Harare - The effect of the crackled message over the radio
in the pickup truck parked in front of the farmers' club at 3.45 pm on Sunday
was electric. "We're on our way out," said the voice of Kim Nilson,
40. "We're on our way to you." The relief was palpable. "Mafeking's
been relieved," one farmer said quietly. "Thank god for that." Kerry
Kay, brisk and jokey all day, began to cry with quiet rage. Since
Friday afternoon, Iain Kay, 52, his son David, 22, and his neighbours,
Nilson and Trevor Steel, had faced a violent mob of 60 of President
Robert Mugabe's war veteran militias, keeping them at bay with a
pistol.
Most of the time, all that was between them was a narrow 3m
passage in Kay's homestead on his tobacco farm, Chipesa, about 100km east
of Harare. "If you come in the corridor, you will know all about it,"
Kay warned. The mob pressed round the doorway leading into the
passage, leaned right into the forbidden no-man's-land, trying to get
the soft-spoken farmer to pull the trigger. They withdrew at about 3pm
on Sunday after the belated arrival of a negotiating team of government
and ruling Zanu-PF officials.
A "reaction stick" of about 30 burly
farmers, waiting at the farm next door to Chipesa for a call to storm the
homestead to try to rescue Kay, drove in high spirits to the club. The four
men became the latest survivors in the psychological war of attrition waged
by Mugabe's militias of so-called guerrilla war veterans. They were
taunted, harassed and provoked. "There was someone in the crowd all the
time, telling them how far to push it," said Kay afterwards.
Some updates which came through during the siege :
Update 1
Situation in Zim at Chipepa Farm - URGENT
This
message is for SG and CM
This is an urgent
newsflash
The situation on Chipepa Farm in the Marondera farming district
in Zimbabwe has reached crisis point. Iain Kay and his wfe Kerry(?), their son
David, and two neighbouring farmers, Kim Nilson and Trevor Steel are
barricaded into the Kays home by war veterans. They have been there for 48
hours. There are about 60 - 100 warvets who are regularly charging the
homestead. the warvets are apparently armed, and the farmers are also armed.
Each time the warvets charge, so the farmers emerge with weapons and
challenge them. A very awkward situation is developing. The police are
refusing to get involved. The army base nearby are standing ready to react,
but are not doing anything. There are between 3 - 400 farmers ready to react
if the situation turns nasty.
It would appear that this is an
organised incident. This is not a casual occurrence with warvets, this is a
premeditated event, and the concern of the farmers is that there is a
potential trap waiting for them. They understand that there are mebers of the
CIO, mugabe's |Central Intelligence Organisation amongst the warvets, and
that the new Chairman of the warvets is also amongst them. The farmers
believe that the cio/ warvets are trying to force them to react in supprot of
the Kays in force, in order to literally have an all out battle with them,
using the armed forces stationed nearby. I don't need to tell you what a
tragedy this would be for the farmers, but for Zimbabwe as a
whole.
The main contact is a man called GJ . His tel. no is x. he is based in marondera. This needs as much coverage as we can
get.
Go For it !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yours aye,
JM
Update 2
"J has just heard that Iain Kay has agreed to vacate
his farm within 30 days. He tried for 90 days, but they were adamant it would
be 30 days."
Update 3
"J has just come in with the news that the situation on
Chipisa Farm, Ian Kay, has been diffused to a point, and they are out of the
house! He is a little angry in that we are not being kept informed, and so
don't know whether we should stand down, or stay on stand by. Most of the
information we are getting is on email via UK! That it for to night, will
keep you informed"
Marondera - A mob of Zimbabwean war veterans on Sunday
freed four white farmers they had been holding at a farm since Friday, one of
the released farmers said.
"They have allowed us to leave the farm now
after protracted negotiations," farm owner Iain Kay said at his Chipesa Farm,
80 kilometres east of the capital Harare.
"They said they want to take
over the farm. We hope we can come to some kind of agreement when tempers
have cooled down," he added.
The veterans beat up a farmworker earlier on
Sunday before withdrawing from the farmhouse where they had been holding and
threatening to kill the four farmers.
"But they are still on the
property, and it's clear that it's not safe for them (the farmers) to leave,"
neighbour Lindsey Campbell said before the farmers' release.
Invasions
encouraged by Mugabe
Campbell said on Saturday that 60 veterans had
invaded Kay's farm on Friday, beating up some employees, chasing away 120
others and forcing Kay and his son David to lock themselves in the
farmhouse.
President Robert Mugabe wants to seize thousands of farms
owned by whites for redistribution to landless blacks. His government has
encouraged its supporters to invade hundreds of farms in the past 18
months.
Campbell said the Kays were joined later on Friday by two
neighbouring farmers, Kim Nilson and Trevor Steel, who had come to try and
help.
A police official said some police were on the scene, but he
declined to discuss any details of the case.
A police constable was
shot dead at Kay's farm in April last year when it was first invaded by
militant supporters of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF, led by self-styled veterans
of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war.
Eight farmers killed in land grab
violence
Kay was severely assaulted at the time and left for dead. The
invaders moved out of the property months later, but have been coming back
and threatening to occupy the farm.
Eight farmers have been killed in
violence linked to the farm invasions.
Mugabe plans to confiscate five
million hectares of the 12 million hectares held by white farmers and has
earmarked more than 5 000 farms for redistribution to landless
blacks.
The farmers say they support the principle of land redistribution
but oppose land seizures.
'Lots of sympathy': 5,000 white-owned farms earmarked
for redistribution
Nicholas Kotch and Cris Chinaka
Reuters, with files from Agence France-Presse
Howard Burditt, Reuters
Kerry Kay and her husband, Iain, show the strain
following a three-day occupation of their farm in Zimbabwe on the
weekend.
LUSAKA - African foreign ministers backed Zimbabwe's controversial land
reform program yesterday and accused Britain of seeking to isolate and vilify
its former colony in Europe and North America, diplomatic sources said.
The ministers named South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, Kenya and
Zambia to a committee to support Zimbabwe in future talks with the European
Union and other parties on land reform, the sources said.
African diplomats said the resolution was unanimously adopted early yesterday
by the OAU council of ministers. It will be put to OAU heads of state today.
"Its very likely that it will go through in its present form. Zimbabwe was
seen as victim and there was lots of sympathy. The feeling was that the EU and
the United States were pressing too hard on Zimbabwe," a senior diplomat
said.
Zimbabwe has been mired in economic and political crisis since February,
2000, as self-styled war veterans, encouraged by the state, seized hundreds of
white-owned farms. Thirty-one people have been killed.
President Robert Mugabe contends land redistribution is necessary to address
a century-old imbalance in land ownership and says Britain, the country's former
colonial ruler, must pay compensation for the seized land. London has said it
will not finance land reform amidst chaos and disregard for the rule of law.
Mr. Mugabe plans to confiscate five million hectares of the 12 million
hectares held by white farmers and has earmarked more than 5,000 farms for
redistribution to landless blacks.
The farmers say they support the principle of land redistribution but oppose
land seizures.
In the latest incident, war veterans invaded a farm in western Zimbabwe
yesterday and forced tourists to abandon a hunting safari, the state ZIANA news
agency said.
Quoting farming officials, ZIANA said about 80 war veterans broke down the
gates at Cedric Wilde farm in Matabeleland North province, pegged out land and
forced a group of tourists to abandon a safari on the farm.
The independent Standard newspaper reported war veterans had invaded two
other game farms in the province, and demanded ostriches on them be killed after
the birds chased several of the invaders.
Since February last year, war veterans have led the often-violent invasions
of white-owned farms and businesses, and the tourist industry -- once a major
foreign exchange earner -- has seen a steep decline.
On Friday, the Independent newspaper said war veterans in central Zimbabwe
had ransacked the camp of four Spanish hunters and forced them to move out,
accusing them of being foreign journalists.
At a farm east of the capital, Harare, yesterday, a mob of war veterans freed
four white farmers they had been holding since Friday.
"They said they want to take over the farm. We hope we can come to some kind
of agreement when tempers have cooled down," said Iain Kay, owner of Chipesa
Farm.
Earlier yesterday, the veterans beat a farm worker before withdrawing from
the farmhouse where they had been holding and threatening to kill the four
farmers.
Neighbour Lindsey Campbell said 60 veterans had invaded Mr. Kay's farm on
Friday, beating some employees, chasing away 120 others and forcing Mr. Kay and
his son David to lock themselves in the farmhouse.
A police constable was shot dead at Mr. Kay's farm in April last year when it
was first invaded by militant supporters of Mr. Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF led by
self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war.
Mr. Kay was severely assaulted at the time and left for dead. The invaders
moved out of the property months later, but have been coming back and
threatening to occupy the farm.
In neighbouring South Africa, meanwhile, the opposition Pan Africanist
Congress yesterday called for an urgent land summit as more than 5,000 squatters
continued to occupy private land northeast of Johannesburg.
Land redistribution in South Africa has moved slowly, with just12,150 of
67,500 land claims granted since 1998.
Armed police yesterday raided the home of MDC member of
parliament for Hatfield, Tapiwa Mashakada, and arrested his security guard and
13 party youths. Mashakada told The Standard yesterday that two police
truckloads from Hatfield and Epworth police station raided his home just after
midnight and took away his security guards. The raid followed a spate of attacks
by war veterans and Zanu PF supporters on MDC supporters in Epworth which falls
under Hatfield constituency. "They (the police) banged my gate at around 1pm and
we opened for them. They then took my security guard but they were not violent.
I think they want to question him on the violence that has been taking place
here," said Mashakada.
The raid follows similar raids on MDC offices in Harare on
Thursday and another one on the party’s Bulawayo offices on Friday. Four people
died last week when violent clashes rocked Epworth, bringing the total number of
such casualties to six in 10 days. The four were buried yesterday in Epworth at
a ceremony attended by hundreds of MDC supporters and their MP. Mashakada took a
swipe at the police for arresting the MDC youths. He accused the force of being
biased and not arresting Zanu PF youths who killed MDC activists. "The police
have a right to investigate any cases but the law should not be applied
selectively. We have perpetrators of violence who have been positively
identified. The people who killed our youths are well known and their names have
been supplied to the police but no action has been taken. Being a war veteran or
a Zanu PF supporter should not be a ticket for immunity," said Mashakada.
War veterans and Zanu PF members have set up a base for
torturing their victims at McDonalds Farm in the area. The police have continued
to pay a blind eye to the torture of opposition supporters, Mashakada said. "Our
supporters are being killed in broad daylight and people are no longer safe
here. The situation gets worse when you know you don’t have police protection,"
said Mashakada. "The police were in fact aiding the torture of MDC supporters by
continuously arresting and beating them in cells for no reason," he said. The
survivors of the violence are now kept at a secret location.
From IRIN (UN), 7
July
New Land Grab to Put 300,000 Jobs On
the Line
Two farming experts said this week that farm workers and their
families would emerge the biggest losers if the government pressed ahead with
its planned land seizures. Godfrey Magaramombe, director of the Zimbabwe Farm
Community Trust (ZFCT) - a non-governmental body which works to improve the
conditions of farm workers in Zimbabwe - and Ewan Roger of the Agriculture
Labour Bureau, noted that very few farm workers had been considered for
resettlement under the present fast-track exercise, the Financial Gazette
reported on Thursday.
About 40 000 farm workers had already lost their jobs after
self-styled mobs of war veterans seized commercial farms last year and halted
production in many of them, the report said. "The government is not including
the farm workers in the resettlement scheme and some workers already displaced
by these disturbances are already creating illegal settlements on the fringes of
the commercial farms," Roger was quoted saying. The government said last week it
had targeted another 1,000 large-scale commercial farms for compulsory
acquisition. Although it had listed more than 2,000 farms for seizure, the
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said only 1, 000 farms were new listings. The
CFU sad the new listings brought to 5,000 the number of properties listed for
compulsory acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act and represented eight
million hectares of all fertile land in Zimbabwe.
According to the report, although top CFU executives refused to be
interviewed on record this week, industry experts said the mainstream commercial
farming community would be left with only 800 farms if the government proceeded
to seize all the farms listed last week. Until now the CFU had a membership of
3,600 farmers who shared 5,800 large-scale farms employing 350,000 registered
farm workers, the report said. Magaramombe was quoted saying that apart from the
40,000 farm workers who had already lost their jobs, he fully supported CFU
estimates that 300,000 more would lose their jobs by the middle of next year if
the government proceeded with the acquisitions advertised last week.
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 8
July
March and memorial service for
Nabanyama
Bulawayo - More than 1 000 people yesterday braved the wet and
chilly weather and poured onto the streets for a march and memorial church
service for Patrick Nabanyama, a Movement for Democratic Change polling agent,
who was abducted before last June’s parliamentary elections and has never been
seen since. The memorial service attended by the MDC vice president Gibson
Sibanda, the party’s director of elections, Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC legal
affairs secretary, David Coltart and a majority of Members of Parliament for the
Matabeleland region, was led by Archbishop Pius Ncube and drew people of mixed
races together.
The procession, carrying banners and flowers, left the St
Mary’s Cathedral in the city and marched along the city centre before converging
at the Presbyterian church for the memorial service. "We are against violence
and as a church we support dialogue and we say as citizens you should stand for
these rights," said Archbishop Ncube. "It is when good people like you do
nothing that evil triumphs." Ncube said there was a lot of suffering in the
country, but people were bearing it silently. "There is a lot of hypocrisy in
Zimbabwe; there are people who pretend that everything is normal when that is
not the case. People in this country are suffering," he said. "There is no
church that supports violence. We believe in tolerance," he added.
Nabanyama, a former Zapu activist during the liberation
struggle, was the polling agent for Coltart in last year’s parliamentary
elections. He was abducted in front of his family by a gang of men suspected to
be war veterans and Zanu PF supporters, a few days before the June elections.
Coltart told the gathering it was sad that a year after Nabanyama’s
disappearance no one has been brought to book. "The people who abducted
Nabanyama in broad daylight are people who are well known in Nketa but nothing
has been down concerning their prosecution," said Coltart. "We know the men and
we know they are totally unrepentant." Coltart said there was a culture of
impunity in Zimbabwe and if that culture was not ended then more people would go
the same way as Nabanyama.
Comment from The Zimbabwe Standard,
8 July
Losing the propaganda
war
There is little doubt that the government feels misunderstood
by the international community. However ridiculous this may seem to those who
have seen the Mugabe government shoot itself in the foot repeatedly, let us look
at how successfully it is countering what it sees as a sinister international
conspiracy to demonise it.
Last week, after what seemed like a period of hibernation, the
president came out swinging against his perceived enemies. It was the old broken
record, about being an international outcast because of the principled stance on
the land issue. The president thundered that we had suffered worse deprivations
than we were experiencing now, and that we were quite prepared to tough out
sanctions. If he really believes that the majority of people see themselves as
experiencing the unprecedented, rapidly worsening economic hardships because the
world is against land reform, the man is really delusional. The vast majority of
people put the blame for our economic woes squarely on his government’s
inability to lead.
Even if you think this is patently unfair, you must counter
that perceived unfairness knowing where it emanates from. You can then deal with
the perceived misperceptions, head on. As it is, its failure to even acknowledge
that Zimbabweans are generally unhappy with it means that much of the government
propaganda is not even scratching the surface of it’s image problems. A lot of
that propaganda is not only crudely done, it is often completely
misdirected.
In the liberation war days, there was no doubt people steeled
themselves for a period of suffering and hardship for they believed the outcome
would be a free country. Mugabe, Nkomo and others, undoubtedly had majority
opinion on their side. To any objective international observer, they also had
the moral high ground. That can no longer be said of Mugabe now, which is why
his reputation at home and abroad continues to plummet in inverse proportion to
the shrillness of his threats and belligerence. It sounded so hollow and
insensitive of Mr Mugabe to speak of Zimbabweans’ willingness to endure more
suffering than they are already doing under his ruinous, and most unfortunate
rule. Is the man really that far out of touch with pubic sentiment?
Before independence, people were willing to sacrifice relative
safety, even their lives, for the goal of a free country, one in which they
could live in dignity, and have at least a chance to strive for prosperity
without being impeded by what race they were. What noble goal is Mugabe leading
us to which makes him delude himself that the people stand behind him now? Is he
really oblivious of the low opinion in which he is regarded by the very people
he claims to be acting on behalf of? Does he think we cannot separate the issues
of the rightness of land reform, from the wrongness of the beating, rape and
killing of fellow Zimbabweans?
Sweden has been a country that has bent over backwards to
support African countries like Zimbabwe which wanted to start afresh at
independence. More than most "donor countries", it has been willing to fund
alternative visions of development that the new African nations wanted to
experiment with. It is not a "Johnny come lately" country that initially
supported the racist ideal of Rhodesia, only to change allegiance after
independence. Before and after independence, Sweden has been a steadfast
supporter of the African cause, to the tune of billions of dollars. It has never
been tainted by the stain of having colonies, and has no neo-colonial axe to
grind. All this is significant in the light of the Mugabe regime’s loss of
Sweden’s support on the international stage. In the context of Mugabe’s
continued fall in stature, from world statesman to just another despot, the loss
of Sweden’s support is significant. It is laughable that Mugabe must now cozy up
to wily, self serving governments like those of Belgium and France, which have,
at best, mixed legacies in Africa, and at worst, utterly disreputable ones. But
this is how far he has degraded himself.
There is nothing surprising about periodic reports that Mugabe
mouthpiece, Jonathan Moyo’s shocking vitriol is causing whispered consternation
amongst Mugabe insiders, a consternation which gets louder every day. Let us,
for argument’s sake, assume that I am an implacable Mugabe/Moyo critic who
cannot look at these two men objectively. Can anyone give me a short list of
ways in which Mugabe’s standing at home and abroad has improved since he hired
Moyo to be his propagandist? If Mugabe feels a special kinship towards Moyo
because they share combative, bull boy tactics, what about the little matter of
results? What has Moyo achieved that has been to Mugabe’s advantage in the time
he has been a minister? I would really like to know. Surely being an information
minister means much more than hurling cleverer insults than the next guy?
Virtually every time Moyo opens his mouth we look more ridiculous on the
international stage. Tough talk may be alright on the schoolyard in a bravado
contest, but surely if it loses you more than it gains you, and when the well
being of a country is compromised by that loss, you try another tactic?
The world has adopted a hands off approach in response to our
government’s tough talk. "If you are so tough that you don’t need us, and don’t
give a damn about our expressed concerns about the creeping dysfunctionality of
your country, fine, go it alone,"; that has been the international reaction to
the regime of Mugabe. Look at the results. Hunger, desperation like we have
never experienced before, shortages - which began in earnest with the fuel
crisis - deindustrialisation, increased unemployment and destitution. Is this
how you win people over to your way of thinking?
The president’s statement about how we are prepared to follow
him and continue to suffer under his misrule, is made even more preposterous by
the fact that we don’t see him and his inner circle experiencing any of the
hardships they have caused us. In the liberation war days, Mugabe & Co were
at least symbolically in the trenches with the troops, sharing some of their
trials and tribulations. And now? More people have to walk hours to and from
work because bus fare is beyond their reach. A single meal a day is becoming a
luxury for many citizens. Breadwinners are being thrown out of work in their
thousands, with little prospect of being re-employed any time soon. New laws to
try to stem the rising discontent are promulgated weekly. Official threats and
warnings are the order of the day. In this scenario, Mugabe & Co are no
longer the scrappy, lean revolutionaries of yesterday, leading by example.
On his way to speechifying on how the suffering masses are
fully behind him in their suffering, he travels in style, by publicly-funded
German limousine or French helicopter. I am not aware of any luxuries being
curtailed at the presidential palace, not to make the president suffer as most
of his fellow citizens are doing, but to symbolically express solidarity with
them at a difficult time. All these blatantly obvious incongruities, and Mr
Mugabe and his ministers dare to hope that they can win domestic and
international opinion to their cause, whatever that cause is? This a textbook
example of how to lose a propaganda war.
Mr Mandela is meeting leaders like Robert Mugabe in
Lusaka
African ministers rallied behind Zimbabwe over its
controversial land reform programme on Sunday, ahead of the annual summit of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
The ministers noted with concern British moves to mobilise
European and North American countries to isolate and vilify Zimbabwe
OAU foreign ministers' resolution
OAU foreign
ministers accuse the UK of seeking to isolate and vilify its former colony in
Europe and North America, according to diplomatic sources in Lusaka, where the
summit opens on Monday.
The ministers propose that South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, Kenya
and Zambia make up a committee to support Zimbabwe in future talks with the
European Union and other parties on land reform.
"It's very likely that it will go through in its present form. Zimbabwe was
seen as victim and there was lots of sympathy. The feeling was that the EU and
the United States were pressing too hard on Zimbabwe," one senior diplomat told
Reuters.
Mugabe has the backing of OAU foreign
ministers
Zimbabwe has been in an state of economic and political crisis since February
last year when self-styled war veterans, encouraged by the state, seized
hundreds of white-owned farms across the country.
The land chaos in the southern African country has left at least 31 people
dead and has disrupted economic activity.
President Robert Mugabe says land redistribution is necessary to address a
century-old imbalance in land ownership in the country.
EU and US back Britain
Mr Mugabe says Britain, the former colonial power, must pay compensation for
the land to be seized by the state.
But London has said it will not finance land reform amidst chaos and
disregard for the rule of law. Both the EU and the United States back Britain on
the issue and have threatened sanctions.
Zambia's President Chiluba greets Burkina Faso's
President Campore before the
summit
Mr Mugabe plans to confiscate five million hectares (12 million acres) of the
12 million hectares (30 million acres) held by white farmers and has earmarked
more than 5,000 farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
The OAU ministerial resolution said the land issue was essentially a colonial
one despite British efforts to internationalise it.
"The ministers noted with concern British moves to mobilise European and
North American countries to isolate and vilify Zimbabwe, leading to the
imposition of formal and informal sanctions against it," the resolution said.
End of the OAU
After the summit, its 37th, ends on Wednesday, the OAU will officially
disappear, having effectively voted itself out of existence.
It will be replaced by the African Union modelled on the European Union, with
its own parliament, central bank and court of justice.
A combined plan to develop Africa which will be presented to the summit calls
on African leaders to consolidate democracy, and on the developed world to
increase aid and investment.
The African Initiative, as it is known, is a merger of the Millennium African
Recovery Programme (MAP) led by South African President Thabo Mbeki and the
Omega Plan spearheaded by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
White farmers freed
Meanwhile a mob of Zimbabwean war veterans freed four white farmers on Sunday
that they had been holding at a farm since Friday.
"They have allowed us to leave the farm now after protracted negotiations,"
farm owner Iain Kay told Reuters at his Chipesa Farm, 80 km (50 miles) east of
the capital Harare.
"They said they want to take over the farm. We hope we can come to some kind
of agreement when tempers have cooled down," he added.
The veterans beat up a farmworker earlier on Sunday before withdrawing from
the farmhouse where they had been holding and threatening to kill the four
farmers.
Transition from OAU should not just bea change in name, but in deed too
HARARE As Organisation of African Unity (OAU) leaders meet today in Zambia to
transform the grouping into an African Union, analysts say the confederation
needs re-orientation to move forward.
Africa is attempting to transform the OAU into a union along the lines of the
European Union.
However, analysts say African leaders have to bite the bullet of economic and
political reform if the union is to establish itself as a serious agency for
development.
The continent is riddled with dictatorships, civil wars, refugees, economic
collapse, poverty and pandemic diseases such as AIDS.
Issues such as democracy, human rights, good governance, transparency and
accountability which leaders such as Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe regard
as "peripheral" or "extraneous" are largely ignored.
Despite winds of change blowing across the continent, different forms of
absolutism still exist: dictatorships, tyrannies, old-fashioned monarchies and
despotic establishments. Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes still hold sway
while oligarchies take root.
University of Zimbabwe international relations lecturer, Solomon Nkiwane,
says Africa must revamp its antiquated political and economic systems to make
progress. "The African Union faces complex problems. It needs to overcome a
whole range of issues overlapping from the OAU before it can advance," Nkiwane
said.
"There has to be real transformation and not just a change of name."
Nkiwane points out that some African leaders are still locked in the Cold War
ideological time-warp.
"The Cold War mentality still holds sway in a number of countries," Nkiwane
said. "It is clear there are some African leaders who still practise Cold War
politics and act in that spirit. This is a major problem."
A number of African countries were aligned to the former Eastern bloc before
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. That was largely because they received
military training and support from former communist countries during their
liberation struggles.
Political scientist Mwesigu Baregu of the Southern African Political and
Economic Series (Sapes) Trust says Africa needs purposeful economic integration.
"The continent needs a collective vision which defines the forms and mechanisms
of revamping and integrating its economies," he said.
"The African Union must put in place a sound policy framework and a
comprehensive economic plan."
However, some analysts believe it would be difficult to achieve economic
integration because the union is a large body comprising different economies
relatively strong, weak, run down and, in some cases, virtually collapsed ones.
The EU is a different case study. It started in 1957 as a group of six
countries Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Luxembourg and
then later admitted other countries under strict requirements.
Baregu thinks economic and cultural regeneration is critical for the
development of any African union .
"Africa must have a strong cultural base upon which to construct its
political, social and economic systems."
He says the union must adopt a holistic approach to Africa's renaissance
agenda. Economic and political reforms are key to this, he said.
The Tanzanian academic further notes the union needs to overhaul its
political systems, which are cauldrons of ethnic conflicts and civil wars.
"Africa needs open political environments," Baregu said. "One of the
casualties of authoritarianism is always creativity and innovation."
Apart from resolving bloody conflicts, Africa has to deal with globalisation.
Analysts say the continent has to improve its infrastructure and
communications networks as well as the quality of institutions to create
accountable and sound policy systems.
It also needs to modernise its economies and narrow the digital divide with
the West to cope with the current global economic dynamics, which include
complex technological and scientific challenges.
Countries with outdated institutions find it difficult to cope in the current
global environment in which competition in ideas and technology is high. For all
its negative impact, globalisation rewards countries with market-friendly
policies, but carries a high risk for those which avoid reforms and disregard
basic requirements of macro-economic discipline.
Other analysts believe that globalisation is weakening states, disintegrating
societies, and causing widespread economic vandalism.
They say Africa must take radical steps to develop its own development
paradigms.
But, Baregu argues that the continent must adapt. "Globalisation is causing a
lot of problems. But it is important for Africa to position itself to deal with
its challenges."
"Africa has to adopt a policy of selective engagement. It needs to build a
capacity to seize opportunities presented by globalisation while resisting
negative impacts," Baregu said.
Commentators observe the African Union's first major test will be the
advancement of President Thabo Mbeki's Millennium Africa Recovery Plan.
Effectively a Marshall Plan for Africa it is to be presented to the G-8
countries in Genoa, Italy, on July 20 and 22.
Mbeki and other movers of the recovery agenda Nigeria's President Olusegun
Obasanjo and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria are anxious to deal with
Africa's remaining despots.
The reformist leaders believe a new political and economic order in the
continent will not be a reality as long as dictators remain in the saddle.
"Political neanderthals still ruling most African countries are a major obstacle
to a renaissance," said Masipula Sithole of the University of Zimbabwe.
Sithole says the mandarins are retrogressive because they tend to view
organisations like the African Union as instruments for settling old scores with
former colonial and imperialist powers.
MDC
on Monday 9 July 2001 Aids: Creating a compassionate environment for our
loved ones
HIV/AIDS continues to spread at an alarming rate while the
utterly clueless current government maintains a business as usual
approach. Between 1,5 and 2 million of our fellow citizens are HIV positive.
More than 3 000 Zimbabweans are infected weekly, while at least 2 000
HIV/Aids related deaths are experienced weekly. This places Zimbabwe among
the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV/Aids in the
world.
These are not just statistics. We are talking about a
devastating epidemic that is decimating Zimbabwean society. The people dying
are mostly in the productive and parenting age groups, leaving
hard-to-fill vacuums in both the social and economic development processes.
This is causing political instability and worsening the economic crisis in
the country.
There is no cure for Aids, and none is likely to be
available in the near future. We need to prevent further spread, minimise
the impact and provide a caring and compassionate environment for those of
our loved ones infected or in any other way affected by the disease.
The MDC wants a better life for all Zimbabweans. Under an MDC
government, the three percent Aids levy will be properly accounted for. A
yearly audit by a reputable firm of accountants will be conducted.
Health services in the country will not be allowed to crumble as is the
situation now. We believe that a country that is able to fund a war in the
DRC should be able to uplift its own health standards.
Drug companies
have offered to cut the prices of anti-retroviral drugs to poor countries.
Anti-retroviral drugs are medicines that have extended Aids patients' lives
by years in wealthy countries. The pharmaceutical companies that have agreed
to lower drug prices will only do so in partnership with governments. There
are no signs that the current government is playing a serious partnership
role.
An MDC government will pressure the United Nations to take
seriously and advance the commitments maid towards a Global Fund for Aids.
While HIV/Aids poses a present and clear danger to the world in general
and Zimbabwe in particular, we agree with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
that "We cannot deal with Aids by making moral judgements or refusing to
face unpleasant facts-and still less by stigmatising those who are infected
and making out that it is their fault. In the ruthless world of Aids,
there is no 'them' and there is no 'us.'"
