http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
4 January 2010
The six
negotiators to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) will resume
talks in a
fortnight, following a month long break.
Industry and Commerce Minister
Welshman Ncube, who is also the lead
negotiator for the MDC-M, told SW Radio
Africa on Monday that the talks,
which broke off three days before Christmas
last year, would resume next
week Saturday.
'We will convene on the
16th to start the latest round of talks. We should
conclude the talks in a
reasonable time because most of the things are done,'
Ncube said.
The
negotiators have been urged to speed up the 'painfully slow'
negotiations as
they struggle to find common ground on the more contentious
issues in the
GPA.
The negotiations have become bogged down over arguments that include
the
appointments of central bank Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney-General
Johannes
Tomana, provincial governors and the swearing-in of Roy Bennett as
Deputy
Minister of Agriculture.
The reformation of the security
sector is another hot potato dividing the
negotiators right through the
middle. Zimbabweans in general, diplomats, the
international community,
NGO's and civil society organizations have all
expressed frustration at the
lack of progress on these key issues during the
negotiating rounds dating
back to September 2008.
Political analyst Clifford Mashiri told us the
negotiators have talked for
long enough and that the country expects action.
'They must have a higher
level of ambition to get things done. Time is not
just pressing, it has
almost run out, considering there is an election
scheduled for next year
according to Mugabe and Tsvangirai,' Mashiri
said.
'The problem we have at the moment in these negotiations is that
they are
drowning in issues that are not relevant to solve the country's
problems.
How can they spend a year discussing about governors, ambassadors
and
commissions and not tackle the Gono, Tomana and Bennett issues, things
that
have threatened to collapse the government,' Mashiri
said.
Before the talks broke off last month, the three parties reached
consensus
on some of the easier issues, arising from the GPA and the SADC
communiqué
of January 27 2009. These included the announcement of the new
independent
commissions.
A source told us the MDC-T, which is unhappy
with the slow pace in
implementing the GPA, wanted a deadlock to be declared
over the remaining
issues if negotiators fail to reach a compromise in two
weeks' time.
A deadlock would force South African President Jacob Zuma to
intervene as
SADC's facilitator in the Zimbabwe crisis. In mid-December Zuma
did send a
three-member facilitation team early to check on progress made in
the
implementation of outstanding issues.
It remains to be seen if
the MDC will indeed declare a deadlock or if, once
again, they go along with
ZANU PF's delaying tactics.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
04 January
2009
Two volunteers who helped raise money for a young girl who required
surgery
in the UK are being accused of 'manufacturing' false stories about
the
looting of the medical fund.
Barbara Nyagomo Mambo and Munashe
Moyo Godo started an internet campaign on
social networking site Facebook to
help raise £10,000 required for Tare
Nomatter Mapungwana's surgery. Later on
the Girl Child Network - a charity
run by Betty Makoni to help abused and
disadvantaged girls - took over the
fund raising campaign. It was then that
Nyagomo-Mambo and Moyo-Godo are said
to have demanded £360 in compensation
for internet charges, time spent
publicizing the appeal and phone
calls.
Makoni and her network refused to pay this money and it's alleged
that
because of this the aggrieved volunteers fanned the stories about
missing
funds.
US$20,000 was raised in appeals run in Zimbabwe by
Bishop Trevor Manhanga,
but they alleged that only £8,000 was received in
the United Kingdom.
Protest musician Viomak, who is Tare's aunt, spoke to
Newsreel on Monday
giving the family's side of the story. She said US$20,000
was raised in
Zimbabwe and the full amount was given directly to the family.
She said this
money had nothing to do with the Girl Child
Network.
Viomak said the Girl Child Network helped to raise the balance
of £10,000
required to ensure Tare traveled from Zimbabwe to the UK and
could pay the
bill for her operation. When the target of £10,000 was reached
they asked
for the excess money to be sent directly to the family. She said
because
Tare's family did not have a UK bank account she offered them use of
her
bank account to use temporarily. Tare's mum was given the bank card and
pin
number to use.
Barbara Nyagomo-Mambo meanwhile denied being the
source of the stories
alleging that money was looted from Tare's Fund. She
however admitted that
she and Munashe Moyo Godo (Makoni's childhood friend)
had demanded and were
entitled to volunteer allowances under UK law. She
said it was illegal not
to pay volunteers in the UK and that their
allowances should range from
anything between £5 to £15 a day. She
complained that in three and a half
weeks she had run up a phone bill of
£360 trying to raise money for Tare but
received no
compensation.
Nyagomo-Mambo also challenged the use of Viomak's private
bank account,
saying members of the public were not informed that this was
where the money
was deposited.
She said because the donations were
going via paypal, donors did not know
the destination account and assumed it
was still being handled by the Girl
Child Network.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare, January 04, 2010- The
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), which
is opposed to the current
government led constitutional making process, on
Sunday vowed to mobilize
ordinary Zimbabweans to contribute to a people
driven
constitution.
"We will, beginning this very January, together with
our traditional allies-
the labour and students movements,intensify the
people's community meetings
and grass roots mobilisation for a genuine
people driven constitution,"NCA
spokesperson, Madock Chivasa
said.
He said his organization, which led the people to reject the 2000
draft
constitution was opposed to the current constitution set up, where the
government was taking a leading role.
The NCA together with the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) and the
Zimbabwe National Students
Movement (ZINASU) last year held a meeting in
which they opposed the current
parliament led constitution making process
saying it would not result in a
people driven constitution.
"The constitutional movement will in 2010
intensify campaigns for a genuine
people driven constitution making process.
We remain guided by the historic
positions of the people of Zimbabwe over
the years, reaffirmed at the 2nd
all people's convention at the Aquatic
Complex in Chitungwiza on Monday 27
July 2008. The Zimbabwe People's Charter
remains our futurist repository,"
Chivasa said.
"We unreservedly
recommit ourselves to the principles and resolutions
articulated 10 years
ago by the National Working Peoples' Convention as well
as the first
People's Constitutional Convention in 1999 and as outlined as
recently as
2008 in the Zimbabwe People's Charter. We hold that these
principles that
outline what we know and believe to be a truly people driven
constitution
making process hold true today and remain non-negotiable."
Last year the
NCA rejected the government led constitution making process
recommending for
an "independent, democratic constitutional reform to be
initiated.
In its resolution last year the NCA threatened to
mobilize support for the
rejection of the constitution at the referendum if
the current process did
not come up with people's expectations.
"We
resolve that if the inclusive government and or parliament does not heed
our
call to cease forthwith the constitutional reform process as outlined in
Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), we will actively seek a
rejection of any draft constitution produced by the same process through
campaigning for a NO vote should that draft be brought to a referendum," the
NCA with its allies said last year.
On January 12 the consultation
phase will begin in the country's 10
provinces and will end after 65 working
days.
The first all stakeholders conference in Harare last year was
marred by
chaos and disturbances by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu PF
party but the leaders in the unity government Mugabe, Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara deploring the
disturbances.
Funding had also been delaying the constitution making
process but the
government approved US 43 million dollars in the 2010 budget
for
constitution making with donors pledging to support the process.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, January 03, 2009 -An estimated four million Zimbabweans in
the
Diaspora will be given a chance to contribute to Zimbabwe's
constitutional
making process, Co-chair of the parliamentary select
committee Douglas
Mwonzora told Radio VOP.
In an exclusive
interview, Mwonzora said a website will also be set up to
enable Zimbabweans
to make contributions to the process, which is key to
holding free and fair
elections in the country.
"One does not cease to be Zimbabwean because he
or she is living in the
Diaspora," he said. "As the select committee
responsible for the writing of
the constitution we are going to engage those
in the Diaspora in this
process. Principals of the Inclusive Government have
no business in this
issue because they are bound by the GPA, which says
every Zimbabwean must
participate in the process, and we can not ignore
more than 4 million
people who are in the Diaspora."
"We have talked
to different organizations representing Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora who
have promised to fund international trips for the ...committee
to visit
their areas and make some consultations. We have also contracted
a private
Information Technology company to create a Website..."
Mwonzora said it
was not true that all Zimbabweans in the diaspora supported
the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) as most were economic refugees.
Founder and
International coordinator for the Zimbabwe Bird, a network of
Zimbabweans
living in the Diaspora, based in the Netherlands, Stephen
Matenga, said
Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora should be consulted.
"From the net
work we realized that there are more than 4 million
Zimbabweans who are
in the Diaspora ...for several reasons, and we
believe the country should
not ignore them."
Businessman Phillip Chiyangwa recently said Zimbabwe's
economy was sustained
by Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.
Some political
analysts say the Inclusive Government is encouraging
Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora to invest in the country but is silent on their
inclusion in
participating in politics or giving them assurance that if they
return they
would not be prosecuted.
During his tour to western countries on a bridge
building mission last year,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was booed by
exiled Zimbabweans in UK after
he told them to come back to Zimbabwe.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
04 January
2010
International food giant Nestlé has apparently agreed to a
convoluted deal
that could see it once again buying milk, indirectly, from
Grace Mugabe's
Gushungo dairy estate.
The international group has
resumed operations in Zimbabwe after assurances
from the unity government
that the safety of the company's staff would be
guaranteed. The company, at
the end of last year, had shut down its milk
processing plant citing safety
concerns, after growing harassment and
intimidation from groups of Mugabe
loyalists, including some government
ministers. The groups had been trying
to force Nestlé to resume buying milk
from Gushungo farm, which was seized
at the height of the land 'reform'
programme and handed to Grace Mugabe.
Nestlé came under pressure last
October to cut its commercial ties with the
farm, from which it had been
buying up to ten percent of its local dairy
supply.
But Nestlé's decision to stop doing business with the Mugabes
resulted in
growing intimidation over the past three months. Shortly after
the group's
decision in October, the company's bank accounts were frozen by
the Reserve
Bank in what was described as a 'petty retaliation'. That move
was reversed
days later, but it was only the start of the harassment and
intimidation
that led to the temporary closure of Nestlé's Zimbabwe branch.
In December,
two Nestlé executives were briefly detained and questioned by
police in an
attempt to force them to accept a shipment of milk from
Gushungo farm. Days
later Nestlé announced the closure of the company,
citing safety concerns.
A resolution has now been agreed to and the dairy
group is back in operation
this week. Industry Minister Welshman Ncube said
last week he had met with
Nestlé Zimbabwe and national dairy officials, who
agreed that the milk from
Gushungo should be bought by local
processors.
"For its part, government has given its assurance on the
safety of staff and
management at both Nestlé Zimbabwe and Gushungo
Dairies," Ncube said.
"As a result of those consultations, the parties
have collectively reached
an understanding to work together in ensuring that
milk produced at Gushungo
Dairies is absorbed by the local dairy
processors."
Nestlé has not given details of the agreement, but has
insisted it will not
be buying milk directly from the Mugabes. Instead, it
has been suggested
that the milk will be bought by other contracted milk
dealers, with whom
Nestlé already has commercial arrangements. According to
Voice of America
(VOA), Dairiboard Zimbabwe, a state-controlled milk
processing and
distribution enterprise, will buy Gushungo milk, and in turn,
Nestlé will
buy milk from Dairiboard. However, it is not clear if this is
indeed the
case.
Meanwhile, Ncube's assertions that Nestlé staff will
be safe from threats
have been met with scepticism, as the Industry Ministry
does not have the
power to ensure the rule of law in the country is adhered
to. Ncube at the
same time has come under fire for blaming Nestlé's original
decision to shut
down its Zimbabwe operations on the international media.
The Minister
accused "hysterical international media" in South Africa,
Britain and the
U.S of forcing Nestlé to terminate its commercial
relationship with the
Mugabes.
"That was complete madness on the part
of those media organisations which
actually decided to go on a negative
campaign," Minister Ncube is quoted as
saying by the state-controlled Herald
newspaper.
South African pressure group PASSOP, which led last year's
campaign to
boycott Nestlé products over their ties with the Mugabes, said
Nestlé "has
the right to choose the companies with which it does business."
PASSOP's
Braam Hanekom said Monday that Ncube was pointing the finger of
blame in the
wrong direction.
"Boycotting goods of companies doing
business with ZANU PF is the most
effective way to promote democratic change
in Zimbabwe," Hanekom explained.
Meanwhile, a final drive to force the
country's remaining commercial farmers
off their land is in full swing, and
it is understood that one of the last
white farmers in Rusape has been
evicted from his land. Sources in the area
explained that a militia led
onslaught on commercial farms this weekend has
concluded the so called land
'reform' programme there. Other media reports
say that similar incidents are
underway across the country, where the army
has been deployed on several
properties. The deployment of army officials is
said to have been ordered by
the Joint Operations Command (JOC), through
Attorney General Johannes
Tomana. This is despite the grouping of top army
and police officials
apparently being 'disbanded' last year.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/
Eyewitness News | 3 Hours Ago
Dozens
of Zimbabwean travellers trying to enter South Africa at the
Beitbridge
Border Post have reportedly had their passports
confiscated.
Officials on the South African side are clamping down on
people who have
obtained travel documents in a fraudulent
manner.
Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper reported that
the Home Affairs
Department is trying to weed out people who have obtained
South African
passports fraudulently.
The blitz is expected to
last until mid-January and South African officials
are targeting migrant
workers on their way back to South Africa after the
Christmas
break.
Dozens of travellers have had their passports confiscated and
are being
turned back to Zimbabwe but Zimbabwe’s Assistant Regional
Immigration
Officer Charles Gwede said they cannot accept travellers without
passports.
Some of those affected claim to be South Africans. One man
from Limpopo told
the Herald he only travelled to Bulawayo for the Christmas
break and has
hired a lawyer to get his passport
back.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, January 04, 2009 - The Government's Public
Service staff audit has
unleashed more than 100 ghost workers from three
Prisons, reliable sources
have revealed to Radio VOP.
Highly
placed sources within the Zimbabwe Prison Service's human
resources
department told Radio VOP that over 100 unqualified prison
officers had
been so far unearthed at Chikurubi, Harare Remand and Central
prisons.
"The service has hundreds of National Youth Service
graduates, whom we were
forced to recruit ...we tried to argue and we were
silenced with
victimisation. These Green bombers were employed on partisan
basis with no
academic qualifications," said the
source.
"Most of them were relatives of some very senior
officials within the
service and government, and had the National Youth
Service certificates as
their only qualifications and were employed on the
basis of their patronage
to ZANU-PF and in honour of terrorizing MDC
supporters, he added." "Their
salaries and employment contracts of
affected workers have since been
terminated pending further investigations,"
said the source.
The senior human resources official also said
senior officials were using
prison officers as gardeners and security
guards at their farms, which
they snatched from white commercial
farmers.
"Prison officers are being abused by the top officials
who are taking them
as their security guards, for example Commissioner
Paradzai Zimondi has
twenty prison officers who rotate as security guards
at his Bindura,Ruwa
based Rufaro plot and Harare's Gunhill low density
residential suburb home
.He has four personal drivers who are on ZPS
payroll. This is
disturbing and its our prayer that the ongoing audit
is going to
clean up all these irregularities which have paralyzed the
security
organ," he added.
ZPS boss is on record for
blaming economic sanctions imposed by the west
and its allies on ZANU-PF
senior officials and its sympathizers for
the deterioration of prison
conditions.
Recently Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner
General Augustine Chihuri
blocked the auditors from unearthing ghost police
officers. In Masvingo 5
000 ghost workers were unearthed in the province,
with 1 000 of these
registered as teachers at non-existent
schools.
A team of independent auditors will collate and release the
results for the
whole country this month. The exercise, sponsored by World
Bank, is aimed at
registering all public servants and flushing out ghost
workers who have an
effect on the salary bill at a time when government is
struggling
financially.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=26295
January 4, 2010
By Our
Correspondent
BULAWAYO - The revived ZAPU political party has been rocked
by serious
divisions resulting in the suspension of six senior members last
week
allegedly for indiscipline.
The members were suspended a month
after four members of the revived party
were arrested and appeared in court
on allegations of assaulting other party
members at a meeting held in Luveve
high density suburb.
In a statement jointly signed Zapu Bulawayo
provincial chairman Canaan Ncube
and secretary for information and publicity
Casper Mlilo the party said it
had suspended executive members Evans
Ndebele, Retired Colonel Ray Ncube,
Smile Dube, former Bulawayo councilor
Alderman Charles Mpofu, Nhlanhla Ncube
and Charles Makhuya for deliberately
flouting the party's rules and
regulations.
Ndebele is the former
owner of the now defunct Zimbabwe Express Airline.
"Among the reasons for
their suspensions are the following; holding and
seeking to hold
unauthorized meetings with the intention of showing
insubordination to the
party and its leadership (and) making statements to
the press that are in
contempt of the party leadership," the Zapu statement
reads in
part.
Two weeks ago Ndebele and Dube were barred from attending a ZAPU
National
Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Gweru where they allegedly
threatened to
beat up party chairman Dumiso Dabengwa accusing him of being a
dictator.
Zapu was re-launched in December 2008 after disgruntled senior
Zanu-PF
officials led by Dabengwa officially split from President Robert
Mugabe's
party.
The former Zanu-PF officials, mainly from the
southern region accused Mugabe
of clinging to power.
Zanu-PF and
PF-Zapu signed a unity accord in 1987 following a crackdown by
the
government in the western regions of Zimbabwe, which until then were the
stronghold of PF-Zapu. The ruthless operation resulted in the death of an
estimated 20 000 civilians.
The crackdown, which was code-named
Gukurahundi, witnessed the deployment of
Five Brigade troops in Matabeleland
and the Midlands, ostensibly to suppress
dissent allegedly associated with
PF Zapu.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
News release from Women of Zimbabwe
Arise
4th January 2010
WOZA demand changes in education system in
2010
Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) has launched a report on the
state of
education in Zimbabwe entitled 'Looking back to look forward -
education in
Zimbabwe: a WOZA perspective'. The recommendations contained in
the report
form the basis of WOZA's current campaign on
education.
The education of their children has been a major driving force
for
Zimbabweans and WOZA members in particular, and the motivation behind
much
activism. In the first decade after Independence, the education system
in
Zimbabwe reached its peak and was heralded as the best in Africa. In the
last decade however, it has been pushed to its decline by power and
politics. The report reflects on how this decay took place in order to
expose this injustice and to demand its immediate remedy.
The
recommendations included in the report include:
A revamping of the
curriculum to ensure its relevance to the children who
learn.
Introducing
more vocational subjects - both commercial and technical -and
providing
opportunities for children to be attached in work places during
their senior
years.
Allowing children to be placed according to their abilities and their
interests instead of providing the same curriculum for all
Teaching
methods need to stress skills development rather than rote learning
of
knowledge in preparation for exams.
Administration of schools needs to be
less autocratic and more tended to
participatory decision-making; physical
abuse, which is common, must stop.
A subject which teaches human rights, good
governance, and democratic
practice will need to be introduced to the
curriculum
Teachers and administrators will need to be re-trained to
accommodate new
approaches to teaching and learning.
Examination systems
will have to be revamped.
In January 2010, ahead of the new school year,
WOZA has the following
demands:
Teachers must produce quality
teaching and show that they are committed to
the learning of all their
pupils equally.
Education authorities must utilise the vehicles that are
being purchased to
supervise teachers and demand more discipline in
schools.
Teachers must stop demanding top-ups from parents and the Ministry
must
prohibit this practice.
The Ministry must work to produce a new and
relevant curriculum as
recommended above.
Parents will do their best to
pay reasonable fees set by Ministry and levies
set by properly constituted
and democratic parents meetings at the beginning
of each year - we will not
accept any fee or levy changes in 2010.
The full report can be found on the
WOZA website - www.wozazimbabwe.org.
Ends
4th
January 2010
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
03/01/2010
00:00:00
ANALYSTS say there is renewed global interest in Zimbabwe
with investors,
particularly from the United States, beginning to look at
emerging
opportunities in the recovering Southern African
country.
Botswana-registered Imara financial services group recently
concluded its
annual “show-and-tell” safari to America highlighting
investment prospects
on the continent and says US business executives showed
great interest in
Zimbabwe.
"US investors had very few questions
about North Africa or South Africa.
Their interest was on all the markets in
between, with Zimbabwe and Nigeria
coming in for closest
scrutiny.
“Zimbabwe is interesting to Americans because the economy was
assumed to
have been ruined beyond repair by the country's lost
decade.
“Yet dollarisation and the first stirrings of reform immediately
triggered a
big upsurge in economic activity – indicating that huge
potential can be
unlocked, even by quite limited initiatives,” Imara group
CEO Mark Tunmer
said.
The Imara group has offices across sub-Saharan
Africa as well as in Dubai
and the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile equity
investors have welcomed the recent review of the cost of
trading on the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) which, at 7.5 percent was
considered too high
relative to the rest of the region.
The Ministry of Finance reduced the
fees for both buying and selling of
shares to just over 3 percent and
analysts say this will significantly boost
activity on the bourse in the New
Year.
“(This renewed) interest should result in an increase in market
turnover
with consequent (benefits) for all stakeholders including the
Government.
“Hitherto, the equities market had been left illiquid as it
had become too
expensive to (trade),” an investment advisor said.
http://www.defenceweb.co.za
Last
Updated on Monday, 04 January 2010 13:56 Written by VOA Monday, 04
January
2010 13:42
The commissioner of the African Union's Peace and Security
Council said he
is looking forward to an Africa in 2010 that is more
peaceful, more
democratic and more resolved to implementing African
solutions to African
problems.
Ramtane Lamamra said while there were
some successes in peace building in
2009, there were also cases of
instability in Africa, including
unconstitutional change of
government.
"I think 2009 has seen some very significant and sustained
positive trends
towards the improvement of the bilateral relations between
some states which
used to have conflicting relationships. It has also seen a
volatile
stabilization process in Somalia. 2009 has also witnessed a
relative
improvement in the situation in the Sudan as far as the situation
in Darfur
is concerned. We recall also cases of crises and unconstitutional
changes of
government in Africa," he said.
Tensions have been running
high between the National Congress Party (NCP) in
the north and the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the south
regarding the
implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA).
Lamamra praised the work of former South African President
Thabo Mbeki who
chairs the African Union's Panel on Sudan.
He said
the African Union remains optimistic both sides would implement the
CPA.
"Obviously we have witnessed the difficulties encountered by the
SPLM and
the NCP.but we remain fairly optimistic because the statements that
we are
hearing from the leadership in both camps are clearly indicative of
the
willingness to resolve those problems," he said.
Lamamra said the
African Union was pleased the unconstitutional change of
government in
Mauritania was satisfactorily resolved through the return to
constitutional
order and democratic elections.
He also said the case of Guinea Bissau
was showing signs of being resolved
through constitutional means.
But
Lamamra said in the case of Guinea Conakry, junta leader Moussa Dadis
Camara
has reneged on his promise not to stand for election.
He also said
Madagascar leader Andry Rajoelina unilaterally decided to
declare obsolete
and internationally brokered peace agreement.
Lamamra said while the
opportunity was still there for peaceful transitions
in Guinea Conakry and
Madagascar, the African Union's policy on
unconstitutional change of
government is non-negotiable.
"As the African Union, we do have a very
clear and firm doctrine regarding
unconstitutional change of government, and
that doctrine contains precisely
sanctions to be applied against those
perpetrators of a coup who refuse to
abide by the agreements and contribute
to the return to constitutional
order," he said.
Lamamra said the
African Union was working closely with the Economic
Community of West
African States and the regional body's mediator President
Blaise Compaore of
Burkina Faso on the crisis in Guinea Conakry.
On Zimbabwe where the
African Union has supported an African solution,
Lamamra said the AU was
tempted to characterize the situation in Zimbabwe as
a half-full or
half-empty glass.
But he said the general trend among the partners in
Zimbabwe is toward
finding a solution through consensus
building.
Lamamra expressed regrets about the lack of progress on Western
Sahara and
in the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
He hopes
that of the nearly 17 African countries that will be celebrating
their 50th
anniversary in 2010 as independent countries that those countries
will
thoroughly assess their successes and mistakes and develop a clearer
vision
for a better future.
Source: www.voanews.com
"It is
easier to flee from the battle ground with a basket containing
rabbits or a
small pig than with a cow." - African proverb.
The end of the last decade
was marked by a depressing political event in
Zimbabwe. The retrogressive
announcement by an obtuse Attorney General,
Johannes Tomana, that, "All the
land in the country belongs to the
government and as such no individual has
the right to disobey a government
directive to vacate such."
This
feudal assertion effectively renders all Zimbabweans landless, an
insolent
populist proclamation-extremely offensive and unconstitutional-and
poses a
serious threat to our sovereignty by negating the tenets of our
basic
citizenship rights.
Independence becomes a hollow, meaningless word if
any politician abruptly
takes the freedoms and rights to property ownership
from any Zimbabwean
without recourse to the law. How can our most venerated
collective
heritage-land-be vested in the custody of known pilferers and
devious
politicians bent on grandiose self-enrichment crusades?
When
a legal instrument that would invalidate title deeds was proposed in
October
2003 by the then Minister of State for Information and Publicity
Minister
Professor Jonathan Moyo, misinformed and gullible Zimbabweans gave
a
standing ovation. He raucously announced that, "We need a legal instrument
that makes those title deeds a little lower than toilet paper, forever a
nullity that invites ridicule in any decent court of law."
Since
then, productive farming businesses, misappropriated by ZANU (PF)
officials
through the needless violent evictions of their owners, have been
subdivided
into unproductive smallholdings, residential plots, housing
co-operatives
for the party faithful or sold to the landless in hard
currency for a profit
to the politically connected. The very Zimbabweans,
whom the land belongs to
in the first place, now have to buy it from the
liberators in cash and
kind.
It effectively means that even the very land upon which the
foundations of
our homes, factories or business is anchored, has become
state property and
can be taken away without compensation or justification
at a moment's
notice. Most peasant farmers have no title deeds with which to
defend
themselves against the government's illegal evictions. However,
senior
members of ZANU (PF) own multiple farms and other properties secured
with
title deeds from the same colonial tenure system we all
detest.
"Njere dzavabenzi kutamba nemoto iwo maoko avo ari ehuswa!" It is
only a
fool who plays with fire when his arms are made out of
grass.
What is "the State", who is "the State"? "The State" is
essentially the
ZANU (PF) politburo and its ruthless Joint Operation Command
(JOC) that
decides who lives or dies, who gets land, and who does not.
Unelected
members of a political party politburo-rogue military officers and
common
criminals-now govern Zimbabwe. Together they make political decisions
laced
with social and economic prejudices that create "the State" which now
decides everything for the people without debate.
All Zimbabweans
have unceremoniously been dispossessed of their inalienable
property rights
by a clique of dishonest political speculators masquerading
as
revolutionaries.
Regrettably, the liberators of yesteryear have subdued
the democratic spirit
of the vulnerable and traumatised populace and
molested the will of ordinary
citizens as a cover for their flagrant
thievery and affirmative looting.
Zimbabwe is fertile for a homegrown
grassroots social revolt, a vigorous
renaissance of its national psyche that
will pit the unmerited recipients of
looted national assets against equally
patriotic and loyal citizens,
currently relegated to the fringes. This
disenfranchised group are
indigenous citizens with no liberation war record,
but who possess the same
birthrights that cannot be transferred or
surrendered to anyone except by
the person possessing them; rights that
entitle all citizens to a fair share
of Zimbabwe's abundant resources
regardless of their political affiliation.
When did Zimbabweans surrender
their land and private property rights to
ZANU (PF)?
Zimbabwe has a
total land area of 390,580 square kilometers, about 39
million hectares of
which 33.3 million hectares are suitable for
agricultural purposes and the
remaining 6 million hectares reserved for
National Parks, Wildlife, and
Urban settlements.
People all over Africa who have had their land taken
away or stolen during
colonial rule are demanding it back as a way of
redressing the social
injustice of colonialism. Ownership is nine tenths of
the law and no one
wants the government to own the land and loan it to its
citizens with
caveats attached to the lease that perpetuate antediluvian
policies.
The constitution has been abrogated and the exploitation of
Zimbabwe's land
and natural resources by a privileged clique veiled under
the mist of
pre-planned chaos of the so-called land reform is underway. As
the richer
get richer, ZANU(PF) has amassed vast tracks of land and 90 % of
Zimbabwe's
prime agricultural land that used to be in the hands of "colonial
settlers"
is now firmly in the hands of our bogus liberators.
Through
constitutional amendments that occurred while the rest of society
was
sleeping, indifferent, or applauding, Zimbabwean land has been
nationalised.
The system of tenure has been changed into:
.
Freehold
. Leasehold
. Statehold
Freehold tenure is absolute title
to land, free of any other claims against
the title, which one can sell or
pass to another by will or inheritance only
reserved for senior members of
ZANU(PF) - all emergent property development
companies in Zimbabwe derive
their landholdings from misappropriated private
property.
The 99-year
leases are now applicable to statehold land, but can be
violently taken away
from the lessor at a moment's notice and given to those
who tow the party
line. Commercial freehold land that once had a monetary
worth, has now been
rendered valueless; leases cannot be used as collateral
for farming loans
and have no market value.
A tiny opportunistic group of ZANU (PF)
officials who now control all land
through a flawed partisan system has
devalued 33 million hectares of
Zimbabwean land. Ownership of land is now
firmly held in the talons of the
ZANU (PF) politburo, which selectively
empowers only those indigenous
persons parroting its divisive
slogans.
"The child that leaves the fate of his future in the hope of
inheritance
property sets himself up for a life of poverty." - African
Proverb
ZANU (PF) reserves the right to evict "new farmers" and
reallocate the same
piece of land to new landholders by declaring the
occupier as unproductive.
Mere semantics that could mean anything from not
producing specified crops
or financially supporting ZANU (PF) when called
upon to do so, justify
removing land ownership rights-the very land rights
that caused real freedom
fighters to go to war for and die.
Last year
"new farmers" were ejected, by their ZANU (PF) chefs, from the
very farms
that they had been allocated under the fast rack land programme.
The 99-year
leases they were holding were cancelled by "the State". Their
crime-failing
to contribute to the 21st February Movement, an imitation
North Korean style
bash, the Great Leader personality cult that celebrates
Mugabe's birthday.
The beneficiaries of land today will be evicted in future
using the same
methods by which they acquired the land.
Politically motivated land
occupations are now legal in Zimbabwean and
self-centered ZANU (PF)
constitutional amendments protect unlawful land
invaders and rewards private
asset embezzlement.
"In a broken nest there are few whole
eggs."
Phil Matibe - www.madhingabucketboy.com
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni
Monday,
04 January 2010 17:29
Can this New Year be that of restoration of
political, economic, social,
juridical and psychological sanity in Zimbabwe?
Will our leaders put the
people first? Can 2010 be the year of redemption
and salvation?
These are pertinent questions as we take stock of the
state of the nation
after three decades of uncertainty, violence and hostage
to a selfish
leadership that covered crony-party-capitalism under the
respectable gloss
of patriotism nationalism. As we reflect on the state of
the nation after
three decades under a single party and a single leader,
there is need for
all concerned citizens and intellectuals to be brutally
honest about the
state of our national affairs and the responsibility of
both the leadership
and the citizenry.
No one in his or her right senses
can doubt that the turn of the new
millennium witnessed Zimbabwe sliding
deeper and deeper into economic,
political, social, juridical and
psychological quagmire of unprecedented
proportions. There is no doubt again
that in our search for the reasons for
this national malaise and
catastrophe, our leaders and citizenry have not
been honest. Self-criticism
has been lacking. We found it easier to
apportion blame to other people some
of whom have not even set foot on
Zimbabwe. Our leadership in charge of the
state reduced itself to the status
of complainants and assumed the identity
of victimhood. They openly avoided
accountability for anything. They
resuscitated a familiar psychology of
inferiority precisely at that time
that the ordinary majority of our people
looked up to them for leadership.
They even embarrassingly blamed citizens
they were expected to govern,
polarising the nation into war veterans,
patriots, puppets, traitors and
sell-outs as they continued to pursue
fatalistic crony-party-capitalism
involving primitive style accumulation of
houses ahead of the homeless
citizens and land ahead of the landless
peasants. Even when diamonds were
discovered at Chiadza, the
nationalist-military junta in Harare and its
cronies and clients, unleashed
merciless primitive accumulation accompanied
by violence.
On top of this, every five years, the hapless citizens of
Zimbabwe, have
been exposed to the empty rituals of electoralism, which our
leaders has
since 1980 turned into a time to kill, maim, and torture
instead of a time
to renew the social contract with the electorate. Two
cases in point are the
1980s open-state sanctioned and shameless violence
that claimed the lives of
more than 20 000 civilians lives in Matabeleland
and Midlands regions and
the post-29th of March 2008 open-state-sanctioned
and shameless
election-related but military-orchestrated violence that
adversely affected
areas of Masvingo, Mashonaland, Midlands and Manicaland,
as the
war-veterans, army officers and militias fought to destroy all those
who
exercised their right to vote by choosing the MDC as their next
government
and Morgan Tsvangirai as their president.
Against this
background, how can we evaluate our state of the nation in the
New Year?
Should we not be ashamed of ourselves for active complicity in the
destruction of our institutions, our nation and eroding our human values?
Are those who raped, maimed, killed, tortured and actively participated in
reversing the people's verdict in an election ashamed of themselves? Should
they not take advantage of the existence of the Organ on National Healing,
Reconciliation and Integration to repent? How can we forge together a common
citizenship in a 'New Zimbabwe' in which tribalism, racism, regionalism and
violence become things of the past? This is a mammoth challenge for the
Inclusive Government for the New Year. Can the cries of the victims and the
fears of the perpetrators be reconciled without comprehensive social justice
based on truth and repentance? For how long should the political elites
exhaust all their energies in competition for state control instead uniting
to take forward economic reconstruction, democratisation of state
institutions, reforming the security sector and uniting the nation?
This
New Year must be the moment of change of mindset in our people and in
our
leadership. As I said in my recent book entitled 'Do Zimbabweans Exist?
Trajectories of Nationalism, National Identity Formation and Crisis in a
Postcolonial State' (2009), there is need for our people and our leadership
to desist from the simplistic notion of a pre-existing 'Zimbabwean'
identity. We must strive to continuously build this identity through
pursuing inclusionary rather than exclusionary politics. The record of our
past indicates a dismal failure in this area as manifested in the readiness
with which we point guns at each other without remorse. Members of the state
secret service are confused to the extent that they spend time searching for
enemies of the state among their sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers.
The army and the police have reduced themselves to a militia rather than a
respectable national force. For how long will we continue to sniff each
other like witch-hunters? All this indicates the pertinence of re-visiting
the notion of the existence of a respectable Zimbabwean identity that can
repel and resist the imperatives of inter-and intra-community violence as
well as state violence. Only once a respectable and durable national
identity is constructed can we bury the scourge of violence in our midst. To
do so we need true nation-builders not racist and tribalists masquerading as
nation-builders.
The year 2010 must be the moment of restoration of rule
of law and certainty
in our nation. Our country needs national healing
after three decades of
living under an arrogant leadership that claimed to
have died for the
people. That mentality must die. Our national economy
needs to be liberated
from a venal clique of military-nationalist
capitalists without any
patriotism and national interests. Re-branding
Zimbabwe must be invigorated
in the direction of re-building Zimbabwe as a
progressive, democratic,
developmental state. Zimbabwe must be returned to
the ambit of international
community of states and the politics of
un-strategic intransigence and
belligerence that leads to national death
must be avoided. Zimbabwe must
adopt a new thought-out strategy of
engagement of global powers without
necessarily making itself a pawn of the
powerful nations.
Finally, our leadership and our citizens must realise that
Zimbabwe is at
cross-roads in which the old are dying and the new are being
born. It is
undergoing a generational leap-forward. The crisis is only that
the old are
taking time to die and the new are taking time to be born. In
the interval,
monsters have come to the centre of politics, spoiling
everything and
generating new crises. But a generation whose time to go has
come cannot
over-live its welcome in Zimbabwe and elsewhere else. In the
same vein a
generation whose time has come to take the reins of the state
cannot be
stopped by anyone. This reality must give Zimbabweans new hope in
the New
Year. Let us push forward with this hope in mind and we will realise
our
national dreams.
Thank you.
Dr. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a
Zimbabwean Academic writing from
Johannesburg South Africa and can be
contacted on sgatsha@yahoo.co.uk