http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
July 18, 2008
PRETORIA (AFP) - South
African President Thabo Mbeki, under pressure to
expand his troubled
mediation efforts, agreed Friday to work more closely
with the African Union
and UN to bring an end to the Zimbabwe crisis.
After Mbeki held talks
with African Union commission chairman Jean Ping and
the United Nations' top
envoy to Harare , officials announced a new body
would be established to
provide regular progress updates and allow for
greater input.
But
although Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai greeted the
announcement as evidence that the Mbeki-led mediation was being expanded,
the South African government stressed that they remained in
charge.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of the 14-nation SADC bloc heard a
warning that
the crisis sparked by disputed elections which ended in veteran
President
Robert Mugabe's re-election had the potential to destabilise the
whole
region.
Although Mbeki made no comment after the talks, his
right hand man in the
mediation process - a task first handed to him by his
peers in SADC a year
ago - said a new "reference group" was being set up to
include the AU and
UN.
"They will get briefings on a regular basis
from the facilitator," said
Sydney Mufamadi, a member of Mbeki's
cabinet.
"If a member of the reference group. wants to make a strategic
input, they
are welcome," he told reporters.
Haile Menkerios, the
UN's special representative to Zimbabwe , endorsed
Mbeki continuing in his
role as mediator even though he has made little
headway so far in efforts to
bring about some kind of power-sharing
arrangement.
"We fully support
the effort of SADC, (and) the mediator," he said.
"This (the new
reference group) is a way, a mechanism, through which that
support could be
expressed."
Meanwhile Ping also gave his support to Mbeki, saying he was
"satisfied by
the briefing, by the decision" on the new reference
group.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party and ZANU-PF
began
preliminary talks last week aimed at establishing a framework for
substantive negotiations under South African mediation.
But
Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe into second place in the first round of
voting
in March and does not recognise his old rival's re-election, has so
far
refused to put his name to a framework deal.
Although there had been
hopes of an agreement being signed on Wednesday,
Mufamadi acknowledged that
the talks between the two sides were still stuck.
"Our understanding is
that the parties are still considering the draft of
understanding that was
produced by the negotiator," he said.
Tsvangirai, who has accused Mbeki
of being too biased towards Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe and
previously called for him to be axed as the
chief mediator, meanwhile said
he welcomed the involvement of the AU and UN.
"We welcome the appointment
of these eminent persons to work with President
Mbeki and I look forward to
us all using our collective energies to resolve
the Zimbabwean crisis and
alleviate the suffering of the people in the
shortest time possible," he
told AFP.
The talks between between Ping and Mbeki were the pair's first
since Mugabe's
re-election in a one-man poll on June 27.
The ballot
was widely denounced as a sham in the West after Tsvangirai
boycotted the
run-off following a wave of deadly attacks on his supporters.
The crisis
also topped the agenda at a two-day meeting of SADC foreign
ministers in
South Africa 's east coast city of Durban which kicked off with
an ominous
warning from Angola , a traditional ally of Mugabe.
"This could be an
obstacle to regional peace and has created an
unprecedented situation in the
history of our organisation," Angolan Foreign
Minister Joao Miranda
said.
"It's a very worrying situation involving basic democratic
principles. There
are many interpretations on the same phenomenon and the
unity and cohesion
of SADC could be weakened by it."
http://zimbabwemetro.com
By Gerald Harper ⋅ © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ July 18, 2008
⋅
The Thabo Mbeki led mediation between the MDC and ZANU PF has been
expanded
to include a reference group consisting of the Southern African
Development
Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations
(UN) with
which President Thabo Mbeki will liaise on an ongoing
basis.
This is according to a statement released by the South Africa’s
President ’s
office on Friday.
The statement was issued following a
meeting between Mbeki and the
chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Jean Ping, the special
representative of the chairperson of the SADC Organ
on Defence Politics and
Security, George Chikoti, and the special
representative of the UN Secretary
General, Assistant Secretary General
Haile Menkerios.
“All parties agreed with the framework proposed by
President Mbeki to
facilitate a solution to the challenges in
Zimbabwe.”
The expasion of the mediation to include represenatives from
the UN and the
AU was one of the conditions the MDC had demanded before
serious talks
begin.
The meeting comes as abritrary arrest and
violence against MDC supporters is
starting to escalate.Yesterday State
security agents in Bulawayo abducted
and severely assulted 15 MDC youths
including its provincial Chairman, and
today Reuben Mutewe an MDC chairman
who has been criticall ill following
beatings at the hands of ZANU PF
militia passed away bring the death toll to
116,but some independent
observers say the toll could be as high as 500.
Radio New Zealand
Published at 12:04pm on 19 July 2008
A group of senior
diplomats are to help South African President Thabo Mbeki
in his efforts to
solve Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Envoys will be drawn from the United
Nations, African Union and the Southern
African Development
Community.
The move has been welcomed by Zimbabwe's opposition leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai, who has been critical of Mr Mbeki.
Mr Tsvangirai
is currently considering entering power-sharing talks with
President Robert
Mugabe.
Sydney Mufamadi, a close aide of Mr Mbeki, announced the creation
of a
"reference group" consisting of African Union head Jean Ping, the UN's
Zimbabwe envoy Haile Menkerios and Sadc official George Chikoti.
Mr
Mufamadi said Mr Mbeki had proposed the group during talks with the
envoys
in Pretoria on Friday.
"[It] will get briefings on a regular basis," he
said. "If a member of the
reference group .wants to make a strategic input,
they are welcome."
Analysts say Mr Mbeki is keen to remain the main
mediator in the talks.
In a statement, Mr Tsvangirai welcomed the
"appointment of a reference group
of eminent Africans who will work with
President Mbeki and the main parties
in Zimbabwe to find a peaceful
negotiated solution to the Zimbabwean
crisis".
Mbeki biased, says
MDC
A memorandum of understanding setting out the conditions for talks on a
possible power-sharing agreement was expected to be signed by Mr Mugabe and
Mr Tsvangirai this week.
But Mr Tsvangirai did not sign it, insisting
that his demands had not yet
been met.
His party, the Movement for
Democratic Change, had identified Mr Mbeki - the
lead negotiator in the
talks - as a key problem.
They accused him of being biased towards Mr
Mugabe, and Mr Tsvangirai had
asked for another envoy to join the talks
alongside Mr Mbeki.
The MDC has set several other conditions for talks,
including the end of
government-backed violence it says has killed 120 of
its supporters.
It also wants Mr Tsvangirai's victory in the first round
of the presidential
vote on 29 March to be officially accepted.
Mr
Mbeki was appointed in 2007 by Sadc, a regional grouping, to mediate in
Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.
Copyright © 2008 Radio New
Zealand
SW Radio
Africa (London)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July
2008
Tichaona Sibanda
Businesses that are helping to prop up
Robert Mugabe's regime will be
included in a new sanctions list being drawn
by the European Union,
according to reports from Brussels.
The
majority of business people who back Mugabe's regime have control over
high
profile companies in the country. A number of them enjoy monopolies in
industries like agriculture, construction, mining, textiles, manufacturing,
retail and banking.
Hebson Makuvise, the MDC chief representative
in the UK, said the same
people denounce Western countries and their leaders
during the day, 'but hop
onto a plane by night to visit the same
countries.'
Makuvise said during his brief visit to the EU in Brussels
recently, all
talk was about the sham elections and how the regime has
overseen the
destruction of the country, through greed.
He said when
he left Brussels, the EU were still working on the list, based
on
information supplied by their embassies in Harare. The EU currently
targets
more than 130 individuals with visa bans and an asset freeze. The EU
intends
to add around 40 people to that list, some from the security
apparatus of
the regime, identified as being involved in the election
crackdown, plus the
business figures helping prop it up.
There are reports that five
companies could also be hit and it would be the
first time that business
people and companies in the country had been
targeted by EU visa bans and
asset freeze.
Meanwhile reports from Maputo, Mozambique say authorities
in that country
are considering setting up temporary refugee screening
centres for thousands
of Zimbabweans who have fled across into its
territory.
Goncalves Sengo, the head of the national refugee assistance
institution,
said transit centres would be set up for screening purposes.
Details of the
asylum seekers would be taken to see if their claims fit with
international
refugee statutes, said Sengo. The number of Zimbabweans who
have fled into
Mozambique is not officially documented, but there has been a
steady rise of
immigrants fleeing political persecution.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
18 July
2008
Police in Gweru, capital of Zimbabwe's Midlands
province, on Friday raided
the offices of the National Association of
Non-Governmental Organizations
today, arresting the organization's
provincial chairman and confiscating
files on the victims of political
violence.
Witnesses said police officers from the local law and order
section came
Friday morning and took Peter Muchengeti away for questioning,
brought him
back later for questioning in the offices, then took him away
again. His
whereabouts late Friday were not known.
Muchengeti, also
Midlands provincial manager for the Zimbabwe Civic
Education Trust, had
recently brought a court action against the police for
shutting down
non-governmental organizations in the province.
His lawyer, Reginald
Chidavanyika, said he had received calls from the
police demanding to know
why Muchengeti brought suit over the closures of
the civic
organizations.
http://www.worldontheweb.com
Written by Anthony Randazzo
July 18,
2008
The faux-elections are over but Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is
facing
opposition to his rule. The United States and other western powers
put forth
a stern resolution to the UN Security Council last week, asking
for an
embargo on weapons shipped to the African nation. Considering that
the
Mugabe regime reportedly killed 113 opposition party members in the past
three months, this request seems reasonable, but Russia and China vetoed the
resolution.
The resolution also asked for an international travel ban
and freeze on the
personal assets of Mugabe and 13 of his top officials.
Considering that
Mugabe forced out his top rivals and declared he would not
honor the results
of any election he did not win, saying, "We are not going
to give up our
country because of a mere X" on some paper ballot, this
request seems
reasonable.
The resolution also asked for a UN special
envoy to be sent to Zimbabwe to
observe the conduct of the government.
Considering Mugabe's thugs burned a
six-year old alive along with his
pregnant mother in June, while his cronies
have run the nation's economy
into ground with 2.2 million percent
inflation, this request seems
reasonable.
The official reasoning from China and Russia is that they
believed the
resolution was outside the charter of the Security Council.
Thomas Friedman
wrote in a NYTimes op-ed that China and Russia thought the
resolution was
illegitimate and dangerous, but "Mugabe's campaign of murder
and
intimidation strike [them] as 'illegitimate and dangerous'. Shameful.
Meanwhile, China is hosting the Olympics, a celebration of the human spirit,
while defending Mugabe's right to crush his own people's
spirit."
Zimbabwe claims the resolution could spark a civil war and turn
the county
"into another Somalia." Zimbabwe's U.N. mission sent a letter to
the
Security Council arguing that, "in their obsession with 'regime change,'
Britain and the USA are determined to ignore real, entrenched, fundamental
and enduring issues that lie at the heart of Zimbabwe's internal
politics."
Though the UN resolution said nothing of removing Mugabe by
force or
dissolving his government, Zimbabwe insisted the resolution would
"Somalianize" the nation by leaving it without a
leader.
2 Comments to "'Illegitimate and dangerous'
regime"
1.. 1. by NJLawyer 07.18.08 at 5:52 pm
Whatever the US or
Britain ignore with respect to Zimbabwe's internal
politics is irrelevant in
the face of this butchery. If Mugabe was ordering
the murder of children, I
might have some "sympathy" for his position. But
when the repression of the
people isn't just economic, when dissenting
results in murder by
dismemberment, then the inmates are in charge of the
asylum and they should
be stopped. That Russia and China won't join the West
in condemning what
they, too, call illegitimate and dangerous only proves to
me that they are
still our enemies, too. We should watch them carefully.
2.. 2. by
michelle 07.18.08 at 5:52 pm
Read Friedman's Op/Ed piece, it's
powerful.
Somalianize the nation? Zimbabwe doesn't have a leader right
now. They
have a thug in power.
And the same probably could be said
about the UN.
Darfur anyone?
July 18, 2008 at 14:22:20
by Clutton Patsika
http://www.opednews.com
This
morning I phoned a guy to enquire about prices for the following items.
I
did this having, like many, become curious of the recent upsurge in
inflation. The central bank boss put the figure at 2.2 million percent. I
estimate it at about 11.8 million percent. Anyway, here are the
shockers.
Cell sim card = US$140 yes US dollars!!!!!!!!
Lobels' Loaf
of Bread = US$5
2 litres cooking oil = US$59
200 square metres high
density stand = US$3500
400 square metres medium density stand = US$15
000
And the shocker...Apple's Iphone (not the latest 3G one) = US$1350
And
an old house in a low density suburb of Marlbourough = US$135
000
Meanwhile,
Journalist earns Z$80 billion
Teacher earns Z$160
billion
Doctor earns Z$360 billion
To simplify things US$1 = Z$5
trillion which means the majority of these
workers are earning less than a
dollar a month. Now my point is, guys, our
country has collapsed. The
situation is untenable and will take generations
to change. I therefore ask
everyone, Zimbabwean or friends, to help us stop
the madness that has become
our nation by declaring Zimbabwe a WORLD
DISASTER. We have a responsibility
of securing the future of our children in
a free and equal opportunity
Zimbabwe. That society should be one where
every citizen can exercise their
constitutional right to be human. Such a
society can only begin by removing
the rot that has been inflicted upon us
by those who claim to have freed
us.
So the question is and will remain. How do we remove these bastards?
Some
will say through talks about talks of talks of unity. My question is
whose
unity? Who is fighting? Do I want unity? No I want a free and fair
society.
I want the freedom to choose. I want the freedom to remove Zanu PF
through
the ballot box. Freedom must come by any means necessary and a
Government of
National Unity is not a means to and end. For that reason I
applaud
Tsvangirai for not signing any MOU. What Zimbabwe needs and will
alway need
are free and fair elections.
PLEASE PASS THE WORD ON- Our
leaders have broadband, access to state media,
while we the poor have to
deal with this disgusting sytem and have to blog
our way to make a
point.
Veteran journalist Clutton Patsika has held senior editorial
positions in
banned newspapers in Zimbabwe. He survives by the grace of God
as
journalists are not allowed to practice in Zimbabwe unless they pander.
His
writings are inspired by Caribbean music.
Clutton Patsika
a Zimbabwean journalist with The Southern Cross, a Catholic
weekly has
worked in a senior capacity for various newspapers in Zimbabwe
including the
Zimbabwe Daily Mirror and Daily News all shut down by the
government. He
specialises in development communication and popular culture.
Trained in the
UK, Japan and Zimbabwe, Clutton, believes that effective
communication is
achieved through simple ordinary day language. He survives
by the grace of
God as journalism is banned in Zimbabwe, unless you pander.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
18
July 2008
The announcement this week by the governor of
Zimbabwe's central bank that
hyperinflation had topped 2 million percent
came as no surprise to consumers
in the country who have been chasing prices
for years and whose lives have
been devastated by inflation's
effects.
Shortages of staple maize meal, meat, sugar, cooking oil, fuel
and even cash
have become a way of life amidst continuing economic collapse.
Most
observers doubted a new state program promising key commodities at
affordable prices would deliver as promised or last very long.
The
average Zimbabwean worker makes about Z$200 billion a month, but
commuter
fares run Z$50 billion one-way, and a loaf of bread if it can be
found costs
Z$150 billion.
To measure the impact of hyperinflation, reporter Blessing
Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe turned to economist Prosper Chitambara,
formerly of
the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Harare
and now with
Birmingham University in England, and Japhet Moyo, deputy
secretary general
of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
Moyo said
most Zimbabweans are no longer bothering to go to work because
salaries do
not meet even basic living expenses. Chitambara said many
households have
adjusted by eating just one meal a day, among other
adaptation
mechanisms.
Some Zimbabweans facing an ever-weakening currency and
hyperinflation say
tough times are pushing them into criminal activities, as
Studio 7
correspondent Taurai Shava reported from Gweru, capital of Midlands
province.
Shamva resident and Studio 7 listener Munyaradzi told
reporter Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye that budgeting is now a thing of the
past as living costs
far exceed incomes.
http://philanthropy.com
By Caroline
Preston
Six weeks after a directive from Zimbabwe's government ground aid
work in
the country to a halt, charities' efforts to resume their operations
have
largely been thwarted and more than a million people are still living
without food aid and medical care.
A letter from CARE, Plan
International, Save the Children UK, and a handful
of other groups this week
requesting that the government lift its ban on
humanitarian work was
rebuffed by Zimbabwean officials, who said the
informal nonprofit coalition
wasn't registered with the government.
While World Vision plans to
partially reopen its office next week and resume
a feeding program to
schools, most charities are still in limbo.
"Everyone is just waiting and
hoping," said Hearly Mayr, a spokesman with
Adventist Development and Relief
Agency International.
Somewhat encouraging for aid groups, however, is
that the prohibition on
humanitarian work has been relaxed somewhat since it
was first announced in
a letter on June 4th. Government officials have said
that aid to chronically
ill people and to schoolchildren can continue amidst
the ban.
A skeletal staff plans to return to World Vision's main office
in Zimbabwe
on Monday to help provide such assistance. Meanwhile, the
Consortium of
Southern Africa Food Security Emergency, which organizes food
aid on behalf
of CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and World Vision, expects
to resume the
delivery of food next week to 400,000 children.
Edward
Brown, chief of party for the consortium, said some local government
officials had requested that his group resume food aid. But he worried that
police officers might still stop aid workers and prevent them from gaining
entry to schools.
"It's a question of the right hand not knowing what
the left hand is doing,"
he said. "We're trying to be as careful as possible
because we don't want to
put the people we serve or our staff at
risk."
The ban on aid work was imposed by Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe's party
in part to quell political opposition ahead of the country's
June 27th
presidential election. Some aid workers were hopeful that the
suspension
would be lifted following the election, but so far, those hopes
have fallen
flat.
Mr. Brown said that even if the ban is lifted, it
will take some time before
operations can return to normal.
"It's
like General Motors stopping the production of their cars for over a
month,"
he said. "It takes a while to get that machine running on all
cylinders
again."
Many aid groups say they expect the number of people in Zimbabwe
needing
food to triple by the end of the year, to more than 3
million.
Friday July 18, 2008
Zim Online
by Prince Nyathi Saturday 19 July
2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe's labour movement called on
Friday for more targeted
sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his
top officials it holds
responsible for an unprecedented economic meltdown
that has condemned
thousands of workers into poverty and
destitution.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)'s call
for more sanctions
came as regional efforts to broker a solution to
Zimbabwe's political and
economic crisis gathered steam as South African
President Thabo Mbeki held
talks with African Union (AU) Commission chairman
Jean Ping on the country's
problems.
Mbeki is the Southern
African Development Community (SADC)'s chief
mediator on Zimbabwe and met
Ping to discuss possible ways to step up
dialogue between Mugabe's ruling
ZANU PF party and the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
party.
ZCTU acting secretary general Japhet Moyo said in a
statement that the
union backed Western calls for tighter sanctions against
Mugabe, his ruling
ZANU PF party and private businesses helping prop up the
Harare
administration.
"Zimbabwean workers appreciate what the
international community has
been putting in place as measures to punish the
ruling elite, and these
measures have been mostly travel bans and
disinvestment on ZANU PF
companies," Moyo said.
"Our position
is that those targeted sanctions and boycott of ZANU PF
businesses should
remain, and even tightened," the union leader added.
The European
Union (EU) has indicated that it will next Tuesday impose
tougher sanctions
on Zimbabwe that will for the first time also target
companies linked to
Mugabe's government.
United States President George Bush said
earlier this week that his
government would also consider expanding
bilateral sanctions against Mugabe's
administration after a bid to impose
United Nations-backed sanctions on the
Zimbabwe's leadership was last week
blocked by Russia and China.
The EU, US Switzerland, Australia and
New Zealand have since 2002
maintained visa and financial sanctions on more
than 130 top officials of
Mugabe's government as well as an arms embargo
against Zimbabwe.
The EU and the US have demanded more drastic
action against Mugabe
after he defied calls by African leaders, the UN
Security Council and
Western nations to postpone a June 27 presidential
run-off election because
widespread political violence and gross human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe made
a free and fair vote impossible.
Several African observers including those from the AU condemned the
run-off
election in which Mugabe was the sole candidate after MDC leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai pulled out saying political violence against his
supporters made
free and fair voting impossible, while the West and a
handful of African
countries have said they will not recognise Mugabe's
government.
However, the AU has resisted calls by Western
nations for sanctions
against Mugabe and instead used its summit in Egypt
last month to urge the
Zimbabwean leader to open negotiations with the
opposition for government of
national unity to resolve the country's crisis.
- ZimOnline
AT THE SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE BORDER — For those desperate souls who would sneak across this frontier, consider the obstacles: Armed bandits. A river, low this time of year but still populated by crocodiles and man-mauling hippos. Multiple rows of fences watched by zealous border guards. And all along the goal is to enter a country that's dangerously hostile to immigrants.
Yet to escape President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, the risks increasingly appear to be worth taking.
One of the largest illegal migrations in the world continues to swell as Zimbabweans stream into South Africa, fleeing a brutal crackdown by Mugabe in the run-up to last month's presidential election. Zimbabwe's main opposition party says that security forces and government militias have killed more than 100 of its members and abused or tortured thousands of others.
Three weeks after the election, which Mugabe won by default when his opponent withdrew because of the violence, hundreds of political activists remain in jail. Mugabe's militias haven't been disarmed.
A decade-long economic collapse already had emptied Zimbabwe of nearly a third of its people, but human rights groups say that the election attacks accelerated the flight into South Africa. Every week, soldiers and police arrest dozens, sometimes hundreds, of illegal migrants near the main border crossing outside the town of Musina. Authorities say that many more sneak across undetected.
The influx is putting more pressure on South Africa, the continent's most prosperous nation but one that views its estimated 5 million African immigrants — who form more than one-tenth of the population — with a volatile mixture of fear and resentment. In May, more than 60 were killed in an eruption of anti-immigrant violence across the country.
Most of the immigrants — some say as many as 3 million — come from Zimbabwe, the vast majority of them undocumented. In recent weeks, thousands have arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa's economic capital. Hungry and destitute, they're passing the coldest nights of the year in public parks, in the hallways of apartments in immigrant enclaves, on street corners and in churches.
"I'm very alarmed at the increase," said Paul Verryn, bishop of the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, which has sheltered refugees for two decades. These days more than 2,000 Zimbabweans — teachers, doctors, laborers, students, mothers and their infant children — fill every room in the church, spilling into the stairwells and onto the pavement outside.
"The church has never received as many people as we are on a daily basis," Verryn said.
Among them is 29-year-old Tendai Mundoza, who jumped the border with her family last month after government militias badly beat her husband, an opposition supporter, outside their home in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. Her teenage brother was abducted before the election and hasn't been heard from.
To make the crossing, the family scrounged together 5,000 South African rand, about $650. After surrendering half of it to Zimbabwean bandits who patrol the border, crossing a dry patch over the Limpopo River and spending the rest of the money to bribe their way past South African police, Mundoza now sleeps alongside her two young children in a room crowded with more than 50 others.
"It's very difficult here," she said as her 10-month-old dozed on the thin cotton blanket that serves as the family bed. "It's too congested. The children become sick. But we can't go back home."
The destination for most illegal crossings is Musina, which has the gritty feel of border towns in the American Southwest. White police vans roam the streets after dark while young migrants huddle under the dim lights of bus stops, waiting for rides south.
One recent night, along the busy Johannesburg highway, a half-dozen disheveled young men emerged from the bushes behind a truck stop. Wordlessly, they filled four 2-liter soda bottles with water from a hose next to a gas pump and gulped the water like camels. Then they trudged off to the side of the highway, where one of them pointed his right forefinger into the dark sky, the signal for a lift to Johannesburg.
The disparities between one side of this border and the other are stark.
South Africa, with its modern cities and industrial economy, is the powerhouse of Africa, while Zimbabwe's economy has been shrinking faster than any other in the world.
Under Mugabe, the only president that independent Zimbabwe has known, 2 million percent inflation has pushed the prices of basic goods such as soap, salt, cooking oil and flour to stratospheric levels. Eight in 10 people don't have jobs, and with hospitals shuttered and diseases such as tuberculosis ravaging the population, life expectancy has fallen to 36 years.
The misery reached new depths after Mugabe lost a first-round election in March to Morgan Tsvangirai, a populist former labor leader. Soldiers, police officers and pro-government militias fanned out across the country, beating and mutilating so many opposition supporters that Tsvangirai pulled out of the runoff vote in hopes of easing the bloodshed.
Many Zimbabweans arrive in South Africa paralyzed with fear.
Jacqueline Tlapi, who handles asylum cases for the nonprofit South Africa Women's Institute for Migration Affairs, described the case of a preschool teacher who, as an art project, had her class make handprints in paint.
The open palm with five fingers raised, however, happens to be a symbol of Tsvangirai's party. When some parents saw their children's handprints, Tlapi said, they notified local ruling-party officials. Soon afterward, government militiamen came to the teacher's home and threatened to kill her.
"It is a traumatized nation," said Malose Langa, a Johannesburg psychologist who's counseled hundreds of Zimbabwean torture victims.
South Africa's official response to the catastrophe on its doorstep has been the political equivalent of a raised eyebrow. President Thabo Mbeki has been widely criticized for downplaying the violence and, as the designated mediator between the parties, being too soft on Mugabe.
Mbeki's government continues to treat Zimbabwean refugees like migrants from any other country, forcing them to wade through an asylum system that's universally regarded as dysfunctional.
The Department of Home Affairs, the government immigration agency, is severely understaffed and beset by corruption. Every day, refugees from across Africa line up by the hundreds outside reception centers in Johannesburg and other cities, waiting for hours and often sleeping overnight just to get in the door.
Many Zimbabweans say that their requests for asylum are rejected arbitrarily.
The department "has perpetuated another kind of violence against already vulnerable people," said Verryn, the Methodist bishop.
While more than 44,000 Zimbabweans claimed asylum from 2005 to 2007, only 241 were recognized as refugees from 2004 to 2006, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
As a result, most Zimbabweans remain undocumented, at risk of arrest or deportation at any time.
"It's completely unacceptable from a humanitarian and legal perspective," said Jonathan Whittall, a program officer with the aid agency Doctors Without Borders. "These people must have access to asylum."
To get his asylum papers, Roy Majengwa, a 40-year-old carpenter from Harare, went to the immigrant reception center in the grimy suburb of Crown Mines at 10 p.m. the night after he reached Johannesburg.
Wearing every item of clothing he'd brought from Zimbabwe, Majengwa spent the night on the street outside the center. It was after noon the next day when he emerged from the gated brick building with a stamped paper granting him six months' temporary asylum.
"Now I can concentrate on finding work," he said. "If I work for one week, I can send a packet of rice back to my family. Or fish oil or salt. At least the children will be able to eat."
xinhua
www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-19
05:08:27
MOSCOW, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Kenyan Foreign
Minister Moses
Wetangula said Friday that the engagement of third countries
in the
settlement of Zimbabwe's problems may be harmful, the Itar-Tass news
agency
reported.
"Parties to the conflict have agreed to
start dialog, so it is
inexpedient to engage third states," Wetangula told a
press conference after
talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov."
That may be harmful for
the dialog."
"We believe that
results of the Zimbabwean elections did not
mirror the will of the people.
The Sharm El Sheikh summit elaborated the
common African position: it is
necessary to hold negotiations and settle
Zimbabwean problems peacefully. We
favor direct negotiations between the
conflicting sides," the minister
said.
"Any additional steps of the African Union should promote
rather
than slow down the settlement process. In this case, the UN Security
Council
did not help measures planned by the African Union," he
said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that the UN
Security
Council would have set a "dangerous precedent" by adopting the
resolution on
Zimbabwe put forward by some Western nations.
Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution in the UN
Security Council
on July 11 that would impose sanctions on Zimbabwe over the
country's
presidential run-off election in late June.
The failed text
calls for a travel ban and an assets freeze on
President Robert Mugabe and
his top officials, as well as an arms embargo.
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk
19
July 2008
Nigerian president
Umaru Yar'Adua has hit out at Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe,
despite his own
election being criticised by international observers.
Mr Yar'Adua,
addressing an audience of Chatham House members in London, said
his
government does not recognise the uncontested June 27th runoff vote
which
returned Mr Mugabe to power.
His comments come one year after he admitted
"lapses and shortcomings" in
the vote which brought him to power. The May
2007 poll was criticised by
international observers for ballot-rigging and
voter intimidation.
"Nigeria's goal is a commitment to the development of
genuine democracy to
ensure that genuine democracy becomes the dominant
culture that provides a
framework for development on the African continent,"
Mr Yar'Adua said.
"Africans must ensure that we anchor democracy on
credible elections. We
could not recognise the runoff election as the basis
of a solution to the
Zimbabwe crisis.
"We still offer our belief in
the rule of law not only in Nigeria but
anywhere on the
continent."
Responding to questions about the issue of his own
legitimacy, Mr Yar'Adua
said he had laid out electoral reform plans for
Nigeria in his inaugural
address and remained committed to seeing through
the changes needed.
"We only deceive ourselves if we continue to pretend
that post-election
[violence] is not a threat to peace and stability," he
added, underlining
"our abiding belief that persistent stability cannot
survive in a system
without the rule of law".
His focus, he
explained, is on ensuring the rule of law as much in the
unstable Niger
Delta as elsewhere in the country.
The region has been blighted by
security problems thanks to the activities
of the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend). It costs 1.5
million barrels a day
in production and has been contributed to high energy
prices currently
afflicting global markets.
Earlier this week the UK government pledged
its own support on the problem,
providing "robust accounting systems" to
deal with oil smuggling and a
maritime training centre to aid security in
the wider region.
"The government and people of Nigeria greatly
appreciate the offer of help
from the British prime minister Gordon Brown
that Britain is willing to
partner Nigeria in finding a lasting solution,"
Mr Yar'Adua said.
He qualified his assessments about prospects for quick
improvements in the
Delta, however, describing his approach as "pragmatic"
and talking of a
"daunting challenge" facing his country.
The
People's Democratic party (PDP) leader was quick to emphasise the
investment
potential Nigeria offers and said he was committed to improving
its
infrastructure.
A protester shouted abuse at Mr Yar'Adua as he left the
Chatham House event,
underlining the dissent which critics say continues to
linger in Abuja and
across Nigeria.
Almost all the election
challenges nullified by the courts have come from
the 28 of Nigeria's 36
states controlled by the PDP.
"You expect, just picking by chance, you
are likely to pick first from my
party," Mr Yar'Adua explained. The audience
reacted with laughter.
Sokwanele
My Fellow
Zimbabweans
Throughout the world today, people are commemorating the 90th
birthday of
one of Africa's greatest leaders, Nelson Mandela. To Mr.
Mandela, we say,
Makorokoto. You remain a shining light to our people, to
me, and to fellow
leaders in the struggle for true liberation of all our
people.
As Mr. Mandela sagely advised years ago, the road to freedom is
long and
requires great sacrifices. Our colleagues in the MDC and the
democratic
movement - students, churches, civil society organizations - have
all made
courageous sacrifices on this long road to free Zimbabwe from
tyranny.
As a result of your brave spirit and peaceful heroism, the
international
community knows now more than ever that Zimbabwe's leadership
crisis has hit
new depths of shame. They know Mr. Mugabe is an illegitimate
President. Your
voices were heard. SADC, AU and Pan African Parliament
observers heard your
voices on June 27th and reported to the world your
words: "this is not an
election," you said, "this is a war to silence the
people."
So, my Fellow Zimbabweans, are we today still strong enough and
brave enough
to make it through the next stage of our liberation? We are
tired, yes. But,
of course, we shall not give up! We shall not waiver now!
The will of the
people shall prevail!
As much as some would try to
confuse our people with mind games, detours and
delays, we still know what
we want. Our goal has not changed. We must not
let exhaustion and despair
cause us to lose sight of our only destination -
a New Zimbabwe where once
again our people enjoy the basics of life - food,
jobs, dignity, peace and
hope.
We are in a different struggle now. There are those who want to
wear us
down. There are those who want to wear down your belief that change
is
possible. They want us to forget that we are the winners - that we won a
historic victory on 29 March. There are those who want each and every one of
us to feel beaten, physically and psychologically - into submission and into
compromise.
But, let me tell you now, their attacks have had the
opposite result. Those
who have tried to crush our spirits have not
succeeded. They have further
emboldened us. Our people still want change.
Our people still demand change.
Where are we then, today? So many mixed
messages and lies are being told to
our people. Now is the time for truth.
Now is the time to stop the violence.
Now is the time to take genuine steps
to move the process forward.
Many of our brothers and sisters in Africa,
from SADC to the AU, continue to
stand with the people of Zimbabwe as we
begin this process. On this historic
day of celebration of Madiba's
birthday, another important meeting has taken
place between President Mbeki
and AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping.
A result of this meeting, we
welcome today's appointment of a reference
group of eminent Africans who
will work with President Mbeki and the main
parties in Zimbabwe to find a
peaceful negotiated solution to the Zimbabwean
crisis.
As we strive
to restore the dignity of our country and our people, we pray
that those in
the regime in the position to halt the violence, persecution
and starvation
of our people will immediately and urgently do so. We pray
that without
delay they demonstrate their genuine commitment to a
negotiation process
that heals our ravaged land and violently betrayed
people.
My fellow
Zimbabweans, we share with our colleagues from throughout the
democratic
movement the deep desire to end the crisis as soon as possible
without
sacrificing justice or fairness. We share with the people of
Zimbabwe the
deep concern that normality and stability must be restored
immediately. We
share with our fellow Zimbabweans in the security services
the deep
awareness that they are still being asked to carry out activities
that
breach professional codes of conduct. We share with many of our fellow
Zimbabweans in ZANU PF the profound hope and belief that the time to heal
the country is now.
On this day where the world celebrates the iconic
leadership of Nelson
Mandela - his heroic vision, tolerance, forgiveness and
humility - let us
all set our sights on ending our own leadership crisis -
also with vision,
tolerance, forgiveness and humility.
Together let
us agree to do the right thing for the Zimbabwean people.
Together let us
respect their voices as expressed on 29 March.
Together let us rise above
the divisive paranoia, fear and selfishness that
chains us to endless
poverty. Together let us finally deliver to the
Zimbabwean people the true
liberation and peace they so desperately wait
for. We have a historic
opportunity to bring healing and hope.
Together let us
begin.
Makorokoto Mr. Mandela!
May your heroic spirit continue to
bless the people of Africa and the world.
A luta continua.
I thank
you and may God bless Zimbabwe.
(via an MDC Press
Release)
This entry was written by Sokwanele on Friday, July
18th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
July 19, 2008
DEAR Mr. Thabo
Mbeki,
I had wanted to address you as comrade but it is clear there is no
camaraderie between you and the people of Zimbabwe.
Your cares lie
mainly in the appeasement of President Robert Mugabe - for
what, we don't
know. Many say because you want to keep the whites in South
Afica at bay by
threatening them with this Zimbabwe precedence and many say
because Mugabe
kept you in exile in Harare.
Personally, I find you somehow responsible
for the murder and misery of so
many Zimbabweans. When you could have
stopped Mugabe, you chose to point
your finger elsewhere. Where Mugabe is
wrong, you choose to say it behind
closed doors; in effect giving him
courage. You have not uttered a word on
the evils, the statements, the
deeds, the violence, the torture, the rape,
the pictures, the injuries of
the Zimbabwean people.
The children of Zimbabwe have cried and you have
not listened - for years!
Instead, you have set dates when the Zimbabwe
solution would be found and
you were found lacking even at that time. No
solution has been found not for
even one date, deadline or promise! Every
promise Mugabe has made seems to
have been drafted by you and you have said
absolutely nothing about the
broken promises. So why should the MDC listen
to you now and sign anything?
The MDC are clearly fools and you are doing a
good job parading them as such
and proving them to be such.
Don't you
ever dare come to Zimbabwe when our people shake off these
shackles!! Don't
ever mention our name on your lips, ever!! Don't ever look
across the
Limpopo at the supposed 'not a province' of South Afrika. Shame
on you Mr.
Mbeki!! May the true African revolutionaries stand up!! Your
African
renaissance and NEPAD are just hot air.
There will not be an African
solution here. You make us Africans ashamed -
how can you look at such evil
and violence in the eye and keep saying that
'there is no crisis'? Please
sir, never ever, ever, ever come to Zimbabwe
when we are free.you will not
be welcome.you are a reminder of pain, agony,
appeasement and absolute
evil.
You have passed your evil and intolerance to your people. Now South
Africans
are known as xenophobes and haters. May Zimbabweans remember these
evil
people south of us and may their turn come where we are going to see no
crisis and no evil. Mr Mbeki, you have taught your people evil and may you
fry and rot in it - that is why your own ANC wants to get rid of you. Is
that why you wanted to change the constitution for a third
term?
Please do not forget not to come to Zimbabwe, ever!
Diliza
Muthwa Ndlovu