Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI &
VALENTINE MAPONGA
THE family of an opposition activist, shot
dead by police in Harare
last week, was yesterday "in the dark and confused"
after his body was
reportedly seized from a Harare funeral parlour by the
Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
The operation,
executed at Doves funeral parlour before 9AM yesterday
was intended to stop
Gift Tandare's funeral from being held in Harare
tomorrow, sources
said.
The Standard was informed the government feared the MDC
activist's
burial could be turned into a platform for an anti-Mugabe tirade
by
opposition supporters, already angered after the brutal attack on MDC
President Morgan Tsvangirai by police last week.
The police are
said to have feared massive, rowdy protests right after
the Granville
Cemetery burial, police sources said.
Up until late yesterday,
Tandare's family and more than 20 mourners
gathered at Number 5720 in Glen
View 3 could not explain the fate of their
relative's body.
Distressed family members, who had planned to bury Tandare at
Granville
Cemetery tomorrow, said yesterday their burial plans were
disrupted by the
CIO and they were at a loss what to do next.
A distraught Tandare's
sister, Veronica, said she was surprised to see
her sister, Jennifer, who
stays in Mt Darwin, arriving at 3AM accompanied by
three men said to be from
the CIO. She said the security men were looking
only for close relatives of
the deceased.
"We don't even know what is happening," said a
dejected Veronica.
"They came early in the morning, intending to get all the
relatives but no
one got into their vehicle. We are just waiting to hear
from them."
Gift's brother, Nicholas, said they refused to
entertain the CIO
agents who wanted to take them for an unplanned
burial.
"I am clueless myself," said Nicholas. "We had arranged
that he would
be buried on Monday here in Harare. Initially we had wanted to
bury him at
the rural areas in Mt Darwin but Chief Kandeya demanded four
cattle for him
to be buried there. He said this was punishment for
supporting the MDC." Mt
Darwin is a Zanu PF stronghold.
Nicholas said: "We are getting reports that he has already been buried
here
in Harare."
The Standard was reliably informed the security team
went to a funeral
parlour where they seized the body. Among them was one man
identified at
Doves as Choto. It could not be established by the time of
going to press if
he was indeed a CIO agent.
Sources at the
funeral parlour said yesterday the CIO men arrived
early in the morning and
demanded the body. The Doves officials said under
normal circumstances, the
funeral home only dealt with the people who bring
in the body, not any other
people who turn up later to claim it.
Sources said Tandare's burial
order was hastily altered after the CIO
officers said that they had orders
from the President's Office to remove the
body "as quickly as possible".
Instead of the body being buried in Harare,
it would be taken to Mashanga
Village in Mt Darwin, they said.
A man the CIO men said was
Tandare's father signed the burial order.
Curiously "Tandare's father" was
not at the funeral wake when the security
men arrived with Jennifer, said by
relatives to be a Zanu PF Councillor in
Mt Darwin.
By 9AM
Tandare's body, which had not been dressed, had left the Doves
premises.
It was carried in a Doves vehicle registration number
AAW 5749 and was
accompanied by another vehicle, registration number 751
937X.
Alec Muchadehama, a lawyer for the MDC yesterday confirmed
the burial
order had been altered.
Muchadehama said he arrived
shortly after 9AM only to be told that
Tandare's father had arrived with
unknown people and had collected the body.
Nelson Chamisa, the
party's spokesperson said yesterday: "We were
planning the funeral for
Monday. Now we are getting reports that some people
who claimed to be from
the CIO got to Doves this morning and took away
Tandare's body at gun-point
and right now we don't know where that body is."
The MDC paid $6 million for
the casket.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa could not be
reached for
comment yesterday.
Zim Standard
By Vusumuzi
Sifile
BOTSWANA Parliamentarians last week called for the
temporary closure
of their embassy in Harare "pending stabilisation of the
economic and
political arena" in Zimbabwe.
They said the
closure of the embassy would send "a strong signal" that
Botswana did not
condone the worsening situation in Zimbabwe, according to
the official
government mouthpiece, Botswana Press Agency (Bopa).
The MPs said
Zimbabwe had become a liability to the Southern African
Development
Community (SADC) region and had since "epitomised an example of
bad
governance" and disregard for the rule of law.
This followed the
violence that erupted at a Save Zimbabwe Campaign
prayer meeting in
Highfield, Harare, last Sunday, resulting in the arrest
and brutal assault
of 50 members of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
including president of the anti-Senate faction, Morgan
Tsvangirai
The police shot dead National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA)
chairperson for Glen View, Gift Tandare, and left leaders of
the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign seriously injured.
Despite being
directly affected by the political crisis and economic
meltdown in Zimbawe,
Botswana, like South Africa, has been taking a "quiet
diplomacy" approach in
dealing with her eastern neighbour.
The two countries have the
largest numbers of Zimbabwean economic
refugees in the region. Botswana
recently repatriated hundreds of Bakalaka
ba ka Nswazwi from
Zimbabwe.
During a presentation on Botswana's Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and
International Co-operation budget proposals for the 2007/08
financial year,
the debate on Zimbabwe "cropped up and gained momentum",
chewing up more
than the two hours of the time allotted for debate on the
budget.
The MP for Gaborone Central, Dumelang Saleshando, said
Zimbabwe had
"become a liability to the SADC region and had since epitomised
an example
of bad governance and disregard for the rule of
law".
He proposed the temporary closure of their mission in Harare,
"as a
means to send a strong signal that we do not condone the
situation".
"It is totally a waste of public funds to be spending
around P7
million (seven million Pula) during the next financial year on our
mission
in Zimbabwe rather than close it temporarily," said
Saleshando.
He also noted that although the "quiet diplomacy"
employed by Botswana
might have its merits, it was currently failing to
contain the volatile
situation in Zimbabwe.
"I just see it as a
See No Evil, Hear No Evil approach that would
never yield any better
results," he said.
Saleshando said he was "disappointed that now it
appears we are
applying double standards because it is now a Black
government oppressing
Black people".
He said the ruling
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) should make a
statement at party level
denouncing the "dictatorial, unjust and
dysfunctional" behaviour of its
Zimbabwean counterpart, Zanu PF.
"If the BDP does not do such then
it amounts to endorsing the way Zanu
PF oppresses the poor citizens of
Zimbabwe because of the friendship that
the two have," he said.
Shoshong MP Duke Lefhoko said the silent diplomacy approach was
dysfunctional.
"How can we expect things to normalise when we
do not talk to each
other regarding pertinent issues? We should stop fooling
ourselves that when
we talk behind closed doors something better will come
up," Lefhoko said
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
ARTHUR
Mutambara, the leader of a faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC), Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland of the other
faction were arrested
yesterday afternoon shortly before they could board a
plane to South
Africa.
Mutambara confirmed in a telephone interview yesterday that
he had
been arrested at the Harare International Airport.
He is
being charged with inciting public violence.
Kwinjeh and Holland,
who require further medical treatment are under
police guard at the Avenues
Clinic. Kwinjeh faced the more challenging
predicament because the
government has refused to issue her with an
Emergency Travel
Document.
The arrests came shortly after Mugabe threatened to deal
with MDC
activists calling for protests against his leadership.
They also came after the Ministry of Homes Affairs had withdrawn two
of the
prohibition orders banning rallies and political gatherings in
Harare.
Meanwhile, the Save Zimbabwe Campaign leaders said they
would not
abandon their fight for a new and democratic Zimbabwe after being
beaten up
by the police last week.
"We wish to make it clear to
the people of Zimbabwe that commitment
(to) and struggle for a democratic
Zimbabwe is unwavering regardless of the
torture that we have continued to
experience at the hands of the police, the
CIO, the Zanu PF militia and the
army," said the leaders in a joint
statement.
Zim Standard
By Caiphas
Chimhete
THE government was panicking as it emerged last week
that the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) had completely run out of maize,
sources at the
loss-making parastatal said.
There were fears
that the shortage of maize could soon precipitate a
serious shortage of
maize meal in the country, which is facing a poor
agricultural
season.
The sources said over the past few weeks, government
officials were
making frantic efforts to import maize to avert an imminent
food crisis.
"We have only managed to get 200 000 tonnes from
Zambia which is
coming by road but it won't make any impact," said the GMB
official. "On
average we are getting three or five trucks a
day."
He said the problem was that as soon as it arrived, the maize
was all
loaded up by millers who would have queued for it. "So we remain
with a huge
maize deficit."
When The Standard news crew arrived
at the Aspindale depot several
trucks belonging to millers were in a long
queue for the still-to-arrive
maize.
Some millers said they
spent more than a week waiting for their
allocations.
Officials
at GMB Aspindale depot, one of the biggest in the country,
said they shut
down the milling plant for four days a fortnight ago because
there was a
shortage of maize.
"The shutdown sent panic waves among government
officials. They now
appreciate the precarious situation in which we are,"
said the GMB official.
He said although they expected maize to
start trickling into the silos
by the end of March and the beginning of
April, the inflows would not make a
big impact on the maize
situation.
They said most farmers were reluctant to sell their
produce to the GMB
because its prices were lower than that of competitors,
such as Agrifoods.
Already, the maize crisis has started to be felt
in some dry parts of
Manicaland, Masvingo, the Midlands and Matabeleland
North and South, where
villagers are facing shortages of maize
meal.
In Bulawayo city, a 10kg pack now costs about $25 000,
compared with
$12 000 in Harare.
Last week, the Minister of
Finance, Samuel Mumbengegwi, said the
government was doing everything
possible to import maize to avoid mass
starvation.
"We are
running around, looking for food and food is coming,"
Mumbengegwi told a
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and
Economic
Development.
But contrary to Mumbengegwi's frank admission, the GMB
public
relations manager, Muriel Zemura, denied that there was a maize
shortage.
The GMB is the sole marketer of maize in the
country.
"The country has enough maize stocks to feed everyone,"
said Zemura.
"The milling plant at Aspindale never ran out of maize and the
shutting down
of the plant can be due to a number of reasons, such as plant
equipment
repair. The GMB would like to take this opportunity to reassure
the nation
that there is enough maize to feed them and everything is being
done to
ensure that."
Zemura said about 200 000 tonnes of maize
had been imported from
Zambia and the balance was still coming in from other
sources as arranged
through signed contracts.
She said maize
from Zambia had been coming in through rail and road.
"About 10 000
tonnes have been transported by rail to Bulawayo and
another consignment
from Maputo to Masvingo by rail should carry about 9
281mt of white maize. A
further 30 000 tonnes should be received in the
northern parts of the
country," Zemura said.
The GMB said crop assessments are currently
in progress to determine
grain availability.
But the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has
already written off
Zimbabwe's grain harvest for 2007.
"However, in Zimbabwe,
continuous shortages and/or high prices of key
inputs such as fertilizer,
fuel, draught animal power and spare parts are
expected to result in
relatively low yields, as in previous years," said
FAO.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA)'s
unpopularity has
spread to the rural areas, with fresh attacks being
launched by staff at
Parirewa High School in Domboshava.
A
government school, Parirewa is located 37km out of Harare and staff
at the
school say they are living in a "quagmire" due to poor water
supply.
"We have a well-installed water system here but we have
been without
piped water since January," said Francis Mazinyane, the
headmaster, last
Thursday. "We informed ZINWA about the problem but they
have done nothing so
far."
He was speaking at a ceremony during
which the British Embassy donated
furniture and textbooks valued at $100
million towards the school's library
project.
Mazinyane said
teachers at his school were now fetching water from
unsafe wells and that
both pupils and staff members have since resorted to
using Blair toilets due
to Zinwa's fault.
"The sanitary issue is especially worrying as it
spells a health
hazard," he said. "We risk being affected by cholera among
other diseases."
The teachers expressed concern over the water
problem, saying they
feared for their lives.
"We have been
using unprotected water since the beginning of the term
and we fear for our
lives and that of our families.
"My nine-month-old baby was
recently ill with dysentery and I do not
know what will happen next," said
one teacher who preferred anonymity.
The only borehole serving the
community is not functioning.
The school reportedly closed
temporarily for two days in January in a
bid to press ZINWA to take action
but the troubled water authority is said
to have failed to deliver "due to
lack of funds".
"The school is in a deep crisis and the problem is
that some of the
villagers are not supportive," said one villager. "For
example, there was a
time when the teachers resorted to fetching water from
a nearby well, only
to have the owner mess up at the vicinity in order to
discourage them."
Mazinyane called on well-wishers to rescue his
school which he said
was facing a host of other problems.
"We
cannot rely on ZINWA any more, hence our plea to well-wishers out
there. It
is encouraging that the School Development Committee (SDC) has
started
digging wells for the school."
Mazinyane appealed for help towards
the development of the school's
infrastructure.
"We only have
20 classrooms against 28 classes and during the rainy
season, this disparity
forces us to combine classes, thus disturbing
progress. We are contemplating
scaling down our classes to solve this
problem.
"Accommodation
is yet another problem as we only have 20 houses,
against a huge number of
70 people (staff together with family members) who
require school
accommodation," he said.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
HARD-PRESSED Zimbabweans have reacted angrily to
President Robert
Mugabe's announcement that he will stand in next year's
presidential
election.
They say his continued rule would worsen
the economic and political
crisis in the country.
Mugabe, 83
years last month, has said he would stand again in 2008 if
his party asks
him to.
Mugabe made public his intention after he failed to prolong
his stay
in power under the pretext of "harmonising" the presidential and
parliamentary elections. That strategy failed to garner unanimous support in
Zanu PF.
Ordinary Zimbabweans last week told The Standard in a
snap survey
Mugabe must concede he has failed and pass on the baton to more
mentally
agile people, who can forge new ideas to save the country from
total
collapse.
Most said they could not imagine how they would
survive if Mugabe was
given another term of office.
Chris Dube
of Glen Norah in Harare said Mugabe no longer had Zimbabwe's
interests at
heart, though he fought for its independence.
"If he had the
country's interests at heart, he would just leave and
let someone else take
over. Can't he see people are living miserable lives
because of his actions?
Mugabe should be gentleman enough (and retire)," he
said.
With
inflation almost at 2 000%, the majority of Zimbabweans are
living difficult
lives.
Dube said Mugabe's most recent reckless "go hang" statement
to the
international community showed clearly that he did not care about the
state
of the country, as long as "he and his family get all what they
want".
Mugabe was responding to criticism from Western countries
angered by
the severe torture and beating of opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) and civic activists by Mugabe's security agents
after last Sunday's
aborted Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer
meeting.
Though a staunch Zanu PF supporter, 36-year-old Amos
Mugoni of
Mufakose said he was equally devastated to hear that Mugabe wanted
another
term of office. Mugoni said he could not entrust the future of his
children
"to such an old man".
Mugoni, an unemployed father of
three, said he wanted another person
from the ruling party to take
over.
"I appreciate what he has done for this country but the man
is now too
old," said Mugoni. "We have a lot of educated, young Turks in the
party who
can replace him."
A man identifying himself only as
Dan, for fear of victimisation, said
with the current poverty among
Zimbabweans, Mugabe would be "shocked to
death" when the results of the 2008
election are announced.
He said no amount of intimidation, beating
or "politicisation of food"
by Zanu PF would force hungry people to vote for
Mugabe again.
At Mbare Musika where he sells vegetables, Dan said:
"Even in Uzumba,
where I come from, people have said: Enough is enough. The
current drought
we are experiencing this year is because the spirits are
angry with him over
the way he is persecuting his own people."
University of Zimbabwe political commentator Heneri Dzinotyiwei said
Mugabe
was very popular in the 1980s but has since "lost the plot." He said
it
would be very selfish for Mugabe to stand for the presidency again.
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE
MAPONGA
THE trial of Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) boss
Tshinga Dube's son
Mthulisi, recently arrested for illegal possession of
diamonds and gold
worth an estimated $50 million, has been set down for next
month.
Mthulisi (24) was arrested two weeks ago at his father's
home at 20
Metcalf Road, Greendale, Harare, in a raid by the police, acting
on a
tip-off.
Dube appeared briefly in court on Wednesday for a
routine remand and
was remanded on $2 million bail to 12 April. He is facing
one charge of
contravening sections of the Precious Stones Trade Act after
he was found in
possession 1 164 pieces of diamonds and another for
contravening sections of
the Gold Trade Act chapter 21:03 for illegally
possessing 7.82 grams of
gold.
It is the State's case that on
23 February this year, police officers
working on a tip-off raided Dube's
home in Greendale and searched the house.
They discovered diamonds
and gold in his brown suitcase. Further
searches in another room resulted in
the recovery of one diamond scale and
an electric scale, used to weigh
diamonds and gold.
Reads part of the State's case: "1 164 pieces of
diamond were taken to
the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ)
for verification,
while the 7, 82 grams of suspected gold were taken to the
Department of
Metallurgy for assaying."
According to the court
papers, the State intends to produce two
affidavits as exhibits in the
court.
The trial is likely to open a can of worms in the illegal
mineral
activities in the country by senior government
officials.
A United Nations report, on the exploitation of mineral
resources in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, produced five years ago,
named Tshinga
Dube among senior government officials and army officers
accused of
exploiting minerals in the DRC.
Since the police
launched Operation Chikorokoza Chapera, a clampdown
on illegal mining
activities late last year, more than 31 000 people have
been arrested so
far. In one of these high-profile cases, the principal
director in the
Ministry without Portfolio, William Nhara, is in remand
custody after his
arrest early this month at the Harare International
Airport for allegedly
trying to smuggle diamonds out of the country.
Zim Standard
BY KHOLWANI
NYATHI
BULAWAYO - When his father offered him space to build a
two-roomed
house in his yard in Njube high-density suburb several years ago,
Mondli
Ndebele (35) celebrated as he could not raise money to buy his own
residential stand. But the world collapsed around him when the government
destroyed all "illegal" structures under the internationally-condemned
State-sponsored clean-up operation.
His treasured
"Isitangwena", as the illegal structures are popularly
known in Bulawayo,
was not spared.
Ndebele, together with his small family and
hundreds of other homeless
families, were bundled into army trucks and
dumped at a farm about 30km
outside Bulawayo.
They are victims
of the government's Operation Murambatsvina that left
nearly a million
people homeless and affected more than two million people
in May
2005.
Ndebele was eventually thrown a lifeline by his brother in
South
Africa, who offered him temporary sanctuary at a house he was building
in
the sprawling high-density suburb of Cowdray Park.
But
hardly a year after moving into the new house with his wife and
two
children, Ndebele finds himself back where he started - facing another
eviction.
This comes barely three months before the country
commemorates the
second anniversary of the universally condemned clean-up
operation.
He is among 239 residents from the new high-density
suburbs of
Emganwini, Cowdray Park and Pumula South, who have been issued
with eviction
notices by the Bulawayo City Council for staying in incomplete
houses.
"Last week, the council wrote to us saying we must move out
of these
houses until they are complete. We have nowhere else to go," said a
dejected
Ndebele.
"There are no toilets because my brother has
not been able to pay the
contractor to complete the sewer system, but at
least we had some shelter."
The houses have no basic ablution
facilities but they offered better
refuge to victims of Operation
Murambatsvina, whose welfare has been
worsened by the deepening economic
crisis, which has seen the prices of
basic commodities skyrocketing beyond
the reach of ordinary Zimbabweans.
According to a recent report of
the council's town lands and planning
committee, there are hundreds of
residents staying in houses without
sanitary facilities.
The
council fears an outbreak of diseases as some of the houses have
neither
toilets nor running water.
These include more than 700 allocated
houses under the government's
Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle in Cowdray
Park. People there use the bush
toilet system.
"The initial
letters gave the occupants (239) 21 days to vacate the
houses. Follow-up
letters had been written giving the occupants 14 days to
vacate," read the
council report. "The letters have, however, been ignored
by the
concerned."
Bulawayo executive mayor Japhet Ndabeni Ncube said
although the
council sympathized with the affected residents, allowing them
to stay in
the incomplete houses was a health risk to the city's
population.
"In fact, the ministry (of Health and Child Welfare)
will descend on
us," he said. "It is degrading for our residents to stay in
such
conditions."
A fortnight ago, the residents were given a
temporary reprieve after
council resolved to organise a meeting with private
developers and the
affected residents before carrying out the
evictions.
Cowdray Park Councillor Stars Mathe said the suburb
alone had 600
people staying in houses without toilets.
She
urged council not to carry out the eviction, saying Cowdray
residents, like
other people around the country were also feeling the pinch
of the current
economic meltdown.
"There are a lot of other people who were
allocated stands by council
and others bought houses from private developers
but also cannot complete
them because of the economic environment," she
said.
Two weeks ago, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works
and
Urban Development, Ignatious Chombo appealed to local authorities to
spare
Garikai beneficiaries from eviction, saying the government would soon
release money to complete sewer and water reticulation.
Bulawayo City has more than 70 000 people on its housing waiting list
and
housing delivery has been slowed down by the seven-year economic
recession.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
TESTIMONIES of Zimbabwean women from all over the country
featured in
a recent report by the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and
Network (ZWRCN)
reveal the disturbing reality that the lack of sexual rights
is a major
factor resulting in them being more vulnerable to HIV infection
than men.
The report, "Sexual Rights and Access to Aids Treatment
Among HIV
Positive Women in Zimbabwe: A Situation Analysis", shows the
numerous
challenges that women, especially those from rural areas, face in
accessing
HIV and Aids treatment,disclosing their status and living
positively with
the disease, among other
issues.
The
research was conducted specifically in Harare, Chitungwiza,
Epworth,Gwanda
rural, Esigodini, Zvishavane urban and rural, Rusape urban
and peri-urban
and Makoni rural. The majority of women involved were widows
(52%) and 25%
were married. About 14% of the women were divorcees and about
6% were
single. It is in the report's key finding that men use power
dynamics to
refuse condom use, insisting they are for use with prostitutes
only. This
makes most women feel guilty and lose the 'safe sex' battle.
Of all
the women interviewed, 62,8% admitted they did not know the
status of their
sexual partners. The study revealed that most of the women
were not
practising safe sex even in situations where their husbands knew
they were
HIV positive.
One married woman from Gwanda narrated her ordeal:
"My husband refused
to use condoms. It got to the stage where it went out of
hand: on top of the
beatings I received for initiating condom use, my
husband informed church
mates. The prophet at the church pronounced me mad
and I was bound in
chains."
Another woman from Rusape,
Tsanzaguru explained: "Even if the wife
notices signs and symptoms of the
husband being positive and advocates for
condom use, men still refuse to use
condoms on women they have married. Men
claim they only use condoms on
girlfriends."
The report noted that in the few instances that women
reported success
in condom use it was "attributed to persistence,
assertiveness, tact,
creativity and making excuses to avoid sex without a
condom".
One married woman from Zvishavane testified: "The
challenge I met
around the use of safer sex practices within my house is
that my husband
feels itchy during sexual intercourse and that is why he
refuses to use a
condom. I had to be strong for him to accept condom use and
also our health
was deteriorating."
On the same issue another
married woman from Makoni East said: "I
started insisting on condom use well
before I knew my HIV status. Each time
I would have sex with my husband, I
got infected with STIs. I had pain on my
side. When I tried to use condoms,
I realised I did not get infected with
STIs and the severe pain on my side
would vanish. I then insisted we use
condoms with my husband. It was not an
easy decision. We had our fights and
terrible experiences but I stood
firm."
Other challenges HIV positive women face is that of
disclosing their
status to their families and their spouses or partners.
According to the
study, most women knew about their HIV status before that
of their husbands
or partners.
There were reports of
accusations of witchcraft and bringing HIV into
the home, physical violence
and strained relationships after disclosure of
status.
One
widow from Sangano clinic in Rusape expressed her fears: "I tested
positive
and my husband is dead. I have three grown up children and am
finding it
difficult to reveal my status to them. My first child is married,
the second
is at University doing a degree in Medicine and the last one is
in Form 4.
"Ko mukwasha anozoti chii? Anozofungei pamusoro pangu?" (What
will my
son-in-law think? What will he think of me?)
On treatment, the
report shows that though most women knew about HIV
and Aids treatment
options they could not access treatment because of high
consultations fees
and unavailability of the drugs.
Only a few women in the rural
areas had access to Anti-Retroviral
drugs from provincial and central
hospitals.
"While Cotrimoxazole is free in the public health
institutions, many
women could not afford to pay a consultation fee as per
cost recovery
regulations.
Poverty is one of the main reasons
why most women living with HIV and
AIDS were not accessing
treatment.
"The study established that 49.9% inurban areas, 50.7%
in peri-urban
areas and 57.4% in rural areas were onherbal treatment, which
was preferred
largely for its cost-effectiveness."
The ZWRCN
instituted the research as part of its process to
preposition itself to
mobilize support for an environment in which women are
able to access
treatment and enjoy their sexual and reproductive health and
sexual
rights.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
Non-medical staff at Parirenyatwa hospital are reportedly
on strike
following a salary dispute with the Health Services Board, thus
crippling
the administrative operations at the referral centre.
Standardhealth understands the non-medical staff are bitter because
the
board, now responsible for their salaries, awarded nurses and doctors
salary
increments recently, allegedly snubbing them.
A clerk showed
Standardhealth his net salary of $91 000, saying it was
unfair for the board
to sideline non-medical staff because "our work is
equally
important".
He vowed not to go back to work until the salary issue
was resolved.
The clerk said: "We are very unhappy about this. We
all need each
other (non-medical and medical staff) to ensure the smooth
running of this
hospital but the Health Services Board doesn't seem to
realise this."
More than 500 supporting staff were last week camped
outside the
building, demanding to be immediately returned to the Public
Services
payroll, which they claimed "does not discriminate".
The health services board took over the payment of medical and
supporting
staff at government hospitals in 2005 in an effort to improve
conditions of
service for Zimbabwe's frustrated health workers.
Due to poor
working conditions and poor remuneration, the health
sector has been hit by
a massive brain drain as many nurses and doctors have
sought greener
pastures in the private sector or outside the country.
The striking
non-medical staff, who include kitchen staff,
administration clerks,
accountants, mortuary attendants and cleaners, told
Standardhealth they were
tired of talking percentages when they went to the
negotiating table and all
they wanted were salaries which enabled them to
"live like people, not
animals".
One worker, speaking on condition they were not named
said: "These
people want to turn us into scavengers. We need salaries that
can buy us
decent food, pay school fees for our children, come to work every
day and
afford rent in decent neighbourhoods.
"At this rate we
are going to end up unable to afford the rentals and
become squatters. And,
of course, you know the conditions that squatters
live in." The workers said
they wanted their employer to take into
consideration the hyperinflationary
environment in the country when
reviewing salaries.
They
insisted they wished to be returned to the Public Service
Commission
payroll.
The striking workers said they were being told
"continuously" there
were meetings being held "in high offices" to resolve
their grievances. They
said they were being urged to return to work in the
meantime.
The director of operations at Parirenyatwa hospital,
identifying
himself only as Manyawi, said he was standing in for the group's
chief
executive officer, Thomas Zigora, who is reportedly out of the
country.
Zim Standard
By Tapiwa
Zivira
FOR us, the residents of Highfield suburb, last Sunday was
an
extraordinary day: the place turned into a battleground, pitting the
heavily
armed police against the people - reminding older residents of
set-tos
between the two during colonialism.I woke up, hoping to attend the
prayer
meeting organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign and other civic
organisations.
The meeting was to be held at the Zimbabwe
Grounds, a 15-minute walk
from my home.
At around 10am, I was
on my way.
At almost every street corner, there were clusters of
policemen in
blue riot gear, armed with batons, teargas canisters and
shields, looking
ready to pounce on the multitudes of passers-by going about
their business.
I noticed that in each group of about seven
officers, one was armed
with a menacing AK47 assault rifle and that left me
wondering if there soon
would be war.Machipisa shopping centre looked
deserted, in the absence of
the usual vendors, touts and weekend
guzzlers.
All the shops and beer halls had closed down, probably on
police
orders.The Zimbabwe Grounds had been sealed off and all the entrances
were
manned by groups of alert police officers taking pleasure in
brandishing
their weapons.
After discovering that there was
very little chance of the prayer
meeting taking place at all, I started on
my way back home and this is when
I met the worst horror of my
life.
As I crossed Mangwende Drive, near Canaan bus terminus, a
water cannon
police truck pulled up at the terminus, and before I knew it,
the vehicle
had started training high pressure water all over and I could
see people
dashing for safety into nearby houses.The truck went on spraying
the water
all over the roadsides and anxious residents walked out of their
homes just
after it had passed.
But that was not to be the end,
as minutes later, the commotion was
renewed after policemen in a pick-up
passed by, firing teargas canisters
randomly and I might have choked to
death, but for a caring woman who called
me out to wash my face at her
house.
I later learned that this was happening all over Highfield
and Glen
Norah.By now the whole suburb seemed engulfed in choking tear-smoke
as the
police continued to unleash their weaponry against defenceless people
who
had wanted to enjoy their Sunday afternoon in the comfort of their
homes.
As I proceeded home, I met another group of more than a
dozen
policemen approaching the Mangwende Drive intersection near Mhizha
primary
school. They seemed to have sparked a row with residents who had
probably
been incensed by the attacks on their homes and in a defensive
stance
several people were throwing stones at the policemen.
I
watched the whole scene from behind the safety of a ZESA transformer
box.The
policemen were losing the battle as the teargas and sjamboks had not
much
effect on the youths determined to defend mothers and their children
from
the police attacks.The situation rapidly deteriorated into open
confrontation, with the residents driving back the group of policemen under
a hail of stones, as the teargas drifted back in the policemen's
direction.
I caught sight of one red-eyed policeman raising his
rifle and aiming
and there was a loud bang and the residents, mainly youths,
scattered all
over for safety. I did not understand what had happened until
I saw one
hapless young man prostrate by the roadside, blood gushing out of
his chest.
That is when I realised the hard fact that the police had really
taken the
extreme measure of ruthlessly shooting without firing a warning
shot.
In a few minutes, the street was empty, except for the
policemen who
had surrounded the victim of the shooting. From my hiding
place, I could
clearly see the cruelty on their faces.What followed was a
rather eerie
silence as the empty stone-strewn streets resembled an
abandoned
battlefield.
Meanwhile, at Gazaland shopping centre,
running battles continued as
police were beating up anyone in sight and
forcing shops and bars to close.
I threw caution to the winds and
proceeded to the shopping centre, but
near Mataure night club, I was greeted
by the grisly sight of policemen
stamping on the heads of several men who
were lying on the ground, wailing
at the top of their voices, in pain. Poor
souls! I was about to count the
men when one of the officers looked in my
direction.
My instincts told me to rush home before I came to any
harm. At home,
I learned on the State radio that the man I saw being shot
down had died.
It was Gift Tandare, the MDC activist. My heart sank
and I cried until
I could shed no more tears.
Zim Standard
By Godfrey
Mutimba
MASVINGO - Twenty Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
activists, arrested
last week after defying a police ban on demonstrations,
allege they were
severely tortured while in custody, a Masvingo magistrate
heard last week.
Five of them were seriously injured but were
denied access to medical
treatment.
The women were arrested
while protesting against the intended
take-over of water and sewer
reticulation in Masvingo city by the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority
(Zinwa).
They appeared before Masvingo magistrate, Learnmore
Mupandasekwa, who
remanded them out of custody.
The magistrate
ordered that they be taken to hospital for medical
examination and that the
police investigate the assaults.
Their lawyer, Dumisani Hwacha, had
demanded that action be taken
against the police officers who tortured the
women.
"They were assaulted and some of them seriously," said
Hwacha. "We
demanded to the court that the perpetrators be brought to book.
One of my
clients was allegedly struck by a bunch of keys and she sustained
a deep cut
on her head."
Prosecutor Mirirai Shumba told the
court that the 20 activists,
together with other women, demonstrated in the
city in defiance of a ban on
all demonstrations, political rallies and
meetings.
They were remanded to 4 April.
The women
said that they were subjected to severe beatings by the
police officers from
the Law and Order section, who accused them of being
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change activists.
The women, who were later joined by
angry men, marched towards Zinwa
offices but they were ruthlessly dispersed
by armed anti-riot police.
They were kept in detention for four
days, where the police allegedly
took turns to assault them with batons,
clenched fists and booted feet, said
the women.
One of the
victims, Winnie Sedeya, who had a visibly swollen face and
feet, said the
torture was so severe she thought she would die.
"We were severely
brutalised by several police officers during our
stay in the police cells. I
sustained serious injuries but we were denied
access to medical attention,"
she said.
Jane Masuno, who sustained a deep cut in the head, said
they were
ordered to sing liberation war songs.
"After we were
beaten thoroughly, we were forced to sing liberation
war songs and also
forced to chant Zanu PF slogans. They threatened to shoot
us if we
demonstrate again," she said.
Woza was founded by Jennie Williams,
who last week received the
International Women of Courage Award in
Washington, DC, in the United
States.
The award was in
recognition of her role in the fight against the
continued human rights
abuses by the government of President Robert Mugabe.
Williams was
presented with the award by the US secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice at
the White House.
Established in 2003, WOZA, a civil society
organisation now has a
membership of more than 45 000.
Zim Standard
By Our Staff
BULAWAYO - Late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo's son last week threw his
weight
behind the newly-formed Patriotic Union of Matabeleland (PUMA), which
is
pressing for compensation for victims of Gukurahundi in which more than
20
000 people in Matabeleland and the Midlands were killed in the
1980s.
In a speech read on his behalf at a public meeting organised
by a
group called Umhlahlo Wesizwe at a hotel, Sibangilizwe Nkomo said his
organisation would lend support to any organisation that sought to bring
those involved in the Gukurahundi massacres to justice.
"We
want to recognise our colleagues in PUMA who are also holding a
rally in the
city and we fully support their programmes," he said.
PUMA is among
other groupings advocating for the creation of an
Ndebele state within
Zimbabwe and compensation for Gukurahundi victims.
Umhlahlo
Wesizwe, of which Sibangilizwe Nkomo is also a member, has
what it calls 17
commandments that advocate for the revival of the old PF
Zapu and the arrest
of the architects of the 1980s military campaign in the
region.
Since Joshua Nkomo's death, Zanu PF has tried to use his name to shore
up
its waning support in Matabeleland through the staging of the Umdala
Wethu
Galas.
But there are growing calls for the government to compensate
Gukurahundi victims.
The military campaign was viewed as a
crackdown on PF Zapu supporters.
In his autobiography released in 1983,
Joshua Nkomo accuses President Robert
Mugabe of unleashing the North
Korean-trained 5 Brigade on defenceless
citizens.
Meanwhile,
PUMA was allowed to hold a rally at Stanley Square despite
a police ban on
political meetings in major cities, including Bulawayo.
The United
People's Party (UPP) was denied permission to hold a rally
over a week ago
and only did so after defying a police ban. The anti-Senate
faction of the
MDC was also blocked from holding its rally in Bulawayo.
Civic
groups were quick to question, the government's apparent double
standards.
The Zimbabwe Liberators' Peace Initiative (ZLPI) said this would
raise
suspicions that PUMA was an extension of the ruling party.
But PUMA
officials denied the charge, saying their rally was
sanctioned by the police
since the party is "not violent" and "seeks to work
with
everyone".
Max Mnkandla, the president of the ZLPI dismissed PUMA
"as a party
with Zanu PF links".
But PUMA dismissed the
allegations and at the rally addressed by its
President Leonard Nkala,
vice-president Alexious Sibanda and
secretary-general Pinos Dube, called for
a breakaway Matabeleland state,
saying the region had faced years of
neglect.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
GLOBAL Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL), given management control of
Ziscosteel
on a silver platter last year before quitting in a huff, nearly
fleeced the
troubled steelmaker through underhand dealings, a report by a
portfolio
committee reveals.
GSHL was given management control of Ziscosteel
in March last year.
The arrangement provided for a management contract
involving investments by
GSHL of US$400 million in the parastatal in
exchange for a 20-year
concession to manage the parastatal under a Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe-sanctioned Rehabilitate, Operate and Transfer
deal.
GSHL left Ziscosteel suddenly, ostensibly on the grounds that
the
parastatal was not receiving adequate supplies of coal from Hwange
Colliery.
Zisco requires 60 000 tonnes of coal a month.
In an
analysis of the collapsed marriage that appeared to have been
made in
heaven, the parliamentary portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs,
Industry
and International Trade unearthed shady dealings by the Indian
firm,
apparently designed to fleece Ziscosteel of millions of dollars.
The committee said GSHL held a meeting with Knight Frank, property
managers
of Pearl House, to increase rentals and backdate such increases.
Ziscosteel's Harare offices are located in Pearl House.
"If the
increase had been entertained by the finance division,
Ziscosteel would have
been prejudiced of $433 373," the committee said.
It said that GSHL
had informed a South African supplier of graphite
electrodes, Ucar to
increase the price to R31 450.50 from R26 560 a tonne.
The
committee said; "This would have also resulted in a prejudice to
Ziscosteel
of R58 686 for 12 tonnes on order."
The committee noted that due
diligence carried out did not highlight
certain pertinent information on the
investor's financial standing and
ownership.
"GSHL is reported
to be facing a lawsuit for improper conduct in
Texas, USA for receiving the
concession to run Nigeria's Ajaoukuta Steel
Company Limited, with
allegations of corruption and bribery cited," the
committee
said.
GSHL was chosen on the basis that its contract with a
Nigerian company
had resulted in output from zero to two million tonnes of
hot metal in two
years; a strong balance sheet with an asset base of US$8
billion, the
holistic nature of investment in upgrading the related support
infrastructure; and the investment capacity to add value to Ziscosteel's
products.
The coming in of GSHL into Ziscosteel led to the
replacement of the
then managing director Gabriel Masanga by Lalit Seghal,
who left the
troubled steelmaker in a huff in August.
The
committee recommended that the government urgently look for an
investment
partner for Ziscosteel and the selection process should follow
laid-down
procedure.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU
SANDU
ZIMBABWE's failure to retain key professionals is costing
the country
US$200 000 per individual, a parliamentary portfolio committee
heard last
week.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)
President Callisto Jokonya
told the committee on Foreign Affairs, Industry
and International Trade on
Tuesday the brain drain resulted from the
government's failure to take
labour issues seriously.
Jokonya
said: "It costs US$200 000 to train a doctor and when those
doctors are
trained we have not put safeguard measures to retain them."
He said
the doctors' exodus was a loss on the country's balance sheet
as it was
taking away a valuable asset to another country's balance sheet.
Jokonya was speaking to the committee on the problems besetting
industries.
He said the 2010 World Cup soccer showcase in South
Africa had
resulted in a number of skilled Zimbabweans trekking across the
Limpopo in
search of greener pastures.
The CZI boss said
Zimbabwe had exported over three million people in
labour but was not
benefiting from the arrangement as there were no
agreements with countries
that imported Zimbabwean labour.
Jokonya said productivity in
industries was at its lowest ebb since
independence and that industries were
operating at 10% capacity, this being
attributed to foreign currency
shortages to import raw materials.
Jokonya said price controls were
retrogressive and discouraged
investors. Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
president Phillip Bvumbe disagreed
with this contention, insisting the
private sector were increasing prices at
will.
"There is
dollarisation of the market by the private sector," he said.
"There is,
underlying in the whole economy, (an element of) profiteering,"
Bvumbe
said.
Jokonya hit back with: "We are in business to make money and
we make
no apologies for that."
In reply to a question from the
committee chairperson, Enock
Porusingazi on industry's mood after the
central bank declined to devalue
the dollar, Jokonya said industry was not
worried about devaluation, but was
looking at the correct
price.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the
Indigenous
Business Women Organisation, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce and
Zimbabwe Indigenous Economic Empowerment Organisation.
Zim Standard
Comment
FOR many in the region and abroad, South Africa
has benefited from the
Zimbabwe crisis by adopting an ambiguous position.
However, its
prevarication could now come to haunt it.
South
Africa has appeared happy to benefit from the flight of skills
from this
country in exchange for its tacit support for the chaos that has
ravaged a
once prosperous nation, full of promise, by failing to denounce
unequivocally the State-sponsored thuggery. When ordinary struggling folk
resort to cross-border activities in order to fend for their families, South
Africa seems content to pile on the woes by tightening up on opportunities
for Zimbabweans to cross into the southern neighbour.
However,
last weekend's unwarranted brutal assault of opposition and
civic society
leaders while in police custody describes a pattern that was
widely
practised by the State when labour movement leaders were arrested
last
September. It was the grossest violation of human rights by a
government
that professes respect for the rule of and respect for the law.
For
the whole of last week images showing the heavy-handedness of the
police
butchering protesters were flighted throughout the world. Viewers
around the
world saw the savagery of the regime in Zimbabwe - South Africa's
major
regional trading partner and northern neighbour.
They will also
observe the rest of the world was more horrified by the
State-sponsored
terror than South Africa, which because of its proximity and
position within
the SADC regional grouping ought to be providing a cue to
the outside
world.
Democrats throughout the world were appalled and shocked by
the
actions of Harare, but equally so by South Africa's ambivalence to
Zimbabwe's
crisis. On the basis of last week's blatant human rights
violations, South
Africa should not be surprised if nations taking part in
the Fifa 2010
Soccer World Cup begin to express reservations about appearing
to lend tacit
approval to Pretoria's condonation of Harare's ruthless and
repressive
brutalities. South Africa could have lost the right to host the
World Cup
last week. For the first time it will wake up to the reality of
how the
Zimbabwe crisis is hurting South Africa's prospects.
It
would be disastrous for South Africa, but it would be a misfortune
entirely
of its own making. For far too long it has pretended that there is
no crisis
in Zimbabwe. But if nations participating in the World Cup recoil
from
sending their teams, South Africa will begin to appreciate the cost of
its
ambivalence to the Zimbabwe crisis. The fall-out would have a major
unparalleled political cost to President Thabo Mbeki's career.
What is evident is that South Africa was concerned about Zimbabwe
harmonising its elections for 2010 and that the meeting between Mbeki and
President Robert Mugabe in Accra, during Ghana's independence golden jubilee
two weeks ago was instrumental in Mugabe's decision that elections take
place next year. That might have only served to satisfy Mbeki's selfish and
immediate concerns.
But the arrests and savage assaults against
the political and civic
society leaders may have helped to narrow the
differences between the
feuding opposition factions, giving impetus to a
united front to mount a
challenge against the regime in Harare.
South Africa would be naïve to believe that it firmly has behind it
world
support to host the global soccer extravaganza in 2010. All that
changed
with the State-sponsored terror against defenceless citizens. It's
still
three years to go before the football showpiece and Pretoria's
handling of
the Zimbabwe crisis could hand it a rude awakening. South Africa
will have
none but itself to blame when the world shows revulsion at
Pretoria's
ambivalence to the chaos and barbarism practised routinely by
Harare.
Zim Standard
Sundayopinion By
Bill Saidi
THERE is no record of President Robert Mugabe singing
praises to
Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican hero who campaigned ceaselessly for
the
indigenous peoples' rights to land.
Long after his death in
1919, the Zapatista movement in Mexico was
formed by his adherents and has
scored remarkable successes in the equitable
distribution of land in that
country.
Emiliano Zapata's legacy lives on, as Hollywood's tribute
to him lives
on in Viva Zapata! starring Marlon Brando and Anthony
Quinn.
If Mugabe's campaign on land had been motivated strictly by
an
altruistic - even if partly nationalist - desire to redress the
imbalances
of colonialism, he too would probably rate a posthumous
tribute.
But his was entirely political, a futile attempt to
outflank a
fledgling opposition party which, some people said at the time,
had God and
the Angels on its side.
Zapata resorted to violence
when the rich landlords resisted.
Mugabe's legacy is now likely to
be drenched in violence to gain
votes - not against landlords, but against
his own people.
Apart from his demagogic statement that his party
had "many degrees in
violence", the events of the past week could eliminate
him from a legacy of
peace.
He might not be pilloried as A Man
of Violence, but many historians
will recall his comment, years ago, when
someone compared him with Adolf
Hitler.
Mugabe retorted to the
barb with "If that is what they think of me, so
be it." Most people, his
implacable enemies included, have never associated
his peculiar moustache
with his admiration of The Fuhrer, but the temptation
is there.
Questions have been asked about his role in the savage beatings of
Morgan
Tsvangirai and others after the aborted prayer meeting in
Highfield.
Even if he did not personally order the "bashing", the
responsibility
is his entirely. Can he justify this primitive form of
politics?
Or had that message been delivered with unmistakable
eloquence and
clarity in his comments after the equally savage beatings,
last year, of the
ZCTU officials?
Incidentally, in 50 years of
covering Africa as a journalist, I have
seen my share of violence, some of
it against me personally and against
people like me - journalists - and
against ordinary people who placed their
trust in a man because he led them
to freedom, only to discover how utterly
selfish such people can become once
intoxicated with the same nectar of
power imbibed by Julius Caesar, Genghis
Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte and the
aforesaid Hitler.
I started
shortly after Ghana became independent, and was still at it
when Kwame
Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966. Meanwhile I had met another
tragic figure of
politics, Richard Milhous Nixon.
My thoughts at Nkrumah's ouster
were mixed: why did he have to turn
himself into a virtual emperor and why
did the people allow him to?
The people of Zambia and Malawi made
the same tragic error: I met both
Kenneth Kaunda and Hastings Kamuzu Banda
at the height of their power:
Kaunda fired me from a job, and Kamuzu kicked
me out of Malawi.
After independence in 1980, I met Sam Nujoma at a
party in Harare and
reminded him we had met in Lusaka. "What were you doing
in Lusaka?" he asked
me. I was flabbergasted and almost asked him the same
question.
The violence against me started in Highfield at the
beginning of the
1960s, where I was investigating a brothel, unearthed by
one of the most
daring journalists on The African Daily News, Moses "UP"
Mwale.
I wanted to do a "big piece" for The African Parade, but was
recognized by The Madame who set her bouncers on me. I was stoned on the
head and ended up at the newly-opened Harare hospital, where they stitched
me up fairly efficiently. But I still carry the scar.
Mwale was
"UP" and Albert Dumbutshena, my mentor, was "Sapa" - you can
guess
why.
In Lusaka, two men changed journalism for me for all time:
Kelvin
Mlenga and Richard Hall, among the greatest I have ever worked
under.
But I still lost a precious blazer to a man who wanted to
beat the
daylights out of me for having written something about him, not by
name, but
by implication.
I lay unconscious for three days
after a beating by two thugs in Fort
Jameson while covering an election
campaign. I had asked the wrong question.
I have been called names,
including a spy. I know almost everything
about politicians - they can be
good, they can be bad and they can be very
ugly.
What I have
never understood is why people are attracted to
politicians who display such
naked signs of megalomania you can see it in
their eyes - the fixed stare,
the scowl or the smirk, which says, loud and
clear: I am going to give you
hell.
Fortunately, for most of us journalists, there is always the
delicious
anticipation of being there when such a person gets their
comeuppance.
I saw Kamuzu when he was a doddering old fool. I felt
sorry for him,
but then thought to myself: God must be great at this sort of
thing.
contact-www.saidib@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
Reflections by Dr
Alex T Magaisa
ONE of my earliest memories of humankind's capacity
for cruelty and
the pleasure that some members of this species take in
inflicting pain and
suffering on other breathing creatures is an incident I
experienced years
ago, as a small boy, while herding cattle alongside other
boys from the
village. Those who witnessed the incident lost something that
day; we were
violently robbed of the precious innocence of
youth.
You see, when you have observed a naked display of
barbarism, it is
very difficult to express it in words. At those times,
silence can seem the
only perfect response. It can be easy for writers to
overestimate the
importance of what they do, but there are times when events
cause a certain
jolt; when all words appear to pale into insignificance. You
are tempted to
put down the pen and respond to the almost peremptory call of
silence. In
the wake of the brutal events obtaining in Zimbabwe in recent
days, it is a
temptation that has been difficult to resist.
But
then it occurred to me that responding to the call of silence
would be a
grim betrayal to all those men and women who have suffered. But
even then,
all the possible subjects, for which I had prepared, suddenly
appear
irrelevant. So today, I thought I would simply reflect on the brutal
manifestation of mindless cruelty perpetrated by man over man, in the
beleaguered nation of Zimbabwe. And this is where my early experience of the
cruelty of humankind comes in.
It is many years now, but
occasionally, especially when I witness the
display of sadism, I still hear
echoes of the tortured cries of the little
birds. They were just small
eaglets, barely feathered and had hardly seen
much of the world to which
they had just recently been introduced. We saw
him high up in the tall tree,
frantically making his way up to the big nest.
Some of his friends stood
below, urging him on, while others stood by,
watching the spectacle, with
obvious excitement. He had already started
ripping the nest apart by the
time we got to the scene. Then he threw them,
one by one, the little
eaglets, down to his friends under the tree. Up in
the sky, the mother eagle
issued shrill cries, manifestly angry but helpless
in the circumstances. It
circled viciously and tried more than once to yank
a piece of the boy's
flesh, but each time it got closer, his friends below
hurled large stones at
the eagle.
Why, we asked, were they the doing that to the little
birds. They said
that eagles deserved to suffer and die because they are a
menace in their
village - they prey on the young chickens and food. But
these eaglets were
harmless, we said. They said it was best to catch them
young. The other
eagles, they tried to rationalise, would know that they
should not prey on
their food and young chickens in the village. But it is
in the nature of
eagles to behave as they do, we said. They said they did
not care. It was
fun anyway, they claimed, and went on to tie the hapless
birds on strings
and hang them on tree branches and take vicious aim with
their catapults and
stones. The deathly sounds of the little, defenceless
creatures pierced the
stillness of an otherwise serene summer's
mid-afternoon. Mother eagle
hovered above in desperation. It was clear she
could do nothing in the face
human power and cruelty.
It was
difficult to fathom, the fact that a human being could be
capable of such
wickedness. It was obvious the boys were enjoying the whole
sordid exercise.
It was hard to understand how a decent person could
actually find it an
enjoyable spectacle. Did they not come from a home with
a mother and father?
Did they not have young brothers and sisters in their
homes? How, we tried
to comprehend, would they sleep at night? Would they
simply banish this from
their memories and sleep soundly throughout the
night, without even having
nightmares filled with the deathly cries of the
defenceless eaglets? We
stood by, helpless - helpless because we thought
there was not much we could
do against admittedly bigger and notoriously
ruthless boys from the next
village.
We had looked to the bigger boys in our group but they had
also stood
by, clearly unimpressed by the spectacle but not having the will
to
intervene. After all they were just birds, they were eagles and they
could
not be drawn into a fight over eagles.
Later on, I would,
with a sense of guilt, wonder whether I could have
done something; whether
we could have done something to save those
defenceless creatures, which had
been tortured so ruthlessly before our eyes
and whose lives had been
terminated for no reason other than that they were
eagles. There was, I must
admit, a sense of embarrassment; embarrassment at
being a member of the
human race which had so exposed itself as capable to
doing grievous harm
even to unarmed and defenceless creatures; embarrassment
at the fact that I
had done nothing to prevent the cowardly attacks.
There was a deep
sense of guilt at the actions of my fellow human
beings, by whose actions
the brief life journey of the little birds had been
so violently and
abruptly interrupted.
There was, to sum it up, a deep sense of
betrayal in respect of the
nature of the human being. We learnt, in that
very episode, humanity's
capacity for cruelty.
I do not know
what happened to those boys in life. Perhaps they became
policemen. Perhaps
one of them shot Gift Tandare in cold blood on Sunday.
Perhaps they were
there, when Morgan Tsvangirai, Lovemore Madhuku, Arthur
Mutambara, Tendai
Biti, Grace Kwinjeh, Sekai Holland, and others were
viciously assaulted on
Sunday. I am just not surprised that some of our
members of the human race
are capable of that; the capacity to physically
violate the sacred body of a
woman in the way they did to Kwinjeh. Were
these people who did it not born
of woman? What is a shame though, is how
the plight of victims is sometimes
forgotten and instead, some of us blame
the victims for their predicament.
We become the victims of our own
victimhood. Perhaps it's human nature to
try and rationalise violence - to
try and explain it, even when it's absurd
to do so.
I am reminded of my readings in women's law - of the
"Battered Wife
Syndrome" - in simple terms, a physical and psychological
condition by which
a wife, who has been repeatedly and systematically abused
by her spouse over
a period of time, becomes so tormented and weary that she
is unable and
unwilling to take action to defend herself. Rather, she begins
to see
herself as the problem; she blames herself for her predicament, and
tries
even to rationalise the behaviour of her spouse. In short, this is a
case
where the victim blames herself for her unfortunate position. I am not
surprised therefore, that some people might be criticising the MDC
leadership for their predicament - they are simply confirming what
systematic violence does to victims. The MDC leaders were only exercising
their democratic rights - there is nothing abnormal about attending a
meeting, be it for prayers or politics. What is unusual and unlawful is to
deny people that legitimate right. The critics are victims themselves, who
have accepted their fate and now try to make sense of the other's unusual
and otherwise irrational and unlawful behaviour.
I am not sure
how those who have killed Tandare and brutally assaulted
the others sleep at
night just as I wondered all those years back, when the
boys in the village
tortured those hapless eaglets, how it was that they
were able to sleep at
night. I do not know how the others see it; men like
President Thabo Mbeki
in South Africa, President Festus Mogae in Botswana,
President Armando
Guebuza in Mozambique, President Jakaya Kikwete in
Tanzania, President
Hifikepunye Pohamba in Namibia, President Levy Mwanawasa
in Zambia; perhaps
they too, like the big boys who watched and did nothing
to stop the brutal
boys from torturing and executing the defenceless
eaglets, feel it is not
their business to intervene and stop it.
I am aware of humankind's
capacity for cruelty - but are we not also
complicit when we do nothing stop
those of our species from doing harm to
those that are defenceless? What I
know is that, part of the guilt that I
have carried since the day of the
torture of the eaglets, is because I too,
felt a sense of shame and carried
a share of the responsibility; the
collective guilt at not having done
anything to stop the mindless brutality
that I witnessed that day. Yes, they
were only birds, but they had done
nothing wrong, except to exercise their
right to live, as nature had
prescribed.
Alex Magaisa can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zim Standard
Sundayview by
Gugulethu Moyo
Events last week in Zimbabwe, bring to mind the
examination-in-chief
of one Daniel Siebert:
George Bizos: You
said, in your application, that you considered that
a war was going on, is
that correct?
Daniel Siebert: Yes.
George Bizos: But
now do you, did you ever bother to find out how
prisoners are to be treated
even in a state of war?
Daniel Siebert: That is true, the
circumstances of the time and all
the things that Mr Bizos has asked
motivated one to act in the interests of
the state dispensation and in the
interest of the community of South Africa
and not only the white community,
but also in the interests of these people
who are sitting here today, that
is the black community, because they
suffered the most as a result of all
the murders, the burning of their
vehicles and businesses and houses. One
took the risk of interrogating these
people and this was done as a result of
the motivation that I mentioned,
because I believed that the policy of that
time, namely apartheid, was an
interim measure until it would develop to
such an extent or that the
politicians of the day come up with better
solutions for South Africa.
George Bizos: The question, actually,
was a simple one. Did you ever
bother to find out how, in a war situation,
combatants are supposed to treat
prisoners from the other side?
Siebert was one of five killers of the South African founder of the
Black
Consciousness Movement leader, Steve Biko. During interrogation in
September
1977, Siebert and four other murderous police officers are thought
to have
smashed Biko's head against a wall, causing him brain damage, before
driving
him, naked and bleeding, 1100 km across the country in the back of a
police
van, to a prison in Pretoria where he died six days later. In 1997,
20 years
after Biko died, these men approached South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC), ostensibly to come clean about the events
that led to Biko's death.
After hearing the testimony of
Siebert and the four other apartheid
enforcers implicated in Biko's death,
the TRC remained unconvinced that
their accounts of Biko's death were
truthful. They were denied amnesty.
Siebert and his colleagues in
the police force were the enforcers of
apartheid. Biko's death speeded
apartheid's end. Not since the 1960 police
massacre of 70 protesters in
Sharpeville had an incident so galvanized black
opposition.
In
Harare last week, the Zimbabwe regime's enforcers laid bare to the
world the
vicious rule of Robert Mugabe. On Sunday the police shot and
killed Gift
Tandare, an opposition activist; two days later, at Tandare's
wake, they
shot and injured two more. On the same day that they killed
Tandare, they
arrested leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change and
drove them around
Harare from one police station to another. They beat them
till their flesh
tore and their limbs broke. They beat some of them till
they lost
consciousness.
And then the enforcers explained their actions: "As
police, we could
not just stand by and see the country go on fire. So we
deployed and managed
to quell the disturbances. The leaders of the
opposition (Morgan) Tsvangirai
and (Arthur) Mutambara were actually
commanding (hooligans) using children
as shields," said Minister of Home
Affairs, Kembo Mohadi.
Two days later, police officers threatened
that "standards used in
war" would be used against activists, saying a "war
situation" existed in
the country.
So, it was war? As far as
the enforcers were concerned, were all rules
of law suspended? Did the
enforcers become the law? Why would the enforcers
have waited for a court to
hear the evidence and determine the punishment
for the enemy when they could
mete out instant justice in the back of a
police van or in a police cell?
Why take the enemy to court? What do the
courts know about the laws of war
or the interests of national security?
"Let me, in unequivocal and
unambiguous terms, reaffirm the ZRP's
capacity to ruthlessly deal with any
rowdy elements fanning violence in the
country.
I want to
assure the nation that police are ready to quell any form of
civic disorder
that may threaten the peace of other citizens, especially in
cities and
towns where such illegal political unrest has been prevalent,"
Deputy
Assistant Police Commissioner Innocent Matibiri clarified on Tuesday,
for
those who might have misunderstood the nature of the situation.
The
enforcers of the regime are building their case. And the world is
watching.
But have they checked what the law says about murder?
Have they
bothered to check what the international law says about torture?
Or what the
laws of war - if they think they are relevant - say about the
treatment of
enemy combatants?
One of these days - pretty soon
it seems, judging from the local and
international support galvanized for
the opposition by this brutal police
action - the enforcers will sit in the
dock, before us all, and answer these
and other questions about the crimes
they have committed in order to defend
an illegitimate political order. They
had better start now to think about
their answers.
Govt spin doctors desperate to lend credence to the 'Big Lie' I normally
pay
little more than brief, amused attention to the barely cogent and
semi-literate scribblings of George, er, Nathaniel Manheru and his equally
incoherent sidekick Caesar Zvayi. However, given the current climate in
Zimbabwe, I feel that their bumbling efforts to practice the Big Lie touch
upon issues too important for the future of the country to be simply
dismissed with a wry chuckle.
Key to the government's efforts
to justify its brutal and unwarranted
crackdown on its own citizens is the
assertion that the people of Zimbabwe
are a contented lot who would quietly
go about their happy lives were it not
for the evil machinations of the -
choose your epithet - "imperialists,"
"former colonialists," or
"racists/Westerners/enemies." The government's
spin doctors' current
favourite "example" is the story they have fabricated
from thin air about my
alleged meeting with Morgan Tsvangarai and Arthur
Mutambara at the Bronte
Hotel in Harare on 9 January.
This meeting, according to the spin
doctors, is the sole reason
Zimbabweans today are increasingly vocal in
their protests against the
government and determined to push for change. To
lend their fantasy the
appearance of fact, Messrs. Manheru and Zvayi (unably
abetted by the
pseudo-intellectual rantings of Tafataona Mahoso in The
Sunday Mail and a
legion of faceless Herald Reporters), have invented
colourful details: the
size of each side's delegation, a cash-filled
briefcase , etc.
The facts are somewhat different: 1) on the date
of the supposed
meeting I was in Bulawayo, on vacation with visiting family.
In fact, if
anyone wants to check for themselves, they can go to the Natural
History
Museum there and see where I signed the guest book (I realise that
the
relevant page is likely to disappear in "mysterious circumstances" when
this
is published, but never mind: there are other witnesses who can verify
that
I was indeed in Bulawayo on that day, including diplomats and, of
course,
the ubiquitous CIO, which tracked me throughout my holiday); 2) I
have never
set foot inside the Bronte Hotel and was unaware of its very
existence until
Zvayi kindly brought it to my attention; 3) the first and
only time I have
ever met jointly with Tsvangarai and Mutambara was courtesy
of the
Government of Zimbabwe. That meeting took place last Tuesday, 13
March in
Magistrates' Court 6 in Harare. I think we can all offer the
government a
large vote of thanks for bringing these two leaders together
and giving them
an opportunity to get to know each other
better.
One can only imagine just how badly the government misses
the services
of the former Minister of Information, who knew that to tell
the Big Lie
successfully, one had to get the little lies right. I humbly
suggest that
the spin doctors could do with a few lessons from their
Professor, or since
time for them is growing short, that they look back to
history to consult
the original writings on the Big Lie for some badly
needed advice.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate people of Zimbabwe will continue
to grapple with
the sad truth that their lives have been made a living hell
thanks to the
failed policies of a failing regime.
Christopher W Dell
US Ambassador
Harare
----------------
An all-embracing national indaba could save
Zimbabwe
I am a dreamer who has been visited by the same
dream for the
past four years. It has occurred to me six times over the past
four years.
The dream is that of people of all persuasions sitting down and
cordially
discussing ways of saving Zimbabwe.
I have seen
Zimbabweans, black and white, old and young,
politicians and
non-politicians, Christians and non-Christians and many
other groupings all
brought together by a desire to find an amicable
solution to our
problem.
My dreams seem to hold the key to an ever-lasting
and binding
solution to the dilemma we find ourselves in.
The time for blame and mudslinging is over. We need to forgive
each other
and start discussing the way forward. We should not allow more
Zimbabweans
to die without having tasted the fruits of our independence.
Millions of
Zimbabweans fought for the independence of this country but only
a select
few are benefiting from the sweat and toil of the majority.
How is it possible for people to say that during the past six
years or so
people have been happy when the standard meal for the majority
of our people
has been green vegetables and sadza because of rising costs in
the face of
dwindling earnings?
Thousands of children are no longer going
to school because of
sky-rocketing school fees. We are losing thousands of
our professionals to
other countries. Very soon the country is going to be
forced into rehiring
aging and retired personnel because all our young
professionals have found
jobs outside the country. Is this what we have been
aiming for?
Why are we not courageous enough to admit failure
in the way we
are running our country? Right now we have nothing to lose but
we will gain
a lot through an all-embracing Indaba. Let us not expect
anything from other
countries. We created our own problems, so we must now
find our own solution
to our difficulties.
Once we find a
solution, let us promise ourselves never to allow
ourselves to be ruled by a
group which places itself above the laws of this
country. Let us not have
anybody who perceives themselves as untouchable and
cannot be criticised.
People who claim to be all-knowing and powerful should
be avoided. Let us
have leaders who are compassionate, leaders who are
humble and who will
listen to the people and not leaders who will dictate to
us.
It is time for Zimbabweans to demand bacon and eggs,
rare steaks
and other beef joints, wine, milk and honey and so on for our
tables. We can
no longer tolerate seeing these luxuries only on the tables
of the few super
rich. We must demand to see all our school-going children
attend
well-equipped schools. We must demand to receive medical treatment at
health
centres equipped with the latest equipment and well-remunerated and
committed medical staff.
Let us demand well-paying secure
jobs so that we can earn for
our families. Let us all sit down and hammer
out a new dispensation.
Try an Indaba
Masvingo
-----------
Enough of this contempt
towards court orders
I wish to comment on the recent failure
by the authorities
running the City of Harare to obey a court ruling that
declared them as
"unlawful, null, void and of no force and
effect".
Since the year 2000, we have had land reform which
was declared
illegal by the courts; the election of most Zanu PF legislators
and recently
the courts approved the MDC rally in Highfield but still the
regime used its
military might to defy the court orders.
My question to fellow Zimbabweans is: For how long will we allow
this rot to
continue? Because it is clear to me and anyone who can read the
writing on
the wall that Zanu PF wants to remain in power by whatever means
and
regardless of the costs.
I think Semesai (Sekesai)
Makwavarara went too far by referring
to the courts as "silly things". This
only goes to show how the regime views
the judiciary system; any ruling that
does not go in their favour is "silly"
and "inspired by
imperialists".
Mhlahlo Tsholotsho
--------------
ZRP-run schools unprofessional
I
would like to draw the attention of the Ministry of Education,
Sport and
Culture to the unprofessional way in which the Zimbabwe Republic
Police
Braeside School is being run.
At the beginning of this term,
in January, my son and many other
pupils who were supposed to be entering
Grade VII were forced to repeat
Grade VI without the consent of the
concerned children and parents.
When I launched my own
investigation into the logic of forcing
so many pupils to repeat, I was
shocked by the response I was given. The
Headmaster told me that the
Commissioner of Police and the Superintendent
(Education) were unhappy with
the poor results registered in some of the
police schools, hence the move to
force the pupils to repeat. The school
head even bragged that as long as the
children do not perform well, they
will rot in Grade VI.
When I queried the position of the Ministry of Education over
this decision,
I was informed that the police schools did not need
intervention from
civilians. I was then given the option of withdrawing my
child from Braeside
Police School and taking him elsewhere.
When I contacted the
Superintendent, Education Officer for
Police Schools, she said her hands
were tied and was finding it difficult to
caution the "young boy" and some
administrators' because they were related
to some senior Police Assistant
Commissioners.
While the school is said to be a police
school, I think the
Ministry of Education should move in and monitor the
professionalism and
level of maturity of some of the heads of police schools
in order to ensure
that the Ministry rules are not flouted willy- nilly by
some hand-picked
heads of dubious credentials.
Disgruntled Parent
Braeside, Harare
-----------
Police have lost the plot
UNDER
President Robert Mugabe, the police force has lost its
way. The pictures of
Morgan Tsvangirai's battered face make this globally
clear. It is
unequivocally not the role of the police to punish. That is the
role of the
courts. Internationally-accepted principles of policing
recognise the
following principles of MINIMUM FORCE.
Force should never be
used to punish, only to prevent further
immediate trouble. It should always
be the minimum force needed to achieve
the police goal.
It should be discontinued as soon as the police have achieved
that goal.
Beating a helpless person senseless is the action of a
psychopath, not a
normal person. Is this what our police officers have
become? Who is to
blame? Everyone knows. Whose legacy is this ? - We all
know.
I do think this legacy of officially-sanctioned
violence by the
"over-zealous" will overpower any good memory of
Mugabe.
Howard Dean
Harare
-----------------
I will not be
silenced PEOPLE such as Humba Wekumanyika (The Standard
letters 4 February
2006) believe that Morgan Tsvangirai has a monopoly of
political space in
the opposition.
I am an official within the pro-democracy MDC
led by Professor
Arthur Mutambara and I have no intention of leaving
politics.
I have been attending rallies of the Anti-Senate
MDC and there
is nothing that has changed in terms of strategy. Instead,
there is
increased rhetoric, dancing and singing, without a game plan to
mobilise the
electorate.
I have nothing against
Tsvangirai, but I will not be cowed into
silence by praise
singers.
Kurauone Chihwayi
Harare
http://africantears.netfirms.com/thisweek.shtml
Saturday 17th March 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
This week
the country came to a virtual standstill when we learned that a
large number
of the top leaders of civic society and opposition groups had
been arrested.
Everyone, everywhere was talking about it and the world began
watching us
again. It was then with shock and outrage that we saw the first
grisly
pictures of men and women covered in blood, bruises and wounds
getting off a
huge open Police lorry outside the Harare courts two days
later. Now the
details have begun to emerge and the statements are being
made by the
victims of how they were brutally assaulted whilst in Police
custody. The
quotes from those that were involved tell this story better
than any letter
or newspaper report.
An MDC youth activist, Gift Tandare was shot and
killed by the police. A
friend went to visit his family and said: "We
arrived at their humble little
home to find mourners grieving for this
senseless and brutal loss. It was
heart wrenching and humbling to share
their grief."
Hours later two men were shot by Police at the Tandare home
where they had
gone to pay their respects. The same friend wrote again:
"When I arrived at
the hospital Dickson was in theatre having an emergency
operation and the
doctors thought they would have to amputate his foot.
Their crime is that
they were mourning the senseless killing of their
friend."
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights described the condition of
Grace Kwinjeh
when she came out of Police custody saying: "she was brutally
assaulted at
Machipisa and lost part of her ear after being assaulted with a
metal rod."
When Lovemore Madhuku came out of Police custody the Lawyers
said: "He has a
broken arm in a cast, bandages over his head and a swollen
face from
assaults suffered at Machipisa."
A husband recounted what
had happened to his wife, Sekai, while she was in
police custody: "A woman
repeatedly jumped on her with booted feet -
fracturing or breaking three of
her ribs. Her clothes were covered in
blood - both her own and that of
others suffering the same brutality." Sekai
also had a broken arm, broken
leg and cracked knee.
One of Morgan Tsvangirai's bodyguards described
what he saw of the assault
on the leader of the opposition: "They were
beating him and he collapsed.
They were going for his head. He didn't scream
or shout, he was silent as
they beat him, and it made them so angry, they
were shouting, - 'we must
make him cry'."
Throughout the week
criticism, condemnation and concern has poured in from
around the world.
Voices everywhere are raised in outrage and here in
Zimbabwe there is a
feeling of extreme tension. These are very dark days
indeed.
Until next
week, with love, cathy