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According to a Volksblad report, Dolf du Toit (66), his wife Alida (61) and son Rudolph (38) fired warning shots at the Zimbabweans who claimed ownership of the farm in the Nyazura district between Harare and Mutari. The group of some 20 militants claimed over the weekend that the 'real owner' of the farm is Brigadier Innocent Chiganze, of the Zimbabwe Air Force. The South Africans have been treated for their injuries and are refusing to leave their farm.
Full Volksblad report
Zim to review death penalty, executive powers
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
Wednesday 06 January 2010
HARARE -- Whether the president should
wield more power than the prime
minister or whether capital punishment
should stay, are some of the issues
Zimbabweans will be asked about during a
65-day public consultation exercise
on a proposed new constitution, top
officials said Tuesday.
Douglass Mwonzora and Paul Mangwana - two of the
three chairmen of a special
parliamentary committee leading the
constitutional reforms - promised full
transparency during the constitution
writing exercise and vowed that
political parties would not be allowed to
impose their ideas on citizens.
Mangwana and Mwonzora are senior members
of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU
PF and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
MDC-T parties respectively. They
co-chair the constitutional committee
together with Edward Mkhosi from
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's
MDC-M party.
"We are not going to impose anything on the people," said
Mwonzora, during a
training workshop in Harare for Members of Parliament who
shall lead various
thematic or subcommittees that shall go around the
country soliciting the
views and ideas of citizens they want included in the
new constitution.
Highlighting some of the issues that will be discussed
during the public
outreach programme Mwonzora said: "The death penalty and
the issue of the
executive powers -- whether they should be with the
president or the prime
minister or whether they should be shared between the
two are some of the
issues likely to come up."
A new Bill of Rights,
judicial independence, press freedom and dual
citizenship are other issues
also expected to feature prominently during the
consultations with citizens
many of who say their basic rights have been
dangerously eroded by a raft of
repressive laws enacted by ZANU PF years
before it formed unity government
with its former opposition rivals.
Mangwana said: "People should be free
to say out their views. There will not
be victimisation. We have been
assured that people will be protected and can
say what they
want."
The proposed new constitution is part of a September 2008
power-sharing deal
between Zimbabwe's three main political parties that gave
birth to the
country's coalition government last February.
But some
civic society organisations led by the National Constitutional
Assembly
(NCA) political pressure group and including the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions and the Zimbabwe National Students Union have expressed
fears that
the views of ordinary Zimbabweans are likely to be sidelined in
favour of
those of the political parties controlling the reform process.
The NCA
and its allies - who in 2000 successfully mobilised Zimbabweans to
reject a
ZANU PF-sponsored draft constitution -- have said they will mount a
similar
campaign against the coalition government's draft when it is taken
to the
electorate in a referendum that should take place later this
year.
Rejection of the draft constitution would be disastrous for Mugabe
and
Tsavangirai's unity government whose most important task besides
reviving
the economy is to write a new and democratic constitution to
replace the
existing one that was drafted by Zimbabwe's former colonial
power, Britain.
If approved by Zimbabweans in the referendum the draft
constitution will be
taken to Parliament for enactment, with the coalition
government expected to
call fresh elections once a new constitution is in
place.
However, it is not clear whether the government will call new
elections
immediately after a new constitution is enacted or whether it will
wait
until expiry of its legal life span in 2013. - ZimOnline.
More Zimbabweans to get ARVs
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Correspondent Wednesday 06 January
2010
HARARE - Zimbabwe's government plans to increase the number of
people on
anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to 300 000 this year up from 180 000
currently
receiving the life-prolonging drugs, Health Minister Henry
Madzorera told
ZimOnline on Tuesday.
HIV/AIDS is a major killer in
Zimbabwe with the pandemic aggravated by
severe poverty and a barely
functional public health system in the southern
African country that is only
beginning to emerge from a decade of acute
recession and political
turmoil.
Madzorera said the coalition government of President Robert
Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai would work with international
organisations to
make more ARVs available to the nearly 400 000 people
requiring the drugs.
He said: "The need to improve anti-retroviral drug
distribution is on top of
government's priority list and (by end of this
year) 300 000 people living
with HIV will be able to access the life saving
drugs.
"We are setting plans with our friendly organisations to overcome
the ART
challenge .. although it is a long process we aim to achieve the
target."
The Harare government has struggled for cash with rich Western
donor
countries unwilling to avail more financial support to the
administration
but Madzorera said the US$285.4 million allocated his
department in this
year's budget would greatly assist the drive to expand
distribution of ARVs.
"We want to ensure people living with the HIV
countrywide do not travel more
than eight kilometres to collect drugs in
2010," he said.
According to United Nations estimates almost 343 600
adults and 35 200
children under 15 years urgently need ARV treatment out of
1.2 million
Zimbabweans living with HIV/AIDS.
An estimated 3 000
people out of the total 12 million Zimbabweans die of
HIV/AIDS related
illnesses every week.
But the country that once boasted one of Africa's
best economies and an
envied public health delivery system has made some
commendable progress
fighting HIV/AIDS with the government reporting last
September a drop in the
infection rate to 13.7 percent from 14.1 percent in
2008. - ZimOnline
Three state-owned firms to be privatised
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
06/01/2010
00:00:00
FINANCE Minister, Tendai Biti says the government plans to
privatise three
state-owned companies and list them on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE)
this year.
Speaking during the listing of TN Financial
Holdings on the local bourse,
Minister Biti said trading the privatised
firms on the ZSE would facilitate
public participation in their shareholding
while enabling the creation of
viable independent companies.
"We are
looking at listing at least three entities ... so you should be
seeing the
IPO's (Initial Public Offers) this year," said Biti.
The minister said
the government had seen some success stories with the
privatisation of the
former Dairy Marketing Board, now trading Dairibord
Holdings Limited and the
Cotton Marketing Board which has since been
rebranded into AICO Africa
Limited.
"We have had some success stories with Dairibord and Cottco,"
Biti said.
Although Minister Biti did not name the companies targeted for
privatisation, mobile phone operator Telone is understood to be in talks
with South Africa's Telcom while Redcliff-based steelmaker Ziscosteel has
also attracted international attention.
The government is also
understood to be considering part-privatisation of
the struggling national
airliner, Air Zimbabwe.
Minister Biti said the ZSE was likely to benefit
from increased investor
participation during the course of the year
following the reduction in
trading fees and the signing of the Bilateral
Trade Agreement with South
Africa.
ZIPRA veterans regroup to demand seized properties
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
06 January
2010
War veterans from the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA),
the
liberation war military wing of ZAPU, have regrouped to demand
properties
seized from the party by Mugabe's regime in 1982. Under a
crackdown that saw
the arrest on treason charges of senior ZAPU figures like
Dumiso Dabengwa,
Lookout Masuku and Stanley Nleya the regime seized 25
farms, 31 companies
and several high value buildings. It was also during
this period that Mugabe's
troop's targeted perceived ZAPU supporters in the
Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces, culminating in the Gukurahundi
Massacres.
In 2004, almost 17 years after the unity accord ZANU PF
claimed they had
returned the properties. This however was denied by ZAPU
who said the
properties remain in the hands of third parties linked to ZANU
PF. Newsreel
is reliably informed the ZIPRA Veterans Association is
currently organizing
a meeting to be held outside Bulawayo sometime this
week to discuss and
coordinate demands for the return of the properties,
among other issues.
Some of the properties owned include Magnet House,
the Bulawayo headquarters
of the notorious Central Intelligence Organization
(CIO), belonging to the
political wing ZAPU. Military wing ZIPRA owns Queens
Park Police Station,
formerly known as the Lido Hotel. This was previously
used to house injured
or disabled former ZIPRA freedom fighters after the
war. ZIPRA, under a
company called Nitram Holdings, also owns Nest Egg, Wood
Glen, Hampton and
Ascot Farms and others.
In December 2008 ZAPU
officially broke away from the unity accord with ZANU
PF, citing
marginalization and a failure to fulfill promises. The failure to
return the
seized properties was also cited as contributing to the
withdrawal of the
party from the 1987 unity pact. It now remains to be seen
how ZAPU will be
able to evict the CIO from Magnet House and whether the
ZIPRA veterans can
also evict the police from Queens Park Police station in
Bulawayo. Either
way, conflict over the properties looms large.
ZAPU spokesman Methuseli
Moyo has already confirmed that the party has hired
lawyers to prepare a
legal challenge demanding the properties be returned.
Zimbabwe’s First Diamond Sale
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, December 06, 2010 – MBANDA Diamonds Mining, a
company authorized by
government to mine diamonds in Chiadza, has announced
that over 300 000
carats of diamonds will go on sale Thursday at the newly
converted diamond
processing facility at the Harare International
Airport.
The chairman of Mbada Diamonds Robert Mhlanga
said Thursday’s sale will be
followed by another one next week and they will
be declaring dividend to
government as soon as the transactions are
completed.
“International diamond buyers from as far as the Americas,
Europe and Asia
have already started arriving for tomorrow’s sales, which
are expected to
run for the next three days,” said Mhlanga adding that they
will be
accepting buyers who take the gems in large volumes.
He
said the Zimbabwean government, through Marange Resources, is expected to
earn 75 percent of the total sales revenue through a 50 percent weekly
dividend, a 10 percent royalty fee, 15 percent taxation and a five percent
resource depletion fee.
“In order to ensure maximum security and
compliancy with the Kimberly
Process, the first consignment of the diamonds
on sale were airlifted from
Chiadzwa diamond fields under guard from the
police, Mbada Mining
security officers and the Government Mineral Unit,” said
Mhlanga.
Officials from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) will also
be at the
points of sale to ensure that there are no
leakages.
Mhlanga said since the commencement of the diamond mining
operations towards
the end of last year, Mbada Diamonds has put in massive
infrastructure
including water, housing, a private airstrip and fenced over
1000 hectares
of the mining concessions.
The chairman also
revealed that they have embarked on a massive housing
project and crop input
scheme worth millions US dollars for relocated
families from Chiadzwa and
Marange areas.
Villagers from Chiadzwa are fighting relocation arguing
that they can only
move after being compensated.
Zimbabwe clinches power deal with Botswana
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Jan 6, 2010, 11:50 GMT
Harare -
Zimbabwe has clinched an 8-million-US-dollar deal with Botswana
that is like
to see an improvement in power generation in the southern part
of the
country, state media reported Wednesday.
'The deal will see us reviving
Bulawayo Thermal Power Station and enable us
to generate 90 megawatts, the
Herald quoted the managing director of the
Zimbabwe Power Company, Noah
Gwariro, as saying.
Under the terms of the deal, Zimbabwe will supply
nearly half of the output
to Botswana, Gwariro said.
Some 4.5 million
of the 8 million dollars will be used to refurbish the
plant, while the
remainder will be spent on coal, Gwariro told the
newspaper.
Zimbabwe
has been experiencing serious power shortages for the past decade,
forcing
some parts of the country to go for days without electricity.
Most of its
power stations were shut down due to financial constraints,
forcing the
country to rely on imports from South Africa, Zambia, DR Congo
and
Mozambique.
Some countries have cut supplies as Zimbabwe failed to pay
for the imports.
Last month, the state-owned power utility Zesa announced
that it was
struggling under a debt of 465 million dollars it owed its
regional
partners.
Constant power cuts have forced some companies to
cut production or close
down altogether.
Mugabe in no hurry - Shumba
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by GIFT PHIRI
Wednesday, 06 January 2010
12:34
HARARE - Political turmoil is likely to fester for months to come,
stunting
investment, prolonging an aid freeze and wilting green shoots of
economic
recovery that were sprouting.
A broad-based solution to the
11-month long crisis looks increasingly
unlikely in the near future after
President Mugabe's Zanu (PF) seems intent
on rolling into action the
December 2009 congress resolutions to trash the
global political agreement
and staunchly refuse to implement terms of a
power-sharing deal.
A
political commentator, Ronald Shumba said the balance of power was in
Mugabe's favour, and he appeared to be in no hurry to negotiate.
"It's
not a question of Maputo failing. It is just part of a long bargaining
process," Shumba said this week.
"Mugabe doesn't need to give too much
too quickly with the army behind him.
They will just offer token
gestures."
Prior to the 14-nation Southern African Development Community
(SADC) meeting
in Maputo, Mugabe showed signs of seeing reason to implement
fully the
power-sharing pact. But by the time of his December congress, the
deeply
troubled leader was on his old turf, saying a vehement no to any
resolution
of the outstanding issues with his arch-opponents.
"Zanu (PF),
as the party of revolution and the people's vanguard, shall not
allow the
security forces of Zimbabwe to be the subject of any negotiation
for a so
called 'security sector reform' that is based on patent
misrepresentations
of Zimbabwe's heroic history and for the mere purpose of
weakening the state
so that it can be easily overthrown," said one of the
Zanu (PF) congress
resolutions.
Significantly, the party resolved to "extricate itself" from its
liaison
with the MDC which it branded "ideologically incompatible" so as to
"retain
its mantle as the only dominant and ascendant political party that
is truly
representative and determined to safeguard the aspirations of the
people of
Zimbabwe."
Southern African nations have been accused of being
too soft on Mugabe and
his party and has dismally failed to ensure
implementation of a pact which
the regional bloc brokered.
The
negotiators are not due to meet again until mid-January.
Meanwhile Prime
Minister Tsvangirai's MDC party has slammed the continued
hold up in fully
implementing the pact.
"As MDC we are expecting the negotiating team to meet
and finalise on the
unfinished business of implementing the outstanding
issues," MDC spokesman
Nelson Chamisa said. "Our wish is to have the matter
concluded as soon as
possible so that we can start focusing on the bread and
butter issues that
are affecting the people of Zimbabwe."
Chamisa said he
hoped outstanding issues had to be referred to SADC for
arbitration "so that
we move ahead with the business of the inclusive
government."
The fast
economic turnaround ushered in by the use of multiple foreign
currencies and
the abandonment of the inflation-prone Zimbabwe dollar has
benefited all
citizens: more and more people in rural areas have shrugged
off poverty;
urban residents are becoming better off.
But analysts are warning that
failure to implement the pact fully could see
the country sliding back to
instability.
More than 70 percent of the budget is donor funded. Several
major donors
including the International Monetary Fund, the United States
and European
Union have frozen aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars in
development
finance, and are demanding full implementation of the
power-sharing pact
before they bankroll the administration.
Others
believe the popular MDC leader will simply hope to limp through to
the next
presidential election, which is scheduled for next year under the
terms of
the power-sharing deal.
"Morgan will be thinking he's just got to get through
this, hold elections
and count on people to have him form an exclusive MDC
government," said one
diplomatic source.
There are understood to be
efforts afoot to unite the two MDC formations
before elections to form a
powerful front against Mugabe.
U.S. counterfeit dollar dealers arrested in Zimbabwe and Zambia
http://en.afrik.com/article16723.html
Wednesday 6
January 2010 / by Kabelo Marupi
Counterfeit United States Dollars are in
huge calculation in most African
countries as hardly a month passes by
without arrests. Tuesday morning, both
Zambian and Zimbabwean authorities
announced arrests involving huge sums of
counterfeit notes.
In
Zambia, police Tuesday arrested a 37 year old state security intelligence
officer, suspected of being member of a larger group, for being in
possession of nearly US $80,000 counterfeit notes.
Richard Nzala, a
constable in the Office of the President, was arrested and
detained by the
Drug Enforcement Commission when he attempted to sell off
the counterfeits
to unsuspecting people, reports say.John Nyawali of the Drug Enforcement
Commission is today quoted saying that
Nzala, is scheduled to appear in the
Lusaka magistrate court this week, was
found with a total of US$ 79, 900 in
hundred dollar bills hidden in a bag he
was carrying during his
arrest.
He becomes the second security personnel to be arrested in recent
months
following the arrest of a Zambia Army soldier who was arrested for
possessing over US$ 2.5 million dollars of counterfeit
notes.
Zimbabwe fakes
In Zimbabwe, the state controlled Herald
reported on Tuesday that a 35 year
old man, Archibold Simbarashe Zulu, from
Harare was nabbed over US$50 000
counterfeit notes recovered from a toilet
at a stationery shop in the city.
Detectives, acting on tip offs raided a
shop which Zulu was using as a hide
out and found a bag full of fake notes
amounting to US$50 000. The bag was
found stashed in an empty box in the
toilet.
At one time Zulu is said to have brought more than US$350 000 in
fake notes
which he also placed in the toilet for safekeeping.
In
Zimbabwe, fake notes became a hit soon after the introduction of multiple
currencies such as the dollar, pound and South African rand. Most shops were
ripped off as it was difficulty to distinguish genuine note from fake
ones.
Most shops have since invested in counterfeit detective devices.
Coup Plotters Launch Fresh Freedom Bid
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, January 06, 2010 - Two alleged
coup plotters on Wednesday made a
fresh bid for freedom by lodging a bail
application in the High Court.
Image
Pattison Mupfure and Nyasha
Ziviki, were arrested in 2007 together with five
other men and charged with
treason for allegedly plotting to oust President
Robert Mugabe's previous
government.
In their application for bail pending trial Mupfure and
Ziviki said they had
been detained for almost three years without trial and
neither are there any
hopes of trial in the future..
"In observing
the referred constitutional presumption, justice has failed to
prevail on
me, an innocent person," read part of Mupfure's bail application.
The two
alleged coup plotters deny the charges leveled against them stating
that not
even one or all of the state witnesses know them.
Mupfure, who was
employed as a Principal Instructor in the then Ministry of
Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare justified his bail application by
stating that he
has a family and elderly parents to look after.
Zikivi, who indicated
that he needs to consult a physiotherapist to examine
him on injuries he
sustained during torture sessions by the police and state
security agents,
also stated that he is a bread winner to his wife, two
children and his aged
parents.
Besides Mupfure and Zikivi five other alleged coup plotters
namely Albert
Matapo, Emmanuel Marara, Oncemore Mudzurahova and Shingirai
Webster
Mutemachani are languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Prison where they
have been
detained since their arrest in 2007.
The State alleges that
the coup plotters were planning a coup d'etat which
would have culminated in
the installation of former Rural Housing Minister
and now Defence Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa as President Mugabe's
replacement.
Beitbridge brutality caught on tape
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za
Imraan Karolia | 54 Minutes Ago
Dozens of
angry travellers into South Africa from Zimbabwe claim they were
subjected
to police brutality at the Beitbridge Border Post.
More than 60 000
people have used the crossing point in the past five days.
Eyewitness
News is in possession of video footage featuring travellers at
the
Beitbridge Border Post being attacked by a man who appears to be a South
African police officer.
Some admit the queues were lengthy and
there was insufficient crowd control
but travellers said this did not give
police the right to become violent.
"The South African side was
chaotic; we are treated like animals and whipped
by police," said one
traveller.
"They were being sprayed with water and whipped; I think
that was totally
disgusting," said a man who filmed the alleged
abuse.
The video was handed over to the Police Ministry which is yet
to respond.
Little cricket, lots of corruption
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At the start of the millennium, few had any idea what a tumultuous decade was in store not only for Zimbabwean cricket but for the country itself. As we now know, a place heralded as one of Africa's success stories descended into near anarchy under the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe, and unavoidably cricket was dragged down with it. At times it was hard to see how cricket could survive in such a dysfunctional society, but it managed, often against all the odds, and is still just about keeping its head above water.
A review of the last 10 years is more of a political essay than a cricketing one. Too often, the game itself was almost an afterthought - a situation made worse by the overt politicisation of the board in the middle of the decade. Stories about cricket in Zimbabwe were inevitably centred on the mess inside the country and debate over the morality of maintaining cricketing links with them.
The international community was divided. Unfortunately the countries that adopted the hardest line towards Zimbabwe were predominately white, allowing Mugabe to play his race card. In the smaller cricketing world, the governments of the UK, Australia and New Zealand fought a determined battle to sever ties with Zimbabwe until such time a degree of normality returned. To their shame, the cricket boards of those three adopted an often cowardly attitude, with money being put before anything else, including their own players, who were too often left alone to make career-affecting decisions with little or no guidance.
As 2000 dawned the future looked rosy for the Zimbabwe side. It had a team with a wealth of experience, and a batting line-up that was able to hold its own with any country. World Cup wins over India and South Africa in 1999 had further boosted the profile of the game, and the year ended with a defeat of Sri Lanka in an ODI at Harare Sports Club.
Progress continued in the early part of the decade, although to those who cared to look beneath the surface, the country itself was beginning to unravel as Mugabe sought to paper over his appalling mismanagement with increasingly desperate legislation. Spectators who tried to use matches to highlight the failing society were brutally dealt with. In 2002 one was killed after unveiling an anti-Mugabe banner at a Pakistan ODI in Bulawayo.
The watershed came at the 2003 World Cup, an event that should have been a showcase for southern African cricket but which lurched from one mess to another. All that was wrong with Zimbabwean society was brought to a wider audience by the famous black-armband protest by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga during a group match in Harare. The board, by now increasingly in line with the thinking of those ruling the country, tried to stifle the pair but the cat was out of the bag and all it managed to do was make things worse.
By the end of the tournament Zimbabwe were clearly a divided side, and just how much so became clear a year later, when a clumsy attempt to replace Heath Streak as captain rapidly became a much more serious matter after the bulk of the country's (predominantly white) team walked out in support of their skipper. From then on, the game stumbled from crisis to crisis, almost all avoidable but somehow inevitable.
The one constant throughout the decade - and of the one before it - was board chairman Peter Chingoka. From one of Zimbabwe's wealthier families, he was originally seen as a careful and canny safe pair of hands and a man who guided Zimbabwe through its difficult early days as a Full Member of the ICC. But as the country became increasingly politicised, so did Chingoka. His denials of links to the Mugabe regime may have convinced many internationally that he was an innocent caught up in events, but those inside the country were not as easily fooled. They pointed out that to survive under Mugabe you needed to toe the party line.
| The ineffectiveness of the ICC was almost a constant in Zimbabwe's decline. Fact-finding missions were shown what the authorities wanted them to see, and too often the word of Chingoka and others was taken as gospel. Those opposing the board were blithely dismissed as rabble rousers, despite often having served the game loyally for decades | |||
Eventually it took the actions of politicians to unmask Chingoka, and he was banned from first the European Union and then Australia and New Zealand because of his links to Mugabe. Even then the ICC feebly pretended it was not its responsibility to delve deeper. Two cricketers wearing black armbands produced an official censure, but a man closely linked to a despot was repeatedly welcomed with open arms at the ICC's top table.
The ineffectiveness of the ICC was almost a constant in Zimbabwe's decline. Fact-finding missions were shown what the authorities wanted them to see, and too often the word of Chingoka and others was taken as gospel. Those opposing the board were blithely dismissed as rabble-rousers, despite often having served the game loyally for decades.
There was perhaps a brief opportunity in May 2004 for the ICC to have made a difference, although given all that was happening on the wider political front in Zimbabwe the chances were slim. Instead it proved typically supine, even allowing Malcolm Speed, its chief executive, to be humiliatingly snubbed by Chingoka when Speed flew to Harare to try and help find a way out of a rapidly escalating shambles. He was left to amble round a park in Harare while a board meeting took place behind closed doors.
Those running the ICC maintained it was powerless to act, and that allowed Chingoka and others to banish anyone opposing them, hand-pick stooges to run local boards, redraft the constitution to make their removal all but impossible, and eliminate the flickering remnants of any credible alternative.
If the ICC was all too willing to dismiss the politicisation of Zimbabwean cricket, what it could not ignore was the plummeting standards of the cricket itself. In 2004, Zimbabwe suspended itself from Test cricket for a year after two massive innings defeats against Sri Lanka. It returned nine months later, only to suffer eight more humiliations before a second suspension. Officially this was at Zimbabwe's behest, but few believed that. They continued to play ODIs but the results were equally dispiriting. In the period from the sacking of Streak through to the end of 2009, only 26 matches were won out of 111 played, and aside from Bangladesh only one of those wins came against a Full Member (West Indies in 2007). Even a memorable victory over Australia at the inaugural World Twenty20 in the same year could not disguise how far the side had fallen.
Inside Zimbabwe the mess was, if anything, even greater. Domestic competitions lurched from one calamity to another, and at one stage there was not even enough wherewithal to host the Logan Cup, the century-old first-class domestic tournament. As the economy went into meltdown, equipment became scarce, facilities deteriorated, and any cricket that was played was often of a very poor standard.
By 2008 it appeared things could not get any worse. Questions, however, began to be asked about the board's finances as the ICC continued to pour in millions of dollars. An audit arranged by Chingoka with a tiny Harare-based accountant convinced nobody, and eventually the ICC decided on a specially commissioned independent forensic audit. After a series of unexplained delays, the report was produced but the ICC refused to make it public. Only a few blinkered souls in Dubai appeared to not see how ludicrous that decision made all those involved look.
But as the decade neared an end there was finally progress. Julian Hunte, the head of a West Indies board almost as dysfunctional as the one he was asked to investigate, produced a report on the state of the game in Zimbabwe and slowly change began to be seen. The domestic structure was overhauled and made more transparent. Former players were wooed back into the fold, and even the media, for so long seen as an enemy to bash or manipulate, was subjected to a charm offensive.
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At the forefront of this change of tack was Ozias Bvute, a controversial figure who was at the heart of many of the rows in 2003 and 2004. Portrayed then as the antichrist, in the last year he has been more Ban Ki-moon. The reality is probably somewhere in between, but by focusing on the future he has managed to galvanise the board into giving the impression to those inside and outside Zimbabwe that there is hope. He, and not the increasingly marginalised Chingoka, is instrumental to the rebuilding of Zimbabwean cricket.
There is a long way to go. Six or seven years of neglect cannot be overturned overnight, and the crumbling structure of school and club cricket remains in need of urgent attention. The national team are still international cricket's whipping boys, and despite no end of verbal support, even those countries with governments ambivalent to Mugabe remain reluctant to play matches against such a poor and commercially unappealing opponent.
The next two or three years will decide if cricket is to survive in any meaningful way inside Zimbabwe. If the advances made in 2009 can be built on then there is hope. But the very thing that started the rot, the eccentricities of the country's leading political elite, will ultimately decide which direction things will go. If Zimbabwe can sort itself out and move ahead, then cricket should be strong enough to follow. It remains a huge if.
Martin Williamson is executive editor of Cricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa
© Cricinfo
Michael Jackson’s ghost sighted in Zimbabwe
http://www.africanews.com
Posted on Wednesday 6
January 2010 - 09:00
Sanday Chongo Kabange AfricaNews reporter in
Lusaka, Zambia
A bizarre story involving a sighting of the ghost of
deceased singer,
Michael Jackson, has terrified some Zimbabwean students in
the Southern
African country. The sighting of Jackson's ghost occurred at
the St Mary's
Mission School, a Catholic institution, in Zimbabwe's capital
of Harare.
Allegedly a group of students aged from twelve to
fourteen years were
sitting along with some of the nuns that work at St
Mary's and watching a
nativity play that was organised after school
hours.
Children dressed as Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men were on
stage when
suddenly the lights went out. Then ghost-like being appeared on
stage waving
a white-gloved hand. The terrified students emptied the hall
along with the
supervising nuns.
Almost all the students later
agreed that it was Michael Jackson that
they saw' 'It definitely was MJ'
noted Theresa, a student at the school. 'It
was his face and his clothes. He
smiled and waved at us'.
'I saw it too' commented Sister Maria 'it
was not human and must have
been a spirit. The students later told me it was
Michael Jackson'.
News of the otherworldly event spread through the
area and some
interested locals even visited the hall in the hope that they
too might see
Jackson's ghost, according to news media out of
Zimbabwe.
Belief in ghosts is widespread in the southern African
country riddled
by a decade of economic and political stand-off between
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu
PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC.
Onslaught to mislead masses intensifies
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Madock Chivasa
Wednesday, 06
January 2010 17:42
As 2009 ends, ushering in a new and promising year we are
convinced that
2009 has been a year we managed to weather the gathering
clouds and raging
storms that confronted us.
2009 has been that year
that we will look at and proudly say to ourselves as
Zimbabweans we were
right in defending the guiding principles and values to
a people driven
democratic constitution making process as expressed by the
positions of the
people of Zimbabwe since 1997.
Regardless of the enormous challenges we faced
we remained true to the
founding principles of our broad democratic movement
and the yearnings of
the Zimbabwean masses as expressed in the historical
positions of the
people. The inception of an inclusive government in
February of 2009 which
ushered in a "transition" presented a lot of
complexities to the
pro-democracy forces. There were moments of fierce
disagreements. We have
remained faithful and true to the ideals of our
founding documents.
It has been so for the past years and so it must be with
the coming year
2010. A year which promises to be full of activity, as the
onslaught to
mislead the masses intensifies.
The recently launched state
media campaigns to mislead and hoodwink the
masses into believing that they
are part to the constitution-making charade
currently underway bears
testimony that the politicians are prepared to go
all the way to impose
themselves and their views on the people of Zimbabwe.
We see these
shenanigans as they are, deception, and we wish to remind
political elites
that we have travelled this road before.
We stand here today as the curtain
for 2009 closes convinced that we have
survived our darkest hour, convinced
that 2010 will see a major people's
victory. We remain convinced that a
great people have been awakened and no
amount of political posturing will
deceive the masses.
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.
For the avoidance of doubt and
demystifying the propaganda peddled by
Douglas Mwonzora and company
regarding the NCA position, we will take this
opportunity to re-state our
position by reproducing the resolutions of the
2nd People's Constitutional
Convention, which state:
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.
We therefore unreservedly reject the government-led process
for
constitutional reform as outlined in Article 6 of the Global Political
Agreement and strongly recommend that the current process as being led by
parliament and the inclusive government be immediately stopped and an
independent, democratic constitutional reform process be initiated.
We
resolve that if the inclusive government and or parliament do 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.
We further resolve that the people of Zimbabwe have an
inalienable right to
reject or accept any draft constitution brought before
them and that if they
so decide to reject any document that comes out of the
GPA's Article 6, it
remains their democratic right to do so.
That after
such a possible rejection of a draft constitution that emerges
from the
Article 6 process, we will continue to lead and assist the people
to
continue in earnest with the campaign for a democratic constitution as
soon
as possible after that No Vote.
We further resolve that we shall undertake
and expand our civic education
programme to explain to the people of
Zimbabwe the resolutions outlined
herein beginning in the month of August
2009 until such time there is a
people driven democratic constitution for
Zimbabwe.
We also recommit ourselves to ensuring that there is gender
equality and
recognition of the views and needs of the physically challenged
in our TAKE
CHARGE campaign.
As we enter 2010 this will be the agenda and
program of action for the
constitutional movement. We will, beginning this
very January, together with
our traditional allies, the labour and students
movements, intensify the
people's community meetings and grassroots
mobilisation for a genuine people
driven constitution. Bumbiro Ngarinyorwe
Nevanhu. (NCA National
Spokesperson)
Zimbabwe: The ‘A to Z’ of a lost decade
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 12:00
AM
Alex T. Magaisa
I HAVE been reflecting on the story of the
last decade – 2000-2009. The job
of writing this history will be best
accomplished by those learned in the
trade. I have been writing this column
for most of the decade. The
experience has been painful, soothed only by the
fact that I enjoy the art
of writing and communicating my thoughts.
I
have had the pleasure of reading correspondence and comments from those
who
follow it, admirers and critics alike. I have learnt a lot about
politics,
human behaviour and many other things. Kind words have been
encouraging.
Critical comments have been educative. I have learnt about my
strengths and
also about my many limitations. I like to think that’s the way
it should
be.
I thought, perhaps, I could capture some of the highlights of the
decade,
through this A to Z of what I have referred to as the lost decade –
lost
only because the country has regressed due to the many challenges it
has
faced. But I admit it’s not entirely accurate that it’s a lost decade –
I
suppose one could say if we have learned anything from the challenges,
then
it’s not really a lost decade.
There are many competitors for
each letter of the alphabet and no doubt each
reader will think there are
other more befitting highlights. That would be
correct, but if I wrote them
all, then this would become longer that it is
now – and it is rather long
already, as you can see. So take these as my own
highlights or lowlights and
feel free to add or subtract, in accordance with
your own
reflections.
A is for Agreement.
A decade of turmoilwhich
reached its peak during the election period in 2008
ended with relative calm
in the aftermath of the political agreement reached
between the feuding
political parties, namely, the erstwhile ruling party
ZANU PF and the
opposition parties MDC-T and MDC-M. Known by its acronym
‘GPA’, representing
the rather grandiose title Global Political Agreement,
the agreement of 15th
September 2008 led to the formation of the Unity
Government, also known as
the Inclusive Government in February 2009. It has
to be mentioned, however,
that this agreement has been blighted by so-called
‘outstanding issues’ – I
was tempted to accord this term its own status
under the letter ‘O’ but it
ran a close second to the eventual winner.
B is for the Black
market.
First, the black market, also known as the parallel market,
was in the trade
of foreign currency but with shortages of basic
commodities, including fuel
and food more and more of these goods became
available only on the black
market. Certain places in Harare and Bulawayo
became known as the ‘World
Bank’ acknowledging their status as physical
spaces where currency was
traded openly and on a large scale.
But in
the same context of the black market, ‘B’ must also represent a
notorious
phenomenon that was unique, imaginative and in some ways
exploitative –
‘Burning Money’. As the central bank restricted withdrawals
from individual
bank accounts, ever-inventive Zimbabweans devised mechanisms
of
circumventing such limitations. One of these mechanisms was the so-called
‘Burning Money’ – enabling a person to withdraw far more than the restricted
amount from the bank. But it also presented opportunities for individuals to
make enormous wealth by exploiting the massive and unrealistic gap between
the official and black market exchange rates. Consequently, ‘burning money’
represents a very efficient if unfair money-making invention that grew out
of adversity and skewed policies, both of which are manifestations of a lost
decade.
C is for the Constitution
Although the making of
the Lancaster House Constitution which gave
independence to the new Zimbabwe
in 1980 was a controversial process, the
issue of the Constitution did not
enter the public consciousness until
later. Few ordinary people had any clue
about the Constitution. No wonder it
was relatively easy for the new
government to amend the Constitution in
1987, giving extensive powers to the
new Office of the President. It wasn’t
until 1999-2000 period when the
matter of constitution-making became a truly
public affair, thanks to the
efforts of organisations such the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA).
Since 2000, the issue of the constitution has
become a key battle-point but
10 years later, the country has yet to find
common ground on the new
constitution. Presently, it has to make do with a
rag-tag constitution that
is a pale shadow of the Lancaster House
Constitution. In 2005 I referred in
an article to our Constitution as
bhurugwa rine zvigamba (a trouser with too
many patches).
D for Diaspora
Throughout history the land that
is now Zimbabwe has had its phases of
migration. People have come and gone.
But it wasn’t until the last decade
that the word ‘Diaspora’ was popularly
assigned to migrants who left the
country. That is because for the first
time, Zimbabweans left in their
millions to settle in other countries. They
mostly chose familiar places –
countries with which there are some
historical or cultural connections;
where it would be easier to integrate
and settle and there large communities
of Zimbabwean migrants have grown –
Britain, the US, Canada, South Africa,
Australia. “Diaspora” doesn’t just
represent a people – the place itself is
known as kuDiaspora. So people say,
‘akaenda kuDiaspora’ (he went to the
Diaspora). This word was hardly used in
Zimbabwe before the last decade; now
it is an integral part of the national
vocabulary, complete with its own
meanings and usages unique to
Zimbabwe.
E is for Elections
Commencing with the
constitutional referendum of February 2000, it’s a fair
bet that Zimbabwe
has probably had more national elections than any other
African country
since the start of the New Millennium. After the Referendum
there were
Parliamentary elections in June 2000; then there was a bitterly
controversial Presidential Election in 2002. There were Parliamentary
elections in 2005 (including elections for the newly formed Senate). Then
there were Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2008. Yet ironically,
those elections have delivered absolutely nothing of substance, confirming
the view that elections are not necessarily indicative of democracy.
Instead, elections have been synonymous with allegations of rigging,
unfairness, fear, extreme violence and everything that is negative about
politics. Going by what transpired in the last decade, it will be difficult
to convince those who do not believe that elections can be an agent of
change for as long as one of the contestants also plays the role of referee
and enforcer of the rules.
F is for the Final Push
Yes,the
Final Push that never was. At some point, the then opposition leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai called for what was called the Final Push, meaning the
pressure
leading to the eventual end of President Mugabe’s rule. But
needless to say,
the Final Push failed. Mugabe remained in power and
eventually compromised
with Tsvangirai after the chaotic elections of 2008
to form a government of
national unity which presently presides over a shaky
Zimbabwe.
G is
for Gono
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. It could have
been the Global
Political Agreement or the Government of National Unity but
even those two
fall in the shadow of the dominating Governor. Other than
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai, there is probably no other public figure who has
loomed large in
public life in Zimbabwe. Many believe that at his peak, the
Governor was
more than a mere central bank boss – that he was in fact the de
facto Prime
Minister. Through the so-called quasi-fiscal functions, the
Governor
literally ran government. No wonder Minister of Finance at the
time, Herbert
Murerwa threw in the towel – he was redundant. When the drama
of the decade
is told to future generations, “Your Governor” as he often
referred to
himself in his monetary policy speeches, will be a key and
dominant
character.
H is for Human Rights
Everywhere its
human rights this and human rights that! It has been the
story of the
decade. Human rights has been the subject of struggle in
Zimbabwe and
elsewhere in the world but it wasn’t until the last decade that
human rights
became popular in the language of ordinary people in Zimbabwe.
In some ways
it has been the equivalent of the Civil Rights Movement in
1960s America.
There are countless organisations that bear the term ‘human
rights’ and many
more still that claim to champion the cause of human
rights. In some ways,
it could be said that whilst all other industries
declined, one industry
grew in leaps and bounds – it was the industry of
human rights. It attracted
well meaning individuals dedicated to the welfare
of human kind. But it also
attracted other unsavoury characters, attracted
by the US dollar reservoir
built in the catchment areas of many of the
so-called civil society
organisations.
I is for Inflation
Students of economics will
look back at Zimbabwe during the last decade for
a perfect case study on the
dynamics of inflation and indeed,
hyperinflation. There were reports that
inflation rose to at least 130
million per cent, a figure not known in a
country that is not at war. It was
like Weimar Germany, a return to a very
hostile era when inflation ran riot,
leaving ordinary people pulverised.
Known to name offspring after key events
or signs, it will not surprise
anyone if some children of the last decade
bear names such as Inflation or
Hyperinflation – a constant reminder of the
harsh realities faced by
ordinary citizens at the time.
J is for Jonathan Moyo
J is for
Jonathan Moyo, the political science professor who has become one
of the
most conspicuous and, it has to be said, controversial politicians
during
his tenure as Minister of Information between 2000 and 2004. He
arrived on
the scene via Wits University as a key leader of the
Constitutional
Commission which sought but failed to lead the
constitution-making process
in Zimbabwe. For his efforts, he was rewarded
with a post in government, as
Information Minister. He is credited with
crafting the draconian Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) which severely emasculates
media freedom. He is also credited with
designing the repressive Public
Order and Security Act (POSA), which
essentially represents a resurrection
of the colonial Law and Order
Maintenance Act. He vehemently rejects these
credits. But there can be no
doubting the massive impact Jonathan Moyo had
in public life – at one point
he was probably the single most visible and
hugely influential politician
after Mugabe.
He will also be
remembered for allegedly masterminding the so-called
Tsholotsho Declaration
by which a faction of ZANU PF sought to wrest the
vice-presidency from a
rival faction. In that episode, Joice Mujuru got the
vice presidency
effectively putting on hold the ambitions of Emmerson
Mnangagwa. Moyo was
fired from government and ZANU PF. But by the end of the
decade the
controversial professor was back in ZANU PF, his return
reportedly receiving
enormous applause from the audience at the party’s
congress in December
2009. His career in a decade is an apt representation
of the topsy-turvy
world of politics in Zimbabwe during that period – the
highs and lows, the
contradictions and the senselessness of it all.
K is for
Kiya-kiya
When you asked a Zimbabwean how they were managing in the
difficult
conditions, the answer would often be, “tiri kungokiya-kiya!”,
meaning they
were using all sorts of imaginative skills to make ends meet.
Kukiya-kiya
means many things; anything really to make a living, usually
outside the
formal forum. Everyone kiya-kiyad in order to survive. It
didn’t matter
whether it was legal or illegal, some things just had to be
done to create
income. Indeed, by the time the unity government was formed,
Minister of
Finance Tendai Biti was asked where they were getting the money
from his
answer was ‘taka kiya-kiya’, leading his critics to label him
Minister
Kiya-kiya. The pejorative insinuations aside, this was a formal
acknowledgement of how Zimbabweans had to survive in a decade when things
got really twisted. They had to kiya-kiya and may still have to in the
present decade, given the conditions.
L is for Land.
Ever
since the colonisation by the British of the land that is now called
Zimbabwe the land issue or the ‘land question’ as it is sometimes referred
to has always been a bitterly contentious matter. It was thought, naively
and short-sightedly, it must be said, that the Lancaster House Constitution
had provided a suitable mechanism for dealing with this hotly contested
issue. The simmering tensions exploded in 2000 as this most legitimate but
easily exploitable of questions became a convenient platform for political
survival.
The forced removals of white farmers from the land and the
subsequent
seizure by the government attracted much negative international
attention.
The process, known as Fast Track Resettlement Programme, has had
its fair
share of problems, not least the virtual diminishing of property
rights
system that supported commercial agriculture and with it a
significant
reduction in productivity. Corruption and multiple farm
ownership,
compensation, etc remain contentious issues which will no doubt
spill into
this and coming decades. This matter is sure to haunt Zimbabwe
for a very
long time, despite the political rhetoric. Nyaya yeminda
icharamba ichinetsa
(The land question will remain problematic).
M is
for Mugabe
As ever he remains a towering and domineering figure in
Zimbabwean politics.
Many thought he would be basking in retirement by the
end of the decade but
he has now entered his fourth decade in power and it
would be foolish to bet
against him entering the fifth.
N is for
Nathaniel Manheru
When the history of the decade is recorded, the
name Nathaniel Manheru and
his contributions to the media will be an
integral part of it. Some say the
Herald columnist was initially Jonathan
Moyo, the political science
professor and ZANU PF politician who headed the
information ministry at the
time. And they say when he left without ceremony
in 2004 the column was
penned by George Charamba, permanent secretary of
that ministry. One thing
for sure, Manheru was a gifted wordsmith but his
words were harsh, unkind
and the pen spewed much vitriol against real and
perceived opponents. The
propaganda was astounding but for those following
Zimbabwean politics,
beyond the vitriol, there was also a wealth of
information about internal
workings of government and ZANU PF from this
Manheru character. Students of
history will learn a few things about the
chaos of the decade if they have
the patience to read a collection of
Manheru’s articles.
O is for Operation Murambatsvina
O is
for Operation Murambatsvina (2005) also referred to as Operation Drive
Out
Trash but also known officially as Operation Restore Order. Although the
literal translation, i.e. Operation Drive Out Trash is often favoured by the
media and commentators alike, it is the official version which truly
represents what this controversial process was about: it was to ensure that
‘order’ as defined by the then ruling party was resorted, on its terms –
that is, a measure to deal with real or perceived opponents. This involved
the bulldozing of homes and other commercial structures used by ordinary
people in urban areas. However justifiable the concerns may have been, the
manner in which it was brutal, prompting the United Nations to dispatch an
Envoy, Ms Anna Tibaijuka on a fact-finding mission. It left many homeless,
bitter and without means to earn income, driving them further into the
depths of poverty.
P is for printing money.
Zimbabwe was
not the first and as the global economic crisis has unravelled,
it will not
be the last to print money. However, over the last decade, the
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe became synonymous with a money making machine,
known to print
millions of worthless Zimbabwe dollars. Even when new
denominations were
created after knocking off some zeroes, it did not take
long before the
little zeroes returned, often in large numbers. The enormous
hyperinflation
was blamed partly on the indiscriminate manner in which the
central bank
printed money. It was indeed a decade when money was printed
with reckless
abandon. Even when the German firm supplying printing paper
stopped its
service, the inventive bankers at the central bank continued to
print.
However, after countless resuscitation attempts, in early 2009 the
Zimbabwe
dollar finally went into a deep comma from which it is still to
recover.
Q is for Queues.
Queuing is not unique to
Zimbabwe. But these were no ordinary queues. People
didn’t just queue. They
queued in large numbers. They queued for days and
nights. They queued at
fuel stations, banks, shops – they queued for
everything. They said if you
were walking in town and saw a queue, you just
joined the queue only to ask
the purpose of the queue once you had secured
your place. Waingomirawo muQ
(You just waited in the queue). Some joked that
someone once joined a queue
only to discover that it was a queue into a
funeral parlour! It was indeed,
a decade of queues. Even now, Zimbabwe
remains in a queue to achieve
democracy.
R is for Referendum.
Students of politics and
history will forever grapple with the following
question: would the result
of the parliamentary elections of June 2000 have
been any different had
there been no Constitutional Referendum in March
2000? That’s because there
is a view that the referendum on the new
constitution that was held in
February 2000 and the historic defeat suffered
by government then may have
awakened ZANU PF to the real probability of
electoral defeat in any future
elections. Observers point to the orgy of
violence that was escalated
between March and June 2000, culminating in a
very narrow and controversial
victory over the MDC, a party formed barely a
year earlier. They believe
that the Referendum changed the course of
history, giving ZANU PF a chance
to test the depth of the river, not with
its legs but with a very long and
dispensable stick. As it happened, ZANU PF
retained parliamentary majority
and the constitution is still to be remade.
S is for
Senate
Alright, not necessarily the senate itself but what the issue
of the senate
sparked within the then united MDC which was leading a strong
charge against
ZANU PF. In late 2005, ZANU PF introduced an amendment to the
Constitution
which resuscitated the Senate which had been abolished in the
late eighties.
The MDC was not sure what to do – to participate or boycott
the senatorial
elections. Some wanted to boycott as a matter of principle
whilst others
thought it best to participate to protect the democratic
space. The MDC
decision-making body met to decide and the result was
disputed and
controversial. This acted as the spark for the split of the
party, leading
to the two factions now referred to as MDC-T led by
Tsvangirai and MDC-M led
by Arthur Mutambara. Clearly the Tsvangirai faction
has the large slice of
power but this has not stopped the Mutambara faction,
hence the tripartite
arrangement in which the two now share power with ZANU
PF.
T is for Tsvangirai
T is for Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s
arch-rival and nemesis since the formation of
the MDC in 1999. Tsvangirai, a
former trade union leader rose to become
perhaps the most potent opponent
Mugabe has ever faced in his political
life. A man popular among ordinary
Zimbabweans, any weaknesses have so far
been outshone by his bravery at
confronting a feared regime. He rose in the
last decade to become a truly
alternative national leader, persuading even
those who staunchly doubted his
credentials in the early days. Along with
Mugabe, Tsvangirai looms large in
the politics of Zimbabwe and the fear has
to be that his status may give
rise to the same cult personality that has
been so negative in Zimbabwean
politics.
U is for Unity Government
After nearly a decade of
heated struggle, ZANU PF and the two MDC parties
eventually agreed to form a
government of national unity in 2008. This came
into being in February 2009
and although shaky, it continues to run the
country’s affairs in the current
decade. Its lifespan is not certain and
outstanding issues remain to be
resolved but it’s fair to all of them agree
that this is probably what they
have to live with for now at least.
V is for Victims.
The
history of Zimbabwe is full of victims – victims of violence,
exploitation,
war, poverty, etc. The last decade had its fair share of
victims. Indeed,
many ordinary people suffered like never before. The
violence, especially
during election periods was horrendous. The images of
tortured and murdered
men and women will live long in the memory of those
who were unfortunate to
witness them. Some of those who lost their lives are
known. But it is fair
to say that perhaps many are not. Some of those who
lost or damaged their
limbs are known and have been honoured in some ways.
But there are many more
silent victims who will never receive awards or
airtime. “V” is for all
victims of the last decade but most of all for the
Unknown and Silent
Victims – we’ll call it the Tomb of the Unknown Victim.
W is for War
Veterans.
The veterans of the liberation struggle rose to prominence
at the end of the
previous decade and their role continued to be influential
in the last one.
First, under the leadership of Chenjerai ‘Hitler’ Hunzvi
and Joseph ‘Chinoz’
Chinotimba, the self-styled commander of the farm
invasions, the veterans
led the charge against white farmers displacing them
violently from the
commercial farms. The veterans and indeed some who claim
to be veterans were
an influential factor in the politics of the last
decade, propping up an
otherwise shaken ruling party. When the story is
told, the role of the
veterans will no doubt be a prominent factor.
X
is for Xenophobia
Zimbabweans in South Africa, along with many other
migrants in that country
suffered horrific assaults in 2008 at the hands of
locals. Victims of
troubles in their own country, they sought refuge and
opportunities for work
in South Africa. Yet for some this appeared like
jumping from the frying pan
into the flames as they experienced xenophobic
attacks which left many dead,
injured, homeless and traumatised.
Y is
for the Youth Brigade
Alright, they were not really referred to as
the youth brigade – this is
more of an eighties term. In the last decade
they were known mostly as the
notorious Green Bombers but they were too many
candidates for ‘G’ and they
were beaten to it by the Governor. Yet, the
story of the decade would be
incomplete without the youths who were trained
under the Border Gezi
programme, named after the late ZANU PF politicians
who is credited with
designing this mean machine that invoked fear among
ordinary citizens as
they championed the cause of the then ruling
party.
Z is for ‘Zhing-Zhong’
Z is for ‘Zhing-Zhong’, a term that
became popular in the last decade
following the huge influx of Chinese goods
in Zimbabwe’s retail markets.
Apparently, they are notorious for poor
quality and lacking durability. The
joke was that you could buy a pair of
shoes in the morning but by the end of
the week they would be worn
out.
But ‘Z’ also represents the Zimbabwe Ruins, a term of description
used so
often during the miserable years of the last decade. It is derived
of course
from the name given to the remains of the ancient city based in
present day
Zimbabwe. It is from that ancient kingdom that Zimbabwe
ironically derives
its name. Also known as Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabweans soon
came to refer to
the country after which they are named as Zimbabwe Ruins,
denoting the
social, political and economic collapse of the country. Whether
or not a new
civilisation emerges from these ruins is a key task of this and
the coming
decades but last decade will probably be known as the period when
Great
Zimbabwe was truly reduced to the Zimbabwe Ruins.
I hope the
new decade brings better fortunes. Happy New Year – I hope it’s a
beautiful
one for you all and for Zimbabwe.
Alex Magaisa is based at Kent Law
School, the University of Kent. E-mail
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Why there should be no sacred cows in the MDC
The typical
Zimbabwean mentality is to say that when something does not
affect me now, I
would rather not care about it or not do anything about it.
This is why ZANU
PF was allowed to get away with the worst atricities in our
history, the
Gukurahundi murders because some people saw no reason to
challenge them.
ZANU PF got away with murder that could have been stopped
because those who
could stop it were not affected at the relevant time. Now
there are so many
people who were mum about Gukurahundi who now come out
saying there must
investigations, there must be an enquiry etc ect, yet they
could have
actually stopped it.
The reason why ZANU PF became the monster it is
today is because some people
thought ZANU PF was too big to be challenged
overwhelming those who dared
to. President Robert Mugabe was viewed and
reverred in such Godly
omnipotence that challenging him was considered
taboo. Now nobody knows what
to do with this "god" that Zimbabweans created.
Some people blame the
international community particularly the west for not
doing enough to stop
Mugabe especially Gukurahundi. What people seem to
forget is that the
international community is very sensitive to events on
the ground. What they
hear and see from the people on the ground is what
they will alsways take
into consideration. In the 1980's Mugabe was held in
the highest possible
regard in Zimbabwe and that is why he managed to dupe
the international
community. If there was roundly outcry about his policies
from within
Zimbabwe as is the case today, the international community would
have
definitely done something about him back then.
The same applies
to the MDC today. There is a lot of genuine support for the
MDC from within
Zimbabwe and the international community is aware of that.
Like wise, it
will always be very difficuclt to challenge the actions of a
supposedly
popular political party not just in Zimbabwe but in Africa as a
whole. But
where such challenge has been executed and enduring anyway, it
has always
been proven worhtwhile in the end. In Zambia Frederick Chiluba
swept tp
power in convincing fashion after his Movement for Multiparty
Democracy
(MMD) beat the then veteran president Kenneth Kaunda and his UNIP
party.
Everything was so appealing with the MMD and early allegations of
corruption
against Chiluba and his inner circle where dismissed in
contemptuos fashion.
But who ever thought or imagined that the roundly
popular and dimunitive
Chiluba would be such an obscure figure in Zambian
politics less that ten
years down the line? But that is the fortunate
reality of corruptible
political personality.
It is heartening though to find out that because
of the ZANU PF experience,
Zimbabweans have now opened up a little bit and
they are more aware of what
their politicians are up to now more than they
were fifteen to twenty years
ago. The MDC just like any other political
party is prone to, and not immune
from corruption. There is corruption
within the MDC as has been revealed in
recent times, and that corruption has
to be exposed so that people realise
not just its existence, but the extent
of it as well. The corruption in the
MDC is already alarming though,
especially coming from a party that was
formed with a very clear mission to
rid our politics of the same curse.
Corruption and misappropriation of funds
in the MDC date back to as early as
2002. There were promises then to deal
with it by the MDC leadership but it
was never dealt with and that shows a
serious lack of sincerity in the part
of the MDC leadership.
In my
last article I raised a number of issues of paramount importance. I
was
quite pleased with the response of the majority of people that have
taken
time especially to email and in some cases phoning me about what they
feel
has also been worrying them regarding such matters. There have been a
handful of people who still live in the 1980's era and feel that because
ZANU PF had contributed in our liberation they could not be challenged in
any way or shape. These people still think that just because the MDC is
fighting democratic struggle against ZANU PF, it (MDC) must never be
challenged in any way or form but I am glad that these people are just a
tinny minority. I do not just write about these issues for the sake of
writing. These are issues that need to be highlighted and only the
beneficiaries of the corruption will want them left in secret.
Fighting
against corruption and expeosing it is just as important as
fighting for
democracy because good governance abores corruption
In 2002 Roy Bennett
travelled to the UK together with Sekai Holland, Paul
Themba Nyathi and
other MDC officials. There was a meeting that they held
with with the MDC
Manchester Branch leadership. MDC Manchester was then one
of the most
vibrant if not the most vibrant of the MDC UK branches. The
branch had
raised money in excess of £80 000 that appeared to have not been
properly
remitted to Hararee and accounted for. Sekai Holland was challenged
to
explain about that money in front of Bennett and Nyathi and
unsatisfactory
answers were given. The Manchester branch leadership that
comprised of
Durani Rapozo and Jennings Rukani among others were not happy
with the way
the funds had been handled. The meeting ended in a stalemate,
and the branch
then wrote to MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai registering
their displeasure.
Tsvangirai promised to set up an investigation into the
matter and that was
the last we heard about. Whether the investigation was
ever held and
whatever its findings were, it remains a mystery.
That meeting should
have given Bennett a very early insight into the
financial irregularities of
the MDC and if he was very keen on routing out
"rogues" from within the
party he could have started quite early on in his
brief. When he assumed the
position of treasurer he must have known all
about the "milking" of the
party by those bleeding it as he said. The
problem that I think he faced was
that some of those rogues were possibly
too rogue for him to handle. They
are senior rogues in the party and for
someone who was already aspiring for
a leadership position he thought the
best way to go about it was to wash his
hands of that. But the same issue
has come back to hound him and the
disappearance of the said £57 000 in this
latest saga must never surprise
Bennett because he had a taste of the
financial activities of the party a
long time ago. Its not whether there are
rogues or not in the MDC. There are
rogues, and at the highest level of the
party as well, and it is just a
question of how the issues must be dealt
with. The selective routing out of
the rogues will not help the cause. There
has to be a comprehensive
mechanism that must be applied to all and sundry
in the party.
The
other issue that I raised was the disbanding MDC external structures and
I
will further expand on this one because it is also a very essential issue.
There are people who left Zimbabwe because they were being persecuted for
starting up the MDC in the first place. None of these people ever thought
they would need to leave Zimbabwe, but they went abroad where they carried
on with their MDC involvement. Most people who left Zimbabwe and applied for
asylum especially in the UK on political grounds are black Zimbabweans. Most
if not all, white Zimbabweans who left the country for Britain did not need
to apply for asylum thanks to their ancestry and heritage. "Disbanding" the
MDC external structures is another suttle way of saying these people who
sought asylum and some of whom are still waiting for their cases to be
determined, do not need to be outside the country. They need to go back to
Zimbabwe because that is only where they can be part of the MDC activities.
Such a statement will also compromise many people who are still waiting for
the outcome of their asylum applications at a very sensitive
time.
Returning to Zimbabwe for people who left in fear must never be
suggested by
anyone. It must be on the basis of a genuine diminishing of the
circumstances that created that fear in the first. No amount of glossing
over the reality of the situation on the ground will convince these people
to return to Zimbabwe. People will make their own assessments as to whether
they can go back.
The MDC is a party with very worrying signs of
corruption, favoritism,
nepotism and cronnyism. These are the same ills that
have bedeviled ZANU PF.
When a party is corrupt or allows corruption to
manifest itself within it,
that party becomes limited in is ability to
deliver. Corruption leads
ineffectiveness because merit becomes a periferal
facet of the integral
activities of that party. There are people who have
been fingered for
corruption and other ills in the ZANU PF establishment,
people like Ignatius
Chombo who has destroyed the once vibrant ministry of
local government. The
grave consequences of that is that the corruption in
that ministry is also
filtering through to the MDC through the councils that
it leads. If
corruption is not weeded out it simply becomes contageos and if
the MDC is
serious there is a real chance of rescuing the party because the
corruption
is not yet as widespread as it is in ZANU PF.
The MDC UK
province gives the MDC party a fantastic opportunity to show that
it can
seriously tackle corruption. The UK is a very small arm of the MDC
and
dealing with it if the will is there should not be very difficult. What
has
stopped ZANU PF from eradicating corruption from within its ranks is the
absurdity of putting those fingered with the corruption in charge of the
clean up exercise. Concealment will be the outcome and nothing will be
achieved. The investion must also look at what happened to that £80 000 nd
the people who were involved with the Manchester Branch should be consulted
as part of the investigation.
The other problem is that when issues
are raised through the media, they can
only be addressed or responded to
throuhg the media. I have heard a few MDC
officials that there was never any
decision on disbanding MDC external
structures. So why was it said in the
media then before the decision was
made? Whatever the case there is a
compelling case of dealing with the
corrupt tendencies of MDC officials and
those responsle must be brought to
book. There should not be any white
washing of these issues. They are issues
of national
relevance
Silence Chihuri writes from Scotland. He can be contacted
on email:
silencechihuri@googlemail.com
New Constitution Must End Bambazonke Mindset
January 6,
2010
Recently the Co-chair of the parliamentary select committee Douglas
Mwonzora
indicated that an estimated four million Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora will be
given a chance to contribute to Zimbabwe's constitutional
making process.
And well here is my small contribution that pretty specific
and aimed at
addressing the Bambazonke mindset that has disadvantaged other
regions
cities in terms of national cake distribution.
The new
constitution must have a mechanism in place that other regions of
the
country are NOT disadvantage by the Bambazonke craze that seems to have
hypnotized many in Zimbabwe. I will be straight to the point. It appears to
me that you need to travel to Harare in order to get any important document
always. Unless you are In Harare you stand to lose out on many items that
reacquire head office for authorization. I mean ask anyone outside Harare
and they will tell you that you have to go to Harare to get your birth
certificate, passport and even a liquor license.
The
Problem
We can not afford to pile all civic, administrative, sporting,
travel,
educational activities to one city. In fact this has put a great
strain on
the one time sunshine city. Ever wondered why Harare can not even
clear the
garbage the city produces? The reason for this is the lunatic
efforts of
trying to centralize everything to Harare. You don't believe me?
Read on.
Economic Growth Deprivation
Most of the decision and
policy makers might not be consciously aware of the
long term effects of
centralizing everything to one city. Centralizing all
services to one city
disadvantages and robs other cities and regions of
their inherent capacity
to grow and develop. How and why? Now when ALL
concerts, meetings, rallies,
conferences, tournaments, document
applications, congresses , state
funerals etc are held in one city it means
that ALL commercial and business
activities follows suit to where the big
fish and crowds are. Let me distil
this to a very minute level .When any of
these major events are hosted in a
city , there comes along business
activities ranging from hotel
accommodation , transport , fuel stations ,
restaurants , air time ,
beverage etc which means that for your business to
tap into the honey trail
, you must be located in Harare to avail your
services.
This
inherently deprives, robs and short changes other regions whose
industries
can experience growth because no big business player wants to
invest in
Masvingo or Mutare or Bulawayo where there is less activity.
Ripple
Effect
This has a ripple effect and unintended consequences. For
instances mobile
companies who run businesses for a profit have no
motivation to setup more
base stations and increase capacity in areas where
there is NO marked
activity that always comes with hosting of events
seminars. As the chain
reaction proceeds, investors in travel and tourism
sectors are most likely
going to follow suit and channel more resources to
the region that will
yield highest returns. The ripple effect can not be
exaggerated . As a
result of this biased distribution of resources which
area creates more jobs
and business opportunities? Well, the city that hosts
everything.
If I was planning to setup a business in Zimbabwe and had two
options of
opening offices in either Gweru or Bulawayo, which location do
you think
will be the best one ? None. Business logic would suggest that I
take my
plans to Harare.
International Funds & AID
As far
as the international community that donates and avails money and AID
to
Zimbabwe is concerned, the money and aid sent to Zimbabwe is set to
develop
the country and NOT Harare alone. This is where the deprivation and
robbery
takes place.
An interesting example of this is in the higher education
sector. Now the
example I am using here is of an area I know of and other
regions are
affected in a more or less similar way. My choice of using
Bulawayo schools
as an example is based purely on my knowledge and
familiarity with the
higher education system there. As a result this does
NOT exclude other areas
affected by the same bias possibly in Mutare , Gweru
, Kwekwe Masvingo etc.
Planned and Organized Deprivation
Bulawayo
is basically divided into western and eastern suburbs. The latter
is where
the bulk of the people reside - emalokitshini. Now during Rhodesia,
only 2
schools in the western suburbs (townships) offered A level science.
Namely
Mzilikazi High School and Mpopoma. There are no more than 40 places
for A
level students in these schools. So what it means is that the whole
western
suburbs can maximally produce 40 students to qualify for higher
education
institutes from a science point of view. No new A level science
schools were
introduced after independence in the townships! I would be glad
if any one
out there points out the new A level schools that offer science
in
Bulawayo's townships !
So what?
On 26 June 2009, seventeen bright
but economically disadvantaged Zimbabwean
students received full four-year
scholarships worth over $5.5 million
dollars to study in the United States.
Ambassador James D. McGee . None of
these came from the southern part of the
country because maybe they did NOT
meet the high grade criteria? The full
list of the recipients and the
colleges they will be
studying/
Blessing Havana (Pomona College), Rutendo Ruzvidzo (College of
Wooster),
Tafadzwa Mahlanganise (Davidson College), Tanya Sawadye (Cottey
College),
Yemurai Adda Mangwendeza (Yale University), Zvikomborero Alexander
Matenga
(Wesleyan University), Tatenda Yemeke (University of Chicago),
Tatenda
Mutsamwira (Jacobs University), Lovemore Simbabrashe Kuzomunhu
(University
of Pennsylvania), Lovemore Makusha (Williams College), Lesley
Nyirenda
(Stanford University), Corra Leigh Magiya (Providence College),
Joshua
Fomera (Duke University), Lennox Chitsike (Hamilton College),
Ngonidzashe
Madungwe (Tufts University), Stephen Dini (Swarthmore College)
and Tinofara
Majoni (Colgate University).
These students probably
deserved the scholarships and we are proud that they
will do the nation
proud BUT they could have benefited from a skewed system
that disadvantaged
other pupils from other regions. Well that's NOT these
recipients's problem.
Such situations have long term effects that may
manifest themselves in
resentment of some people by some section of people.
Can not connect the
dots with the students in the townships where there are
only 2 A level
science schools on Bulawayo? The inherent robbery or
deprivation of
opportunity lies in the very fact that these students from
the townships can
NOT even compete on a level field to be considered for
these scholarships.
It's a numbers game. The more schools in an area with A
level science will
avail more students to be considered for the
scholarships. So an area with 2
schools providing A level science can ONLY
produce so much students to avail
for consideration .No need for rocket
science to figure this out.
As
I said before this is not unique to Bulawayo region alone , but also
relevant to other areas that are outside Harare as well .But I chose to use
an example whose facts and reality I am very conversant with.
In
simple terms the Embassy did a great job to give kids from poor
backgrounds
a chance to shine. But as I said the donors only give and then
decision
makers based in Harare decide to give an unfair advantage to some
areas at
the expense of other kids simply because they don't come from the
region.
Soccer Players?
Ok let me am more brutal. Sometime
last year there was an unofficial
position from ZIFA that for a player to
play for the national team , the
player had to come from Harare because it
was expensive to transport players
from other areas like Hwange , Gweu and
Bulawayo. Now this had an
interesting side effect. Many players from outside
Harare started leaving
their teams for Harare based clubs so that they
enhance their chances of
playing for the national soccer team. Remember this
situation arose during
tough economic times and as such cost reasons will be
sighted as an excuse
on this one. But as you might know the performance of
the national soccer
team nose divided along side with this unofficial ZIFA
policy. Recently the
national team was twice thumped 3-0 by Thailand and
Syria in some Asian
tournament. Why ? The "catchments" area of talented
players has been shrunk.
As such there is no huge pool draw from
I
know truth hurts.
Part of this problem is due to the mental colonial
inheritance. I can assure
you that some of the decision makers genuinely
believe that everything must
happen in Harare. The list of people with such
mentality even includes
individuals who come from regions outside
Harare.
It defeats logic why less than 20 % of the resources for 2010
readiness have
been allocated to Vic Falls , Bulawayo and Mashing (Great
Zimbabwe ) the
last 2 that are nearer South Africa than Harare.
More
Examples
I will point to a few recent examples of such incidents,
happenings and
mindset. Obviously over time the examples are far too many to
list here but
the following only serve as an eye opener now that we
purportedly have a
government made up of 2 opposing parties. You will
realize that the thinking
is the same on both sides of the aisle. I
deliberately will NOT discuss the
pre GPA beeps and blunders regarding this
centralization of services in
Zimbabwe.
(1)
Last week the Minister
of Tourism and Hospitality Walter Mzembi was
surprised that Bulawayo was
going to miss out from the South Africa soccer
show case Cup because of the
collapse of service provision in the
hospitality sector according to a
report in the Chronicle. He said " .. the
collapse of service provision in
the hospitality and tourism sectors would
lead to the city's failure to
benefit from the World Cup. " Amazing. He
looked very surprised why Bulawayo
hospitality industry was in such a state.
Well the above synopsis of events
should help address his amazement and
shock. From his reaction it is very
possible that the honorable minister had
not been in Bulawayo before. Couple
this with the reluctance of ZIFA to
refurbish Barbourfileds Stadium to meet
FIFA standards for visiting teams
and the state of Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo
airport; you will have a general idea
of the less obvious implications of
this like the general lack of enthusiasm
towards national events by people
from regions outside the capital.
(2)
Recently it was announced that a
Chinese firm, China Sonangol, is set to
develop satellite towns around
Harare in a development that is expected to
ease housing problems in the
capital. "This follows the signing of a
Memorandum of Understanding between
Zimbabwe and China Sonangol that will
see the latter funding the development
of satellite towns. The Chinese joint
venture company has already unveiled
an eight-billion-U.S. dollar package to
fund various developmental programs
in Zimbabwe. Ok what is causing the
housing problem in the first place ?
Yes, you got that right; it's
centralization! Secondly, the financial deal
worth $ 8 million was entered
between China and Harare the headlines must
read, and not the entirety of
Zimbabwe. But as far as the Chinese are
concerned - they are helping
Zimbabwe. If services and resources were
distributed widely across the
country based on cost and strategic
importance, there would be NO such
housing and garbage problem in
Harare.
(3)
A year, or so, ago a partnership struck between a Ukrainian
company Augur
Investments and Harare City Council for the development of the
Joshua
Mqabuko Nkomo Road (Airport Road) offices, houses and hotels to the
tune of
US$100 million. Is there any problem with such investments in Harare
in
Zimbabwe? No. But it creates the suction loop and ripple effect mentioned
earlier on. Such a huge project has capacity to create thousands of much
needed jobs, which is excellent. And now where will people flock to look for
jobs? It follows then that the problem of accommodation continues, coupled
with garbage and traffic mayhem.
(4)
The vibrant and hard
working Minister of Information and Technology (ICT)
Nelson Chamisa declared
recently that "In five to ten years, Harare will be
the next Bangalore."
Bangalore is India's third most populous city that
experienced growth and a
rise in living standards because of technological
advancement. This came
after the good news that Broadhorn Capital venture
has invested in two
technology companies in the country. The capital raised
may be in the form
of debt or equity and may be from private or public
sources. Obviously this
is very encouraging and good news for Zimbabwe and
underlines the state of
mind of our leaders and decision makers when it
comes to investing in
Zimbabwe.
But why would the Honorable Minister imagine the development of
Harare alone
and not other parts of the country? Or, is it possible that the
Minister in
his statement implied that Harare is Zimbabwe? Is that then not
the
continuation of the same old mindset that I referred to earlier on? If
so,
Zimbabwe deserves a serious shift of mindset, considering that the
Honorable
Minister, Nelson Chamisa, is still young and definitely the future
leadership of Zimbabwe. Our country can not continue into the future with
such a heavily skewed baggage whose mindset is such that one region has to
develop at the expense of other regions. Developing Harare is not developing
Zimbabwe. Harare is a part of Zimbabwe, but not Zimbabwe.
I could go
on for a 100 pages listing similar examples. But the bottom line
is that
such issues must be addressed if efforts to turn around the country's
fortunes are to remain truly national.
Centralization and
Decentralization
There are a number of proponents of any modern
government that shape the
reasons for centralizing services. These reasons
may be political, cost,
control, efficiency and for quality service
delivery. For example, foreign
embassies are located in the country's
capital along with other
international and monetary institutes. That's great
and that makes sense
from a cost and control point of view. But there are
instances where
centralizing operations for the sake of it makes neither
economic, political
nor common sense.
I will sight an interesting
but isolated situation in Zimbabwe. ZIMRA is
responsible for collecting
revenue for the government in Zimbabwe. And quite
naturally and probably
correctly ZIMRA headquarters is located in the
capital city Harare. Now
Beitbridge border town is probably the busiest port
of entry in southern
Africa located in the southern most part of the
country. Recently ZIMRA
failed to process customs and excise related duties
in time and efficiently
from Beitbridge, because there is an extremely poor
data link between the
border post town and computers systems located in
Harare to process these
transactions.
Beitbridge is 580kms away from Harare, 288 kms away from
Masvingo and 230
kms away Bulawayo. It is therefore twice as much expensive
to set up and
maintain communications link between the border town and the
capital, than
it is to set up and maintain a communications link from the
border town to
Bulawayo or Masvingo.
So ask a 3rd grade pupil where
he or she would deploy computers to process
the ZIMRA transactions? No
brainer.
Case for Decentralization
I must make it clear that I do
not purport the relocation of the capital
city - not at all! But I am high
lighting some long observed traditions
colonially inherited and never looked
into. The case of decentralization of
services where necessary, has both
economic and social benefits that can not
be reduced into monetary terms or
values. Also it helps decongest processes
in the capital by off loading
other trivial and strategic services to
regions where it makes both economic
and social sense. And, most
fundamental, this helps in developing a nation
with diverse skills,
backgrounds and cultures to realize its full
potential.
Local Leaders
But it would be very unfair to conclude
this pretty brief and general
discussion without mentioning the role or lack
thereof, of leaders from
outside the capital. Maybe they have simply given
up or they care less or
they love traveling to Harare for all their
meetings, seminars, training,
etc.
It will also be unfair to blame
Harare boys like Chamisa and Chiyangwa who
are running up and down to
develop their neighborhoods. It is also very easy
to blame the pre-GPA of
the state of things of uneven development and
distribution of donor funds
and resources. But this I can say with absolute
certainty and conviction and
I will ONLY speak for Bulawayo and surrounding
regions. To the leaders from
the region I have few words for you and really
not interested in your
excuses for failing to grab what must come to the
region. As I said my
comments are POST new government and NOT pre GPA. The
region has a vice
president and a vice prime minister. Two party chairmen!
And several cabinet
ministers from both parties. So this I can assure you
that people in the
region expect you NOT only to do your national duties
that serve the whole
of Zimbabwe, but to make NO excuses when requesting or
even demanding a
proportionate share of the national cake. I know some
misguided few, will
contend that these are national leaders who work for
Zimbabwe as a whole and
NOT confined to any region. Yes very true that - NOT
confined to any region
as is presently the case - confined to developing
Harare alone.
Well
as expected these politicians will be making their usual rounds as the
parliamentary elections approach. They might be in for a rude shock this
time around and not going back to parly. Oh no; not because of a new
political party, but due to people deciding to boycotting the process
altogether since their election makes no difference.
Way
Forward
To all concerned and determined activists from all other regions
that are on
the receiving end of the centralization stick, I urge you to
make sure this
issue is sanely and fruitfully brought up during the
constitution making
process and finally captured in the new constitution.
For if you don't speak
up about this, very soon you will be required to
travel to Harare to apply
for a permit to paint your house!
For the
record this problem of centralization and was created during the
colonial
regime through UDI and furthered after independence. Just to leave
you with
something to think about Hwange power station located in
Matebeleland North
supplies a very huge chunk of the electricity consumed in
Zimbabwe. But
guess what people are used to darkness?
I am not sure where the proceeds
of diamonds mined in Chiadzwa in Manicaland
are headed to, but I can surely
tell you that Manicaland is NOT benefiting
from its natural resource. Quite
naturally I do expect those who benefit
from the status core to come up with
excuses why things are lopsided as they
are. But fact remains that these are
some issues that must be addressed so
that the present generation does not
leave a problem for future generations
whose approach might be totally
different from the our methods.
I don't blame those who have been
beneficiaries of this bias at all. But
enlightening those who have been
disadvanted to act and get a fair and
proportional stake in the national
cake - otherwise the constitution
remaking process should called -
"Bambazonke Constitution" .
Feel free to post your suggested solutions
to this on the blog . We pretty
much interested on how to address these
anomalies than just mere opinions.
Everyone has an opinion so spare us your
opinions and give us more of
possible and practical solutions to resolve
this head on and make sure it is
included in the constitution making
system.
http://zimplace.blogspot.com
Ndabezinhle
Ndlovu - Washington D.C.
+ 1 202-642-2565
ndaba70@gmail.com