The Zimbabwe Situation

http://www.3news.co.nz

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 8:31a.m.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Saturday that land seizures would
continue, and he called for the country's last white farmers to leave.

Mugabe was addressing supporters at a celebration marking his 85th birthday
in Chinhoyi, 100km northwest of Harare.

"Land distribution will continue. It will not stop," Mugabe said. "The few
remaining white farmers should quickly vacate their farms as they have no
place there."

Mugabe was capitalising on what has long been a sensitive issue in Zimbabwe
and other nations in the region: the unjust division of land between whites
and blacks that is a legacy of colonialism and white minority rule.

Dozens of the several hundred white farmers left in Zimbabwe are currently
challenging the right of its government to confiscate their land before a
regional tribunal of Africa judges.

The birthday bash, which reportedly cost half a million dollars, was held as
Zimbabwe's new unity government failed to secure financial aid to rescue the
country's collapsed economy.

Zimbabwe faces the world's highest official inflation rate, a hunger crisis
and a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 4000 people since August.

Mugabe, who turned 85 on February 21, has ruled Zimbabwe since independence
from Britain in 1980. He was recently forced to relax his grip on power and
enter a coalition government with longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai who was
made prime minister.

But the first few weeks of the unity government have been marred by
squabbles over key positions and the continued arrest of political
activists, leaving some doubting how much power Mugabe is prepared to
relinquish.

"I am still in control and hold executive authority, so nothing much has
changed," Mugabe told a crowd of about 2000.

There has been a recent upsurge in reported "invasions" of white-owned
farms, with one support group saying at least 40 white farmers have been
forced off their land since January.

Last year, a regional court ruled that 78 white Zimbabweans could keep their
farms, saying the government's land grab policy was racially motivated.

On Saturday, Mugabe called the ruling "nonsense" and said it was of "no
consequence."

"We have our own laws which govern our own land issues," he said.

Critics blame Zimbabwe's economic collapse on Mugabe and his land reforms
that saw white-owned farms seized and given to his cronies instead going to
impoverished blacks as promised.

Many have criticised Mugabe for having lavish birthday celebrations while
his beleaguered people die from disease and hunger. One in 10 Zimbabwean
children will die before their fifth birthday, and most of their mothers
won't even live to half Mugabe's age, the charity Save The Children said
last week.

A smiling Mugabe was greeted by cheers and shouts of "Long live our
president," as he arrived at the town's university hall on Saturday.

Dressed in a beige suit and red scarf, he released a bunch of balloons into
the air and joked with young school children as he posed for photographers.

Tsvangirai decided not to attend the celebrations as he considered the event
a "private" affair of Mugabe's party, his spokesman James Maridadi said.

On Friday, the coalition government failed to secure $2 billion for an
economic rescue package from regional nations. A regional heads of state
meeting will discuss proposals submitted by Zimbabwe, but it set no date and
made no funding commitments.

Zimbabwe's finance minister, Tendai Biti, who belongs to Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change, attended the ministerial meeting in Cape
Town and asked for $2 billion - half for emergency spending on schools,
health care and infrastructure, and the rest on economic revival measures.

AP

Mugabe says gov't to push for control of firms

http://af.reuters.com

Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:25pm GMT

CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe said on Saturday the
unity government he formed with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime
Minister will continue to push for a majority stake in companies operating
in Zimbabwe.

"We would want to see a greater participation of our people in them, not
less than 51 percent, in certain companies we would have designated," he
told supporters at a rally to celebrate his 85th birthday.

"In the areas of mining, agriculture and manufacturing, a methodological and
systematic identification of areas in which the state and indigenous
entrepreneurs can participate, is being carried out, in line with the
Indigenous and Empowerment Act."

The nationalisation law, which Mugabe signed a few days before last March's
general election, seeks to transfer majority control of foreign firms,
including mines and banks, to blacks.

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Speaker Says Corruption Must Be Curbed

http://www.radiovop.com


      Bulawayo - Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo on Friday said
Zimbabwe's economy would not improve unless corruption is stopped.

      "The legislature will soon roll out a program of parliamentary
reforms, one of the key reforms will be in the use of the committee system
to detect and probe corruption. This requires that the committee system be
as open to the public as possible and to encourage stakeholders to make
representations to parliament and that the proceedings of parliament be open
to the media.
       "One example of how parliament can help stop corruption is that
through the Standing Committee on Public Accounts all government departments
should be monitored for their full compliance with the recommendations and
instructions from higher offices on the financial management and accounting
practices of Government," Moyo said in an address to delegates who attended
a Transparency International Zimbabwe's fifth Annual Corruption Conference
in Bulawayo.
      Moyo said he hoped the parliament would appoint credible members to
the Anti-Corruption Commission as corruption was heavily rooted in both
public and private institutions.
      He said it was critical that parliament played an active monitoring
role against the background of the expected increased inflows of financial
and humanitarian aid.
      Moyo said parliament would monitor operations of the inclusive
government while reforms were being made in Parliament to enable
parliamentarians to fight corruption.

Zimbabwe's Students, on Their Own

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Many Schools Are Closed; Others Lack Teachers
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 28, 2009; Page A01

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- On many weekdays last year, Kundai Kanyemba, 16, donned
his high school uniform, sat in the library and studied textbooks titled
"Geography Today," "Focus on English" and "General Mathematics," tattered
volumes he hoped would prepare him for year-end exams. There was no one to
ask whether he had selected the right books -- teachers were on strike
because their salaries had become pittances.

This year, Kundai has not attended school at all, like many Zimbabwean
children. Half of public schools are closed, while teachers at others have
returned only if parents pay fees in U.S. dollars, which Kundai's family
cannot afford. Last year's exams remain uncorrected, preventing him from
starting the next grade anyway. So Kundai spends days watching soccer
matches and missing the "very, very fascinating" chemistry experiments he
did when he had teachers.

"It's a basic right to go to school," the soft-spoken boy said. "Children
should go to school."

As recently as the 1990s, Zimbabwe's public education system was considered
the best in sub-Saharan Africa, producing a literacy rate that still hovers
around 90 percent. But the system is now on the brink of collapse, and the
new unity government says rescuing it is one of its most immediate
challenges.

A decade of economic decline and skyrocketing inflation has gutted education
coffers, leaving schools devoid of desks and chalk and driving teachers to
quit for better opportunities. School attendance fell to about 20 percent
last year, the United Nations says, and experts warn that a society that
prizes learning is being transformed into one in which children see that
street skills bring more prosperity than degrees do.

"In the long term, education is the only thing that will drive this country.
. . . This is a serious threat," said Tsitsi Singizi, a UNICEF spokeswoman
in Harare, the capital. "If we just have loads of children who won't be able
to access education, they'll just sit at home and think it's normal."

Zimbabwe's teachers unions agreed this week to return to work Monday, citing
the $100 government allowances issued to civil servants for February and
government pledges to address their demands. But they want salaries
comparable to those in South Africa -- at least $1,200 a month, said Oswald
Madziva of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. Their most recent pay
was worth about $2, he said.

But returning teachers to the classroom will hardly repair the system.
According to the union, about half of Zimbabwe's 120,000-strong teaching
force has left, most of them moving to other nations. So class sizes, now
averaging 50 students, will remain bloated, Madziva said.

One former high school math teacher, Leonard Makhankhula, said he would not
be lured back until teachers got housing benefits, not to mention classroom
supplies. He quit in 2007, after the black-market trading he was doing to
supplement his earnings too often prompted him to abandon lessons to go make
a deal.

"It's pathetic," said Makhankhula, 39. "You look at children and they are
innocent souls. Other people have made their mistakes, and they are doing it
at the expense of innocent souls."

The new education minister, Sen. David Coltart of the Movement for
Democratic Change, likens the situation to a postwar zone and said in an
interview that more than $400 million is needed to begin to rebuild the
system. The Finance Ministry, he said, had already set aside $4 million to
pay teachers to correct last year's dust-gathering exams. He said he hopes
foreign donors wary of giving to a government headed by the man who
plundered Zimbabwe's coffers, President Robert Mugabe, might give directly
to the education department.

"If all our revenue flows have to come from our end, it's going to take
years," Coltart said in his office in the dingy Education Ministry, which he
said has not had running water for four months.

While costly private schools remain world-class and moderately priced
religious schools are managing, the public schools that educate about 95
percent of students spent just 18 cents per pupil last year, down from about
$6 in 1991, according to a recent U.S. Embassy report.

One high school history teacher in Harare described what she and other
teachers call their "floating pool" of 20 aged textbooks, which rotates from
class to class and is used by 240 students. School toilets, she said,
function only because parents paid to drill a borehole; city water long ago
stopped flowing. Coltart said the "vast majority" of students have no desks.

And last year, many had no teachers -- leaving students, in some cases, to
teach themselves.

Two years ago, Lovemore Kuzomunhu, 19, had teachers for just two of his four
classes. So Kuzomunhu, a star pupil, and his physics classmates gave each
other lessons. He taught forces and electronics, using textbooks he bought
from street dealers.

Kuzomunhu finished high school last year. But with no exam results and
therefore no degree, he is now teaching an 80-student math class at his alma
mater. Administrators seem to trust him, he said; none has ever stopped by
to assess his skills.

"It's very difficult to start on your own," Kuzomunhu, who lives in the
southern Harare suburb of Chitungwiza, said of his decision to teach this
year. "You don't know if it's wrong or if it's right."

The schooling that has continued survives on donations from international
charities and Zimbabwean parents' steadfast dedication to education. Many
scrimp to send their children to bare-bones academies known as "private
colleges," which charge about $40 a month per subject. Last year, many paid
striking teachers $5 to give their children one private lesson.

This year, with government permission, parents associations at many public
schools drew up school budgets and determined fees -- typically $50 to $150
per pupil for each four-month term -- sufficient to attract teachers and buy
toilet paper, chalk and gas for the school bus. Many offered incentives to
the teachers, such as sugar and oil, or, in rural areas, chickens and goats.

But those fees are out of reach for many Zimbabweans. On a recent afternoon
in a township on the western edge of Harare, a tiny and barefoot Michael
Muchuchu, 14, leaned against a tree in his front yard, waving at friends
passing by in khaki uniforms and striped ties on their way to school.

The $25 term fee was too much, said his aunt, Petronella Muchuchu, 34, a
security guard who said she made 150 trillion Zimbabwean dollars last month,
"which doesn't even buy you a loaf of bread."

At a meeting, she said, parents decided students who did not pay would be
sent home.

"They say, 'Take them somewhere else,' " she said. "But there's no other
place to take them."

An aspiring electrician, Michael seemed beset by a sort of malaise.

"Uh, nothing?" he said, describing what he had been doing on this Thursday
morning. "We don't have a TV. Books, I don't have any."

A few blocks away, about a third of the student body was present at the high
school Michael should have been attending. In one classroom, 11 second-year
math students worked on an exercise with no teacher in sight.

Nearly 20 teachers sat chatting in the staff room or soaking up the
mid-morning sun on outdoor benches.

"Coming doesn't mean we have started working in the real sense of the word
work," said Preston Pundo, a geography and woodwork instructor, who said he
had been paid $50 so far, short of the $300 monthly salary the parent
association promised each teacher. "It's only a matter of setting students
on some work, and then we idle around wondering where we would get the money
to survive."

In downtown Harare, Kundai also wondered about his future, which he has
determined will be "very bleak" if he does not get his exam results and
return to school. But where would the money come from? His mother is dead,
he said, and a mysterious illness caused his father's leg to swell so
enormously that he had stopped working as a taxi driver.

Considering the circumstances, Kundai thinks he did well on the tests,
particularly on a history question about the Treaty of Versailles. He is not
so sure about math -- that textbook, he discovered on test day, was too
advanced.

"It was very unfortunate," he said. "You can't really do math by yourself
and expect to be excellent."

Special correspondent Darlington Majonga contributed to this report.

Some very interesting news

The following news items give news that does not appear to have been confirmed on other websites.

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

      Mugabe admits rigging June Election
      Saturday, 28 February 2009
      The geriatric ZANU PF leader Robert Matibili Mugabe has admitted that
he rigged the June 2008 Presidential Run-off elections that pitted him and
the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the televised 21st February
mundane interview, Zimbabwe Telegraph has confirmed.
      Following the drubbing of Mugabe in the 29 March 2008 elections by
Tsvangirai, he withheld the outcome of the presidential polls by more than a
month to give time to the rigging machinery to doctor the figures to force a
run-off.
      Prior to the run-off, Mugabe stepped up political violence to cow
Tsvangirai's legion of supporters into submission.
      Tsvangirai eventually withdrew from the race in empathy with his
supporters that had been a target of retribution by ZANU PF.
      In the interview with ZBC's Tazzan Mandizvidza, Mugabe said,
".Whatever happened in the June elections, I had a thunderous win."
      Mugabe is on record as having vented his anger saying that Nyika
haingatorwe nekaX (A mere vote cannot take the steam from ZANU PF).
      Meanwhile political commentators have said that the elections that are
coming in two years time should be handled under a new constitution and in
full observance with the international community because Mugabe knows that
on a level play field, ZANU PF cannot stand a chance.
      High level sources in ZANU PF are saying that Mugabe who is in a
dilemma at the moment is pinning his hopes for the candidature of the
current defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa his point man.
      They said that by positioning Mnangagwa in the defence ministry, he is
also protecting himself from the echoes of retribution from the opposition
party.
      "Have you realised that there is no deputy minister in the defence
ministry. ZANU PF has the lion's share of that critical ideological state
apparatus and be assured MDC is now decapitated in the face of Jongwe," they
said*
      zwradio

---------

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/

      Mass defections rock Zanu-PF
      Saturday, 28 February 2009

      CHINHOYI - There have been mass defections of Zanu-PF officials
crossing floors to the MDC.
      Across the country, reports are filtering through that thousands are
deserting President Mugabe's Zanu-PF en-masse to join the people's movement,
MDC, according to party spokesmen.
      The defections seem to have been inspired by the change that has been
noted by many in the two weeks the MDC has been in power.
      The latest defections were recorded in Chinhoyi, President Mugabe's
home province.
      Tendai Musonza, the councillor for Ward 11 in Chinhoyi Municipality in
Mashonaland West province is one of the many people who defected from
Zanu-PF and joined the MDC after realising that it was only the MDC that
could solve the country's current economic hardships, according to a party
spokesman.
      Thirteen councilors have since defected to the MDC in that local
authority alone. Hundreds others are doing the same across the country.
      Councillor Musonza said it had been a hard decision for him to make
but after serious consultations with his family and people who voted for him
in Ward 11, he decided to take the challenge.
      "It is a decision that has been prompted by my sincere conviction that
it is only the MDC that will take the people of Zimbabwe out of this dark
economic chapter," he said in a letter.
      "Comrades and friends please bear with me the fact that its difficult
to run away from an idea whose time has come," wrote Councillor Musonza in a
letter that was copied to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and
Chinhoyi Town Council.
      He proceeded: "It is the President of the USA who said: 'The world is
changing and we must change with it', true to that statement, I have been
carried away by change, not only mere change, but better change for the
people of Zimbabwe," he said.
      The MDC won 12 out of the 15 wards in Chinhoyi Town that were
contested in the March 2008 elections.
      "I want this decision not be taken as a betrayal of Zanu-PF but as an
embodiment of of my freedoms, freedom of association, freedom of choice,
freedom of speech and freedom after speaking," wrote councilor Musonza.
      The MDC also won all urban councils and a majority of the rural
councils making the MDC the largest party in control of parliament and the
majority of local authorities in the country.
      zwradio

---------

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

      Mudzuri to axe ZESA top brass
      Saturday, 28 February 2009

      Engineer Elias Mudzuri the minister for energy and power development
is crafting a revival strategy of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(ZESA) Holdings with a thrust of making it a blue chip company once again.
      Starring a massive US$1Billion capital injection, the no-nonsense
minister is said to have sounded that the top brass of the electricity
company need to be elbowed out first as they are a spend-force that might
derail his vision, Zimbabwe Telegraph has heard.
      According to a senior MDC official that declined to be named but
attends very high profile intra-party meetings, the MDC national council has
concurred that ZESA is a key driver of the socio-economic wheel and real
economic changes must start at the Samora Machel complex.
      "Engineer Mudzuri made unequivocal representations that the top brass
of ZESA has a penchant for extravagance and pilferage.
      He cited a case of a managing director that is currently on suspension
for diverting US$1Million that was meant for recurrent expenditure and
replacement of transformers as a pointer that there is much more than meets
the eye in the iceberg," said the official.
      Zimbabwe Telegraph has established that the said corrupt manager that
is currently on suspension has also diverted 20 kilogrammes of Gold that was
mined under ZESA Enterprises at Waterwich mine in Bulawayo.
      He further fraudulently sold a low-bed trailer at a meagre price of
US$1 500 to his nephew right in the face of the ZESA board and the chief
executive officer Ben Rafemoyo. The normal going prices of such a trailer is
about US$10 000.
      ZESA currently has a vigil of investigators from the ZRP commercial
crime unit, central intelligence and other security organs sifting through
the files to sniff out Moses Zviuya's shady dealings.
      The new energy and power development minister has indicated that he
wants to dismantle some companies that were created by former executive
chairman Sydney Gata under the guise of the Electricity Act Chapter 13:19 of
2003 into possibly two core business and manageable companies.
      Currently under ZESA, there are five subsidiary companies the Zimbabwe
Electricity Transmission Company (ZETC), Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution
Company (ZEDC), Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), Power Telecommunications and
ZESA Enterprises.
      Mudzuri, according to information is planning to re-bundle ZESA into
one electricity company with the transmission and distribution as divisions
within one company.
      The changes imply that most high profile figures at ZESA are likely to
be retrenched and a new breed of managers with a new business mentality
roped in*
      zwradio

---------

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

      Political detainees demo at Magitrates Court
      Saturday, 28 February 2009

      HARARE - Pro-democracy group, Restoration of Human rights Zimbabwe
(ROHR) Zimbabwe took its protest to the Rotten Row Magistrates Court
demanding the immediate release of all politicval detainees.
      A seargeant ignored the protest as placard waving activists raised
plpacards demanding the unconditional release of all the political
prisoners.
      Organisers said the demonstrations outside the courts were held under
the theme "Free human rights and political prisoners." It was the first time
that police ignored a demonstration at an official government institution.
      The primary objective, said a ROHR spokesman, was to seek the
immediate release of all prisoners of conscience who were unlawfully
abducted, arrested and detained in 2008 on trumped up charges and are still
in detentions at Chikurubi Prison and other places of detentions.
      More than 30 human rights and political detainees are still jail since
October despite shrill calls for their release.
      "Fifteen days into the inclusive government, the State seems as
adamant and determined as ever in efforts to ensure that true justice does
not prevail for the victims of the State's vindictive campaign," said a ROHR
spokesman.
      "ROHR Zimbabwe is of the view that the legal processes currently
underway is being used as a way to prolong the incarceration of the people
in question."
      The State on Tuesday invoked section 121of the Criminal Procedures and
Evidence Act and appealed against a bail ruling for Roy Bennett's release.
      This provision has been used several times to abuse the appeal
process, which invalidates, the bail ruling.
      Besides the use of this provision on Bennett this week, on nFebruary
19, the director of Prosecution, Florence Ziyambi invoked the section after
Judge Ormergee granted bail to Zecharia Nkomo, Chinyota Zulu, Regis Mujeyi
and Mapfumo Gurutsa.
      The same section was invoked by Prosecutor Chris Mutangadura following
Justice Tedius Karwi's order granting the deputy Minister of Agriculture
designate and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Tresurer Bennett.
      "The demo today was part of a campaign towards the attainment,
protection and promotion of political and civil liberties of Zimbabweans
under the new inclusive government," said the spokesperson.
      ROHR Zimbabwe a staged similar demonstration at the courts last week
Thursday again demanding the release of all political and human rights
activists.
      zwradio

---------

http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/

Mugabe agrees to fire Gono
Local News
February 28, 2009 | By Simba Dzvairo
Developing story
President Mugabe has reportedly told Reserve Governor Gideon that he should
start preparing to vacate his office as his dismissal is part of the
conditions of an economic rescue package from SADC.

The move contradicts Mugabe 's remarks in an interview with the state TV
that Gono will be allowed to remain in his position. Mr. Mugabe said he
would not reverse his appointments of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney General Johannes Tomana.

"I do not see any reason why those people should go and they will not go,"
he said.

Gono has been criticized in many quarters including SADC economists for
fueling hyperinflation by printing money in vast quantities to fund
government operations.

Foreign and Finance ministers of the 15-member Southern African Development
Community (SADC) ended a two day conference yesterday promising to "pursue
measures in support of Zimbabwe's economic recovery program."

They said SADC heads of state would meet to discuss the financing proposals
submitted by Zimbabwe, but the date will be determined by how swift Mugabe
moves to show evidence of reform and commitment.

At a meeting last week with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, South Africa's
president promised that the SADC ministers would finalize a package by the
end of this week, saying that South African and the region should set an
example in helping the stricken country.

Finance minister, Tendai Biti, attended the ministerial meeting in Cape Town
and asked for $2 billion - half for emergency spending on schools, health
care and infrastructure, and the rest on economic revival measures. Biti's
proposals were well received by his regional peers.

"We are all, as SADC, determined to help Zimbabwe mobilize the resources,"
said South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

"But, I can't guarantee how much will be raised . the economic environment
globally is difficult, so we will do our best."

Dlamini-Zuma said the regional bloc would lobby for "the normalization of
Zimbabwe" at the International Monetary Fund and the lifting of political
and financial sanctions against it.

Political violence resurges in Masvingo

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12556

February 27, 2009

By Owen Chikari

MASVINGO- Politically motivated violence has resurged in Gutu South
constituency a week after senior police officers in the province described
the situation as tense and appealed for preemptive action.

The officers called on politicians to intervene to avoid clashes between
supporters of rival political parties.

A traditional chief in the constituency and two villagers were beaten up by
unknown assailants for allegedly unleashing a reign of terror on the
villagers during the run-up to the presidential election runoff of June 27
last year.

President Robert Mugabe stood unchallenged after MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai withdrew from the race. Mugabe claimed victory but the election
was widely condemned as a sham.

Chief Phineas Makore and two unnamed villagers were recently heavily
assaulted by unidentified men who accused him of terrorising them during the
run-up to the polls.

According to the villagers, a group of youths recently visited Wepnary Farm
which was being used as a Zanu-PF torture camp and confronted known
perpetrators of violence during the run-up to the polls.

The group of youths, from the nearby Guni and Muwunde villages, wanted the
alleged perpetrators of violence during the run-up to the polls to explain
why they were beating up people in the area.

Chief Makore and some of his villagers were named as some of the alleged
culprits.

The youths, who were angered by Chief Makore's alleged involvement in the
destruction of their homes, pounced on him with sticks and stones. The chief
was injured him in the process. Some of his villagers were also attacked.

Chief Makore confirmed the attack on Friday, adding that he had since made a
report to the police.

"I was attacked by some youths whom I suspect to be MDC supporters," he
said.

"They accused me of beating up people during the run-up to the elections but
the thing is I did not beat up anyone. I have made a report and I think
police will arrest the culprits."

Police in Masvingo said they were investigating the case.

"We are investigating that case but so far no one has been arrested ", said
a police office who requested anonymity.

The situation remains tense in Masvingo following the establishment of the
inclusive government.

Law enforcement agents have called on politicians to intervene to diffuse a
potentially explosive situation.

"The situation remains tense in rural parts of Masvingo especially in Zaka ,
Gutu and Mwenezi where there were numerous cases of political violence
during the run-up to the elections, " said a senior police officer based in
Masvingo.

"We are also calling upon politicians and political parties to embark on a
counselling exercise where those who were victims during the run-up to the
polls have to understand and live harmoniously with those they call their
enemies.

"Among those who desperately need counselling are war veterans who were
beating up people with impunity.

"If there is no proper counselling we do not rule out the possibility of
increased cases of politically motivated violence".

The inclusive government has since nominated ministers of state John Nkomo
of Zanu-PF, Sekai Holland (mainstream MDC) and Gibson Sibanda (Arthur
Mutambara-led MDC) to spearhead a national healing process after about a
decade of political violence.

Mugabe to conditionally free prisoners

http://www.taipeitimes.com

'SHOCKING': The lawyer for a group of Zimbabwean political prisoners lashed
out at the demand that each detainee pay US$600,00 in bail and drop all
torture charges

DPA , HARARE
Sunday, Mar 01, 2009, Page 6
Zimbabwean state lawyers on Friday agreed to the release of a group of
political prisoners held since October by President Robert Mugabe's secret
police - on the condition that they withdraw litigation against their
captors for the brutal torture they suffered, their lawyer said.

Most of the group of 16 abductees have already been granted bail by judges,
but state security and legal officials have either defied the orders or
blocked their release.

The release of the political prisoners has dominated the 26-day-old
transitional coalition government between Mugabe and pro-democracy leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who is now serving as prime minister, with the continued
detention in violation of court orders threatening to abort the agreement.

The prisoners were facing charges of undergoing "terrorist" training and of
bombing police stations, although their lawyers say that after five months,
police and state prosecutors have failed to produce any evidence.

Tsvangirai said this week that Mugabe had agreed that the detainees would be
released on bail, overruling attempts by his officials to keep them in
custody. There has been an international outcry over their continued
detention.

But in discussions late on Friday over the terms of their bail, state
lawyers laid down "impossible" conditions, defense lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa
said.

She said the state insisted the prisoners each pay bail of US$600,000 and
agree to withdraw law suits lodged in Harare's high court against their
alleged torturers.

"It is a patently unlawful condition," she said. "It's the most shocking
thing I've heard."

The prisoners have given harrowing accounts in court of their torture after
their abduction, including prolonged beating on the feet, electric shock,
partial drowning, being hung upside down and having hot and cold water
poured over them. Seven of them are in hospital undergoing treatment for
physical and mental trauma.

Mtetwa said she had told some of the prisoners of the deal being offered and
would let them "sleep on it" before deciding. She said the state lawyers'
offer was not made to a smaller group of the 16 who have not been granted
bail by the courts.

The offer also excluded Roy Bennett, Tsvangirai's popular agriculture deputy
minister designate who was arrested two weeks ago, hours before he was due
to be sworn in with the rest of the Cabinet. He has been charged with
"banditry, sabotage, terrorism and insurgency."

The exclusion was not explained and came despite a high court order this
week that he be freed on bail. The ruling was blocked by state lawyers'
appeals.

Observers say that the demands for torture charges to be dropped indicate
anxiety among state security officials, who for the last 30 years have
operated Mugabe's violent machinery of repression with impunity. However,
since the establishment of the power-sharing government, they now find
themselves under threat of prosecution.

Mutambara locks horns with Mugabe

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12541

February 27, 2009

By Geoffrey Nyarota

ARTHUR Mutambara, the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister has come back
with guns blazing after he was publicly berated by President Mugabe on
television Thursday.

In a statement issued to The Zimbabwe Times from the office of the Deputy
Prime Minister Friday and described as "our response to Mugabe's remarks
covered on your website" Mutambara said he stood by every word that he had
uttered, resulting in the rebuke by Mugabe during a television interview to
mark his birthday.

Mugabe turned 85 on Saturday. Mutambara who was sworn in as Deputy Prime
Minister two weeks ago turns 43 in May. Mugabe was 42 when Mutambara was
born in May 1966.

"The Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Professor Arthur G.
O. Mutambara, does not regret any statements that he has made on the current
Monetary Policy and the National Budget," Mutambara said in the statement
issued exclusively to The Zimbabwe Times.

In a televised interview broadcast on Zimbabwe television on Thursday
evening Mugabe made reference to the spat between the Deputy Prime Minister
and the governor of the Reserve Bank. The President made it patently clear
he was on Gono's side in this particular dispute. He also publicly responded
for the first time to calls by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that
Gono should be replaced in the position of governor.

Mugabe said Gono was not leaving the central bank.

"Those were emotional utterances," Mugabe said referring to statements made
by the Deputy Prime Minister. "I am sure Mutambara regrets where he said the
monetary policy must be nullified.

"How do you nullify a budget that has gone through Parliament? It's the one
that (Finance Minister Tendai) Biti is using, including the monetary policy.
So you don't nullify it."

Mugabe charitably suggested that Mutambara was still new and was thus still
prone to making mistakes.

"You must grant that we have new people and they would be making a few
mistakes," he said. "Well if mistakes are outrageous, naturally they put
people off but we try to correct each other."

Referring to his own performance, Mugabe said he had refrained from making
any statements of late.

"I have not been making any statements myself," he said. "In fact, I have
avoided making statements."

The president then turned sarcastic.

"We should as much as possible keep quiet and talk to ourselves in the
chambers that we have provided ourselves with and we have those chambers. I
don't see why but of course there is always the instinct of 'let the people
hear me and let my voice be heard', but it may be a croaking voice, you
know, not harmonious. It's not everybody who can sing. Very few people have
nice voices, some will make you deaf."

But Mutambara, for whom Mugabe has openly displayed a predilection in the
past, would not be intimidated.

"When President Robert Mugabe made reference to Professor Mutambara on ZTV,
with regards to the above issues," Mutambara said in his statement, "he was
expressing his own personal views as a citizen of Zimbabwe. The Deputy Prime
Minister would want to put it on record that he totally disagrees with these
personal views of Mugabe."

It was important, Mutambara pointed out, that Zimbabweans make a distinction
between Mugabe's personal views and public policy.

Mutambara and Gono appear to share a common trait. While Gono fondly refers
to himself as "Your Governor", in now appears Zimbabweans will have to get
used to one of their two Deputy Prime Ministers always referring to himself
as the Deputy Prime Minister. The potential for Deputy Prime Minister
Thokozani Khupe being completely overshadowed in the circumstances is quite
strong.

What prompted the now raging squabble was a statement made by Deputy Prime
Minister Mutambara on Thursday, February 19. He told a high profile business
forum in Harare that Gono's recent monetary measures would be reversed in
due course.

Mutambara advised the business community to disregard the fiscal and
monetary policies recently announced by Gono and then acting Finance
Minister, Patrick Chinamasa.

"Don't base your planning on Chinamasa's or Gono's statements," Mutambara
told a roundtable of chief executives held in Harare, "There will be
fundamental reviews on these."

In the monetary policy statement, the central bank liberalized the country's
exchange rate regime, while officially allowing the free circulation of
multiple currencies in Zimbabwe.

Gono's position as a powerful and very close ally of Mugabe, has failed to
shield him from widespread accusations of presiding over runaway inflation
and the total collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar. He and the President in turn
both accuse western governments of imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, which,
according to their own theory, have caused the country's economic crisis.

Stung by Mutambara's public rebuke Gono urged bankers and the business
community to abide by his statements and avoid what he said was unnecessary
panicking.

He was adamant that he had consulted widely before he came up with his
monetary policy statement. By law he was still in charge of the central
bank, he declared combatively.

"As we work to stabilize the national economy," Gono said, "We advise our
principals in the field of politics to carefully weigh their pronouncements,
particularly in technical areas such as banking and finance that risk
destabilizing the economy.

"Engaging in needless brawls, either as a way of proving the mightier among
ourselves, or as a result of ill-advice from those around us should be
avoided in the national interest."

Gono's bristling pronouncements were also meant for the ear of the new
Finance Minister, Tendai Biti.

Biti, a known critic of Gono and Zanu-PF's economic policies, had also said
changes would be effected to Chinamasa's budget. There has been a perception
that an early strategy of Biti in his new portfolio is to remove Gono from
his entrenched position at the Reserve Bank.

The entry of Mugabe into the fray on the side of Gono this week must have
revealed to Biti that Gono could, in fact, be a fixed liability at the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe is winning battle for soul of Zimbabwe

http://www.independent.co.uk

World Focus

Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor

Saturday, 28 February 2009

President Robert Mugabe's crony Gideon Gono remains in control of the
central bank. The seizure of white-owned farms continues. Opposition
activists remain jailed. The clampdown on media freedoms goes on: the BBC
and CNN are still banned from the country and foreign journalists have to
work undercover. International donors wait on the sidelines.

This is Zimbabwe two weeks after the formation of a national unity
government in which the leader of the opposition, Movement for Democratic
Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, is Prime Minister. But far from presiding over a
government which is bringing new hope to a desperate people, Mr Tsvangirai
and his bitter rival, Mr Mugabe, are pursuing their struggle for the soul of
Zimbabwe and so far the 85-year-old president is winning.

It has been a week of birthday celebrations for Mr Mugabe, who turned 85 on
21 February. He plans to hold a lavish celebration rally today while his
people starve or die from cholera. In interviews this week he pledged to
keep Mr Gono, who clearly sees himself as a future prime minister and was
reappointed to a new five-year term, despite printing the Zimbabwean dollar
to death in his first term.

"They will not go," Mr Mugabe told the state-run Herald newspaper, referring
to his unilateral appointment of several officials, which, according to Mr
Tsvangirai, is in breach of their power-sharing agreement.

Speaking to Zimbabwe television on Thursday evening, Mr Mugabe also rejected
Western demands for the removal of media restrictions as "nonsense".

Why did Mr Tsvangirai accept the poisoned chalice of serving as Mr Mugabe's
prime minister? Internationally, he was under intense pressure from South
Africa, Zimbabwe's neighbour which has been on the receiving end of a wave
of refugees and disease from across the border. At home his inner circle
wrestled with the choice of whether to try to achieve change from inside a
unity government, or whether to keep fighting from outside. Mr Tsvangirai
surprised friends and foes by choosing the first option, which carries the
risk of failure or of being corrupted by the Mugabe system.

His most pressing challenge is to refloat the collapsed economy and he has
gone cap in hand to South Africa and its neighbours seeking an initial $2bn
(£1.4bn) for a recovery package. But Britain, the former colonial power, and
the EU are restricting their help to humanitarian assistance until the
International Monetary Fund can audit the books, and are sticking to
conditions linked to human rights and political freedoms. An early test will
be whether Mr Tsvangirai's Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, can remove Mr
Gono. "It's hard to see any trend that suggests they will [win] after two
weeks", said a senior diplomat. In the meantime, the Prime Minister has made
another surprise announcement: he has decided to attend President Mugabe's
birthday party today.

Should tourists now return to Zimbabwe?

http://www.independent.co.uk

Simon Calder:

Saturday, 28 February 2009

Two months into the year, and the language used by some in the travel
industry is open to interpretation. I deduce that "We're a little down on
last year" actually means "We're a lot down on last year". "Promising"
translates as "We took a booking last week", while "There's definitely a
groundswell of interest" decodes as "We haven't taken a booking all year".
And if someone describes business as "Quite encouraging", you can probably
conclude they are en route to administration.

If it's grim up here in the Northern Hemisphere, fly 70 degrees south and 30
degrees east to Harare, to see just how lousy life can be. Today, for the
first time in more than a decade, The Independent Traveller is running a
story on the wretched country of Zimbabwe.
"Welcome to Zimbabwe - now in its 150 millionth year": that was how the
nation was first promoted after the civil war ended. Before Robert Mugabe's
regime began to slide into despotism and to extinguish human rights, the
country formerly known as Rhodesia enjoyed a spell as one of the most
beguiling nations in Africa. I was lucky enough to visit twice in the 1990s.
After exploring the Save region, close to the Mozambique border - off-limits
during the insurrection against white rule - I wrote of the "openness,
generosity and sheer good humour of life" I found.

Today, good humour has been eradicated along with hope, as Mugabe's thugs
accelerate the rot that the president began. The benighted Zimbabwean people
must scrape a living in an economy that has been plundered and wrecked as
the West - and South Africa - look on.

How could anyone contemplate going on holiday to Zimbabwe, particularly when
bringing in hard currency could help to prop up the despicable regime? And
how could a newspaper committed to human rights suggest that you do?

Travel and politics are uncomfortable companions. The one success story of
Britain's mainstream tourist industry this summer is likely to send more
than two million of us to Turkey - a country that has oppressed its Kurdish
people. Pretty soon in the 21st century, China - which seems to be doing its
best to stifle Tibetan culture and trample on political dissent at home -
will take over from France as the world's leading tourist destination. And
Cuba, featured (yet again) on page 19 of this edition, is hardly a bastion
of free speech and fair elections.

Yet we intend to continue to cover travel to all these destinations. You
might see that as pragmatism: there are only so many stories that can be
written about Scandinavia. But it also reflects the reality that these are
the places to which Independent readers travel. Our commitment is to
inspire, entertain and to inform travellers.

So where do we draw the line? At Burma: a decade ago, the democratically
elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, called for a tourism boycott until civilian
rule is restored, saying "Burma will be here for many years, so visit us
later". Visiting now is tantamount to condoning the regime.

Back to Zimbabwe. For the first time in a decade, the international
community is seeking to re-engage with the Zimbabwe government, though with
deep reservations about Mugabe's commitment to power-sharing. As Jeremy
Laurance's fascinating story reveals, the human and indeed animal
populations of Zimbabwe are desperate for overseas visitors in order to
survive.

In any location with an oppressive government, trying to spend your cash to
the maximum benefit of the people is always a good plan, but however careful
you are about paying the lodge owners direct and tipping staff well, the
regime is likely to get its hands on some of your spending money. But better
that than the national parks are allowed to perish, destroying the future
for tourism in Zimbabwe as surely as Mugabe is destroying the present.

Zimbabwe: A beautiful land in need of a change of fortune

Visitors once flocked to Zimbabwe, but abhorrence for President Mugabe's regime has all but destroyed tourism in the country. When will the tourists be tempted back?

By Jeremy Laurance

Saturday, 28 February 2009

COURTNEY JOHNSON

Paradise found: Makalolo plains camp at sunset

Almost the first thing Bryson said on greeting my 20-year-old daughter Olivia and me at the border post next to Victoria Falls bridge was: "You are the first British tourists I have seen in so very long. You are most welcome to Zimbabwe."

We had travelled that morning from Lusaka, Zambia's capital, and in an instant, Bryson had established one fact about the holiday we had planned in its benighted neighbour: it was going to be exclusive.

Most of the Zimbabweans we met over the next week agreed with Bryson: 1999 was the year when tourism from the UK dwindled to a trickle. The Independent Traveller, unwilling to lend support to an odious regime, has not carried a report on Zimbabwe since September 1998. But with political change inching closer, despite a series of setbacks orchestrated by President Mugabe, it seemed the right moment to investigate what the country has to offer the traveller, whose tourist dollars it so desperately needs.

At the Wimpy Bar on the corner of the main street I asked for the printed price list. It had been produced the previous week but each entry was already scratched out and a new, inflated, amount inserted by hand.

Yards from this economic mayhem, white, mostly well-heeled tourists still enjoy the spectacle of the "smoke that thunders", though in reduced numbers. It was the end of the dry season, and the Zambezi was less than half full. Locals say it is the time when "see the falls" becomes "see the rocks" because so little water is flowing through. Yet the spectacle was far more dramatic than on my last visit to the falls, in May three years ago, when the river was in full spate. Then the smoke thundered, all right, but all I could see was spray.

On that occasion I was on the Zambian side. To see the falls properly, you have to be on the Zimbabwean side, where a finger of land juts out into the gorge, affording extraordinary views, each one more dramatic than the last. Along the kilometre-long path, we encountered knots of Japanese, Portuguese and Americans, but no British tourists. This is one of the world's great sights. When the path closed at 6pm, we were beside the statue of David Livingstone: stiff-backed and moustached, still commemorated as the "discoverer" of the falls in 1855. And we were alone.

We stayed in the Ilala Lodge, where bills must be settled in US dollars (cash only; no credit cards). It is a classy establishment with a thatched roof, polished wood, engravings of Victorian explorers, white linen, deferential staff and an intimate feel. Here, I ate the freshest bream I have tasted. The chef himself had caught it that morning, and oven-baked the fish in coconut milk and "eastern spices".

We sat on the terrace, drinks in hand, looking over a forest of acacia and baobab. And we wondered how, in a country where power cuts and water shortages are frequent and cholera is now rampant, it was all possible.

Halfway through dinner, Olivia leaned across the table and whispered conspiratorially, "Everyone looks so old. Not old like you, really old." It was true. Most of our fellow guests were American – and not one of them could have been under 70, with many clearly well into their eighties. They were on tour, we later learnt, with an enterprising American travel company that flies groups of pensioners on "adventure" trips all over the world.)

Their presence was reassuring. Before leaving the UK most of our friends had wondered why on earth we had chosen to take a holiday in a country in a state of civil unrest. The Foreign Office advice had not been encouraging: "You are strongly advised to have your own contingency plan in place for how you would leave at short notice," it warned. But if it was OK for so many American octogenarians, it would surely be OK for us.

A decade ago, Victoria Falls town was thriving, its hotels full, with tourists queuing for white-water rafting, bungee jumping, helicopter rides and safaris. Today, most of the business has moved to Livingstone, on the Zambian side. The town, though insulated from the worst effects of the economic meltdown in the rest of the country, is a shadow of its former self.

The Victoria Falls Hotel, once the grandest in the country, still serves high tea on the terrace, but struggles to fill its $450-a-night rooms; staff have been laid off. The Elephant Hills Hotel has closed, like many others. The vast casino at the Kingdom Hotel, though still open, is eerily silent. Only two people were playing any of the 400 slot machines on the day we called.

Ilala Lodge is clearly prospering from its American pensioner clientele. That apart, only the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge seems to be bucking the downward trend; it is a colourful, themed establishment spectacularly situated on a hill outside the town above a waterhole at which game comes to drink.

This is clearly bad news for Zimbabwe. But it is good news for the visitor. At the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge we had the pool to ourselves.

Next morning, we took a one-hour flight in a six-seater Cessna to Hwange National Park. Zebras eyed us from the end of the runway as we taxied to the terminal, where we were the only passengers. Noel, our guide, collected our bags, and we set off on Olivia's first-ever game drive.

It is always worth taking a safari virgin on a trip to a game park – for those, like me, who think they have seen it all before. Her squeals of delight at the first antelope, the first giraffe, the first baboon, restored to me for an instant the child I knew a decade ago.

Yet it quickly became clear I had not seen it all before. Over many years, I have visited game parks in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana. In some of themu o– Kenya's glorious Masai Mara, for example – it can be difficult to see the game for the press of vehicles laden with tourists clustered round them. Yet in five days in Hwange we saw more animals, in greater numbers and in a wider variety of situations than I have seen anywhere – and there were almost no other tourists.

It is difficult to experience the "wilderness" when lenses are zooming and shutters are clicking all around you. Not here. In Zimbabwe – this is, I am afraid, becoming a refrain – we were on our own.

Around noon, we stopped at a waterhole for a drink from the coolbox. We were watching a group of four ground-hornbills, the size of turkeys, make their ungainly way in search of shade, when, in the blinding light, the grey thorn bushes opposite started to advance towards the pool of brackish water. As they did so they metamorphosed into solid shapes with flapping ears and swinging trunks before plunging into the pan to drink and slosh and roll.

That extraordinary sighting of elephants – two dozen of them emerging silently, urgently, unexpectedly from the bush – was the first of scores. The park is home to an estimated 45,000 elephants (last counted three years ago) and in the dry season all of them have to drink from one of the few waterholes.

Our first camp was the Hide, a luxury thatched lodge overlooking a small lake backed by a forest of flat-topped, silvery green acacia trees. We watched, mesmerised, as, when dusk fell, herd after herd of elephants came padding out of the trees, hurrying towards the water in which they would drink and snort and wallow.

We ate huge meals of chicken casserole and beef hotpot each evening around an enormous polished teak dining table in the two-storey thatched dining room. Then we would carry our drinks to the veranda to peer out in the darkness at the ghostly herds of elephant, giraffe and buffalo moving around the waterhole. In the country beyond the park's perimeter fence there are desperate shortages of almost everything. But there are no shortages within it – other than of tourists.

Our few fellow guests comprised a middle-aged white Zimbabwean farmer who lost his land to Mugabe's henchmen five years ago, his wife and a young Scandanavian couple taking a break from backpacking to splurge on a safari. Conversation around the table focused on simple survival in Zimbabwe. Hot topics included how to blag your way across the South African border, where to go in Botswana with your US dollars for the best shopping, and how to get it back.

When operating at peak capacity, the Hide provided employment for around 40 staff. That is a distant dream today. It caters to a "meat and potatoes" crowd: solid, salt-of-the-earth types who like traditional cooking in the heart of the bush. Its spectacular location and homely, family-run feel have helped it survive; half the rival lodges in Hwange park are closed. We took an evening game drive to a vlei (open grassland) where the waterhole was dominated by quarrelsome baboons surrounded by palm trees. Under the huge sky, the pale dry grasses tinged pink by the setting sun, we watched the animals lounge across the horizon, as if a million years of history had never happened.

The radio crackled into life: lions were drinking from the waterhole at camp. It was dark by the time we got back but we quickly found the four fine young males, their pale manes gleaming in the torchlight, sniffing the evening air expectantly. Next morning we discovered one of them hungrily gnawing the carcass of a baby elephant in the middle of the vlei, watched at a respectful distance by a small audience of giraffe, impala, and zebra.

On this evidence, the game seem unaffected by the crisis in the country. But not for much longer. Our second camp was Little Makalolo, run by Wilderness Safaris. It comprises a group of luxury tents built on stilts and linked by raised wooden walkways winding among the trees. They offered an extraordinary standard of comfort: flushing toilets, inside and outside showers, polished wood floors and linen sheets. Two American couples , geologists on the trip of a lifetime, were the only other guests.

On the afternoon we arrived, in the enervating heat, Olivia and I lay by the plunge pool on the veranda by the central thatched bar. We watched a family of elephants lazily approach the waterhole in the distance. Turning up their trunks at the muddy puddle in the pan, they paused, sniffed and then headed in our direction. A minute later, half a dozen African elephants, including a huge male and a couple of babies, had flopped their trunks over the pool's edge at our feet, and were sucking up great draughts of water and squirting them down their throats, like so many cisterns emptying. Their raging thirst temporarily slaked, they gently withdrew, eyeing us warily all the while.

Among many vivid moments, that was the one, for both Olivia and me, that will remain burned in our memories. Without the plunge pool, the elephants would have had nothing to drink (it was regularly emptied by passing herds, the staff told us). Without the pumps to fill the water holes, maintained by the few lodges and camps that remain open, many more would die. Without the animals, Zimbabwe's tourist industry, vital to its future, will wither.

My view: visit Zimbabwe

By Basildon Peta

Although it is inevitable that some tourist earnings will land in the hands of Robert Mugabe and his extravagant young wife, Grace, who have been on a spending spree in Asia even as thousands of their citizens die of the preventable cholera epidemic, I have other reasons for urging tourists to flood Zimbabwe.

While Jeremy Laurance was lucky enough to encounter groups of American pensioners on tour, there have been times when the tourist arrival rates at most wildlife resorts in Zimbabwe have stood at almost zero. It is during such times of inactivity that people are deployed by the Mugabe regime to invade these parks and shoot hundreds of animals, mainly elephants, for meat to feed soldiers in the barracks around the country. My sources warn that the impact could be devastating on conservation efforts. They are unanimous on one thing: the ruthless slaughter of game can only be stopped if tourism activity is restored in these parks, to expose these illegal practices.

I am a nature-lover and spend most of my holidays in South Africa's Kruger National Park. I don't mind if some of your dollars end up being looted at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to fund the Mugabes' shopping sprees. With your arrival, your eyes and ears will provide enough guard to save these animals from slaughter.

Basildon Peta is The Independent's Southern Africa correspondent. He left Zimbabwe in 2002, fearing for his safety, and now lives in exile in Johannesburg

Zimbabwe Experience - a History Lesson

http://www.thetimes.co.za

The By Bharat V Patel Published:Feb
28, 2009

I remember my school days at Lenasia High School (a suburb on the south
western side of Johannesburg), I remember my history teachers Mr. Dhanjee
and Mr. Mohammed, they taught me all about World War I and II, about
dictators like Hitler, about the policies of divide and rule. - Bharat V
Patel, Lenasia

It wasn't meaningful to me at that time, so I wasn't really interested,
being young, naive, immature and mostly ignorant, I didn't appreciate the
value of their lessons then, but, how wrong I was, because as I grow older,
and perhaps wiser, I keep learning that history is a good teacher,
especially if one learns from it, the good and the bad, and not repeating it's
mistakes. .

How appropriate for our times, because in the development of our young
democracy, we should learn from some of the lessons that have been
experienced by our northern neighbours, Zimbabwe Experience, let's pray that
we don't repeat them.

The Zimbabwe History Lesson:

Thirty years ago, Zimbabwe won a hard fought battle to overthrow a
white-minority oppressive government, Robert Mugabe came into power, the
country had a strong economy then, it was one of the top exporting countries
in Africa and had a happy populace with no hunger and poverty, post
independence Zimbabwe recorded significant improvements in living conditions
for the formerly oppressed people.

State intervention on a range of fronts in the 80's resulted in faster GDP
growth, improvements in social services and so forth, but sadly, today, the
country lies in tatters, at the brink of a human tsunami, a model showcase
of what human greed, corruption, arrogance and mismanagement can do to a
nation.

Robert Mugabe and his henchmen went against the tide of normal human
behaviour, he decided to trample and bludgeon democracy, he decided that the
country, it's people and it's resources was for his own personal use, his
own playground, for the enjoyment of his clan, any opposition was brutally
stamped out.

What we are now witnessing in Zimbabwe is a paradigm paralysis as the
government lacks a coherent strategy to resolve the economic and social woes
facing the country. Though Mugabe and his psychotic mind won in the end,
sadly, an entire nation lost out, a country destroyed, with millions of
lives ruined, a human catastrophe. This is his legacy, a bitter price to pay
for a nation.

Summarized below, in point form, are some notable highlights of the policies
leading to the disaster.

... The government ruled in a heavy-handed way for many years, intolerant of
dissent and political plurality stamping out freedom of speech and press.

... Mismanagement at all levels of government.

... The absence and of law and order and total disregard of the constitution
leading to the judiciary became puppets of Mugabe and his ruling party.

... The rogue government ruled autocratically, forming a dictatorship,
oppression and repression was the order of the day.

... . The population was ruled by force via the total abuse of the military
and police force by Mugabe, he turned the police force and army against his
own people, making war against his own people to support his delusional
theories.

... Bribery and corruption at all levels of government.

... Non cooperation with the global community and foreign governments and
rejecting help from them.

... No internal development within the country for the past twenty years.

... A total breakdown of government structures and governance.

... He expelled talented people, causing a 'brain-drain', leaving the
country drifting without any direction, rudderless.

... Gross human rights violations.

... The liberation movement went out of out of control - Mugabe used the
supporters of his Zanu party as instruments of propaganda and violence
against the nation. The leaders of the liberation movement became an elitist
class, wallowing in luxury, plundering state coffers at the expensive of the
masses, bribery and corruption became the new slogan, the purpose of the
freedom struggle forgotten.

... He ignored sanctions against the country by the world community, Mugabe's
deranged mind could not distinguish between right from wrong, he did not
realize that sanctions was imposed on the country as a sign of despair by
the world community to change his policies.

... In order to mask its failures and faced by prospects of a credible
opposition, the government opportunistically used the land question to
deflect attention from its failures.

The fast track land resettlement programme, in plain English 'land grabbing'
from white farmers, was nothing less than an election gimmick to keep Mugabe
in power, though there was a justified need to redistribute land because of
imbalances in the past, however, this has to be to be planned and done in an
orderly manner, prime land was given to unskilled people without the
necessary knowledge and skills to farm the land, this caused major food
shortages because of fertile farms being turned into desert wastelands. The
country is now totally dependent on foreign aid for it's food supply.

... While all this was happening, there was a negative undercurrent in the
country that was fueling the fire, this was the opposition and
non-cooperation by some white people to undermine to government to ensure
that it failed, this generated anger and resentment by the population at
large, and was the primary reason for all the negative policies against
white people.

Potential lessons learned (by me at least):

The first lesson to learn is around governance and necessary checks and
balances. The Zimbabwean government ruled in a heavy-handed way for many
years, intolerant of dissent and political plurality. Political intolerance
is manifest in the tendency to label anyone one who criticizes government as
counter-revolutionary and as an enemy of the revolution. This attitude in
the long term degenerates into violence where the incumbents want to
physically annihilate their opponents.

The second important lesson is that the colonial legacy must be addressed as
a matter of urgency - otherwise the stability of society would remain
fragile.

The land question was left for a long time like a wound left to fester. This
goes to the core of the aim of any revolution.

People cannot eat slogans, rhetoric or history. Liberty must bring tangible
benefits to the formerly oppressed; it must mean something to the young, the
old, women and workers. Failure to resolve the pressing issues of society
such as unemployment, lead to disillusionment, disenchantment and lack of
interest in the transformation process. If transformation does not change
the material conditions of the formerly oppressed then it is tantamount to a
cosmetic change - replacing white with black rulers.

The third lesson from the Zimbabwean experience relates to the fate of
liberation movements. Many may argue that it is inevitable that once they
have tasted power the liberation movement gets corrupted and bureaucratised.
President Nelson Mandela always says that power corrupts, and that absolute
power corrupts absolutely!

The bureaucratisation of the former liberation movement takes many forms: a
growing distance between the leadership and the masses - with former
revolutionaries being aloof and talking above the heads of the people. I do
not believe that the bureaucratisation of democratic movements is inevitable
but it is a choice that people make. Therefore to keep the democratic
movement vibrant and democratic it must retain its links with the people.

The forth lesson is on role models and leadership, leaders are role models
of the nation, the standards that they set are imbibed and practiced
throughout the population, if bribery and corruption, unfair practices,
illegal activities and favouritism is the order of the day then the entire
nation becomes corrupt.

What we have witnessed in Zimbabwe is a study in irony, when a government
for a long time fails to address critical issues facing the masses but in a
rather Orwellian fashion turns up revolutionary rhetoric to try to whip up
support.

Additionally, government embraces neo-liberalism only to discard it towards
election gains and does not address fundamental daily issues, what is needed
is a broad based development strategy focusing on pivotal investment in
infrastructure; macro-economic development, human development; industrial
and political democracy, public sector reforms and trade.

On the positive side, South Africa, the jewel of Africa, the most developed
country in Africa, with the highest number of literate and educated people,
with a remarkable history of a non-violent struggle for freedom that was
orchestrated by one of the greatest leaders ever, our own ex-President
Nelson R Mandela, is something that we should all be proud of, it continues
to make positive strides in improving the quality of life of it's citizens,
look around us, there are positive developments everywhere, yet, there are
also signs and under-currents in the political arena that are creating dark
clouds and restless feelings amongst the population in general, this has to
be addressed and remedied.

So, let's be good scholars and take a lesson from the Zimbabwe experience,
we see similar trends in South Africa, bribery and corruption, unlawful
behaviour, illegal activities, high crime rates, violence against women and
children, mismanagement, yet we keep quiet about it and allow it to happen,
this translates to a tacit approval of all these activities, this is wrong,
we have to stop it immediately, remember, this is our country, it belongs to
us, we control our own destinies, if we continue to allow bad government,
bad leadership, irresponsible behaviour to continue then we are ourselves to
blame, it will lead to a failed state.

On personal safety - what is the purpose of life if there's no safety and
security, should we continue to study, go to work, raise a family, go on
vacation, etc.? is there any value in life? Safety and security is the basic
foundation of life of any society, if absent, there is no purpose of life,
our constitution on paper guarantees the safety and security of every
citizen, but in reality, the government has failed to protect us.

Let's be smart and use all the available talent that we have in the country
and not marginalize any segment of the population, doing so is a total waste
of resources, the past should be forgotten, we need all the available
resources that we have to build the country and it's economy, no amount of
liberation theory is going to help us. There are thousands of people from
various walks of life who have the necessary skills and experience to mentor
and share their knowledge and technical expertise that is required in all
areas of the country, let's use it.

Mugabe calls on white farmers to leave, during lavish birthday celebrations