http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12152
February 22, 2009
HARARE
(Reuters) - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called for
national
reconciliation and forgiveness on Sunday after years of political
conflict
in the country.
Tsvangirai, who entered into a unity government with
President Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party this month, also said the time had
come to address poverty and
hunger.
"This nation needs national
healing. It has endured so much violence. Let's
forgive those who have
transgressed against us . ," Tsvangirai told
supporters of his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) at a rally in Gweru,
220 km (140 miles) southwest of
Harare.
"If there's no national healing, there won't be
progress."
Zimbabwe's new government urgently needs to find a solution to
the country's
economic meltdown that has led to the world's highest
inflation and a
worthless currency.
Tsvangirai said last week it
would cost as much as $5 billion to repair the
shattered economy.
He
said on Sunday that Mugabe, himself and Arthur Mutambara - leader of a
breakaway MDC faction - were committed to the unity government.
"We
realized that the time had come to sort out this mess. There is absolute
poverty and hunger in this country. This is what prompted us to work with
ZANU-PF and I am sure that is what also prompted ZANU-PF to agree to this
inclusive government," he said.
The MDC has said the detention of
some of its members, including that of
senior party official Roy Bennett,
can undermine the power-sharing
government.
Bennett was arrested on
February 13 before he could be sworn in as deputy
agriculture minister and
has been charged with terrorism. The High Court
will rule on his application
for bail on Tuesday.
Tsvangirai said the issue of ongoing detentions will
be addressed.
"We can't be a government that wants to give people
freedom, and at the same
time be the one that detains people. We are very
conscious of that fact and
we will deal with that matter."
Mugabe
lost a first presidential poll to Tsvangirai a year ago before
winning a
subsequent run-off which the opposition boycotted over political
violence.
Analysts say the partners have no choice but to make the
unity government
work despite their policy and personality
differences.
http://news.yahoo.com
GWERU, Zimbabwe (AFP) - Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai Sunday said a
national unity government was "the only way
out" of Zimbabwe's crises and
urged the international community to support
it.
Adressing more than 7,000 supporters in Gweru town, about 220
kilometres
(140 miles) south of the capital Harare, Tsvangirai appealed to
the
international community to help the crisis-blighted nation and accept
its
citizens' right to chose their own government.
"The international
community should help us but accept that Zimbabweans have
a right to choose
and they have decided that the inclusive government is the
only way out," he
said at celebrations for the 10th anniversary of his
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party.
"Please support us," he said, adding that President
Robert Mugabe and Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who heads an MDC
splinter faction, were
committed to making the transitional power-sharing
government work.
He told his supporters, including ministers and
parliamentarians that the
MDC would not be "swallowed" up by Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party.
"MDC will never be swallowed. Instead, it will swallow,"
Tsvangirai boasted
amid cheers by his supporters.
Tsvangirai,
Mugabe's long-time rival, took office as prime minister on
February 11.
Cabinet ministers were sworn in two days later to complete the
process of
forming a unity government that has to haul the nation out of
crippling
political and economic crises.
Schools in Zimbabwe are shut, its economy
lies shattered after 29 years of
Mugabe rule and its healthcare system is
struggling to cope with a cholera
epidemic that has claimed more than 3,750
lives.
In July, the country's inflation rate hit an unprecedented 231
million
percent and most essential civil servants, including teachers,
nurses and
doctors have been on strike since last year over poor
pay.
"This nation needs national healing. It is now time to say let's
forgive
those who have trespassed against us. If there is no national
healing, there
is no progress. We should heal the nation, let's us reconcile
as a nation,"
the MDC leader said.
He said the new government should
restore people's freedom, free political
detainees, stabilise the economy
and resolve a devastating humanitarian
crisis.
"Things were bad,
there is nothing there (in government coffers). We will
borrow because the
situation is dire," the prime minister said.
Tsvangirai said on Friday
that it could take up to five billion dollars to
get the Zimbabwe economy
back on track.
On political detainees, he said: "I want to assure you
that this government
will lose face if it continues detaining them. We are
very concerned about
that."
He called for the release of one of his
party's choices for a ministerial
post, Roy Bennett, and about 30 other
political and rights activists held in
jail since last year.
Bennett,
a white farmer, has been detained since his arrest on February 13.
A
Zimbabwe court said it would this week rule on terror charges against
him.
Bennett, the MDC's treasurer and its pick to become deputy
agriculture
minister, has appeared in court on charges of illegal possession
of arms for
purposes of committing banditry, insurgency and
terrorism.
A top UN assessment team is currently in Zimbabwe to discuss
with Mugabe,
Tsvangirai, UN officials, and government and non-governmental
organisations,
the humanitarian crisis in the southern African country.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
Feb 22,
2009, 14:56 GMT
Harare - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai on Sunday made an
impassioned appeal to the international
community to fund the country's new
coalition government, calling the
situation in the hunger- and
disease-wracked country 'dire.'
Speaking
at his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party's 10th
anniversary
celebrations in Gweru, about 300 kilometres south-west of
Harare, Tsvangirai
said Zimbabwe had to 'borrow and beg' for aid to turn
around the battered
economy.
'Please be in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe,'
Tsvangirai said,
appealing to international donors.
On a visit to
South Africa on Friday, Tsvangirai had estimated the long-term
cost of
rebuilding Zimbabwe after a decade of severe misrule at up to 5
billion
dollars.
Tsvangirai's appeal followed the arrival of a top-level United
Nations
humanitarian delegation on Saturday. The UN team is in Zimbabwe for
five
days to assess the country's cholera and food crises with a view to
mobilizing funding.
Close to 4,000 people have died since last August
in the cholera epidemic
that was sparked by the breakdown of sewage and
water supply systems, and
around 7 million of an estimated 11 million
Zimbabweans require food aid.
Tsvangirai agreed to take his party into
government with President Robert
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's longtime leader, earlier
this month to try to help steer
a turnaround.
Sunday, 22 February 2009 | |
• ZDF chief doesn’t believe MDC leader should have
role in govt
• Meanwhile officers warn juniors could mutiny over MDC leader Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara who heads the smaller formation of the MDC, have formed a government of national unity that analysts say is critical to rescuing Zimbabwe from crisis but which continues to face deep resistance from many within the old establishment. Our sources said Chiwenga – who is the top military commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) that comprise all of the country’s armed forces – said he remained opposed to Tsvangirai assuming any role in government. But Chiwenga, who together with the other service chiefs boycotted the inauguration of Tsvangirai as premier, said that his views were personal and that he would not stand in the way of officers who may want to salute or show respect to the Prime Minister. Suspicious of Tsvangirai “Chiwenga made it clear that he was suspicious of Tsvangirai and the MDC,” said a senior officer in the army who attended a meeting where Chiwenga made his remarks. The meeting held last Tuesday at the army’s KG IV headquarters was part of Chiwenga’s routine monthly meetings with fellow generals and other senior officers. The officer, who spoke on condition he was not named said: “He (Chiwenga) said he would not stop other officers from saluting Tsvangirai. “In fact he made assurances that he is not going to victimise any officer who chose to salute or respect Tsvangirai. But he went on to say that personally, he is going to have difficulties saluting Tsvangirai.” Chiwenga’s reluctance to accept Tsvangirai in government is not surprising. In the run-up to last June’s controversial presidential run-off election Chiwenga and other top generals and security chiefs said that they would never salute Tsvangirai if he ever came to power – a declaration that at the time was viewed by many as a threat to stage a coup against the MDC leader if he won. Violent campaign Following the utterances by their senior commanders, agents from the spy-Central Intelligence Organisation, police, army, war veterans and Zanu (PF) militia embarked on a violent campaign during the run-off that resulted in the death of about 200 MDC supporters, plus 10 000 injured and displacement of over 25 000 families. The violence prompted Tsvangirai to withdrew from the race, but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission went ahead with the run-off saying the MDC leader’s pull out had no legal effect. Mugabe won the one-man race by over 80 percent, but he was forced by the regional SADC alliance and the African Union to open talks with Tsvangirai and Mutambara to form a government of national unity. Mugabe has remained in charge of security in the unity government although his Zanu (PF) and the MDC share control of the Home Affairs Ministry that oversees the police It was not immediately clear whether Chiwenga’s views were shared by other top security commanders as other reports over the past week suggested that CIO director general Happyton Bonyongwe had urged his subordinates to support the unity government and work for its success. Meet the Prime Minister Other unconfirmed reports suggested that Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi, National Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and the service chiefs will meet the Prime Minister this week as part of efforts to ensure better working relationships among all government departments. Asked about Chiwenga’s reported comments, Tsvangirai’s spokesman, James Maridadi, disclosed that Mnangagwa and Mohadi had already met the Prime Minister last week and pledged their loyalty to the new government. “The Prime Minister expects the ministers to make subordinates aware of their constitutional obligations. After all, the ministers pledged to uphold the rule of law during the meeting,” said Maridadi. Chiwenga was not immediately available for comment on the matter while Mnangagwa refused to discuss the issue, switching off his mobile phone when our reporters called him on the matter. Hamper new administration Analysts do not expect military chiefs and others who may be opposed to the unity government to immediately cause it to fall but they say resistance from these still very powerful opponents could seriously hamper the work of the new administration and has potential to cause it to fail in the end. Meanwhile sources said senior army officers who attended the Tuesday meeting with Chiwenga chronicled to him the poor living and working conditions of middle-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers that they said had reduced soldiers to “dangerous destitutes”. One source said the soldiers were not happy with a US$100-monthly allowance that the unity government is dishing out to every government employee including soldiers saying they wanted to be paid more cash which should vary with one’s rank. “The meeting went well into the night,” said the source. “Senior officers openly told Chiwenga that soldiers were very near to a mutiny because of the conditions they are being subjected to. Chiwenga was told to warn the government to meet soldiers’ demands because the situation in the barracks is deteriorating.” |
Published: February 22, 2009
ZimEye(Analysis) President Mugabe has announced that his government will between 23 February and 20 March embark on a massive recruitment exercise in the Matabeleland region. Why is Mugabe all of a sudden recruiting fighters when the government is struggling to pay civil servants’ salaries? Why is the geographical location of the recruitment Matebeleland, and not Mashonaland, or Manicaland? What is the MDC saying about this shocking development? Are they aware? Yes of course, this is now public information. What are they saying? Answer: Nothing.
Below is the article announcing the historic massive recruitment exercise which has been published in the Chronicle.
THE Zimbabwe
National Army (ZNA) will between 23 February and 20 March embark on a massive
recruitment exercise in the Matabeleland region.
Headquarters One Brigade
will cover Matabeleland North, while the recruitment team from Bulawayo District
(Imbizo Barracks) will take the exercise to Matabeleland South.
According to
a statement from the army’s public relations departments at Headquarters One
Brigade and Bulawayo District, prospective candidates should be aged between 18
and 22, while holders of the National Youth Service certificates should be of
ages of between 18 and 24.
The youths should weigh between 57kgs and 60kgs,
with a height of between 1,68m and 1,7m.
They should have at least two
O’Levels.
Applicants should bring with them originals and two certified
copies of the National Identity Card, educational certificates and a long birth
certificate.
The applicants should provide an application letter written in
their own handwriting, blanket or sleeping bag, a plate, cup and
toiletries.
The potential recruits should be prepared to complete a 10km road
run in 45 minutes.
In Matabeleland South Province, the exercise will start at
Masendu Shopping Centre where it would be carried out on 23 and 24
February.
It would then move to Plumtree 1:3 Infantry Battalion on 24 and 25
February.
Between 25 and 26 February, the recruitment team would be at Mangwe
Marula shopping centre and at Tshelanyemba Secondary School in Kezi on 26 and 27
February.
Maphisa Rural District Council will play host to the exercise from
27 and 28 February, while Natisa Service Centre in Kezi and Sipero Shopping
Centre in Donkwe-Donkwe, also in Kezi would be covered from 28 to 1
March.
The team will move on to Fort Rixon between 1 and 2 March and then
Filabusi and Nkankezi Business Centres on 2 and 3 March.
Between 3 and 4
March, the recruitment would be at Mbalabala’s Zimbabwe School of Infantry and
then proceed to Lutumba Business Centre in Beitbridge on 9 and 10
March.
Recruitment will continue at Beitbridge One Independent Company on 10
and 11 March, while on 11 and 12 March, the team would be at Zezani
Mission.
From 12 to 13 and 13 to 14 March, the recruitment team would cover
Nhwali Business Centre and Guyu in Gwanda district.
On 14 and 15 March, the
exercise would be at Gwanda Showgrounds and the recruitment team rounds off
Matabeleland South on 15 and 16 March at Imbizo Barracks.
In Matabeleland
North, the recruitment will start at Tsholotsho District and will cover
Tshabanda Secondary School on 23 February, Dinyane Secondary School on 24
February, Nemane Secondary school the following day and conclude at Siphepha
Business Centre on 26 February.
In Umguza District, the exercise would be at
Nyamandlovu Police Station on 27 February and proceed to Insiza BC the following
day.
The team would cover Bubi district at Inyathi Police Station on 1 March
and Inkosikazi BC the following day.
On 3 March, recruitment would be at
Nkayi district, where it would be at Nkayi Police Station on 3 March, Dakamela
BC on 4 March and Gwelutshena on the following day.
Lupane district would be
visited from 6 to 9 March with Phunyuko Secondary School (St Pauls Mission)
being covered on 6 March, while Lupaka Secondary School would be visited on 7
March.
On 8 March, the team would visit Lupane Centre and round-off the
exercise on 9 March at Zenzele Secondary School.
In Binga District, the team
will cover Siyabuwa BC on 11 March, Binga BC on 12 March, Siachilaba BC on 13
March and end at Lusulu Secondary School on 14 March.
The recruitment team
would proceed on 15 March to Hwange District, covering Cross Dete BC on the same
day, and proceeding to Lukosi Secondary School the following day.
On 17
March, the team would visit Indlovu Secondary School, while on the following
day, it would be at Jambezi Police Station.
The exercise for Matabeleland
North would be concluded in Bulawayo at HQ 1Brigade (Brady Barracks) between 19
and 20 March.
http://www.abc.net.au
This is a
transcript from Correspondents Report. The program is broadcast
around
Australia on Sundays at 08:00 on ABC Radio National.
Correspondents Report -
Sunday, 22 February , 2009
Reporter: Andrew Geoghegan
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Our Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan has just
returned from Zimbabwe where he witnessed the swearing in of the country's
new government of national unity.
He caught up with Senator
Sekai Holland who's become the Minister for
Reconciliation and National
Healing.
Sekai Holland is a founding member of the Movement for
Democratic
Change and has spent much of her time in Australia raising
awareness of her
country's plight.
She was severely beaten by
the Mugabe regime two years ago, but is now
hopeful that Zimbabwe can begin
a healing process.
SEKAI HOLLAND: By going into the inclusive
government, and MDC has
gone in whole heartedly, we must make things work.
The new struggle, the new
process, is to set up the very structures of
conflict resolution of making
Zimbabweans understand that there is no going
back, there is no other route
except to get Zimbabweans working
together.
That is what the challenge right now is and MDC is
determined that
we're going to stay inside the agreement and actually wage
our opening up of
democratic space from within that united
front.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: But Sekai Holland, you've been telling me
about the
MDC youth who are fed up with what's going on and they're
disappointed that
the MDC has gone into government with
Zanu-PF.
SEKAI HOLLAND: Yes, but the challenge for the youths is to
find a
viable, peaceful alternative to what we have done, because if we
don't go
inside there is no other viable, peaceful method of moving Zimbabwe
forward.
And MDC was founded on the principal of
non-violence.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Do you think though the MDC is in
danger of falling
into a trap set by Robert Mugabe, that the party will
eventually be
swallowed by Zanu-PF, that MDC members may be corrupted by
Robert Mugabe?
SEKAI HOLLAND: You know, when we went through the
debates within the
party, international executives and international
council, it's really sad
that we Africans don't right things, because there
is an understanding that
it's betrayal if you talk about it.
But those two last meetings were the most beautiful, most profound,
most
challenging meetings I've attended in my life. The issue of being
swallowed
up took most of the time; 10 provinces out of 12 dismissed that we
could be
swallowed up because MDC is a people's project. We're not in 1983,
we're now
in 2009 and that is Zanu-PF culture and thinking has really died a
natural
death.
What's going to happen, this is what the country's arrived
at, some
people who come into the decision making structures that have been
set up
may become seduced and fall in the trap of a corruption
culture.
But it's individuals who fall by the wayside, but not MDC,
MDC's a
people's project. It will always be there.
ANDREW
GEOGHEGAN: Yet it strikes me that your cause for a democratic
and free
Zimbabwe still has a very long way to go.
SEKAI HOLLAND: Very long way
because we've lost a lot. I mean...
the...
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN:
Does it also mean you have to get rid of Robert
Mugabe?
SEKAI
HOLLAND: We've got in an agreement where he is the President of
the country,
but I think that also, for me, it's very interesting that the
whole debate
keeps going back to one person who is mortal.
And immortality, when
you get a certain age you do have to retire,
whether you want it or not
because you become dysfunctional and I think, for
me, that gives me a lot of
comfort, that that's the natural course that
things will take.
But the more important thing is that already by going into the deal we
go
with our policies, we go with our programmes, we go with our people who,
for
10 years, have been working to infuse this into the new Zimbabwe.
What we're dealing with is not an individual, Robert Mugabe, it is the
Zanu-PF culture - of violence, of corruption, of really never accepting an
agreement, of impunity - those are the cultural traits that MDC is having to
work against every day and which Zimbabwean society, in voting on March 29,
totally rejected.
So I have no problem with Mugabe being there
in a life. What I have a
problem with is whether we understand the depth of
what we have to change
and really prepare for ourselves for that really
difficult task.
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: And it is early days, but nothing
has changed yet.
You made it aware to me that even you do not know the
cholera epidemic, for
instance, because you're saying the Government is
keeping Zimbabwe in the
dark about that.
SEKAI HOLLAND: Excuse
me, the culture of keeping people in the dark is
what we have lived with for
30 years! I mean... from day to day...
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: So
even...
SEKAI HOLLAND: No, no I'm saying from day to day you have
to find out
what's happening in the country from your own contacts, and you
have to then
adjust with what you have been told at the official level. That
has been the
reality for 30 years, so nothing has changed there except that
as the
epidemics spreads...
ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: But with the MDC
part of the Government, shouldn't
the party be insisting that there be
openness in this country?
SEKAI HOLLAND: We are in charge of health, we
are in change of some
ministries which are actually going to allow us to do
that and I think those
will be actually much more upfront with information
and data because we
believe that information is power and if people are
informed they know
exactly how to protect themselves.
ANDREW
GEOGHEGAN: Okay, so the fight goes on but still a long way to
go.
SEKAI HOLLAND: Well, it's a very long way to go because
where we
started in 1980 and where Mugabe has left us 30 years down the road
is a
long distance from the goals.
But we've been able to fight
non-violently and get back on course and
together as a country we are moving
forward, and we can feel the movement
forward because it's not the same
Zimbabwe last week as it is today.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Zimbabwean
Senator Sekai Holland speaking to Andrew
Geoghegan in Harare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Zimbabwe's president demands cattle and money from
his starving people to
pay for a surreal party
Alex Duval Smith,
Africa Correspondent
The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009
Robert
Mugabe marked his 85th birthday yesterday with a sumptuous banquet in
Harare
at the start of a week of parties which observers say is a further
sign of
the Zimbabwean president's defiance in the face of growing criticism
of his
regime.
His latest show of excess came as prime minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said
"maybe US$5bn (£ 3.5bn)" would be needed to rehabilitate the
collapsed
health, social and education systems.
Surreal celebrations
got under way on Friday as schoolboy pipers,
accompanied by drum majorettes,
marched through the decrepit capital and
members of a ruling party youth
organisation sold $10 raffle tickets.
Teetotal Mugabe's private party
yesterday was hosted by his wife, Grace, 44,
and attended by friends and a
number of African diplomats. But state
television did not, as is customary,
broadcast his speech.
A $100-a-ticket gala dinner at Harare's Rainbow
Towers Hotel on Wednesday is
advertised as a musical extravaganza including
Nigerian hip-hop star 2Face,
Congolese rhumba band Werrason and a host of
local acts. The parties will
culminate on Saturday with a public feast and
concert at Chinhoyi, about 50
miles west of Harare, which is to be
televised. Dozens of animals will be
slaughtered for the event and guests
include hundreds of children also born
on 21 February.
Zimbabwe
University political science professor John Makumbe said the
birthday
display was the latest of many signals that the ruling Zimbabwe
African
National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) does not intend to respect
the
power-sharing agreement that saw Tsvangirai sworn in on 11 February.
"The
money for the parties and the cattle and chickens donated are extracted
from
people virtually against their will," he said. "Thousands have died
from
cholera and many students are not attending school or university
because
teachers are not paid. It's unbelievable that he can blow
quadrillions of
Zimbabwe dollars on parties."
The celebrations have been organised since
1986 by a Zanu-PF youth group
called the 21 February Movement. Initially
modelled on scouting and aimed at
promoting children's rights, it has
increasingly become a young sycophants'
association.
Zanu-PF youth
leader Absolom Sikhosana defended the Chinhoyi event: "It is
not a feast per
se, but an event where youths have a chance to meet their
hero. This
inspires them to emulate his exemplary qualities of
nation-building,
patriotism and principled leadership."
In a sign of the times, the 21
February Movement set out to raise only
$500,000 (£350,000) for Mugabe's
birthday week against a reported $1.2m last
year. Last week Sikhosana made a
heartfelt plea on national radio for
benefactors to make good on their
promises: "We know things are tough, but
it would be nice to honour the
pledges you made."
According to some reports, pledges for only £70,000
have come in, much in
the form of food donations. State media has reported
that each district in
Zimbabwe is expected to donate 50 cattle and to raise
US$1,500 (£1,000).
Mugabe had already run roughshod over the
power-sharing agreement by
appointing 61 ministers instead of the agreed 31,
Makumbe said. "Each will
need their Mercedes, their 4x4, their driver,
bodyguard and housing. At the
same time, Tsvangirai is trying to raise money
for basic reconstruction."
Amid scepticism from the international
community, Tsvangirai and South
African President Kgalema Motlanthe did
their best to indicate progress on
Friday. At a joint press conference in
Cape Town, Motlanthe even claimed
that the cholera crisis, which the UN says
has killed 3,800 people and is
worsening, had been
"contained".
Tsvangirai played down the plight of his deputy agriculture
minister, Roy
Bennett, and 30 other activists who are in jail for alleged
plotting against
the regime. He said: "We are working slowly to deal with
that matter and to
make sure it does not become the focus of the attention.
The real attention
has to be on the plight of Zimbabweans."
The two
men announced that Southern African finance ministers are this week
expected
to announce a $1.5bn loan to Zimbabwe, to be underwritten by the
African
Development Bank. The institution is part-funded by Europe and the
US, but
decision-making rests with African governments.
International donors
remain concerned that aid will be diverted to the
ruling party, just as £20m
from South Africa last December mostly ended up
in the hands of party
supporters.
http://www.independent.co.uk
He died of
cholera
As Robert Mugabe's cronies prepare a lavish 85th birthday party,
the people
wait in vain for a 'unity' government to rescue them. Daniel
Howden reports
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Richard Mutoti
was not celebrating Robert Mugabe's 85th birthday yesterday.
Neither were
his friends and family. Instead, they were lowering his body
into the ground
at Granville Cemetery outside Harare. The 59-year-old was
wrapped in a
plastic bag to prevent the mourners from contracting the
cholera that had
emaciated his body and killed him.
Mr Mutoti was put to rest amid earth
mounds, evidence of the appalling
legacy of Mr Mugabe's misrule, which
Zimbabweans will be coerced into
celebrating this week. The cholera victim,
from Harare's impoverished
Budiriro 4 district, had been discharged from a
cholera isolation camp on
Friday and sent to die at home. He was lucky to
have lived so long; Rectar
Musapingo, in the grave next to him, died on 22
January, eight months short
of his 40th birthday.
Twisted blue and
white flowers, fashioned from shreds of plastic, lie about
between black
metal name-plates offering a roll-call of the dead, few of
whom had survived
for even one-third of their President's lifetime. Some of
the mourners may
have seen yesterday's Herald newspaper on their way to the
funeral,
proclaiming that "Comrade Mugabe has been in the trenches slaving
so that
you and me could live a life of dignity". The only dignity left to
the
Mutoti family was a white cloth, used to conceal the cholera bag in
which
their loved one was interred.
The state mouthpiece had over five pages of
gushing praise for the
President, a former schoolteacher born at a Jesuit
mission station in Kutama
in 1921. "Like a mighty crocodile, you have
remained resilient, focused and
resolute against all odds," said an
advertisement from the Defence Ministry,
in an unintentional echo of the
title of author Peter Godwin's scathing
indictment of Mugabe, When a
Crocodile Eats the Sun. It gushed on: "If
everyone gives just a fraction of
what comrade Mugabe has given this
country, we will be up there with the
most advanced countries in the world."
There was no mention in the
Herald's editorial that during his stewardship,
Zimbabwe's life expectancy
has been slashed from over 60 to the lowest in
the world, at 34 for women
and 37 for men. Like so many of the
incomprehensible statistics that haunt
this southern African nation, these
figures are woefully out of date. They
were based on data collected four
years ago - before the cholera epidemic,
before the ranks of the hungry
swelled from three million to more than five
million.
The number of cholera deaths similarly trails events. According
to the World
Health Organisation the death toll from the five-month epidemic
stands at
3,759, with 70,000 reported infections. Experts say these figures,
which
have already surpassed the UN's worst-case scenario, are a fortnight
out of
date.
The inflation rate is astronomical, the currency
worthless - the government
long abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar for the US
dollar or the South African
rand. And the difficulty Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party has been experiencing in
raising money for a lavish party, planned for
28 February, seems set to
disprove the African proverb that "you can never
finish eating an elephant".
The scale of this economic meltdown has left the
party's February 21st youth
organisation - set up for the annual drive to
pay for the birthday party -
short of their $250,000 fundraising target. It
will have to stage extra
events this week to secure the
money.
Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was due back in
Harare
last night after a fundraising mission of his own. He has visited
Cape Town
in search of the first instalments of what he claimed would be the
$5bn
needed to rescue Zimbabwe's economy. He was not expected to be invited
to a
private celebration hosted by Mr Mugabe's notoriously extravagant wife,
Grace, at their lavish mansion in Harare's affluent suburb of Borrowdale
last night.
Among the likely guests were the same inner circle that
witnessed Mr Mugabe
crush, co-opt and overwhelm his last serious
power-sharing partner, Joshua
Nkomo, in the 1980s. He was known as "Father
Zimbabwe" to his followers,
many of whom were massacred during the
Gukuranhundi killings. His
demoralised Zapu party was absorbed into Mr
Mugabe's, creating Zanu-PF in
1987.
After 10 days of the new unity
government, shades of that history lie over
the current experiment. None of
the conditions laid out by Mr Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) at the swearing in have been met.
Political prisoners remain in
custody; the central bank governor, Gideon
Gono, who has bankrolled the
kleptocratic regime at the cost of ruinous
inflation, is still in his
job.
The business-as-usual situation is leading an increasing number of
Zimbabweans to accuse the MDC of being co-opted. Jenni Williams, leader of
the protest movement Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), says the unity
government is a sham. "This is a government for politicians, not the
people," she told The Independent on Sunday. WOZA has for long periods in
recent years been the only group prepared to mobilise people in public
demonstrations, and Ms Williams says nothing has changed: "This is
co-option, not power sharing; it's a unity government in name alone." She
also suggested that MDC MPs were unlikely to be any more immune to
corruption than their Zanu-PF counterparts. "They all come from the same
political culture of corruption," she said.
Ms Williams warned that
aid budgets secured by Mr Tsvangirai and his
colleagues could spark a
feeding frenzy among the country's "me-first"
politicians. "MPs get to know
about tenders, especially now with increased
aid flows," she said. "MPs will
be first to be able to benefit from these
tenders."
Ms Williams, who
calls herself a "Matabele-Irish", thanks to her mixed
grandparents, has been
arrested 33 times. But she says that police
harassment has been worse since
the new administration took office. WOZA
members arrested for peaceful
demonstrations in Bulawayo last week were
"humiliated" by being forced to
remove their underwear in front of other
people and undergo anal cavity
searches.
Ms Williams was later called in for talks with senior police
officers, only
to discover they expected her members to stop their
activities under the
unity government. "They think the change should be on
our side, not theirs,"
she said. "I said to them that change is coming to
Zimbabwe, there will be a
truth and reconciliation commission and you'll
have to own up to what you've
done." She said an assistant commissioner of
police laughed and said: "Good
luck".
The 46-year-old is currently on
remand for what police have called "exciting
people". "Is it a crime to
excite people?" she asked. "People are dying of
cholera, people are starving
to death."
Every day in Zimbabwe
34 people die as a result of the
country's cholera epidemic.
6,328,767 is the percentage increase in the
real rate of inflation.
40 political prisoners still wait for release
under the "unity" government.
600 people flee to neighbouring South
Africa.
565 Zimbabweans are infected with the virus that leads to
Aids.
20 grammes of maize is the UN daily ration after recent
cutbacks.
Source: World Health Organization (WHO); Government of Zimbabwe Date: 21 Feb 2009 ** Daily information on new deaths should not imply that these deaths
occurred in cases reported that day. Therefore daily CFRs >100% may
occasionally result A. Highlights of the day: - 631 cases and 41 deaths added today (in comparison 288 cases and 6 deaths
yesterday) - 50.8% of the districts affected have reported today (30 out of 59 affected
districts) - 90.3 % of districts reported to be affected (56 districts/62) - Gwanda district revised deaths categories (One institutional deaths moved
to community deaths) - Cumulative Institutional Case Fatality Rate 1.8% - Daily Institutional Case Fatality Rate 2.0%
* Please note that
daily information collection is a challenge due to communication and staff
constraints. On-going data cleaning may result in an increase or decrease in the
numbers. Any change will then be explained.
Source: Government of Zimbabwe Date: 31 Jan 2009 Food security assessments in urban areas have been too few and far apart,
viz; 2003 and 2006. Yet the deterioration of the Zimbabwean economy suggests a
rapidly deteriorating food security situation in the urban areas of Zimbabwe. In
October 2006, the ZimVAC urban food security assessment estimated 24 percent of
the households in the high density and peri-urban settlements of Zimbabwe to be
food insecure. The top three best provinces were Mashonaland East (14%),
Midlands (17%) and Matabeleland South (20%) and the worst provinces were
Bulawayo (35%) Manicaland (33%) and Mashonaland West (28%). Since then poverty levels have increased, annual inflation officially
estimated at 231million percent for August 2008; the highest in the world,
unemployment estimated to be above 80 percent, the Zimbabwean dollar continuing
to lose value against major currencies, continuing shortages of basic food
stuffs and other household goods, and continued deterioration of water and
sanitation infrastructure. This continued unabated deterioration of water and sanitation infrastructure
has increased the risk of major disease outbreaks, especially in urban areas. It
was therefore not surprising that, in August 2008, an unprecedented cholera out
break occurred in Chitungwiza and it quickly spread to many parts of the country
a few months later. The Ministry Health and Child Welfare and the World Health
Organisation cholera surveillance report for December 2008 revealed that the
disease had been reported in all the country's ten provinces by that period. It
had attacked more than 37,000 people and killed close to 2,000 people. Chief
amongst the factors that fuelled the pandemic were the poor water and sanitation
prevailing in most urban areas as well as the seriously compromised public
health delivery system. Given the foregoing, establishing the food security situation in urban areas
and how the urban poor are coping with the attendant food security challenges is
not only urgent but indispensable information for the formulation of appropriate
interventions to address the food insecurity problem. It is in this light that ZimVac formulated and implemented the 2009 urban
food security assessment with the following objectives; - To determine the prevalence of food insecurity and its severity amongst
households in the high density and peri-urban areas of Zimbabwe. - To identify and describe food insecure households in the high density and
peri urban areas of Zimbabwe. - To describe the ways and means households in high density and peri urban
settlements are employing to earn a living and how they are coping with the food
insecurity they are experiencing - To identify and describe the socio-economic factors that determines the
food security situation of food insecure households. - To provide recommendations on immediate, medium and long term interventions
to address the food insecurity in urban areas of Zimbabwe.
1. BACKGROUND AND
INTRODUCTION
http://www.hararetribune.com
Sunday, 22
February 2009 17:13
Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs Minister
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi has
appealed to those countries that have imposed
sanctions on Zimbabwe to lift
them without further delay to allow the
country to embark on its
developmental path.
Mumbengegwi
stressed that all political parties in Zimbabwe are in
agreement that
sanctions should be lifted, a position that has also been
emphasized by SADC
and the African Union.
He said Zimbabwe's main political parties
are committed to working
together in the inclusive government, emphasizing
that all communication by
diplomatic missions should be done through his
ministry, as stipulated by
international laws and protocols.
The minister also expressed the government's appreciation to those
countries
that assisted the nation in combating cholera through the
provision of food
and other forms of assistance.
SADC states, China, Venezuela and
some European countries as well as
some non-governmental organizations, have
donated consignments of water
treatment chemicals and pharmaceuticals to
help in the fight against
cholera.
http://www.iol.co.za
February 22 2009 at
10:22AM
By Peta Thornycroft
On the eve of Robert
Mugabe's 85th birthday he is still full of energy
and cunning, a man whom
profilers struggle to capture accurately, probably
because he is much more
shallow than most imagine. He is spiteful and, at
85, still feels he has to
dye his hair.
There is another side to him - which he is using a
lot these days as
Morgan Tsvangirai, the new prime minister, moves around
government
buildings, holding 8am meetings on time, (which shocked slothful
Zanu-PF
ministers last week, who turned up 90 minutes late). He can turn on
the
charm.
He has to smile at his enemies
last week because he hopes Tsvangirai,
whom he has insulted continuously for
10 years, will save him from the
terrible mess he has made of
Zimbabwe.
He is not particularly well read and often fails
to anticipate world
trends, as he did when he woke up one morning and found
that his comfort
zone, the Berlin Wall, had crumbled and his chum, Romanian
dictator Nicolae
Ceacesceau, had been shot.
He was comfortable
with obedient, rigid societies. He learned his
"conspiracy" vocabulary from
people like Ceacesceau and slowly but surely
created a one-party police
state after he violently rid himself of Joshua
Nkomo's Zimbabwe African
People's Union party.
Edgar Tekere, Zanu-PF's former
secretary-general, told a Dutch
documentary maker in 2001 that watching
Mugabe struggling with his
university assignments in detention had put him
off trying for a degree.
Mugabe was an unimaginative plodder. His main
talent is plotting. It's all
he does most of each week.
The
plots aren't clever. His Central Intelligence Organisation isn't
efficient
at executing them. Most of them fail, although people get hurt as
they
unfold.
The ones that succeed against opponents only do so because
he has
bought off the judiciary, one by one with the exception of a couple
in the
higher courts.
The kidnapping of scores of
Movement for Democratic Change activists
ahead of the unity accord after the
September power-sharing agreement was
one such plot, to try to force
Tsvangirai to pull out.
That agreement came because of Mugabe's
post-election plot after he
discovered he had lost heavily to Tsvangirai. He
turned to the generals to
save him and they manipulated a five-week delay
while they deployed hit
squads to rural areas. Those killed and beat enough
people to ensure they
would not vote for Tsvangirai again in the runoff.
Mugabe uses treason
charges with dreary and predictable regularity. They
never succeed, even in
the corrupt courts.
It happened last
week again, when Roy Bennett, a leading member of the
MDC, was charged with
treason - just like he was three years ago in a case
that failed because of
lack of evidence.
Mugabe needs to be surrounded by incompetent
leaders who would never
succeed in the private sector. Even though he
acknowledges that they have
failed, he needs their reverence and
praise.
Mugabe's appointments to his half of the power-sharing
cabinet last
week demon-strate just how much he needs the comfort zone of
the old guard.
His appointments, all old faithfuls, are a duplicate of
Zimbabwe's last
"worst-ever" cabinet.
He is plotting now, in
the first week of the unity government, to
ensure that either he or his
successor beats Tsvangirai in the next
elections, which are less than two
years away.
Many are worried there are two centres of power: the
new government
and the other, which meets Mugabe privately.
Although Mugabe needs Tsvangirai to rescue him, many fear Mugabe will
do
nothing beyond smiles and hand shakes.
He has demonstrated that he
lusts after wealth. He has succeeded in
accumulating assets locally and in
Asia - and not because he made clever
investments.
He certainly
didn't make enough out of his paltry salary to account
for the Mugabe
portfolio.
His birthday party will be a predictable day of praise
songs and
masses of food. This year he has chosen a part of the country
where he will
find pure devotion, near his home district, about 80km north
of Harare,
where he remains "father" to obedient, poorly educated rural
people.
Mugabe's constant theme is defending the "revolution". The
gains he
made after independence were massively funded by the West and a
brigade of
dedicated technocrats who have all since abandoned
him.
Once they began leaving, the rot set in. Long before he
destroyed
commercial agriculture, many schools had begun to fail. The
University of
Zimbabwe was already losing its best staff and students.
Government
agricultural research stations began disintegrating shortly after
independence. He stamped on the co-operative movement and ensured that trade
unions remained weak.
As the economy began to contract from
over-regulation, and with
unbudgeted payments to thousands more veterans
than ever fought the
liberation war, he had dwindling resources used to keep
himself in power.
That was why he seized the white-owned farms. He
had promised a group
of white farmers near his rural home in July 1981,
behind closed doors, that
in public they would have a "rough ride", but that
they should never feel
insecure.
He told them he wanted them to
stay.
Of course he did. The wealth they earned funded most public
revenue
and earned foreign currency to pay for service delivery which, in
turn,
helped communal farmers become the major maize producers.
The war inside the country in the early days of independence was in
the
rural areas of Matabeleland. People nearer Harare either didn't believe
what
was going on, didn't know about it or didn't care. Many thought Mugabe
couldn't possibly have known about it.
Yet prominent Catholics
made sure he knew.
Human rights lawyers began to emerge. One, David
Coltart, was sworn in
as the education minister last week. He was messed
around in the courts in
the 1980s trying to defend people Mugabe saw as
enemies, much as the human
rights lawyers have been messed around since the
MDC became the opposition.
This birthday party Mugabe really needs
to show off - two weeks after
Tsvangirai has learned from inside the chamber
of horrors of the public
service the extent of the disaster Mugabe has left
him to fix. - Independent
Foreign Service
This article was
originally published on page 10 of Sunday Argus on
February 22, 2009
http://www.mg.co.za/
ANGUS SHAW | HARARE, ZIMBABWE -
Feb 22 2009 09:25
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe marked his 85th
birthday on Saturday, but
his beleaguered people had little reason to
celebrate.
Zimbabwe's once thriving economy has collapsed and official
inflation is at
231-million percent. About one quarter of its population has
fled, and most
of those who remain are dependent on food handouts. Poverty
and HIV/Aids
have slashed life expectancy to 37 years for men and 34 years
for women.
Mugabe was expected to spend the day quietly. Lavish
celebrations are
scheduled for next Saturday for the ruling party
faithful.
The government mouthpiece Herald newspaper carried a five-page
birthday
supplement, most of it taken up with colour advertisements with
gushing
birthday messages from bankrupt government ministries.
The
message from the Military and Defence Ministry wished him many more
birthdays and hoped his wisdom and courage would be protected from "all your
enemies".
"We should never forget that for 50 of the 85 years,
Comrade Mugabe has been
in the trenches slaving so that you and me could
live a life of dignity,"
said an editorial.
"If everyone gives just a
fraction of what Comrade Mugabe has given this
country, we will be up there
with the most advanced countries in the world,"
the Herald
said.
"Comrade Mugabe laid a firm foundation for holistic democracy,
unequalled
reconciliation, education, health, land reform and total
independence that a
decade of ruinous sanctions has dented, but failed to
erase," it said.
Mugabe has repeatedly blamed Western economic sanctions
for Zimbabwe's woes,
which are largely due to his land reform policies
started in 2000.
Mugabe was recently forced to relax his grip on power
and enter a coalition
government with longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai. The
government's first
week in office saw the appointment of 67 ministers, their
deputies and
provincial governors. It is one of the largest Cabinets in the
world, and
each member receives luxury cars and other perks.
Germany,
with one of the biggest Western economies, has 17 Cabinet
ministers.
Mugabe's policies after he took the country to
independence from Britain in
1980 helped build up education and health
systems that were the pride of
Africa. But all the early gains have been
reversed.
"As Mugabe throws parties in Zimbabwe for his 85th birthday,
one in 10
children in his country are destined to die before their fifth
birthday,"
the charity Save The Children said in a birthday
message.
"Most of their mothers won't even live to half the president's
age."
"The birthday wish for many children here is to get their
education, but
with most schools closed and fewer than one and ten children
now in class,
there's little chance of that," the charity said.
Brian
Chibwe, a Harare street vendor, said the extravagant birthday
celebrations
planned for next Saturday in the provincial town of Chinhoyi,
60km
north-west of Harare, were unfair as the nation faced its worst hunger
crisis.
"The best birthday present he could give us is to retire,"
Chibwe said. -
Sapa-AP
http://www.mg.co.za
CHIPO SITHOLE | HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Feb 22 2009
06:00
Calls in Harare for the deportation of President Robert Mugabe's
daughter
from Hong Kong, where she is studying for a university degree, have
turned
violent.
Sixty university students have been jailed after
clashes with Zimbabwean
riot police during rolling demonstrations that
started last week. They
demanded the expulsion from Hong Kong of 20-year-old
Bona Mugabe. The
students were also protesting against mounting economic
hardship and what
they called the "dollarisation of
education".
Police fired tear gas during the protests, which started
earlier this month,
to prevent students from leaving their campus, but
hundreds have breached
the blockade and marched through downtown
Harare.
"Why is Bona not attending Lupane University or Midlands State
[University]?" asked Clever Bere, president of the Zimbabwe National
Students' Union (Zinasu). "Zinasu is urging the University of Hong Kong to
deport Bona Mugabe, who is pursuing her studies there. She must come back
home and face the same conditions that fellow Zimbabweans are facing in
these difficult times. We are incensed by the high level of police
brutality," the student spokesperson said.
Campus protests began in
early February when rioting students reportedly
stoned cars in a rampage
triggered by a hike in tuition to US$1 200 for
state university students
doing arts, humanities and social sciences, US$1
400 for those in science
and technology faculties and US$1 800 for those
studying medicine and
veterinary science.
Previously tuition was paid for in Zimbabwe
dollars.
Student leaders said their classmates were further angered by
subsequent
demands for an extra US$400 in exam fees, supposed to be paid by
12pm on
February 11.
The news of Mugabe's daughter's enrolment at the
University of Hong Kong
broke at the same time as the rise in student fees
was announced. Students
immediately mounted an online media campaign to
pressure the Hong Kong
administration to deport the president's daughter to
Zimbabwe. Bona Mugabe,
whose father and close associates are banned from
entering the United States
and the European Union, began studying in Hong
Kong under an assumed name
last autumn.
Mugabe and his associates
turned to Asian universities for their children's
education following
Australia's decision in 2007 to deport eight youngsters
whose fathers were
accused of propping up the Mugabe government.
The London website
ZimDaily, run by expat journalists from banned Zimbabwean
newspapers, has
been coordinating the campaign to have the president's
daughter
deported.
But Beijing is a different kettle of fish. The Chinese
government enjoys
warm diplomatic ties with the Mugabe administration and is
likely to reject
calls to send his daughter home, although some rights
activists have
questioned whether she should be allowed to stay.
Hong
Kong Human Rights Monitor director Law Yuk-kai said: "A child who has
not
done anything wrong should not be asked to take the burden of the wrongs
of
their parents. [But] if the money she is spending was siphoned off
ordinary
people, there is a problem. Just like other members of the
international
community, Hong Kong should do its part in imposing
sanctions." The Hong
Kong government said it had no comment.
Chipo Sithole is a pseudonym of
an IWPR-trained reporter in Zimbabwe
http://www.iol.co.za
February 22 2009 at
11:20AM
Hong Kong - A police report into an alleged assault by
the wife of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on a Hong Kong photographer
has been sent
to the Department of Justice to decide whether she should be
prosecuted,
police said on Sunday.
Hong Kong police are
understood to believe they have sufficient
evidence to prosecute after two
vital witnesses were traced following the
incident involving Zimbabwe's
First Lady Grace Mugabe on January 15,
according to a source familiar with
the case.
However, police officers involved in assessing the case
have also
raised the question of whether Ms Mugabe might claim diplomatic
immunity if
any proceedings are brought, the source told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur.
Richard Jones, chief
photographer with Hong Kong's Sinopix photo
agency, claims he was repeatedly
punched by 43-year-old Ms Mugabe after he
took pictures of her shopping
during a visit to the city where her daughter
Bona is a university
student.
Welshman Jones, 42, said he suffered bruises and cuts on
his face and
forehead inflicted in part by a diamond-encrusted ring she was
wearing as
she allegedly attacked him with a bodyguard and tried to wrestle
his camera
from him.
Jones reported the alleged assault to
police on January 17, by which
time Mrs Mugabe and her entourage had checked
out of their five-star hotel
and returned to Zimbabwe. It is not known if
Mrs Mugabe has been contacted
by Hong Kong police since her
return.
It was initially thought the incident might have been
captured by a
security camera on the side of a shopping centre but the
source said police
found the event took place just out of the camera's
range.
However, since the investigation was launched, two witnesses
- an
Austrian tourist and a Hong Kong resident - have been traced and have
given
detailed statements to police about the alleged assault, the source
said.
The Austrian tourist is said to have watched "open-mouthed"
as the
incident unfolded and is understood to have given a statement that
confirms
Jones's version of events.
A spokesperson for Hong
Kong police declined to comment on details of
the investigation into the
alleged assault or to say if any attempt had been
made to contact Mrs Mugabe
or whether she would face extradition proceedings
over the
incident.
The spokesman would not respond to questions about
whether Mrs Mugabe
would be arrested or questioned if she returned to Hong
Kong. He said in a
statement: "No arrest has been made so far. The case has
been referred to
the Department of Justice for advice."
Jones
was working for the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK when the
incident in
Tsim Sha Tsui took place. The same newspaper last week carried a
report
claiming Robert and Grace Mugabe had bought a 5 million US dollar
home in
the city and that Grace had held talks over a diamond cutting and
polishing
venture while in Hong Kong.
Two other Hong Kong-based photographers
working for the newspaper -
American Tim O'Rourke and Briton Colin Galloway
- were allegedly assaulted
nine days ago outside the Hong Kong property by
two men and a woman
understood to be employed as bodyguards.
The police spokesperson said investigations into the Tai Po case were
continuing. "The case is classified as alleged common assault. No arrest has
so far been made and legal advice will be sought in due course." - Sapa-dpa
Mugabe and Grace arrive A Methuselah of champagne Big crowd
Well we had a brilliant party even if Mugabe didn’t. A big crowd turned out for our mock 85th birthday celebrations for Mugabe – though his main bash has been delayed until 28th February. The word is that his goons have had difficulty extorting the money required.
The Vigil worked on the basis of a report in the London Times saying that Mugabe’s party organisers had ordered 8,000 lobsters and 4,000 portions of caviar to be washed down by 2,000 bottles of champagne and 500 bottles of whisky. We had Vigil management team member Fungayi Mabhunu wearing our Mugabe mask and waving a Methuselah of champagne (6 litres for the information of those who don’t move in lavish Zanu-PF circles). He stood in the doorway of the Embassy with his consort Grumpy Grace (brilliantly played by Emily Gurupira), dripping with diamonds and perched on designer shoes as she scowled at the TV cameramen covering the Vigil. Afterwards she headed off to Harrods to do some shopping armed with a fat cheque from the UN. Supporters held up posters saying ‘Mugabe spends US$200,000 dollars while his people starve’ and ‘Zimbabwean life expectancy: men 37, women 34, Mugabe 85+’.
Thanks to Mai Mutandira who led prayers and to the usual stalwarts: Arnold Kuwewa, Chipo Chaya, Sue and Francesca Toft for their efficient management of the Vigil. Thanks also to those who led the music: Moses Kandiwayo and Jerry Mtotela (drums) and Patson Muzuwa, Jenatry Muranganwa and Dumi Tutani (singing and dancing). Others who helped with the media event were Agnes Zengeya, Lovemore Mukyani, Batson Chapata, Kimpton Samkange, Reginald Gwasira, Eunita Masolo, Yvonne Masendu, Esther Magenya, Pattie Williams (for the Mugabe presents of cholera, starvation and corruption) and Dennes Sibanda (security). Apologies if we have left people out but we are grateful for everyone’s help at a demonstration which drew lots of attention.
Today saw the launch of another Zimbabwe Vigil in the UK – this time in Newcastle. We wish them success and will give every support.
The Vigil welcomed news that the UK government has offered a lifeline to elderly British nationals in Zimbabwe. Many of these people have seen their Zimbabwean pensions disappear through inflation. One thing we can reassure them about is that they will be in good hands as many carers employed to look after elderly people in the UK are Zimbabweans also driven out of their country by Mugabe.
A couple more points:
· A vigil management member was asked about the way forward for Zimbabwe and suggested support for ROHR. The dumbfounded person had difficulty hearing in the midst of the exuberant gathering and said ‘War? – not war!’
· Everyone who signed the register were angry that they have not been included in the bloated new government. ‘This is discrimination. If they don’t give us cars and allowances we will stop coming to the Vigil. Then where would they be?’
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE RECORD: around 360 signed the register but many more attended and even though we kept two registers going not everyone was able to sign.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
· Central London Zimbabwe Forum. Monday, 23rd February at 7.30 pm. Abel Chikomo, Director of Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, fesh from Zimbabwe will report on recent developments including the continued abuse of detainees' human rights. NB different venue: Development House, 56-64 Leonard St, London EC2A 4LP. Nearest tube station Old Street. From Exit 4 head down City Road and take the first left into Leonard Street.
· Worldwide Day of Prayer for Zimbabwe. Ash Wednesday (25th February) at Southwark Cathedral, SE1 9DA. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have designated Ash Wednesday as a Worldwide Day of Prayer for the people of Zimbabwe. At the services during the day special prayers will be offered each hour on the half hour. The Bishop of Southwark will preside and preach at the 5.30pm Choral Eucharist in special recognition of the links between the Diocese of Southwark and four of the dioceses in Zimbabwe. For more information check: http://www.southwark.anglican.org/cathedral/lent/shrove.htm#prayerday. Contact: Steve Harris, Diocesan Communications Officer, Tel: 020 7939 9437, 07949 679401. Email: steve.harris@southwark.anglican.org
· Next Glasgow Vigil. Saturday 28th February, 2 – 6 pm. Venue: Argyle Street Precinct. For more information contact: Patrick Dzimba, 07990 724 137, Tafadzwa Musemwa 07954 344 123 and Roggers Fatiya 07769 632 687.
·
ROHR
Birmingham Chapter
general meeting. Saturday
28th February from 2 – 6 pm. Venue: 28 Handsworth New Road B18 4PT.
The meeting will be attended by a well known lawyer.Contact: Emnah Zibgowa
07846005120, Des Parayiwa 07815565335, Rebecca Mlambo 07817585742 or Tsitsi
Mavhura 07932477842
ROHR
Chelmsford launch
meeting. Saturday 28th February
from 1.30 – 5.30 pm. Venue: Springfield Parish Centre, St
Augustine’s Way, Springfield,
Chelmsford, CM1.
Contact: Billy R Machekano 07908332724/07765459538, Robert Mafigo 07944815190,
Tendai Gwanzura 07961702832 or Faith Benesi 07958650670.
ROHR
Woking launch
meeting. Saturday 7th March from
1.30 – 5.30 pm Venue:
Station Pub, 12 Chertsey Road,
Woking GU21 5AB. Contact
Thandi Mabodoko 07886619780, Sithokozile Hlokana 07886203113 or Siduduzile
Sibanyoni 07588745353.
· ROHR UK Chair’s meeting. Saturday 14th March from 12 noon. Venue to be advised. Contact Ephraim Tapa 07940793090 or Paradzai Mapfumo 07915926323 or 07932216070
· Zimbabwe Association’s Women’s Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays 10.30 am – 4 pm. Venue: The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT, Tel: 020 7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury Park. For more information contact the Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355 (open Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Vigil co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12137
February 21, 2009
By Kennedy
Gezi
AS Zimbabwe marks the beginning of a new chapter in its turbulent
history,
it is worth recalling that the country currently suffers from the
world's
worst hyper-inflation.
Serious economists have given up
trying to give a value to Zimbabwe's
inflation.
The last official
inflation rate I recall was above 200 million percent. I
read a report
recently, placing the inflation at a mind-boggling 10
sextillion percent.
That is a 10 and 36 zeros!
With the economy shattered, no aspect of
Zimbabwe's existence has been left
untouched. The education system, once
boasted of as one of the best in
Africa, has virtually ground to a halt with
most children not having
attended school since last year. The health system,
also once boasted of as
one of the best in Africa, is terribly battered. I
read a report recently
that suggested the health system be placed into a
receivership, under the
care of some international body, while the country
rebuilds itself.
There has been recent talk of Zimbabwe adopting the
South African rand as it's
official currency, replacing the now virtually
defunct Zimbabwean dollar.
"Randization", new Finance Minister, Tendai Biti,
calls it. As I write the
country has become an official melting-pot of
foreign currencies, after the
Zimbabwean officials authorized the use of
foreign monies for business
transactions across the country.
Yet we
talk tirelessly of sovereignty.
The new chapter we now enter is not one
that we have all welcomed, or turned
to easily. It was simply the best
solution left, from what was virtually a
horrible selection of options, on
how the country could move forward.
However, it is still a new chapter we
turned to in the hope of restoring our
country to its former glory and
pride.
That said, one would hope that the powers that be, who now guide
the future
trajectory of Zimbabwe would hold at heart, the same desire that
I believe
most of us hold, to see our country become the land of
milk-and-honey that
we once assumed it would become in our
life-time.
Looking at the newly inaugurated cabinet however, I personally
am left with
not much confidence that our new trajectory is taking us
anywhere but deeper
into trouble.
Two days prior to the meeting in
South Africa, which finalized the marriage
of the MDC to Zanu-PF in the
newly formed government of national unity
(GNU), I submitted an article to
this news site, which was however rejected
for editorial reasons. My
language was said to be too unrestrained.
In that article, I argued that
the GNU symbolized the death of the MDC. By
this, I did not mean to refer
to the death of the MDC as a political party,
but I meant to refer to the
death of the MDC as a movement, and a hope for
political maturity, for
justice, and for hope and freedom for the Zimbabwean
people. The first few
days since the consummation of the GNU have not
convinced me
otherwise.
It was with despair that I learned of the capitulation by
Morgan Tsvangirai,
to what I love to call the SADC gang. After Tsvangirai
initially signed the
Memorandum of Understanding for the GNU, many had
declared to me that
Tsvangirai was an unwise man.
Those who often
leveled this attack on the MDC leader had blamed his
shortcomings on his
lack of a good academic background. Others even believe
that Mugabe was
ready to give up power to the opposition, but after spending
some time in
discussions with Tsvangirai, he simply could not bring himself
to handover
the reigns of power to someone of demonstrably lower intellect
to his own.
I had always rejected this charge, in defense of Tsvangirai,
until his final
concession to SADC in joining the GNU.
We the ordinary people are still
not quite sure of what transpired in South
Africa, but if one is to put
together all the various reports that have come
out since the ending of the
last crisis talks on Zimbabwe by SADC on January
27, it is emerging that
essentially Mugabe stuck to his guns, the rest of
the SADC leadership sided
with him, and in-spite of prior advice given to
Tsvangirai by his national
executive committee not to do so, Tsvangirai
apparently gave in to the SADC
demands, for the MDC to enter into a GNU with
Mugabe's
regime.
Supposedly, Tsvangirai was promised that the MDC's grievances
would be
addressed AFTER the MDC joined the GNU. Amazingly, Tsvangirai fell
for it,
hook, line and sinker!! From the scanty reports we have read so
far, the
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti was enraged.
He was not
the only one.
Since the 2000 referendum, when Zimbabweans decided to
finally stand up to
Robert Mugabe's regime, thousands have been harassed,
tortured, maimed and
killed while millions have had to flee the country.
The only redemption
that all these people deserved was a complete and
fundamental redress of
Zimbabwe's political climate and system. The MDC not
only offered hope for
that, but promised this to the people, and also won
the support of the
people on that mandate.
Nearly 10 years later, not
only has redemption not been attained for the
masses, but life has become
even more unbearable for everyone except those
close to Mugabe. However,
there has been a glimmer of hope lately, as the
Mugabe regime was visibly
crippled and was only barely limping along. One
would assume that this was
not a state the regime would have been able to
sustain for long, and that
eventually, the regime would have "crashed and
burned" as the MDC's own
policy coordinator general, Eddie Cross, once
advocated. But alas, what
happened instead?
It seems the MDC (or perhaps just Morgan Tsvangirai and
a few others in the
MDC) decided to throw Mugabe a life-line. There is now
even talk of an
imminent deal of blanket amnesty for all the Zanu-PF
criminals who have
abducted, maimed, tortured and killed with impunity,
since 2000!! And from
the look of things, Tsvangirai may be falling for
this as well. Of course,
the major beneficiaries would be the members of
JOC.
Needless to say, the recent moves by Tsvangirai will certainly bring
him the
same comfort and luxuries that the Mugabe regime has enjoyed since
time
immemorial. We need not hold our collective breath that things will
improve
for the ordinary folk though. For one, it does not look like Zanu-PF
is
making any serious moves to comply with international demands for
transparency, restoration of the rule of law, freedom of the press, and
sound economic principles, to facilitate the inflow of aid for the
country.
Gideon Gono sits securely in his five-year governorship term,
and
increasingly sounds more like the Prime Minister himself, as he
challenges
any new moves by the MDC side of the GNU.
So the milk and
honey may now be flowing outside the top echelons of
Zanu-PF, but it is
within the confines of the GNU. For the ordinary folk the
suffering
continues to prevail. The cases of cholera have hit the 80 000
mark. AIDS
cases are no longer talked about, and it is not because we have
eradicated
AIDS in Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe has just celebrated yet another lavish
birthday, while the
masses held their collective breath for more relief from
the outside. On the
eve of the birthday bash Tsvangirai started to
globe-trot with begging plate
in hand. The 60-plus ministers, deputy
ministers, are either now dangling
new car keys, or anxiously waiting for
delivery of same. Meanwhile,
schoolchildren roam the streets because the GNU
can only offer US$100
stipends as salaries for their
teachers.
Tsvangirai has asked us to judge him and the GNU in three to
six years.
Those of us who do manage to live beyond Zimbabwe's life
expectancy of 34
for women and 36 for men, will certainly judge him and the
GNU in 2015.
But right off the bet Mr. Prime Minister, I can say, "It is
not looking
good."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12133
February 21, 2009
Jupiter
Punungwe
LADIES and gentlemen, I have a question to ask.
What
exactly are we trying to achieve in Zimbabwe?
Are we trying to turn our
country's shattered economy around or are we
trying to keep the senior
members of political parties happy?
I definitely need someone to explain
to me, how creating posts in the
government for members of political parties
who feel that they deserve
'senior' posts, is linked to economic recovery.
Am I alone in believing that
creation of half a dozen minister of state
without portfolio posts is merely
patronage and back-scratching among
politicians?
We have to keep in mind that patronage and back-scratching
is what got us
into our current trouble in the first place. Giving
incompetent cronies and
friends with lots of time to kill senior posts and
access to state coffers,
is a recipe for corruption and disaster. To me it
looks like the GNU is
walking towards the same cliff we have tumbled over
before.
Zimbabwean politicians are clearly shirking from making decisions
that a
potentially unpopular with their supporters. Such decisions would
entail
unhitching some of the carriages on the extremely large gravy train
they
have assembled.
Instead of tightening belts, they expect foreign
governments, particularly
the South African government, to bite the bullet
and ask their tax payers to
pay through the nose for Zimbabwe's self
inflicted tribulations.
Absolutely nothing has been done to make sure the
mistakes which brought
Zimbabwe to its knees will not be repeated. There is
no mechanism at all to
ensure that government will not interfere with
production and private
property. Laws effectively allowing the state to
nationalize land are still
in place. Laws threatening private enterprises
with nationalization of half
their equity are still in place. Loopholes
through which state officials
enriched themselves have not been closed.
Price control mechanisms are still
in place.
Steps to give investors
confidence to return to Zimbabwe have not been
taken. The lack of
accountability which makes the Zimbabwe government a
bottomless pit into
which money can disappear without trace has not been
addressed. For me, the
mere presence of the MDC in the GNU is not a good
guarantee. The GNU seems
to believe that merely showing Morgan Tsvangirai's
face is going to give
donors confidence that their money is going to be used
wisely. That would be
a very presumptuous approach to take,
The government of Zimbabwe should
not expect foreign governments to bite the
bullet on its behalf. They should
not arrogantly ask foreign governments to
risk their political popularity,
so that the Zimbabwe government can
maintain not only their political
popularity, but their extravagance as
well.
South Africa has a budget
of R830 billion with an estimated surplus of R5
billion. What Zimbabwe is
asking for (R50 billion according to some sources)
will wipe out the South
African budget surplus, clearly inviting inflation
to afflict their own
economy.
Even if the burden is spread to other SADC countries we should
bear in mind
that all the other SADC countries combined have a GDP less than
a tenth that
of South Africa. Even with her economy depressed Zimbabwe has a
GDP higher
than many of the SADC countries from which they are now trying to
beg.
For example the entire budget of Malawi is a paltry $1.3 billion
American
dollars, a quarter of what Tsvangirai is passing the hat around
for. Talk
about the arrogance of those living in the mountains asking those
who live
in the plains for some rocks! When SADC talk about an economic role
for
Zimbabwe, I am sure they are not talking about Zimbabwe being an
exporter of
inflation.
It is also important to note that the
compilation of economic data for
Zimbabwe using methods commonly used for
stable economies yields meaningless
results. For example the CIA World Fact
book estimates Zimbabwe's budget at
US$179 000, just enough to buy two or
three luxury cars, yet we all know
that Zimbabwe bought hundreds of luxury
cars not to mention free tractors,
Mugabe's foreign trips and holiday money.
This figure is obviously a
meaningless result of applying a standard
formula.
The greatest problem with this lack of reliable economic data,
is that
politicians are easily able to conceal the extent to which they have
looted
Zimbabwe's state coffers. The other problem is that standard economic
models
cannot be used to plan Zimbabwe's economy.
The first thing the
Zimbabwe government should do is make an effort to live
within their means.
The most visible step they need to take is getting rid
of the hordes of
do-nothing ministers of state. Then they need to thoroughly
investigate and
act upon officials who created and abused loopholes in the
monetary and
fiscal framework. Lastly they need to pare down government
expenses to bring
them in line with the country's levels of production.
If it means
allocating ministers Mazda 3's from Willowvale Motor Industries
instead of
imported Mercedes Benz vehicles then that is the way it should be
done. If
that means reducing the size of the police force and army then that
should
be done.
Zimbabwe has enough infrastructure and industrial capacity to
support its
civil service. All that is needed is to remove obstacles placed
in the way
of productivity. Failure of which, we must reduce our spending so
that it is
in line with what we are producing. We should never expect
neighbours to
fund our bloated civil service simply for the sake of
politicians
maintaining and shoring up their popularity.
A cousin who
lives with me was delighted last night.
"Look how Tsvangirai is already
looking for money for us," he said
breathlessly.
He is a teacher by
profession. I told him we don't need to led by good
beggars but by good
planners, good visionaries.
Clearly, despite that a government of
national unity is now in place, we are
not out of the woods yet. The
solution to our economic problems does not
only lie in getting more money
but in effectively planning and utilizing
that money.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Sunday, 22 February 2009
An agonising
uncertainty has gripped Zimbabwe, with the nation
desperate for some respite
from its countless miseries but unsure whether
the unity government will
deliver on its promise.
It is early days yet to pronounce on the
power-sharing government but
the new administration of President Robert
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai could not have started on more
farcical note. First, the unity
government began by breaking its word to
limit the size of Cabinet to 31
ministers, which would still have been too
large a government for a country
that is so broke it has to panhandle for
everything from food for its
starving people to medicines for its sick
children.
At the last count, the total number of ministers, their
deputies and
provincial governors was adding up to more than 70 people - the
same old
case of jobs for the boys. This profligacy is not the way to
convince the
International Monetary Fund and others to give us the support
that we need
to fix our broken country.
Then there is the violence
and chaos on farms that appeared to gather
momentum last week as the
government began work - we are told - to rebuild
the country and end food
shortages among other ills afflicting our once
proud nation.
At
least 140 white commercial farmers are facing either prosecution or
eviction
by Zanu (PF) officials and their hoodlum associates masquerading as
war
veterans.
Farm invasions are illegal in terms of Zimbabwean law. The
targeting
of white farmers for eviction by the state or anybody else is a
violation of
last year's ruling by the SADC Tribunal which declared Mugabe's
farm
redistribution programme discriminatory and illegal under the SADC
Treaty to
which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
That Zanu (PF) thugs can
still break the law in broad daylight without
fear of arrest; that they can
disrupt farming in a country where seven
million people or more than half of
the population face hunger is a heavy
indictment against this
government.
But that is not all! We do not see what else the ongoing
charade
involving Roy Bennett, Jestina Mukoko and others held in jail on
spurious
charges is going to achieve except to convince foreign investors,
tourists
and anybody who matters that this new administration should not be
taken
seriously.
Bennett is supposed to be a senior member of this
government, its
deputy minister of agriculture. He was arrested by police as
Mugabe was
swearing in the new Cabinet. For days police held Bennett without
charging
him, apparently because they were not sure what his alleged crime
was - a
man they say they had been looking for since 2006!
One
would have thought that the unity government or is it Mugabe
needed no
reminding that locking up opponents is not the way to convince a
sceptical
international community that things are going to be done
differently under
the new administration - or, may be, that is not true
after all.
Whatever the case, without the support of the international community
this
government is doomed.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke
By TERENCE RANGER
Posted Saturday,
February 21 2009 at 13:58
Now that a Government of National Unity has
been formed in Zimbabwe,
commentators are harking back to the Unity
agreement of 1987.
This was between Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Union/ Patriotic
Front and Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African Peoples
Union. Unity Day has been
celebrated every year to commemorate
it.
But survivors - and revivers - of Zapu are now warning Mugabe's new
partners
of the dangers of a Unity agreement.
Their own experience
was that Zapu was swallowed up in the belly of the
Zanu/PF python and many
people are saying that the same thing will happen to
Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change.
But while it is certainly true that the
MDC cannot yet protect its own
supporters against the Central Intelligence
Organisation, the police and the
army, there are important differences
between the two Unity agreements.
Put simply, the 1987 event was a fusion
of two parties into one. The 2009
event is a coalition of two
parties.
Some of the same dramatic transformations have happened on both
occasions.
After 1987, for instance, Dumiso Dabengwa - Zapu's
intelligence chief - went
from being imprisoned on a charge of treason to
appointment as Minister of
Home Affairs.
After the agreement of 2009,
Tendai Biti has gone from facing a charge of
treason in court to become
Minister of Finance. So far, so similar.
But the recent agreement is
nothing like so much of a triumph for Mugabe as
1987 when, after years of
military and police pressure on his supporters, in
which some 20,000 people
died, Nkomo had no alternative but concede
dominance to Mugabe.
A
supposedly new party emerged from the Unity agreement but it was still
called Zanu/PF and it still used the same symbols of the clenched fist and
the cockerel.
Nkomo was allowed ceremonial status and ex-Zapu men
were allowed to dominate
local government in western Zimbabwe, but Mugabe
controlled the central
state.
An amnesty was declared for all those
who had committed political violence.
The emergence of the single party
was supposed to portend the creation of a
one-party state and Zanu/PF totted
up the percentages of its combined voter
support.
"We worship the
majority as Christians worship Christ," said Eddison Zvogbo.
This time
round, it is very different. This is a coalition government: There
is an
agreed statement of principles, in which Zanu/PF tries to bind the MDC
to
its doctrines of sovereignty and the MDC seeks to restrain Zanu/PF by
commitments to human rights.
Nevertheless, the two parties remain
quite distinct. And both have made it
clear that they look forward to
competing against each other in an election
as soon as possible.
In
September 2008, when the agreement was first signed, Mugabe called upon
his
party to revive itself so that it could achieve a smashing electoral
victory
and he would never again have to suffer the "humiliation" of working
with
Tsvangirai. During the long delay between the agreement and its
implementation, Tsvangirai called for internationally supervised elections
as an alternative to coalition.
Those who worship the majority are
torn between the parliamentary majority
won by the MDC in March 2008 or the
claimed presidential majority won by
Mugabe in the uncontested election in
June.
There is no amnesty this time round, which is why police are still
able to
arrest a nominated MDC deputy minister - Roy Bennett - and why many
in
Zanu/PF fear prosecution for crimes against humanity.
When there
is another election the old Zapu will contest it. If the 1987
agreement was
designed to usher in a one-party state, this agreement seems
designed to
usher in intense competitive multiparty "democracy."
The MDC will not be
swallowed up and digested by the python. But it may
emerge covered with
slime.
It is part of the largest and most expensive cabinet in Zimbabwe's
history.
Now in charge of the economic ministries, it may be blamed for
failure to
bring about recovery.
So, everything will be done with an
eye to electoral advantage. And the most
important thing of all is to seek
to create conditions in which a fair
election can be held.
Terence
Ranger, a veteran historian of and commentator on Zimbabwe, is an
emeritus
fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. Email:
terence.ranger@sant.ox.ac.uk
BILL WATCH
SPECIAL
[20th February
2009]
More
Ministers sworn in Thursday 19th February
6 Ministers were sworn
in yesterday at State House:
·
5 Ministers
as extra Ministers of State [3 for ZANU-PF, 1 for MDC-T and 1 for MDC-M]
·
Giles
Mutsekwa of MDC-T as co-Minister of Home Affairs [he was out of the country when
called to be sworn in on 13th February].
This makes a total of
41 Ministers [35 sworn in on 13th February, and 6 sworn in yesterday.] This
despite the fact that the Interparty Political Agreement [IPA] and the
Constitution [Schedule 8] specify only 31 Ministers.
Note:
there seems to be a wrong impression that Ministers of State do not count as
Ministers. Neither the IPA nor the Constitution make provision for Ministers of
State as a separate category. There is no legal basis whatsoever to consider
them as anything other than Ministers.
Deputy
Ministers sworn in
Despite the fact that
the IPA and the Constitution [Schedule 8] specify that there shall be 15 Deputy
Ministers [ZANU-PF 8, MDC-T 6, MDC-M 1], 20 Deputy Ministers were on the list to
be sworn in yesterday.
19 were actually sworn
in [ZANU-PF 10, MDC-T 8, MDC-M 1]. Roy Bennett, the MDC-T nominee for Deputy
Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, was on the
list but not present, because he is in prison in Mutare, having been remanded on
criminal charges following his arrest in
ZANU-PF Deputy
Ministers have been assigned to Ministries headed by MDC-T or MDC-M Ministers.
MDC-T and MDC-M Deputy Ministers have been assigned to Ministries headed by
ZANU-PF Ministers. [See
list below.]
The following ZANU-PF
Ministries do not have Deputy Ministers – Defence; Lands and Rural Resettlement;
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development; Environment and Natural
Resources; Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development; Tourism and
Hospitality Industry.
The following MDC-T
Ministries do not have deputies – Finance; Information Communication Technology;
Housing and Social Amenities; Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs; Science
and Technology; Water Resources and Development. All the MDC-Ministries have
Deputy Ministers.
There is no Deputy
Minister of Home Affairs, as Home Affairs has two
co-Ministers.
Constitution
breached – Ministerial Quotas
Exceeded
The inter-party
wranglings of the last week or so have resulted in a compromise significantly
departing from the provisions of Article 20 of the IPA:
·
41
Ministers have been appointed instead of the 31 specified in the IPA
·
20 Deputy
Ministers have been appointed instead of the 15 specified.
The
constitutionality/legality of too many appointments is obviously questionable.
The parties seem to have acted on the basis that Article 6, being part of an
agreement, can simply be changed by further agreement between the parties. But
Article 6 is no longer just part of an agreement. When Constitution Amendment
No. 19 became law on 13th February, Article 20 was incorporated into the
Constitution in Schedule 8. And the notion that a constitutional provision can
be flouted simply by agreement between political parties goes against all
established tenets of constitutional democracy. This lays the actions of the
inflated government open to challenge in the High Court or Supreme Court.
An
Executive Excess
The Executive now
numbers 67. In addition to the Ministers [41] and Deputy Ministers [20] there
are the President, two Vice-Presidents, the Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime
Ministers [6]. This is a large burden for a small country [estimated population
now about 8 million with probably over 95% of its people below the poverty datum
line] to bear.
Cabinet
Members
Cabinet members total
43. There are 42 voting members [ZANU-PF 21; MDC-T 17; MDC-M 4] and one
non-voting member. The Cabinet comprises:
·
the
President and 2 Vice-Presidents
·
the Prime
Minister
·
2 Deputy
Prime Ministers – both Deputy Prime Ministers took the Cabinet member’s oath on
11th February, so they must have been appointed to the Cabinet
[Note:
the IPA and Constitution do not specify that they are Cabinet
members]
·
36
Ministers – the 35 Ministers sworn in on 13th February all took the Cabinet
member’s oath, as did Giles Mutsekwa, sworn in yesterday as co-Minister of Home
Affairs
·
the
Attorney-General [ex officio and
the only non-voting member of Cabinet – Constitution section 76]
[Note:
the 5 Ministers of State appointed yesterday were not sworn in as members
of Cabinet. The Ministers of State sworn in on 13th February [Mutasa and
Sekeremayi] did take the Cabinet oath and are members of Cabinet. Deputy
Ministers are not members of Cabinet.]
Size
of Cabinet also Unconstitutional?
The Cabinet consists
of four ex officio members [the
President as Chairman, both Vice-Presidents, and the Prime Minister as Deputy
Chairman] and Ministers appointed
by the President. As both the IPA and the Constitution say there shall be 31
Ministers, it is implicit that there must not be more than 31 Ministers in
Cabinet. As 36 have been appointed this makes 5 appointees unconstitutional,
although which 5 may be difficult to ascertain. [Note:
some legal opinions suggest that, as Deputy Prime Ministers are not specified as
ex officio members of Cabinet, their appointments should come out of the total
of 31 Ministers, leaving only 29 Cabinet seats for other Ministers, making 7 of
the present 36 Cabinet Ministers unconstitutional.]
Ministers and
Deputy Ministers Sworn in on 19th February
Ministers
ZANU-PF
Ministry
Extra Ministers of State
[3]
1.
John Nkomo [Appointed
Senator] Minister of State in President's
Office [healing organ]
[Speaker of last Parliament,
Minister in previous
governments]
2.
Flora Bhuka [MP Midlands]
Minister of State in Vice-President
Msika's office
[Minister in previous
governments]
3.
Sylvester Nguni [MP Mash
West] Minister of State in Vice-President
Mujuru's office
[Minister in previous
government]
[Note: two
former Ministers who were among those called to be sworn in as Ministers on 13th
February but turned away, have not been accommodated. They are
MDC-T
Ministry
Extra Minister of State
[1]
New parliamentarian
MDC-M
Ministry
Extra Minister of State [1]
Gibson Sibanda [no parliamentary seat]
Minister of State in Deputy Prime Minister
Mutambara's Office [healing organ]
Previous
parliamentarian
Deputy Ministers
[19]
ZANU-PF
[10]
Ministry
MPs in previous
Parliaments
1.
Douglas Mombeshora [MP Mash
West] Health and Child Welfare
2.
Tracy Mutinhiri [MP Mash
East] Labour and Social Welfare
3.
Lazarus Dokora [MP Mash
Central] Education, Sports, Art and
Culture
Deputy Minister in previous
government
4.
Samuel Udenge [MP
Manicaland] Economic Planning and
Development
Minister in previous
government
5.
Hubert Nyanhongo [MP Harare]
Energy and Power
Development
6.
Reuben Marumahoko [Elected
Senator Mash Central] Regional Integration and International Co-operation
Andrew Langa [MP Mat South]
Public Service
7.
Aguy
Deputy Minister in previous
government
First time
MPs
8.
Walter Chidhakwa [MP Mash
West] State Enterprises and Parastatals
9.
Mike Bimha [MP Mash East]
Industry and
Commerce
MDC-T
[8]
MPs in previous
Parliaments
1.
Moses Mzila Ndlovu [MP Mat
South] Foreign
Affairs
2.
Evelyn Masaiti [MP Harare]
Women's Affairs, Gender and
Community Development
3.
Murisi Zwizwai [MP Harare]
Mines and Mining
Development
First time
MP’s
4.
Jameson Timba [MP Harare]
Media, Information and Publicity
5.
Jessie Majome [MP Harare]
Justice and Legal Affairs
6.
Thamsanqa Mahlangu [MP
Bulawayo] Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment
7.
Dr Tichaona Mudzingwa [no
seat in Parliament] Transport and Infrastructural Development
8.
Cecil Zvidzai [no seat in
Parliament] Local Government, Urban and Rural
Development
MDC-M [1]
Ministry
Lutho Addington Tapela [Elected Senator Mat South]
Higher and Tertiary Education
New
parliamentarian
Roy Bennett of MDC-T [no
parliamentary seat], Deputy Minister designate of Agriculture, Mechanisation and
Irrigation Development, was not sworn in.
Corrections to List of Ministers in Bill Watch Special
of 14th February
Ignatius Chombo, Minister Local
Government, Urban and Rural Development is MP Mash West not Mash Central];
Elias Mudzuri, Minister of Energy and Power Development is MP Harare not
Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied.