From The Star (SA), 16 March
Mugabe health rumours are an evil plot - Zim
Harare - The Zimbabwean government accused British intelligence agents on Friday of creating doubts about President Robert Mugabe's health to imply he was unfit to rule the former British colony for another presidential term. The agents used Zimbabwean journalists in a propaganda campaign to distribute false reports Mugabe's health was failing ahead of presidential polls that must be held by early next year, a government statement said. The independent Financial Gazette newspaper on Thursday quoted unidentified senior staff in Mugabe's office saying the 77-year-old politician had collapsed several times in recent months. The government dismissed the report, the latest to fuel speculation on Mugabe's health, as "fiction typical of the unholy partnership" between British agents, journalists in their pay and "gay gangsters" opposed to Mugabe.
Britain denies plotting against Mugabe, but has condemned violations of constitutional rights by his government. Previously, the Zimbabwe government paid little attention to speculation on Mugabe's health, even after he appeared disoriented, drowsy and forgetful at public events. Mugabe, an outspoken critic of homosexuals, whom he has described as lower than pigs and dogs, has accused gay activists of holding sway in a British-led international campaign against him. British-based gay activist Peter Tatchell was assaulted by Mugabe's bodyguards in Brussels last week after he tried to carry out a citizen's arrest of Mugabe to protest torture and rights violations in Zimbabwe.
The Financial Gazette said staff in Mugabe's office reported he was suffering from fits that made him collapse suddenly. The collapses had become "a regular thing," it said, and Mugabe had stepped up efforts to groom a successor. The government Herald newspaper said the report was part of a carefully orchestrated campaign at home and abroad to imply Mugabe was no longer in control.
Mugabe, who led the nation to independence in 1980, angered the British government with his program to nationalize farms owned by the white descendants of British settlers and because he "refused to let Zimbabwe become an extension of the British Empire," The Herald said. In November, Mugabe fell during a visit to Malaysia and returned home with six stitches in his head. Earlier, the government denied reports he had taken ill on a trip to Libya but did not explain why his travel itinerary was altered or why regular television coverage of his official functions was not aired. Celebrating his 77th birthday in a television broadcast last month, Mugabe described himself "as fit as two fiddles" and blamed Britain, Zimbabwe's 60 000 whites and profiteering foreign oil companies for crippling his nation's economy.
From The Star (SA), 16 March
Mugabe ignores UN commissioner's letters
Johannesburg - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said she was worried about the erosion of the rule of law in Zimbabwe and had urged President Robert Mugabe to ensure the independence of media and judiciary. Robinson, a lawyer and former president of Ireland, said in an interview on Thursday night during a visit to South Africa that she had written three letters to Mugabe raising the issues but had received no reply. The letters referred to numerous complaints made to Robinson's Geneva office about issues including the right to life, security, and freedom of expression, opinion and association in Zimbabwe, her aides said.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has been criticised by the West for his campaign to seize white-owned farms and intimidation of the southern African country's independent media and judiciary. "I am worried by the lack of rule of law in Zimbabwe. I am worried by the continuous erosion of the rule of law in that country," Robinson said. "It is very important that Zimbabwe upholds the rule of law. It is absolutely important that whatever the Zimbabwe government does is done within the framework of the law. That is important and that is what we are pushing for," she added.
Mugabe installed a political ally as acting chief justice on Tuesday after forcing chief justice Anthony Gubbay into early retirement, accusing the white judge of bias in favour of Zimbabwe's white minority. Mugabe's supporters have also threatened to chase other white judges out of courtrooms and to invade the homes of those seen as being opposed to the government. Thousands of black self-styled war veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war against white rule have invaded mainly white-owned commercial farms across the country, demanding redistribution to landless blacks.
"Coming from Ireland myself, I am fully aware of the problems of history imposed on countries such as Zimbabwe. I am fully aware of the need for land reform," Robinson said. "But all I am asking for is that all these changes be addressed, indeed be conducted within the constitutional boundaries, within the laws of that country and that the judiciary be allowed to do its work independently," she said. Robinson is to meet South African President Thabo Mbeki on Friday to discuss the agenda for a World Conference Against Racism to be held in the country in August. She said Zimbabwe would come up in their talks.
UN officials said Robinson would nudge Mbeki, already under international pressure to do more about Zimbabwe, to take a much firmer line on that country's crisis than he has so far. Mbeki has repeatedly asked Mugabe to keep his land programme within the laws of Zimbabwe. On Wednesday he said ministers from South Africa and Zimbabwe would meet at the weekend to discuss the land programme and how to save Zimbabwe's crumbling economy.
From News24 (SA), 16 March
Canada 'struck' by Zim crisis
Ottawa - Canada's Foreign Minister John Manley said on Thursday that he was "struck" by the current situation in Zimbabwe, and asked authorities to respect democratic institutions. In a statement, Manley said he was "struck by the worsening of political and economic conditions, the loss of respect for human rights and the violation of the rule of law in Zimbabwe". Manley also spoke of the increased pressures exerted on the independence and safety of Zimbabwe's judges, which "are wider than the land issue," referring to the objective of the government of Robert Mugabe to seize white-owned land and 'return' it to the country's black majority. Manley called on Mugabe to respect the principles of the Harare Declaration and "to renew (his) commitment to respect for democratic institutions, including the judiciary, and to human rights and the rule of law".
From IRIN (UN), 16 March
ANC MP Openly Criticises Zimbabwe
ANC member of parliament, Jeremy Cronin, has openly criticised the situation in Zimbabwe. Speaking in parliament this week, he said the ANC was "appalled" by the "abrogation" of the rule of law in that country. Cronin said the South African government was deeply worried by the bombing of newspaper offices in Harare and by the intimidation of trade unionists in Zimbabwe.
From The Independent on Saturday (SA), 17 March
SANDF troops set for DRC peacekeeping role
About 165 South African National Defence Force troops could move into the DRC to participate in the UN peacekeeping mission by month-end. SANDF sources said these technical forces were only waiting for the go-ahead from the UN. This would happen once the UN had verified the current phase of the withdrawal of all warring parties had been completed.
Thursday saw the start of the withdrawal of all military forces to at least 15km from their frontline positions. This is supposed to be completed by the end of March. Once the UN has verified the withdrawal, it will give the go-ahead to South Africa to send in the 165 technical forces who will be deployed at six to eight airports around the country, to prepare for the arrival and internal movement of a larger force of UN peacekeepers to monitor the ceasefire and further withdrawal of external forces from the country. The South African forces will comprise airflight controllers, aircraft re-fuellers, firefighters and other technicians required to maintain airports.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 March
Mugabe Says 'Oui' To French Lessons
From the Muckraker column
Harare - Attempts to put a gloss on the president's trip to Europe last week bordered on the farcical at times. Official eulogist Stephen Ndlovu who accompanied President Mugabe was so overcome with enthusiasm that he appeared confused as to where he was actually filing from. "President Mugabe scored two major points without saying anything when he toured two European capitals, Paris and France last week," Ndlovu reported in the Sunday Mail.
What is France the capital of, Stephen? And since when has Mugabe never said anything?
The president in fact had quite a lot to say as Ndlovu's article revealed. So did a number of anonymous "diplomats" and "officials" who all sounded rather like the same person. But the person who had the most to say in the course of his "report" from Paris was Ndlovu himself. A ceremonial guard of honour stood to attention "in reverence of the Zimbabwean leader", he reported in an emotional state. They marched into the Elysee Palace grounds "in a display of reverence", he repeated in case we hadn't got the message the first time.
But curiously Ndlovu failed to tell us why President Jacques Chirac, evidently in a less reverential mood, declined to greet our leader on the steps of the Elysee as is customary. Just a few hours earlier Chirac had been on the steps to publicly welcome the president of Equatorial Guinea, a state most people would have difficulty locating on the map! Having run out of superlatives Ndlovu resorted to the following: "Back home the opposition MDC, which many diplomats now call an extension of the British Foreign Office, is now at sixes and sevens. History has shown that cowards and sellouts have always derailed the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe. During the liberation struggle many people that had started off well ended up selling out for 30 pieces of silver."
Significantly Ndlovu didn't mention journalists who sell out to corrupt tyrants whose lies they repeat without any ethical worries. In Ndlovu's case his employers are certainly not getting value for money with the semi-literate hogwash appearing in the Sunday Mail. Perhaps the presidential spokesman cited in Ndlovu's report, and probably the source for much contained therein, could have done a better job after taking 30 pieces of British silver only a few years ago to improve his literary skills in Wales! The president, we gather, was so delighted with his visit to France that he is threatening to turn Zimbabwe into a Francophone state.
Mugabe told his hosts that he wished his countrymen were French- speaking so that "we would have nothing in common with the British". This was of course music to Chirac's ear and we can expect French to suddenly find its way back into the school curriculum. Mugabe already attends meetings of La Francophonie, the French Commonwealth. But isn't it typical that the president should choose to champion a language that is everywhere in retreat because it is incapable of adapting to global challenges? French scientists now have to publish their findings in English so they get read.
From The Spectator (UK), 10 March
Why France courts Mugabe
David Blair in Harare on the background to the meeting in Paris last week between Jacques Chirac and the President of Zimbabwe
They did not exchange Gallic kisses on both cheeks, yet the two men came close to a bear-hug. For the slight, balding figure of M Didier Ferrand France's unctuous ambassador in Zimbabwe, it was a narrow escape. A bear-hug from the gangling, greying, permanently dribbling vice-president Joseph Msika would have been a deeply unpleasant experience. A kiss might have been fatal. But the message was unmistakable. While Robert Mugabe hobnobs with Jacques Chirac in Paris, France's man in Harare is beavering away to help one of the most odious and reviled regimes in Africa. The presidential meeting and the red carpet in the Elysee are the latest in a long line of favours that France has done for Mr Mugabe in his hour of maximum isolation.
Alone among the Western envoys, M. Ferrand still pays regular courtesy calls on the President and his minions. After his latest meeting with Mr Mugabe's chief sidekick, the ambassador smoothly reassured state television that France had no interest in the 'internal affairs' of a sovereign state. So no awkward questions about human rights then. M. Ferrand described Zimbabwe as a 'partner in solidarity' and even contrived to sound supportive of Mr Mugabe's violent, chaotic and illegal land-grab.
The regime loved it. It was their best propaganda since, well, since M. Ferrand's last visit to Zimbabwe House. State television usually resorts to Cuba, North Korea and bankrupt African rat-holes in its search for governments with helpful words for Mr. Mugabe. Now Paris is claimed as an ally. In grateful reward, the main evening news offered a paean of praise to France that night. 'France is a big country with many rich companies,' said the breathless announcer, accompanied by pictures of, er, red double-decker buses on Oxford Street. 'France is very beautiful with many mountains,' the voice continued, backed by shots of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness. 'The historic buildings of Paris are the most beautiful in the world' -pictures of the King Charles bridge in Prague.
M. Ferrand must have wondered whether it was better to be praised or damned by Zimbabwean television. Admittedly, a few shots of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame made brief appearances, but only after the beautyspots of every other European capital had been visited. Yet M. Ferrand is a hard man to offend. He was instrumental in ensuring that Mr Mugabe received a personal invitation from M. Chirac to attend a summit of Francophone African countries in Cameroon in January. This despots' drinking club used to have a pretty clear membership policy. You had to be imbued with Gallic culture and awed by la gloire de la France. If you also strung up political opponents and butchered your people, that was a bonus.
Mr Mugabe may meet the last requirement, but he is light-years away from the first. With his Saville Row suits, love of cricket and impeccable 19th-century English, no other African leader is as anglicised as this hammer of British colonialism. He recently revealed that breakfast in the Mugabe household consists of a bowl of porridge and a boiled egg. But there he was in Cameroon, the only visiting despot to bring a translator.
When he met M. Chirac on that occasion, Mr Mugabe might have expressed gratitude for France's handling of its six month tint at the helm of the European Union. During the French presidency, between June and December last year, no EU criticism was directed at Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party stole victory in last June's parliamentary election by waging a murderous terror campaign against the opposition, which claimed at least 37 lives. An EU observer team issued a damning report that condemned the contest as neither free nor fair. What was the reaction? Nothing. The report disappeared and has been forgotten. That was another French favour for Mr Mugabe.
Why is France doing this? Normally you cosy up to an odious regime in order to make pots of cash. The thinking behind the numerous overtures towards Saddam Hussein is obvious. But Zimbabwe is a chaotic, impoverished. bankrupt wreck. There is no oil here. Even the arms dealers don't get paid. Mr Mugabe has the unique distinction of presiding over the fastest-shrinking economy on his continent - and when your economic management is the most disastrous in Africa, of all places, then you know you really are in trouble. Foreign investment in Zimbabwe fell by 89 per cent last year, as every major company scrambled out of a country where finding the petrol to fill up your car requires the patience and planning of a military operation.
The French don't hope to make any money. Instead their strategy is more subtle. M. Ferrand is following a perennial tenet of French policy in Africa, by seizing an opportunity to tweak Britain's tail. Ever since Queen Victoria emerged victorious from the Scramble for Africa by grabbing more territory than anybody else, Paris has been thirsting for revenge. The humiliation inflicted by the Fashoda incident in 1898, when Kitchener thwarted a French attempt to capture a few mud huts on the Nile and ended up claiming the whole of Sudan for Britain, has never faded.
While the British were happy to grant independence to their African colonies and then cheerfully forget about them, France was desperate to hold on to its empire. Nominal independence was given, but Paris reserved the right to select and topple leaders at will. Above all, her African 'children' had to accept the primacy of the French language and the glories of her culture. From this secure beachhead, France is now moving to capture Anglophone Africa. Zimbabwe is the most obvious target and a plum prize. Alone among the Commonwealth African leaders, Mr Mugabe's relations with Britain have collapsed irretrievably. He calls Mr Blair's government 'a gangster regime of little men' and accuses London of sending 'hit squads' to assassinate his cabinet, and of deploying the Royal Navy to intercept his oil supplies.
This disgruntled, alienated figure is an ideal candidate for the blandishments of Paris, aimed at taking Zimbabwe out of the Anglo-Saxon camp and into the embrace of France. Once again, the wicked imperialists are trying to seize Mr Mugabe's country. This time, he may let them have it.
PROTEST AT COMMONWEALTH MINISTERS MEETING
Call for Commonwealth action to defend human rights in Zimbabwe
Monday 19 March, 11 am, Marlborough House, London SW1
Protest outside the Commonwealth Ministers meeting on Monday 19 March, at 11am, at Marlborough House in London (at the end of Cleveland Row, which is at the St James's Street end of Pall Mall, SW1).
The protest is organised by the UK branch of the main Zimbabwe opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change.
Monday's meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on the Harare Declaration is expected to consider the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. It is likely to be discussed under "urgent unscheduled business". Zimbabwe will not be represented at the talks. It is not part of the Ministerial Action Group.
The protest on Monday will call for:
Further Information: Albert Weidemann (MDC Manchester): 01765 607 900 or 0777 33 85 981
Cruisin’ with Crown!!
Wannabe a wenwe in more ways than one??
Dig out them dancing shoes, flick out the flares, man, and rock on down!!
The Sixties Show
Sky City,
Thursday 26th and Friday 27th April.
The Sixties Show is a smash hit show!!
Have a blast from the past, but live in the now
With performances from a Capetonian and Kiwi cast,
Bangers and Boerewors!
Yup, I’ll tell you what we want, what we really really want –
Huge crowds for a jol and a jive!
We’ve got the feel good factor too –
Have a great night
out and support a deserving cause -
Zimcare – dankie Suid
Afrika!
Let’s show Auckland how we party African style!!
Tickets $40
Available from
Tiffany on 0800 667825
Torbay Dental Centre 473 1400
Rosedale Pharmacy 415 3065
Stationery World 414 4238
South Africa, Zimbabwe Ministers Meet Sunday
Panafrican News Agency(Dakar)
March 17, 2001
Posted
to the web March 17, 2001
Johannesburg, South Africa
The much publicised meeting between South African ministers and their counterparts from neighbouring Zimbabwe will begin Sunday, sources said.
The two-day meeting will take place in South Africa but its venue is being kept secret.
Although the South African government has not been forthcoming on the details they will discuss, it is widely believed that the rule of law, fuel and possible food shortages will be on the agenda.
President Robert Mugabe has been criticised over the manner the Zimbabwean government handled the premature retirement of chief justice Anthony Gubbay.
On Sunday the Zimbabwean delegation is likely to press South Africa to increase its electricity and fuel loan lifeline.
Reports of an eminent food shortage in Zimbabwe could see South Africa being asked to intervene.
Opposition parties in South Africa have been calling for a more robust and public condemnation of the Mugabe regime. They fear an influx of economic refugees as Zimbabwe slides further into decay.
But, President Thabo Mbeki has been steadfast with his "quiet diplomacy", which until now has resolved nothing. "There is absolutely no way South Africa is going to take a position which says: let us contribute to the collapse of Zimbabwe," one analyst said.
Some industries like Dunlop Africa - the tyre manufacturer - are feeling nervous about the economic slide in Zimbabwe.
Mike Hankinson, chief executive of Dunlop said: "It's unpredictable we've had fuel shortages, power shortages, currency shortages and to operate in that environment is not easy."
The company is considering shutting its manufacturing operation, but it says closing its distribution network of 20 branches in Zimbabwe has not been contemplated.
The Zimbabweans are unlikely to yield on human rights issues and it is hard to imagine any positive outcome from the meeting.
Meanwhile, reports that the aging Zimbabwe leader's health has deteriorated resulting in bouts of epileptic fits were met with angry denials Saturday.
The Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe quoted unnamed sources as saying the failing health of Mugabe (77) had hastened the process of grooming parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa as his successor.
"That story was planted by British intelligence," a Zimbabwe government spokesman was quoted as saying on SABC television.
Poor Mugabe!
(Banjul)
March 17, 2001
Posted
to the web March 17, 2001
Banjul
The European Parliament in Strasbourg has ordered the suspension of all development assistance to Zimbabwe government for what it described as sustained campaign of murder, violence and intimidation against his opponents. Although Mugabe may be guilty of these accusations, there is more to it than meet the eyes.
A little incursion into history may not be out of context, to shed some light on the current imbroglio between the EU and Zimbabwe Mugabe has always been regarded as a terrorist by Britain right from the period of the armed struggle against Ian Smith's regime in what was then Rhodesia. At the end of the struggle, Mugabe exacerbated Britain when he defiantly defeated Bishop Abel Muzorewa who London was cruising into the highest office of the newly independent state.
Mugabe also had several brushes with Margaret Thatcher, the iron lady, which was described as based on "outright hatred and mutual dislike." Nevertheless, Mugabe's undoing, which drove the death nail into his political coffin was the confiscation of white-owned lands in his country. The Western Media, led by the BBC mustered all the weapons in their mass communication arsenal and deliberately misinformed the world that Mugabe is anti-white, racist.
The fact is that about 400,000 white farmers own 75% of all arable land in that country, yet only a small proportion is cultivated while the rest is bush. Even under the terms of the agreement, the white owners had 20 years to develop or relinquish the land.
Tormented like Nigeria's Sani Abacha in his last days, Mugabe is now suffering from advanced paranoia, rampaging like a wounded lion. With his sleep murdered he is now afraid and suspicious of everybody including his own shadow, except of course the war veterans of his ZANU/PF party. He has become brutal with the press, opposition parties and even the judiciary being at the receiving end.
Recently, his aids advised London to concentrate its efforts in tackling the foot and mouth disease in their country.
Such was the vicious war that many predicted it will be a matter of time before Uncle Sam would mobilise the 14 members of his family to inflict maximum harm on Zimbabwean Economy because of Mugabe.
Poor Mugabe! Who will deliver him from this course of political death?
Mugabe Loses Control Of Regional Defence Body
UN Integrated Regional Information Network(Nairobi)
March 16, 2001
Posted
to the web March 16, 2001
Southern African leaders have announced measures to rein in a controversial regional defence body chaired by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who had battled to keep it under his control.
The 'Namibian' reported on Monday that a communique released on Friday at the end of a one-day summit in the Namibian capital said the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) defence arm would from now on have to report to the bloc's chairperson.
"The organ will now be integrated into the SADC structures. The chairperson shall be on a rotational basis for a period of one year," the communique said.
Mugabe caused unease among SADC states when he rallied fellow members Angola and Namibia to intervene in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to support the Kinshasa government against Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebels.
Johannesburg, 16 March 16H30 GMT
EU Parliament Condemns Mugabe
UN Integrated Regional Information Network(Nairobi)
March 16, 2001
Posted
to the web March 16, 2001
The European parliament on Thursday condemned Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for carrying out what it described as a sustained campaign of murder, violence and intimidation against his opponents, agencies reported.
In a resolution, the parliament in Strasbourg urged the suspension of all development assistance to the Zimbabwean government until democracy and the rule of law had been fully restored.
The parliament said it regretted the recent decision by a European commissioner and the French and Belgian governments to hold talks with Mugabe. It went on to ask the European Commission to identify assets held overseas by Mugabe and his supporters.