By
Tererai Karimakwenda
January 29, 2008
The state run newspaper The
Herald reported on Tuesday that the Zimbabwean
Ministry of Industry and
International Trade will open what they are calling
"people's shops"
countrywide after the Cabinet last week approved the
concept. The report
quoted the Minister of Industry and International Trade
Obert Mpofu as
saying the shops would open within the next 40 days and be
under the
Zimbabwe Development Corporation (ZDC). This is the same
government agency
that has been charged with prosecuting businesses accused
of flouting price
control regulations.
The opening of these shops just weeks away from a
crucial poll in the
country has already raised eyebrows. The Herald quotes
Minister Mpofu as
saying: "The people's shops will provide basic commodities
aimed at the very
low-income earners and disadvantaged groups. The economy
is facing many
challenges but it is our belief that the disadvantaged and
less-privileged
community should access basic commodities.”
Mpofu
drew criticism from observers who see the idea as a blatant attempt by
ZANU-PF to control the distribution of food and basic commodities ahead of
the elections in March. The politicisation of food by the ruling party just
before elections has been reported frequently over the years.
Just
two weeks ago we reported that the ruling party was accused of
manipulating
aid donated for flood victims and using the distribution
centres to campaign
for the March elections. Senior party leaders dispatched
to the affected
areas were holding impromptu rallies and telling desperate
villagers the aid
had come from Zanu PF.
The election is 59 days from Tuesday. The shops
are due to open in 40 days.
That means the shops will have 19 days to
operate before the polling date.
It remains to be seen whether “low-income
earning” opposition supporters
will benefit from these “people’s
shops”.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has slunk out of a Zimbabwean courthouse after a judge ordered his release.
Van Hoogstraten, 63, was arrested last week on currency and pornography charges and his lawyers secured his freedom on the grounds suspects should not be held for more than 48 hours. After four days and five nights in cells renowned for overcrowding, filth and lice, Van Hoogstraten, a multi-millionaire who once ordered a hand grenade attack on a business rival and has built himself a palace in the Sussex countryside, looked exhausted. In the dock at Harare magistrates court he stroked the hair of his girlfriend Nyasha Gora, 22, who has also been charged in connection with pornography allegedly found at his house. Prosecution papers said that around 150 pictures found in Hoogstraten’s bedroom were of “young Zimbabwean girls photographed in nude, semi-nude, and some in compromising sexual positions which were found to be obscene.” After they were released the pair left
through a back door, jackets over their heads, and sped away in a Mercedes
sports car.
“High court judge Samuel Kudya ordered that he be released from police custody,” said George Chikumbirike, Van Hoogstraten’s main defence lawyer. “If they want to proceed with the case, they can do so by way of summoning him to court.” Van Hoogstraten is one of the biggest landowners in Zimbabwe, where he is said to have around 200 properties and be an important donor to Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, but he was detained on accusations of charging rent in foreign currency, which is illegal in the country. He denies all the charges, and also insists that he has not fallen out with Mr Mugabe. But the Zimbabwean president’s allies are normally immune from interference by the authorities and his arrest has provoked a storm of speculation, with one businessman in Harare suggesting that “something very big must have gone wrong with him”. |
From: Trudy Stevenson
& Voters Roll Inspection BEGINS THIS FRIDAY
1st FEB
As far as we can ascertain, voter registration and alteration to
details
(address, name, etc) CLOSES on FRIDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2008, the same day
as
Nomination Court.
Please pass this information on to EVERYONE who
has not yet registered to
VOTE (eg schools/colleges and those who have
turned 18) or who has moved,
married etc and changed their name. IF YOU ARE
NOT CORRECTLY REGISTERED,
YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO VOTE. WE NEED EVERY VOTE
POSSIBLE TO VOTE ROBERT
MUGABE & ZANU-PF OUT!
In Mt Pleasant-Harare
West-Harare North constituencies, your nearest
REGISTRATION CENTRE is at the
back of MT PLEASANT DISTRICT OFFICE at Bond
Street shopping centre - open
every day during normal office hours 8am- 4pm.
Otherwise you can go to
MARKET SQUARE or MAKOMBE BUILDING (passport-ID
office). Take your ID and
proof of residence, change, etc.
Please go and register. LET'S MAKE A
DATE - 2008! This is the year we MUST
DO IT! WE CAN DO IT - SO LET'S
GO!!
VOTERS ROLL INSPECTION
We are informed that Inspection of Voters
Rolls will open FRIDAY 1 FEBRUARY
at the usual centres and should be open
weekends also. Please go and check
that your name and that of all your
family, workers, employees etc is ON THE
VOTERS ROLL, SO THAT WE CAN VOTE
MUGABE OUT!!
PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW - FAMILY,
DOMESTICS,
EMPLOYEES, COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, CLUBS... PRINT OUT and put on a
NOTICE BOARD
or two if possible, or distribute to people as you find best.
Business Day
29 January 2008
Dumisani
Muleya
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Harare Correspondent
ZIMBABWE’s beleaguered main commercial
banks and other financial
houses are scrambling to get unsecured loans from
the central bank to cover
their shaky positions.
The
moves confirm banks are facing acute liquidity problems
caused by unlawful
speculative investments and the economic crisis. Almost
all banks are
teetering on the brink of collapse due to these problems.
The
central bank said banks had unlawfully tied up large
portions of their
balance sheets in securities and other investments.
According to banking
legislation , it is illegal for banks to own shares
unless they are held as
security for loans or are owned through swapping
debt for
equity.
The central bank says that the banks have put an
average of 26%
in securities and other investments. As a result, they were
unable to secure
loans from it to get cash and improve their liquidity
situation.
However, banks said they had invested in
securities and other
investments because of the prevailing hyperinflation to
protect the value of
deposits. The banks argue that keeping deposits in
accounts in these
circumstances in which annual inflation is calculated by
the International
Monetary Fund to be 150000% could result in wiping out
value .
“What the banks did was rational even if it was
unlawful. Under
these difficult economic circumstances any reasonable banker
would have done
the same,” a top banker said yesterday.
Sokwanele - Enough is Enough -
Zimbabwe PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY |
Zimbabwe Election
Watch Executive Summary The announcement by President Mugabe that the elections will be held on March 29 has received widespread condemnation. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the date is a blow to current mediation efforts by South African President Thabo Mbeki to end the country's economic and political turmoil. Eddie Cross, an economic adviser to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, writes in his weekly letter that the February 8 nomination date - which should in fact be during March - was selected very carefully by the regime and is a cunning part of the overall strategy worked out 10 months ago. The early nomination date makes it almost impossible for the opposition to get candidates registered for the poll. Cross continues: "What Zanu PF did when confronted in March 2007 with the (then) demand by South Africa that they hold the elections on schedule in March 2008, and that they hold them under "free and fair" conditions, was that they convened the 'Joint Operations Command'. JOC evolved a plan they have since been implementing and, like all of their plans, it had one central objective: how to hold onto power at all costs. 1. First they resolved to smash the organisational structures of the MDC... (During March 2007, the MDC leadership was beaten and brutalised en route to the Save Zimbabwe prayer meeting and subsequently thousands of MDC activists have been driven out of the country. MDC structures in many parts of the country have been wiped out and the party headquarters have been smashed twice with the loss of all records and millions of dollars of damage). 2. Then Zanu PF agreed to go along with the demands of President Mbeki and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), but in the conviction that they could manipulate this process and avoid dismantling the system they had built up over the past decade which had enabled them to determine, in advance, whatever result they thought they needed from the election itself. 3. Then finally, they (resolved) to take measures to reduce the urban vote and bring the urban population to heel in the same way they had built up control systems in the rural areas..." Writing for the Cape Times (SA), journalist Peter Fabricius says: "For Zimbabwe to hold an election that meets Mbeki's test of universal acceptability, a new constitution is necessary. It would contain a proper bill of rights and an independent media commission; would take the vital voter registration process out of the hands of officials answerable only to Mugabe and generally diminish the extraordinary executive powers he has given himself, which would allow him to control and possibly manipulate the elections. Postponing the election is also critical so that the necessary reforms can take place. The MDC has been asking for the elections to take place in June. It will take much longer than that even to restore politics to something like normality. But those extra three months would at least make a difference... " The two factions of the MDC, which have agreed to reunite and back a single election candidate, have called for the elections to be postponed until the introduction of a new constitution. They also want a new and independent electoral commission and voters' roll, and the redrawing of the disputed electoral boundaries, which blatantly favour the ruling party. The Zimbabwe Standard comments: "By the calculations of most neutral observers, preparations for the harmonised elections are so behind schedule it is unrealistic - and undemocratic - for them to go ahead in March... Only Zanu PF could benefit from a March election. The party can move swiftly into action once the electoral procedures are switched into motion... " The Times (UK) notes that "one of Mugabe's tricks has been to manipulate the voters' roll to pour thousands of ruling party workers into opposition strongholds. His regime also retains control of television and radio, and an "independent"electoral commission is packed with Zanu PF supporters." Political analyst John Makumbe says "it has become very clear that the ruining Zanu PF party does not intend to hold free and fair elections come March.. a dictator cannot be removed from political office through legitimately democratic means." The stories covered in this issue begin with MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai being taken from his home by police in the early hours of 23 January and questioned about a 'freedom march' planned for later that day. This comes just 10 months after he was severely assaulted and seriously injured by police en route to a Save Zimbabwe prayer meeting. During the MDC's peaceful 'freedom march', scores of opposition supporters were teargassed and beaten up by police, whose original banning of the march had been overruled by a local magistrate. Two days later, the leader of Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe was arrested and interrogated by Harare police. A covert campaign of night-time intimidation in poor ghettos of Bulawayo followed a weekend street demonstration by pressure group Ibhetshu Likazulu. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a domestic election-monitoring and observation group in Zimbabwe, has expressed concern with the current social and political environment as it relates to the forthcoming elections. The amendments to three highly contentious acts were rushed through Parliament without any meaningful debate on the contentious provisions of the enabling bills. The opposition says new constituencies have been demarcated in a way that favours Zanu PF. The demarcation is also criticised for being based on a flawed voters' roll, which has thousands of ghost voters, some of them long since deceased or who have moved. Copies of the delimitation report have not been made available to legislators, journalists or voters. Spokesman Gabriel Chaibva (MDC Mutambara) says what they have seen indicates the electoral commission has failed to adhere to the terms of last year's 18th constitutional amendment which authorised the redistricting. Zimbabwe's Media and Information Commission (MIC) is insisting that Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of the banned Daily News and Daily New on Sunday, re-submit their application for an operating licence. This means that there is no way in which the newspapers will get back their licences before the elections. Zanu PF continues to insist on redistributing food aid from donors and to deny the provision of desperately needed farming equipment to opposition supporters. Zimbabwe's opposition leader detained Police took
away Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the middle of the
night for questioning about a demonstration planned for later on Wednesday, his
lawyer said. Source: Reuters SADC standards breached
Robert
Mugabe's reforms are ridiculed after police crackdown on Zimbabwe
rally Zimbabwean
police fired teargas yesterday and charged several hundred demonstrators who
were demanding a democratic constitution, water, electricity and the right to
draw money from banks without queuing. Source: Times, The (UK) SADC standards breached
News
release from the Zimbabwe Vigil The Zimbabwe
Vigil said that the leader of its partner organisation, Restoration of Human
Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR Zimbabwe), had been detained by police in Harare on
Friday January 25. Source: Zimbabwe Vigil SADC standards breached
State
sponsored violence comes to Bulawayo There is a
covert campaign of night time intimidation in poor (Bulawayo) ghettos following
a weekend street demonstration by pressure group Ibhetshu Likazulu, which is
demanding reparations for the Gukurahundi atrocities…. Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW) SADC standards breached
Concern over pre-election environment PRESS
RELEASE Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW) SADC standards breached
Amid
talks deadlock, Mugabe signs security and media law reforms in
Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe signed into law changes to Zimbabwe's media, security and
electoral laws negotiated with the opposition before the March presidential and
parliamentary elections, the government-controlled Herald newspaper reported
Saturday. Source: International Herald Tribune, The
SADC standards breached
Zimbabwe opposition cites 'anomalies' in national redistricting
report With national
elections possibly less than 10 weeks off, one grouping of Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change has cited "anomalies" in a redistricting report
given to parliament Wednesday by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Source: VOANews (USA) SADC standards breached
Delimitation exercise dismissed as a fraud The Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) (MT) says new constituencies have been demarcated in
a way that favours the ruling Zanu PF. Source: Zimbabwe Standard, The (ZW) SADC standards breached
Between the lines The Zimbabwean
government's move to ask two independent newspapers it had banned to re-register
is being viewed with much scepticism in local media circles. Source: IRIN (UN) SADC standards breached
Aid
clash - Zanu insists on distributing food aid from donors The Zanu PF
regime has clashed with non governmental organisations (NGO)s over the
distribution of humanitarian aid, as it insists on them channelling the
assistance through its structures for campaigning purposes ahead of the combined
presidential and parliamentary elections. Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW) SADC standards breached
Farm
equipment used to buy votes Zanu PF is
using farm equipment and threats to sway voters ahead of elections to be held in
March, a report by a pressure group says. Source: Financial Gazette, The (ZW) SADC standards breached
Visit our website at
www.sokwanele.com We have a fundamental right to freedom of expression! Sokwanele does not endorse the editorial policy of any source or website except its own. It retains full copyright on its own articles, which may be reproduced or distributed but may not be materially altered in any way. Reproduced articles must clearly show the source and owner of copyright, together with any other notices originally contained therein, as well as the original date of publication. Sokwanele does not accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt of this email or use thereof. This document, or any part thereof, may not be distributed for profit. |
Nehanda Radio
29
January 2008
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a domestic
election-monitoring
and observation group in Zimbabwe, which in December
2007 deployed 120
long-term observers countrywide, is concerned with the
current social and
political environment as it relates to the forthcoming
elections.
The organisation also expresses its disquiet with the manner
in which
critical electoral processes such as voter registration and
delimitation of
constituencies have been conducted. The recent events in
the country are
particularly worrying as they reflect a regrettable level of
political
intolerance.
ZESN is also disturbed to note that the
aforementioned issues that were
discussed and agreed upon under the SADC
initiated talks still lack a
concrete and positive implementation. When SADC
appointed President Mbeki in
March 2007 to facilitate the talks between ZANU
PF and MDC, the main
objective of these talks was to have an election whose
outcome would not be
contested. More than ten months have elapsed since
these talks started and
the electoral environment in Zimbabwe is still far
from yielding a result
whose outcome would not be contested.
ZESN
condemns the police’s heavy-handedness in dealing with the MDCs`
Freedom
March on Wednesday 23 January 2008. After initially sanctioning the
march to
go ahead, the police later inexplicably declared the march illegal,
arguing
that they had evidence that it would turn violent. They briefly
arrested the
opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, but later released him
without
charge.
The MDC appealed to the magistrates’ court as provided for in the
recently
amended security legislation and the court upheld the police’s
arguments.
This was in stark contrast to ZANU PF`s “Million Men March” in
December 2007
which went on without hitches, with the police actually
providing escort for
the marchers. The police’s conduct raises unnecessary
tension and only helps
to fuel doubts whether the country is ready to hold a
credible, free and
fair election.
Investigations by ZESN have
revealed that the electoral management body, the
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC), is not taking voter registration
seriously. A visit to the
district registration office in the city centre in
Masvingo by one of the
officers intending to register as a voter on Thursday
10 January 2008
yielded interesting observations on how ZEC is treating the
voter
registration exercise.
While one would expect voter registration to be
given prime importance and
due priority given the importance of elections
and their imminence, the
officer was told registration is only done between
1400hrs and 1600hrs
daily, hence he had to wait for that slot if he was to
be registered. The
situation was even worse at the Gutu Registrar’s office
where the ZESN team
was told no registration was being undertaken due to
unavailability of
materials to expedite the registration process.
In
Harare, despite ZEC’s claims of decentralisation of the registration
process, the ZESN team noted that the Registrar General District offices
were referring would-be voters to their Head Office at Makombe Building in
Harare for registration. This rather nonchalant approach towards the voter
registration exercise seems to be the modus operandi guiding the operations
of most of the Registrar General’s offices across the country.
In
addition, the organization observed that the delimitation exercise that
was
done by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission started late. The preliminary
delimitation report was only presented to the President last week and
hastily tabled before Parliament for noting on Thursday 17 January 2008.
Parliament was immediately adjourned without debating the
report.
ZESN is perturbed to note that there were no copies of the report
for each
Member of Parliament for scrutiny; instead, there was only one copy
that was
available for parliamentarians in the papers’ office in Parliament.
This is
despite constitutional provisions in section 61A subsection (8) that
mandate
the President to cause the document to be tabled for debate by
parliament.
ZESN is concerned that the report will be finalized without any
scrutiny by
the legislature rendering academic the recent reforms to the
Constitution of
Zimbabwe brought in by Constitutional Amendment No. 18.
Furthermore the
report and its contents have not been made available to the
public and other
key stakeholders for comment or analysis.
ZESN also
noted the continued abuse of state resources by ruling party
parliamentarians and senators. This has been done through the government’s
farm mechanization programme as a campaign tool. In Mutoko North people in
the constituency were told that farm implements (ploughs and scotch carts)
were coming from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and ZANU PF.
Unscrupulous politicians in Mashonaland East have also taken advantage of
the farm implements distribution exercise to launch their political
campaigns.
In Marondera, there were donations of seed to women in the
Mahusekwa
Community by a ZANU PF senator who also allegedly threatened and
intimidated
the people that the war veterans would deal with them if they do
not vote
for the ruling party in March 2008. It is also disturbing to note
that some
politicians continue to use food like maize and beans as a
vote-buying tool
and heartlessly direct food distribution in a partisan
manner.
ZESN therefore calls for an urgent refocus on the planning that
is needed if
the elections are to be held successfully in March. It also
calls for urgent
measures that would ensure an environment conducive for the
holding of free
and fair elections to be put in place. It is ZESN’s
considered view that,
politically and administratively, the situation is
inimical to the holding
of credible, legitimate, free and fair
elections.
It is also worrying to note that the date of the election is
not yet known.
ZESN therefore urges the responsible authorities to ensure
that the date to
be announced will take into cognizance the fact that there
will be
harmonized elections hence there is need for ample time for
logistical and
administrative preparations as well as the provision of
adequate voter
information to avoid unnecessary confusion on voting
day.
ZESN hopes that the ZEC will take it upon itself to satisfactorily
meet its
constitutional mandate of conducting voter education in order to
ensure that
every voter participates from an informed position. It should
also allow
other players to conduct voter education.
ZESN calls on
all stakeholders to create an enabling environment for the
conduct of free,
fair and peaceful elections. It reiterates that, it is
necessary for the
government, ZEC and political parties political parties to
conduct the
elections in a manner that conforms to regional and
international standards
thus conferring legitimacy to the resultant
government.
Nehanda Radio
29 January 2008
By Eddie Cross
Yesterday the
Mugabe regime extended its total disregard for the SADC
process and
unilaterally announced that the elections would be held on the
29th March (I
had expected the 28th March) and that nomination day would be
the 8th
February. The nomination day is the day to watch as it was selected
very
carefully by the regime and is a cunning part of the overall strategy
they
worked out 10 months ago.
What Zanu PF did when confronted in March 2007,
with the demand by South
Africa that they hold the elections on schedule in
March 2008 and that they
hold them under “free and fair” conditions, they
convened the “Joint
Operations Command” and evolved a plan which they have
been implementing
since then. Like all their plans it had one central
objective – how to hold
onto power at all costs.
First they resolved
to smash the organizational structures of the MDC, then
they agreed to go
along with the demands of Mbeki and the SADC but in the
conviction that they
could manipulate this process and avoid dismantling the
system they had
built up over the past decade which has enabled them to
determine, in
advance, whatever result they thought they needed from the
election itself.
Then finally, they agreed to take measures to reduce the
urban vote and
bring the urban population to heel in the same way that they
had built up
control systems in the rural areas.
In retrospect you can now see clearly
how these three basic strategies have
been played out. Three days after the
JOC meeting in Harare, the leadership
of the MDC was beaten and brutalized
in Highfield at a prayer meeting. Many
were hospitalized and two activists
were shot and killed by the police.
Morgan Tsvangirai was beaten unconscious
and partially lost the ability to
speak for a while. Since then thousands of
MDC activists have been beaten
and driven out of the country. The MDC
structures in many parts of the
country have been wiped out. The Party
Headquarters has been smashed twice
with the loss of all records and
millions of dollars of damage.
The Regime has co-operated with South
African mediators in the SADC process
but has dragged its feet and delayed
agreement until the very last moment,
only to then turn around and say
(disingenuously) that there was
“insufficient time” to implement the
agreement so the planned elections
would go ahead under present conditions.
When pressed to implement the
agreements reached in 8 months of discussions
that were meant to have taken
three, Mugabe finally simply told Mbeki to get
lost and that Zanu PF would
not implement the deal beyond the modest reforms
already agreed and
implemented.
Just to drive home that message
Mugabe has in the past week simply brushed
aside the reforms already agreed,
passed through Parliament and signed into
law. POSA has been used to stop
normal political activity, the Independent
Electoral Commission is operating
as if it was business as usual and
military and security officers are being
used to manage the electoral system
in total violation of the new Electoral
Act. Reforms in the registration of
voters and the voter’s roll are just
being ignored. Now, they announce a
nomination date that makes it almost
impossible for the opposition to get
its candidates registered for the
poll.
At the same time as this was going on, they launched the campaign
to destroy
what was left of the independent business sector using as a
pretext price
controls and “indigenisation”, a euphemism for extending Zanu
control to all
sectors of the economy. In a ruthless campaign that resembles
the farm
invasions that followed the Zanu PF defeat in the February 2000
referendum,
the State has arrested 40 000 businessmen, crippled the retail
and wholesale
sector of the economy and announced the virtual
nationalization of all major
industrial and mining companies. In 10 months
at least another million
refugees have fled to South Africa and other
countries. Only the most
determined and innovative have survived.
Now
the MDC faces the most crucial decision in its short life – do we run in
the
election and what can be done about this total violation of the SADC
process? I do not know what we will eventually do but I have confidence in
our leadership, which has never let us down in making such decisions in the
past. Right now I am sure, that like me last night, they are not doing much
sleeping. We have been ambushed, well and truly by the Zanu PF and their
security cohorts and it does not help that the South African leadership is
in the same boat.
I am being bombarded by e-mails saying that we
should boycott the elections.
They say that if we run we give credence to the
Mugabe regime and the
pretext that they are democrats. Its not quite as
simple as that and that
might, in fact be one of the goals of the Regime in
this exercise. The
tragedy is that the South Africans have not been willing,
when it matters
most, to use their very considerable power to secure
compliance from Zanu
PF. But we have no choice but to live with that
reality.
Why run when the odds are so stacked against us? In my view the
arguments
are very powerful. In the first instance we have to ask what is
the
alternative – violence and more killing? Zanu PF would love that and use
the
violence to justify a clamp down that most African leaders would
endorse.
The possibility of change will recede and it could be years before
we are
again offered such an opportunity. We might even then be forced to
retreat
into violence and many of us would not accept that as a means of
change.
We are not alone on this pitch – there are at least 5 other
political
parties and although they are tiny and carry no threat to the
regime, they
might be allowed to take a few seats and would give credence to
the Zanu PF
regime that would follow. Most Zanu candidates would run
unopposed and this
would give them an easy and defensible ride back into
power. Again change
recedes and Zimbabwe becomes just another failed African
State relying on
donor aid to feed an entrapped and impoverished population
that does not
have the energy to oppose the regime.
Then we must not
forget a lesson we learned from the war – ambushes are a
great strategy if
your opponent does not know what lies in store for him. If
you can discover
your enemy’s strategy and location and timing for an
ambush, you can turn
the tables on him and the result can be very
satisfying. It is just possible
that we could do that.
We need to get that nomination date changed – put
back to where it should be
in March, then we need to combine forces and put
up single candidates in all
electoral districts and most important, we need
to control the final stage
of the ambush – the election itself. We must use
the instruments we have to
ensure the poll is watched, recorded and reported
on from every polling
station – without exception. I do not think we really
need to worry about
what people will do with their ballots – they will vote
overwhelmingly for
change, there is no alternative. What we have to stop is
the false balloting
and the manipulation of the count.
Eddie Cross is
a policy adviser in the opposition MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai. He writes
here in his personal capacity.
IOL
Basildon
Peta
January 29 2008 at 05:06AM
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe dug in his heels on Monday,
reiterating his rejection of
President Thabo Mbeki's proposal to implement a
new constitution before
holding elections in March, while the opposition
considered boycotting the
polls.
Mugabe's point man on electoral issues, Justice Minister
Patrick
Chinamasa, said a new constitution for Zimbabwe, which is at the
core of
disputes between Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), would be considered only after the
elections.
Mbeki, who visited Zimbabwe more than a week ago to try
to break the
impasse between the sides, tried without success to persuade
Mugabe to delay
the elections and create room for implementing a raft of
measures, including
a new "transitional constitution" agreed in talks he is
mediating on behalf
of SADC.
It is
understood that Mbeki is planning another visit to Zimbabwe as
he tries to
salvage his mediation which is widely seen as having failed.
On the
other hand, the opposition is struggling to come up with a firm
position on
whether or not to boycott the elections.
Intense discussions on the
way forward are under way in both the main
wing of the MDC, led by Morgan
Tsvangirai, and the smaller faction headed by
robotics professor Arthur
Mutambara.
For any boycott to be effective, it has to be unanimous
and endorsed
by both factions who have been discussing a merger over the
past weeks. But
it seems some senior members in Mutambara's faction, and
others in
Tsvangirai's faction, are opposed to a boycott of the
polls.
"These are people who have made a career out of being
opposition
politicians and badly need their parliamentary perks to survive,"
said one
opposition official who did not want to be named before the party
announces
its official position.
The MDC must walk a fine line
between participating in the polls and
most probably losing, because of a
skewed electoral landscape, and
boycotting the polls and risking
irrelevance.
Zimbabwean analysts and commentators see no point in
the opposition
participating in an election with a pre-determined outcome,
only to cry foul
when it loses.
Any boycott has to be followed
by an effective civil disobedience
campaign against Mugabe. But the
opposition's ability to sustain that too is
very much in
doubt.
This article was originally published on page 2 of The
Mercury on
January 29, 2008
iafrica.com
Tue, 29 Jan
2008
A state tribunal has begun investigating Zimbabwe's attorney-general
for
misconduct after he met a former banker who was on the police wanted
list, a
state daily reported on Tuesday.
The Herald newspaper
said the tribunal, sitting in an improvised courtroom
at a training centre
in Harare's eastern industrial district, began hearing
evidence against
Sobusa Gula-Ndebele behind closed doors.
"After the inquiry, the tribunal
will make its recommendations to President
(Robert) Mugabe on whether or not
Mr Gula-Ndebele should keep his position
as the country's attorney-general,"
the newspaper reported.
Mugabe suspended Gula-Ndebele in December last
and appointed a three-member
tribunal comprising two high court judges and a
senior attorney to
investigate him.
The attorney-general had been
arrested the previous month on misconduct
charges after he allegedly met in
September with James Mushore, former
deputy managing director of National
Merchant Bank (NMB).
Mushore had been on the police wanted list since
2004 on charges of
siphoning foreign currency from Zimbabwe.
He had
just sneaked back into the country from Britain.
Police said Mushore and
three colleagues set up a money transfer agency in
London in breach of
Zimbabwe's strict foreign exchange laws and siphoned
funds to offshore
accounts.
In May the central bank revoked NMB's foreign exchange licence
after
staffers moved at least four million US dollars to foreign bank
accounts
without authorisation from the central bank.
AFP
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks
29 January 2008
Posted to the web 29
January 2008
Harare
Two weeks into the new term, Tatenda Marimire,
13, has spent more time as an
unpaid errand boy for his school than getting
to grips with algebra, because
there are no teachers. Like most civil
servants, educators have increasingly
stayed away from work to seek other
sources of income to survive
hyperinflation.
"We are spending most of
the time cutting grass, cleaning dormitories and
running errands for members
of staff that have reported for duty, and this
makes us feel like young
workers without salaries," he complained. "We don't
know where the teachers
are and if we will manage to learn at all."
The Zimbabwean government
has been struggling to pay its employees
inflation-related salaries and the
education sector has been one of the
worst affected by the eight-year
economic crisis. On 24 January the
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ), the country's biggest group
of educators, issued a statement calling
for a strike over general
unhappiness with recent salary hikes.
The
union had asked for a minimum monthly salary of Z$1,770 million (about
US$321 at the parallel foreign exchange market rate of Z$5.5 million to
US$1) for at least the first quarter of 2008, but only Z$141 million (about
US$25) per month was put on the table.
The government has not
publicly released official inflation figures for the
last two months but the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the
rate has reached
100,000 percent and is still rising.
Too weak to teach
"We are
stressed, our bodies are weak and our minds numb," said the PTUZ
statement.
"Prolonged exposure to poverty has destroyed the professional
person in us.
We are facing a slow death."
We [teachers] are stressed, our bodies are
weak and our minds numb.
Prolonged exposure to poverty has destroyed the
professional person in us.
We are facing a slow death
Low teacher
morale, the brain drain, inadequate financing, poverty and
hunger were some
of the challenges the education sector was facing,
according to the 2004
government progress report on the UN Millennium
Development
Goals.
Many teachers have sought to supplement their meagre salaries by
cross-border trading, illegal gold panning, informal foreign currency
trading and even sex work.
The PTUZ statement said reporting for work
would only deceive children and
their parents into believing that meaningful
learning was taking place at
schools, whereas it was not: "We do not want to
convert classroom blocks
into shopping malls and shopping centres. We do not
want to covert our
students into customers."
A senior teacher at
Marimire's school in Chitungwiza, a town about 30km
south of the capital,
Harare, admitted that they had been affected by the
shortage of
teachers.
"Even the strike that PTUZ is calling for would be meaningless
because the
teachers are just not there [because they have left the
profession or even
the country], and through interaction with my colleagues
in and outside
Chitungwiza and Harare I have heard that the situation is bad
in almost
every school, with private schools being less affected," said the
teacher,
who did not want to be named.
The school was unable to pay
the salaries demanded by private tutors and had
approached university
students awaiting the start of a new semester in March
to help out
temporarily. "This is just a way of managing the crisis, but we
are lost as
to what permanent solution we can have. Teachers have been
abandoning
classrooms over the years, sometimes without even bothering to
tender their
resignations, but this year seems to be the worst."
In another statement
urging parents to support their strike, the PTUZ noted
that more than three
million Zimbabweans have fled the country to seek
economic refuge in other
countries. The brain drain has also acutely
affected the health,
construction, engineering and manufacturing sectors.
Angry
parents
Many parents are angry because their children are receiving
little or no
education. According to the latest statistics by the United
Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Zimbabwe
still
has an overall literacy rate of over 90 percent, the highest in
southern
Africa, which analysts attribute to an aggressive policy in the
1980s that
aimed to bring about universal education.
But the high
inflation rate has drastically undermined the allocation for
procuring
teaching and learning materials, according to the government's
Ministry of
Education, Sports and Culture.
Primary school enrolment rates were above
90 percent in 2004, but attendance
and completion rates have been dropping
because of rising costs, which have
also affected the quality of education:
in 2004, the Grade 7 examination
pass rate was 67 percent and the
textbook-pupil ratio was low, ranging
between 1:6 and 1:10 in all subjects,
according to the ministry.
"Yes, this country might have one of the
highest literacy rates on the
continent, but the falling standards in the
education sector are definitely
bound to drastically lower the quality of
local qualifications," commented
John Sakarombe, whose daughter is in a
boarding school outside the city of
Gweru in Midlands Province.
When
he visited her recently, his daughter complained of erratic food
supplies
and power cuts, and said they had to cook their own meals because
most of
the kitchen staff had left. The pupils have been forced to use the
bucket
system because the school did not have the funds to hire plumbers to
clear
the blocked sewer system, and this exposed them to communicable
diseases, he
added.
"I feel cheated and am fed up," said Sakarombe. "I paid more than
one
billion dollars [in school fees] - not easy money to raise, especially
as we
are coming from the Christmas holiday ... but this is what I am
getting."
Some schools even urge students to buy groceries for their
teachers, because
the prices of commodities have now risen beyond the reach
of the majority.
People's Shops
In an attempt to help the poor
cope with high prices, the government
announced this week that it would be
introducing "People's Shops" to cater
to low-income groups.
According
to the official Herald newspaper, industry and international trade
minister
Obert Mpofu said the shops would ensure that disadvantaged groups
and people
earning very low incomes could buy basic commodities at
affordable
prices.
The concept has been borrowed from Angola, which has allocated
US$1.5
billion to build such shops throughout the country.
[ This
report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations
]
The National Constitutional
Assembly is deeply concerned by the level of
violence being perpetrated by
the state security apparatus such as Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP) and the
Zimbabwe National Army.
The NCA is also concerned by the fact that the
same policemen who brutalise
demonstrators face same problems like cash
problems, electricity cuts, water
cuts and scarcity of basics in the
shops.
Over the past weeks Zimbabwean civilians have faced serious
attacks from
government agents especially from ZRP perpetrating politically
motivated
violence.
It is NCA's concern that the police have
continued acts of violence with
impunity. The NCA notes the deaths of Gift
Tandare in March 2007, Batanai
Hadzizi, Chemvura from University of Zimbabwe
and Edward Chikomba last year
as clear acts of the police force in a bid to
thwart civil society and
opposition party.
Chikomba a journalist was
last year abducted by some people alleged to be
from the notorious unit of
the Central Intelligence Organisation and his
corpse was found lying just
outside Harare.
Investigations which are still going on have highlighted
that some of the
people within the ZRP were neither trained nor ever
qualified to be trained
by the policing department.
"The NCA believes
some of the people who have been incorporated within the
ZRP are from the
National Service Schools (popularly known as Border Gezi
training centre)
this can be seen through the extent of brutality which is
lectured only at
these militia schools," NCA Spokesperson Chivasa
established.
It is
worrying for the NCA to note that even court sanctioned demonstrations
are
ending up being clamped down by the ZRP like what happened to the
opposition
MDC supporters last week, which also saw some innocent civilians
being
chased through the use of teargas.
Zimbabwe has in the past seven years
experienced increased polarization in
the country's police force as they
have closely proved their allegiance to
the ruling party Zanu PF at the
expense of citizens.
"Besides being the most poorly paid among the entire
collection of the civil
servants, Zimbabwean police remain being partisan
and that is unfortunate,"
Chivasa adds.
The NCA wants to urge all
Zimbabweans to deny unlawful arrests by members of
the police force. The NCA
also urges members to prepare defending themselves
when faced with violent
police at rallies and demonstrations so as to
protect their
lives.
NCA INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
HARARE
zimbabwejournalists.com
29th Jan 2008 14:16 GMT
By David Baxter
HARARE - Simba
Makoni, the former finance minister, has all but shot down
reports linking
him to a splinter group after he registered to contest a
seat in Makoni
District as a Zanu PF candidate.
Makoni submitted his CV for vetting by
the Zanu PF Manicaland provincial
elections directorate which met at the
weekend in Mutare, 265 km east of the
capital. He wants to stand as a Zanu
PF candidate in Makoni Central.
Makoni's CV was successfully vetted and
he will contest in the primaries to
be held this weekend. But he will have
to slug it out with Ptarick
Chinamasa, the justice minister, who also wants
to represent the ruling
party in the newly carved constituency.
Zanu
PF sources said the battle for the Makoni Central seat was likely to be
close although Chinamasa has better chances because he is being backed by
Dydmus Mutasa, the feared security minister.
Mutasa, also Zanu PF's
national secretary for adminstration, is known
dislike Makoni with a
passion.
"Simba is standing in the primaries for Makoni Central but his
problem is
Nyati," said one top official. Mutasa is commonly referred to as
Nyati, his
totem, by his supporters and admirers in Rusape.
Makoni
was not present at the Mutare meeting which successfully vetted his
CV but
Chinamasa was in attendence.
Reports that Makoni will seek to win the
Zanu PF ticket for Makoni Central
came as no surprise as the former finance
minister had already indicated he
was not interested in challenging
Mugabe.
Last week he attended a ruling party meeting in Mutare where he
openly
supported President Mugabe’s candidacy.
Zanu PF sources said
Makoni surprised everyone in attendance during a Zanu
PF Manicaland
Provincial Coordination Committee meeting when he spoke
grossly about
President Mugabe and supported his candidacy.
What shocked some members
most was when he said it was wrong for Zanu PF to
give concessions to the
opposition MDC in the ongoing talks, brokered by
South African leader,
Thambo Mbeki.
The sources said Makoni’s shocking comments came after
Chris Mushowe, the MP
for Mutare West and also transport Minister had told
Chinamasa that the
delimitation exercise should be conducted in such a
manner that favoured
Zanu PF candidates.
Mushowe wanted boundarires
of constituencies demarcated in a manner that
gave ruling party candidates
an urge over opposition aspirants.
But Chinamasa said such a question
should be directed to the Zimbabwe
Election Commission. Makoni, the sources
said, immediately stood up telling
Chinamasa that it was wrong for Zanu PF
candidates not to benefit from the
delimitation exercise since they were in
the ruling party.
He said Zanu PF candidates should enjoy the benefits of
belonging to the
party that was in power.
Makoni reportedly told the
meeting that Zanu PF should be careful not to
give in too much to the MDC in
the on-going talks aimed at solving
Zimbabwe's eight-year old economic and
political crisis.
Last Saturday's meeting which vetted Makoni's CV was
attended by political
heavy weights such as Zanu PF politburo members from
Manicaland Didymus
Mutasa (secretary for administration), Oppah Muchinguri
(secretary for
women's affairs), Kumbirai Kangai (secretary for external
affairs), Stanley
Sakupwanya (secretary for persons with disabilities) and
Victoria Chitepo
(deputy secretary for education).
All Zanu PF
central committee members, cabinet ministers from Manicaland,
provincial
co-ordination committee members and district chairpersons were in
attendance.
Makoni was recently summoned to State House by President
Mugabe to explain
rumours going around the country and abroad that he was
about to lead a
coalition group in the fight to wrestle power from
him.
The former finance minister, who only a few weeks before had been
very
critical of the ruling party, attacking the ruling party at a meeting
organised by publisher Ibbo Mandaza, emerged from the meeting with Mugabe a
changed man, announcing he was not opposing the veteran Zimbabwean
leader.
At the meeting, at which Mugabe's critics, former information
minister
Jonathan Moyo, the MDC's Engineer Elisha Mudzuri, the NCA's
Lovemore
Madhuku, Heneri Dzinotyiwei and other spoke against the worsening
political
crisis in the country and the need for urgent
change.
Makoni, described by Madhuku as a coward, said he was appalled at
the
worsening situation in Zimbabwe. He was not happy about the new greedy,
carlous, uncaring Zimbabwean that has been created by the worsening
political and economic crisis in the country. It was what Makoni said in
that meeting that led many to believe indeed he was going to announce the
new formation ahead of the March 29 elections.
zimbabwejournalists.com
29th Jan 2008 13:58 GMT
By Sebastian
Nyamhangambiri
HARARE - There have been mixed reactions to the
attack on Harare by US
president George W. Bush yesterday in his final union
address as the head of
the United States. Bush described Zimbabwe as one of
the four governments in
the world that curtail freedoms of its
citizens.
In his address presented Monday Bush said Washington was
concerned by the
state of affairs in Zimbabwe, Cuba, Burma, Belarus and
war-torn Sudan.
He said the US supported the freedoms of the people in
those four countries.
"Our foreign policy is based on a clear premise: We
trust that people, when
given the chance, will choose a future of freedom
and peace…” said Bush.
“America opposes genocide in Sudan. We support
freedom in countries from
Cuba and Zimbabwe to Belarus and Burma.” Bush said
his country supported the
rule of law in developing countries with the US
also leading efforts in
tackling global hunger, asking companies and
agencies in the US to buy from
developing world farmers so "we can help
break the cycle of poverty".
America, he said, is a force for hope and
was currently doubling its efforts
in working with 15 African nations to
deal with Malaria and the growing
pandemic of HIV/Aids.
On Zimbabwe,
he did not specify any other measures as expected by many
except mentioning
in passing the US's support for the freedoms of ordinary
Zimbabweans.
Ruling Zanu PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira today
dismissed Bush’s speech
as lacking ‘substance and depth.’
"I am not
sure how many times we have to say America or Great Britain have
no role in
the Zimbabwean politics,” said Shamuyarira.
“Zimbabweans know what is
right or wrong and what is freedom or lack of it.
Who are they to declare
themselves masters of this world? By going to war we
knew what is freedom
and that is what we have. There was no substance and
depth in his speech if
he said we have no freedom here.”
Relations between Harare and Washington
have remained low for almost a
decade now after President Robert Mugabe’s
government embarked on a violent
land reform programme. That has affected
production resulting in acute
shortages of basic goods.
Washington is
not happy about Harare’s human rights record, tainted by
physical attacks on
members often opposition and civic groups.
Nelson Chamisa, the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
spokesperson commenting on Bush’s
speech said: “The record is for everyone
to see that the word freedom is
only in theory in this country. Newspapers
have been closed by draconian
laws, air-waves remain a monopoly of the
regime and members if the
opposition still alive live in fear.”
Civil rights activist Lovemore
Madhuku, who has on many ocassions been
assaulted and arrested by the police
for demonstrating for a new
constitution, said Zimbabwe was not a
democracy.
”I am not surprised at all by the classification of Zimbabwe
with military
junta like Burma, only that Mugabe claims to have been elected
but what his
government does is exactly what a dictator does,” said
Madhuku.
Meanwhile a US spokesperson, asked what his government's
reaction to
President Mugabe setting an election date of March 29 and the
opposition
calling it a blow to mediation efforts was, said:
"We have
supported the SADC-sponsored effort to resolve the political and
economic
crisis in Zimbabwe through negotiation between the ruling and
opposition
parties."
"We regret that President Mugabe has insisted on proceeding
with the
presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29 without having
reached
an agreement on conditions that would have leveled the playing field
for all
parties planning to compete in those elections."
He
continued: "Police efforts on January 23 to prevent the march and rally
by
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is further illustration of
the
Government of Zimbabwe undermining the spirit of the SADC process."
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 29 January 2008 13:21
I believe that we were on the eve of another
dramatic move in the legal
revolution that continues to destroy commercial
agriculture and Zimbabwe.
In September 2005 the ZANU PFparliamentarians
put in place amendment no. 17
which acquired all white owned land for the
state and gave no right to
challenge this in any court. No ZANU PF
parliamentarians voted against this
act.
At the end of 2006 our ZANU PF
parliamentarians put in place the
consequential provisions act which said
that all those farmers still in
their homes and farming without permission
from the Minister of State
security would be committing a crime and would
face jail. No ZANU PF
parliamentarians voted against this act either. And
neither have any of them
got the the neccesary "permission" for white
farmers to continue.
In October 2007 the Zimbabwe Republican Police initiated
prosecutions under
this consequential provisions act; and to date
approximately 150 farmers are
in the process of being prosecuted for still
being on their farms. Any
farmer without an offer letter, lease or permit
is on the wrong side of the
law. The 150 farmers currently being prosecuted
will, we can be sure, be
expanded.
In January 2008 our Supreme Court
upheld the law that the ZANU PF
parliamentarians put in place expressly
saying that the bill of rights and
right to protection of the law no longer
exists in Zimbabwe for farmers or
anyone else that the parliamentarians care
to amke unjust laws against.
Sometime between now and 29 March 2008 I believe
white farmers are going to
be thrown into jail again for continuing to
commit the crime of being in
their homes and farming [in a country where the
world food programme is
feeding nearly 4 million people].
Are our
agricultural leaders going to make the same mistake as they did in
2002 and
take no legal staps to ensure their members are protected from the
efects of
being on the wrong side of the law: jail and dispossession?
In 2002, Colin
Cloete and his CFU council made a concious decision not to
protect their
members. They were apparently assured, like Piet Retief, that
they would
not be harmed.
As a direct result of that unfortunate decision the vast
majority of farmers
were dispossessed of everything that they had ever
worked for. Many were
incarcerated. Their workers lost their jobs and
their homes and the country
went hungry. The economy collapsed. Roads,
schools, hospitals, electricity
supplies, water delivery systems etc.
collapsed and continue to collapse
today.
The effect of destroying title
has been felt by all. The engine of the bus
called Zimbabwe has been
stripped, sold off or vandalised by the driver; and
the people of Zimbabwe
have had to get out and walk. Without property
rights, the engine that
drove the economy can not function. Roads, schools,
hospitals, electricity
supplies, water supplies, food security and the rest
will continue to
deteriorate. A quarter of the population have so far
walked out of Zimbabwe
as a result.
Is the legacy of Dingaan going to continue to haunt us in 2008?
Or are our
farming leaders going to have the courage and the forsight to
keep the few
remaining white farmers on the right side of the law and fight
in the courts
for a return of property rights and the rebuilding of the
ruins?
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 29 January 2008 13:12
MASVINGO—Wheat farmers here have blasted the government for
reneging on its
promise of paying half the price of their produce that they
remit to the
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) in foreign currency, an issue that
left governor
Willard Chiwewe and war veteran leader Black Jesus (real name
Francis
Zimuto) closing ranks last week.
Former fighters of the
liberation struggle, popularly known as war vets, who
occupy most of the A2
farms they grabbed from white commercial farmers
during the chaotic land
grab of 2000, form the majority of wheat farmers
here.
They openly
clashed with Governor Willard Chiwewe over the government’s
alleged failure
to pay their wheat produce in foreign currency.
The incident, openly exposing
widening rifts in the factions-ridden Zanu PF
provincial executive, happened
at a business forum-hosted by CFX Bank
Ltd-held at Flamboyant hotel last
Friday night, where Black Jesus took the
governor head on.
“You reneged
on your promise that you were to pay for our wheat in forex,
but up to now,
no single farmer has been paid for the wheat, even in the
local currency. I
do not know how you want us to continue producing when we
do not have money
for buying spares for our tractors,” fumed Black Jesus,
who is notorious for
being a catalyst in the land grab of 2000 after
marching to Harare with a
petition to the Queen, through the British Embassy
Chiwewe, who has clashed
with the war vets more often than not when fighting
for farms, hit back
harshly, saying the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had
promised to pay in
forex only for the 2007-8 farming season, and not the
previous one.
“When
the RBZ made the promise, it was referring to this 2007-08 farming
season,
and not the previous one, so how do you think you will have been
paid by
now,” said Chiwewe.
But after Black Jesus kept on insisting, Chiwewe silenced
him by saying that
he should come to his office and discuss the matter
privately.
“The wheat does not get paid in foreign currency, unless you mean
the wheat
for this year. Come and see me at my office and we will discuss
that,” the
Governor said.
Problems for wheat farmers seem not to be
coming to an end following a
previous turbulent farming season that saw some
of them making great losses
when they harvested their wheat late due to few
combine harvesters and fuel
problems. Some of the farmers harvested their
wheat manually or using
motorcycles.
www.thewip.net
January 29,
2008
by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -
In my
last article I wrote that the situation here is so dire that many
Zimbabweans, including myself, can now only pray for divine intervention to
rid us of this dictator, Robert Mugabe.
Based on events that are
currently unfolding, I think God may be answering
our prayers in a way that
we couldn’t have ever imagined!
I reported previously that by using
former war veterans to help him garner
support, Mugabe was "endorsed" as the
Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU PF) candidate for
the harmonized March
elections.
Mugabe joined the presidential and
parliamentary elections through a
constitutional amendment. In previous
years these two elections were held
two years apart. When I vote in March I
will drop two ballot papers: one for
president and one for a legislator or
member of parliament.
The “harmonization” is part of Mugabe’s exit plan;
after these elections are
held simultaneously, he can elect his trusted
party members into ministerial
posts and then retire. By doing so, Mugabe
will have ensured that he will
not be prosecuted for crimes against
humanity.
That is of course, assuming he wins the election. But then we
all know he
will win, because he rigs such things all the time. Otherwise
how would you
explain why someone who is sleeping on an empty stomach or has
been beaten
by police or the army during a demonstration or had their home
burned to the
ground by Mugabe’s youth, voting for him? It just doesn’t make
any sense and
I don't think Zimbabweans are that foolish.
Our votes
have been stolen over the years because Mugabe has manipulated all
the state
entities that are supposed to ensure free and fair elections.
Mugabe is the
only presidential candidate of his party. He was elected
unopposed at their
congress in December because people within the party were
afraid to pit
anybody else against him.
Though there were divisions within the party
over his decision to not
retire, the opposition chickened out at the last
minute. After seeing the
masses of war veterans and ZANU PF supporters who
turned out at the staged
Million Men and Women March in support Mugabe's
candidacy, they were not
sure they wanted to revolt. In a way, he stole the
vote because he
intimidated people into supporting him; the veterans who
marched supposedly
in support of Mugabe were bought, since he paid them
money, transported them
and gave them a huge feast afterwards.
We all
thought it was over and that we would be stuck with this despotic
leader
until, well, without sounding callous - his death. But news that the
ZANU PF
old guard is planning to break away from Mugabe has given many of us
here
hope.
This story was first broken by an editor of the business weekly
known as the
Financial Gazette, which is believed to have links to Mugabe's
Central
Intelligence Department.
When I first read the article, I
dismissed it as a piece of propaganda,
thinking that ZANU PF was just trying
to make the opposition relax. However
as more and more papers and
international agencies continue to pick up the
story, I cannot help but
think that just maybe this is the only hope
Zimbabweans have of removing
Mugabe.
According to these speculative reports, some ZANU PF stalwarts
are plotting
a break away to field a candidate from within the party to
challenge Mugabe.
They are still debating on the name they will use but
the latest suggestion
has been that they will call themselves PF ZANU. It is
also suggested that
the united front will include some senior ZANU PF
officials and former
cabinet ministers who are unhappy with Mugabe’s
policies.
As you must already know, since the late 1990s, under Mugabe’s
leadership
our once vibrant and promising economy has been on a meltdown. We
are
struggling with shortages of foreign currency, basic commodities, fuel
and
water. Industry has been affected by constant power blackouts. The state
of
the health, education and farming sectors is in shambles. It is a tragic
story about Zimbabwe and how Mugabe has ruined every aspect of our
lives.
And I tell you the situation is worsening with each passing day. I
have
actually lost parts of this article three times since I started working
on
it four days ago because of the unscheduled power cuts.
Local
reports say the break away party will be headed by former finance
minister,
Simba Makoni, who is said to be "accepted" by the international
community. I
don't really know because many of us here are desperate and
perhaps gullible
in our effort to remove Mugabe, but they say Makoni has a
"clean record" and
is of "sober habits".
All these attributes to Makoni's character are good
qualities in a leader
and supporters of this split say they have confidence
that Makoni will
return Zimbabwe to prosperity.
Other than Makoni's
backing from the international community, he is also
supported by retired
army general, Solomon Mujuru, husband to the country's
second vice
president, Joice, or Teurairopa (meaning “sheds blood”) as she
was known
during the war. (During the struggle for independence, people gave
each
other war names to inspire them to fight colonialism; it is said that
Joice
was a very brave fighter who undertook really dangerous assignments to
defeat the British.) She is also a senior member of the ZANU PF
party.
Solomon Mujuru was the first commander of the Zimbabwean army
after the
country attained independence from British rule in 1980 and still
commands a
lot of respect within the army. He is also being assisted by
academic Ibbo
Mandaza, war veteran Alfred Mhanda and retired army major
Kudzai Mbudzi in
mobilizing support for the split. All three are angry with
Mugabe and ZANU
PF for one reason or the other. One could say they are the
best people to
lead this revolt.
Mbudzi was suspended from the Zanu
PF Masvingo provincial executive
committee last month for deriding war
veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda.
Mbudzi was irked by Sibanda's involvement
in the solidarity marches to
support Mugabe as the 2008 presidential
candidate and openly attacked him,
saying he was an "over-zealous, butt
licking criminal". This drew Mugabe’s
wrath and triggered the subsequent
party suspension.
Mhanda is a veteran who fought very closely alongside
Mugabe during the war
and is angry over the treatment that ex-combatants
received from Mugabe
after the war. Mhanda has spoken often and openly about
his anger. He feels
that Mugabe forgot about those who fought in the
struggle and left them to
languish in poverty without any assistance from
the state to reintegrate
into society.
Many veterans who left for war
abandoned their education to fight, driven by
the desire to free their
country. After returning from battle a few managed
to be absorbed into the
army and the police force. A few made it into
politics, but many found they
had no educational qualifications to find
other jobs and without state
assistance, they found life very difficult.
Bitter and betrayed, they
returned to their rural areas, resigned to lives
of poverty and
destitution.
It was in 1997 (17 years after returning from war) that
those who were still
alive finally got war reparations for injuries and
emotional trauma. This is
Mhanda's bone of contention.
Then Mandaza
lost two of his papers, The Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror
to Mugabe's
Central Intelligence Operatives (CIOs). Using a frontman, the
CIO had
secretly acquired some financial stakes in the newspapers.
Mandaza fell
out with the government after his papers published some damning
articles
about Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina. Mandaza allegedly assisted
a special
UN envoy, Anna Tibaijuka, who had been sent to the country to
assess the
situation and to write the report that ultimately implicated the
government.
One editorial published in the Sunday Mirror
read,
"The opposition MDC has argued that the government's main
reason for
Murambatsvina is to punish the urban poor for voting for the
opposition
during the March parliamentary elections. The cities are
traditionally MDC
strongholds...There has been speculation that the
government is aiming to
create a situation where the MDC has no choice but
to merge with the ruling
party.
"Commentators also argue that by
forcing urban voters out into the rural
areas by destroying their homes, the
cities will be de-populated of MDC
supporters thus enabling the government
to re-populate the urban areas with
Zanu-PF supporters. Further, MDC
supporters will be forced to return to live
in areas traditionally viewed as
Zanu-PF strongholds."
The board then came after Mandaza with trumped up
charges of financial
mismanagement and axed him. The CIO then took over the
papers and ran them
to collapse, leaving journalists jobless.
These
are backgrounds of the men who are out to defeat Mugabe.
Although
Mugabe's spokesperson has already come out and dismissed the
reports of a
split as "a British sponsored coalition of the bitter," I can
tell you many
people here are embracing this idea. It is the talk of the
town in bars,
hair salons, commuter trains, public taxis, buses,
workplaces -- just about
everywhere.
For years Makoni has been touted as a possible successor to
Mugabe, but many
of his critics believe that he is a "political
lightweight," not capable of
removing his combative opponent.
I
hasten to tell you, this is not the first time that ZANU PF politicians
have
tried to revolt against Mugabe. In 2004 some party heavyweights led by
the
then information minister, Jonathan Moyo, tried to oppose Mugabe's
decision
to appoint Joice Mujuru to the post of vice president.
As soon as Mugabe
got wind of what has became known as the "Tsholotsho
debacle" (named for the
location where the plot was created), he fired Moyo.
Six provincial chairmen
(including Jabulani Sibanda) who had taken part also
lost their jobs and
were seriously victimized afterwards.
Unlike Sibanda, who managed to
force himself back into the party, the other
five have not been re-admitted.
They have lost all the privileges they once
enjoyed including access to
state tenders and loans with ridiculously low
interest rates from various
state entities. Their party vehicles were taken
away. Their access to free
fuel and grain were also taken away. Imagine
waking up one day and realizing
that you have no car and have to walk like
everybody else. You wake up and
you have no bodyguard to salute you nor
aides to wipe your shoes
clean.
The night that Moyo was fired, the CIO came and repossessed his
ministerial
Mercedes Benz and ordered him out of the state house. Moyo later
managed to
seek reprieve regarding his accommodations in court.
This
is what Mugabe is capable of.
Mugabe has a long history of being ruthless
and I urge all those who are
plotting and planning to be very careful. He
has never allowed anything or
anyone to stand in the way of his political
ambitions.
We must not forget the assassinations of Josiah Tongogara,
Herbert Chitepo,
two Zanla commanders who died during the war, leaving
Mugabe to take over
the party presidency. And numerous other mysterious
deaths have also
occurred post-independence, of politicians within his own
party who appeared
as possible threats to Mugabe.
Remember the robust
leaders, Border Gezi and Moven Mahachi (once a security
minister), who died
in car accidents while their aides mysteriously
survived? Remember retired
Air Marshall Josiah Tungamirai, who was poisoned?
Tungamirai, as his wife
later revealed, sent his aide to buy him a packet of
chips and after eating
them his health was never the same. He died a few
months later from kidney
failure and told his wife before dying that he
suspected he had been
poisoned.
Those determined to break away must remember all this and be
very wary of
Mugabe's ruthless nature.
Will this be the long-awaited
way out for us? Perhaps… I will keep you
posted.
About the
Author
Constance Manika is a journalist who works for the independent press
in
Zimbabwe. She writes under this pseudonym to escape prosecution from a
government whose onslaught and level of intolerance to journalists in the
independent press is well documented.
In Meltdown in Zimbabwe, an
exclusive and ongoing series at The WIP,
Constance provides continued
on-the-ground reporting from her embattled
country where Zimbabweans
struggle daily for democracy, economic
sustainability and human rights.
zimbabwejournalists.com
29th Jan 2008 02:17 GMT
By Grace
Chiradza
ZIMBABWE a country that used to be a bread basket of
southern Africa has now
been turned into a basket case. About 75% of the
total population are
affected by famine, not only of rough but also
mismanagement of the economy
leading to shortages of basic
communities.
This has lead people to flock into neighbouring countries in
search of basic
goods, especially food. The shortages extend to foods like
salt, sugar,
bread, cooking oil and maize meal.
People no longer
celebrate festivals like Christmas as they used to do years
ago. They can
not afford to buy food, most of which can only be available on
black
market.
About 80% of Zimbabwe's economically active population is
unemployed and
about 75% of the population lives below the poverty datum
line.
Looking at how the civil servant is suffering like all the other
ordinary
Zimbabweans, one would not dream of sending a child to boarding
school as
things continue to get worse and worse.
The government is
failing to announce the new fees for 2008 but many schools
which are
suffering because of too much control by the government, continue
to see
their pupils living like paupers, eating less and less everyday due
to
massive shortages and lack of money.
The minister of education, Aneas
Chigwedere, continues to bungle all the
time as the country's education
sector goes to the dogs. Standards are
falling everyday, teachers and
lecturers are leaving for greener pastures
and yet the government of
Zimbabwe manages to pay money so the soccer loving
but suffering nation can
watch live soccer from Ghana even though other
southern African countries
that qualified have opted not to do that.
This shows gross incompetence.
Things need to change.
Those in employment cannot survive from what they
are earning - the work
ethic in Zimbabwe has all but changed. People have to
do a lot of things at
the same time to survive. Gone is the hard working
trustworthy Zimbabwean,
his innocence has been taken away by Robert Mugabe
hence greediness,
corruption and related issues have become the order of the
day. This madness
is killing our country and something has to be done to
address the
situation.
This has also led to the migration of skilled
workers to the Diaspora in
search of greener pastures.
Zimbabwe’s
health care system has taken a big knock. There is a desperate
shortage of
medical doctors and nurses, a critical shortage of basic drugs
and medical
equipment. The strike by health professionals recently has lead
to deaths
and suffering of many ordinary poor people.
The Mugabe government, which
is known for using violence against people who
disagree with the way it runs
the county, is watching and enjoying seeing
people suffering.
g.chiradza@yahoo.co.uk
The Times
January 29, 2008
Jane Wheatley
The millionaire businessman, enforcer and
close chum of Robert Mugabe is no
stranger to the courts and never
repentant, although he is a stickler for
accuracy on the subject of his
sins. “I am not immoral,” he once told an
interviewer. “I am amoral; that’s
different.”
He has been jailed on several occasions – for arranging for
the lobbing of a
hand grenade into the home of a debtor, receiving stolen
goods, bribing
prison officers and, most notably, for the manslaughter of a
business rival
who was shot by two men allegedly hired by him. The
conviction was quashed
by the court of appeal – although he was later
ordered to pay £6 million in
compensation to the dead man’s family, who had
brought a civil case against
him. According to Van Hoogstraten, the judge
was “an arsehole” for branding
him a murderer because if he had ordered the
killing he would have made a
proper job of it: “I wouldn’t think twice about
having people killed if they
threatened me,” he told The Sunday Times, “but
it would be done by
professionals.”
The young Nicholas Hoogstraten
(he added the Van later) embarked on his
business career at the age of 9,
dealing in stamps at school; his mother
charged him interest on money she
loaned him. By 18 he had bought his first
hotel and went on to conduct a
Rachman-style operation in London, buying up
houses, ousting the sitting
tenants whom he described as “scum” and selling
on at a profit. He was a
millionaire at 22 and, despite some bothersome
brushes with the law, his
moneymaking career has rarely faltered. By the
1980s he was in The Guinness
Book of Recordsfor owing £5 million in income
tax. He has always maintained
that a tough reputation is essential if you
want to become rich, because
people will always try to “crook” you.
He famously built Hamilton Palace,
a £40 million classical copper-domed
mansion in Sussex, filling it with his
art collection and making great
efforts to maintain privacy from determined
ramblers whom he described as
“perverts”. The mansion also contains a
mausoleum for his future use. It has
been rumoured that the property was
destined for Robert Mugabe should he
ever need a refuge – Van Hoogstraten
invested heavily in Zimbabwe in the
1990s and describes the dictator as a
decent and modest man. The three
mothers of his five children are all black:
“Once you’ve had black, you
never go back,” he told an
interviewer.
Schooled by Jesuits, Van Hoogstraten has said he “probably”
believes in an
afterlife and has planted many thousands of trees in
anticipation of a
rebuff at the pearly gates: “That will swing it, won’t
it?”