to find out who
is wrongly occupying the land. We
need to move on and solve this issue once
and for all," she said.
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said he was
not aware of the matter but
promised to crack the whip if it was established
that soldiers abusing their
authority by threatening villagers.
"I am
definitely going to take that to the army bosses to check if the
allegations
are true," said Sekeramayi.
Black villagers have often complained in the
past that senior ruling ZANU PF
officials, army and government officials
were hounding them of the farms
they occupied at the height of farm
invasions about seven years ago.
Mugabe has also admitted that government
ministers and senior army officials
had used their privileged positions to
grab several farms for themselves
against the government's policy of one-man
one-farm. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 20 February 2007
Own Correspondents
HARARE
- Police on Monday failed to bring to court nine senior officials of
the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party who were arrested
over
the weekend following an unsanctioned demonstration in Harare.
The nine,
who include MDC secretary general in the Morgan Tsvangirai-led
MDC, Tendai
Biti and Glen View legislator Paul Madzore, failed to appear in
court at the
Regional Magistrates' Courts in Rotten Row in Harare.
"We expected them
in court this afternoon (Monday) but we have been told
that they have been
moved to other police posts. So we are scurrying around
to try and have them
in court as soon as possible," said Martin Makoni, a
lawyer who is
representing the MDC officials.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the
MDC, also confirmed that the police
had failed to bring to court his party
colleagues. Under Zimbabwe's laws,
suspects must be brought to court within
48 hours after their arrest.
"We are still trying to ascertain where they
are being held," said Chamisa.
Meanwhile, police maintained a heavy
presence in Highfield suburb, the scene
of violent protests last Sunday.
Sources within the police say there were
fears within the government of
further unrest following the weekend
protests.
Residents say the
police had continued to maintain a heavy presence in the
suburb with crews
of police officers wielding baton sticks and tear gas
canisters still
patrolling the streets.
In Bulawayo, the police yesterday released seven
MDC supporters who were
arrested for attending last Saturday's launch of a
defiance campaign against
plans by the ruling ZANU PF party to extend
President Robert Mugabe's term
by two more years.
The defiance
campaign was launched by Arthur Mutambara who heads the smaller
faction of
the splintered opposition party.
The seven were set free after they paid
Z$250 admission of guilt fines.
The MDC supporters were being charged
with violating the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA) which makes it an
offence for Zimbabweans to gather in
groups of more than three to discuss
politics without first notifying the
police.
"The seven were fined
$250 each by the police after spending the weekend in
police cells. They
were arrested by the police outside the city hall which
was supposed to be
the venue of the MDC meeting," said Kossam Ncube, a
lawyer representing the
seven.
Both factions of the MDC have vowed to resist plans by ZANU PF to
extend
Mugabe's term in office. - ZimOnline
The Herald
Business
Reporter
THE Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of
Zimbabwe is this
week set to hike tariffs for international calls after
Zimbabwean cellular
phone operators cut down the number of international
telephone calls from
Zimbabwe last week citing uneconomic
charges.
Sources said the regulator was approaching the issue "as a
matter of
urgency", saying it was looking into submissions made by the
sector.
Without disclosing the proposed tariff margins by the cellphone
companies,
sources indicated that the rise could be
"substantial".
"Potraz is looking into the matter and something might
happen this week," a
Potraz insider said yesterday.
Mobile phone
operators argued that the current tariffs were "weak",making it
difficult to
raise foreign currency to pay for termination rates, charged by
foreign
networks to connect cellphone calls to recipients in their
respective
countries.
Average rates for international calls are around $90 per
minute. Local
operators are required to pay their termination rates in
foreign currency.
United Press International
HARARE,
Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The government of Zimbabwe is banning all
opposition
political gatherings in an attempt to suppress discontent in the
African
nation.
Heavily armed riot police began enforcing the new rule by
breaking up a
rally in one town and preventing a gathering from taking place
Saturday in
the capital city of Harare, The Telegraph
reported.
Previously, gatherings were permitted provided police had
granted
permission.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said in
court documents that due to
rising tension security ministers decided to ban
all political meetings
except those associated with
by-elections.
Unrest in Zimbabwe is being fueled by economic collapse
and an inflation
rate of nearly 1,600 percent, the highest in the
world.
New Zimbabwe
By Mary
Revesai
Last updated: 02/20/2007 05:06:47
IT IS time once again for the
people of Zimbabwe, the majority of whom can
no longer afford three square
meals a day to experience "famine at the
banquet" when President Robert
Mugabe and his supporters stage yet another
feasting orgy this week to mark
his 83rd birthday.
In December, ordinary Zimbabweans struggling to put
food on the table were
confronted with images in the media of delegates to
the ZANU PF people's
congress held at Goromonzi High School gorging
themselves on inordinate
mountains of food.
The incongruous scenes of
lavish partying in the midst of austerity and
outright hunger for the
majority of the populace will be repeated this week
when the Soviet-style
21st February Movement stages festivities to pay
homage and show adulation
to Mugabe. Companies and bankrupt parastatals are
required to contribute
towards the $300 million budget for the bash, to be
hosted by the Midlands
Province.
They are also expected to insert sycophantic advertisements in
the media
congratulating "His Excellency" on his longevity and expressing
adulation
for the Dear Leader. The secretary general of the Zanu PF Youth
League,
Absolom Sikhosana, has set the tone for the kind of ingratiation
expected
with his claim that Zimbabwe could do with at least "one million
Mugabes".
Sikhosana, who looks more middle aged than youthful, urged young
Zimbabwean
to emulate the exemplary life of the man who has led the country
for 27
years with such disastrous results.
This is why at Zanu PF
functions, Sikhosana, who emerges from the woodwork
regularly to act as
chief bootlicker, cannot explain why only 100 "Born
Frees", that is 10 from
each province, will attend the festivities when the
21st February Movement
is touted as an organisation designed to benefit
young people born after
independence in 1980.
It is no secret that the majority of the youngsters
attending the
festivities who are supposed to interact and relate to an
octogenarian old
enough to be their great-great grandfather no longer
celebrate their own
birthdays because of the economic hardships their
parents face daily.
Many more who were not invited to the food fest have
been orphaned by AIDS
and go to bed hungry. The large amounts of money being
spent to focus
attention on one man could be put to better use if the
"birthday boy" were
not so addicted to being hero-worshiped.
Instead
of blowing more than $300 million on food and drink mostly for Zanu
PF fat
cats, the funds could have been channeled towards paying school and
examination fees for thousands of so-called "Born Frees" throughout the
country who have dropped out of school because of economic
difficulties.
There are countless needy groups and worthy causes that
could be supported.
It is a sign of gross insensitivity and imperviousness
to the suffering of
the people for Mugabe not to feel any pangs of
conscience or a sense of
discomfiture about flaunting such conspicuous
consumption for the sake of
massaging his ego when many Zimbabweans can no
longer keep the wolf from the
door because of the ruined economy for which
he bears the blame.
Aid agencies released figures recently showing that
even more Zimbabweans
than originally estimated will need food aid this
season. It is indefensible
that the head of state, whose violent and
haphazardly implemented land
reform exercise has ruined the agricultural
sector, does not give a hoot
about the plight of the people who now have to
scrounge for basic
commodities.
That he sees nothing wrong with
calling for belt-tightening for the
generality of the people while he and
his cronies maintain and flaunt their
opulent lifestyles does not portray
infallibility and dedication to lofty
ideals as Mugabe's spin doctors would
have everyone believe.
I read an article in a magazine not long ago about
the wedding of Queen
Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh in
1947. At that time,
the sun truly did not set on the vast British Empire but
the Queen's father,
King George VI directed that there should be no lavish
spending and the
event should be mooted. This was in sympathy with his
subjects who were
still struggling under rationing and economic hardships
caused by the Second
World War. With inflation standing at almost 2000
percent and an
unemployment rate of more than 70 percent, Zimbabweans are
experiencing
similar difficulties which are exacerbated by the fact that
they are being
endured in peacetime.
It is clear that whether it is
through expensive galas, a fuel guzzling
motorcade or inordinate
globe-trotting, the Zimbabwean leader never thinks
about the plight of the
people and the need to empathise.
The 21st February Movement celebrations
this year ironically serve to prove
the veracity of a charge by maverick
nationalist, Edgar Tekere that one of
the reasons why Mugabe has lost
direction is the cultivation of a cult
personality around him.
Since
the publication in December of his memoirs, A Lifetime of Struggle, in
which
he blames Mugabe for the ruination of Zimbabwe's economy, Tekere has
been
under sustained vitriolic attack by Zanu PF apologists. These
bootlickers
have tried to paint a picture of the Zimbabwean leader as
someone who can do
no wrong and dismissed Tekere as a mentally unstable
character who is not
fit to criticise the supposedly saintly Mugabe. In a
most un-statesman like
manner, Mugabe has sarcastically echoed these cruel
aspersions and dismissed
Tekere as someone who should not be taken
seriously.
But Mugabe's
eagerness to be placed on a pedestal and virtually worshipped
during events
like the 21st February Movement celebrations shows that he is
the one who
has gone "bonkers" as South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond
Tutu once
said.
For him to be prepared to see teachers, who are paid slave wages
and live
below the poverty datum line, being forced to cough up $4 000 each
to make
the day of adulation and feasting possible is to demonstrate beyond
doubt
how absolute power has corrupted him absolutely.
Meaningless
and money gobbling oddities like the siren-blaring motorcade,
the endless
airport send-offs and welcomes that rob the economy of hundreds
of man-hours
and the 21st February Movement parties that benefit no one
would not
continue if Mugabe had not become so hooked on being idolised.
Zanu PF
may stoop so low as to expel Tekere, but the fact remains that he
spoke the
truth on the quality of Mugabe's leadership.
Mary Revesai is a New
Zimbabwe.com columnist and writes from Harare. Her
column will appear here
every Tuesday
BLANTINA Sevenzai (34) was beaten by overzealous
policeman with button sticks on Sunday outside her yard in Highfields, when she
was going to pick up her eight year old daughter next daughter.
Blantina a teacher at a local primary school in Highfields was in severe
pain and could not sit or walk properly when The Zimbabwean visited her at her
house before leaving for treatment at Beatrice Hospital and later by her
private doctor.
The 12 policemen said they taught she was leaving to attend a
Movement for Democratic Change organised by the Morgan Tsvangirai faction which
had been scheduled at the Harare grounds.
The police on Sunday unleashed violence, barricading roads and bringing business to a standstill ahead of the opposition party’s rally, which eventually failed to take place as they went on a spree beating people.
Her daughter is still pregnant with fear as the sight of her mother crying in pain when she was being beaten was still haunting her.
By Tichaona Sibanda
19 February
2007
The Chiredzi South by-election has been 'won' by Zanu (PF)'s
Callisto
Gwanetsa. According to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
the
election was marred by voter apathy. But apathy is not quite the correct
word for mass intimidation and a climate of vote rigging.
National
director of ZESN, Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, said out of a possible 50
000
voters only about 15 000 cast their votes on Saturday. She said at some
polling stations less than 20 people cast their votes the whole day. Only
29% of registered voters cast their vote.
Gwanetsa will now take the
place of Alois Baloyi, a Zanu (PF) legislator who
died in September last
year. Under normal circumstances Gwanetsa should not
have stood for election
as it is illegal for a serving army officer or a
civil servant to do so.
Chipfunde-Vava said despite information that
Gwanetsa was still a soldier
they were having problems proving the
allegation.
But election
observers in Chiredzi South saw him driving an army vehicle as
well as using
army resources to run his campaign in the constituency. His
former boss,
retired General Vitalis Zvinavashe, even threatened villagers
in Chikombedzi
against voting for the opposition.
According to a pre-election report
compiled by ZESN, Zvinavashe allegedly
said that if the people voted for the
opposition they would be treated like
rebels. The government would cut food
aid and deploy soldiers to deal with
such 'rebellious'
residents.
Chipfunde-Vava said Gwanetsa took victory with 10 401 votes.
Emmaculate
Makondo of the Tsvangirai Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
polled 3 300
votes.
Nehemiah Zenamwe, of the Mutambara MDC had 674 votes,
while Maekani Chauke
of the United People's Party (UPP) garnered 896
votes.
Eddie Cross, policy coordinator for the Tsvangirai MDC, said
Gwanetsa's
'victory' was a very predictable result in the circumstances. 70
percent of
all polling stations in Chiredzi South had no MDC presence as
their agents
were denied access.
A statement released by the MDC
information department described the poll as
a farce and accused Zanu PF of
vote buying and intimidation ahead of the
weekend election. Zanu PF denied
the charge.
Of concern also to opposition parties was the fact that the
regime used
erasable ink as opposed to indelible ink. As a result there are
genuine
suspicions that Zanu PF supporters voted more than
once.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance Guma
19 February
2007
On Monday the Zimbabwe Teachers Union (ZIMTA), the largest union
representing teachers, instructed its members to join a general strike
initially called by the more radical but smaller Progressive Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). Jacob Rukweza the Harare province chairperson of the
PTUZ told Newsreel that Tendai Chikowore, the ZIMTA president, issued
circulars to all schools advising teachers under their union to go on strike
with immediate effect. The move follows 2 weeks of negotiations between
government and the Civil Service Staff Association Apex Council, which
represents all government employees.
Its reported government on
Friday made an offer of Z$180 000 per month as a
basic pay for teachers. The
new figures would have meant the highest paid
teacher getting Z$240 000 per
month, excluding allowances. The Apex Council
however refused to accept the
increase saying it fell far below the Z$566
000 poverty datum line. Rukweza
says ZIMTA is welcome to join the strike and
that as long as the interests
of the two unions converged to benefit
teachers they were prepared to work
together.
Raymond Majongwe the Secretary General of the PTUZ has in the
past described
negotiations with government as a waste of time. With ZIMTA
abandoning talks
with government the PTUZ position seems to have been
vindicated. Teachers
under the PTUZ, doctors, and nurses have all been on
strike for several
weeks, demanding better pay and working conditions. The
civil service union
representing over 200 000 workers is considering strike
action in the next
few days and has already placed adverts in the media,
explaining their
position. Students grouped under the Zimbabwe National
Students Union are
also protesting exorbitant tuition
fees.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
19 February
2007
May I take this opportunity to place on record a growing
political mood of
defiance evident in the past week as our struggle for
change takes a new
turn? I wish to thank the thousands of peace-loving
Zimbabweans for their
resilience, determination and resolve to take on the
regime and express
themselves.
On Sunday, the people of Harare showed
a deep sense of maturity as they
confronted hired gangs of thugs who defied
a High Court order barring the
police from interfering with our
rally.
May I acknowledge the powerlessness of senior members of our
professional
police force who failed to execute their Constitutional mandate
to respect
the rule of law and to observe a legitimate High Court order?
Sunday's
events in Highfield, Harare, exposed the existence of a dangerous
political
oligarchy, which has since usurped the ship of state and taken
charge of
Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF are at their weakest level;
they have
lost confidence in our professional police officers and other
traditional
state structures. Mugabe is now heavily dependant on a rogue
militia and
partisan paramilitary forces in his war against the
people.
Zimbabweans are a peace loving people. That they have painfully
avoided
anarchy, chaos or arms of war to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis
demonstrates
their faith in an orderly political transition and a sovereign
right to
change. We shall see democratic change through peaceful public
expression.
All indications show that the hour for action has
come.
Fellow Zimbabweans, our nation is firmly agreed that unless we
unite against
this dictatorship, we are headed for an abyss. Across the
political divide,
we are all convinced that the status quo is untenable; our
destiny as a
people could be in tatters; and unless we get out of this deep
hole, we risk
our values and our common humanity.
I am pleased to
note that those who previously vilified us are now on our
side, having
experienced what it means to live in a criminal state. There is
nothing left
in the feudal Zanu PF plate to maintain a patronage system; the
propaganda
war against the people has run its course; it is now clear to all
that we
must act to save Zimbabwe from collapse.
A criminal state, run by a gang
of criminals and a military oligarchy,
cannot negotiate itself out of chaos.
A criminal state cannot enter into
social contracts with the people. A
criminal state cannot run credible and
legitimate elections.
A
criminal state cannot be expected to respect the rule of law, adhere to
the
principles of good governance and craft coherent policies for Zimbabwe.
It
is a state without a nation. For 27 years, Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF have
abandoned the nation. Our country has long disintegrated into a loose
coalition of clans and tribes, all desperate for a single national identity.
From Nyanga to Chipinge, right through Chiredzi, Masvingo, Gwanda to Binga
and Omay, the people feel neglected and abandoned by the regime in Harare
and are subsisting on their own.
Mugabe has marginalized millions of
people in the southern and western half
of the country; all our urban areas,
our mining settlements and any other
centres of valid economic activity. It
is true that Zimbabweans - across the
political, ethnic and racial divide --
strongly feel a sense of exclusion
from the national and natural benefits of
their birthright. We wish to deal
with this fragmentation and build a nation
based on unity, fairness,
compassion, solidarity and
inclusiveness.
For 27 years, our quest for national integration remains
an elusive dream.
And, over the past seven years, the regime has sought to
divide the people
further, pretending to empower a new class of citizens
from within ranks.
That experiment has failed as evidenced by the chronic
food shortages,
record unemployment, a collapsed economy, policy distortions
and rampant
corruption.
For the past seven years, Zanu PF and Mugabe
have abandoned the social
agenda and masterminded the collapse of national
institutions - all in the
name of preserving political power through
criminal means. The period saw
the imposition of a totalitarian state, using
an ageing squad of serving and
former senior military officers. The period
saw the political injection of
senior military officers into civilian
administration and other state
institutions. By so doing, Mugabe formed a
reckless military oligarchy whose
main task is to run bogus elections and to
suppress the people of Zimbabwe.
The idea is to push Zimbabwe to a civil war
and to avoid accountability in a
post-Mugabe era.
Fellow Zimbabweans,
the replacement of the civilian state with partisan
Mugabe loyalists from
the military oligarchy has far-reaching implications
for our nation. The
military oligarchy has created a militia whose task is
to deal with civil
society and the opposition. This military oligarchy
destroyed commercial
agriculture; the military oligarchy has taken charge of
fuel supply and
distribution, wildlife management, trade and commerce,
transport,
agriculture inputs, food distribution and other strategic
locations - all
designed to prop up Mugabe and manage election outcomes.
The regime has
had to print money to meet the unending demands of this new
administration,
which shuns free markets, and standard norms of commerce for
distributing
goods and services. All public works have been shelved. All
social services
have succumbed to political opportunistic infections from
the military
oligarchy. The rule of law has long been abandoned. The people
are
forgotten.
As was clear in Chiredzi in the just-ended election campaign,
Zanu PF and
Mugabe desperately need the services of the military oligarchy
to remain in
power. Examples abound where reliance on a military junta for
civilian
administration and governance matters always ended with unkind
results to
democracy.
Added to our existing political morass is
Gideon Gono - the governor of the
central bank. Gono's latest political
statement capped it all: failure is
now certain. Gono literally threw in the
towel. The crisis in Zimbabwe is
political. No amount of tinkering with
phony cash and excessive controls
shall address the root cause of the crisis
of governance.
Our message to Gono is simple. By pushing through a dispensary
of
painkillers, you are wasting our time and delaying the resolution of the
national crisis. Give way to political alternatives. Our message to Mugabe
is equally simple. Allow the people to exercise their sovereign right to
introduce viable political alternatives.
A social contract is impossible
when workers and their leaders are denied
opportunities to express
themselves. The social contract is already dead, as
long as workers are
brutally attacked whenever they wish to assemble and
talk to each other. The
social contract is history when journalists and
newspapers are banned from
public service and ordinary people are refused
access to a free market of
ideas.
Co-operation among political players and other stakeholders for
whatever
national programme is only possible in a healthy climate in which
tolerance,
respect for differences and a non-partisan approach to national
affairs are
part of the game. With millions of Zimbabweans languishing in
the Diaspora,
denied a basic right to vote and determine the fate of their
country, Zanu
PF and Mugabe can forget about any meaningful social
contract.
Instead of wasting time talking about social contracts in a
totalitarian
state, let us focus our attention on a new Constitution. The
rest
immediately falls into place. The national crisis is now beyond Zanu
PF's
ability to attend to alone. The solution lies in our proposals,
enunciated
through our roadmap whose signposts for progress require sincere
and open
dialogue, a nationally accepted transitional arrangement, a new
Constitution, a confidence-building window and a free and fair
election.
We are going into a Presidential election in 2008 convinced that
the
election shall give us a superb opportunity to reverse the chaos before
us
and embark on a massive reconstruction, rehabilitation and healing
process.
We are determined to get into the Presidential election under a new
Constitution in order to restore confidence in the electoral process. We are
against elections under conditions, which produce contested outcomes. Our
call for elections in 2008 is out of the realization that the national
crisis cannot be extended by another day. We have had enough. We say thus
far, and no further.
Our priority shall reside in the resuscitation of
fundamental institutions
of governance, the restoration of the rule of law
and the introduction of an
accountable and caring government. The actions by
workers, activists and all
professionals on the ground are commendable and
more is on the way.
We believe the time to act is now. We make no apologies
for organizing and
harnessing the power of the people. We must express
ourselves out of the
crisis through action.
Morgan
Tsvangirai
President.
19 Feb 2007 09:37:12
GMT
Source: UNHCR
TONGOGARA REFUGEE CAMP, Zimbabwe, 19 Feb (UNHCR) -
Siri Kirogi moved through
the tall stalks, pulling weeds from the irrigation
channels and filling a
sack with ripe ears of maize.
Although only 16
years old, Siri and her younger brother are caring for the
plot assigned to
their family at Tongogora Refugee Camp when not attending
school. She also
grows vegetables in a small garden beside their home in the
camp.
Siri arrived at the camp in 2004, a refugee fleeing the
violence in her
native Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She was
accompanied by three
brothers, including the eldest who is now 20. In the
jargon of the UN
refugee agency, they were unaccompanied minors; to most
people they were
simply orphans whose parents had been killed in the DRC's
wars.
The plot in the field and the vegetable garden are far from enough
to feed
the four young refugees but they do provide a vital supplement.
Rations were
reduced at Zimbabwe's only refugee camp during the last year,
although they
still meet the daily requirement of 2,100 Kcal.
That
was not just an economy measure. As in other countries, UNHCR is
pursuing a
policy of making long-time refugees as self-reliant as possible -
providing
essential aid but ensuring it does not create a culture of
dependency.
"This field is important because there is no other source
of food but a
vegetable patch and the rations," Siri said as she adjusted
the plastic
pipes the refugees use to siphon water into the field from
concrete-lined
ditches.
The 2,100 refugees at the camp in eastern
Zimbabwe are almost all from the
Great Lakes area - DRC, Rwanda and Burundi
- and show little enthusiasm for
returning home. The 20 hectares of maize
that are now being harvested
provide a welcome supplement to their diet.
Most of the fields will be
planted next with beans.
A further 40
hectares is available but will require extra investment. The
land, located
in one of the driest areas of Zimbabwe and with poor sandy
soil, depends on
irrigation water brought from a river 15 kilometres away.
It was given
for the use of refugees when Tongogara was first established in
the 1970s to
house refugees fleeing the civil war in Mozambique, just over
the eastern
border. The camp was later closed but reopened in 1997 to house
refugees
driven out of the Great Lakes area.
The refugees have been using the
fields on the outskirts of the refugee camp
for several years but UNHCR,
through its local partner World Vision, decided
a year ago to focus on
improving agriculture. After receiving expert advice
to develop the fields
and improve agricultural skills, the refugees said
yields this year have
soared.
"I was a tailor but now there's no work for me," said Bizimungu
Dieudonne,
who arrived in 2003 from Burundi and was carrying a sack of maize
on the
back of his bicycle. "There is no option. That is why I am doing
this. We
have finished growing maize and the manager says there will be a
meeting to
discuss what we grow next."
Each family gets a plot of
0.08 hectare - enough to grow about 80 kg of
maize. Dieudonne said it would
enhance the diet of his five children for the
next two months. About 250 of
the 650 family units in the camp have plots
and more would like to
participate. Eight local Zimbabwean families have
been included, reducing
potential tension. However, while the area under
cultivation can be
increased somewhat, refugees will continue to need
rations.
"Zimbabwe
is a very small country and demand for land is very high. The
opportunities
for refugees are very limited. Those who want to do
agriculture will not get
enough land," said Tapiwa Huye, a field officer
with World Vision. "But the
population of refugees has now seen the value of
agriculture. They had
feared it was a way to get them off of rations but now
many want to join the
project."
The economic problems in Zimbabwe and sensitivity over land
present
formidable obstacles to full local integration of refugees. A few
refugees
each year are resettled to third countries like Canada, Australia
and the
United States. UNHCR wants the remainder to be as self-sufficient as
possible while awaiting a lasting solution.
"The farm plots don't end
the problem. But at least they can supplement
their rations," said Jennifer
Msimbo, a UNHCR community services assistant
who lives at the camp and
recognises the danger of dependence on handouts.
"And in the long-run the
refugees are expected to go back home."
By Jack Redden
In Tongogara
Refugee Camp, Zimbabwe
TSVANGIRAI argues with police officers after his party's rally was cancelled by heavy force ISRAELI-made anti-riot water tanks like the one above were used to crush the protests |
By Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 02/19/2007
THREE people were feared dead as hundreds others sustained serious injuries
when riot police swarmed a poor township in Harare to stop an opposition rally
Sunday.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was due to address a rally in Highfield hours after his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party won a High Court order re-instating the rally which had been cancelled by the police on the grounds of lack of manpower.
Truckloads of riot policemen and notorious government-backed militia from the Border Gezi Youth Training School invaded the Zimbabwe Grounds early Sunday morning to crush an MDC rally called to protest against rising prices, a deteriorating economy and the proposed extension of President Robert Mugabe's rule to 2010.
A strong crowd of about 10 000 people was sent scurrying in all directions as the armed police fired tear gas and water cannons into the crowd in a bid to disperse them.
Angry crowds hit back by throwing stones and rocks at the armed officers and the baton-wielding militia.
Sensing danger, the police called for reinforcements from the Support Unit which quickly unleashed the Israeli-made water cannons and anti-riot tanks which arrived in Highfield at the nick of time.
The water tanks are mounted with a cannon that can target a range of about 50 meters. For the first time, since their purchase from Israel in 2002, they were used to crush a rally.
The three water canon tanks sprayed the toxic water everywhere resulting in uncontrolled panic in and around the Zimbabwe Grounds. In the ensuing pandemonium, it is claimed that three people died as police used live ammunition as riots escalated.
Correspondents reported sightings of "three motionless bodies", but it could not be verified with the police or hospital authorities if the people had fainted or actually died.
The MDC, in a statement, also raised the prospect that three of its supporters might have died in the violence.
"Three people are feared dead while 127 people have been arrested and that is the price they have paid for turning up for an ordinary party rally," Nelson Chamisa, the party spokesman said.
Tsvangirai and his entourage twice had to change routes as Highfield resembled a war zone when the angry crowd blocked major roads into and out of Highfield with large boulders.
A group of journalists and some members of the MDC top brass sought refuge in the maize fields as police fuelled the carnage, indiscriminately beating anyone seen walking on the streets.
All shops and flea markets were closed as the beatings spread to bars and restaurants at Machipisa Shopping Center.
In one incident, police fired tear gas near the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Canaan. Service was brought to a halt as congregators fled from the church. They were, however, forced back into church when the armed militia and police came charging at them.
Police refused to comment on why they had defied a High Court order by Justice Anne Mary Gowora which granted Tsvangirai to hold his rally in Highfield.
The police also refused to comment on the violent disturbances squarely blamed on them by the MDC and neutrals who were caught up in the orgy.
Earlier on Friday, Highfield police had refused to sanction the rally claiming lack of equipment and poor manpower to police the rally.
Tsvangirai tried despairingly to get an explanation from Machipisa Police Station officer in charge as to why they defied the High Court Order.
The MDC leader was threatened with arrest and beatings but stood his ground before he decided to abort his scheduled rally.
The MDC warned that no amount of repression would stop them from their fight against Mugabe and Zanu PF rule.
"This is the beginning of a protracted and sustained campaign to fight Mugabe. The MDC will not be cowed into submission by this desperate regime. We won't rest until we take back this country to democracy," Chamisa said in an interview with New Zimbabwe.com.
"What we have seen today is a dictatorship that is running scared. There is no doubt that we are now in a police state. The heavy-handedness used by police to stop a High Court-sanctioned rally shows how desperate this regime has become."
While the MDC deplored the knee-jerk tactics used by the police to crush the rally, Zanu PF cadre Joseph Chinotimba said the MDC had invited the wrath of the law-enforcement agents by assaulting a policeman on Friday.
"Vakarova mupurisa nge Friday. Saka ngavaregi kuchema nekuti ndivovakatanga nazvo (they (MDC) assaulted a police officer on Friday and must not cry foul because they stirred a hornet nest)," the war veteran said.
On Friday, police fought running battles with MDC youths who were marching along Samora Machel Avenue in solidarity with the striking doctors and college lecturers.
A male police officer was injured during the demonstrations but the MDC denied its members had assaulted him as claimed by the state-run Herald newspaper on Saturday.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti and legislator for Glen View, Paul Madzore, were arrested in connection with Friday's demonstration.
It was unclear if the two legislators had been released late Sunday.
Mail and Guardian
Pretoria, South Africa
19 February 2007
04:48
The office of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe,
former Spanish
President José María Aznar and the United States Navy Seals
all had some
connection to the alleged attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea,
the Pretoria
Regional Court heard on Monday.
State
witness Ivan Pienaar, who helped with aeronautical
logistics for the coup,
told the court how he flew Simon Mann -- alleged
mastermind of the coup --
to Zimbabwe a day before Mann and others were
arrested in Harare, allegedly
on their way to Equatorial Guinea.
After struggling to get a
flight plan approved for his return
flight to South Africa, he was told to
stay put by the control tower at the
international airport in Harare because
clearance from President Robert
Mugabe's office was needed for his plane to
leave.
"It was not normal to get presidential clearance for a
flight,"
Pienaar told the court.
He said this was the
second time that he flew Mann to Harare and
had to wait on the runway for
presidential clearance before returning to
South Africa.
Pienaar told the court that this had concerned him and that he
phoned Mann
to tell him that everything might not have been as Mann had
hoped in
Zimbabwe.
However, the plane with 60 men from South Africa,
allegedly
destined for Equatorial Guinea, left South Africa the next day and
landed at
Harare, where they were allegedly supposed to pick up weapons
provided by
Zimbabwe's Defence Industries.
They were,
however, arrested and spent more than a year in a
Zimbabwean prison for
violating that country's immigration, aviation,
firearms and security laws
before returning to South Africa.
Pienaar was testifying
against eight of those men, namely
Raymond Stanley Archer, Victor Dracula,
Louis du Preez, Errol Harris,
Mazanga Kashama, Neves Tomas Matias, Simon
Morris Witherspoon and Hendrick
Jacobus Hamman, who are facing charges of
contravening sections of the
Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act
in the Pretoria court.
Except for Mugabe, Pienaar also told
the court that Mann had put
everyone under pressure to get the coup done
before March 14 2004, when the
Spanish election was to take
place
"It was so that the Spanish prime minister could
sanction the
new Equatorial Guinea president before he had to leave office,"
Pienaar told
the court.
Exiled opposition politician
Severo Moto was to take over the
reigns of the East African country after
long-time ruler President Teodoro
Obiang Nguema Mbasogo was overthrown and
flown out of the country on March 7
2004.
Pienaar told
the court that apart from the men from South
Africa, they were told that a
team of the Special Forces of the United
States Navy, the Seals, were also
on standby "to go in".
Like several other state witnesses,
Pienaar said he was under
the impression that the South African government
approved the mission. He
added that the US, British and Spanish governments
also allegedly gave their
approval for the coup. -- Sapa
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Chenjerai Chitsaru
MANY advocates and campaigners
for a truly democratic dispensation in
Zimbabwe must be sensing the ominous
prospects of a country heading for a
state of emergency.
The
government of President Robert Mugabe appears frustrated in its efforts
to
rally the whole country around its ill-concealed drive to revive the
1980s
plan to transform the political system into a one-party state one.
After
the High Court granted the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led
by
Morgan Tsvangirai, permission to hold a rally in Highfield Sunday, the
police decided that was not to be.
Earliest reports suggest, far from
being "depleted" - as they told the High
Court on Saturday - the police
descended on Highfield, the venue of the
rally, in large enough numbers to
send MDC supporters fleeing in all
directions as the time for the meeting to
start approached.
The upshot is that the rally did not take place as
planned: the government,
probably at the highest level, decided allowing the
rally to go ahead would
be taken as a sign of it weakening in its resolve to
thwart each and every
attempt by the opposition to assert its democratic
rights.
Not many analysts can be under any illusions that this government
prefers to
operate in an atmosphere in which the population in general, but
particularly dissenting voices, tremble with fear whenever they contemplate
any action which can conceivably be viewed as a naked challenge to the
authority of the government.
And this rally, given the seal of
approval of the law, was going to be one
of the most robust challenges to
President Mugabe's authoritarian policies,
No doubt Tsvangirai, starved
of any occasion during which he could declare
his own resolve to continue
his open opposition to Mubabe's policies, would
have unloaded all the
pent-up frustration he has felt since the last time he
was allowed to
address a public rally in a city in which his party enjoys
far more support
than Mugabe's Zanu PF, since the parliamentary elections in
2000.
Yet
the violent break-up of the intended rally must be just one of the
signals
of Zanu PF's readiness to resort to "emergency" tactics to survive
what is
probably one of its greatest challenges to remain in power.
An incident
during the hearings of a parliamentary portfolio committee in
Harare last
week was a graphic illustration of the amount of irregularities
the
government is having to deal with in its desperate efforts to present a
respectable image to the public.
Called to give evidence to the
committee was the intelligence officer of the
central bank, the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe. This was on an extremely
ticklish issue: the sale of gold and
the role of the central bank in
ensuring there are no
irregularities.
There had been public evidence given to the committee of
influential
politicians and other government officials being involved in the
illicit
trade in gold, much to the embarrassment of the
government.
The committee's hearing was being held in public, in the
presence of the
media. Before he gave his evidence the RBZ intelligence
officer, asked to
give his evidence in the absence of the media.
The
suggestion was that most of what he was about to reveal would not sound
correct or even proper to public ears. Although it was assumed there was a
"security" element to the evidence he was about to give to the committee,
there was inevitable suspicion that some of it might involve "important
people" or information revealing serious acts of impropriety.
That
the officer was protected by the committee only heightened suspicion
among
journalists that there was "dirt" which the RBZ dare not wash in
public.
Soon, the government may be forced to evoke legislation
recalling the days
of the state of emergency, shortly after independence in
1980.
Some of the legislation already in place already serves this
purpose: both
the PublicOrder and Security Act and the Access to Information
and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) are seen by many advocates of
democracy as
being equivalent in their restrictive content to the laws under
the old
state of emergency.
Some critics go as far as to suggest that
the government, in apparently
infiltrating the media, is effectively trying
to muzzle freedom of
expression, a device used widely during the state of
emergency as official
censorship.
Two newspapers, a daily and a
weekly, have been publicly alleged to be
controlled, fully or partly, by the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO),
the dreaded security arm of the
government.
Mugabe has never been comfortable running a country with the
sort of
democratic institutions that ensure public accountability.
An
example was his impunity in refusing to release the report of an
investigation he ordered into the origins of Gukurahundi, the massacre of a
reported 20 000 people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces by a North
Korean-trained brigade sent in by Mugabe's government to quell a rebellion
by a group linked to Zapu, the junior partner in the government of national
unity formed after independence.
Only after an independent
investigation by the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace reported the
extent of the atrocities committed by the
government soldiers did Mugabe
concede that it was "an act of madness" which
he hoped world never be
repeated.
Another sign of the impending approach of government
heavy-handedness in the
handling of opposition to its acts is the recent
jailing of captains of
industry over what is alleged to be the illegal
increase of prices of basic
commodities, whose prices are officially
controlled by the government.
The new leader of the Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), Marah
Hatuvagone, appeared, initially to take a
soft stance on what some of her
colleagues in the organization considered to
be an outrageous act of
betrayal by the government.
Recently, she has
hanged tack, joining in criticizing the prison terms as
counter-productive.
Even Gideon Gono, the RBZ governor, has joined in the
criticism.
His
criticism sounded strange to some of his critics.
Last year, Gono invited
a South Korean academic to speak on the way his
country had revived its
economy during the era of one of its dictatorial
rulers, Park Chung Hee. To
many critics, Gono seemed to be advocating the
suspension of many civil
liberties if the economic revival was to succeed.
In his latest monetary
policy review statement Gono advocated a social
contract, involving the
government, business and labour, to help stabilize
the economy.
One union
leader accused him of "day-dreaming".
The workers would not support the
scheme, he said. If the unions stood their
ground and refused to take part
in a social contract the prospects of a
state of emergency might be enhanced
considerably.
To some of his critics, Mugabe seems to be waiting for just
such an
opportunity to deal with the unions, which he accuses of being the
political
allies of the MDC, but also to be backed by Western countries and
their
unions.
Mugabe seems to be frustrated with the unwillingness of
the opposition,
including the unions and civil society, to join him and Zanu
PF in
demonizing the West to the same extent that they are demonizing
him.
There is little doubt Mugabe blames them all for the French
president,
Jacque Chirac's failure to invite him to a conference to which he
was
invited the last time it was held.
In fact, Mugabe blames them
for the "illegal" sanctions which he claims the
West have imposed on the
country since the 2000 land reform fiasco.
There are, no doubt, Zanu PF
leaders who would not flinch from imposing a
state of emergency on the
country if Mugabe was convinced that this would
ease his political and
economic challenges.
Unfortunately for him, his latest setback can only
settle very uncomfortably
with his fellow African leaders, particularly in
Francophone Africa. For
most Zimbabweans, this might have the effect of
making Mugabe more
conciliatory towards the opposition.
Yet, knowing
how unpredictable the man is, some might fear that it could
drive him into a
tighter corner, leading him to contemplate very seriously a
state of
emergency as a last resort.
International Herald Tribune
Published:
February 19, 2007
Misspent your country's wealth? Waged war
against an ethnic minority? Or
just tired of those pesky good governance
requirements attached to foreign
aid by most Western governments and
multilateral institutions?
If you run an African country and have some
natural resources to put in
long-term hock, you've got a friend in Beijing
ready to write big checks
with no embarrassing questions. That's nice for
governments, but not so nice
for their misgoverned people.
China's
president, Hu Jintao, recently completed a 12-day, 8-nation African
tour in
which he dispensed billions of dollars' worth of debt relief,
discounted
loans and new investments. His itinerary included established
democracies
like South Africa and hopeful newer ones like Liberia. But it
also included
Sudan and Zimbabwe, two of Africa's worst-governed and
deadliest
dictatorships.
Beijing's huge purchases of oil and other resources have
made it the
continent's third-largest trading partner. Its callous yuan
diplomacy is a
growing problem for some of Africa's worst-off people.
China's oil appetite
has drawn it into an ugly partnership with Sudan, which
is waging a
genocidal war in Darfur that has already killed at least 200,000
people.
China has blocked the United Nations Security Council from ordering
Sudan to
accept an effective peacekeeping force and has shielded Sudan from
any
serious punishments. On this trip, Hu wrote off Sudanese debts and
provided
an interest-free loan for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to build
a new
presidential palace. Another favorite is Zimbabwe's
president-for-life,
Robert Mugabe. That is bad news for Zimbabweans hoping
for free elections,
sane economic policies or merely a peaceful transition
once the octogenarian
finally departs.
Even in Africa's
better-governed countries, China's growing economic role
has not been much
help to the poor. Chinese mining investors in Zambia, as
focused on the
bottom line as any capitalists, have drawn complaints from
workers and
environmentally minded neighbors. China's lending banks do not
subscribe to
the international guidelines, known as the Equator Principles,
that are used
to monitor and manage the social and environmental impact of
major outside
investments. And a flood of cheap Chinese manufactured goods
has pushed some
of the poorest and most marginal workers deeper into poverty
and
unemployment.
China isn't the first outside industrial power to
behave badly in Africa.
But it should not be proud of following the West's
sorry historical example.
From The Financial Mail (SA), 16 February
Deal with it
By Peter Honey
SA's
immigration system is a mess - from unskilled refugees through to
highly
skilled professionals. But the tide of immigrants is growing, with a
wide-ranging impact on SA society. To trace the fault line in SA's
immigration system we begin at a makeshift jail in a demobbed army base
outside Musina, the bustling frontier town that nowadays feeds on the
desperation of Zimbabweans moving back and forth over the nearby Beit Bridge
border post for food and supplies. It is here that SA's encounter with
illegal immigrants begins. It ends in suburbs across SA where their presence
has become a fact of life. On a recent day, in what used to be a large
warehouse, a bedraggled group of prisoners sweats under a pall of
despondency. In the rank and captive heat 50 or 60 of them sit or lie on
padded canvas mats strewn haphazardly on the concrete floor: Zimbabweans and
Malawians mostly, but also four Indians who claim to have weaved their way
down Africa in search of new livelihoods, and a lone Somali who says little
but whose eyes speak unfathomable sadness.
These are remnants of
the most recent "catch" by local army patrols and
police; a rounding-up of
foreigners without permits or passports, who may
have crawled under the
electrified razor-wire border fence or bribed their
way past corrupt
officials. Earlier that morning, 284 such illegals were
trucked back to
Zimbabwe, says one of the police officers assigned to guard
the captives. By
tomorrow there will probably be as many again to
repatriate, he adds; in the
pre-Christmas season it ran to 500 or more a
day, many of them multiple
returnees. As I drive out of the army base, a
truck rolls in with another
intake of illegals. A short while later,
standing on Beit Bridge spanning
the Limpopo River, I watch two SA soldiers
marching a clutch of newly caught
illegals along the service road that runs
along the border fence, taking
them for documentary checking, detention and
eventual return to Zimbabwe.
This, it seems, is the main preoccupation of
security officers in these
parts. "Yes, I will come back," one of the
Malawians in the warehouse prison
asserts. No doubt he will. But what then?
What if he succeeds in getting in
and staying? "I can work the farm," says
one. "I want to do construction,"
offers another. These are typical
refrains, spotlighting the tragic futility
of this incessant churn of
crossing, capture, deportation and
re-crossing...
The border fence - an elaborate construction of wire
hoops and electrified
wires, built in the 1980s - is now little more than a
hideous joke. Holes
abound in the mesh where people have crossed repeatedly
over the years; the
electricity is kept at low voltage, if at all, to set
off an alarm, but is
easy to avoid. Anyway, the main fence stops a few
kilometres east and west
of Beit Bridge, replaced by a simple barbed-wire
fence, rickety and cut in
many places. It's simply a matter of walking
across the usually dry Limpopo,
stooping under the wires, and one is in SA.
The main challenge is the
distance and summer heat - and crocodiles when the
river is flowing. "At
least crocodiles don't take bribes," mutters a Musina
municipal official
with a gallows grin. Most who make it past the security
net head for farms
in the vicinity where they will work for between R700 and
R800 a month, says
Jacob Matakanye, who runs a legal advice office in
Musina. He has just
secured sponsorship from international human rights aid
group Atlantic
Philanthropies, mainly to assist refugees and prevent them
from being
exploited by unscrupulous employers.
Matakanye says it
was not uncommon for farmers and other bosses to hire
illegals for about a
month and give them up to the authorities without
paying them. But that scam
has become rare since it was exposed and the
authorities began taking a
harder line, he says. "Most people who cross the
border illegally have no
money, and they work for a few months until they
have enough to move on to
better jobs further south, specially in Gauteng,"
he says. There they must
take their chances in either lying low illegally,
finding casual work, or
applying at the department of home affairs for
permits as asylum-seekers or
refugees. Asylum-seeker permits can take two
years to work their way through
the home affairs backlog, but the piece of
paper proving an application is
pending is enough - at least in theory - to
protect the holder from arrest.
That may be one reason why in major centres
like Johannesburg, suburbs such
as Yeoville and Hillbrow are crammed with
foreigners openly plying their
trade, where Igbo or Shona languages are more
commonly heard than SA
dialects. Mozambicans, it is said, tend to congregate
in townships such as
Alexandra; Somalis, it seems, can do business and
thrive anywhere. But in
Cape Town, especially, where their traders' acumen
has roused latent
xenophobia in some local communities, they have been
subjected to murderous
attacks that left at least 21 Somalis dead last year.
No-one seems
able to provide accurate numbers of these foreigners in SA and
their impact,
positive or negative, on the economy. There is mounting
evidence that many,
if not most, foreign Africans move to and from SA in a
constant flux. The
longer illegal immigrants remain undocumented, the more
they run the risk of
arrest and deportation. Most detainees are held in the
Lindela repatriation
centre near Krugersdorp - a privately run facility that
is SA's main holding
and processing camp for illegals. The cost of all of
this circular policing
and repatriation is difficult to pin down, though all
concerned agree it
runs to many tens of millions of rand each year. Home
affairs says it
repatriated and deported nearly 210 000 illegals in 2005, a
26% increase
over the previous year and well above the 163 000 average of
the past 12
years. How many of these are repeat asylum-seekers or refugees
it doesn't
say. The economic collapse of Zimbabwe has made that country the
single
biggest source of illegal immigrants in the past two years,
overtaking
Mozambique. Since last May SA has deported more than 80 000
people back to
Zimbabwe, many of them from other countries, says Hans-Petter
Boe, Southern
African regional representative of the International
Organisation for
Migration, which opened a repatriation facility on the
Zimbabwean side of
Beit Bridge 10 months ago to provide food, transport and
assistance to
deportees. But the nationalities of deportees may reflect less
the
proportion of immigrants entering SA than the desire by the authorities
to
target particular nationalities, says Sally Peberdy, project manager of
the
Southern African Migration Project (Samp ).
to be continued...
Silence
Chihuri
ZANU PF was it again full throttle, descending on the hapless
community of
Chiredzi like a thunderstorm in pursuit of an increasingly
elusive vote. The
main intention as usual, was to inflict as much shock and
awe on the rural
people in and around Chikombedzi while masquerading as
benefactors
splattering state food all over the place.
Despite
scrapping through and wining the seat courtesy of the fractured and
fragmented MDC, the apathy shown from the extremely low turnout of less than
30% of those registered to vote goes a long way to show how generally,
Zimbabweans have become fed up of ZANU PF abuse. The allegations that
opposition polling agents were still subjected to the sub-human treatment
that has always been the norm in elections also shows that ZANU PF is not
going back on dirty tactics but actually advancing with impunity. The need
for unity of purpose in the opposition could never be over emphasised in
circumstances like this.
While the people came out in their
droves to take the deserved food
handouts, that did not spur them out in
equal strength to vote for a party
that has completely turned into a monster.
Neither did dragging of the likes
of Joseph Musika from the sick -bed pay the
desired dividends, nor did the
predatory militaristic antics of Vitalis
Zvinavashe scare the people out of
their homes. Not even the motherly Amai
Mujuru would woo the women to swap
their pots and pans for the ballot
papers
Food is what the poor people of Chiredzi and those in
other rural parts of
Zimbabwe are yearning for, not threats from people like
Zvinavashe who have
obviously benefited from the hand of ZANU PF that rewards
generously all
those who parrot the party line. No Zimbabwean has ever
forgotten that on
the even of the 2002 presidential elections Zvinavashe was
one of the
politically alligned service chiefs who made an unprecedented
statement that
they would never salute a president who never fought in the
liberation war.
Even in his retirement the life General is executing his
avowed duties to
the letter.
The ZANU PF government has
survived on threats ever since its inception in
1980. During the first
elections at independence ZANU PF openly threatened
to return to war should
they lose the elections to ZAPU or any other party
for that matter. Back then
ex-ZANLA combatants were actively urged to "bury
their weapons and turn
themselves empty-handed into the designated assembly
points" and the grand
plan was to resort to these should their party lose
the elections. Acts of
violence and intimidation were witnessed in the then
war-fatigued areas of
Masholand though these were to be surpassed by the
genocide style Gulurahundi
reprisals.
Although in 1985 the shadows of Gukurahundi were still
re-visiting many
people in their dreams, the threat of going back to that
dark reality was
not enough to scare especially the people of Matabeleland
where ZAPU swept
all the newly delimitated constituency seats. However, in
the Midlands the
tactics worked and ZAPU lost all its five seats to ZANU PF.
While the 1990
general elections might have been held after the Unity Accord,
they were
also held against a backdrop of the most severe ever drought that
made
Zimbabweans to taste yellow sadza for the first time. With the inception
of
ZUM to aid the stubborn though regional ZANU Ndonga, the temperature
was
again raised. People were threatened with starvation and the unkown
should
they vote for the opposition.
The threats turned to
cold-blooded murder in the 2000 parliamentary
elections when for the first
time, the new and vibrant Movement for
Democratic Change posed a real threat
to the ZANU PF hegemony. The threats
were put into practice in all manner and
form. Reports of violent incidents
including the killing of opposition
activists became the order of the day
and this pattern was sustained into the
runner up to the 2002 presidential
elections. Some of the incidents that have
been documented by organisations
such the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum on
election related violence make
really sickening reading.
There
is a long list of murdered people, the most well known cases including
that
of Chiminya and Mabika among many others, and the minute details of
other
similarly violent actions such as rape, beatings, torture, burning
down of
houses and the general destruction of property that has been rampant
during
all election periods. But from the look of things, it seems that all
the acts
of violence are only serving to harden the people against an
increasingly
inhumane government and ruling party. The recent incidents of
stone throwing
and running battles with the police is a very clear sign of
times ahead
especially as the regime pushes the people to the limit.
While
the MDC party has been the biggest threat ever to ZANU PF, it is
ironical how
the same party seems to be aiding ZANU PF by default. The
functioning of a
party should not necessarily be attributed to its leader
but to its
structures however, the direction of the party is a direct
consequence of the
leader's judgement. At a time like this when there is
desperate need for real
leadership from the opposition politcians, the issue
of Tsvangirai's
judgement or lack of it, can never be ignored and needs
be
revisited.
The recent decision to vow to go ahead with
launching his presidential
campaign for elections that he says he will press
to be held in 2008 may
sound courageous to those who have never heard him
speak before. But to
those who know Tsvangirai fully well, this is yet
another illogical
pronouncement because those words strike a disturbing code
with futile
'Final Push' of 2002 when he promised to lead the march to State
House but
never even tried to do so. Everyone wants the back of ZANU PF and
the sooner
the better. However no toying with the feelings of the people will
help any
desperate but flawed political
grandstanding.
Tsvangirai says elections will be held in 2008
under a new democratic
constitution no matter what, ad this is on the basis
of his determined
confidence. Mugabe's current term expires in March 2008
just a little over
thirteen months from now. This spectre throws in a few
factors that work
against Tsvangirai's pronouncement, and one of them is his
track record in
putting words into action when it comes to major political
pledges.
Secondly, while everyone would like an early political scenario
that
excludes ZANU PF as the main player, elections under the
current
constitution no matter how soon, will be both undesirable and
unbeneficial.
Yet the only but undesirable possibility at this point in time
for elections
in 2008, will be under the existing
constitution!
This is on the basis of the logistical aspects and
practicality of executing
a fully comprehensive all-encompassing
constitutional transformation,
especially where people would be aim for an
all-inclusive consultative and
adoption process. Constitutional change is
itself a daunting process and one
that can never be fast tracked for whatever
political and expedient
intentions. Most countries that have undergone
similar processes have done
so on average in no less than two years and South
Africa is an example. The
situation in Zimbabwe today is a little bit
detached from the ideal
pre-constitutional period and this is due to a host
of factors ranging from
fragmentation to general non-conduciveness to such a
process.
Thirdly, ZANU PF and not MDC can currently make the
decision to go for
elections and for their record ZANU PF should be well
known for ducking
decisions that they deem to be to their detriment. This one
they will resist
vigorously and in typical ZANU PF fashion, unless of course
they are
arm-twisted. Given that ZANU PF is a little bit of Golieth at the
moment,
faced with several Davids that are but steadily swinging their slings
into
the direction of the giant, it is yet to be seen whether ZANU PF
can
actually be tamed.
In typical fashion ZANU PF have thrown
the spanners right into Tsvangirai's
determined quest to press ahead with
preparations in anticipation of
election in 2008 by refusing him his
democratic right to present himself as
the presidential candidate of his
party at Gwanzura Stadium. This once again
forces Tsvangirai back to the
drawing board so he can come up with yet
another convincing and feasible
rallying call because his first card has
been turn over. This is another
dangerous gamble by Tsvangirai and the fact
that ZANU PF has successfully
thwarted the launching rally, will only
encourage them to counter his next
move in the same way while Tsvangirai's
confidence and judgemental
credibility are dampened. This is Mugabe rallying
his charges to destroy
democracy versus Tsavngirai whose own charges in
pursuit of same have been
scuttled on the first battle.
On the other side of the MDC
divide, Arthur Mutambara seems to have read the
mood and realised that what
is required now though a campaign, it is one of
a different nature. In
defiant style Mutambara launched the earlier
announced 'Defiance Campaign'
aimed at defying whatever repressive obstacles
the brutal dictatorship will
put onto the path to democracy. The launch was
held, not without the visible
arm of the regime rearing its ugly presence,
in the second city of Bulawayo
where the state machinery was defied in all
purposes and intends. By any
measure the launch was successful because, even
though the venue of the
launch itself was made inaccessible by the regime,
the spirit and process of
launching the campaign was not stopped.
Ever since they tested
the waters by announcing their much loathed so-called
harmonisation of the
elections ZANU PF have retreated to base and have
betrayed very little if any
hints of their next concrete course of action.
No one knows what exactly they
will do next, other than of course sustaining
the current policy of
repression. It is yet to be known whether they will
still seek to extend
Mugabe's term to 2010 and then hold the elections in
that year, or they will
still hold them in 2008 but under the same
conditionalities. Of course the
simmering divisions in ZANU PF regarding
that issues is a welcome rarity but
one that can never be naively banked on
because the party has a tradition of
papering such cracks to keep the ship
afloat.
Not just
elections in 2008 can turn our fortunes for better because there
are other
political alternative arrangements that can actually usher in the
new but
desirable democratic discourse. The situation in Zimbabwe today is
one that
may actually warrant some kind of a transitional process. For
example, there
could an interim arrangement whereby a caretaker authority
would be installed
to oversee the constitutional process and then the
harmonised elections. This
is one option that may actually be a much more
feasible and ideal situation
because there are factors that are going
against the kind of political
situation that we face today.
Whatever ZANU PF will propose to
do, defying their every move is the way
forward. They need to be defied first
because they are also in defiance. The
fact that they are still overruling
and ignoring court orders only should
send a clear message to Tsvangirai that
the battle for Zimbabwe may no
longer be won in the courts. The rule of law
is observed in an environment
where the authorities enforce it, not where the
authorities cast their
derisory but imposing figure on the legal and judicial
institutions of the
state.
Chihuri writes from
Scotland - contact him on silencechihuri@hotmail.com