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DANIEL FORTUNE MOLOKELE: FACING REALITY
Every vote
counts!
Last updated: 02/28/2005 21:12:09
THIS week we
celebrate a key historic date in our nation's history. On
4th March 1980,
for the first time ever, millions of Zimbabweans were
afforded the
opportunity to cast their votes. This was of course a turning
moment in the
sense that until then, not many people had expected themselves
to vote. No,
not even in their lifetime!
Subsequently, Zimbabwe became
independent from British colonial rule
on 18th April 1980. This was after
the bloody guerilla war that was waged by
the nationalist movement against
the minority UDI regime as led by Ian
Smith.
It is critical for
all Zimbabweans at this time of national crisis
that we never lose sight of
the crucial fact about the gains of the
liberation war. Indeed, one of the
major rallying points of the liberation
struggle was a demand for an
unconditional right to universal suffrage and
mass
enfranchisement.
The nationalists contended with validity, that the
UDI regime's
electoral assumption that only some certain race groups were
entitled to
participate in national elections was totally
unacceptable.
Up to 4th March 1980, only the Rhodesians of European
and Asian
descent, coupled with the colored or mixed race were entitled to
stand for
election or elect candidates. To this end, the nationalists
demanded a new
electoral system based on a 'one person, one vote'
system.
It was thus a major assumption in the aftermath of the
Lancaster house
constitutional agreement in December 1979 that all nationals
over the age of
18 years would be entitled to the right to universal
suffrage.
The first popular elections were thus held on 4th March
1980.
Thereafter, regular elections have been held under the revised
electoral
provisions of the original Lancaster House conference
Constitution. As it
is, Zimbabwe is now due to hold its sixth ever
legislative elections to
elect a new Parliament.
It is however
very unfortunate that the elections have once again been
mired in
controversial issue of their democratic legitimacy. In fact, a lot
of
concern has been raised on whether the elections will be conducted in a
free
and fair environment. Some parties as led by the MDC argue that the
current
electoral process is so fundamentally flawed that it is in effect,
heavily
tilted in favor of Zanu-PF.
One of the major borne of contentions
has been that of the Diaspora
vote. In terms of the current system, all
Zimbabweans are supposed to cast
their ballots only at a constituency level.
That then means that no voter
can cast their ballot from anywhere else
except at the original constituency
of registration. One has to travel to
that same constituency at their own
expense.
This of course
might not be difficult in urban areas where voters
change homes from time to
time. They can still hop into a kombi and cross
over to their respective
constituency.
That however, becomes a problem when one has left
Zimbabwe and is now
residing in another country. Unfortunately as we gear up
for the next
elections, it is common cause that that up to half of the
prospective voters
are no longer based in Zimbabwe. Over the last five
years, the nation has
witnessed a huge exodus of at least four million
people. This is largely as
a result over the negative ramifications of the
never unending political and
socio-economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
Worse still, the government has announced that the updated voters roll
now
has 5.6 million potential voters. The figure is further compromised by
the
undeniable fact that included in the list are up to hundreds of
thousands of
deceased persons. There is thus the key factor of potential
'ghost voters'
that needs to be duly considered.
Added to that, many electoral
experts are agreed that a large
percentage of the updated voters roll
includes more than one million of
Zimbabweans now living in the
Diaspora.
Then there is also the valid fear that there might be a
low turnout in
the elections. As such, less than 3 million Zimbabweans might
cast their
ballots on 31st March. The net effect of that is simple
arithmetic's. Less
than half of the Zimbabwean adult population will vote in
the elections.
This then means that the new parliament will have to be
regarded as a
minority regime since the majority of voters would have been
denied their
right to universal suffrage.
The net effect of
that is that as we celebrate the nation's 25 years
of independence, it will
be under the negative context of a subtle but clear
return to a government
elected by a minority group of Zimbabwe. This is a
serious cause of concern
that I am sure many of the nation's liberation war
heroes will condemn in no
uncertain terms. It is a clear affront to the
democratic ideals of the
liberation struggle. It totally smacks of unjust
fascist political
dishonesty.
To this end, it is submitted that the decision to take
the Harare
regime to court over the Diaspora vote should be welcomed by all
progressive
Zimbabweans. It is hoped that the action from the UK based
Zimbabwe Diaspora
Vote Action Group will result in a positive outcome for
all Zimbabweans
living abroad. But if the court action fails, it would have
achieved the
good effect of raising the political concerns of the Diaspora
over the
seriousness of the matter.
But whatever the outcome of
the court case, it is submitted that when
the constitutional debate is
resuscitated in the future, the issue of the
Diaspora vote should be placed
high on the electoral reform agenda. The
ZDVAG and other foreign based NGOs
should lead the process of ensuring that
this unjust situation is totally
abrogated in the best interest of the
nation's developmental
agenda.
Put up the polling stations
Set up the voting
booths
Let the people queue to vote
One woman one
vote
One man one vote
Let everyone come and vote
Every Zimbabwean vote counts!
Indeed, every Zimbabwean vote counts!
No matter what race, tribe,
creed, sex, class, gender, or any other
background, let them all vote. Let
all Zimbabweans vote for a new leadership
for the nation. Let every
Zimbabwean exercise their democratic right to
choose their Parliamentary
representatives. Whoever they are! Wherever they
are! When ever Zimbabwe
goes to vote as a nation.
CONTACT DANIEL BY
E-MAIL: danielmolokele@yahoo.co.uk
Daniel Molokele is a lawyer and a former student leader. He is
currently
based in Johannesburg, South Africa. His column appears here every
Monday
Daily News online edition
SADC, Zimbabwe: Time for honesty on both
sides
Date: 28-Feb, 2005
THE politics of the
liberation struggle in Southern Africa could be
the major cause of
Zimbabwe's unsettled relationships with a few members of
the regional
grouping. There is an urgent need for both sides to be honest
with each
other. The past may be important to nourish the present, but we
cannot all
live in it.
President Robert Mugabe is now portrayed, by his
admirers in the
region, as a fighter against neo-colonialism and
imperialism. Is he really
that? To many Zimbabweans, he is an 81-year-old
man who failed, during 25
years in power, in his ambition to turn his
country into a Marxist-Leninist
state.
In 2000, his plan to
alter the constitution so that he could rule
almost as an emperor came
unstuck when the people rejected the amendments
proposed by his party. He
was deeply hurt and sought revenge against the
people he suspected had
poisoned his voters' minds against his proposals.
The rest is
history: he confiscated the white commercial farms,
killing many people in
the process. He was continuing the struggle against
the British, which his
party has called the Third Chimurenga, the First
Chimurenga having been
against Cecil John Rhodes and the Second against Ian
Smith.
What many member-states may not appreciate is that once the war of
liberation was won ordinary people expected to develop their country to its
full potential: self-sufficiency in food, availability of jobs, roads,
hospitals,clinics, schools, universities, technical colleges, houses, a free
press and democracy.
Most of these aspirations have not
been achieved, or Mugabe's party
would not have lost 57 parliamentary seats,
almost at the snap of a finger,
in the 2000 elections.
At
the end of March the country goes to the polls again. This time,
the SADC
group has a chance to ensure the elections are free and fair. They
owe it to
themselves to make this a reality.
Zimbabwe's intransigence on
giving voters a fair chance to choose
their MPs could cost the regional
grouping much of the political and
economic support it enjoys
internationally.
The politics of the liberation struggle can be
remembered with
fondness, but in the 21st century of today, 48 years after
Ghana's
independence, the people of Zimbabwe are more concerned about their
living
standards - just as those of every other country in Southern Africa
and
Africa at large.
The only heroes recognised now are
those who can ensure their people
don't die of hunger, curable diseases and
their own soldiers' guns - not
those who love to dwell on the glorious
past.
Daily News online edition
Tsvangirai confident of MDC
victory
Date: 28-Feb, 2005
HARARE - The Movement
for Democratic Change(MDC) president, Morgan
Tsvangirai, says the March 31
poll is an opportunity for Zimbabweans to put
to rest a multitude of
anxieties about the future, peace and security on
investment, if the country
is to take its rightful position as an economic
hub on the African
continent.
Writing in his "Every Tuesday Message" on the MDC
website, Tsvangirai,
whose party is set to lock horns with Zimbabwe's ruling
Zanu PF in the March
poll, also said although Zanu PF had created a hostile
electoral
environment, all signs were now indicative to the spirit of 1999
when MDC
was formed.
"We are confident of victory because
our promise and our concerns
resonate with the people. Our manifesto is a
result of intense consultations
with the people. We are aware of the immense
challenges that we shall face
as an MDC government after winning the
election in March. Despite the odds,
the people are keen to re-organize
their lives and to start afresh. They are
determined to see a new beginning
and a new Zimbabwe," said Tsvangirai.
On food security,
Tsvangirai said there was need for the restoration
of sanity in agriculture
in order to stabilise food supply and food
availability. Contrary to claims
that the country had sufficient food
stocks, most households - particularly
in the south and western parts of the
country - had erratic food
supplies.
He said Zimbabweans lived with the crude fact that
the past five years
had turned the entire national resource base into dead
capital, with land no
longer having any economic value and labour, despite
its high quality,
impressive literacy levels and agility, lying untapped and
dead.
He added that agricultural recovery should be rooted on a
non-negotiable return to the rule of law, the restoration of private
property rights and a strict adherence to the fundamental rights enshrined
in a people-driven Constitution.
"We believe agriculture
shall once again assume its economic
leadership position, with new
opportunities for the revival of industry,
food security, increased exports,
new jobs and foreign exchange for
essential imports," Tsvangirai said,
adding that for an economy largely
dependent on agriculture, what had
happened over the past five years was
unfortunate.
"If you
tamper with the land, you destroy your revenue base. You blow
life out of
all essential services: health, education, taxation, public
services and
employment. We must restore sanity in agriculture to use that
industry in
order to revive education, to repair our health services, to
restart the
economy and to create jobs," he said.
Tsvangirai launched his
election campaign in the small town of
Masvingo on Sunday last weekend,
urging Zimbabweans to go and vote out Zanu
PF, which he said had become a
liability to the country's economy and the
people at large.
He will lead his party into the March 31 polls amid concerns that the
electoral playing field is heavily tilted against him, as a number of MDC
candidates have already suffrered restrictions to their ability to
campaign.
Three parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming
polls were
reportedly assaulted by members of the army on their way back to
Mutare
after the Masvingo campaign launch.
A candidate for
Shamva in the volatile Mashonaland Central province,
Godfrey Chimombe, and
five supporters were arrested last Tuesday while
putting up campaign
posters.
Daily News online edition
More join Cosatu anti-Mugabe
campaign
Date: 28-Feb, 2005
JOHANNESBURG - Plans
by the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(Cosatu) to blockade
Zimbabwe's lifeline, Beitbridge border post, appear to
be gaining momentum
amid reports that several other organisations have
joined the
campaign.
Cosatu said it will organise mass action against
President Mugabe's
government from March 9 until the parliamentary election
on March 31. The
action is in protest at the deportation of its fact finding
mission by
Harare authorities
The labour movement said it
would picket at the Zimbabwean embassy,
before proceeding to blockade the
border.
The latest to join Cosatu's campaign is the Young
Communist League
(YCL), the youth wing of the South African Communist Party,
which is part of
a tripartite with the ruling African National Congress
(ANC) and Cosatu.
The YCL follows hot on the heels of trade
union Solidarity which
announced last week that it too will join the
protests.
The South African Council of Churches, an umbrella
body of all the
churches in South Africa has also vowed to participate in
the action against
the Harare government.
Buti Manamela,
the national secretary of the YCL, said they were
concerned that freedom of
speech and rights relating to the electoral
process were being suppressed in
Zimbabwe.
Manamela said as young communists they should act
because they enjoy
these particular rights in South Africa and therefore
cannot allow others to
be refused such rights on the
continent.
President Mugabe's Zanu PF government is widely
condemned at home and
abroad for violating human rights, harassing
opposition supporters and
journalists from the independent media . It is
charged with creating an
environment which is not conducive for free and
fair elections.
The 81-year-old leader, however, denies the
charges saying they are
being drummed up by Western "imperialists" who are
unhappy with Zimbabwe's
land reform programme.
Meanwhile,
Business Day reports that Cosatu has called on white union
members to join
its campaign against Zimbabwe's human and workers' rights
violations, saying
there was evidence that members of Cosatu's Zimbabwean
counterparts were
being "beaten, maimed and killed".
Cosatu used the Solidarity
union's congresslast week to forge links
with the predominantly white trade
union in the move to solicit national
support and participation in its
planned blockades at Beitbridge.
Cosatu president Willie
Madisha called for unity among workers, saying
they were "an endangered
species" no matter what their race or place in the
world. He said the only
way to survive and protect themselves was through
unity and co-operation,
which could not be "dependent on political
affiliation".
"Whether black of white, or whether they belong to Cosatu or
Solidarity,
workers belong to the same class," he told the congress.
Madisha
added that Zanu (PF) in Zimbabwe had lost its status as a
revolutionary
party by resorting to killings and harassment as tools of
subjugation. He
stressed that Cosatu did not support the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change, ruling Zanu (PF) or any other party.
"What we support
are the working class and the poor," Madisha said.
He said
workers needed to make sure that Zanu (PF) leaders visiting
South Africa
were not comfortable in their beds, "otherwise history will not
forgive
us."
Mugabe says 'spies' won't be let off the hook
February 28 2005 at
04:22PM
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has blasted
ruling party
officials for selling secrets to foreign governments in his
first reaction
on an alleged espionage ring involving senior Zanu-PF members
and a South
African spy.
On Monday state-run daily newspaper
quoted the octogenarian leader as
saying that nobody involved in spying
would be let off the hook.
Zimbabwe African National Union
Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) lawmaker,
Phillip Chiyangwa - a flamboyant
businessman and Mugabe's nephew - and three
others were arrested last year
on charges of spying for neighbouring South
Africa.
They were
accused of providing South African President Thabo Mbeki's
government with
information on internal Zanu-PF affairs.
"It does not matter
whether you are my relative or close friend, a
sell-out is a sell-out," the
Herald quoted Mugabe as telling a rally in the
northern town of
Chinhoyi.
"Even my own mother's child, if he sells out, we condemn
him," Mugabe
said at the town where Chiyangwa, his disgraced nephew, was the
member of
parliament.
Chiyangwa, until recently a provincial
chairperson of the ruling
party, is alleged to have led a spy ring with five
others, including Zanu-PF
security officials, a diplomat and a
banker.
The High Court freed Chiyangwa last week, days after three
others had
been jailed by a lower court for up to six years on similar
spying charges.
One Zanu-PF official is awaiting trial while
another diplomat is on
the run.
Mugabe also attacked his former
information minister, Jonathan Moyo,
whom he accused of having presidential
ambitions.
Mugabe sacked his former protege last week following
Moyo's decision
to stand as an independent in the March 31 parliamentary
elections after the
Zanu-PF barred him from running for the polls over an
alleged plot against
party leadership.
"The president said
there were some who joined the ruling party five
years ago but already
wanted to be vice-president and had rallied some party
chairpersons last
year ... with the purpose of garnering support," said the
Herald. - AFP
Xinhua
Zimbabwean dollar depreciates by six percent in
January
www.chinaview.cn
2005-03-01 02:35:17
HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The
Zimbabwean dollar depreciated
by an average of six percent in January
against a basket of six major
trading partner currencies, a local financial
institution said on Monday.
In its latest financial monthly
update, Financial Holdings Limited
(Finhold) said the local currency fell by
eight percent, seven percent and
six percent against the Japanese yen,
British pound and South African rand,
respectively.
It fell
by four percent against the US dollar, six percent against
the euro and five
percent against the Botswana Pula.
The Zimbabwe dollar was
expected to fall further to about 6, 300
Zimbabwean dollars against the US
dollar on the foreign currency auction
market by March on the back of the
continuously low foreign currency
inflows, it said. Enditem
Costly And Questionable Campaigns
Zimbabwe Standard
(Harare)
EDITORIAL
February 27, 2005
Posted to the web February 28,
2005
ZIMBABWE should stop pouring money down the drain in pursuit of
campaigns
and projects that have no chance in hell of producing significant
and
measurable benefits for this country and its people.
During the
past five years, the country has pursued the Miss Malaika beauty
pageant,
aimed at sprucing up the country's image, supposedly into a
must-visit
tourist destination and promising a massive run on its resorts
and natural
wonders by foreign visitors.
Curiously, there has been no discernible
increase in the volume of traffic
from the markets where the pageant was
reportedly beamed to and targeted at.
Miss Malaika was followed by the "Come
to Victoria Falls video", which saw
its external launch in South Africa,
among other places.
In between, there have been several equally doubtful
facility tours for
travel writers from Europe and America, but the country
is yet to reap the
benefits of all these investments. The latest venture in
the country's
propensity to waste money on questionable projects is the Miss
Tourism World
beauty pageant.
The only boost it has brought to
tourism in Zimbabwe is the hotel bookings
by the pageant's finalists. For a
brief period, they kept different hotels
at different times busy. Their
impact, overally, is negligible. The impact
of their safari is quite
questionable, in fact so questionable that there is
need for an audit in
order to establish what returns this country is getting
from these "amusing"
visits.
There is no doubt Zimbabwe has some of the most breathtaking
tourist resorts
in the world. There is also no doubt that, in normal times,
it is a paradise
on earth. But things are not normal and this is the area
where those behind
these pageants, facility trips and video promotions are
missing the point.
What this country needs is to create the kind of
environment that compels
foreigners to tell their fellow nationals about the
natural wonders waiting
to be explored here.
This is not about
creating safety zones, such as police-patrolled tourist
resorts designed to
deter crooks and thieves from preying on the foreign
visitors. It is about
ensuring that we live in a society, where there is no
siege mentality, where
locals and visitors alike feel secure and can always
count on security
agents for protection, if the need arises.
Once Zimbabwe becomes a safety
zone again, the tourist traffic will come
streaming back. There are tourists
keen on visiting this country, but for
the time being they are doing so from
the safety of Botswana, South Africa,
and Zambia, which thanks to our
problems has developed infrastructure in
Livingstone, rivaling those on the
southern side of the Zambezi River.
Those who profess an interest in
promoting Zimbabwe's tourism sector, could
do themselves a favour by
studying why the international tourist traffic
flow into countries around
Zimbabwe is growing, while in our case hotels are
registering embarrassingly
low occupancy rates.
The truth of the matter is that those who come to us
promising to polish up
the country's image know very well how we revel in
flattery. They come,
flatter us, tell us how we are squandering
opportunities to market our
natural treasures and then produce strategies
that leave us dazzled - after
they have conned us of our hard-earned foreign
exchange. They prescribe
solutions that they know very well Zimbabweans will
never attempt beyond
receptions for the handover of the consultants'
reports.
Even among ourselves, we can identify and isolate the problem
factors, but
we are woefully inept at implementing plans to rectify the
problems. Somehow
we seem to believe that anyone but ourselves will sort out
our problems and
we can carry on living happily ever after.
We will
cite one immediate example: Zimbabwe poured resources into a
commission of
inquiry into education and training, but five years later no
one can point
to how many of Professor Caiphas Nziramasanga's
recommendations, if any,
have been implemented.
Some of the problems that continue to show
themselves in the educational
sector were identified during the commission's
findings, but no attempt has
ever been made to ensure its implementation -
this despite enormous
resources and energy expended on the strenuous
undertaking. That, sadly, is
the measure of commitment we have to make this
country and ourselves better.
Soon after Independence, Zimbabwe had a
fleet of aircraft that today stands
reduced to a pale shadow of itself. The
problems are known, yet the
government pretends that somehow the mess will
sort itself out and we will
once again be flying to far out destinations
bringing foreign tourists.Those
charged with making decisions revel in these
delusional fantasies because
they have no guts to confront and deal with the
self-inflicted crises.
Harare city provides an instructive lesson. Here
we are trying to persuade
the world that we are reclaiming Sunshine City,
yet how many times have the
water supply pipes between Kwame Nkrumah and
Jason Moyo, along Sam Nujoma,
for example, burst. There is not one soul at
Town House who appears to
realize that what needs to be done for a long-term
solution is to relay the
whole stretch from Kwame Nkrumah to Jason Moyo with
new pipes. It is
possible to invite tourists to come and marvel at craters
in our roads and
show off how adept we have become at skirting around them
as we drive. The
tragedy of it is that there are people who take home
obscene salaries and
enjoy outrageous perks for failing to improve on the
standards we inherited
at independence.
We allowed game parks to be
invaded, occupied and their animals slaughtered
and yet we pretend nothing
really happened and seek to persuade the outside
to join in the amnesia. A
country at peace with itself requires no expensive
campaigns that enrich no
one but their purveyors.
Organisers of the latest pageant will collect
their paychecks and leave us
no better, and more significantly, without any
appreciable increase in
volumes of tourist traffic.
Reporters sans frontieres
Weekly Times closed down just two months after
launch
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the announcement by the
Zimbabwean
government's Media and Information Commission (MIC) on 25
February that it
is closing the independent Weekly Times for a year for
"violating the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act."
"As usual, the Zimbabwean authorities find any old pretext for
gagging
independent media that might spoil things for them at the height of
an
election campaign," the press freedom organization said, calling it "the
second serious press freedom violation in two weeks," after three foreign
press correspondents were forced to flee the country.
"The government
does not hesitate to step up the repression one month before
the 31 March
legislative elections," the organization added, "although it
ratified the
Southern African Development Community's protocol on principles
and rules
for democratic elections which ought, in theory, to guarantee
press
freedom."
MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso, who had threatened to close the
Weekly Times
in January just a week after the first issue came out, said its
licence was
being withdrawn because of a false statement and the failure of
its owners
to reveal facts. The newspaper had tricked him when it registered
its
licence by hiding certain aspects of its editorial line, Mahoso
alleged.
According to its statutes, the Weekly Times is a privately-owned
news weekly
focussing on development issues.
It is the fourth
privately-owned, independent newspaper to be closed in less
than two years,
following the Daily News, the Daily News On Sunday and The
Tribune.
Army to Act On Illegal Gold Panning
The Herald
(Harare)
February 26, 2005
Posted to the web February 28,
2005
Harare
THE Ministry of Environment and Tourism has invited
the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces to combine forces with the police to arrest
rampant illegal gold
panning in the countryside.
Illegal gold panning
has reached alarming proportions along the country's
rivers, streams and
valleys making it difficult for police alone to contain
the
situation.
On many occasions police have fought running battles with
violent gold
panners and the ministry believes that the engaging of soldiers
could
strengthen the Government's position.
The ministry's permanent
secretary, Ms Margaret Sangarwa, said she was
looking forward to working
"hand in glove" with the police and army to
overcome the environmental
challenges.
She said the panners were violent that the police and
officers from the
ministry alone could not achieve the expected
results.
"We are concerned with the violent nature of the panners to such
an extent
that unarmed police officers fail to arrest them.
"In an
effort to curb illegal gold panning in the country, the ministry has
initiated joint operations with the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) resulting
in thousand illegal gold panners being arrested.
"The violent nature
of the panners, makes it impossible for my officers to
carry out inspection
alone," said Ms Sangarwa who was addressing ZDF
students at the Zimbabwe
Staff College yesterday.
Ms Sangarwe said the ministry had done a lot in
terms of information
campaigns but failed to yield the intended results as
such they have to try
something else.
"Despite environmental
education campaigns, which my ministry has held
throughout the country with
the view to raise awareness on environment
issues as well as engendering in
people values, skills, attitudes and
behaviour consistent with environmental
management, illegal gold panning has
continued unabated," she
said.
She said illegal gold panning activities upstream have reached
alarming
rates in the countryside, drastically reducing the amount of water
that
flows into dams like Mazowe.
"It is estimated that over 600 000
people are practising illegal gold
panning countrywide in districts like
Mazowe, Kwekwe, Kadoma, Shamva,
Makonde Chimanimani and Insiza and this has
resulted in severe environmental
devastation.
"Currently, Mazowe dam
is holding about 20 percent of water its maximum
capacity," she
said.
The permanent secretary also said she was concerned with the recent
illegal
gold panning activities in the game parks and forestry
estates.
"Of concern to me is the recent spontaneous sprouting of illegal
mines in
game parks and forest estates such as Mpfuri Game Park and Tarka
Estates.
"I understand that these mines have not undergone the
Environmental Impact
Assessment process in terms of the requirements of the
environment
management," Ms Sangarwe said.