Every attempt is made to provide a comprehensive report of ongoing
activities in relation to farm invasions, but many incidents are unreported due
to communications constraints, fear of reprisals and a general weariness on the
part of farmers. Farmers names and in some cases, farm names, are omitted to
minimise the risk of reprisal.
NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF: Please
note that the computer virus warning Sulfnbk.exe is a HOAX. 18 farms are
currently being affected by work stoppages in the eastern part of Centenary
alone. Work stoppages and harassment of owners and workers continue on
Dunaverty in Mutepatepa. Farm labour on Ponderosa Farm are being evicted
from their homes by illegal occupiers. Lawlessness is escalating rapidly in
Matabeleland, as in the illegal allocation of plots to suitably connected urban
dwellers. REGIONAL REPORTS:
There was no reports received from
Mashonaland West South.
Mashonaland Central Centenary - 18 farms
are currently being affected by work stoppages in the eastern part of the
area. Mvurwi - Impinge Farm was reinvaded by about 10 aggressive illegal
occupiers armed with axes , who gave verbal death threats to the farm owner and
workers. Illegal occupiers attempted to stop land preparation and seed beds at
Arda and Rogers Ranch, previously resettled with 8 and currently being resettled
with 48 families respectively. The situation was resolved following
deliberations between the DA and the illegal occupiers and work has been allowed
to continue. Glendale - Illegal occupiers arrived at Pimento Park and began
reaping the maize crop. About 150 illegal occupiers returned and have been
harassing the farm workers reaping the maize. Support Unit responded. The
police have given assurances that the illegal occupiers will not be allowed to
take the reaped maize. Mutepatepa - There is an ongoing work stoppage at
Dunaverty resulting from demands by an illegal occupier wanting to be given a
portion of the maize crop planted by the owner. Shamva - About 80 illegal
occupiers arrived at the homestead security fence on Dawmill, demanding that the
owner pay bail for the persons previously convicted of attempted murder after a
serious assault of the farm manager. They also wanted to take over the banana
plantation and gave the farmer an ultimatum to leave the property. Harare
West - The illegal occupiers base at Glenara has been shut down by Support Unit,
and illegal occupiers have since moved onto Lowdale.
Mashonaland
West North General - Fast track resettlement meetings have been convened on
8 farms at which the DA accompanied by CIO and Agritex officials give out cards
allocating plots to named beneficiaries who must occupy their plots by the end
of May or else they will be reallocated. Chinhoyi - The owner of Gamanya Farm
finally received a compensation cheque from Government after 4 years. The owner
of Maysma Farm has received constant harassment from illegal occupiers being led
by the local head man Manenga. The owner has moved a large proportion of his
cattle off the farm due to poaching and cattle theft. Police are unable to
assist. Through numerous work stoppages, the owners of Chifundi & Elmely
farms have managed to plant their wheat crop after the Land Task Force, police,
DA and Agritex intervened. New huts are being erected around the lands with
more illegal occupiers are moving on. Illegal occupiers requested the owners of
Laureton & Arkadia to move all cattle off the farm, so they can take over
lands. The owner of Cotswold managed to plant his wheat crop after several work
stoppages. A large number of illegal occupiers have moved onto this farm. Mr
Mataka, identifying himself as a representative of the DA, informed the owner
of Portelet Estate that illegal occupiers would be moving onto the farm and
would start burning fires to clear their lands, and animals including 4 giraffe,
and 2 ostrich must be moved off the property . A work stoppage occurred on
Msengi Farm. Tengwe - Illegal occupiers have pegged Le Don de Dieu and
Ramona Farms. Trelawney / Darwendale - Agritex are pegging in the district
with a lot of movement by illegal occupiers and building of structures. Three
illegal occupiers moved onto Westernridge Farm. Doma - About 30 - 40
families have moved onto Ponderosa Farm. The farm labour are being evicted from
their homes by illegal occupiers. There has been an increase in maize and
soyabean theft.
Mashonaland East Beatrice - About 30 illegal
occupiers reaped approximately 1 tonne of maize on New Retreat farm. A
discrepancy between the owner and illegal occupiers over the maize occurred
after the owner had already harrowed and prepared about 3 acres of land last
year, illegal occupiers sent a tractor to plough the same land and left. Police
say they are unable to react as both parties claimed the maize belonged to
them. Bromley/Ruwa/Enterprise - The misunderstanding about the church
service on Mukwene farm has been resolved. Harare South - 4 illegal
occupiers arrived on Edinburgh farm and proceeded to make a fire in a land
prepared for tobacco. The illegal occupiers also broke down the paddock gate
which was locked and contained cattle. The manager took them to Harrage Police
Base. Marondera - There was a new invasion on Monora Farm when the main
illegal occupier from Eirenie farm called labour from neighbouring farms to
build huts on Monora. A few groups of illegal occupiers have arrived on Munemo
over the past 10 days to peg and build. Marondera North - The situation on
Ulva and Cambridge continues. 25 illegal occupiers arrived on Nyagambe farm.
Illegal occupiers have pegged irrigated lands on another farm in the district
over the weekend. Macheke/Virginia - A work stoppage occurred on Chigori.
Illegal occupiers moved onto Chikumbakwe farm and instructed the owner that
everything was to be moved off the farm. When the owner refused, illegal
occupiers stopped the ongoing reaping but allowed harrowing-in of stalks to
continue. Illegal occupiers have put a boom across the road and the owner has
to seek permission to use it. Though the farm is barricaded, work continues and
the owner refuses to leave. Police have been informed. A work stoppage has
occurred on Klipspringer Kop and hay bailing has been stopped on Springdale
farm. Wedza - The work stoppage on Collace continues. DDF have pegged on
Farm Charlie. 60 aggressive illegal occupiers in the security fence boundaries
of Dollanstown farm, accused the owner of bribing the DA and police into not
attending a meeting they had set up. The situation was defused when a policeman
informed illegal occupiers that the DA had attended a funeral and would meet
with them next week. Threats were made to the owner of Rapako if he did not
move his cattle off the farm with in 24 hours.
Manicaland General -
Extensive pegging throughout the area.
Masvingo Masvingo East &
Central - 140 standard poles were stolen and one ox snared on Beauly Farm.
Illegal occupiers set up a roadblock on Cambria Farm causing problems. Police
defused the situation. Chiredzi - Extreme deforestation, pegging and illegal
movement of cattle. Poaching with dogs is rife. Illegal occupiers huts continue
to mushroom everywhere. Save Conservancy – The situation remains the same.
Mwenezi – On Rienette Ranch the same truck that stole firewood recently
visited the property again and took a full truckload of river sand. Police have
responded. Scotch carts are moving in and out of Quagga Pan B passing along the
main highway. Care should be taken by traffic travelling through the Beit Bridge
area. An aggressive group of Illegal occupiers are demanding compensation from
the owner Oerwoud Ranch, for maize eaten by the owner’s cattle. Farm labourers
have been assaulted and are refusing to carry out their duties due to further
threats having been made. Sugar cane theft is occurring on Wentzelhof Ranch.
Gutu / Chatsworth – Illegal occupiers set fire to Pastures Farm.
Midlands - Nothing to report.
Matabeleland General -
Farm owners are receiving death threats, demands to vacate their homes, and
occupations of safari lodges continues unabated. The criminal element is being
allowed to run wild with no signs of the rule of law being implemented on
commercial farms. A foreign owned ranching enterprise has been placed under
major pressure to relinquish half of its landholdings during a visit by a
ministerial delegation. Cattle prices have increased slightly, although there
has been a major reduction in cattle herds as producers have been forced to
downsize due to illegal occupation pressures. Stock theft is rife, with figures
since April last year, running into thousands with several medium scale
producers reporting losses of between 100 to 300 head each. One Nyamandhlovu
producer has 350 head of cattle owned by illegal occupiers, on his ranch, and is
having to hire alternative grazing to keep his breeding herd. There is total
disregard of veterinary fences and and foot and mouth zones. Stock theft is
reported to be even worse in the communal areas with police having lost all
control. Veterinary Department staff are unable to monitor permits on trucks
moving consignments of cattle, as drivers have been extremely aggressive. The
wildlife is facing the heaviest pressure in Matabeleland with rampant poaching,
snaring and hunting, with police refusing to intervene. One Nyamandhlovu
landowner made a civil arrest with his game guards this weekend of a prominent
black lawyer, from Bulawayo with his friends hunting on the ranch with a bag of
dead animals in his truck. The lawyer signed an I O U for ZW$107,000 to the
landholders for the animals shot. Many reports are coming through of hunts being
prevented and disrupted with illegal occupiers not allowing their game to be
hunted. Even campfire projects have been stopped with the loss of income to the
detriment of the communal people. The ostrich industry is vulnerable and
sensitive to management disruptions and being a prominent sector for
Matabeleland is coming under increasing focus for harassment.
The
Mozambican government has asked the World Bank to help finance a scheme aimed
at helping white Zimbabwean commercial farmers relocate to
Mozambique, reports said on Wednesday.
The governor of Mozambique's
Manica province, which borders Zimbabwe, Sores Nhaca, told Zimbabwe's
independent newspaper, the 'Daily News', he had had discussions with about
150 white commercial farmers from Zimbabwe on their plans to resettle and
pursue their farming activities in Mozambique.
Nhaca said his government
was sourcing an undisclosed sum from the World Bank to help resettle the
Zimbabwean farmers. He said the relocation would create at least 1,300 jobs
for Mozambicans White Zimbabwean farmers, who will lose an estimated five
million hectares of land to President Robert Mugabe's controversial
fast-track resettlement exercise.
Mugabe Urges Developing Nations to Regulate Information
UN Integrated
Regional Information Network
May 31, 2001 Posted to the web May 30,
2001
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe told a summit of developing
nations on Wednesday that the information age should be regulated so that the
Internet does not "poison societies", news reports said.
Mugabe,
speaking at the summit of the Group of 15 developing countries in Indonesia,
said that globalisation was "extending the economic dominance that the United
States and Europe have enjoyed over the world since the days of colonialism
and slavery". Mugabe added that "undesirable" information should be
regulated, including pornography, disinformation, popularisation of crime and
the "character assassination of public office holders
and governments".
"The toll-free and regulation-free information
highways and the Internet threaten the very being and essence of our nations
and communities," Mugabe said. Information providers had a "heavy
responsibility" over their content, he said. The summit is expected to issue
a declaration urging a united stand to bridge the gap in information
technology with rich countries. Many leaders called the gap a handicap
preventing the poor from benefiting from globalisation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If Robert Mugabe's generals ever decide to tell him that his two-decade reign
as Zimbabwe's ever more abusive president is over, it will not be because the
military top brass has suddenly decided to respect the will of the people.
What will probably be a bloodless, almost imperceptible coup - with the
state radio announcing that the great liberator has decided to quit because of
ill health, or some equally innocuous explanation, - will come because Mugabe
threatens to bring the entire ruling Zanu-PF and its elite crashing around
him.
In the end the party, and the power, privilege and protection it has come
to stand for, may prove more important than the man.
Mugabe has long counted on the 40 000-strong military for support, as much
as his political allies. For most of the past 20 years, the army has been as
inextricably linked as Zanu-PF to his rule.
Many military commanders came from the two guerrilla armies which fought
Ian Smith's regime to a standstill and forced it to make a political
surrender.
The new Zimbabwe forged a professional national army, particularly by the
standards of the region. But it also in many ways remained a revolutionary
force, with a political ideal and loyalty.
In recent years, Mugabe promoted senior army officers to head the Central
Intelligence Organisation because he trusted them more than his own spies.
There is not much doubt that at the most senior levels there is still
strong support for the ruling party, but loyalty to Zanu-PF no longer guarantees
unconditional backing for Mugabe.
The military top brass, like some of the ruling party's old guard, fear the
consequences of driving Zimbabwe to the point where economic collapse, food
shortages and mass unemployment provoke widespread civil unrest and even
revolution. They equally fear losing power through the ballot box.
For a start, some military and political leaders are raking in small
fortunes, particularly through the army's foray into the Democratic Republic of
Congo. This is no mere looting spree. The Zimbabwe defence force has taken a
business-like approach, creating joint-venture and front companies to cream off
some of Congo's richest mines.
Among the top brass, the army chief, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, is a major
stakeholder in a company called Operation Sovereign Legitimacy which has
lucrative mining contracts in Congo through a partnership with a firm owned by
Congo's late president, Laurent Kabila.
But the military chiefs also have other reasons to fear a collapse of
Zanu-PF's rule. Less restrained opposition activists are agitating for
corruption and human rights trials of Zimbabwe's elite if and when the new order
takes over. That would undoubtedly include a number of senior military officers,
including those responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of people in
Matabeleland in the mid-1980s.
There will also be pressure to bring to book the senior military
officers who helped to organise the occupation of hundreds of white-owned farms
and the savage attacks and murders of black farm workers and opposition
activists during the past year.
Troops in civilian clothes mingled with the "war veterans" as they stormed
the farms. The army sometimes provided transport and food.
Gen Zvinavashe and the head of the central intelligence organisation,
retired Colonel Happison Bonongwe, paid separate visits to the president of the
largely white Commercial Farmers' Union to threaten him and his members if they
opposed the government.
Mugabe has hinted that as the political crisis deepens he will use any
civil unrest to impose a state of emergency and rule by decree. He will be
expecting the army to enforce what will amount to dictatorial rule and suppress
any popular protest, but the military has told the South African government that
if that happens it will launch a coup.
South African sources say the favoured candidate to lead the takeover is
Air Marshal Perence Shiri - who commanded troops in Matabeleland during the
1980s massacres, and now heads the air force. That would provide no comfort to
the opposition, as it would almost certainly herald an attempt to perpetuate
Zanu-PF's rule under one guise or another.
If the army does seize power, it will not necessarily mean a military ruler
for the country. If the military backs any politician, it is likely to be
Emmerson Mnangagwa, speaker of parliament, a former intelligence chief and the
man most frequently touted as Mugabe's successor.
Mnangagwa was a prime force behind the country's military foray into Congo
to prop up Kabila against a Rwandan and Ugandan invasion. Perhaps more
importantly, he was an important broker for the army's expanding business
interests in Congo. Essentially, he negotiated the swapping of Zimbabwean
soldiers' lives for mining contracts.
Mugabe cannot count on the army rank and file to keep their leaders in
line. Among the footsoldiers, the war in Congo has only bolstered support for
the opposition.
The army leadership keeps a tight reign on ordinary soldiers, so few speak
out publicly, but some of those sent to fight thousands of miles away have
complained to their families of effectively being abandoned without sufficient
weapons, or even food. There is apparently a widespread view among Zimbabwean
troops that they are not defending Congo from foreign invasion or even helping
to keep the Kabila family in power. What they are really fighting to defend are
the large profits made by senior and retired officers and military-owned
companies in Congo.
The government keeps secret just how many of its soldiers have died in
Congo. The families of the killed troops are rarely told where or how they died,
and what little they are told they are ordered not to repeat. One mother did go
public after all she retrieved of her son was his head, delivered in a box by
the army.
Mugabe has attempted to keep a grip on the army, if not ensure its complete
loyalty, with the mass integration of so-called war veterans into the ranks over
recent months. But that has only alienated further the more professional
soldiers.
In the end, Mugabe's extreme tactics to retain power may save him the
humiliation of electoral defeat, but cost him his presidency.
The fight for power
Perence Shiri:
Shiri achieved notoriety in the mid-1980s as the commander of the 5th
Brigade responsible for the Matabeleland massacres in which an estimated 20 000
Ndebele civilians were killed during the suppression of anti-Mugabe dissent.
Shiri's brigade, which was virtually all Shona-speaking, received special
military training from North Korean advisers. It was accused of mass executions
but did Shiri's career no harm. The 54-year old now heads the air force.
He has been fiercely loyal to Mugabe but is considered politically shrewd
enough to realise that there is more at stake than the fate of one man.
Human rights groups say Shiri's name heads the list of officers who should
face trial for crimes against humanity.
Emmerson Mnangagwa:
Widely regarded as the cabinet minister with the best connections to the
army he is widely tipped to succeed Mugabe, with or without the military's
help.
The 55-year old speaker of parliament is hugely trusted by Mugabe, serving
as security minister, defence minister and acting finance minister. But he is
also respected in the army, dating back to his role as one of the leading
guerrillas fighting Rhodesian white minority rule. He is at the forefront of the
exploitation of mining concessions in Congo.
He is not so popular with the public. He lost his seat in last year's
elections and only remained in parliament because Mugabe appointed him as
speaker.
Moven Mahachi:
The defence minister killed in a car crash at the weekend was one of Robert
Mugabe's staunchest allies, but not overly popular with the military. He
staunchly defended Zimbabwe's military entanglement in Congo.
His loyalty to Mugabe was such that when a Zimbabwean newspaper reported
that 23 mid-ranking army officers had been arrested for plotting a coup two
years ago, he had the reporters responsible arrested and tortured. - The
Guardian
HARARE: Zimbabwe has resettled landless blacks on some three
million hectares of land seized from whites in the past nine months under a
land reform scheme despite fierce opposition from Britain, President
Robert Mugabe said Tuesday.
Mugabe said that for 20 years his
government had struggled to acquire land from whites without much assistance
from Britain, the former colonial power, but last June embarked on a
"fast-track" land programme.
"The programme has succeeded to resettle
people now on three million hectares of land in the face of innumerable and
often hostile obstacles," Mugabe told mourners at the funeral of a cabinet
minister.
He blamed the hostility on "an unwarranted British-sponsored
campaign".
The government initially planned to acquire five million
hectares of land from whites, who make up less than one percent of the
population, but held up to about 70 percent of the country's total
farmland.
But media reports recently said up to seven million hectares of
white-owned land were earmarked for seizure.
Last week, white
commercial farmers offered the government one million hectares of land plus
funding for developing the land. The government has said it will examine the
offer.
The new land reform scheme was kickstarted by violent invasions of
some 1,600 white-owned farms last year by veterans of the country's war
of liberation.
Burying the late defence minister Moven Mahachi, who
died on Saturday in a car crash, Mugabe said he had been resolute in his
quest to end colonialism.
"He spoke passionately, eloquently and
relentlessly about a land reform programme that would prove once and for all
to the whole world the capacity of the black Zimbabweans to make full
productive use of their land, their land, not British colonial land," he
said.
Mahachi helped Mugabe cross the border in 1975 to Mozambique to go
and join the liberation war being waged from the neighbouring
country.
"The end of colonialism must come. Colonialism, albeit in a
neo-colonial form, in an indirect form through the ownership of our
resources, that has to stop, the fight goes on," he vowed. (AFP)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Just days after Secretary of State Colin Powell
criticized Robert Mugabe's "totalitarian methods," the Zimbabwean president hit
back, accusing the United States and Britain of hypocrisy during a fiery eulogy
to a top ally.
The United States and Britain are leading a campaign to "demonize" Zimbabwe's
role in the Congo war and its human rights record at home, Mugabe said Tuesday
at the state funeral of Defense Minister Moven Mahachi.
At the same time, those countries were condoning "acts of genocide and gross
looting of the Congo's resources" committed by rebels and their allies: Rwanda,
Uganda and Burundi, Mugabe said.
Powell, who visited four African nations last week, denounced Mugabe's
tactics as "totalitarian" and said he seemed "determined to remain in power"
regardless of what Zimbabweans want. A small group of students heckled Powell
during that speech Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa, and briefly stopped his
motorcade.
A cartoon published Monday in the Zimbabwean state-controlled newspaper The
Herald depicted a shivering, sweating Powell surrounded by demonstrators
demanding he go home.
"Maybe Uganda will welcome me because we are allowing them to loot diamonds
in (Congo)," the Powell caricature said.
Zimbabwe has 11,000 troops supporting the Congolese government in its fight
against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Angola and Namibia have also sent
troops to help the government.
The United Nations issued a report detailing looting by Rwanda, Uganda and
Burundi in Congo. However, it has not reported the atrocities that Mugabe
claimed.
"Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda remain the favorites of the Americans and the
British even after these (U.N.) reports," Mugabe told mourners at a national
burial shrine outside Harare for politicians and fallen leaders of the guerrilla
war that led to independence in 1980.
Mugabe eulogized Mahachi, 53, who was killed in a car wreck Saturday, as a
warrior who fought against barbaric British colonialism that saw blacks only as
"hewers of wood and drawers of water."
Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, opposed Zimbabwe's plans to
confiscate land owned by the descendants of colonial era British settlers out of
a desire to perpetuate its "neocolonial" interests in Africa, Mugabe said.
"We will fight until we are satisfied we have got our land in the hands of
black people, not white people. No, no. That war must be finished. The end of
colonialism, albeit neocolonialism, must come," Mugabe said.
The government has targeted 3,000 of about 5,000 white-owned farms for
confiscation without compensation.
Ruling party militants have illegally and often violently occupied about
1,700 white-owned farms, some of them not targeted for compensation. Mugabe has
described the land occupations as a justified protest against unfair land
ownership by whites and has ignored six court orders declaring land seizures
illegal.
Mbeki: No knowledge of a possible coup in
Zimbabwe
By Nick Childs in Johannesburg
South African President Thabo Mbeki has faced heated exchanges in parliament
over the government's handling of the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has experienced increasing international isolation as a result of
growing political violence in the country and the forced seizure of land from
white farmers.
The South African Government has no information of any coup
that has been planned in Zimbabwe
Thabo Mbeki
One opposition MP said Mr Mbeki's policy of quiet
diplomacy has failed because the situation was continuing to deteriorate.
Mr Mbeki has also been under international pressure to take a harder line
towards the authorities in Harare.
The South African president insists his government has never pursued quiet
diplomacy and would continue to engage with Zimbabwe to find a solution.
But Mr Mbeki said the country's problems had accumulated over almost a
century and resolving the crisis would take time.
Plans for coup
He also reiterated his government's denial of any knowledge about plans for a
military coup in Zimbabwe.
Reports of possible coup against Mr Mugabe if crisis
deteriorates
This followed a report in Britain's The Guardian
newspaper, saying senior officers in Zimbabwe had told the South African
Government of their intention to mount a coup against the country's president,
Robert Mugabe, if the political and economic crisis deteriorated.
"The South African Government has no information of any coup that has been
planned in Zimbabwe," Mr Mbeki said.
"We are opposed to military coups and if we had any such information we would
indeed inform the government of Zimbabwe," he added.
The head of Zimbabwe's armed forces also dismissed reports that the military
was prepared to intervene against the government.
Crisis could spread
The BBC has learned of growing concern with the South African Government that
Zimbabwe could face economic and political collapse and that the crisis could
destabilise the entire region.
If that happened, South Africa would be in the front line, with the prospect
of large numbers of refugees streaming south across the border.
The
Movement for Democratic Change is calling upon government and all responsible
authorities to urgently look into the issues being raised by students in
tertiary institutions. It is our conviction that the welfare of students
should be a priority in creating a conducive environment
for learning.
For that reason we call on the authorities to stop the
privatization of basic services e.g. catering services and accommodation and
to urgently review the levels of student support in order to cushion students
against the rising cost of living. It is sad to note that students in the
recent past have had to sustain indecent ways of living to cope with the
economic hardships.
It is also regrettable to note that the police
instead of working with students to create conditions for peaceful
demonstrations by students, the force instead only bent on suppressing the
exercise of students freedoms. We call upon the police to respect the
peaceful expression of discontent by students in particular and members of
the public in general.
Minister Jonathan Moyo's attempt in today's edition of
the Herald to twist a clear message of the MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai to
his party supporters in Chitungwiza over the weekend is highly irresponsible
and borders on both malice and mischief. The MDC president gave a warning
to Zimbabwean citizens to the effect that Jonathan Moyo's party, which has
a history of violence and has left a trail of blood in every election it
has contested, will be employing its barbaric strategy in the
forthcoming presidential election. He therefore called upon Zimbabweans to
remain resilient and steadfast in the wake of a real likelihood of a
massive increase in Zanu PF violence and other acts of barbarism.
If
someone cannot comprehend this simple and realistic message, then they are
not worth the title Professor. The MDC president's warning to the innocent
citizens of Zimbabwe is timely given the current wave of terror. The claim
that Zimbabwe has had peaceful elections dating back to 1980 is both
frivolous and hypocritical, particularly when coming from a man who has
actually written a book on Zanu PF's electoral violence and theft
of elections. All Zimbabweans including Minister Moyo and the bullied
Herald know very well that there has never been a violent-free election
in Zimbabwe since independence. The elections held in 1985, 1990, 1995
and the recent June 2000 elections bear ample testimony to this.
Jonathan Moyo talks about "the wrath of law" descending "like a hammer
to preserve peace and stability and protect lives". Can he explain where
this wrath of law was on December 14 2000 when Robert Mugabe said at the
Zanu PF Congress: "Our party must continue to strike fear in the hearts of
the white men, they must tremble". Can he further explain where his wrath
of law was on March 15, 2000 when Robert Mugabe again said: "Those who try
to cause disunity among our people must watch out because death will
befall them." Who exactly is promising to unleash unprecedented violence
and inciting the deaths of unspecified people, in total disregard of
the democratic process?
Why has the wrath of law not descended like a
hammer to preserve peace and stability and to protect lives when on 16 March
2000 Andrew Ndlovu publicly claimed that his group had lots of arms hidden in
caches all over the country and would be used to violently remove any elected
government other than Zanu PF, again in total disregard of the democratic
process. Why has the same wrath of law not descended on violent mongers like
Joseph Msika, Chenjerai Hunzvi and Joseph Chinotimba.
Only last week
three top MDC officials suffered the brutality of Zanu PF sponsored violence.
It is public record that the MDC MP for Nkayi Abednico Bhebhe was on Saturday
26 May was abducted and brutally beaten up by ten Zanu PF thugs who clearly
stated that they had a mandate of President Mugabe to kill him. The MDC's
candidate for Bulimamangwe Ward 10 Joel Sithole was on Friday 25 May abducted
and tortured by another group of Zanu PF thugs in Plumtree. On May 23 MDC MP
Willias Madzimure's house and property were destroyed in broad daylight by
Zanu PF thugs who also stole cash amounting to $160 000 and food that had
been prepared for the MPs children. Thousands of MDC supporters in many parts
of country particularly, in Mashonaland Central have in recent weeks been
subjected to systematic torture and harassment and this is a matter of
public record. Can Jonathan Moyo tell his audience why his wrath of law
failed to descend like a hammer to preserve peace, stability and to protect
lives in the above cases?
Jonathan Moyo as an unelected propaganda
functionary should not contaminate democratic discourse by his silly and
misdirected outbursts, which have clearly become monotonous and of no
interest to the listening public. What is of interest to the public about
Jonathan Moyo at this stage is the criminal probe by the FBI he is currently
facing. If he wants to continue making outbursts then these should center
around this probe which no doubt is denting not only his image but that of
the country.
Ian Millar of Dawmill farm in Bindura,
northern Zimbabwe, has had trouble for some time. This week, the trouble
escalated, and he and his family were made prisoners in their own home.
The roots of the problem seem to go back a couple of
months, when the Governor for the area, Elliot Manyika, met with Chitapi, leader
of the local gang of war veterans, and gave him 60 days to get him the farm. A
further meeting is alleged to have taken place on 28 May between Chitapi and
Manyika, when Chitapi was instructed to mobilise women and children to move onto
the farm. This followed allegations against Mr Miller in which he was accused of
undertaking to purchase various kinds of election campaign material for MDC. It
is thought that the allegations are false, and were deliberately made to create
reasons to kill him and thereafter take over his farm.
Millar’s first inkling of his most recent
round of troubles happened on the evening of 28 May as he noticed strangers
walking on to his farm, and heard reports of all the surrounding "war vet" camps
emptying. At 4 o’clock on the morning of Tuesday 29 May he was summoned to the
gate of his security-fenced property to face a mob of about 150 "veterans".
Under the leadership of Chitapi, they refused to allow the workshops to be
opened or any produce to be sent to town. This means a loss of about $120 000.00
per day. They also banned Millar, his wife, and two others residing on the farm
from leaving.
The following is an extract from Hansard of
27 February, the Zimbabwe Parliament’s official record, of a visit paid to
Dawmill Farm by the Parliamentary Lands Committee.
3.1 Dawmill Farm : The Committee visited
Dawmill which is 1357 hectares in extent. Out of this hectarage, 720 hectares is
arable, 640 hectares is cleared and used land and 430 hectares is irrigable
land. In a normal year, the farm produces 2500 tonnes of maize, 1700 tonnes of
Soya beans and 2000 tonnes of wheat. The farm employs 320 workers. The total
turn over per annum is $80 000 000. The committee learnt that although the farm
has not been listed, 150 informal settlers have taken it over and allocated
themselves 12 hectares each. The committee was disturbed to learn that among
these informal settlers were people who had been on earlier resettlement schemes
but had abandoned their plots. It was also alleged that a senior employee of the
University of Bindura and an employee of Cottco had been allocated plots on the
farm.
3.2 In an effort to get a balanced view of
what is happening at Dawmill farm, the committee interviewed the owner of the
farm, the farm workers and the informal settlers.
3.3 The informal settlers told the
committee that they were concerned about the strained relations with the owner
of the farm and were considering taking over the remaining 72 hectares of a
banana crop that they had allowed the farm owner to retain. The farm owner
lamented the disruption of farming activities on the farm, which under normal
circumstances has an annual turnover of 80 million. The farm workers informed
the committee that they had been prevented from utilising the land that is
normally allocated to them by the farm owner to grow crops for their sustenance.
The farm workers implored the committee to urge the Government to settle the
issue expeditiously as it was affecting their livelihood.
3.4 The situation at Dawmill farm is very
tense. Farm operations have been severely disrupted. A network of agriculture
equipment is not being used. The potential to grow winter wheat should by all
means be reinstated at this farm. The brutal attack on the farm manager should
be condemned in the strongest terms and the police are urged to take swift
action to restore order on the farm.
Millar’s manager, Jim Falla ,who lives in
Bindura, the nearest town, went to the police station to report the incident
shortly after 4 am on Tuesday. At 8.30, two constables turned up, told Millar to
stay indoors and that they would return. The police have not been seen since.
Chitapi then said he would not move until addressed by the Governor.
Governor Manyika was unavailable yesterday – the
funeral for the minister of Defence Moven Mahachi, killed in a car accident and
now accorded hero status, was taking place at the National Shrine, and rumours
of a military coup are rocking this embattled nation. Zanu PF youths assaulted
MDC supporters in the Bindura townships for failing to attend Mahachi’s funeral
in Harare. The situation in the whole area is extremely tense. Millar and his
family, prisoners in their own home, are still waiting for the Governor to deign
to pay them a call, whilst the crowd sat outside the house singing and
chanting. The reason for the squatters' urgent desire to seize the farm? There
is an immediately available 72 hectare cash crop of bananas waiting to be
picked...
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 1
June
Squatters cut off farm water
supply
Harare - Squatters cut off the water supply
to a white family in their farmhouse in Zimbabwe yesterday, the third day of a
siege. An 80-strong mob, beating drums and shouting abuse, has surrounded the
Dawmill Farm home of Ian Millar and his wife, Helen, since 4.30 am on Tuesday.
After the squatters turned off the pumps that supply the farm with water, Mr
Millar, 55, said the taps were likely to run dry today.
Mr Millar, who was born in Scotland, said:
"Why we deserve this, I do not know." More than 200 squatters invaded Dawmill,
which is not listed by the government for seizure, in October. The blockade of
the farmhouse is the furthest they have gone to force out the Millars. During
the siege, the squatters have kept Mr Millar and his 320 workers off its 1,700
acres. The squatters demand the release of two colleagues sentenced to six years
in jail each for an assault on Keith McGaw, the farm manager, last October.
Mr Millar said: "I told them I had no power to do
that but they were not prepared to listen." Police ignored calls for help until
Wednesday, when they turned up to explain that only Elliot Manyika, the
provincial governor, who has told the Millars to leave the land, could
intervene. Dawmill Farm, 50 miles north of Harare, is among 900 properties
occupied by squatters who have become the shock troops of President Robert
Mugabe's regime.
From The Daily News (SA), 31
May
Zim hostage drama for SA pistol
team
A game hunting expedition in Zimbabwe
turned into a five-hour hostage drama for the Springbok Pistol team, when they
were confronted by a mob of angry war veterans. The pistol team had competed in
the annual Zimbabwean Bianchi Action shooting competition in Bulawayo last
weekend. On Sunday, a group of them had decided to spend the morning hunting on
a friend's game farm about an hour from Bulawayo, before heading back to South
Africa.
While the team had been made aware of the
presence of war veterans camping on the farm, they had been assured they were
not hostile. However, according to Grant Lacey, one of the Springbok shooters,
the reality was very different. Said Lacey: "We were on our way back to the
farmhouse when a hoard of war vets began to chase us, shouting, chanting and
waving sticks and knobkerries." The incited crowd managed to lock the group of
seven South Africans and the farm owner into the fenced-in area surrounding the
house. "They had seen our ND numberplate and the kudu and two warthog we had
killed, and to them, this meant we were poachers," said Lacey.
"There was no reasoning with them," said
Phillip Jordaan, another team member. "They insisted it was their land, their
meat, and they wanted it back, even though the farmer who owned the land was
with us." The crowd began to swell, as children were sent to neighbouring farms
to gather more war veterans. "Eventually there were about 80 gathered around the
fence brandishing a variety of weapons, with a committee of about eight inside
with us," said Lacey. The team called the police, who arrived "an hour and a
half later" with a Zanu-PF official "to mediate".
According to Lacey, the official simply
stoked the fire, and made demands, such as the film from their camera, which
they swapped quickly with a new one before handing it over. "The police had no
influence or control over the crowd, in fact they took their cues from the vets.
They wore plain clothes as well, so as not to distinguish themselves from the
crowd," said Chris Neubauer, who shoots on the SA squad. A further three and a
half hours of negotiations with the "very arrogant and militant" official,
followed before the exhausted and shaken team were allowed to leave, greatly
angered by their unexpected ordeal.
From News24 (SA), 31
May
MDC victory
contested
Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling party has filed an application to
the High Court to challenge the victory of the main opposition MDC in a key
mayoral election, officials said on Thursday. Analysts said the opposition
victory in the mayoral contest in the southern city of Masvingo was a clear
warning to President Robert Mugabe ahead of presidential elections next year.
Jacob Chademana, who represented Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in the mayoral contest
in Masvingo earlier this month, said the MDC had won fraudulently. "We have gone
to court because it is my belief that some of the voters had physical addresses
which were non-existent within the Masvingo municipal area," he told reporters.
Chademana lost to Alois Chaimiti of the MDC, whose election made him the first
opposition executive mayor in the country. Political analysts said the MDC's
victory after a violent campaign by Zanu-PF militants was a warning to Mugabe
that voters were likely to punish his ruling party if it continued to try to
manipulate their will through violence or fraud.
Zimbabweans will vote in presidential elections next year in
which Mugabe will seek another six-year term to extend his 21 years in power
since steering Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980. Parliamentary
elections last year were marred by a violent campaign and seizure of white-owned
farm land by self-styled war veterans and the death of at least 31 people,
mainly MDC supporters.
From a reader, 31
May
This is what they have
done...
Well, I suppose when you do not hear about it all the time you
forget it is happening everyday in someone else's life. Maybe some of you who
are more in touch with persons from/in/at rural areas are aware of what is going
on there. The beatings, human rights violations, the intimidation have not
stopped. They have just taken new strategies, new forms and they still continue.
The perpetrators the same 'war vets' and now chiefs, councillors and of course
the MPs and police are aware of these goings-on and are either fuelling it or
are just ignoring it.
Our gardener (Sxxxx) went to visit his wife who lives in his
rural home in Rushinga. This man has not gone there nor seen his wife since
Christmas (about 4.5 to 5 months). Not because he does not love his wife and
children but because the economics of Zimbabwe deny him the right to do so. He
always prefers to send the bus fare (about Z$1000) per return trip to his wife
for their food and clothing needs in lieu of the pleasure of his family and home
(never mind their conjugal needs). He works hard everyday and the government
stipulated rates for gardeners is Z$ 900 and something the last time I
checked.
The MP for Rushinga is Zanu PF's Saviour Kasikuwere. There is a
practice that is going on in that constituency. Every person is forced to attend
all Zanu PF rallies. They mark registers per household and once you do not
attend (regardless of why) you are defined MDC and once defined MDC you are a
victim of beatings and harassment and will be made a public spectacle until you
publicly denounce your MDC membership. Each Chief has to account for his
Sabhukus (I am not sure what the English equivalent of this is) and each Sabhuku
is made to account for the households in his area. So, Sxxxx comes from a place
called Manyanya in Rushinga and there is a chief called Makuni there. and his
councillor for the area is also called Makuni.
Councillor Makuni is selling Zanu PF membership cards to the
people in his area for $25.00 a card. Every month each household has to renew
their subscription by paying Z$10.00 per month. What he does with that money and
where it goes, of course, these folks do not know. The war vets are the ones who
collect this money. If you do not buy the card you are in trouble. Where are
these folks supposed to be getting the money to pay for all this one wonders? I
doubt very much if this money gets anywhere beyond the councillor and war vets'
pockets and/or pot bellies. These people live a difficult life. Sxxxx's family
lives 25km away from the nearest grinding mill. A bus trip to the mill is $100
per return trip and to get one sack/bucket of maize ground into mealie meal its
Z$25.00 and his family uses up one sack per week. So, it is about Z$125.00 a
week needed and sometimes there will be no electricity at the grinding mill and
that will be one wasted trip (Z$100.00). Sxxxx says there are about 5 chiefs in
Rushinga and they all are doing the same thing.
If you visit your family, you are intimidated because once they
hear you are from Harare it means you are MDC and it means you will be singing a
different song but it also means you have information and news that people do
not have. If anything, Zanu PF is trying to isolate rural folk even from their
own families so that they do not get to hear news, true information and once you
keep people isolated, they believe know only what they see, hear and live.
This is just a slight glean into what many worker's families
are going through. Many peoples in rural Zimbabwe are going through. You can
just try to imagine the implications socially, economically and mentally of just
the brief outline of what I relate about Sxxxx's visit. What and how does it
affect Sxxxx. What and how does it affect his wife and children. We must make
sure that we do all we can to complete the change we started. For you and me but
I believe more importantly for the millions of Sxxxxs out there. One thing I saw
written on a lot of victim's faces (June elections 2000) particularly the males
was the mental torture of knowing that they were helpless to protect their wives
and families and now I see the same torture on many faces because they are
helpless to provide for their families, helpless to protect their families and
helpless to keep their families together.
This is what the system we are fighting against has done. The
hope we hope to bring in Zimbabwe through change is worth fighting for and worth
striving for because if anything at all, it is a hope many people are hoping
for. The many MDC activists on the ground are people like Sxxxx. Just two weeks
ago Sxxxx asked me how he could participate in bringing forth Change. So for all
of us out there laying our necks on the line for change to come, having
sleepless nights working for change to come, being in one meeting after another,
writing one document after another, going from one place after another, for
Change - I celebrate you. Surely Change shall come. Amen.
Book review -
ZWNEWS
African Tears by Cathy Buckle (ISBN
1-919874-27-5)
White farmers don’t get a good press. They do get coverage -
worldwide, on TV and in print - on a scale that black Zimbabweans do not, but
the effect is double-edged, with the graphic pictures of mayhem on the farms
confirming negative stereotypes as much as provoking sympathy. It is a simple
story, if one believes Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s spindoctor. A very few white
farmers own too much land and have been stalling in every way they can to avoid
letting the landless poor have any of it. Solution : let the landless poor take
back their land, and if a few casualties occur in the process, it is a small
price to pay. Simple problem, simple solution.
Not quite. As with most things in Zimbabwe’s current agony,
things are, at the same time, both very simple, and very complicated. And the
uncomfortable truth, for those who still believe in the stereotypical image of
the reactionary farmer living the life of Riley, is that the past eighteen
months in Zimbabwe’s history have exposed Moyo’s simple analysis for what it is
– a lie.
African Tears is the story of Stow Farm, and the struggle to
keep farming once President Mugabe had launched his monumental act of spite on
the people of Zimbabwe in February last year. Originally told in the form of a
weekly email newsletter, the book sets out how, for seven interminable months,
the Buckles and their employees endured day-to-day intimidation as their farm
was used as a local base for the political re-education of the surrounding
countryside. Assaults, torture, death threats, arson, large and small scale
corruption, and common or garden theft form the backdrop to Cathy Buckle’s
story.
Some farmers undoubtedly do live close to the leopard-skin
hatted stereotype. There is an alarming disparity between the living standards
of many white farmers, on the one hand, and their employees, and their even less
fortunate near-neighbours across the fences in the communal lands on the other.
No one can seriously deny that. And there has been a shocking lack of foresight
by many – farmers and city dwellers, black and white, alike - in thinking that
such disparities could continue indefinitely without consequences. Cathy Buckle
does not shirk from admitting this. But many farmers do not fit this caricature.
Education, health care and accommodation are provided for vast numbers of
workers and their families. The arrangement may seem paternalistic, even
colonialist, to the Western mind used to a liberally funded welfare state, but
in Africa, welfare states are a pipe dream, and if the state does not provide,
others should, and many do.
But if Zimbabwe’s white farmers bear part of the blame for the
land problem reaching its current anarchic state, the lion’s share of the
responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of President Mugabe himself.
Nothing happens in Zimbabwe without the nod from State House. Twenty-one years
of absolute political power, substantial, readily available funding for land
purchase and agricultural extension schemes, and all he has to show for it is
swathes of farmland lying idle – owned, and left to rot, by the government, his
generals, and his closest cronies. And he shares with no-one the blame for the
last eighteen months. All white farmers – good and bad – have been declared
"enemies of the state" by President Mugabe, and, with the sanction of the rule
of law suspended, both official terrorism - there is no other word for it – and
the resurgence of petty individual grievances, have wreaked havoc on the farms.
The most venal low-lives have crawled out from under the
skirting boards to take advantage of this lawlessness. Some of the characters in
this book are so grotesque as almost to defy belief. Edward, the incompetent
‘war veteran’ and fraudster, a station full of Kafka-esque policemen who can
never quite lay their hands on the incident book, a gang of surly hired
hoodlums, given to juvenile games of staring-out, and much worse. But there are
also the Buckle’s – fighting furiously to stave off bankruptcy. And most
impressive of all, for they have everything to lose and nothing to defend
themselves with - the unyielding dignity of their employees and their families,
stoically enduring the physical and mental torture of Zanu PF’s cultural
revolution.
African Tears gives a blow by heart-rending blow account of the
effect of this lawlessness on individual people – easily forgotten when groups
are made scapegoats for political failure. It is not, nor does it pretend to be,
an all-encompassing account of the same kind of terror on the communal lands, or
in the urban townships, or, as has become the recent pattern, the ‘invasions’ of
businesses and factories in an attempt to cow the cities and towns. The rural
and urban poor have all become "enemies of the state", and suffered accordingly.
And this is the final proof that Moyo’s simple analysis is a lie. Here the
stereotypes break down completely. This is oppressor versus oppressed, but not -
as Moyo would have it - white versus black. This is the powerful against the
weak – and skin colour is irrelevant, except as political spin.
Educated and articulate, Cathy Buckle has been able to tell her
personal story to the world at large. But this is more universal a Zimbabwean
story than one just about a single farm and the people on it. The whole country
has been put through the same trauma : shattered dreams, shattered bodies,
shattered minds. The hope must be that all the other Zimbabweans who have
suffered the most alarming cruelty, but who have endured it behind the scenes,
away from the television crews, will eventually find a way to tell their stories
too.
This is not an easy or a pleasant tale. If you are happy with
the stereotypes as to who is the victim and who the villain on Zimbabwe’s farms,
read this book, and then mentally put yourself in the place of Jane the
storekeeper. Ask yourself truthfully whether you would have behaved as she did.
Then judge her character against Mugabe’s rhetoric. This book is very moving,
and I urge you to read it. Buy it as soon as you can.
A portion of the profits from the sales of this book will be
donated to the Patrick Nabanyama Trust, set up to help Patrick’s family after he
was kidnapped by Zanu PF supporters just before the 2000 elections. He has
disappeared without trace. His abductors are known, but have not been
tried.
Johannesburg - The Guardian's revelation that the Zimbabwean
armed forces have warned South Africa's government of a potential coup against
Robert Mugabe prompted questions of President Thabo Mbeki in parliament in Cape
Town yesterday. Mr Mbeki skirted the direct issue raised by high-level sources
in Pretoria, who told the Guardian that the Zimbabwean army had made secret
approaches to Pretoria to express fears that widespread food shortages within
months could prompt riots and other unrest, and a military coup. Instead, after
a question by the New National party leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Mr Mbeki
gave parliament a general answer denying any knowledge of a planned coup.
"The South African government has no information of any coup
being planned in Zimbabwe, and I must say we are opposed to coups," he said. But
Mr Mbeki did express the same fears about the consequences of social upheaval in
Zimbabwe as those communicated by its military. "We have to work with the
government of Zimbabwe to avoid that situation where there is that total
collapse," he said. He declined to criticise Mr Mugabe and defended Zimbabwe's
land redistribution programme as a "correction of a colonial legacy", dismissing
opposition assertions that the land seizures were a cover to crush political
opponents.
"The land redistribution in Zimbabwe cannot be called an
excuse," Mr Mbeki said. "To turn around and say the land redistribution is an
excuse is very unfeeling. There are people in Zimbabwe who are very poor, who
don't have land." He said the country's crisis was the result of a century-old
wrong which Mr Mugabe had been unable to address sooner because he was
constrained by a constitution imposed on him by Britain two decades ago. The
solution to Zimbabwe's problems would take "some time," Mr Mbeki said, "just as
a solution to the Palestinian problem won't just take a day."
From News24 (SA), 30
May
Mbeki to talk with Mugabe
soon
Parliament - President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday said he would
meet Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe again soon to discuss issues identified in
inter-ministerial meetings between the two governments. Ministers involved in
the talks with their Zimbabwean counterparts had reported back to him with
suggestions on what could be done next, he said in the National Assembly in
reply to a question from DA deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk. South
Africa's approach to Zimbabwe was similar to that of countries and organisations
such as the United States, Great Britain, the United Nations and the
Organisation of African Unity. Big business had also been involved to find ways
of "what we can do together so that we do not have a situation in which we have
to put contingency plans in place".
Mbeki again said the South African government was not aware of
any coup being planned against the Zimbabwean government. If it had such
knowledge, it would pass it on to the Zimbabweans, as the South African
government was against coups. Mbeki said the solution to Zimbabwe's problems
would take "some time", as the country's problems had accumulated over a
century. "It's not going to take us a day, just as a solution to the Palestinian
problem won't just take a day." Mbeki said the description of the South African
government's approach to Zimbabwe as "quiet diplomacy" was a "perception created
by someone". South Africa had always publicly stated what its position towards
and discussions with the Zimbabwean government entailed.
"South Africa, as a neighbour, has to continue to engage the
Zimbabwean leadership through normal channels used by governments throughout the
world... to assist them to find solutions to their complex problems." Finding
these solutions was not only South Africa's responsibility, but also of
countries in the region and in the international community. "However,
ultimately, it is up to the Zimbabwean people to find their own solutions."
Mbeki said his government had been encouraging interaction between the different
political parties in Zimbabwe and would continue to do so.
From The Star (SA), 30
May
Defence chiefs deny plot to oust
Mugabe
Harare - Zimbabwe's top three military commanders on Tuesday
denied a press report that they were planning a coup to oust President Robert
Mugabe if the crisis in the country worsened. The British newspaper The Guardian
reported the day before that top army officers in Zimbabwe had secretly warned
the South African government that they could stage a coup against Mugabe if a
mounting economic crisis led to riots. The commander of the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, told state television that the report was by
the country's enemies whose "machinations to destroy the country had failed".
"It's not true because that type of a thing is not being expected in this
country. I as the commander know it," he said. Zvinavashe was flanked by the air
force chief, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, and army commander, Lieutenant-General
Constantine Chiwenga. The story cited South African intelligence, mentioning the
prospective coup leader as Air Marshal Shiri. Zvinavashe said the story was
meant to divide the defence force chiefs. The paper quoted unnamed senior South
African officials as saying the Zimbabwean military commanders believed that a
potential food shortage this year could be politicised and lead to riots.
From The Financial Gazette, 31
May
Anti-MDC crusade reveals rift in
army
The recent crusade by Zimbabwean army commander Constantine
Chiwenga to drum up support among soldiers for President Robert Mugabe's
re-election next year has revealed deep divisions within the armed forces over
Mugabe's continued reign, analysts said this week. The experts said Chiwenga's
campaign of touring army barracks urging soldiers to rally behind the governing
Zanu PF party to thwart a possible victory by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader,
was ill-conceived and unnecessarily dragged soldiers from the barracks into
mainstream partisan politics. The Financial Gazette reported last week that
Chiwenga has been addressing political rallies at barracks throughout Zimbabwe
denouncing Tsvangirai and urging soldiers to take action to stop an MDC victory
next year. Zimbabweans go to the polls next year to elect the president. It is
believed the contest really is between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, the veteran trade
unionist who once headed the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Solomon Nkiwane,
a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe said Chiwenga's
campaign revealed that there was no unanimity within the rank and file of the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and the air force on Mugabe's leadership.
"The campaign by Chiwenga, more so coming from him as the
commander of the ZNA, brings the professionalism of the army into question,"
Nkiwane told the Financial Gazette. "Over and above, the campaign within the
military also reveals that there is no unanimity within the rank and file of the
army over Mugabe," he added. Nkiwane said Chiwenga, a former guerrilla in
Mugabe's pre-independence ZANLA forces, might be championing his personal wish
and that of the heavily politicised ilk at the top of the armed forces in
Zimbabwe. Nkiwane however said the military in Zimbabwe would not step in to
stop the opposition MDC from assuming power in the event of victory by
Tsvangirai because the army cannot overrule the people's wish. "In actual fact,
the majority of the middle and lower soldiers may be thinking directly the
opposite of what the top brass is thinking and will not stand in the way of the
people's wish," Nkiwane observed. The ZNA has in the past insisted that it is
apolitical and would serve any government that was elected into power. Masipula
Sithole, a respected columnist and political analyst, said Chiwenga's campaign
was awkward, unprofessional and should be sanctioned. "The behaviour of the army
commander is out of character and should be sanctioned as it draws the army into
partisan politics," Sithole told the Financial Gazette. "But this campaign shows
that there are divisions within the defence forces over Mugabe."
Zimbabwe's top hierarchy in the defence forces is headed by
Mugabe loyalists such as General Vitalis Zvinavashe, commander of all armed
forces, Air Marshall Perence Shiri at the airforce and Chiwenga at the ZNA. The
trio all fought as senior members of ZANLA, the military wing of ZANU PF, during
the 1970s campaign to remove the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith. Among the
three, Shiri once led the now defunct Fifth Brigade that is blamed for killing
thousands of villagers in Matabeleland during an insurrection by some former
guerrillas loyal to then ZAPU leader, the late Joshua Nkomo. Some of the top
army brass have also recently been implicated in widespread looting of diamonds
and other minerals in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. While most
senior and retired Zimbabwean army officers are reportedly very rich and
comfortable, the same cannot be said of the rank and file, some of whom stay in
shacks in the high-density areas. Middle-ranking and junior soldiers in the
barracks and the high-density areas are also reported to be discontented with
poor salaries and living conditions. Said Sithole: "Whatever the campaign in the
military, in the final analysis soldiers are human beings and they feel the same
way as any ordinary Zimbabweans."
From The Star (SA), 30
May
Electorate the only force to
fear
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may lose power when
he faces an angry electorate next year, but there are no signs of a serious
threat from his ruling party or the army command, analysts said on Wednesday.
Mugabe's main political rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, also said
there was no reason to believe the army wanted to seize power or to abort the
democratic process. Mugabe himself has shown no signs of worry. "The real threat
Mugabe is facing at this stage is from the opposition, not his followers or the
military," said Masipula Sithole, one of Zimbabwe's leading political analysts.
"For all of them - Mugabe, party leaders and the army high command - the main
challenge is collective political survival." The 40 000-strong army, comprising
independence war veterans, young recruits born after 1980 and former Rhodesian
soldiers, has in the past shown no appetite for politics. In the army, Mugabe
has kept the senior officer corps, many of whom fought alongside the former
guerrilla leader, loyal by either co-opting them into Zanu-PF structures or
smoothing their entry into lucrative business schemes. Analysts say top army
officers are profiting from mining ventures in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
where Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have thousands of troops backing the Kinshasa
government against rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda. The government has
denied these allegations.
From The Daily News, 30
May
New Masvingo mayor faces
arrest
Police in Masvingo yesterday said they were keen to question
the town’s newly elected mayor, Alois Chaimiti, 53, in connection with political
violence in the run-up to the mayoral election. Police yesterday picked up his
election agent, Lawson Mapfaira, and interrogated him in connection with the
same case. Mapfaira spent an hour at Masvingo Central police station. A police
spokesman, Inspector Tirivanhu Tarwireyi, said Chaimiti had a case to answer as
he allegedly participated in incidents of violence during the Masvingo mayoral
campaign. "We picked up Lawson Mapfaira for questioning," said Tarwireyi.
"Mapfaira was the mayor’s election campaign agent and we are keen to interview
the mayor himself in connection with cases of assault and public violence."
The police allege that on 11 May, Mapfaira and Chaimiti drove
through Chikumbo Street in Mucheke. The allegedly came across MDC youths who
were assaulting Farai Tembo, a Zanu PF supporter. The police allege that the two
abducted Tembo and drove him to the Targets Kopje where they assaulted him
before injecting him with an unknown drug. Tembo was reportedly unconscious for
an hour and was later rushed to Masvingo General Hospital where he was detained
for a day, said Tarwireyi. He said that on 5 May, Mapfaira and Chaimiti
instigated MDC youths to assault Collin Manyika, another Zanu PF supporter.
Yesterday, the MDC denounced the police action and said it was
a well-calculated move to frustrate and intimidate MDC activists. The party
provincial chairman, Shacky Matake, described the allegations as absurd. "Zanu
PF is working together with its partisan police to harass members of the
opposition," he said. Chaimiti became the first MDC mayor when he beat Zanu PF’s
Jacob Chademana in the 12 and 13 May mayoral poll. Chaimiti has now assumed his
duties as the executive mayor of Masvingo.
Meanwhile, the MDC said the conduct of the police had
demonstrated that they were partisan. In a statement, the MDC said thousands of
people continued to suffer various forms of brutality and torture resulting in
many sustaining broken limbs. "Criminals who killed and maimed people still walk
free today and some have no shame in boasting about the evil they have
perpetuated and that they are above the law," said the statement. The MDC said
members of the party and any other people who did not share the same views and
values with Zanu PF had no protection from the police.
From The Financial Gazette, 31
May
Ministers named in Chinese casino
deal
Two Zimbabwean government ministers have been implicated in a
questionable deal that has resulted in some Chinese businessmen operating what
could be one of the country's real top-flight casinos in Mazowe. Local
businessmen this week questioned how the Chinese were awarded the lucrative
casino licence at the non-star hotel near the citrus estate when top hotels such
as the Elephant Hills at Victoria Falls, Troutbeck Inn in the picturesque Nyanga
area and Bulawayo Sun have failed to secure licences.
The controversial casino, which opened its doors first for
fruit machine players last week, is at the small Mazowe Hotel about 48 kms south
of Harare. One of its original prime movers was Shelton Murerwa, a brother of
former finance minister and now Minister of Higher Education, Herbert Murerwa.
Former Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa, who headed the ministry when the
original licence for the Mazowe casino was submitted, this week admitted that he
had issued an enabling document to an indigenous company owned by a now deceased
businessman named Chibhanguza. Dabengwa said the full licence to operate the
casino had not been issued during his time at the ministry. He was unaware what
happened when he left government last year and he was not aware how the Chinese
came into the picture.
John Nkomo, the Home Affairs Minister, this week said he was
not aware about the background to the Mazowe casino project because he inherited
it upon his appointment to the ministry after the departure of Dabengwa. In
fact, said Nkomo, the whole project was a "fait accompli" when he inherited it.
Nkomo told the Financial Gazette in an interview that he was also not aware of
any corruption having been committed in the issuance of the licence and
challenged anyone who wanted a commission of enquiry on how the licence was
issued to go ahead. "If somebody needs an inquiry, let them have it," Nkomo told
the Financial Gazette. "I don't know how the whole project began. I only
inherited it and I didn't even bother to ask why the Chinese were involved."
Nkomo said when he took over at the Home Affairs ministry, he
was informed that the Chinese consortium had been issued with a document
enabling it to set up infrastructure pending the issuance of a full casino
licence. "The last time I met the Chinese and others was when they were arguing
about some issues and when they were saying they had not met some of the
requirements wanted before issuing the licence and thus asked for the extension
of the enabling document." Said Nkomo: "Once they had met the conditions as
stipulated, there wouldn't have been any good reason why they shouldn't have
been issued with the licence. "To those who are saying they shouldn't have been
given the licence, my question is: who should have? The point is there must be a
reason for anybody who has applied and failed to get a casino licence." Nkomo
said he had never visited the proposed casino and did not believe his officials
could have misled him about the criteria that had to be fulfilled before the
licence was issued. The Minister said he had never spoken to the younger
Murerwa, who works for the Airforce of Zimbabwe, and urged Zimbabweans to view
the project as a major investment such as South Africa's privately owned Sun
City.
Efforts to trace Shelton Murerwa for an interview were
fruitless during the past two weeks. However, industry players and some tourism
experts have questioned the wisdom of awarding the licence to Mazowe Hotel,
which does not have a single star, while refusing other well-established hotels.
"Right now the city is awash with rumours that some vehicles were bought for
certain employees of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Such worrying rumours can
only be clarified and the truth known if a proper investigation is conducted,"
said one source. Another source said it was important for the government to
explain why the Chinese, who have no track record at running casinos, were
preferred over other better-qualified bidders. It was also not possible to get
comment from the Chinese developers of the Mazowe casino at the time of going to
print. The Financial Gazette could however not name the two ministers and
officials implicated for legal reasons.
From IRIN (UN), 30
May
Mugabe Urges Developing Nations to
Regulate Information
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe told a summit of developing
nations on Wednesday that the information age should be regulated so that the
Internet does not "poison societies", news reports said. Mugabe, speaking at the
summit of the Group of 15 developing countries in Indonesia, said that
globalisation was "extending the economic dominance that the United States and
Europe have enjoyed over the world since the days of colonialism and slavery".
Mugabe added that "undesirable" information should be regulated, including
pornography, disinformation, popularisation of crime and the "character
assassination of public office holders and governments". "The toll-free and
regulation-free information highways and the Internet threaten the very being
and essence of our nations and communities," Mugabe said. Information providers
had a "heavy responsibility" over their content, he said. The summit is expected
to issue a declaration urging a united stand to bridge the gap in information
technology with rich countries. Many leaders called the gap a handicap
preventing the poor from benefiting from
globalisation.
Harare/Johannesburg - South African
claims that hardline generals in Zimbabwe are poised to remove President Robert
Mugabe were dismissed by diplomats yesterday. Instead of a take-over by senior
officers loyal to Zanu-PF, diplomats said an attempt by junior officers not so
firmly aligned with the ruling party was more likely. Deep divisions have opened
in the 40,000-strong Zimbabwean armed forces between an old guard rewarded for
its loyalty to Mr Mugabe and younger, more democratic officers.
The issue of a coup emerged from
comments by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa in an interview with the
Guardian ahead of his visit to Britain next month. Mr Mbeki said senior officers
in Harare had sounded out their opposite numbers in South Africa about the
removal of Mr Mugabe should civil unrest follow the expected failure of this
year's maize harvest. As the regional superpower, South Africa's attitude would
be significant. Among senior figures allegedly involved in the plot are Zanu-PF
hardliners including Air Marshal Perence Shiri, head of the Zimbabwean Air
Force, who played a significant role in the occupation of hundreds of
white-owned farms last year.
Pretoria refused to comment on the
report yesterday, but one Western diplomat said: "A coup is not something we are
expecting. We believe the top brass are loyal to the government." The president
has ensured the loyalty of his generals by offering them farms and business
opportunities, but the military remains divided. Serving soldiers report
considerable antipathy towards Mr Mugabe among the lower and middle ranks. If
food shortages and an economic collapse were to spark unrest, the greatest
threat to Mr Mugabe would come from their refusal to suppress riots.
Without exception, the senior
generals have done well out of Mr Mugabe's rule. His intervention in the
Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war has created endless opportunities in
the mineral rich country. Gen Vitalis Zvinavashe, commander of the Zimbabwe
Defence Force, is a director of Osleg, a company founded to exploit the diamond
reserves around the central Congolese town of Mbuji-Mayi. A trucking company
linked to Gen Zvinavashe's family has been involved in supplying the Zimbabwean
army in Congo. Mr Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms has given him immense
power of patronage. Air Marshal Shiri has been rewarded with Ruia Falls Farm
near Bindura. The land was acquired from a white owner and handed out under the
Commercial Farm Resettlement Scheme last year.
Gen Constantine Chiwenga, commander
of the army, has in the past month made clear to his men that they must never
allow the opposition MDC to remove Mr Mugabe. Michael Quintana, editor of Africa
Defence Journal, said: "The carrots on offer have ensured that the senior
figures are all in bed with Mugabe. Shiri is Mugabe's right-hand man." The
president's trust in his top commanders is shown by the array of senior
positions in the civil service filled by former officers. Retired Colonel
Happison Bonongwe leads the Central Intelligence Organisation and several
permanent secretaries are ex-officers. Even the Wildlife Department is run by a
former brigadier. Yet morale in the lower ranks has been damaged by the war in
Congo, and junior soldiers have not been shielded from economic hardship. One
soldier, who recently returned from Congo, said: "The officers, the top dogs,
they are enjoying Congo and making money while we are suffering. They have the
good things. Where did they get them?"
Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF lost a
mayoral election in Masvingo a fortnight ago. The army's 4th Brigade is based in
the town and a polling station was carefully sited opposite its barracks. Yet
Zanu-PF got only 29 per cent of the vote. If unrest were to sweep Harare, this
discontent could come to the surface, and soldiers may refuse to fire on their
own people. Mr Mugabe may find that coddling the generals will not save him from
the corporals and privates.
From The Times (UK), 30
May
Mbeki warning over
Zimbabwe
Pretoria - President Mbeki of South Africa has
given warning that time is running out for Zimbabwe after reports that officers
in Harare are ready to stage a military coup against President Mugabe if the
country faces food riots. Calling for a new diplomatic initiative to resolve
Zimbabwe’s land disputes, Mr Mbeki said in an interview with The Times that when
he arrived in Britain on June 11 he would press Tony Blair to embark upon a new
effort to help to find a solution. He said that there was too much at stake not
to try again.
A diplomatic initiative to resolve the impasse
will be one of the main issues on the agenda during his discussions with the
British Government. Mr Mbeki said that neither Britain’s aggressive denunciation
of Mr Mugabe’s policies nor South Africa’s quiet diplomacy behind the scenes had
persuaded the Zimbabwean leader to pull back from his seizure of white-owned
farms. Defending the way in which his Government had handled the situation, Mr
Mbeki denied that South Africa had failed to speak out forcibly enough against
the violence that has swept Zimbabwe. "That perception is actually wrong," he
said. "I have stood up publicly both in Zimbabwe and in South Africa and said
all of these things."
Zimbabwean riot police yesterday fought hundreds
of technical and teaching students protesting at their inability to survive on
daily meal allowances equivalent to 50p. The students were dispersed with
teargas and baton charges.
Comment from the Daily
Telegraph (UK), 30 May
The people, not the
army
One of the most depressing aspects of the pass to
which Zimbabwe has sunk is the realisation that Robert Mugabe will never
voluntarily relinquish the presidency. Were next year's presidential poll free
and fair and the result honoured, there is no doubt that he would now be into
his last year in office. More likely is, first, the rigging of the election,
and, if that fails to produce the desired result, the invention of some
"imperialist" plot to justify suspension of the democratic process and the
assumption of emergency powers.
How can that dire prospect be reversed? In
yesterday's Guardian, Hugo Young reported from Pretoria that senior Zimbabwean
officers had told the South African government that they might launch a coup.
Yet the supposed ringleader, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, has been deeply involved
in two of the president's most notorious actions, the crushing of the
Matabeleland uprising in the 1980s and the recent illegal occupation of
white-owned farms. A regime led by him and other military leaders could prove
even more repressive than current Zanu-PF misrule.
One wonders about South Africa's purpose in
leaking such information. The only thing that seems clear is that President
Mbeki fears a victory in Zimbabwe for Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the opposition
MDC, as setting a dangerous precedent for South Africa. If a party associated
with independence in one country can be voted out of office, why not in its
neighbour?
A likelier eventuality than a coup is a total
collapse of order after a presidential election in which Mr Mugabe has patently
lost but refuses to accept the consequences. The opening of the campaign could
well coincide with the onset of famine caused by the president's disastrous land
policy. Lacking maize and deprived of the satisfaction of dismissing those
responsible, the electorate could take to the streets and the lower ranks of the
army refuse to open fire on them. Thus, as in eastern Europe in 1989-90, the
apparatus of terror would collapse and the way be opened to the rightful
assumption of power by Mr Tsvangirai. The Harare and Pretoria establishments are
determined to prevent such an outcome. But Zimbabwean voters have shown
extraordinary courage in confronting Zanu-PF thuggery, most recently in
rejecting its mayoral candidate in Masvingo. People power may yet
prevail.
From The Daily News, 29
May
Abducted candidate wins
poll
Bulawayo - An MDC election
candidate, claimed by Zanu PF to have defected from the opposition party to join
the ruling party, has won the election for the MDC. Joel Sithole, the MDC
candidate in the Bulilimamangwe South Ward 10 council election, was abducted and
assaulted by suspected Zanu PF youths and war veterans. He won the election held
in Plumtree on Saturday. The Matabeleland South provincial registrar, Jabulani
Mbambo, told The Daily News yesterday that Sithole polled 255 votes. His main
rival, Moses Ndebele of Zanu PF, received 215 votes. There were 15 spoilt
papers.
Sithole was abducted by war veterans
and Zanu PF supporters in the early hours of Friday on his way to Plumtree,
where election procedures were to be discussed. He was held for over 24 hours
before he managed to escape. He said he was tied to a bed at a homestead in the
Bango area. The government weekly, The Sunday Mail, claimed on Sunday that
Sithole had defected to join Zanu PF. The newspaper quoted an unnamed Zanu PF
official in Mashonaland West as confirming that Sithole had defected.
Sithole described his victory as "a
triumph over evil". "We said it from the start that there is no way Zanu PF can
win this election," he said. "No amount of intimidation or coercion can reverse
the will of the people." The MP for Bulilimamangwe South, Edward Mkhosi of the
MDC, yesterday paid tribute to the people of Plumtree for voting for the MDC.
"This victory clearly shows that Zanu PF is on its way out," said Mkhosi. "Their
terror tactics are actually leading to their unpopularity. What the war veterans
and their gullible supporters have done is to make the MDC more popular and
create more sympathy for it among the voters."
Referring to the Sunday Mail story,
Sithole said: "It is malicious for the paper to claim that I defected to Zanu
PF. But we have to sympathise with them because they are very desperate. They
thought they could mislead people into thinking that I had defected." Also
subjected to violence over the weekend was the MP for Nkayi, Abednico Bhebhe of
the MDC. He was kidnapped by about 12 war veterans at a fuel station in Nkayi.
He was detained and tortured for about five hours. Bhebhe has since been freed
and was admitted to the United Bulawayo Hospitals. The police said they had
launched investigations into the abduction of Sithole, although no arrests had
been made by yesterday afternoon.
From ZWNEWS, 30
May
Divine
intervention
Special
Correspondent
Zimbabwe’s defence minister Moven
Mahachi, who died in a car crash on Saturday, was buried today amid speculation
that the accident might have been set up. Other schools of thought, however,
believe that it could be considered as 'divine intervention'.
A spiritual healer, Mdumo Nyirenda,
based in one of Harare's high-density suburbs, said in an interview that
although he did not believe that someone had gone out of his way to kill
Mahachi, he was sure that the spirits were very angry and if the ruling party
did not stop the killing and looting of the country, there was going to be more
bloodshed. "Look at what happened to Border Gezi. He also died in unclear
circumstances in a car crash less than a month ago. Today it's Mahachi. The
spirits are very angry because there has been too much bloodshed in this
country. Do you think the spirits are amused by the loss of lives before and
after the parliamentary election last year?" he asked. Nyirenda added that it
was important that the Zanu PF leadership tried to appease the spirits of those
killed in wanton political violence last year, as well as try to appease the
ancestors for desecrating the land.
Mahachi (53) was travelling in his
Discovery four-wheel drive vehicle with six other people from a ruling party
provincial meeting to his farm in Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands. His
co-passengers escaped with minor injuries, and the driver of the vehicle they
hit was still in hospital. The late minister was also ZANU PF's secretary for
transport and welfare, having previously served as the secretary for
commissariat, a post later taken on by Border Gezi. The latter, well-known for
wreaking havoc across Mashonaland Central in the past 14 months, also died in a
freak car accident in April.
Another spirit medium, Mawoneyi
Musvipe, said: "I see a dark cloud hanging over the ruling party and unless the
leaders of that party stop treating people like worthless animals, there are
going to be more deaths, all involving cars. Yes, the spirits are very angry
with Zanu PF. Remember, it is the spirits that helped Robert Mugabe take this
country from the whites, but now he has lost all the wisdom the spirits have
bestowed on him. There are also many lost souls that want to be brought back
home. But even more importantly, the spirits want to know why so many children
of the soil were killed unnecessarily last year and why the killing is not
stopping," she said.
Declared a national hero, Mahachi
becomes the 49th person to be interred at the national heroes' acre - a shrine
that has been dubbed a Zanu PF cemetery - for it's only the ruling party's
policy-making organ, the politburo, that decides who gets buried there. Ordinary
Zimbabweans have found the decision to declare Border Gezi a hero hard to
stomach as his only entry qualification to the shrine was his master-minding of
the party's pre-election terror campaign last year, while a veteran nationalist
like Zanu Ndonga's Ndabaningi Sithole was ignored. This decision was made
irrespective of the fact that Sithole was the founding and first President of
Zanu (now Zanu PF) before he was toppled by Mugabe.
The deaths of both Gezi and Mahachi
have shaken the ruling party and Mugabe, devastated by the death of the latter,
cancelled his trip to Indonesia for the G-15 summit this week. Visibly shaken,
Mugabe's speech - just before the burial of the man he had entrusted with
spearheading the defence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - appeared
tired and lifeless. The party's secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa
aptly summed up the general feeling within the ranks of Zanu PF: "We are
shocked. We are devastated. We don't know what's hitting
us."
From ZWNEWS, 30
May
Powell tightens the
ring
RW Johnson
It might have been expected that Colin Powell's visit to South
Africa would have been the occasion for an orgy of emotional grand-standing. In
their different ways South Africa's "negotiated revolution" and Mr Powell's
military-political career are two prize exhibits for the philosophy of peaceful
evolutionary change. When one remembers the immense fuss that the government
here made of someone like David Dinkins, the black former mayor of New York, one
might have imagined that Powell would have been overwhelmed by official
banquets, high-profile public symbolism and stirring rhetoric from Desmond Tutu
and Nelson Mandela. In fact the visit could hardly have been lower key.
President Mbeki was barely willing to be seen in public with Mr. Powell, there
was no sign of Tutu or Mandela, no big banquet or honorary degree and when Mr
Powell did venture onto the campus of Wits University he was jeered, heckled and
kept a virtual prisoner for an hour by pro-Palestinian and Communist students -
a demonstration which the Mbeki government doubtless had it in its power to
restrain had it wished. Mr Powell does not fit into the pantheon of "struggle"
at all easily and Mbeki was showing his discomfort with that.
That said, the visit seems to have achieved its main objective,
which was to communicate in no uncertain manner to Mbeki that the US is
seriously concerned at the decay of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe into
state-sponsored terrorism and autocratic rule, that it sees Zimbabwe as a
pivotal case for democracy and good governance in Africa, that it is anything
but impressed by Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" and public hand-holding with his
neighbour, Mugabe, and that the US is willing to take "other measures" if
necessary to force Mugabe to respect democracy.
Pretoria, clearly warned in advance of Powell's tougher stance,
tried advance damage control by having its High Commissioner in Harare, Jeremiah
Ndou, put out a statement on May 22 condemning political violence in Zimbabwe.
By careful and selective quotation Ndou attempted to show that Mbeki had
consistently stood up against Mugabe's contempt for the rule of law and that he
was keenly aware of the possible "contagion" from Zimbabwe blighting the whole
southern African region. In fact Mbeki had attacked as racist those who spoke of
such a contagion, has refused to meet with the democratic opposition to Mugabe,
and has attempted to insist that the crisis there is solely to do with land
reform, ignoring Mugabe's brutal suppression of political opponents and human
rights activists.
If the idea was to put Mbeki onside with anything Powell might
say, the gambit didn't work. Because his "quiet diplomacy" towards Mugabe has
produced such bitter domestic criticism, Mbeki has in effect required that all
visiting statesmen endorse his handling of the Zimbabwe crisis. On the only
occasion when this failed to happen - in January, when a visiting junior
minister of the British Foreign Office, Peter Hain, blurted out his deep
unhappiness with Mbeki's policy - Pretoria issued a furious public denunciation
of Hain, revealing a wounded hypersensitivity to criticism on the issue. But
while Powell was publicly effusive about Mbeki's political leadership in Africa
as a whole, he utterly refused to endorse his "quiet diplomacy" over Zimbabwe
and made it clear how different the US approach was. When, after their
conversations, Foreign Minister Dr. Nkosana Dlamini-Zuma tried to insist that
Zimbabwe was essentially an economic crisis, Powell made it clear that he had
"concentrated on the political crisis caused to a large extent by the excesses
of President Mugabe". The message to Mbeki was unmistakable: his protestations
that South Africa had already taken a strong line over Zimbabwe were not
accepted and that Pretoria had better toughen its attitude to Mugabe if it
wanted to stay onside with the US and if it didn't want to see the region's
democratic and economic gains of recent years "unravel".
To underline the point Powell then openly and severely took
Mugabe to task in his Wits address. "After more than twenty years in office,
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe seems determined to remain in power. Now it
is for the citizens of Zimbabwe to choose their leader in a free and fair
election. They should be given the opportunity." The message was clear. Last
June Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party had just clung onto power after a campaign of
murder, mass beatings, torture and gang rape against the Opposition - and Mbeki
had then rammed through a "free and fair' verdict on this charade despite the
strongly dissenting voices of the US, the European Union and a plethora of human
rights groups. This would not be acceptable a second time and if Mbeki wanted
the good will of the Bush Administration he had better take note. Given that
Bush may be president throughout the time that Mbeki is president - assuming
that both get elected to second terms - Mbeki can hardly afford to ignore such
pressure.
Powell produced two carrots, US help against South Africa's
Aids epidemic and an invitation for Mbeki to visit Washington next month. Mbeki,
on the other hand, was to see Mugabe to make the new position clear - in effect
to tell him that the game was up. Powell was no doubt aware that Mbeki's
International Investment Council had got him to agree to do just this back in
January but that Mbeki had then managed to duck out of any meeting with Mugabe.
Clearly this time Mbeki would be expected to deliver an effective ultimatum to
Mugabe before his arrival in Washington.
The signs are that Mbeki did not enjoy being put under this
pressure, particularly since Powell's mention of "further measures" against
Mugabe made it plain that the US will go ahead on its own with an anti-Mugabe
policy, even if Mbeki doesn't come along. Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, was
at pains to suggest that there was no need for South Africa to change its policy
towards Zimbabwe just because Powell had taken the line he had. But there was
open disappointment among Mbeki's advisers that Powell had refused to support
Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy". It may well be that the indignity to which Powell was
then subjected by student demonstrators at Wits was a sign of pique in the
presidential office – for the ANC leadership has the ability to restrain
activists of the SACP and SASCO (the South African Students Congress) when it
really wants to. But, as Powell has shown on numerous other occasions, he is
well able to cope with such pressures without being deflected.
Mugabe's reaction made it clear that he had understood the
threat. His spokesman, George Charamba, denounced Powell for failing to see
Mugabe as "a victim of colonial injustice" - and, paradoxically, for not
visiting Harare. But there is no doubt Mugabe is now on the ropes, with his
economy in melt down, his own party split and sudden gaps appearing in his
cabinet. Three weeks ago, Mugabe's most dynamic minister, Border Gezi, was
killed in a car crash. Then his Trade Minister, Nkosasana Moyo, skipped the
country and resigned. This weekend his defence minister, Moven Mahachi, who
achieved world notoriety last year by seizing and torturing two critical black
journalists, was himself killed in another car crash. Mugabe, on the instant,
cancelled a trip to Indonesia. Notoriously paranoid, the president is little
disposed to believe that these are really "accidents" and more inclined to see
these developments as part of a tightening ring, threatening to throttle his
regime.
An ant and a grasshopper lived in the same field. During the summer the
ant works all day and night bringing in supplies for the winter, and he prepares
his home to keep him warm during the cold months ahead. Meanwhile, the
grasshopper hops and sings, eats all the grass he wants and procreates. Come
winter, it gets bitterly cold and the grass dies. The ant is well fed and warm
in his house, but the grasshopper has not prepared for the winter, so he dies,
leaving a whole horde of little grasshoppers without food or shelter.The moral
of the story is that one should work hard to ensure that you can take care of
yourself !!!
The Southern African Version: The first part is the same, but because
it happened in Southern Africa, there are a few complications... The
starving offspring of the grasshopper demand to know why the ant should be
allowed to be warm and well fed, while next door they are living in terrible
conditions without food and proper clothing. A TV crew shows up and broadcasts
footage of the poor grasshoppers, contrasting this with footage of the ant, snug
in his comfortable home with a pantry full of food. The public is
stunned.
How can it be, in this beautiful field, that the poor grasshoppers are
allowed to suffer so, while the ant lives in the lap of luxury? In the blink of
an eye, the AGU (African Grasshopper's Union) is formed. They charge the ant
with "species bias" and claim that grasshoppers are the victims of 30 million
years of green oppression. They stage a protest in front of the ant's house and
trash the street. When interviewed by the TV crews, they state that if their
demands are not met, they will be forced into a life of crime. Just for
practice, they loot the TV crew's luggage and hijack their van. The TRC (Take
and Redistribute Commission) justifies their behaviour by saying that this is
the legacy of the ant's discrimination and oppression of the
grasshoppers. They demand that the ant apologises to the grasshoppers for
what he has done, and that he makes amends for all the other ants in history who
have done the same thing to grasshoppers. PAGAD (People Against Grasshopper
Abuse and Distress) states that they are starting a holy war against
ants. The President appears on the 8 o'clock news and says that he will do
everything he can for the grasshoppers who have been denied the prosperity they
deserve by those who have benefited unfairly during the summer. The
government drafts the EEGAD (Economic Equity for Greens and Disadvantaged) Act,
retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to
employ a propionate number of green insects, and, having nothing left to pay his
back taxes, his home is confiscated by the government for redistribution.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing off the last of the ant's
food while the government house he's in (which just happens to be the ant's old
house) crumbles around him because he is too lazy and incompetent to maintain
it. Showing on the TV (which he and a couple of friends stole from another
ant), the President is standing before a group of wildly singing and dancing
grasshoppers, announcing that a new era of "equality" has dawned on the field.
The ant, meanwhile, is not allowed to work because he has historically
benefited from the field. In his place, ten grasshoppers only work two hours a
day and steal half of what they actually harvest. When winter comes again and
not enough food has been harvested, they strike and demand a 150% increase in
their wages so that they can buy more food, which now has to be imported because
the grasshoppers were not productive enough to produce enough food. The ant
packs his things and emigrates to another field, where he starts a highly
successful food company and becomes a millionaire by selling food to the field
from where he came.
