Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 19:28
PRESSURE is mounting on
President Robert Mugabe to cease immediately
the relentless assault on
dissenting voices ahead of this month's
Presidential run-off
election.
Mugabe has been called upon to stop human rights
abuses and allow
United Nations observers into the country to monitor the
run-off.
MDC campaign rallies for the 27 June election have been
banned by the
police, virtually shutting the door on a free and fair
election.
The MDC has said at least 65 of its supporters have been
murdered
since the 29 March elections, while more than 25 000, among them 10
000
children, have been displaced.
Opposition supporters are
being denied food while aid agencies have
been banned in what observers say
is an attempt by Mugabe to use food
assistance as bait for
votes.
Last week's detention and harassment of diplomats from the
United
States and Britain and the assault of a driver in Bindura by police
and Zanu
PF militia have given rise to condemnation from the international
community.
Both the US and British governments are furious over the
incident in
which five US and two British diplomats were detained for
several hours at a
police roadblock. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
called the incident
"outrageous behaviour".
Already Washington
has raised the issue at the UN Security Council and
protested strongly to
the government, saying the incident underlined the
harassment ordinary
Zimbabweans faced every day.
But Zanu PF spokesperson for elections
Patrick Chinamasa said the
government was "not shaken" by the uproar because
there was no basis for the
US to appeal to the UN as Zimbabwe was the
"aggrieved" party.
"Zimbabwe is actually the victim and complainant
in an issue of
extreme provocation by the US and UK diplomatic officers who
have appointed
themselves campaign managers for the opposition," he
said.
Chinamasa alleged the diplomats were seen distributing
opposition
campaign material for MDC-Tsvangirai in Bindura and refused to
heed to
police orders to stop at a roadblock.
US President
George W Bush has called on international bodies to
quickly send monitors
and observers to Zimbabwe.
"We urge the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), the
African Union, the United Nations, and
other international organisations to
blanket the country with election and
human rights monitors immediately,"
said Bush in a statement.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the detention of
diplomats
"mirrors the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans", who suffer
intimidation and
brutality of Mugabe's regime on a daily basis.
"It's a window into
lives that in some cases are marked by brutal
intimidation, by torture and,
in fifty three cases that have been documented
over the last few weeks, by
death," he said.
He said the world continued to "watch" the
situation in Zimbabwe and
stressed need for SADC countries and international
bodies to monitor the
elections.
"And it's very important that
the international community plays its
role by ensuring that for the election
on 27 June there are international
monitors, properly accredited, who are
able to ensure that despite the
ravages in Zimbabwe at the moment . there is
an election that allows the
democratic will of the Zimbabwean people to be
heard loud and to be heard
clear," Miliband said.
On Friday,
Tsvangirai was detained by the police for the second time
in a week,
blocking him from a campaign rally in Matabeleland.
The MDC leader
beat Mugabe in the March election but failed to win the
majority needed to
avoid a second ballot.
South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, the SADC
mediator on the Zimbabwe
crisis, last week quickly intervene by contacting
the government upon
hearing Tsvangirai's detention, to ascertain the
circumstances of the
arrest.
On the arrest of Tsvangirai in
Matabeleland, Chinamasa said the MDC
leader must abide by the country's
laws.
"He cannot travel in unregistered vehicles carrying youths
with banned
weapons. The police have an obligation to stamp out violence,"
said
Chinamasa, who accused MDC of political violence.
Bush has
expressed concern over Mugabe's politicisation of food, after
a ban on all
non-governmental organisations from operating in the country,
alleging they
were campaigning for MDC.
"We also are concerned by reports that
misguided government policies
are projected to result in one of the worst
crop harvests in Zimbabwean
history," said Bush
European
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis
Michel, expressed
concern over the food aid ban in a country where over four
million people
are surviving on food handouts
"This ban must be lifted right
away," Michel said.
"I am deeply distressed to think that hundreds
of thousands of people
who depend on aid from the European Commission and
others for their very
survival now face an even more uncertain future. It is
essential that relief
workers be given unrestricted and secure access so
they can provide
assistance to the most vulnerable."
By Caiphas
Chimhete
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 19:17
VOTERS across the
country have warned President Robert Mugabe: he will
be "embarrassed" at the
Presidential run-off election on 27 June against MDC
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Through massive intimidation and violence in the rural
areas, Mugabe's
Zanu PF hopes to reverse a 13%-plus vote deficit to the MDC
and independent
candidate Simba Makoni and win the run-off.
There are already fears the ongoing violence, especially in rural
areas,
could discourage some voters from casting their ballots and
intimidate
others into voting for Mugabe out of fear of reprisals.
Some have
become so pessimistic about the run-off they want it called
off and replaced
with a negotiated settlement, culminating in a government
of national unity
(GNU).
But in random interviews with The Standard, ordinary people
showed
their determination to vote again on 27 June and "show Mugabe the
exit".
Martin Ngwenya, a mechanic in Bulawayo, said the run-off
must go ahead
to demonstrate to Mugabe and Zanu PF that Zimbabweans were
capable of
choosing their own leaders.
"We are tired of being
told that our economic problems are caused by
Britain and America, as if
they are the ones running our government,"
Ngwenya said.
"We
want a government that will not take us for granted. This is the
statement
the majority of Zimbabweans made on 29 March, but it appears
Mugabe has not
taken heed. So we are going to make it even louder this time
around."
Forgoing the poll, said Noliwe Ncube from Lupane,
would set a bad
precedent for future governments who might stir unrest to
avoid an election
where they looked certain to lose.
"The March
election was stolen and this time people must vote in their
thousands to
demonstrate that they can no longer put up with misgovernance
and abuse of
power.
"We cannot wait to remind Mugabe that he must know when to
quit and
that it is time he stopped imposing himself on us. We want to show
Mugabe
the exit on 27 June."
Tendai Hondo of Jerera growth
point in Zaka said he believed the
run-off "is the only legitimate way to
end tyranny in the country".
"I think elections should be held,
despite rampant political violence
in many parts of the country. If
elections are called off these people will
remain in power and we will
continue to suffer," Hondo said.
He said last week two people from
his neighbourhood were shot dead by
suspected Zanu PF militia.
Micah Zinduru of Mucheke high-density suburb in Masvingo said he
thought
Zanu PF and the MDC should call off the election and negotiate a
unity
settlement.
"In the limited time between now and 27 June, Zanu PF
and the MDC,
with other stakeholders, should talk and reach an agreement
that would pave
the way for a transitional government," said Zinduru, adding
that many
people could fail to vote because of intimidation.
There are also fears that Zanu PF supporters may not accept an MDC
victory,
leading to chaos.
"If we go into elections, Zanu PF is not likely
to accept an MDC
victory," said Moses Gonese of Gutu.
"Remember
there have been sentiments from Zanu PF bigwigs that the
country will not be
won by a ballot, and Grace Mugabe's assertions that
Mugabe would not leave
State House, even if he lost."
Mellisa Takura, a student at the
Midlands State University in Gweru,
agreed.
Another Gweru
resident Jayson Machaya said "there is no need to hold
that election at all
in the first place because Zanu PF would not adhere to
the
results".
While most urbanites believed the MDC would romp to
victory,
interviews in rural areas showed most believe "the victimisation"
has taken
its toll. Dudzai Shoko from Mberengwa North said people had been
cowed and
were likely to be driven to vote by fear.
"Since
April, we have known no peace. We go to meetings every day and
witness
people being tortured for voting for the MDC.
"Some of us have lost
homes and the little property that we had
acquired. They have told everyone
that if we vote for the MDC again, they
would deal with us. Most people
would rather vote for Zanu PF than lose
everything they have worked for,"
Shoko said.
Geshem Pasi from Gokwe South under Chief Njelele said
there was a
witch-hunt for those who voted for the MDC.
"In
Mudzongwe Village where I stay, people are being forced to confess
and
repent during meetings that they voted for the MDC. They are also made
to
assure the local leadership that they will not repeat the mistake. Many
MDC
supporters have surrendered their party T-shirts and are actually being
made
to offer goats or chickens for their cleansing."
Emmerson Mandava
from Muzarabani said Zimbabwe was "going through an
evolution, not a
revolution, and the run-off would complete that process".
Even
politicians and activists believed Mugabe would not hand over
power even if
he lost, as demonstrated by his reaction to the 29 March
defeat.
Paul Siwela, the president of the Federal Democratic
Union (FDU), said
the ailing economy could not adequately fund the election
and that the
environment was not conducive.
"Mugabe has to hand
over power to Tsvangirai because he won this
election," Siwela said. "The
run-off is not necessary . . . It can no longer
be a true reflection of what
people want because many would be scared to
vote because of the
violence."
Simba Makoni said "the last thing Zimbabwe needs is
another election".
Makoni said the run-off would "further traumatize"
voters, and further
cripple the economy.
Max Mkandla, leader of
the Zimbabwe Liberators' Peace Initiative, said
the run-off would be
characterised by voter apathy as thousands of rural
voters had been
displaced.
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:52
THE government has devised
a plan to disrupt the distribution of
private newspapers in its bid to
curtail public information ahead of the 27
June presidential run-off,
sources have said.
Sources close to the Joint Operations
Command last week said among
other targeted papers were ZimInd titles
including The Standard and its
sister paper The Zimbabwe
Independent.
"JOC held a meeting on Friday where it was agreed that
uneducated
soldiers who can hardly be reasoned with should be assigned to
disturb the
operations of private newspaper dealers in Masvingo, Gweru and
Kwekwe among
other areas," they said.
The sources warned the
papers should not be distributed publicly as
part of the plan which will
include assaulting anyone seen with them.
But JOC chairman and
Minister of State Security Didymus Mutasa, when
approached for
clarification, said the reports were "mere imagination".
"As the
JOC chairman, I can tell you that we never had a meeting of
that sort," he
said. "The reports are absolutely untrue, mere figments of
people's
imagination."
Mutasa said private newspapers could proceed with
their business as
usual as government was not aware of any plot against
them.
The Standard was yesterday also informed that suspected Zanu
PF
militia were assaulting people seen with copies of The Zimbabwe
Independent
in Mabvuku and Tafara.
In another development, the
government on Friday last week announced
foreign newspapers sold in Zimbabwe
would now have to pay import duty, a
move supposedly aimed at protecting
Zimbabwean media space.
The newspapers which would now be defined
as "luxury goods" would have
to pay at least 40% of the total cost per
kg.
Some of the foreign papers distributed locally include The
Zimbabwean,
South Africa's Mail & Guardian, The Sunday Independent and
The Sunday Times.
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:33
ZANU PF
youth militia and war veterans have reportedly been evicting
suspected MDC
supporters from council vending sites in Harare and
Chitungwiza, since last
week, allegedly to cripple them financially ahead of
the 27 June
presidential run-off.
Vending has become a steady source of
income for most people, in a
country where unemployment tops more than
80%.
But the Zanu PF spokesperson on elections, Patrick Chinamasa,
dismissed the allegations, describing them as "the usual claims by the MDC
to tarnish the country's image".
The MDC spokesperson for
Harare, Willas Madzimure, said the crackdown
had directly affected the
livelihoods of at least 2 000 party supporters in
the city.
He
said Zanu PF was pushing the people "against the wall", especially
after the
government's Operation Murambatsvina (Clean-up) of May 2005 left
more than
700 000 families homeless.
"What Zanu PF must know is that the
people will end up regrouping to
fight back because it is now a war of the
stomach," Madzimure said.
He said the vendors being evicted were
the same who cared for people
displaced by the Zanu PF-sponsored violence in
the rural areas.
The MDC said at least 60 of its supporters had
been killed in
political violence since the 29 March election. Over 25 000
people have been
displaced.
To operate from council facilities,
the youth militia and war veterans
are demanding Zanu PF membership cards or
a letter from a ward chairman
confirming the vendor's membership of Zanu
PF.
The vendors last week said Zanu PF had virtually taken over the
running of public facilities from the local authorities.
They
said the militias were targeting all those who celebrated soon
after the 29
March election when it became clear the MDC had defeated Zanu
PF.
When The Standard news crew visited Mbare Green Market on
Thursday,
the names of vendors suspected to be opposition supporters were
being called
out and the people ordered to leave the market.
Those "fortunate ones" were being forced to pay $15 billion as a
"repentance
fee" at a local Zanu PF office, manned by war veterans and the
notorious
militia known as Chipangano.
"Since last week, they have been
coming here to evict vendors
suspected of supporting the MDC. If Mugabe does
not want an election he must
say so publicly and stop tormenting people,"
said one vendor.
The vendor, who asked not to be named, said he was
on the Zanu PF list
of suspected MDC supporters.
Another vendor
who operates a flea market at Makoni shopping centre in
Chitungwiza said
they were being forced to attend Zanu PF meetings daily
where they are "fed"
ruling party propaganda. "Personally," he said, "I know
Zanu PF is a failed
party and I won't vote for a party that has brought
poverty into my
home."
Harare Town Clerk, Tendai Mahachi said he was unaware of the
victimization of MDC supporters at council-owned facilities in
Harare.
"No one has come to my office to complain about that. So I
don't know
anything about that. I will try to find out from my officers,"
Mahachi said.
By Caiphas Chimhete
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:31
LAWYERS
representing The Standard editor Davison Maruziva have
objected to the
State's intention to marry records of his case with those of
MDC faction
leader Arthur Mutambara and the newspaper.
Charges against
the newspaper, Maruziva and Mutambara arose on 20
April this year following
its publication of Mutambara's Independence Day
article in which he
criticised the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's delay in
releasing the 29
March presidential poll results.
In his article, Mutambara lamented
the irony of celebrating
independence amid a myriad of problems, among them
widespread political
violence and economic collapse.
The State
says Mutambara's message contained falsehoods prejudicial to
the State and
contemptuous of the courts.
Mutambara on Tuesday last week appeared
before a Harare magistrate
Mishrod Guvamombe in connection with the article
which the State says
undermined public confidence in the law enforcement
agents, defence forces
and the prison services.
Mutambara was
remanded out of custody on $20 billion bail to 17 June.
Zimind
Group Projects Editor and company director, Iden Wetherell,
representing the
publishing company, was on Thursday remanded out of custody
to 17 June while
the trial of Maruziva, due to open on Thursday last week
was postponed to
the same date.
Advocate Deepak Mehta who represented both Maruziva
and Wetherell
pointed out that Mutambara had his own lawyer and another
would be engaged
for the trial of the company, thus the jointer was
prejudicial to the
clients whose lawyers felt the cases must be dealt with
separately.
Mehta said the State should make a proper court
application seeking
the jointer of the cases and allow defence to respond,
instead of
unilaterally joining the three records for trial.
Mehta also raised concern over the State's failure to provide defence
with
its papers regarding Maruziva's case since he first appeared in court
on 23
May.
"You should understand that State papers take time to
prepare",
prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba said. "A rejoinder for the accused
persons is a
preserve of the State and due notice will be
given."
By Jennifer Dube
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:28
THIRTY-four-year-old Peter Terera, a father of two, began
Antiretroviral
Therapy (ART) three years ago at The Centre in Harare.
After years of trying in vain to enrol for the government's programmes
at
Harare and Parirenyatwa hospitals, Terera says he had given up
hope.
But one day while sitting at home pondering his failing
health and
leaving his two children and wife Charity, Terera received a
life-changing
phone call from The Centre.
A volunteer at The
Centre told him a group of American volunteers from
the Allan Temple Church
would start a free ARV clinic in Zimbabwe and that
he would be among the
pioneer beneficiaries.
For three years Dr Robert Scott, leader of
Allan Temple Church
volunteer team restored Terera's health but last week he
heard depressing
news.
Scott and his team have run two free ARV
clinics for years - one at
The Centre in Harare and another at Mother of
Peace in Mutoko.
But they have been forced to suspend their ARV
programmes to more than
600 HIV positive people because of political
violence.
"I went to The Centre on 3 June and was shocked to hear
that Dr Scott
was unable to come because of the political violence," a
tearful Terera told
The Standard on Friday.
"Although, we have
been assured by The Centre we will get assistance,
I fear for the worst.
What will happen to all those people in Mutoko and all
of us here who were
beneficiaries of this programme?"
Founder and director of The
Centre, Lynde Francis, living positively
with HIV and Aids for more than 20
years, says she too is disturbed.
Francis said Dr Scott, an HIV
specialist in the United States, advised
her he would not be coming back
following a travel warning to Zimbabwe by
the US government.
"They have been advised to wait until after the elections," said
Francis.
"We expect them to resume in September but it is not for certain."
"It will depend on how calm the situation will be then. They have been
told
they could probably do the programme in Harare but definitely not in
Mutoko."
Francis said she had learnt of Dr Scott's cancelled
trip last week but
was not able to advise the hundreds of beneficiaries of
the programme about
this in time.
As a result, she and other
volunteers at The Centre spent days
receiving people and breaking the bad
news to them.
She said The Centre had managed to transfer some
children on ARVs to a
government hospital where they will be given ARVs
until the programme
resumes.
Francis said there were plans to
move Mutoko beneficiaries to Mutoko
General Hospital. The Centre has
promised to source other funds to provide
ARVs to its Harare members until
September.
Established in 1991, The Centre suffered a setback after
it was closed
in March. Francis says she was forced to scale down operations
at The Centre
after suspicions of financial mismanagement.
A
reputable accounting firm is expected to release a forensic audit
into its
books this week.
By Bertha Shoko
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:25
AN MDC government would be
prepared to work with progressive and
"reformed" Zanu PF members but would
punish those who wantonly murdered its
supporters, Morgan Tsvangirai has
said.
In his recent State of the Nation Address to the MDC
parliamentary
caucus in Harare, the MDC leader said not all Zanu PF members
were killing
opposition supporters.
Tsvangirai was launching
his party's Restore Hope Campaign, aimed at
restoring people's freedom,
dignity and basic services as well as returning
Zimbabwe to the world family
of nations.
He said there were Zanu PF members being victimised by
what he called
the "violent hawks" who have hijacked the party.
"In the spirit of moving our country forward, let us seek out those
peaceful
members of Zanu PF whose eyes are open to the disastrous state of
our
nation," he said. "Let us listen to their views. Let us invite them in
where
we have policy agreement," said Tsvangirai, shortly after returning to
the
country after a long absence.
The MDC has said more than 60 party
supporters have been murdered and
25 000 others displaced since the 29 March
polls.
"There will be no tolerance or amnesty for those who
continue to
injure rape and murder our citizens," he said. "We consider
these criminal
acts, not political acts. Criminals will be
prosecuted."
He said the MDC government would establish a Truth and
Justice
Commission (TJC) to look at human rights abuses, corruption, asset
stripping
and looting, mostly by a clique of Mugabe's
loyalists.
He said the MDC-dominated Parliament would pass
legislation to enable
compensation and reparations for victims of
Gukurahundi as well as
Murambatsvina (Clean-up operation).
Murambatsvina displaced more than 700 000 families countrywide.
Tsvangirai who has launched a President Fund for victims of political
violence, said since March to have over 50 lives, left 25 000 people
displaced and 1 000 homes burnt down.
On the party's land
policy, he said his party would establish a
commission to conduct a land
audit to ensure the land question is solved
without negating equity and
justice.
"Measures must be put in place to either compensate or
reincorporate
into productive agriculture, those who lost their land during
the Zanu PF
land grab programme, depending on the findings of the land
commission,"
Tsvangirai said.
He said he intended to reform the
civil service, judiciary and
security forces.
He outlined an
economic revival plan to reverse a sharp drop in
agricultural production,
the scarcity of foreign investment and soaring
inflation, now pegged at more
than 1 700 000%.
"Since 2000 Zimbabwe has been transformed from the
jewel of Africa to
a tragedy. Let me stress that our objective must not be
to merely restore
the Zimbabwean economy to its former glory but also to
take it to new
heights," he said.
State enterprises and the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) would be
restructured, he said.
By Caiphas Chimhete
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:23
Soldiers were the biggest
beneficiaries of the government's latest
surprise salary windfall for civil
servants with the least paid getting a
whopping $130 billion, up from $10
billion last month.
This latest hike has been described as
an attempt by the government to
buy the loyalty of the armed forces ahead of
the 27 June presidential
election run-off.
The salary increase
- like the one before the 29 March general
election - is double that for
teachers, The Standard learnt last week.
Teachers had their
salaries increased to about $63 billion from below
$5 billion a month and
the militant Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ) dismissed it as
a slap in the face for the perennially underpaid
government
workers.
According to pay advisory slips of junior soldiers, the
least paid
received $130 billion, before deductions.
"The
soldiers have been reminded that the latest hefty salary
increments are part
of the deal to campaign for the President and ensure he
wins on 27 June,"
said a soldier who requested anonymity.
In what was criticised as
an election ploy, the government awarded
civil servants a massive salary
hike before the 29 March elections.
But again soldiers were awarded
the lion's share, as they received a
raise of between $1 billion and $3
billion, depending on rank, while
teachers received an average of $500
million.
The top military brass have pledged their undying loyalty
to Mugabe
and have said they would not back Tsvangirai even if he
won.
Soldiers have also played a decisive role in ensuring Mugabe
wins the
vote in the past two elections through establishing "bases" in
rural areas
where they have led party militia as coercing agents to
intimidate and
harass the rural electorate.
Army units were
deployed in rural areas after the March elections and
have been accused by
the MDC of leading attacks against its supporters in a
bid to intimidate
them into voting for Mugabe.
Opposition parties have accused Mugabe
of rigging the vote in past
elections using the armed forces, among other
government agencies, to retain
power. But Zanu PF has denied manipulating
the vote in its favour.
In the 2002 presidential elections, the
then army chief, General
Vitalis Zvinavashe warned that the army would not
salute MDC leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai if he won as he had no liberation war
credentials.
The current army chief, General Constantine Chiwenga,
before the 29
March harmonised elections gave a similar
warning.
By Nqobani Ndlovu
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:19
MILITANT supporters of
President Robert Mugabe, who have unleashed a
wave of terror in rural areas,
last week brought their campaign to Harare,
invading a social club which
houses a museum.
Since the 29 March polls when Mugabe's
Zanu PF lost control of
Parliament for the first time since independence,
there has been political
violence in most rural constituencies.
The Standard was told a group claiming to be war veterans, accompanied
by
uniformed police and army personnel, invaded MOTH (Memorable Order of Tin
Hats) Memorial centre - a social club frequented mostly by whites and
coloureds - in Braeside suburb last week.
The club was
established many years ago to commemorate those who
fought in the First and
Second Waorld Wars. According to members, the
invasion sparked memories of
the farm seizures that brought the economy to
its knees.
A club
official, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation,
said the
group staged the raid last week, saying they were taking it over.
They claimed they had been tipped there were weapons to oust Mugabe
from
power kept in a secret room at the club.
"The secret room they
thought had weapons is actually a conference
room, with old guns used in the
two World Wars.
"It is actually a museum room," he
said.
He said the police spent the whole week investigating the
club
premises and the war veterans only left on Wednesday after being
dismissed
by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Aguy
Georgias.
The bar resumed operations on Friday.
Another club member said a group of youths came to the club and
removed the
club monument flags, replacing them with posters of Mugabe.
"They
plastered the whole building with Mugabe's posters and ordered
the bar
closed saying it was under investigation," he said.
The Standard
saw large banners of Mugabe all over the place with his
raised
fist.
One regular club patron said what happened at the MOTH Club
was an
indication the war veterans who were beating and harassing unarmed
MDC
supporters in the rural areas had shifted operations to
Harare.
"These people have done enough damage in the rural areas.
Now they
want to come and intimidate people in Harare to vote for Mugabe,"
the patron
said.
Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena refused to
give details on the invasion saying
only:
"Investigations are still in progress and if we find anything
we will
let you know."
By Sandra Mandizvidza
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:17
SOMBRE atmosphere engulfed
Jerera growth point in Zaka last Wednesday
morning, as residents and
passers-by tried to come to terms with the
horrific incident that had
occurred in their area.
The usually noisy, "beehive"
activity at the centre was quiet on this
day as business had virtual come to
a standstill, with people clustered at a
small shop trying to catch a
glimpse of the badly disfigured bodies of
victims of political violence,
reportedly set ablaze by unknown gunmen.
Arriving at the growth
point around 10AM The Standard news crew was
met by two elderly women,
whispering as they discussed the incident.
Clearly, they were
whispering for fear of being overheard by
unidentified men said to be
operating in the area. Reports identify them, at
the very least, as being
responsible for punishing MDC supporters for
contributing to Zanu PF's rout
in the 29 March elections.
"This is horrible," one elderly woman
said to the other. "We last saw
such scenes during the liberation struggle
when the Rhodesian forces would
lock up people in their houses and set them
ablaze, after accusing them of
assisting the freedom fighters. It's really
shocking. Now brothers are
killing each other for power."
The
shopping centre was deserted, people having received word that an
MDC office
sheltering six displaced party activists had been set ablaze by
unknown
gunmen.
Shell-shocked people who visited the place could not look
twice at one
victim's body, burnt beyond recognition, lying just outside the
office.
The brave among the witnesses proceeded to take a closer
look at yet
another body lying inside the shop.
Men brandishing
AK-47 assault rifles were said to have pounced on the
MDC offces in the
early hours of Wednesday morning and set them ablaze,
killing two
people.
They allegedly forced open the door, rousing from sleep
unsuspecting
MDC members who had fled political violence from their homes in
the
district.
They allegedly ordered everyone to stay where
they were, their heads
under the blankets.
Witnesses said one
MDC member, who tried to resist, was shot and
killed on the spot. Others,
seeing the dire consequences of resistance,
complied with the
order.
The attackers doused the office with petrol, locked the door
and set
it ablaze.
Two people were burnt beyond recognition
while three, their clothes on
fire, managed to break down the door and were
later taken to St Anthony's
Musiso Hospital, where they were immediately
referred to Masvingo general
hospital.
The deceased have been
identified as Krison Mbano from Munjanja in
Ward 18 in Zaka and Washington
Nyangwa from Mbuyamaswa village in Ward 9.
Narrating her ordeal to
The Standard, an MDC member who survived the
inferno because she was in a
room next to the office, said she was abducted
by the gunmen who later
dumped her about 30km away from Jerera.
Memory Pedzisai said they
assaulted her
after bundling her into a new Mitsubishi single cab
truck with no
registration number. They asked her to say her last prayers
before killing
her, she told The Standard.
"The gunmen came at
around 3AM and forced the door open," she said. "I
was asleep in the next
room and when I tried to see what was happening there
I came face to face
with 13 men clad in anti-riot police gear. One was
pouring petrol on the
office door and called out to me to close the door. I
just banged it shut in
a state of panic, but I was told to close it again
and they torched the
office and dragged me into their vehicle and drove away
with
me."
She said she was lucky to be alive after 10 men in the back of
the
truck quarrelled over whether or not to shoot her.
Some
wanted her dead, but others were not keen, saying they had
already killed a
lot of people in the office.
Still others looked scared of the
incident. "I could hear them
whispering to each other, saying 'tatouraya
vanhuka paya' (We have already
killed people)," she said.
MDC
provincial chairman, Wilstaff Stemere, who visited the scene of
the carnage
said the country has been turned into a military state by the
ruling party,
desperate to win the presidential run-off on 27 June at all
costs.
"This is the highest level of brutality," he said.
"Violence against
our supporters is increasing and many are losing their
lives at the hands of
Zanu PF. We are really shocked by this level of
brutality. How could they
burn people alive like this?"
He said
people had sheltered at their office after they ran away from
their homes
because of political violence.
"Their crime is that of supporting a
political party of their choice,''
he said.
Zanu PF provincial
chairperson for the media committee for the
presidential run-off campaign
team, Kudakwashe Dzoro, denied his party was
responsible for the
attack.
"Our party does not engage in violence," he said. "So, we
do not know
who those people are. In fact, they are not in any way
associated with us.
We are campaigning freely in a non-violent manner and we
are appealing for
the people's support without using violence."
But the villagers insisted the ruling party was perpetrating the
violence.
"This is serious," said Edmore Gato. "It appears as
if we are now at
war. How can they kill their brothers like this, just
because of elections
that come and go? Even if they beat up people and kill
them I don't think
people will support them because they are butchering our
relatives."
Police spokesperson Inspector Phibion Nyambo said: "I
can't comment on
that one. You can call Assistant Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena. May be he
can comment."
Efforts to get comment from
Bvudzijena, who is the official police
spokesperson, were
fruitless.
Ambuya Jambaya, who had walked for eight kilometres to
see for herself
the shocking incident, said only those who were becoming
unpopular were
killing people to force them to support them.
"But killing people will never force the surviving ones to support
them.
Such incidents are not good, especially as we are killing each other
for the
sake of retaining power," she said.
People in Jerera said they were
living in fear. Zanu PF was forcing
them to attend their rallies, during
which they brandished guns and
grenades, threatening to wage war on the
villagers if they didn't vote for
Zanu PF.
By Godfrey
Mutimba
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:13
THE European Union (EU) has
strongly condemned the state-sponsored
campaign of violence and intimidation
against Zimbabweans and has called on
the government to ensure a level
playing field in order to secure an
environment that will reflect the free
and democratic will of the people of
this country.
In a
statement, the EU External Relations Council said last week that
it is
concerned that violence has been increasing throughout the prolonged
electoral process and called for an immediate end to the beatings, tortures,
killings and other human rights abuses.
"The Council calls upon
the government of Zimbabwe to ensure a level
playing field and a secure
environment conducive to ensuring that the
results of forthcoming second
round will reflect the free and democratic
will of the Zimbabwean people,"
the council said in a statement.
"In this respect the Council
stresses the importance that all
necessary measures be adopted in order to
allow all candidates and
supporters to participate safely and fully in the
electoral process."
The Council said the second round (run-off)
presents an opportunity
for the free and democratic will of the Zimbabwean
people to be expressed
and respected, opening the way for delivering
political stability.
Zimbabweans will vote in a run-off presidential
election on 27 June, pitting
President Robert against MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, after the 29 March
harmonised poll failed to produce a candidate
commanding 50% plus one vote
of the ballots cast.
"The Council
reiterates that the credibility of the electoral process
requires conditions
on the ground to be in full accordance with
international standards,
particularly those adopted by the African Union
(AU) and the Southern
African Development Community (Sadc), of which
Zimbabwe is a signatory,
including the freedom of assembly and access to
media. In this context the
Council underlines specifically the importance of
the publication of results
outside the polling stations once counting is
completed."
The
Council emphasised the importance of effective election
observation, local
as well as international, to ensure regularity and
transparency for the
second round and reiterated the important role of the
countries in the
region in achieving this.
While welcoming the positive role played
by the AU and the SADC
Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs) during the
first phase of the
electoral process, the Council said it supports the
intent of the AU and the
SADC to ensure continued presence of their EOMs
until the electoral process
is complete and results announced and to deploy,
as soon as possible, a
significant number of election monitors across
Zimbabwe, including rural
areas, well in advance of the election
day.
The statement said the EU was ready to deploy an EU election
observation mission, if the right conditions were met, but it said it was
concerned no invitation had been extended to the EU.
"The
Council calls upon SADC," said the statement, "to continue to
engage with
strong determination with the Zimbabwean authorities to
implement the
outcome of the Lusaka Summit. The EU shares the concern of the
SADC about
the situation and reiterates full support for SADC's efforts to
resolve the
current crisis."
France is the local chair of the EU Presidency in
Zimbabwe.
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:06
British
court has thrown out AMG Global Nominees' bid to buy SMM
Holdings from its
former owners in a landmark ruling that deflates efforts
by the Zimbabwe
government to expropriate Zimbabwe-born business mogul,
Mutumwa Mawere's
assets.
Mawere, now a South African citizen, was previously
closely associated
with Zanu PF.
The UK ruling confirms the
government's reconstruction of Mawere's
companies was unlawful and
unconstitutional to the extent that Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa
needed Mawere's consent prior to nationalising
his companies, experts said
last week.
Mawere told Standardbusiness he was awaiting the results
of Zimbabwe's
presidential run-off before seeking similar damages against
AMG.
He said it was ironic that President Robert Mugabe was talking
of 100%
empowerment after nationalising his companies.
"You ask
President Mugabe how black a person needs to be not to be
targeted by his
government. It is strange that a person who purports to be a
champion for
black rights would be party to an opaque deal like the AMG
transaction using
public resources with no shame," Mawere said.
"Imagine the public
was informed properly of the true construction of
the AMG and that their
resources were being diverted to advance the
interests of private
individuals? Would you give such a government another
lease of
life?"
In 2004, the government took over Mawere's assets after it
accused him
of externalising foreign currency. His assets, then valued at
US$400
million, were expropriated by a presidential decree.
In
October 2004, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, paid US$2 million on
behalf of
AMG to buy the share warrants to SMM Holdings, a subsidiary of
Africa
Resources Limited (ARL), from its former owners Turner and Newell Ltd
(T&N).
Risk consultancy firm Kroll were appointed
administratrors of T&N in
2001.
But a UK judge ruled that
ARL had title to the bearer share warrants
relating to SMM Holdings and THZ
Holdings subject to T&N's continuing
security under the terms of the
Memorandum of Deposit and Charge for payment
of the balance of the purchase
price for the bearer share warrants and
accrued interest.
It
declared that AMG did not, "pursuant to the Share Purchase
Agreement dated 5
November 2004, obtain any or good title to the bearer
share
warrants".
The court declared that the cost of this action,
including without
limitations the hearings of 18 November 2005, 2 March
2006, Justice Mann
order of 18 December 2006 and the Pre-Trial review by
Justice Morgan on 18
October 2007 be paid by AMG to ARL, "except as
otherwise specifically
provided by orders previously made in this
action".
The court refused AMG's application for permission to
appeal.
The court said that T&N did not forgive payment of the
sums payable
under the Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA) dated 7 March
2006 and accordingly
the balance of the purchase price and interest due
under the agreement
remains due and payable from ARL to
T&N.
It said in light of the afore-mentioned, the question
whether AMG had
actual or constructive knowledge that the sums payable under
the SPA had
been forgiven by T&N did not arise.
It said
that T&N had no power to exercise the power of sale under
clause 8 of
the Memorandum of Deposit and Charge dated 15 March 1996.
ARL had
originally purchased SMM, whose assets included two
Zimbabwe-based asbestos
mines, for US$60 million in March 1996 from the
Manchester-based
T&N.
After buying the share warrants from Kroll, the Zimbabwe
government
took AMG to the London courts, where ARL is registered, to try
and force
Mawere to divest share control in the company.
Mawere
said ARL is taking legal advice about suing Kroll for US$60
million for
accrued loss of earnings later this year.
Quizzed on why Kroll had
sold the share warrants to AMG and the
impending lawsuit, Sara Turner, who
handles public relations and media
inquiries, at Kroll London said the risk
consultancy firm cannot "comment on
market speculation".
Arafas
Gwaradzimba, AMG chief executive told Standardbusiness the 19
May judgement
had no winners.
Told that the court had ruled ARL has title to the
bearer share
warrant after paying the balance of the purchase price plus
accruing
interest, Gwaradzimba said AMG will pay for the shares if ARL
failed to
clear the balance.
Gwaradzimba was asked to explain
his assertion that there were no
winners when AMG would foot the legal bill.
He said: "Our lawyers there are
discussing between themselves. After all ARL
paid the legal bill before."
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:02
ZIMBABWE lost US$7
million in tourism revenue from the Japanese market
following the review of
the country's security risk by Tokyo, the Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority (ZTA)
chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke has said.
Kaseke
said Zimbabwe lost about 4 000 tourists who had planned to
visit Victoria
Falls between 15 April and 31 May 2008.
The loss translates to
about 12 000 bed nights as the average stay per
visitor is three
nights.
"If this is translated to tourism receipts, including
earnings from
food and beverages, activities such as those common in
Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe lost about US$7 million from the Japanese market
alone in those 45
days," Kaseke said.
"This is a sad situation
indeed, but as the tourism promotion organ of
the government we will do
everything in our power to redress the situation."
In April, the
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the risk
level from the previous
Level One to Level Two.
Japan classifies destinations in four
levels in terms of security
risk. Level One, being the lowest, is not
prohibitive but merely requires
Japanese nationals who visit destinations in
that category to exercise due
caution while they travel.
Level
Two requires Japanese to consider the necessity of their travel
and is
prohibitive.
Once a destination has been classified in Level Two
all tour
operators, travel agents and individual travellers are expected to
cancel
their travel arrangements to such destinations.
Level
Three requires an outright cancellation of all travel to the
affected
destinations while Level Four requires the immediate evacuation of
Japanese
nationals from the destinations.
Kaseke said during April and May,
the country experienced group
cancellations by tour operators from Japan who
had planned group tours, not
only to visit Zimbabwe but Southern Africa as a
whole.
The group tours were to visit Victoria Falls, Cape Town and
Chobe in
Botswana.
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 07 June 2008 18:00
JOHANNESBURG - A
leadership vacuum has hampered progress in Africa and
countries will need to
prioritise education in order to help the continent
end poverty, delegates
said at the World Economic Forum on Friday.
"There has been
a conspiracy of silence on critical issues and lack of
courage to state
publicly what should be done," said Wendy Luhabe, chairman
of South Africa's
Industrial Development Corporation.
Various delegates raised the
"crisis of leadership" repeatedly as
holding Africa back and called for
better education for the continent to
free itself from the legacy of
colonialism.
But South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki dismissed the
criticism
saying African leaders had taken steps to improve economic and
political
governance.
"There's much better clarity among the
political leadership of what
needs to be done to establish stable democratic
systems".
"There's clarity about how to respond to these economic
challenges,
and we talk about better macroeconomic management on the
continent," he
said.
Millions of people continue to live in
poverty in Africa despite
faster economic growth averaging 5% over the past
five years. About 40% of
the continent's 900 million people are
poor.
"We must invest massively in education because it is the
only tool to
liberate people so they have access to opportunities for their
own
self-sufficiency," said Luhabe.
- Reuters.
"We can't afford to create a culture of dependency," she said, adding
education would help drive the growth of the middle class that is key to
stability and maintaining democracy.
The current global
food crisis, however, threatened social stability,
with 20 countries on the
"most vulnerable" list and several experiencing
violent protest against high
prices.
World Bank Vice President for Africa Obiageli
Ezekwesili said on
Thursday the crisis could be an opportunity to revive
Africa's farming
industry and review agricultural policy.
The three-day 18th WEF on Africa attracted more than 800 delegates
from over
50 countries. (Editing by Malcolm Whittaker)
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 07 June 2008 17:54
WHEN Cosmas Benza (30), qualified as a
chartered accountant in 2005,
he hoped to receive commensurate
remuneration.
The world opened its doors when an accounting
firm he was working for
offered him shareholding, plus a company
car.
He worked there for barely a year, then packed his bags and
crossed
the Atlantic to Bermuda.
"I had no choice but to seek
greener pastures. I discovered that with
my salary it was going to be
difficult to fend for my family," he told
Standardbusiness last
week.
Benza is another Zimbabwe professional who left for the
proverbial
greener pastures, following the economic meltdown that has
reduced workers
to penury.
For the past two years, the country
has lost professionals to
neighbouring countries at an alarming
rate.
First, it was the engineers and artisans lured by South
Africa's
booming construction industry ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The
exodus has
extended to professions such as teaching and the hospitality
trade, as the
lure of the Rand across the Limpopo becomes
irresistible.
While some companies continue weeping over the loss
of key staffers,
others have taken up the cudgels and put in place measures
to halt the brain
drain.
At one law firm, employees are given
groceries every month, with the
money being recovered over three
months.
At Air Zimbabwe, senior employees are being paid in foreign
currency.
Hoteliers have written to the central bank to seek approval to pay
key
personnel in foreign currency.
Human resources experts note
while it is a noble gesture, buying
groceries for staff and paying them in
forex, companies with no access to
forex can at least index the salaries to
the US$.
"If salaries are pegged to the US$ and using the
inter-bank rates, it
removes the need for salary negotiations," said Memory
Nguwi, a human
resources expert.
Nguwi, founding partner at a
human resources and management
consultancy firm, Organisation Excellence
Consultants, proposes a minimum
salary of US$100 a month with a cut-off date
when the inter-bank rate would
be applicable.
He said there was
now a worrying trend where employees went to work
"to maintain their jobs in
the hope that things would improve in the
future".
"In terms of
basic salaries, most workers are not earning enough to go
to work. They are
going there for career reasons. They don't want a gap in
their careers," he
said.
Luxon Zembe, a management consultant says while the gesture
by
employers is noble, it has to be productivity-linked.
He
says dishing out groceries to employees "is a crisis intervention
which is
not sustainable in the long run".
"We have to address the economy
and stabilise the dollar by going back
to production in industries and on
the farms," he said.
Zembe said for workers to survive, they needed
to earn salaries in
line with global standards of US$1 a day set by the
International Labour
Organisation and the United Nations.
But
he cautions that the rate at which the Zimbabwe dollar was losing
value made
it difficult for employers to cope.
"It's like a dog chasing its
tail," he said.
Japhet Moyo, acting secretary general of the
Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions told Standardbusiness what employers were
doing was
"fire-fighting" that did not address "the fundamentals" on how to
run the
economy.
"We can talk about employers paying in forex
or buying groceries for
employees but that does not address the problem. It
is the issue of politics
which people are scared to talk about," Moyo
said.
Analysts say a comprehensive package to revive the economy
would
cushion employees from the harsh economic conditions.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation - 1 700 000% - in the world, an
unprecedented situation in a country outside a war zone.
Analysts say inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the
currency,
reducing workers to paupers.
Zembe says as a way out, the country
can adopt a more stable currency
such as the US dollar, though there are
challenges on the availability of
the adopted currency.
"In
practical terms, people are thinking in terms of US$," he said.
By
Ndamu Sandu
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 07 June 2008 17:51
GWERU - Although the
issuance of extremely high-denomination bearer
cheques makes it easier to
carry big sums, such notes are also fuelling
inflation and ultimately making
matters worse for ordinary people, consumers
who spoke to Standardbusiness
complained.
Winnie Sibanda, a housewife in Gweru's Mkoba
high-density suburb said
that for people like her, budgeting for household
necessities had become a
major dilemma as the prices of essential
commodities were continuously
spiralling.
Sibanda says that
although her husband, who works for a private
enterprise, brings home about
four billion dollars a month, prices always
seemed disconnected from
incomes, and she blames the constant issuance of
ever-larger denomination
notes by the central bank.
"Every time new bearer cheques are
introduced, the price of most
commodities and services goes up. The problem
is that most basics are now
available only on the parallel market, and those
who sell these commodities
won't stop hiking the prices," Sibanda
said.
"When the $500-million bearer cheque was introduced recently
the price
of a 2kg packet of sugar went up to $1 billion from $500 million;
the price
of a two-litre bottle of cooking oil rose from about $1.4-billion
to
$2-billion and commuter omnibus operators also hiked their
fares.
"It is high time the authorities did something about this.
The country's
economy has been bad for some time but I think what is
worsening the
situation is the current political impasse. Our leaders should
resolve this
quickly because it is the ordinary people that are hardest hit
by the
economic and political crises."
Along with the latest
introduction of a 500-million dollar bearer
cheque, the Reserve Bank has
also introduced so-called "agro-cheques" in
denominations of $5 billion, $25
billion and $50 billion for the use of
farmers selling produce. They can
also be used by ordinary members of the
public.
But economic
analysts who spoke to this reporter said such notes
merely pour gasoline on
the blaze of inflation.
Amos Dhewa, an an assistant lecturer in
economics at the Midlands
State University, said the introduction of the
bearer cheques was no
solution but actually worsened the economic
problems.
He said the government over the past 10 years has
installed flawed
macro-economic policies which had derailed the
economy.
"There is a debate regarding which factor affects the other -
politics
or the economy. It is politics probably that affects the economy
more. As
long as our political relations are not okay, the economy will
always
deteriorate. If we are part of the world, we need to recognize that
we are
just a part of the world and not to think that we are the world
itself.
"The world can do without us but we cannot do without the
world. Even
when we preach the doctrine of sovereignty and whatever, we have
to
understand that, Yes, sovereignty, but, we also depend on other
countries,''
Dehwa said.
Bearer cheques, referred to derisively
as "burial cheques", were first
introduced during the 2003 cash crisis - the
first of many. They were
supposed to be phased out by the end of 2003 but
Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono, installed in December of that year, has
made the bearer cheque
the de facto Zimbabwean currency.
Gono
himself has acknowledged printing money drives up inflation, but
in the face
of an unrelenting economic decline, says he has had no choice
but to
regularly introduce higher denominations.
The central bank has
taken measures such as limiting the amounts
individuals and businesses can
withdraw from banks, but this has done little
to slow inflation, and
consumers are already calling for a review of the
recently revised
$10-billion withdrawal limit, saying it is not enough.
Economists have
suggested the government mend its relations with the
international community
and international financial institutions.
Some have blamed the Look
East policy, suggesting that "we don't need
only to look east but to look
everywhere".
Gono has in the past emphasized the need to mend fences
with the
international community. But his advice has not been heeded as
President
Robert Mugabe and his government claim the West wants regime
change and
recolonisation.
By Rutendo Mawere
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 07 June 2008 16:47
AT first
glance, the photograph flashed on news reports around the
world - an image
of a man burning in South Africa, necklaced with a rubber
tyre that had been
doused in gasoline and set aflame - looked like a relic
from the days of
apartheid.
Necklacing was common then: it was the way that
enforcers of the
revolutionary African National Congress made an example of
informers who
betrayed their struggle for majority rule.
That
struggle was finally won at the ballot box 14 years ago, but the
photograph
of the burning man was taken last month, as South African mobs
tore through
the country's townships and shantytowns, hunting down
foreigners. The young
men who formed the core of the mobs were armed with
everything from hammers
and whips to machetes and guns, and they were not
easily deterred. Even when
President Thabo Mbeki, who sat silently by during
the first 10 days of the
pogroms, called out the Army, the violence
continued, and once again the
photographs of the confrontations recalled the
township showdowns of yore:
uniformed sharpshooters firing into the throng,
albeit with rubber
bullets.
Roughly 5 million of the 50 million people who live in
South Africa
are migrants from elsewhere on the continent - Malawi, Nigeria,
Congo,
Mozambique, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. They came in the
years
since apartheid, seeking political refuge or economic opportunity or
both,
and their presence could be seen as a measure of South Africa's
success: the
nation that once produced asylum seekers had become a place of
asylum. But
the banishment of white-supremacist rule did not bring an end to
South
Africa's divisiveness and inequality; the terms were merely
reconfigured.
In the place of political violence, the nation has
been plagued by one
of the highest rates of violent crime in the world. Most
of the victims,
like most of the perpetrators, belong to the vast black
underclass. Rising
unemployment (twenty-three percent nationwide, and two or
three times that
in the townships) and rising food and fuel prices have led
to rising
desperation for those chronically excluded from the promises of
the new
South Africa.
The tabloid press and the political
demagogues freely blame the social
situation on foreigners, and in the last
weeks of May more than 50 of them
(as well as several South Africans
mistaken for foreigners) were killed by
the mobs, while more than thirty
thousand were driven from their homes,
stripped of their possessions, and
left to huddle in makeshift camps around
churches and police stations or to
flee for the borders.
The man in the now iconic photograph was
Mozambican; thousands of his
compatriots bolted homeward, and the government
of Mozambique declared a
state of emergency on its frontiers. The great mass
of South Africa's
foreigners, however, are from Zimbabwe, and for them -
some three million
people, or a quarter of Zimbabwe's population -
repatriation is not an
option. They have fled the incessantly escalating
hunger, degradation, and
violence of President Robert Mugabe's dispensation.
In fact, even as they
are hounded in the streets of South Africa, more of
their compatriots are
risking their lives to escape Zimbabwe and join
them.
In late March, Mugabe, after three decades in power, did not
win
re-election this time, he had failed to rig the vote sufficiently - and
in
the months since, in preparation for a run-off vote on 27 June, he has
unleashed his soldiers and militias to run a campaign of systematic terror
against supporters of his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Last year,
after Mugabe's torturers battered Tsvangirai almost to
death, regional
leaders appointed Mbeki to mediate the crisis in Zimbabwe.
But Mbeki has
been utterly unwilling to show any spine in dealing with
Mugabe. On the
contrary, he has exhibited a sinister solidarity with his
fellow onetime
liberation fighter. With strenuous unreality, he has gone so
far as to deny
that Zimbabwe is in crisis, and he has refused to extend
formal refugee
status, and the protections that come with it, to millions of
the
Zimbabweans in his country, lest he insult Mugabe. Mbeki is a lame-duck
President, required to step down next year, and he has lost control of the
ANC party apparatus to his chief rival, Jacob Zuma. But his coddling of
Mugabe has made him complicit in Zimbabwe's devastation.
So
perhaps there is some justice in the fact that the Zimbabwean
crisis he
denies threatens to become the defining crisis of his Presidency.
After all,
the recent mayhem in South Africa only serves Mugabe, creating a
distraction
as he bleeds Zimbabwe in the final stretch of the election, with
forebodings
of greater slaughter hanging over the outcome.
It is not obvious
what leverage there is on Mugabe. Defiance is his
element; he loves to tell
the world, "Go to hell". But there is no reason
for the world to abide his
desire to carry out his crimes unheard and
unseen. In April, South African
stevedores refused to unload a shipment of
seventy-seven tons of rockets,
mortars, and other munitions from China
destined for Zimbabwe - a cargo
reminiscent of the deliveries to Rwanda
before the genocide of
1994.
And, in deliberate contrast to Mbeki's obliging absence, the
American
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, has been making his presence
felt,
leading his colleagues in the diplomatic community into the rural
areas to
investigate and report on the extent of the torture. On a recent
excursion,
he collected testimonies, notebooks, and photographs that
document how
Mugabe's goons flay their victims and break their
bones.
McGee offered this evidence to Mbeki's representatives; they
declined
to meet with him, and Mugabe threatened him with expulsion. Still,
at a time
when America's international prestige as an arbiter of political
justice
carries the stain of Abu Ghraib, it is heartening to see one of our
diplomats operating as if he'd never heard that waterboarding and other
forms of torture are now his country's policy.
To watch the
intertwined agonies of South Africa and Zimbabwe today is
to see what Frantz
Fanon meant when he wrote, in The Wretched of the Earth,
that "the last
battle of the colonized against the colonizer will often be
the fight of the
colonized against each other". Mbeki and Mugabe belong to a
generation of
liberation fighters who seem incapable of seeing the world
through any lens
beyond that of anti-colonial struggle, and who invoke their
revolutionary
bona fides as immunity against all political criticism and all
challengers.
Their time has passed. The best hope for both
their countries now is
for the voters of Zimbabwe to be allowed to show
their courage on 27 June
and liberate themselves.
*Philip
Gourevitch opinion piece appears in The New Yorker.
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 07 June 2008 16:45
IF most
people were asked to describe the picture that forms in the
mind at the
mention of the term "vote rigging", they would probably give an
account of
shady characters in dark glasses, dark coats, operating under
cover of
darkness busy stuffing ballot boxes, changing figures, shredding
and burning
documents.
That may be so, but, in fact, one simple and
less dramatic picture of
vote-rigging is that of a system that simply
prevents persons from
exercising their right to vote.
Zimbabwe's electoral regime contains a number of features that prevent
persons from voting or at the very least, increase the risk of preventing
persons from voting. In that way the electoral regime plays a crucially
negative role in disenfranchising citizens.
For a start, an
attempt by Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to challenge
the constitutionality of
the system which disenfranchises them was dismissed
by the Supreme Court in
March 2005. This effectively cemented the
disenfranchisement of a
significant number of Zimbabweans who have every
right to participate in
their country's electoral process. In most
countries, including SADC
countries, efforts are being made to allow
citizens abroad to participate in
the political process. The Zimbabwe
government, in its wisdom, has not been
willing to do that. That is probably
because the Diaspora population is not
viewed as a natural constituency for
the ruling Zanu PF party.
But there is a more pressing matter, concerning those persons resident
and
present in Zimbabwe but are likely to be disenfranchised come 27 June.
These
are the people who, by circumstance of the deliberately engineered
mayhem,
violence and intimidation, have become displaced from their normal
homes.
It is reported that thousands of people have been
displaced from their
homes due to the violence raging in the countryside,
especially in the
Mashonaland provinces. If these persons are to exercise
their right to vote,
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will need to
devise a special
mechanism for that purpose because the current legislation
effectively
nullifies their right and leaves them
disenfranchised.
It is important to illustrate why there is a great
risk of
disenfranchisement unless the ZEC intervenes, either to stop the
violence
and displacement and also to facilitate people's return to their
homes.
Alternatively, the ZEC could facilitate their ability to exercise
their
right, wherever they may be physically situated on 27
June.
The problem commences with the mandatory ward-voting
system. The
effect of Section 110(3) of the Electoral Act is that the
run-off will be
conducted in the same way as the 29 March election. This
means that in
accordance with Section 56 of the Electoral Act, persons will
be required to
vote in the wards in which they were registered on the
voters' roll. It
states that, "(a) every voter registered on a ward voters
roll shall be
entitled to vote in the ward concerned for a Presidential
candidate . . ."
However, there is a proviso to that section, which
states that, a
person whose name does not appear on the ward voters' roll
shall still be
entitled to vote upon production to the presiding officer of
a voters'
registration certificate. This is the certificate normally issued
to a
person when he registers on the voters' roll. It is therefore highly
significant that every voter retains and takes to the polling station the
voter's registration certificate, just in case one's name does not appear on
the ward voters' roll.
But these provisions have two important
implications:
First, it means that if the person's name is not on
the ward voters'
roll and does not have the registration certificate, he
will not be able to
vote. This is where the violence and confiscation of
voters' registration
certificates or identity documents becomes a key
instrument of
disenfranchisement.
Second, Section 56(1) (b) of
the Electoral Act prohibits a person from
voting in a polling station
outside the ward in which he is registered as a
voter on the ward voters'
roll. The combined effect of these provisions is
that a person can only vote
in a polling station located in his ward.
Conversely, if the person is
outside his ward, he is effectively
disenfranchised unless he qualifies for
postal voting.
This means that the displaced voters will not be
able to cast their
votes on 27 June unless there is a legal and practical
facility to enable
them to do so. These victims of violence have,
effectively, been
disenfranchised. It demonstrates the effectiveness of
preventing people from
voting as a rigging tactic.
It is
difficult to understand the necessity of requiring persons to
vote in their
respective wards in an election that is essentially national
rather than
ward-focussed. One can understand the rationale for the
ward-based voting
procedure in the 29 March election on the basis that it
was a harmonised
election in which voters were required to vote not only for
the presidency
and MPs but also for the councillor of that specific ward.
That necessitated
the restriction of voters to their respective wards.
However, the
same rationale is less justifiable in the case of the
run-off election,
which only concerns the Presidency, a national rather than
ward-based
office. People should be able to vote at any place where they may
be at the
relevant time so long as they can authenticate their identity and
eligibility to vote.
One of the ZEC's chief constitutional
functions under Section 61 (4)
(a) of the Constitution is to "ensure that
those elections and referendums
are conducted efficiently, freely, fairly,
transparently and in accordance
with the law". The ZEC may argue that the
ward-based voting system is vital
for efficiency and, indeed, for
transparency but it is equally important
that the values of fairness and
freedom be upheld. The displacement and
consequent disenfranchisement does
not satisfy these values.
The ZEC should devise
cost-effective and practical ways to enable
people to vote at any place
beyond their respective wards. Ideally, people
should vote in their wards
and most will do so because it is cost-effective
and more convenient for
them. But those who, for good reason, are unable to
be in their wards should
not be unduly prevented from voting by a rigid
system that fails to take
into account the realities of their situation.
That there has been violence
and displacement is common knowledge and there
is, surely, sufficiently good
reason why many voters cannot be in their
wards on 27 June.
In
fact, this is one instance in which the ZEC's law-making powers
provided for
under Section 192 could be put to good use. These regulatory
powers have
already been used at least twice since 29 March, first, when
extending the
run-off deadline from 21 days to 90 days and second, in
prescribing new
forms and procedures to be used in the counting and
verification of votes on
27 June.
To be sure, these powers provide various grounds for
abuse. These are,
by and large, the same powers that were formerly vested in
the President
under the notorious Section 158 of the old Electoral Act and
were only
nominally transferred to the ZEC, whose autonomy remains a subject
for
debate.
The concerns over these powers notwithstanding,
Section 192 (4)
empowers the ZEC to, "make such statutory instruments as it
considers
necessary or desirable to ensure that any election is properly and
efficiently conducted and to deal with any matter or situation connected
with, arising out of or resulting from the election". It is submitted that
the matter concerning the displacement of voters is of critical importance
to the proper conduct of the run-off election. For that reason, the ZEC
should at least make provision to enable such persons to
vote.
There may be concerns that opening the voting system
beyond the
ward-system will create opportunities for further rigging but
surely,
enabling voters to exercise their right is of great importance. The
system
has created a greater moral hazard that by displacing people, they
will not
be able to participate in the election and that the first, and
perhaps most
effective way of rigging the election.
Alex Magaisa is based at The University of Kent Law School and can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk or
a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 07 June 2008 16:43
WITH an estimated 4
million Zimbabweans facing starvation, last week's
United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation summit in Rome, Italy, was
an opportunity lost,
demonstrating just how out of touch and uncaring the
government has
become.
The summit was called to commit world leaders to
eliminate hunger
among their citizens and to secure food for all. It was an
opportunity for
Zimbabwe to appeal for international assistance in providing
aid to
small-scale farmers in order to boost their productivity. Also needed
is
assistance in investing more in agriculture and increasing food
production
and on tackling soaring food price increases. It
didn't.
But in what must rank as one of the most tragic ironies to
come from
President Robert Mugabe's government, it decided to suspend the
operations
of non-governmental organisations involved in providing
assistance to the
poor and most vulnerable groups among our communities,
simply because the
NGOs are suspected of supporting the MDC.
The Rome summit was an opportunity for Zimbabwe to put its case for
assistance to the world community so it could save the lives of 4 million
Zimbabweans. But by suspending operations of the NGOs the government
signalled it would rather these Zimbabweans starved.
Zimbabwe's
food shortages are man-made. This is perhaps why it was
embarrassing for
Mugabe to stand before world leaders and ask for
assistance. That would have
been the most significant admission of failure
of his government's so-called
"agrarian revolution".
Unfortunately Zimbabwe shows no signs of
having learnt anything or of
willingness to learn from past
failures.
During the run up to the 1980/1981 agricultural season,
the
international community provided Zimbabweans with starter seed packs.
The
response from the small-holder farmers was phenomenal, contributing to a
bumper maize crop.
The conclusion from the current spectacular
collapse of the
agricultural sector is that despite a supposedly enlightened
political
leadership Zimbabwe has learnt nothing. Instead, its singular
achievement
has been impoverishment of the small-scale and communal
farmers.
The real beneficiaries of the government's so-called land
reform
programme have been political heavy-weights and the politically
connected,
but their case demonstrates one thing: you can provide resAources
and inputs
but you cannot make them produce - unmasking one of the fallacies
about the
"agrarian revolution", but more likely perdition.
By
banning all operations of non-governmental organisations keeping
millions of
Zimbabweans alive, the government is demonstrating the extent to
which it is
prepared to go in order to remain in power. As a result of this
callous
disregard of human lives, it is possible to conclude that
Gukurahundi, which
claimed more than 20 000 lives in the Matabeleland and
the Midlands
provinces during the early 1980s, and Operation Murambatsvina -
three years
ago - and the recently launched Operation Makavhoterapapi are no
accidents
of history.
The UN agencies are due to publish a full report on
Zimbabwe this week
which will reveal an even more precarious food supply
situation in the
country as cereal production is expected to plummet again
this year while
food imports announced by the government will do little to
make up for the
shortfall.
Last month the government said it
had paid for 600 000 tonnes of maize
from South Africa but this would only
be enough to cover at least three
months' supply.
Mugabe
squandered an opportunity to ask the international community
for food aid
for millions of his people, while suspension of NGO operations,
just unmasks
government's true colours. Then he expects Zimbabweans to
support his
re-election bid during the 27 June presidential re-run! In 19
days' time
they will have their turn to decide his fate.
Exposing The Fallacy Of Tribal Conspiracies
Letters
Saturday, 07 June 2008 16:58
AFTER I was evicted from my farm in
Norton, I decided to go and
confront the district administration for Chegutu
and the lands committee.
My farm had been unprocedurally
awarded to another person, who comes
from Dzumbunu communal lands by Chief
Nyamweda even though our area falls in
Ward 11 under Chief
Chivero.
I informed the administration and the committee that as a
war veteran
I was entitled to land under the Land Reform Programme. The
Lands officer
told me that the land available was only for people from
Mhondoro because
they had not been beneficiaries of the fast track
resettlement programme,
especially in the other provinces.
They
said the new approach was that they scrutinised an
applicant/beneficiary's
National Identity Card to establish whether it ended
with 32, which is
Mhondoro District and to a lesser extent, 70, which is
Zvimba
District.
The administration, Chief Nyamweda and the Lands office
claimed that
the land invasions had resulted in people from Manicaland
flooding into
Mashonaland West. Then the most insulting question was posed:
Was there no
land in Manicaland for me to go and seek to be
allocated?
As if that was not enough, they went on to suggest there
was a Manyika
conspiracy to take over the reins of political power. They
alleged that
there was a deliberate, systematic and sustained plan to plant
Manyikas in
all strategic positions throughout Zimbabwe. This, they claimed,
was being
orchestrated from very high offices, liaising with several
permanent
secretaries in the various ministries.
This, they
alleged, had come to the attention of the Presidency and
several key Zanu PF
officials in Mashonaland West. They went on to say this
was the reason why
the President questioned why all the opposition leaders,
such as the late
Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Edgar
Tekere, Margaret
Dongo, Morgan Tsvangirai, Dr Simba Makoni and Professor
Arthur Mutambara,
came from Manicaland.
I told them it was not a crime for a person
from Manicaland to aspire
to become president of Zimbabwe and that the
presidency was not a preserve
for people from Mashonaland West. If most war
veterans appeared to come from
Manicaland, it was because of the long border
that the province shared with
Mozambique, I informed them.
I
then asked these gentlemen whether there was also a Zezuru
conspiracy to
perpetuate their dominance over Zimbabwe, drawing their
attention to the
security chiefs and reminding them that these were the same
people now
holding the nation hostage by publicly declaring that they will
not salute
anyone who does not have liberation war credentials. We all know
they are
doing this for self-preservation in order to protect their
ill-gotten gains
and the lifestyle of luxury amid a sea of poverty among the
majority of
Zimbabweans.
I lectured them on the formation and origins of Zanu
PF, Sithole's and
Herbert Chitepo's contributions and pointed out that while
Manicaland
contributed a significant number of fighters to the liberation
struggle, the
province was neglected during the boom period of the 1980s and
1990s. Was
this a deliberate conspiracy to marginalise Manicaland? I
queried.
Is there an organised Zezuru conspiracy to thwart the
alleged Manyika
conspiracy?
Reketai
Chemwandoita
Zimbo Farm,
Norton-Chegutu
------------------
Cursed Be The
Terrorists
Letters
Saturday, 07 June 2008 16:56
AUGUSTINE Chihuri, the Police Commissioner-General, pledged that the
police
would maintain law and order before, during and after the harmonised
elections.
He emphasised that the police would not take
into account the
political affiliation of the trouble makers.
But what is happening after the elections? Organised Zanu PF terror is
taking place all over Zimbabwe. Law-abiding citizens in rural areas are
fleeing their homes, some of which have been burnt down by these party
thugs.
There has been no action taken against these terrorists
by Chihuri's
police officers because the perpetrators are Zanu PF supporters
who are
"immune" to arrest. This is shameful and may these terrorists and
their
leaders be cursed until eternity.
D R
Mutungagore
Mutare.
-----------------
State
House Not Mugabe Property
Letters
Saturday, 07 June 2008
16:55
GRACE Mugabe should be reminded that State House is a national
institution that belongs to Zimbabwe and not to the Mugabe
household.
Who is she to say Morgan Tsvangirai will never
set foot in State
House? That is a prerogative of the Zimbabwean electorate
which they will
exercise on 27 June, banishing her to Zvimba where she
belongs.
'Patriot'
Harare
Harare
-------
Run-off Poll, A Matter Of Life And Death For
Zimbabwe
Letters
Saturday, 07 June 2008 16:53
AS a
foreigner, or a mukwerekwere, staying in South Africa, I woke up
on the
monring of 19 May to the image of a "burning foreigner" on the front
page of
The Times.
I was quite shaken by this image and also by the
fact that some locals
were actually giggling in the background.
Understandably, on that Monday I
received a number of phone calls and
e-mails from fellow Zimbabweans, all
wanting to know whether I was
okay.
The message is clear: foreigners must go because they steal
their
jobs, wives, houses and are criminals. Someone was saying one way they
will
find out that you are a foreigner - that is, if they do not pick it
from
your dark skin colour - is to ask you to say "elbow" in
Zulu.
It is a scary situation because every foreigner is at risk,
whether
you are here legally or otherwise.
Still reeling from
this shock, I read Zimbabwe news on the internet
and something hit me
between the eyes. They had murdered Mr Jani from
Murewa.
If
they can abduct a fine gentleman such as Jani in broad daylight and
kill
him, then no-one is safe any more. They are very desperate and
obviously
this election is a matter of life and death for the ruling party.
Many Zimbabweans have fled to South Africa and as the events of the
past
three weeks have shown this is no place for us.
In the past, it has
been easy to sit on the fence but now I don't
think it will be possible to
do so as we have nowhere else to run.
From rough estimates there
are around three million Zimbabweans in
South Africa, which means even if a
third of them go home to vote this will
make a difference.
Dabson Kanyoka
Johannesburg, SA
-------------
Thestandard Sms
Letters
Saturday, 07 June 2008 17:00
Animal degrees
HAVE we turned into animals to butcher and torture one
another like
this? Have these so-called leaders no shame at all? It will be
no victory at
all because it will be pure robbery. What is the use of all
those degrees? -
Royal, Harare.
Blind to
reality
HAPPISON Muchechetere believes the MDC is responsible for
all the
violence in the country. Why are his reporters at ZBC not covering
the
abductions and deaths of the victims? Even the police aren't using his
stations to flight the pictures of those abducted and the deceased in order
to investigate the cases. Please don't insult us. We are not as daft as you
think. - Gift Mwanza.
Stubborn facts
ON Sunday
evening there were three pro-Zanu PF speakers and one
representative of the
MDC. Correctness of facts: pro-Zanu PF speakers 20%,
MDC representative 80%.
Time afforded speakers: MDC 20%, Zanu PF 80%.- J K,
Harare.
******
NO matter the type of propaganda Zanu PF dishes out and how much
it
kills, it will never win as long as there is no food on the table.-
Morgan
Lysaght, Chinhoyi.
Jobs, not land
ZANU PF
can be so desperate. The people who were in South Africa do
not want land.
They went there for jobs! - Mangwende, Harare.
******
A
traditional leader in Zaka organised the beating of 13 victims of
politically motivated violence on 17 May 2008. - Witness.
Rogue-ish First Lady
GRACE Mugabe's speech to Zanu PF supporters in
Shamva that farm
workers must be dealt with is not fit to be coming from a
First Lady. It is
the kind of thing you expect from a rogue. I wonder how
she will carry out
this threat without using violence. Her utterances were
grossly
irresponsible. Whatever happens to any of them she'll be personally
responsible. - Jaku, Marondera.
******
I would like to
urge those who did not vote on 29 March 2008 to heed
my call to unite so we
can show Robert Mugabe his exit in one strong
voice. - Dirt.
No
to coercion, sir
I would like to say to the Army Chief of Staff
that most of the
soldiers are suffering just as the majority of the people
of Zimbabwe. We
are there to save and protect the nation, not Zanu PF. Don't
try to use us
in order to protect your own personal interests. - KG
VI.
******
I need to alert the nation that 99% of the Zanu
PF youths do not have
three "O" Levels and above and they are being told
that if Zanu PF wins,
they will have jobs of their choice, even to become
medical doctors, perhaps
doctors of violence. - Gattuso,
Bindura.
Never say never
RECALL when the end was near
during the late 1970s -
never-in-a-thousand-years Ian Smith lavishly fooled
our traditional leaders
by even flying them! Remember Bishop Abel Muzorewa's
seven-day Zimbabwe
Grounds wonderful feast. See how the full circle has
turned and our chiefs
are again being feted? What a pity! - Amon D
Nyamambi.
Wrecking our lives
IN Masvingo we are
getting electricity for just eight hours a day. The
Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority is determined to wreck our lives. -
Frustrated,
Masvingo.
Incompetent Zinwa
THE Zimbabwe National
Water Authority is the most incompetent, most
cynical and most financially
illiterate government organisation in the
country. How can they honestly
send me a water bill for $25 billion, when I
only received water for one
week for the whole of last month? This is a
clear indication that the brain
drain has affected our State-run companies.
Any intelligent person would
have thought twice about posting such a bill.
But it seems that they are
only interested in raising revenue for their
salaries. My neighbours and I
have vowed to set our dogs on meter readers if
there is no service delivery.
We need intelligent people at Zinwa, not these
comedians. -
Dry.
Wheat disaster
THIS wheat season is a total
disaster. There is no wheat in the
fields. This is really a man-made
disaster and someone has to take
responsibility. Someone should be held
accountable. This business of playing
the blame game has to stop. The buck
stops with someone. This time around
Zimbabweans are not going to listen to
Zanu PF's cock-and-bull story about
sanctions as wheat in this country is
not grown by American and British
farmers but by Zanu PF farmers.
Furthermore, everyone knows that 90% of the
fuel allocated to farmers finds
its way onto the black market. This time
look in the mirror if you need
someone to blame for bread shortages. You
should be ashamed. -
Mhepo.
ZIMBABWE is short of foreign currency, so imagine if the
United
Nations brings in say 3 000 observers, this would translate to US$300
x 3
000 in accreditation fees for them to observe the run-off. Just where
does
the money go to and for what purpose is the fee charged? Why can't
observers
come in free, because they pay for hotel and accommodation and
that is where
the country can benefit in terms of foreign
currency-generation? - Puzzled.
******
THE best way to
curb political violence is to allow people to vote in
any area they will be
at the time of the run-off. This way, people who have
been displaced by the
political violence will not be disenfranchised. -
Voter.
******
The government has announced that it wishes to import 2 000
buses from
China for Zupco, but I fail to understand why Zupco doesn't sell
those old
and redundant shells of buses which are rotting at the Zupco
workshops. It
would be far better for Zupco to have a new, efficient and
manageable fleet
and if they dispose of those bus shells by public auction
they can plough
back the proceeds and use those funds as working capital to
maintain the
existing fleet. This just goes to show that common sense is not
so very
common at Zupco. It's time they stopped draining the government
fiscus by
always begging for more funds. - M T K.
Bizarre
logic
A Zanu PF supporter in Ward 8, Nyanga North, turned down
financial
support meant for the installation of electricity at a clinic in
the Ward.
The clinic supports more than 14 villages. - Villager,
Nyanga.