By Tichaona
Sibanda
21 January 2009
There are reports that negotiators from the
MDC-T have declined an
invitation from ZANU PF to continue with discussions
in Harare, before next
week's extraordinary summit of the SADC Heads of
State.
After Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai failed to reach a deal on
forming
a unity government on Monday, the ZANU PF leader told reporters 'we
will
continue to discuss here at home and we shall continue exchanging
ideas.'
Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said the MDC felt there was
nothing
to be discussed since ZANU PF have failed to show any signs that
they are
serious on finding a lasting solution to the crisis.
'An
invitation was extended yesterday (Tuesday) but the MDC have said no to
it.
The MDC insists they can't be seen entertaining ZANU PF when 30 of their
activists are still languishing in prison for no apparent reason, after they
were abducted from their homes on trumped up charges' Muchemwa said.
He
added; 'The MDC is strategizing for next week's summit, although they
remain
doubtful another meeting would rescue the fragile power-sharing pact.'
The
summit in Harare on Monday was brokered by a team from SADC and was
aimed at
ending the four-month impasse between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and
Tsvangirai's MDC
on the implementation of the September power-sharing
accord. South African
President Kgalema Motlanthe led the team, which also
included Thabo Mbeki,
SADC's official mediator, and Mozambican President
Armando
Guebuza.
Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed to try again to break the
deadlock, at a
summit in either Botswana or South Africa next week held by
the regional
bloc.
Some observers believe a unity government is the best
chance of preventing
the total collapse of the country, where prices double
every day and the
rate of inflation is the highest in the world. Others fear
that it would be
the end of the MDC, because Mugabe would ensure that he
just held on to
power and would block any effective change they tried to
initiate.
..
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
http://af.reuters.com
Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:17pm GMT
By
Paul Simao
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson
Mandela,
on Wednesday described Zimbabwe's government as illegitimate and
said
regional leaders had allowed hundreds of thousands of people to die
needlessly in the African nation.
Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian
catastrophe as President Robert Mugabe and
the opposition bicker over a
stalled power-sharing deal. Rights groups say
scores of opposition activists
have been murdered, tortured and beaten.
"Any government that goes out
and assaults its people, its citizens, it has
lost completely any kind of
legitimacy," Machel said at a news conference
where Zimbabwean activists
launched a hunger strike to pressure Mugabe and
the SADC regional
body.
Asked if the veteran Zimbabwean ruler, in power since independence
in 1980,
should step down, Machel said: "The people of Zimbabwe have already
said so
... the ballot has spoken."
The Mozambican-born Machel joined
a growing list of prominent Africans who
in the past year have criticised
Mugabe's authoritarian rule or called for
the removal of his
government.
Mugabe lost the first round of a presidential election last
year to MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but he won the second round
overwhelmingly after
Tsvangirai pulled out of the race, citing violence
against his supporters.
For almost a decade South Africa and other
nations in SADC (Southern African
Development Community) have used quiet
diplomacy to try to nudge Mugabe
toward democratic reforms and halt
Zimbabwe's meltdown.
An apparent breakthrough was reached last September
when Mugabe and
Tsvangirai agreed to form a unity government, but the deal
has unravelled
over control of key ministries and many doubt it can be
salvaged.
In the meantime, food shortages have worsened and the
healthcare system has
all but collapsed, exposing the population to diseases
such as HIV/AIDS and
cholera, which has killed more than 2,100 people in
recent months.
Machel, who was barred from entering Zimbabwe on a
humanitarian visit late
last year, said hundreds of thousands of lives could
have been saved had the
leaders of SADC taken stronger action to end the
crisis.
"We trusted too long. It's time to tell our leaders we lay the
lives of all
those who passed on ... in the hands of the SADC leaders
because they took
responsibility to stop the mess there," she
said.
Machel, however, said she would not join the hunger strike and
rotating
fasts, which are due to last for three months.
A total of 55
activists have joined the protest, according to Kumi Naidoo,
one of the
hunger strikers. Anti-apartheid icon and Nobel laureate Desmond
Tutu is
among the clerics who abstaining from food.
Tutu told South Africa's Talk
Radio 702 last week that he was fasting one
day a week in solidarity with
the people of Zimbabwe and he called on all
South Africans to join
him.
The protesters are demanding, among other things, that SADC
recognise that
Mugabe's government is illegitimate and a transitional
authority be set up
to implement the power-sharing deal if the deadlock
continued past the end
of February. (Editing by Alison Williams)
http://www.mg.co.za
FIENIE GROBLER | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jan 21 2009
14:29
Southern African leaders have failed miserably in saving
Zimbabweans from a
government that has lost all legitimacy, Elders member
Graça Machel said on
Wednesday.
"We trusted too long, it's time we
tell our leaders we lay the lives of all
those who passed on ... in the
hands of the SADC [Southern African
Development Community] leaders because
they took the responsibility to stop
that mess there," Machel said in
Johannesburg.
"Politicians have very huge egos to protect. They don't
care if another
thousand, another thousand and another thousand die, as long
as they protect
their egos."
The former Mozambican first lady was
speaking at the launch of the "Save
Zimbabwe Now" campaign by church
leaders, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
who will participate in a period
of fasting to raise awareness of the crisis
in Zimbabwe.
Machel said
long-time Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe's government had lost all
legitimacy
and warned other liberation movements in Southern Africa against
following
the same route.
In the past, leaders in the region, including Zimbabwe,
stood together to
fight against oppressive white rule, said
Machel.
"What has happened in the meantime in Zimbabwe? Those colleagues
of mine
from yesterday now brutalise their own people simply because the
people
consciously voted them out.
"It is a question which haunts me
again and again," said Machel.
More than 2 000 people have died of
cholera in strife-torn Zimbabwe and many
others have died in political
conflict. Mugabe and Movement for Democratic
Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai
failed yet again on Monday to agree to a
power-sharing
government.
SADC has been facilitating talks on a government of national
unity in so-far
unsuccessful attempts led by former South African president
Thabo Mbeki.
Zimbabwean Pastor Wison Mugabe, a member of the National
Pastor's Forum,
said he would start a 21-day hunger strike on
Wednesday.
Pastor Mugabe said the people of Zimbabwe were already on a
"forced fast by
the government".
"We have become beggars ...
yesterday we were people who could feed the
whole of Southern
Africa.
"Hear us, we have suffered enough," said the pastor, who broke
down in tears
and had to be comforted by Machel before he could continue
talking.
"Let's just pray for God to restore the conscience of political
leaders and
open the eyes of SADC leaders," said Pastor Mugabe.
He
will be joined by about 54 others who will take part in the fasting
period,
most of them fasting one day per week, including Tutu, who will
start next
Wednesday.
Other participants are Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central
Methodist Church
and Reverend Priscilla Everson.
The SaveZimbabaweNow
campaign, whose headquarters will be the Central
Methodist Church in
Johannesburg, is supported by several organisations and
religious groups,
including the South African Council of Churches, the Young
Communist League,
The Elders, the South African Communist Party and the
Islamic Relief Support
centre.
Nomboniso Gasa, chairperson of the South African Commission for
Gender
Equality, and Kumi Naidoo, honorary president of the NGO Civicus,
will join
Pastor Mugabe in the 21-day hunger strike.
'This is a
lesson'
Machel, who is not participating in the fast "for personal reasons",
said
SADC leaders needed to add new voices in their attempts to solve the
Zimbabwean crisis.
"They will be meeting here on Monday again ... I
think we have to send a
very clear, unequivocal message -- 'we are dying,
this has got to stop',"
said Machel.
She said SADC had the mandate of
millions of citizens in its region to
create stability in
Zimbabwe.
"This is the biggest test to all leaders of SADC ... They, as a
collective
leadership, took the responsibility to solve the conflict and we
have been
waiting too long."
Machel said Zimbabwe had failed in its
responsibility to protect its
citizens and called on Mugabe to release all
political prisoners from jail.
"I want to say to the leadership who are
in government in Zimbabwe ... a
government must protect its citizens ...
it's how you treat your own
citizens, that's where your legitimacy comes
from.
"It [the Zimbabwean government] has lost completely any kind of
legitimacy.
"This is not normal. This is a lesson to our region. We came
together to
liberate ourselves, but now [we see] that power can pervert you
to become
precisely the opposite of what led you to become a freedom
fighter.
"This is a lesson to other liberation movements in our region,"
said Machel.
http://www.hararetribune.com
Wednesday, 21 January 2009 19:25
Nomsa Moyo
As was predicted by Zimbabwe's main opposition, MDC, the
corrupt Zanu-PF
Members of Parliament have abused the South African R300
million
agricultural aid after looting fertilizers, maize seed and
fuel.
The eight corrupt Zanu-PF legislators, who are close allies of
president
Robert Mugabe, were working together with some farmers and members
of the
public to swindle large quantities of the ammonium nitrate, Compound
D and
maize seed.
The inputs were brought into the country recently
but unfortunately fell in
wrong hands of Zanu-PF members in influential
positions.
Late last year, South Africa handed over R300 million aid to
Zimbabwe to
bail out Zimbabwe's crippled agriculture sector.
The MDC
chided South Africa for disbursing the aid to the Zanu-PF government
before
the finalisation of the peace deal.
The revelations are a confirmation of
how unscrupulous Zanu-PF members are
abusing the South Africa's R300 million
agriculture aid.
Mugabe's henchman, Brigadier General Douglas
Nyikayaramba, handles the
inputs that were sourced by South
Africa.
Nyikayaramba's inputs committee has denied to name-and- shame the
Zanu-PF
thieves but sources in Parliament have promised to let the cat of
the bag.
However the other implicated Zanu-PF supporters are Shingirai
Mawere, Simon
Machiri, Simbarashe Benhura, Paddington Mutasa and two
Malawians John Phiri
and Liaka Musa.
The other fraudsters are two
Malawians who acquired 30 tonnes of Urea
Fertilizer and 160 litres of diesel
under unclear circumstances.
The inputs committee says Mashonaland East
Province tops the list of
corruption cases, with 22 while six cases happened
in Mashonaland East, and
Matabeleland North has four cases. Mashonaland West
and Masvingo have three
cases each, while two cases were recorded in
Harare.
During the Zanu-PF conference in December, party members stole
nine beasts,
mealie-meal and other foodstuffs, as thuggery in the regime
reared its ugly
head.
Once Africa's breadbasket, the southern African
nation has low agricultural
outputs because of poor farming
preparations.
The UN says more than 5.5 million Zimbabweans require food
aid this year.
http://af.reuters.com
Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:58am
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe faces another huge food deficit in
2009 due to
continued falls in farm production, mounting political
uncertainty and
economic instability, a report by a farmers' union said on
Wednesday.
The southern African country is battling hyperinflation and
has endured food
shortages since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe's
government began
seizing farms from whites to resettle landless
blacks.
A power-sharing deal signed by Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai last September looks fragile due to bickering over control
of key
cabinet posts, dimming hopes the ruined economy will be
rescued.
The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents most of
the few
remaining white commercial farmers, said agricultural output would
continue
to fall sharply until the country's political crisis was
resolved.
"Investment in agriculture is long-term and its risk factor
very high,
therefore under the present unstable conditions prevailing in
Zimbabwe at
the moment, production in all sectors is expected to be
extremely low this
season," the CFU said in a report.
The CFU added
that the economic meltdown had also hit farm operations.
"The
super-hyperinflation prevailing in the country and the unavailability
of
cash from the banks has also impacted negatively on any meaningful
production this season," the union said.
The last official inflation
rate, for July last year, stood at 231 million
percent.
Donor
agencies say more than 5 million Zimbabweans, almost half the
population,
currently rely on food handouts and expect the number to rise
following
another poor agricultural season.
The United Nations' World Food
Programme (WFP) says its $140 million
emergency food aid appeal for Zimbabwe
has come up $65 million short.
The CFU said continued disturbances on
farms, where some white farmers are
still being forced off land or
prosecuted for failing to do so, had also hit
production.
Less than
500 white farmers remain active on their farms, down from over
6,000 before
the land seizures began.
Mugabe's government has said it would press on
with the prosecution and
eviction of white farmers still on land earmarked
for acquisition, despite a
ruling by a regional Southern African Development
Community (SADC) tribunal
stopping such action.
Critics say Mugabe's
land policies have ruined Zimbabwe's once prosperous
economy, but the
veteran ruler says the seizures were meant to reverse
colonial land
imbalances.
Source: Government of Zimbabwe; World Health Organization (WHO) Date: 20 Jan 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: - 894 cases and 37 deaths added today (in comparison 1910 cases and 137
deaths yesterday) - 44.8% of the districts affected have reported today (26 out of 58 affected
districts) - 88.7 % of districts reported to be affected (55 districts/62) - Chegutu and Chiredzi reduced cumulative deaths after data cleaning.
* 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.
http://af.reuters.com/
Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:27pm
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is spreading to
rural areas
because people with the preventable disease have quit
heavily-infected urban
centres for the countryside, an agency official said
Wednesday.
United Nations agencies say cholera has killed nearly 2,500
people and
infected more than 40,000 in the Southern African country, where
the health
and sanitation systems have collapsed due to an economic
crisis.
The disease has also spread to neighbouring countries, including
regional
powerhouse, South Africa.
Critics blame the crisis on the
policies of President Robert Mugabe, a
charge the veteran ruler
denies.
A power-sharing deal signed by Mugabe and his opposition rival
Morgan
Tsvangirai on September 15 raised hopes Zimbabwe's ruined economy
could be
rescued, and the humanitarian crisis arrested. But the pact appears
to be
unravelling as the two fight over the control of powerful
ministries.
"The cholera threat has not subsided," Wilfred Sikukula,
World Vision
Zimbabwe's cholera response manager, told Reuters. He said
cholera was not
under control even though international agencies had
mobilised resources to
fight it.
"What has happened is that while it
initially affected mostly urban areas,
it has now shifted to rural areas,
where some affected people have migrated
to. We continue to have reports of
new outbreaks in villages."
World Vision Zimbabwe received $4.7 million
worth of cholera drugs, water
purification chemicals, water tanks and body
bags Wednesday, donated by the
Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA) and World Vision Canada.
Sikukula said the goods would be
distributed to the families and communities
of more than 75,000 vulnerable
children.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya)
JOHANNESBURG, 21 January 2009 (IRIN) - The
Zimbabwe dollar now seems to have lost all its appeal, and calls for the
adoption of a foreign currency to replace the struggling monetary unit and put
an end to the country's crippling hyperinflation are becoming louder.
Photo:
Wikimedia Commons
The new
Zim dollar?
"We have to accept the economy has been 'dollarised' and all companies
should be registered to trade in hard currency," Obert Sibanda, president of the
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, told the state-run The Herald newspaper
on 19 January.
Dollarisation, or the use of a foreign currency - not
necessarily the US dollar - in parallel to, or instead of, the domestic
currency, has long been a daily reality for most Zimbabweans. Record-breaking
inflation has made them reluctant to accept the local currency, preferring
either to trade in a more stable currency, or to barter.
They could not
get their hands on their Zimbabwe dollar savings and salaries even if they
wanted to - banks have been limited by law to a ceiling on withdrawals that no
longer covers the cost of a loaf of bread.
The US dollar and South
African rand are in use across the country, while Botswana's pula is favoured in
Bulawayo and the west of the country, the Zambian Kwacha is used in the northern
areas, and the Mozambican metical in Mutare and the country's eastern regions.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had already endorsed semi-official
dollarisation in September 2008 by introducing 'Foreign Exchange Licensed
Warehouses and Shops' when some 1,000 retail outlets and 250 wholesalers were
permitted to trade in foreign currency.
In a statement released earlier
in January 2009, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) demanded that "all
workers should be paid in foreign currency, given the fact that shops are now
selling their goods in foreign currency - even those that have not been licensed
to do so."
The ZCTU was previously opposed to introducing foreign
exchange as legal tender, but the reality on the ground has caused it to
reconsider. "Workers are even forced to pay rentals and fares in foreign
currency ... public hospitals can now charge for their services in foreign
currency, but the majority of workers who utilise these hospitals do not earn in
foreign currency."
Various reports in the local media this week noted
that a draft economic recovery plan, purportedly issued by the RBZ, had said:
"It is imperative that Zimbabwe informally adopts the rand alongside the
Zimbabwe dollar", in a bid to stem the rampant economic crisis.
However,
RBZ governor Gideon Gono distanced himself from these reports by telling The
Star newspaper, a South African daily published in Johannesburg: "The Zimbabwean
dollar will not be overtaken by any other currency, formally or otherwise, now
or at any point in the future."
Stop printing money
Zimbabwe's out-of-control hyperinflation has become the symbol of its
unprecedented economic decline, and most people simply treat the two local
currencies (original and "revalued") as beyond salvation.
Prices double every 24.7
hours... Shops have simply stopped accepting Zimbabwean dollars.
The monthly inflation
rate passed the 50 percent mark - the threshold for defining 'hyperinflation'-
in March 2007; in January 2009 the RBZ issued the world's first 100 trillion
dollar note.
"Since then, it's gotten much worse," said Steve Hanke,
professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in the
US, and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.
The latest official RBZ figure, dating back to July 2008, put year-on-year
inflation at more than 231 million percent.
In the absence of credible
official statistics, Hanke developed a hyperinflation index for Zimbabwe and in
an article in the December 2008 issue of the financial magazine, Forbes Asia,
put the annual inflation rate at around 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent
- 65 followed by 107 zeros. "Prices double every 24.7 hours," he noted. "Shops
have simply stopped accepting Zimbabwean dollars."
A report released by
the Cato Institute in June 2008 - Zimbabwe, From Hyperinflation to Growth - said
the RBZ's money machine was the source of the hyperinflation. "The government
spends, and the RBZ finances the spending by printing money. The RBZ has no
ability, in practice, to resist the government's demands for cash ... To stop
hyperinflation, Zimbabwe needs to immediately adopt a different monetary
system," the report said.
The RBZ sees itself in a different light, as
evidenced by its strategic vision: "to become the financial cornerstone around
which Zimbabwe's economic fortunes and developmental aspirations are anchored
... the pursuit of the Bank's vision will express itself through leadership in
the formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and action plans for
fighting inflation, stabilisation of the internal and external value of
Zimbabwe's currency and of the financial system in a manner that gives pride of
achievement to Zimbabweans across the board."
The price of
monetary stability
Most economists agree that ditching
Zimbabwe's discredited currency would help pave the way to recovery. "This is an
idea we have been suggesting for years. We need to tie up the Zimbabwe dollar
with a stronger currency," Zimbabwean economic analyst John Robertson told IRIN.
"We need the confidence in the South African rand to help us out of economic
problems."
According to Dawie Roodt, a government finance expert in
South Africa, the benefits to Zimbabwe would be considerable: "First of all,
they would be importing the South African inflation rate. The Zimbabwe inflation
problem is purely a Zimbabwe dollar issue, so over time the inflation rate would
be equal to the inflation rate in South Africa."
This would mean the
adoption of real interest rates, allowing banks to resume lending - essential to
kick-start the country's ailing industrial sector.
The notion of
adopting the rand is not new to the region: the Common Monetary Area (CMA) of
the rand fixes relative values of the currencies of neighbouring Namibia,
Lesotho and Swaziland to the South African unit.
But Roodt cautioned
that there was also a downside: "The most obvious [drawback] of using another
currency is that you lose control of monetary policy," and Zimbabwe would also
be adopting South Africa's monetary framework.
The legal tender could
also become an issue of sovereignty and national pride, which, he commented,
were sensitive matters. "You don't have the president's picture on the
currency."
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe will require about 3.5 billion
South African
rands (US$350 million) every month to finance government
activities as part
of an economic turnaround plan that will see the country
embrace free market
forces and adopt the more stable South African currency
as the mode of
payments, according to a leaked document seen by APA
here.
The elaborate plan is contained in a leaked Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)
document detailing how the government intends to use local
resources to
pluck Zimbabwe out of an eight-year economic crisis, APA learnt
on
Wednesday.
The economic turnaround would be anchored on the
six-month staggered
"randification" of the economy, starting with a gradual
acceptance of the
rand as the official alternative to the free-falling
Zimbabwe dollar for
purposes of paying for public utilities and workers'
salaries.
A runaway inflation has undermined the credibility of the
Zimdollar as an
acceptable medium of exchange and store of value.
The
economic has gradually dollarised or "randified" to the extent that very
few
traders and service providers now accept the local currency, preferring
the
United States dollar or the rand instead.
"Against this background it is
imperative that the economy informally adopts
the rand alongside the
Zimdollar to eliminate distortions associated with
the use of multiple
currencies," the RBZ said in the leaked blueprint.
It said a "randified"
Zimbabwean economy would require about 42 billion
rands (US$4.2 billion) a
year to meet statutory and other needs such as
civil service salaries and
imports of power, fuel, agricultural inputs and
water treatment
chemicals.
This translates to about 3.5 billion rands a month which would
be financed
from taxes and other government levies.
The proposed
economic regime would see the return of free market forces in
the
determination of prices, the relaxation of exchange control regulations
to
allow exporters to retain all their proceeds as well as the opening up of
the mining sector to increase exploration activities and restore investor
confidence.
JN/nm/APA 2009-01-21
Press
statement
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
Williams and Mahlangu on
trial Thursday 22 Jan - Bulawayo Magistrate's Court
LEADERS of Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), Jenni Williams and Magodonga
Mahlangu, will appear on
trial tomorrow, 22nd January 2009 in Tredgold Court
in Bulawayo. The duo are
charged with C/S 37 (1) (a) (i) of the Criminal Law
Codification and Reform
Act Chapter 9:23: "Acting together with one or more
other persons with
him/her in any place realizing that there is a real risk
or possibility of
disturbing peace, security or order of the public". The
State will be
represented by Lovemore Chifamba with senior Magistrate Msipa
presiding.
The state has also served summons for an arrest on 19 June
2004 under c/s
7(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act chapter 9:15 "acting
in a manner
which is likely to lead to a breach of the peace or to create a
nuisance or
obstruction". It is unclear how this matter will be handled as
it could be
tried simultaneously or will be added and incorporated into the
current
case.
They were arrested on 16th October 2008 at
Mhlahlandlela Government Complex
and were held in custody for three weeks;
first at Bulawayo Central Police
Station, then at Bulawayo Remand Prison
before spending the remainder of the
time at Mlondolozi Prison. The protest
was to demand that the food situation
in Zimbabwe be declared a national
disaster and all Zimbabweans be able to
access food aid whilst protracted
political negotiations are more speedily
concluded.
Their trial was
due to start on 2nd December 2008, but the state,
represented by Mr.
Shawarira, was not ready for trial and so Magistrate
Msipa postponed the
trial until 22 January 2009. All bail conditions, which
included reporting
to police twice a week and not being allowed to travel
outside a
40-kilometer radius of Bulawayo without written permission, were
lifted.
Kossam Ncube, briefed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
will represent
Williams and Mahlangu.
Their arrest and detention was
in violation of the 15th September 2008
Global Political Agreement between
Zanu PF and the two Movement for
Democratic Change party's. WOZA asks for
solidarity from individuals and
other civic partners.
Ends
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk
Wednesday, 21st January 2009.
10:12am
By: Kumbirai Mafunda.
Harare: An unidentified
man on Monday threatened the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) and
its employees with unspecified action as
harassment and attacks of lawyers
intensify.
ZLHR said an unidentified man who identified himself
as a war veteran
forced entry into the organisation's Bulawayo offices
enquiring about Kucaca
Phulu, the regional manager for the ZLHR's satellite
office, who was out of
office at the time of the visit.
The man
who boasted of his liberation war credentials started ranting
and
threatening Tineyi Mukwewa, one of Phulu's assistants. The unidentified
man
accused the lawyers grouping of working to destabilise and unseat
President
Robert Mugabe's administration by offering legal representation to
some
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members who are facing charges of
banditry and trying to unseat Mugabe's administration.
"The
unidentified man blamed the ZLHR for the imposition of targeted
sanctions
against some ZANU PF and government officials. He castigated the
ZLHR for
advocating for the upholding of the rule of law and being
recipients of
financial resources from hostile western governments. The
unidentified man
threatened unspecific action against the ZLHR and its staff
saying; "We are
going to deal with you (ZLHR)," before he left, read part of
an alert issued
by ZLHR.
ZLHR, which has for more than 10 years provided opposition
members and
human rights activists with free legal aid and has on several
occasions won
court orders, condemned the threats.
"ZLHR
unreservedly condemns such threats against the organization and
its lawyers.
This is an indication of a further escalation of attacks
against the legal
profession since the opening of the 2009 legal year, which
cannot be
tolerated in a democratic society, which purports to adhere to the
rule of
law," said ZLHR.
The threats against the ZLHR come at a time of
unprecedented attacks
against legal practitioners in the
country.
Last week Judge President Rita Makarau threatened legal
practitioners
for allegedly criticizing decisions and judgments made by High
Court judges
while Nathaniel Manheru, a columnist with the state-run Herald
newspaper
accused ZLHR of giving legal representation to MDC supporters whom
he
accused of working as bandits to unseat Mugabe's
administration.
ZLHR is currently leading a team of lawyers, which
is offering legal
assistance to human rights activist Jestina Mukoko and
several MDC
supporters.
http://www.chronicle.co.zw/
Wednesday,
January 21, 2009
Court Reporter
THE Registrar-General's office
has been ordered to issue a passport to a
Bulawayo businessman, who was
being denied the document because his mother
was South African.
Bulawayo
High Court judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, hearing an urgent chamber
application lodged by Mr Russell Carlaisle Caldecott ruled that Mr Caldecott
was entitled to be issued with a Zimbabwean passport.
Justice Cheda
ordered that each party pay its own costs.
In his founding affidavit filed by
his legal practitioner, Mr Vonani Majoko
of Majoko and Majoko, Mr Caldecott
states that on 15 December, he went to
the Registrar General's office in
Bulawayo to apply for a new passport.
Although his passport expires on 26
November next year, the pages have been
used up.
"While my application
was being processed a query was raised by the
Respondent's officers
concerning my entitlement to a Zimbabwean passport, in
view of the fact that
one of my parents, my mother, was not a Zimbabwean
citizen," he
states.
Mr Caldecott submits that he was advised that in terms of the law, he
lost
his entitlement to Zimbabwean citizenship because he did not renounce
his
South African citizenship.
"I advised the Respondent's officers that
I have never had South African
citizenship, but they insisted that in terms
of the law I was presumed to
have acquired South African citizenship," he
submits.
He notes that in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the
Citizenship
of Zimbabwe Act Chapter 4:01, anyone who at the appointed day
was a citizen
of Zimbabwe by birth or descent "shall continue to be a
citizen of Zimbabwe".
The Citizenship Act was amended by the Citizenship of
Zimbabwe Amendment Act
No 12 of 2001.
The amendment provides that a
citizen of Zimbabwe who is also a citizen of a
foreign country ceased to be
a citizen of Zimbabwe at the expiry of six
months from the date of
commencement of the amendment.
He says that he did not renounce South African
citizenship because he never
held the neighbouring country's
citizenship.
Mr Caldecott was born to a father who was a citizen of Zimbabwe
and a mother
who was South African, permanently resident in Zimbabwe.
He
has at all times held the citizenship of Zimbabwe, a local National
Identity
document and a Zimbabwean passport.
The reasons for bringing the matter as an
urgent chamber application are
that he is a majority shareholder in Ultimate
Safaris (Pvt) Ltd, a hunting
safari company.
Annually and every January
there is a marketing show in Reno, United
States,under the auspices of the
Safari Club International (SCI), a leading
organisation for safari operators
and outfitters.
"I have pioneered in Zimbabwe hunting by disabled persons and
my business is
the only business which caters for hunting by the disabled.
Hunting by
disabled persons is thus a specialised business, which at the
moment only I
am an authority on in Zimbabwe," submits Mr Caldecott. He
further states
that he has already made bookings for a stall at the Reno
2009 show.
He adds: "It is thus absolutely necessary and imperative that I be
at the
show. If I will not be, I stand to lose a lot in money already
committed to
book flights, the stall and accommodation. I will also lose out
on business
and in goodwill. I will not be the only loser, though, the
country also
stands to lose on revenue and goodwill that would be engendered
if Zimbabwe
were to be marketed as a safe destination which it is, after a
barrage of
negative publicity."
On approaching the Registrar General's
Office in Bulawayo on Monday armed
with the order, Mr Caldecott was advised
to go to Harare to see the
Registrar General, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede.
Although
the RG's office had indicated through the Civil Division of the
Attorney
General's Office, no papers were filed and the case had to be
postponed to
last Friday to give them a chance to file their opposing
papers.
No
papers had been filed by the time the case went to the judge's chambers
and
Mr Whisper Mabaudi, of the Attorney General's Office in Bulawayo had to
stand in for the Harare office.
By
Lance Guma
21 January 2008
Zimbabwe's worsening humanitarian, economic
and political situation forced
over 100 000 people to claim asylum in South
Africa in 2008, according to
pressure group Human Rights Watch. The group
have released a report saying
at least 30 000 claimed asylum in the last 5
months of 2008, a period that
started after the violent June one man
presidential run-off, and this figure
was double the total number of
Zimbabwean claims made in all 6 of South
Africa's refugee reception offices
in 2007. The figure is also more than
half of the total number of asylum
claims made by all nationalities in South
Africa in those offices the same
year. It's now believed there is a backlog
of at least 200 000 Zimbabwean
asylum cases in South Africa.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed the
often-unlawful deportation of more than
250,000 Zimbabweans a year and says
this means South Africa violates the
most basic principle of refugee law,
'the right not to be forcibly returned
to persecution.' Bill Frelick, the
refugee policy director for HRW said they
were seeing a significant number
of Zimbabweans crossing into South Africa
via Musina. He said those crossing
were in bad shape because of the dramatic
reduction in the availability of
food and medicines. This he said had been
caused by a combination of the
economic implosion and political repression
in the country.
The
rights group urged South Africa to stop deporting Zimbabweans, because
this
was forcing many to claim asylum even if they did not need it. This in
turn
was placing even greater pressure on a system already struggling to
process
refugee claims, according to international standards. They
criticized South
Africa's bureaucratic asylum policy and say it needlessly
subjects
applicants to stringent conditions. This was because the system
required too
much in terms of evidence and justification from Zimbabweans on
why they
fled their country.
'We are calling upon the South African government,
which has already a
pretty dysfunctional asylum system in terms of doing
individual refugee
status determinations, to basically say that this is a
situation that calls
for a temporary status that would basically put into
effect a
non-deportation policy for Zimbabweans and give them work
authorization,'
Frelick said.
The collapse of a power sharing deal
signed in September last year has
convinced most Zimbabweans to leave the
country. A devastating cholera
outbreak that has claimed more than 2200
lives, the abduction of over 30
opposition and civil society activists, food
shortages and other economic
challenges have simply compounded the general
doom and gloom.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
8:50 PM
ET
Ambroise Pierre [Africa Desk, Reporters Without Borders]: "As head
of
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders' Africa desk, I am both concerned
and
exasperated by the harsh conditions in which the Zimbabwe authorities
are
holding journalist and human rights activist Jestina
Mukoko.
First of all, I am concerned because her state of health has
seriously
deteriorated in the last few weeks. We know that she was tortured
in prison
after she was abducted from her home on December 3, 2008, and then
held in
secret for nearly three weeks. In addition, she has been put in
solitary
confinement in Chikurubi high security prison, which will
undoubtedly prove
extremely grueling for her. Jestina Mukoko is sick and
needs medical
treatment, which is being denied to her by the men who are
holding her.
Exasperated as well, because it seems that the courts in
Zimbabwe, answering
to the orders of the country's political authorities,
are doing everything
to keep her in detention, even though a High Court
ruling on December 24
determined that she should be taken to a hospital. The
trial of Jestina
Mukoko and her co-accused is a sham, the rights of the
detainees are being
trampled on, and hearings are constantly being
adjourned. As for the charges
against this director of the human rights
organization, the Zimbabwe Peace
Project (ZPP), they are absurd and
baseless. Hidden behind the charge of "a
terrorist plot aiming to overthrow
President Robert Mugabe" is the reality
of the authorities' determination to
hound opposition activists.
It is as though the regime of Robert Mugabe
was trying to undermine the
power-sharing agreement signed with the
opposition in September 2008, as
though Mugabe has decided to lay bare his
cruelty in gagging any independent
and critical voices. Against this
background, negotiations between the
ruling ZANU-PF party and opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) will prove
to be complicated."
Opinions expressed in JURIST's Hotline are the sole
responsibility of their
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of
JURIST's editors, staff,
or the University of Pittsburgh.
To be honest, we don't care about the politics that much any more.
We saw the failure of Monday's power-sharing talks coming - despondency set
in a long time back. As the talks were going on, we were talking about the incident over the
weekend when the first lady - Grace Mugabe - slapped a photographer in Hong
Kong. It sums up the arrogance of those in power in this country. If you don't like
somebody, you beat them up. We read about it on a news service on the internet. It's not - as some have
suggested - the pressure of the beginning of the end, I honestly don't think
that thought ever enters their mind. Even the vegetable vendors quote in US dollars and will sometimes let you
negotiate to pay with the Zim-dollar equivalent for that day. But over the weekend I bought sour cream drinks - known as lacto - from a
vendor for US$1 for two 500ml packets. Some other guy came up and the vendor told him the same price. He said: "I
don't have US dollars; how much in Zim dollars?" The vendor told him: "I don't accept Zimbabwean dollars, sorry." Inauguration rumours The abduction last month of [human rights activist] Jestina Mukoko, has put
paid to the feeling that it was safer to speak your mind - prevalent after the
September deal. I was becoming quite outspoken in my opinions. But if they could abduct her - such a public person doing such public work,
gathering evidence of torture and so forth - detain her, ignore court orders to
release her, then the message to the rest of us is clear: "It's business as
usual; nothing has changed." If you talk and speak your mind, you're labelled an activist - and that's it,
you're gone. So that outspokenness has gone. The one thing people have been excited about is the inauguration of US
President Barack Obama. On Tuesday, some people left work early so that they could be sitting at
their TVs on time for when the satellite news stations broadcast the whole
thing. There's a feeling that because he's of African descent he's going be more
involved with our politics and he's somebody who's going to really put his foot
down that there has to be a solution. There was this rumour going around that he'd invited opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to the inauguration, so I think people have this hope that Obama's
going to have the Zimbabwean cause closer to his heart than [George W] Bush did
and that he's going to do more to bring about a political solution. The involvement of the South African and Mozambican leaders at the talks on
Monday was just a waste of time and their taxpayers' money. At the end of last year, the [Southern African Development Community] leaders
at a conference on Zimbabwe's impasse asked Tsvangirai and [President Robert]
Mugabe and their delegations to leave the room so that they could discuss the
matter. Mugabe refused to leave. So how on earth are you going to get him to give up
a ministry, if you cannot get him to leave a room? No passion When I started doing this diary I was so on fire - I wanted to talk about
what was happening in my country. I hoped it would somehow bring the story to a lot more ordinary people - and
there'd be action and something would change for the better. But it's been a long 10 months and my passion and my hope in politicians has
gone. Even the hope that the MDC was going to change the political scene has gone.
We've basically started to label them as useless people as well - in as much
as we appreciate that it's very difficult for them and they have tried really
hard, when it comes down to it, they've failed.
Esther (not her real
name), 29, a professional living and working in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare,
describes the reaction to the last round of power-sharing talks between the
ruling Zanu-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
These
guys have failed to agree for about six months or more, so what was going to get
them to agree this time?
In town you now cannot
buy anything unless you have foreign currency.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Analysis by Basildon Peta, Southern
Africa Correspondent
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Zimbabwe's
so-called global political agreement, intended to achieve a
coalition
government between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe, was never
worth the
paper on which it was written.
Soon after the agreement was signed on 15
September last year, it became
clear that it was not a matter of "if" but
when it would all collapse. Even
as the two leaders delivered their speeches
at the signing ceremony, the
philosophies of Tsvangirai and Mugabe were like
oil and water. They simply
cannot mix.
While the opposition leader,
Mr Tsvangirai, was lucid on how Zimbabwe could
pull back from the precipice,
Mugabe did what he knows best: blaming Britain
and everyone else except
himself for all of Zimbabwe's past and future
problems.
That the
agreement has come down crashing before any attempt to implement it
is not
surprising. What is more surprising is why Mr Tsvangirai ever lent
his
signature to such a flawed arrangement in the first place.
Having
experienced President Mugabe's crude tactics to keep him at bay over
the
years, Mr Tsvangirai ought to have known better. Investing any trust in
his
ruthless adversary through an outline document was never a workable
option.
Now Mr Tsvangirai has given Mr Mugabe what he wanted on a
silver platter; an
excuse to blame the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader - at least
in the eyes of regional African leaders - for the failures
of the agreement.
It should have been obvious to Mr Tsvangirai that all his
promises of adding
flesh to the skeleton deal in a just and equitable way
were not to be
believed. It should also have been obvious to the MDC leader
that Mr
Mugabe's regional peers, who have stood by and watched while he
destroys a
once prosperous Zimbabwe, were never going to drop his support
for him when
the crunch time arrived.
The issues here are
straightforward. Mr Mugabe is a callous and heartless
dictator who is
prepared to cling to power at all costs. He will never
endorse a deal that
effectively negotiates him out of power. Having lost the
elections in March
and shamelessly defied the will of the people, Mr Mugabe
has effectively
closed down the democratic process of achieving change in
Zimbabwe. He thus
is not going to be removed from power via democratic
means.
http://www.theage.com.au
January 22, 2009
Africa's leaders have
helped Robert Mugabe remain in power.
THE US Ambassador to Zimbabwe,
James Mcghee, says Zimbabwe is a failed
state. Cholera and malnutrition are
bringing death everywhere while schools
and hospitals have closed.
Unemployment is 90 per cent, prices are doubling
every day and barter has
replaced a worthless currency - the Zimbabwean
dollar had
13 zeros
removed last year in a vain attempt to make it viable. Hundreds of
thousands
of Zimbabweans have fled to bordering countries.
But African leaders
still refuse to intervene effectively.
Zimbabwe's President, Robert
Mugabe, lost a close-run election last year to
the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
but he is hanging on by
diplomatic bluff and bluster abroad combined with
torture, murder and
criminal neglect at home.
Cholera is spread in conditions of poor
sanitation, where sewage can easily
contaminate water supplies. It marks the
breakdown of the most basic systems
of public health. Aid agencies are
trying to deliver clean water,
antibiotics and rehydrating salts to treat
the tens of thousands of people
infected, but supplies are intercepted by
officials. The UN figures of
roughly 40,000 cases and 2100 deaths
underestimate the situation because
many die at home, often alone, too weak
to seek treatment. The World Health
Organisation estimates 60,000 cases are
likely now the rainy season has
begun washing even more human waste into the
water supplies.
The economy is in its death throes, too. This week a 100
trillion Zimbabwe
dollar was introduced, but all meaningful trade is done by
barter or in
foreign currency, illegally, amid inflation higher than 230
million per
cent. Previously productive mines are now lethal places to work,
as army
officers have seized control and pocketed the dwindling
revenue.
Yet the ruling Zanu-PF and Mugabe, its 84-year-old leader who
has run
Zimbabwe since 1980, still refuse to yield any power. As the country
collapsed and the MDC won the elections but could not take office, South
Africa, Botswana and Tanzania pushed Mugabe to the negotiating
table.
The result was a deal for Zanu-PF to share ministerial power with
MDC. But
within days of the much-heralded agreement, Zanu-PF backtracked,
refusing
the MDC control of any ministries overseeing the security forces.
The MDC
rejected lesser portfolios because the ruling party's record of
violence and
intimidation meant an agreement was worthless without control
of the police,
since Mugabe and his cronies would never yield the
army.
Recent events prove them right. In the past three months more than
40 MDC
supporters have disappeared and others have been arrested and
tortured.
Abductions not only undermine the rule of law and weaken the
political
organisation of the MDC, they drive MDC spokesmen to aggressive
condemnation
of Zanu-PF. MDC criticisms are eagerly reported in
international media
alongside similar comments from Western leaders. This
actually helps Mugabe,
who simply claims that the MDC is the stooge of the
West.
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu shamelessly described the
cholera
outbreak as a "genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the
British". Mugabe claimed that Britain and the US were using cholera as a
cover for an invasion plan. Mugabe knows that by constantly blaming distant
Britain and America for his country's ills, he makes it hard for democratic
but awe-struck leaders in his own region to criticise the veteran
revolutionary hero - some even seem ready to believe that Britain wants its
colonies back. So Mugabe's lies still carry the day.
Although he
should have known better, Thabo Mbeki, who was persuaded to
resign in
September as South African president and was negotiator of the
power-sharing
deal, followed Mugabe's lead and even rebuked Tsvangirai for
looking to the
West for help.
If Mbeki had shown any leadership, Tsvangirai would be
president of
Zimbabwe, but his successor Kgalema Motlanthe shows no sign of
squaring up
to Mugabe either. South Africa's stint on the UN Security
Council has just
ended, but its replacement, Uganda, stated right away that
it also would
oppose any UN action against Mugabe, just as Mbeki did, with
Chinese and
Russian support.
Although Mugabe is a murderous despot,
he understands how to retain power.
Until Africa's democratically elected
leaders can ignore his rhetoric,
Zimbabweans are doomed.
With Barack
Obama's inauguration causing a news frenzy all over Africa, he
has the
opportunity to shame those leaders into action.
Dr Roger Bate is a
resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a
US think tank. He
was refused entry into Zimbabwe earlier this month.
By Violet
Gonda
21 January 2009
As Zimbabweans watched the momentous swearing in
of Barack Obama as the USA's
first African American President, comparisons
were being made about the
stark differences between this new President and
our very own Robert Mugabe.
While the youthful 47 year old Obama took the
oath of office to become
America's 44th President, Mugabe, who will be 85
years old in February, is
fighting to continue as President in a country he
has ruled with an iron
grip since independence in 1980.
In his 29
year long rule Mugabe has seen six US Presidents come and
go -Jimmy Carter,
Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton, George Bush
Jnr and now Barack
Obama.
All of these ex presidents, accept the late Ronald Reagan, were
present at
Obama's inauguration. But in Zimbabwe over six months ago, Mugabe
swore
himself in as President after the controversial presidential run-off
in
which he was the sole candidate. This farcical inauguration in June was a
hurried process that only involved his faithful followers. In contrast, two
million people stood for hours in the bitter cold in Washington DC on
Tuesday to observe President Obama's swearing in ceremony. Unlike
Zimbabweans, they felt part of the process of government.
When the
world's media went into overdrive to capture the moment that Obama
was sworn
in as President, ZTV, the country's only broadcaster, completely
ignored the
inauguration. Zimbabweans either had to be at a sports bar,
hotel or have
access to satellite television to witness this historic event.
Those without
this access had no choice but to watch the old movie screened
by the public
broadcaster during this globally historical moment.
Some observers have
said that the dictatorship imposed the blackout so that
people could not see
what real democracy is about. Zimbabweans would have
witnessed a peaceful
transfer of power and seen Presidents Bush and Obama,
and their spouses,
hugging and kissing.
Very different from Zimbabwe where the President has
opponents tortured,
jailed and murdered. It's also inconceivable that
Obama's wife, Michelle,
would ever attack a news photographer and punch him
repeatedly in the face,
while her security guard held him down. Something
that Zimbabwe's first lady
allegedly did last week in Hong
Kong.
While rivals set aside their political differences for the good of
the
nation in America, in Zimbabwe the masses are force fed propaganda and
hate
speech, at a time when the country is reeling from a massive
humanitarian
crisis.
Furthermore, it took one day to cast the votes
and announce the results in
the US elections in November last year. Barack
Obama was sworn in as
President on 20th January and started work the next
day. Zimbabweans are
still waiting for a government to be formed, 10 months
after the initial
presidential and parliamentary elections on March
29th.
The winner in Zimbabwe's Presidential election, MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, is not being allowed to hold office and is being pressured by
the rest of Africa to take a junior role in a government that will remain
under the control of the loser of the election, and the man who has caused
untold suffering to his own people.
While the elections in America
were peaceful, in Zimbabwe they were the most
violent the country had ever
seen - at least 200 opposition activists were
killed, 500 more disappeared,
tens of thousands were beaten and tortured and
half a million people were
displaced.
Zimbabweans at home and in the Diaspora, who watched Obama's
inauguration,
said it was refreshing to see such a peaceful transfer of
power, coming from
a country where democracy is in intensive
care.
Sungano in London wrote: "I couldn't help thinking that Mugabe is
rather
facially challenged as compared to the youthful and more appealing
Barack
Obama. By merely looking at Mugabe with his tired and aloof look you
just
get depressed - whereas with Obama you are energised."
Patience
in South Africa said: "Look at the swearing in ceremony, it's a
smooth
public event, but in Zimbabwe it's a hurried process that involves
throwing
the Chief Justice in a car and forcing him to swear you in. What
happens in
Zimbabwe is a mockery, it's a joke."
The comparisons between the two
nations and their leaders were widespread.
Geoff Nyarota, the editor of
the Zimbabwe Times website, told SW Radio
Africa that he was torn between
two worlds when he saw the US ceremony. "I
was celebrating with the rest of
the world, but at the same time my own
celebration of this landmark
inauguration was marred by my sense of sorrow
and frustration that this kind
of democratic process cannot happen in my own
country. I nearly wept, I
don't do that easily." Nyarota said.
The editor said he was angry and
frustrated that Zimbabweans are denied this
kind of genuine freedom, where
they can freely vote for a leader of their
own choice.
The online
publication wrote on Wednesday: "While prayers at Obama's
inauguration and
the invocation were delivered by men of God, such as
Reverend Rick Warren
who moved many to tears, prayers at Mugabe's
inauguration were led by
Nolbert Kunonga, a rebel Anglican clergyman, an
ally who broke away from the
Anglican Church last year."
"We thank you Lord for this unique and
miraculous day," dethroned Bishop
Kunonga recited as Mugabe stole another
mandate. "You have not failed our
leader."
Meanwhile in his speech on
Tuesday Obama told the despots around the world
who sow conflict and blame
their society's ills on the west that; 'Their
people will judge them on what
they can build and not what they destroy. To
those who cling to power
through corruption and deceit and the silencing of
dissent, know that you
are on the wrong side of history; but that we will
extend a hand if you are
willing to unclench your fist."
Although President Obama didn't mention
names, many Zimbabweans believe one
of those leaders he was talking about
was our very own Robert Mugabe, who
clenches his fist at his opponents and
western nations who criticise his
authoritarian
rule.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=10224
January 21, 2009
By
Geoffrey Nyarota
UNDER normal circumstances I am most reluctant to engage
in battle those who
portray themselves in public as intellectual giants on
matters pertaining to
their interpretation of our much abused and amended
Constitution.
But when I perceive obvious chinks in the armour the
temptation to try to
disarm them becomes irresistible. Prof Jonathan Moyo's
convoluted
dissertation on the recent utterances of Attorney General
Johannes Tomana
and Judge President Rita Makarau, as published in the latest
issue of The
Sunday Mail, proved too alluring.
Moyo, the Tsholotsho
North legislator, may be a political scientist of
repute inside Zimbabwe but
this time he appears to have been motivated by an
agenda other than to
correctly enlighten the public on a matter of public
interest. He prompted
me to take issue with him on two or three points in
the public interest over
which he seems to claim sole proprietorship.
In doing so I will try my
best to construct sentences of no more than 30
words each.
Moyo
declares in his signature insulting language, "There is no Zimbabwean
today
- excluding those who are brain dead - who does not support or belong
to
either Zanu-PF or the MDC. ..neutrals have become endangered species and
the
same goes for independents.
"Even more compelling is that it is not a
crime to be a member of Zanu-PF or
to support it."
It is patently
false to suggest that there is no Zimbabwean who does not
support Zanu-PF or
the MDCs. There are hundreds of thousands who are not
supporters of those
three parties. For instance, Dr Simba Makoni then of the
Mavambo Project
received more than 200 000 votes in March. Moyo is either
ignorant, which is
bad or lying, which is worse.
Moyo himself represents neither Zanu-PF or
the MDC in Zimbabwe's House of
Assembly. In fact, he enjoys the unique
distinction of being the Parliament
of Zimbabwe's only independent
legislator. Now he declares with remarkable
disparagement that only the
brain-dead are not members of either of the two
parties. He says independent
politicians are, in fact, an endangered
species.
This statement
raises an obvious question: "So to which party is Moyo now
aligned?"
It surely cannot be the MDC, notwithstanding the fact that
it is only
through that party's benevolence and graciousness that he made it
to
Parliament. The MDC was the target of this vitriol in the Sunday
Mail.
But then, neither can he be aligned to Zanu-PF. Here is what the
professor
said about the leader of that party in an article penned for
publication
back in November 18, 2004.
Waxing lyrical in his usually
flowery language Moyo postulated: "One does
not need to be a malcontent to
see that, after 25 years of controversial
rule and with the economy melting
down as a direct result of that rule,
Mugabe's continued stay in office has
become such an excessive burden to the
welfare of the state and such a fatal
danger to the public interest of
Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora
that each day that goes by with him
in office leaves the nation's survival
at great risk while seriously
compromising national
sovereignty."
Notwithstanding the prodigious length this statement, at 95
words, Moyo hit
the proverbial nail right on the head. But of course, those
who accuse Moyo
of being at best a chameleon and at worst a political
prostitute, don't say
so out of any malice. They merely capture the worst
flaw of his character -
hypocrisy - especially when he deals, in his own
contradictory fashion, with
matters relating to the national interest of
Zimbabwe.
"Mugabe now lacks the vision, stature and energy to effectively
run the
country, let alone his party," Moyo proceeded. "He is without
compassion,
maybe because he is now too old, too tired and not in the best
of health.
His failure to visit stranded families left homeless and
suffering from the
irrational acts of his own government speaks volumes of
his cold and cruel
leadership style.
"Of course, Mugabe is still
respected as an old man and he still makes very
interesting bombastic
speeches that are applauded for their entertainment
value and which are full
of sound and fury but signifying (sic) precious
little at the level of
policy and action."
Reverting to his favourite theme of national interest
Moyo closed his
incisive article by writing: "Given the foregoing, President
Mugabe has no
reason whatsoever to continue in office as that is no longer
in his personal
interest and is most certainly not in the national
interest."
That was back in 2004.
Moyo's remarks today must be
viewed in the context of the vicissitudes of
post-March 29 personal
political expediency. Moyo has not denied allegations
that he smelt personal
benefit from the demise of Mugabe and Zanu-PF in the
harmonised elections.
He came in from the cold and rose to become one of the
architects of
Mugabe's violence-ridden electoral recovery, culminating in
his widely
condemned so-called landslide victory on June 27.
But as he dexterously
maneuvers his way to the coveted Ministry of
Information Moyo will pray that
Mugabe is not gifted with the memory of the
elephant. He will also pray that
his equally ambitious rival, George
Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, does not
remind His Excellency.
In his article Moyo felt compelled to take up the
cudgels in support of his
friend and former lawyer, Johannes Tomana, the
recently appointed Attorney
General.
Recently Tomana publicly and
proudly declared himself to be a staunch
Zanu-PF supporter, which statement
did not go down very well with
Zimbabweans outside Zanu-PF circles and even
within. The Zanu-PF old guard
does not take kindly to upstarts who try to
become more Zanu-PF than
themselves.
"Even more compelling is that
(sic) it is not a crime to be a member of
Zanu-PF or to support it." Moyo
argues in his article.
"Quite the contrary, Zimbabwe's Constitution
guarantees and protects freedom
of association for all Zimbabweans
regardless of their professions or
status.
"The idea that an Attorney
General in a constitutional democracy cannot or
should not be a member or
supporter of a political party is preposterous and
primitive, which is why
it has no precedence in the civilised world."
Professor Moyo is right,
but as is his fashion, he speaks with a forked
tongue. The following is what
Section 21 (Sub-section 1) of the Constitution
of Zimbabwe states without
ambiguity:
"Except with his own consent or by way of parental discipline,
no person
shall be hindered in his freedom of assembly and association, that
is to
say, his right to assemble freely and associate with other persons and
in
particular to form or belong to political parties or trade unions or
other
associations for the protection of his interests."
Moyo is
being extremely deceitful. He is aware that during the campaign for
the
presidential election, which he helped Mugabe to win "by a landslide" on
June 27, 2008, more than 200 MDC supporters lost their lives in the most
horrific circumstances imaginable. Thousands more were either maimed or were
displaced from their homes. Somebody with a wicked sense of humour called
the whole murderous exercise Operation Mavhotera Papi (Operation Which
Candidate Did You Vote For). Offending fingers were summarily chopped off on
mere suspicion.
Moyo never uttered a single word in protest or in
defence of the right of
these innocent people to freedom of association. The
professor seems to
believe in selective freedom of association.
To
bolster his point Moyo cites the case of the new United States Attorney
General in the Barack Obama's administration. He says of Eric Holder that he
is a well-known and long-standing Democrat and that there has been no
attempt by the Republicans or anyone else to disqualify Holder on grounds of
his political affiliation.
The legitimacy of Barrack Obama has never been
in dispute or challenged by
the Republicans. Outgoing President George Bush
sat close to Obama at the
inauguration on Tuesday. In fact, Obama's rival in
the presidential
election, John McCain, was quick to concede defeat and to
publicly
congratulate Obama. On the eve of Obama's inauguration a dinner was
hosted
in honour of McCain.
No single human skull was broken in order
for Obama to be declared President
of the United States.
Yet Moyo has
the temerity to draw specious comparisons between the US
administration and
the Mugabe dictatorship.
The US presidential election was held on
November 4, seven months after
Zimbabweans initially went to the polls to
choose a new President. To date,
10 months after Zimbabwe's presidential
election, and seven months after
Mugabe's alleged landside victory, he still
has not formed a government.
On Tuesday, January 20, Mugabe must have
hung his head in shame and
humiliation as he witnessed on CNN or SABC in the
secrecy of State House the
ultimate display of democracy at work. A son of
Africa became the president
of the mightiest nation on earth in the
smoothest transition imaginable. The
United States stood proud. Africa was
ecstatic. The whole world was
enthralled.
In the Zimbabwean context
the departure of George Bush deprives Mugabe of a
favourite scapegoat. I
can't see him saying, "Obama and Brown.." without
sounding totally
ridiculous.
The man that Moyo defends so vehemently, Tomana, was
appointed in the
context of an illegitimate regime.
Moyo says: "For
the avoidance of doubt, in Tomana's case the matter would
have been
different if there were serious questions about his qualification
as a
lawyer."
I have had a serious question about Tomana's competence and I
brought my
reservations about his proficiency to him back in 2002.
He
had just dispatched, as was his regular practice then, a letter on behalf
of
some government minister of other. It was probably Moyo - I don't
remember.
Tomana demanded that The Daily News, of which I was editor,
withdraw an
article that had been published about the minister or he would
sue for
defamation.
Having satisfied myself that there was nothing particularly
defamatory about
the article, and dying of curiosity to meet the source of a
constant stream
of annoying threats, I called and made an appointment to see
the lawyer.
He was then a senior partner in the law firm of Tomana and
Mandaza. Diana
Mandaza was the wife of Dr Ibbo Mandaza, then publisher of
The Daily Mirror.
She had made a name in her own right as the assiduous
secretary of the
Sandura Commission back in 1989. I had never heard of
Tomana until he
started to send threatening letter to me.
On arrival
in his office I was forthright with Tomana, pointing out in no
uncertain
terms that there was nothing in any way defamatory about the
article he was
citing or about other articles before it. I suggested he
should learn to
tell his clients when there were no legal grounds to sustain
their grief
over a newspaper article.
He was equally forthright.
"You are
right," he said, "but one has to earn a living."
He was probably right.
He and his friend and former client friend are still
trying their best to
earn a comfortable living.
Enjoying his power of the pen, Moyo then
touched on the controversial issue
of Judge President Rita Makarau's attack
on lawyers. I was shocked by the
virulence of the Honourable Member of
Tsholotsho North's attack on Beatrice
Mtetwa, the president of the Zimbabwe
Law Society.
"Although Justice Makarau did not mention any names," he
sallied forth, "one
of the lawyers who recently made a clearly unwarranted
and unfair attack on
the judiciary is the reckless president of the Law
Society, Beatrice Mtetwa.
"Taken against the background of the prevailing
situation in the country,
Mtetwa's scandalous statement was clearly
calculated to harm not only the
integrity of the judiciary but also
Zimbabwe's national interest itself,
which is probably something easy for a
Swazi national to do."
Moyo can call Mtetwa reckless, if he so wishes or
her statements scandalous.
But to invoke her country of origin in the
circumstances is totally
unacceptable for a man who seeks high office again
in our country,
especially when his own former spouse was from the same
Mountain Kingdom. In
any case, in what way is it easy for the citizens of
the friendly Kingdom of
Swaziland to harm the national interest of
Zimbabwe?
This matter should be raised in Parliament.
If it was
not for the vexatious issue of the missing funds at the Ford
Foundation in
Nairobi, Moyo would most probably be still in Kenya today. I
doubt that
Kenyan nationals ever reminded him of his country of origin
during his
sojourn in their country. He is a Pan-Africanist, anyway.
If Moyo had
remained in Nairobi or at the University of Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg,
where he allegedly fled to before he allegedly fled from there
back to
Harare, chances are that President Robert Mugabe would have long
been
confined to the annals of Zimbabwe's turbulent early history by now.
A LITTLE theatre of the absurd
guest-starring A
country road. A bare tree. Evening. Enter two clowns. MERVYN: [Stops centre-stage,
blinking into the footlights.] Nothing to be done. BERNANKE: Let's keep trying
anyway. MERVYN: But nothing happens!
Nobody borrows, nobody lends. It's awful. BERNANKE: Don't lose heart, not
when things are going so badly. MERVYN: You'd rather give up
when things go to plan? Nothing's happened. Twice! And all that
money... BERNANKE: He did warn
us. MERVYN: Who
did? BERNANKE:
Gono. MERVYN: [Irritably.]
Will he never get here? BERNANKE: He warned us against
doing too little, too late. As did I, you'll remember. MERVYN: Can't anyone guess how
long he will take? BERNANKE: Another quarter or
more, no later than the second-half of the year – unless we missed him already.
We are a long way from MERVYN: Hardly a million miles
though... BERNANKE: [Ignoring him,
scans horizon.] Perhaps he came and went when we weren't looking. Perhaps
he's already been, job done, everyone saved, everyone
rescued. MERVYN: [Laughing.]
What, carrying all that paper, all those zeroes? How could you miss a man like
that! Did you never read your Minsky? BERNANKE: I must have looked it
over at college. Pretty cover, I recall. Nice font, too... MERVYN: But nothing of the
text, not a word of the inflationary crack-up? BERNANKE: Inflationary
crack-pot, you mean. MERVYN: [Angrily.] A
hundred thousand-thousand-thousand thousands! It doesn't grow on trees, you
know. Well, except when it does. [Gestures sadly at the bare, leafless
tree.] BERNANKE: Nothing you can do
about it now. No use struggling. You must do what you
must. MERVYN: And what's that,
Bibi? BERNANKE: Print. And
wait. MERVYN: We've been waiting for weeks,
months already! And waiting for what, I ask you? BERNANKE: Waiting for
Gono... [Angry shouts
off-stage.] MERVYN: [Anxious.] Is that him,
coming now? [Enter BOZO and
UNLUCKY. Unlucky is first to appear, a rope tied round his neck.
Bozo holds the other end and follows after. Unlucky carries three heavy shopping
bags in each hand. Bozo carries a whip.] BOZO: On! [Cracks whip.] Don't
slack now! BERNANKE:
Gono? BOZO: If you like. Whatever works, I
always say. MERVYN: [Disappointed.]
Oh...Hello, Gordon. It's you... BOZO: Actually, it's Bozo to you – the
clown who saved the world! BERNANKE: Ah, Bozo!
[Pauses.] Not Gono? BOZO: You mean the great
inflationist? BERNANKE: The very same. We're
supposed to be meeting him here. He told us to wait by that
money-tree. BOZO: Not me, not me at all. [Kicks
Unlucky.] Just ask my friend here. MERVYN: [Also nodding towards
Unlucky.] He looks tired. Why doesn't he put down his
bags? BOZO: [Suddenly violent.] Put
down his bags? Put down his bags? Who then should carry them up, tell me that!
The Chinese perhaps? Idiot! Besides, they're growing lighter each day. The
burden of filling them is now falling, I made sure of that...down 1.5% from
November to last month. That's how I'm saving the world. [Kicks at Unlucky,
barking.] Go on, tell them! UNLUCKY: [Anxious, gabbling.] Yes
but the true cost of living – that relentless suck of rubbing your eyes,
showering and shaving, spooning in breakfast, then shuffling off to bring home a
crust (or not) and shuffling once more through the crowds and pricing up dinner
until it's back to bed and time to resume the whole sorry cycle next morning –
the price of domestic gas supplies rose 52% in 2008...water rates were up
6.5%...electricity added almost one-third again...tea-bags and a dash of milk
were both 11% up...cereal 15.5%...fruit nearly 10% year-on-year...train, bus and
other travel fares 14% higher...plus a daily paper, heaven forbid, at nearly a
quid a pop or £1.80 if you must have the latest financial horrors...then
mid-morning biscuits or cakes 11.5% up, even with shares in Premier Foods down
by three-quarters over the year to today...oh and then a lunchtime sandwich up
4.5% (VAT reduction included)...perhaps a pint of your favorite on the way home
4.9%...gasping a cigarette outside in the rain another 5% more...then pig, cow,
chicken or lamb for your supper up on average by 17%...fish more than 10% higher
in 12 months...vegetables and potatoes all up 15% plus...maybe wine from the
off-license to sluice it down 4.9% above the cost of a year ago, scarcely
dulling the pain...then top it off with sweets or a chocolate for another 7%
hike before finding something to sit or lie or collapse on as you stare at the
ceiling and wonder where-in-the-hell this deflation has got to up by 4.2%, even
while the furniture stores begin their closing-down sales and finally buildings
insurance so you can squeeze your eyes tight knowing the whole damn house won't
fall on your head when you're sleep, not at your expense anyway, that's another
7.5% on top, not that you'd have saved much just staying at home and nibbling
bread and butter instead, pricier by 5.8% all told if you add a dollop of jam
the same size as you had at the start of 2008 and now 28% more pricey than it
was just three years ago, but who's counting...certainly not the fixed-income
pensioners, poor sods, let alone the middle-aged investor – not now he's looking
at the FTSE or the S&P and kidding himself that stock prices at 10 or 11 or
12 times trailing earnings might be worth buying as business tips into the
steepest, deepest, post-inflationary slowdown since FDR's New Deal finally paid
off and the factories began to hum once again making bombs and tanks and
fighter-planes, all production, no surplus – use it up, then make another, turn
and turn about – makes you wonder whether Dubya Bush had it right back in '03,
the only sure way to fight a depression and keep young men off the dole is
sending them out to... BERNANKE: Is he finished
yet? BOZO: Pretty damn nearly,
yes. MERVYN: Looks at his last gasp to me.
It's awful! Lights fade
to black. Curtains for everyone. Adrian Ash Formerly City correspondent for
The Daily Reckoning in (c) BullionVault
2009 Please Note: This article is to inform your
thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and
any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included
here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere
– should you choose to act on it.
By: Adrian
Ash, BullionVault
-- Posted Wednesday, 21 January 2009 | Source:
GoldSeek.com