Daily News
Under whose authority do these men act?
5/10/02 9:27:43 AM (GMT +2)
ANDREW Ndlovu, who happens to
be the secretary for projects in the
Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans' Association, has declared he is
on a mission to "chase away white
commercial farmers on the farms",
ostensibly on behalf of the
government.
Rebutting views to the contrary by Patrick
Nyaruwata, his chairman in
the war veterans' association, Ndlovu said this
week: "His statements are
not doing any good to the white commercial farmers.
He is merely misleading
them because whether he likes it or not, we are going
to beat them up and
chase them from the farms."
He has already
served more than 800 farmers with ultimatums to vacate
their land or risk
being forcibly evicted. He is also inciting race hatred,
whose targets appear
to be whites and Asians.
This is not the first time that Ndlovu has
threatened the people of
this country. In March 2000, he threatened war if
Zanu PF lost the June 2000
parliamentary election. He claimed they had hidden
arms of war in caches all
over the country and his members were ready to take
up arms.
Keeping, or the concealment of arms war, is a crime.
Various other
Zimbabweans have been arrested for allegedly being found
in possession
of weapons, even if these later turned out to be licensed
weapons. But
Ndlovu was not arrested. He has been emboldened by the
government's benign
negligence, when it comes to those of its supporters who
deliberately and
publicly flout the law.
Ndlovu is not the
Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement.
Neither
is he a civil servant.
Tragically no one in government or the
law-enforcement agencies
appears to have noticed that this former dissident
is going about
threatening law-abiding citizens of this country.
The government's see-no-evil, hear-no-evil and speak-no-evil approach
to
Ndlovu's threats suggests he has their blessing. He is one example of how
the
government has encouraged lawlessness over the past 27 months.
The
government's ambivalent position to the extra-legal activities of
the
so-called war veterans fuels lawlessness.
Why has Ndlovu not been
arrested for his statements, when Zimbabweans,
who belong to the opposition
are being dragged before the courts allegedly
for making threats similar to
those uttered by Ndlovu?
The government does not need Ndlovu to run
rampant through the
countryside threatening Zimbabweans and the livelihood of
thousands of
workers. The government has adequate legal powers to seize all
the land it
requires in Zimbabwe. So, on whose authority are Ndlovu and his
colleagues
acting? Are they not subject to the laws of this country? If they
are, why
has action not been taken against them?
Ndlovu could be
running from his shadows and could be trying to create
a smokescreen to help
him wriggle out of his predicament, when he next
appears before the courts in
10 days' time.
The plot could be to suggest to the justice system
that as someone the
government allows free rein, along with its system of
amnesties and pardons,
the courts will believe he is untouchable and let him
walk out free. But in
any normal situation, the government would have told
Ndlovu to concentrate
more on defending himself and clearing his
name.
There must be some conduct that applies to war veterans and
the way
they behave or make utterances, purportedly on behalf of
anyone.
Since they were incorporated into the army, as a reserve
force, they
ought to be governed by the same rules that apply to military
personnel.
If that does not happen, the government needs to realise
that it is
sowing the seeds of anarchy. That could be part of its grand
strategy, but
it is creating a serious legacy of the proportions Somalia woke
up to after
the fall of Siad Barre.
Only someone without the
genuine interests of Zimbabwe could wish for
such tragedy to befall this
country.
Two Suspected Poachers Shot Dead in
Zimbabwe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xinhuanet 2002-05-10 14:42:48
HARARE, May 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Two
suspected poachers were shot
dead while anther was seriously injured during a
contact with an
anti-poaching unit in Chirisa Safari area along the Zambezi
Valleyat the
weekend, a local media reported on Friday.
The
injured poacher was captured and is detained at an unnamed
hospital after
sustaining serious gunshot wounds, the newspaper
Herald
reported.
The contact between the poachers and a
specialized unit of
gamescouts took place in Chirisa between Gokwe North and
Binga districts.
Although details were still sketchy, Secretary
for Environment and
Tourism Lucas Tavaya Thursday confirmed that a crack by
the anti-poaching
unit operating along the Zambezi Valley had killed two
poachers.
Tavaya said the unit was tracking down the suspected
poachers that
escaped during the crackdown.
The poachers
were reportedly rounded up before they could kill any
game.
The report said that some poachers in the Zambezi Valley have in
the last
two months killed more than eight elephants in Charara(Kariba) and
Chewore
Safari areas.
The contact with the poachers came immediately
after the
government deployed a specialized unit of more than 200 soldiers,
police and
National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority game scouts along
the
Valley to effectively protect the country's wildlife sanctuaries
from
poachers.
The crackdown is expected to help Zimbabwe in
its fight to
maintain the elephant population on Appendix II at this year's
Cites meeting
in Santiago, Chile.
It is estimated that
between 1996 and 2000, 209 elephants, 138
buffalo and 108 impala were poached
among other game.
The government would take decisive measures
against increasing
levels of poaching of wildlife and habitat loss on farms
adjacent to the
country's leading game conservancies threatening protected
species such as
the black rhino countrywide.
Enditem
US confines Mugabe to
UN premises
|
May 09 2002 at
09:17PM
|
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is in New
York to attend a UN conference on children, will be restricted to the premises
of the world body because of sanctions imposed on him and his top officials over
human rights abuses.
Diplomatic sources said Mugabe had been informed by
the United States government that his movements would be restricted to the
confines of the United Nations.
And Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai said he was "shocked" that Mugabe was attending the UN conference on
children at all.
"We are left wondering what message Mr Mugabe can
possibly have for children worldwide, when his illegitimate government in
Zimbabwe is a living example of how not to treat children," Tsvangirai said.
| 'What message can Mr Mugabe possibly
have' |
"It is Mugabe's disastrous policies
that have displaced over 300 000 farm workers and their children."
Tsvangirai said "camps set up by Mugabe's party to torture opponents are
full of youngsters below the age of 20, who are being trained to brutalise their
fellow Zimbabweans".
Young people trained at the infamous Border Gezi
National Youth Service Training Centre teamed up with militant war veterans to
spearhead Mugabe's violent campaign for re-election in March.
Tsvangirai
said there was also no medication in government hospitals for children who were
"the victims of Mugabe's violence". - Independent Foreign Service
Daily News
MDC agent found dead
5/10/02 9:51:39 AM
(GMT +2)
From Pedzisai Ruhanya in Gokwe
THE body
of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's election agent in Gokwe in
the disputed
March presidential poll, was found last Thursday in a stream
near Ganye
Dam.
Tipason Madhobha of Gokwe had been missing for three
weeks.
The police in Gokwe yesterday refused to comment on the
death.
"We cannot assist you with details of that," said a
policeman at Gokwe
police station. "The officer-in-charge is not in the
office."
While the police declined to comment, a statement from the
MDC's
information department said a police officer, who identified himself
as
Sergeant Chikuni, "'confirmed that the remains of Madhobha had been
found
and that arrangements for a post-mortem were underway".
The MDC claimed that Madhobha was killed by Zanu PF supporters, while
his
family, including his four-month pregnant wife, Dadirai,19, said the
death
was mysterious and they expected the police to unravel the cause.
Madhobha's uncle, Furere Makumucha, said his nephew, 25, went missing
on 10
April after he left his home with four neighbours to look for his
five
cattle, still missing by Wednesday.
Makumucha said their
problems started in Ganye at Manokore village,
about 15km from his village of
Kufazvinei.
"I was told that when the five were in the area, they
were warned by
an elderly man that the Zanu PF youths in Ganye did not
tolerate any
strangers in the area and they risked their lives if the youths
came across
them," Makumucha said.
He said there were Zanu PF
youths from their village operating in the
area where Madhobha was found
dead.
Makumucha said while in the area, the five, who included
Tafara
Kufazvinei and Edmore Mutami, were called by some unidentified people
at
which they fled in different directions. Madhobha went missing in
the
resultant panic.
Makumucha said on hearing that his nephew
was missing, he reported the
matter at Sasame police base, where he was given
full co-operation by the
police to look for Madhobha.
"On 2 May,
a young man from Manokore village came to my home and
informed me that
Madhobha's body had been found in a shallow stream. The
police retrieved the
body and took it to Gokwe Hospital," he said.
Makumucha said he
went to the hospital with the police last Friday and
positively identified
his nephew's body, but the police said it would be
buried only after a
post-mortem.
"On Monday we sent one from the family to the police
who told him that
the body would be ready for burial on Thursday. We are
waiting for the
police to guide us. At the moment the family does not know
who killed
Madhobha," Makumucha said.
Dadirai, the wife of the
deceased, said: "My husband was an MDC
polling agent during the presidential
election. He was based at Sungwiza
Primary School. Before his death, he had
not clashed with Zanu PF
supporters."
On Wednesday, about 20
people, mostly elderly women, were in mourning
at Madhobha's home as they
awaited his burial.
Daily News
Teachers assaulted in Buhera
5/10/02
8:55:25 AM (GMT +2)
From Our Correspondent in
Mutare
ABOUT 30 teachers in Buhera North and South constituencies
were on
Tuesday assaulted and ejected from their workplaces by a group of
suspected
war veterans who accused them of supporting the
MDC.
At Murambinda Secondary School, Buhera, teachers Teddy
Mugwari,
Leonard
Usavi, Benjamin Mwandifura and Godfrey Marongwe,
the deputy
headmaster, were ordered to leave the school premises with
immediate effect
and not to return or face unspecified action.
Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesman in Manicaland, said on Wednesday:
"War
veterans continue to persecute teachers in Buhera North and South,
accusing
them of supporting the MDC. The situation is deteriorating."
The
other teachers are said to be from St John's and Hande secondary
schools in
Buhera North and Muzokomba in Buhera South.
The acting district
education officer at Murambinda growth point,
identified only as Makwashi,
said he was unaware of the situation.
Daily News
Chinhoyi businessman brutally assaulted by suspected
Zanu PF youths
5/10/02 9:14:03 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
LEO Chegura, 30, a Chinhoyi businessman was on Monday
severely
assaulted by suspected Zanu PF supporters at his home because he
supports
the MDC.
Chegura was the MDC co-ordinator for
Hurungwe West constituency during
the 2000 parliamentary election. He was
replaced by Gift Sabadza for the
9-11 March presidential election after his
term expired.
He said the latest attack was the third since the
June 2000
parliamentary election.
He has made reports to the
police on all occasions but no action has
been taken to date, he
said.
According to Chegura, 14 suspected Zanu PF supporters armed
with iron
bars attacked him at his home.
He said they first
assaulted Melody Butawo, his wife's younger sister.
When they came, he locked
himself inside his house. Chegura said the youths
broke one of the windows
and used an iron bar to force the door open and
assaulted him.
He said when he collapsed, the youths allegedly took $5 000 from him
and
pulled him out of the house.
He claimed his six-year-old daughter,
Sharon Rose Chegura, reported
the matter at Chemagamba Police Station. He was
taken to Chinhoyi provincial
hospital.
When he visited The Daily
News office, Chegura had a swollen left eye,
bruised lower lip and swollen
head.
Dr Nyazika, who examined him and wrote his affidavit to the
police
said
Chegura had a swollen face and lower lip and was unable
to fully open
his mouth. The injuries he sustained were inflicted with a
blunt instrument.
Nyazika said severe force was used, but there
would be no permanent
disability.
Chegura said on 7 March, two
days before the presidential election,
suspected Zanu PF supporters led by
Josphat Chikweshe, the Zanu PF chairman
for the Top Six in Chinhoyi, Saidi
Elias, employed by the Chinhoyi
Municipality, Biceps Ndlovu, Hlupeko Mavata
and Esau Mukwanzi, destroyed his
property worth $34 000.
He was
also assaulted on 4 February by the same group but the police
allegedly
refused to deal with the suspects despite reporting the case,
CR number
41/02/02, at Chinhoyi Police Station.
Daily News
Sithole says bloodbath would have followed MDC
victory
5/10/02 9:16:42 AM (GMT +2)
By Rena
Chitombo
MASIPULA Sithole, the Mass Public Opinion Institute
director, said if
the MDC had won the disputed 9-11 March presidential
election, President
Mugabe's supporters would have killed and bludgeoned more
opposition
supporters.
"It was God's intervention that
Zanu PF won the election or else more
people were going to die because of the
violence that would have been
unleashed by the ruling party's supporters,"
the political analyst said.
Sithole was speaking at a Centre for
Peace Initiatives in Africa
(CPIA) consultation workshop held in Vumba
recently.
CPIA is a non-governmental organisation established last
year to
promote peace, stability and security in Africa, through
conflict
resolution, peace building and peace maintenance.
The
workshop analysed the presidential poll.
"The core of the problems
in the country is not land but bad
governance," Sithole said. "The government
should consider seriously the New
Economic Partnership for Africa's
Development which puts good governance in
exchange for economic aid and vast
economic investments among others."
The workshop's aim was to find
ways of conducting elections according
to the norms and standards for
elections in the Southern African Development
Community region.
Abigail Mugugu, the Women and Land in Zimbabwe director, said
the
presidential poll, characterised by violence resulting in many people
being
killed, maimed or displaced, left many women
unmarriageable.
Mugugu said women continued to be tortured and
gang-raped even today
in militia camps by youths young enough to be their
children and strangers,
with the tacit approval of Zanu PF.
She
challenged the Ministry of Youth Development, Gender and
Employment
Creation to dismantle the militia camps.
Daily News
Farmers assaulted in police presence
5/10/02 8:53:07 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
Patrick
and Sue Hyde of Pembi Falls Farm in Mvurwi were assaulted in
the presence of
police officers and had their home looted and vandalised by
a group of 30
settlers led by war veterans, Masimba Muguti and Steven
Nyahora on
Tuesday.
A statement from the Commercial Farmers' Union
(CFU) says the attack
brings to 32 the number of farmers in Mashonaland
Central evicted from their
homes by the war veterans and Zanu PF supporters
recently.
The 1 000-hectare farm, under a compulsory notice of
acquisition, was
the home to three Hyde families, all engaged in diverse
agricultural
activities.
Patrick grows citrus fruit and roses
while his brother Michael is into
tobacco farming.
The Hydes
employ 150 workers.
The veterans visited the farm on 2 May and
demanded to occupy Patrick'
s and his manager's houses. The family resisted
the demands.
The group returned on 6 May, were denied access to the
houses but
climbed over the fence, forcing their way in.
Four
police officers arrived at the scene but watched as the Hydes
were taken to
their front lawn where they were physically abused by the
war
veterans.
A police officer at Mvurwi Police Station who
refused to give his name
said yesterday he did not witness such an
incident.
The invaders proceeded to loot the
farmhouse.
There were no arrests, said the CFU
statement.
Patrick and Sue Hyde and their parents have now left the
farm with
what they could salvage from the looting and trashing.
Michael has been allowed to stay on to complete grading the
tobacco
crop.
Daily News
MDC MP acquitted
5/10/02 9:18:22 AM (GMT
+2)
From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo
THOKOZANI
Khupe, the MDC MP for Makokoba, was last Thursday acquitted
of uttering words
likely to "engender feelings of hostility towards
the
police".
Khuphe was detained last year for allegedly
contravening the then Law
and Order Maintenance Act (Chapter 39), now
replaced by the Public Order and
Security Act, after addressing a rally at
Njube Hall.
She was on $500 bail until last week on Thursday when
she appeared
before Nzwisisai Vusango, who refused to prosecute Khupe because
she said
the statement uttered did not amount to an offence.
She
was arrested after telling a presidential campaign rally that
after the car
accident death of the then Minister of Youth Development,
Gender and
Employment Creation, Border Gezi, "God asked the late minister
whether he had
been responsible for the lawlessness that has gripped
the
country".
Khupe said God was not satisfied with Gezi's
explanation of the
situation, so he called Moven Mahachi, the late Defence
Minister who died in
another accident, and asked him the same
question.
Still not satisfied with the answer, Khupe told the
rally, God then
called the late war veterans' leader, Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi,
and asked him
again why there was lawlessness in the country. Hunzvi died of
an
undisclosed illness.
She said Hunzvi in turn told God that it
was the Police Commissioner,
Augustine Chihuri, who was failing to contain
the situation. God, said
Khupe, was promising to call Chihuri, who was
reported to be unwell at
the time she addressed the rally.
Josphat Tshuma, who represented Khupe, argued that the utterances
had
actually been based on a cartoon published in The Financial Gazette. He
said
the utterances were more of a criticism of Chihuri as the most senior
police
officer, and not in his personal capacity.
Daily News
Governor slams government
5/10/02 9:20:06
AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
OPPAH Muchinguri, the
Manicaland Governor, yesterday slammed the
government for sidelining women in
its fast-track land reform programme.
Muchinguri told
delegates at a two-day workshop organised by Women and
Land in Zimbabwe a
non-governmental organisation which agitates for the
equitable distribution
of land: "Women till the land and work very hard on
it, but credibility is
given to men."
She said all the structures in the land reform
programme were headed
by men who were favouring other men while depriving
women who work very hard
in the fields.
"There is need for women
to network at provincial level so that they
can effectively fight for their
right to have land," said Muchinguri.
She said 86 percent of women
live in the rural areas and provide 70
percent of the labour force but few
have been given land.
Abi Mugugu, national co-ordinator for Land
and Women in Zimbabwe said:
"The Land Act in Zimbabwe should be
gender-sensitive and take women on board
in order to create a vibrant
agricultural sector in the country."
Mugugu said women had been
disadvantaged for a long time on issues of
control and access to land and the
government had failed to address the
issue.
"The government made
a commitment that female-headed households would
be allocated a quota of 20
percent of all land acquired for resettlement and
the organisation would like
to see this commitment fulfilled," said Mugugu.
Daily News
Officer-in-charge of police in Chimanimani faces assault
charge
5/10/02 9:19:20 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
NGONIDZASHE Chogugudza, the officer-in-charge of
Chimanimani police
station allegedly struck a prominent businessman, Michael
Shane Kidd, 44, on
the ear causing partial deafness.
Last month, the policeman allegedly accused the businessman of
assisting the
opposition MDC in investigating cases of political retribution
by the ruling
party in that constituency.
Tapuwanaishe Kujinga, a Mutare lawyer,
said sometime in March, Kidd
donated a camera to MDC officials to take photos
of their members' houses
torched by suspected Zanu PF supporters in Rusitu
communal lands.
"Chogugudza impounded a vehicle and the camera used
by the MDC
officials investigating cases of retribution by alleged Zanu PF
supporters."
Kujinga said. "Upon learning that the camera had been donated by
Kidd, they
summoned him to the police station.
At the police station
Chogugudza spoke to Kidd in Shona and when Kidd
said he did not understand
the language, the officer-in-charge hit him on
the right ear, damaging his
ear-drum. It has since been confirmed that Kidd
has lost hearing in that
ear."
Last week, Kidd together with four MDC supporters, Talance
Kudakwashe
Barara, Lawrence Mbiri, Chamunorwa Chamazhika and David Jakiti,
appeared
before a Chipinge magistrate accused of petrol-bombing a house
belonging to
a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Joseph
Mwale.
Mwale is implicated in a case in which two MDC activists,
Talent
Mabika and Tapfuma Tichaona Chiminya, the driver of the MDC
president,
Morgan
Tsvangirai, were murdered during the 2000
parliamentary election in
Buhera.
Magistrate Hlekani Mwayera
remanded the five in custody to this week
when she is expected to make a
ruling on a bail application by Kujinga,
their lawyer.
Prosecutor Obbie Mabahwana opposed bail saying Kidd had a pending case
in
which Chogugudza alleged that he assaulted him.
"In fact,
Chogugudza assaulted Kidd, and then twisted the story to
make it look as if
he was assaulted. I have since filed charges against
him," said
Kujinga.
Daily News
Ministers snub EU function
5/10/02 8:49:02
AM (GMT +2)
By Sandra Nyaira Political Editor
CABINET ministers and senior government officials yesterday snubbed a
Europe
Day function in Harare and the national anthem was played in place of
the
official response by the Foreign Affairs ministry.
No
senior government officials were present at the occasion marking
the founding
of the European Union (EU), whose relations with Zimbabwe have
been frigid
since the controversial presidential election last March.
European
Commission officials said they had invited the ministers of
Foreign Affairs,
Finance and Economic Development, Health and Child Welfare
and Education,
Sports and Culture.
Usually, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, his
deputy or a senior
ministry official responds to a speech and the toast given
by a foreign
embassy hosting its national day.
Yesterday, no-one
was available from the government to respond and the
EU officials played the
national anthem instead.
Francesca Mosca, the head of the European
Commission to Zimbabwe, said
the government ministers invited to the function
had apparently "failed to
turn up".
Mosca said she saw a foreign
ministry official known to her only as Dr
Faranisi, but he did not
respond to her speech.
In her speech, Mosca said Zimbabweans had to
unite in the face of an
unfolding humanitarian crisis of hunger.
She said this year had been a difficult year for Zimbabwe and for
EU-Zimbabwe
relations.
EU countries have refused to accept President Mugabe's
disputed
victory in the March election and have imposed targeted sanctions on
senior
government ministers.
"But every friendship has its ups
and downs and I hope that we will be
able to overcome the downs
soon."
Daily News
War veterans kidnap, assault MDC supporter
5/10/02 8:50:30 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
THOMAS
Shambira, 30, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporter
in Highfield,
Harare was on Monday kidnapped and beaten up, allegedly by
suspected war
veterans for supporting the opposition party.
Shambira was
taken to the Masvingo/Harare highway where he was
attacked with sticks,
chains and batons and lost two teeth in the process.
"The group of
Zanu PF supporters came at around 2a.m and demanded to
see me, saying they
were policemen," Shambira said.
He said one of them fired a shot
but missed him. He showed The Daily
News a bullet lodged in one of the sofas
in his house.
"They refused to identify themselves and I was
handcuffed and bundled
into a car," Shambira said.
"For almost
three hours I was interrogated by the men who told me that
they were going to
kill me."
He was asked to reveal everything he knew about the
MDC.
He managed to escape after the group had removed the
handcuffs.
"A white farmer in the Beatrice area helped me and took
me to
hospital," said Shambira.
He is recovering at a hospital
in Harare whose name cannot be
disclosed for his safety.
Shambira's sister, Winnie Kagoro said: "We reported the case to the
police at
Machipisa but they have not responded, that is why the bullet is
still lodged
in the sofa."
Machipisa police refused to
comment.
Daily News
They thrive on hypocrisy and double
standards
5/10/02 8:51:22 AM (GMT +2)
The
editor in question arrived a few minutes later and, seeing his way
blocked,
got out and ordered the luckless driver to remove the car.
As the driver tried to calmly explain what had happened, the impatient
editor
rained blows on him causing the hapless driver to flee.
Left still
blocked out, the editor, to the utter amusement of
bystanders, fulminated:
"Our jobs are on the line. If Zanu PF loses the
election we are all likely to
lose our jobs."
Ironically, before his appointment by Moyo, the
said editor is
reportedly one of the many people at The Chronicle who went on
an all-night
celebration when the MDC won 57 seats in the landmark June
2000
parliamentary election.
Said one staffer about the man's
ecstatic reaction to the MDC's strong
performance:
"He took a
cassette from one of the junior staffers which has the song
Tshisa
Mpama which he was playing in his car after the MDC had
recorded victory in
several constituencies.
"To him as to most MDC supporters, the song
represents how hot the MDC
is because mpama means 'open palm' and tshisa
means 'hot'."
Which means, that all those pretences
notwithstanding, the hearts and
true sympathies of Moyo's men in Bulawayo are
still firmly in the MDC.
Of course, like Moyo's own boss has
steadfastly refused to countenance
his new lieutenant's questionable motives
in making a complete about-turn in
his view of Zanu PF, Moyo will probably
never want to face the reality that
those whom he thinks are his strongest
supporters in his suspiciously
insincere propaganda war may actually be only
doing it for money.
He will not accept that there are hypocrites
and mercenaries among his
charges at both ZBC and Zimpapers.
Of
course The Mole knows whom they take after. No big deal.
Daily News
Mugabe's presence at children's summit
rapped
5/10/02 8:52:07 AM (GMT +2)
Chief
Reporter
MORGAN Tsvangirai, the MDC president, said yesterday he
was shocked by
President Mugabe's presence in New York for the United
Nations General
Assembly Special Session for Children
Conference.
Tsvangirai said: "We are left wondering what
message Mugabe can
possibly have for the children worldwide when his
illegitimate government in
Zimbabwe is a living example of how not to treat
children.
"The party he leads has set up militia bases countrywide
where people
with a different opinion to Zanu PF's are abducted and tortured.
Most of the
people in these camps are youngsters below the age of 20 who are
being
trained to brutalise their fellow Zimbabweans."
Tsvangirai
said it was Mugabe's disastrous policies that have
displaced 300 000 farm
workers and their children while stress and fear were
widespread in schools
as Zanu PF supporters sometimes beat up teachers and
parents in front of
school children.
He said: "In most cases there is no medication for
children who are
the victims of Zanu PF's violence in government hospitals.
While private
hospitals have medication, they charge fees which are not
affordable."
Tsvangirai said the country, which was once the bread
basket of the
region, was now a basket case.
He said that some
Zimbabweans were now eating roots while children
were
malnourished.
"We therefore find it absurd that a leader who has
demonstrated such
callousness against his children can attend a children's
conference. This
hypocrisy on the part of the Zimbabwean leadership has been
going on for too
long and must be exposed for what it is," Tsvangirai
said.
He said that those who believed in human rights, and indeed
children's
rights had a duty to say "no" to Mugabe's violence. He must be
told in no
uncertain terms to disband Zanu PF militia camps and stop the
violence in
Zimbabwe."
The MDC has not accepted Mugabe's
re-election, calling it "the biggest
electoral fraud in
history".
Daily News
African rulers' loyalty is to each other than to
citizens
5/10/02 9:29:06 AM (GMT +2)
By Marko
Phiri
RABID nationalists from all over the Africa have argued about
the
evils of colonisation and the continuing meddling in the affairs of
the
continent and its people by the West, saying this has brought about
the
people's suffering.
Thus our President has said the
whites should keep their noses out of
our business.
John
Robertson, an economic analyst, invited the wrath of many when he
pointed to
the "gains" brought to the continent by colonialists. But as
Africans
attempt to debunk those myths and unravel the true nature of
the white man's
contribution in the existence of the black lot here, they
have not used the
language and methods that are any better than the white
man who came to
settle among them centuries ago.
Not only has the language been
coarse, but many of the "subjects" have
complained of bad governance,
deprivation of constitutional liberties and
gnawing hunger which saw even in
the 1980s some hungry blacks yearning for
the white years when primary school
children got milk for free. Today milk
is one of the scarce basic commodities
in Zimbabwe.
Thus it may be genuinely asked: if at all we are in a
position to
claim superior moral justification, be it in "our" attempts to
take back
"our" land or affirmative action, where blacks are favoured in
job
appointments over whites, why create more paupers than ever in the
history
of the country?
Obviously there have been no qualms
about the business of inverse
racism here which has sought to present that
evil "ism" as being acceptable
because the wrath comes from the mouth of a
black man this time around.
But along the way we also come to
realise that while the 21st Century
preoccupation in African politics and
international relations is to quickly
jump to the side of the fellow black
nation accused of some misdemeanour,
what is fundamentally ignored is that
the same evils that the black powers
are roundly condemned of committing
present themselves on the same footing
with those of the white folks to whom
the new war is being waged against!
But fellow black presidents
are, meanwhile, not interested in all
that, so they put their weight behind
one of their own.
As Africa attempts to build links between its
member countries, it is,
thus, fair to ask: where then the white man will fit
in within that
renaissance mosaic? But what is renaissance when it does not
mean being born
anew, when it does not mean the extinction of bad governance
and pursuing
economic policies aimed at bettering the mendicant existence of
the
populations?
Now we talk about the New Economic Partnership
for Africa's
Development (NEPAD), and we wonder yet how the South Africans
who dreamt it
up will reconcile its ideals with flawed economic policies of
its northward
neighbour which have seen millions of Zimbabweans finding homes
on the
streets of South Africa.
And there has always been a
correlation between the huge influx of
immigrants and the high incidence of
crime.
The South African experience has been no exception. Thus, we
ponder
the success of the African Renaissance and NEPAD amid all
those
socio-economic challenges.
It will be agreed that
black-on-black discrimination, which is
manifested in the unfair distribution
of wealth and divides between rich and
poor, is profoundly morally corrupt
than any other. And this always pits the
ruling elite against the man on the
street.
The extremes between poverty and wealth would not be
acceptable
anywhere in the world. Perhaps in India's caste system it would,
but then we
are talking about universal or collective sentiments as guided by
the
dictates of the conscience. Yet the irony remains that it is the black
man
this time who sit at the top of the hill and yet more are
ill!
One thing about all this African solidarity despite all
pointers
demanding a collective uproar, is that the African leaders think
their bread
is buttered, and see themselves as wily foxes. As soon as the
doors close,
the same leaders line up with plates in hand for foreign
aid!
This explains why the continent has failed dismally to
formulate home
grown solutions for its many social, economic and political
problems.
The same African governments will employ those tactics
themselves when
they come to hold their own elections. Small wonder then that
the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) since its inception stood by
when
atrocities were committed against civilian populations. The
only
co-operation we have seen thus far has been toward the perpetuation of
the
people's suffering despite their deafening cry for help.
The
OAU now the African Union (AU) left all the issues of good
governance to
regional blocs such as the Southern African Development
Community and
the Economic Community for West Africa, but these have
not lifted a finger in
the face of gross human rights abuses by member
states.
The AU
will seek, among other things, to create an economic bloc
moulded along the
lines of the European Union (EU). We are aware of Turkey's
interest in
joining that elite club because the economic gains are
tremendous. But before
admission, Turkey has to fulfil economic
pre-conditions and prove it is a
legitimate democracy with a good human
rights record.
It is on
this score that the European countries and the United States
will not find
common ground with the Africans on the issue of the fairness
of an election.
If the AU is to be taken seriously, the EU prerequisites
have to be
juxtaposed with those of the AU to see if the African governments
meet the
bill.
Thus, we cannot seriously expect African observers in any
election
held in this continent to come out of it saying there should be a
rerun
because the field unfairly favours the ruling parties, or the ruling
parties
make it impossible for the opposition to access some constituencies,
or
sanction the beating-up of opposition party supporters not only by its
own
activists, but also by the armed forces.
Of course, they
would be expected to recommend a rerun by virtue of
their "trusted" sense of
right and wrong, but their loyalty to each other
would not permit it. One is
reminded of the Sicilian Mafia in that regard:
Whistle blowers only look good
in caskets! It may be true that salvation for
this continent does not lie in
the West.
It lies in African countries being brave enough to whip
each other
into line
Zim Independent
No more Cambridge exams
Blessing Zulu
CAMBRIDGE
International Examinations Board has cut its ties with Zimbabwe in
a move
that is likely to hit hard children of ministers, indigenisation
advocates
and the affluent who have their children at private schools, the
Zimbabwe
Independent has established.
This follows moves by the Ministry of
Education to localise exams.
In a letter to all private schools,
Cambridge said it was no longer going to
offer its examinations in the
country.
"It is with much regret that as things stand in Zimbabwe, I
have to inform
you that CIE has reluctantly decided not to offer examinations
in Zimbabwe
with effect from the November 2002 session," says the April 28
letter.
"This decision was not an easy one but it is the result of
the latest
instruction from the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture to
the private
schools informing them that they may not enter for foreign
examinations."
Cambridge also said that it would end its commitment
to the Zimbabwe Schools
Examinations Council (Zimsec) which it was assisting
in the setting and
marking of examination scripts.
"Our commitment
to assist Zimsec will also end with the June 2002
examinations," said the
letter.
Schools were officially given to the end of last year as the
cut-off point
for ending external examinations. Some private schools however
continued to
offer Cambridge certificates.
Heritage School, for
instance, in Borrowdale which is modelled on a British
school, is favoured by
government ministers and Zanu PF-affiliated
empowerment advocates as
affording the best education for their children.
The board chairman
for Chisipite Senior School, Alistar Wright, said they
had received the
letter from Cambridge and convened a meeting with parents
to map the way
forward.
"We agreed to engage with all stakeholders and hopefully
reach a consensus
on this issue," Wright said.
"We are concerned
by the short notice from Cambridge and obviously this is
going to impact
negatively on children who were already preparing for
their
examinations."
Private schools affected include Falcon
College in Esigodini, Hillcrest in
Mutare, Christian Brothers College in
Bulawayo, Kyle College in Masvingo,
Lomagundi in Chinhoyi, Peterhouse and
Watershed in Marondera, Bulawayo
Convent and Harare schools Gateway, St
George's College, Convent, St John's
College, Eaglesvale, Chisipite and
Heritage.
The continued leaking of examination papers from Zimsec is
a cause for
concern and has impacted negatively on the credibility of the
local
examinations board. Contacted for comment on the exam leaks, Zimsec
director
Dr Isaiah Sibanda said he was not ready to comment.
"I
cannot tell you about our plans to curb this practice as it may act in
favour
of those who are cheating," he said.
From ZWNEWS, 10
May
Cambridge bows to Mugabe and
withdraws examinations
In a stunning example of sanctions hitting those they are
supposed to help, Britain’s Cambridge examining board has belatedly decided to
bow to a 2-year-old decree by President Robert Mugabe’s regime and bar pupils in
Zimbabwe from taking the internationally recognised examinations. The turnabout
by Cambridge International Examinations means that some 9,000 pupils of all
races at Zimbabwe’s independent schools are faced with having to find money and
resources to write their November examinations in neighbouring African
countries, or hastily convert to a local examination of dubious value. The
Cambridge board, which has set examinations for schoolchildren in Zimbabwe for
generations, made no immediate comment on why it is heeding the ban just two
months after Mugabe held on to power in a violent election widely regarded as
rigged. All but a handful of African countries refuse to recognise the election,
and Mugabe is banned from the United States and many European countries,
including Britain. Asked to comment yesterday, a spokesman at the Cambridge
board told ZWNEWS that Chief Executive Pen Murray would make a statement "in due
course, but we can’t say exactly when.’’ No reply had been received by
today.
Despite the decree about foreign examinations in 2000, most
independent schools in Zimbabwe continued to offer Cambridge examinations. The
schools argued that it was their constitutional right to offer the examinations
they considered best for their students. Pupils wrote the Cambridge IGCSE
(International General Certificate of Secondary Education), AS and A level
examinations last year. This year’s students are in the last phase of the
two-year syllabus for examinations due to be written in November. Schools
received the decision in a letter dated April 29 saying the Cambridge examining
board "has reluctantly decided not to offer examinations in Zimbabwe with effect
from the November 2002 session." "This decision was not an easy one but it is
the result of the latest instruction from the Ministry of Education Sport and
Culture to the Private Schools informing them that they may not enter for
foreign examinations."
Most high-ups in the ruling Zanu PF party, including Mugabe,
send their children to private schools – and many have already had their
children safely graduate with Cambridge school-leaving examinations and move on
to foreign universities. The examination ban was imposed by Education Minister
Aeneas Chigwedere - who has a child at university in Canada – as part of what
the Mugabe regime says is a drive to eradicate all "colonial’’ and "Western’’
influence. The decision by the Cambridge board is likely to prompt a fresh
exodus of black and the few remaining white professionals in the country. For
pupils due to write examinations in November, the immediate impact is a
logistical nightmare. The exams cover an eight-week period and the Zimbabwe
pupils would have to find money and accommodation to write their exams in
Cambridge-approved centres in South Africa, Bostwana, Zambia, Malawi or Kenya,
or come to Britain. "We are feeling shattered and betrayed that it should be
Cambridge, a British institution, that has pulled the plug on us,’’ said one
teacher, who asked not to be identified. "And Mugabe will have achieved his
Marxist ideal – to eliminate the middle classes and educated." An A-level
student, also too nervous to be identified said, "We are to be denied this
internationally recognised and valuable school-leaving qualification – and by
the very world that claims to have our interests at heart."
Daily News
Police arrest invaders for looting on farms
5/9/02 12:14:30 PM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporters
MARONDERA police have arrested scores of people for looting property
and
crops on commercial farms south of the town in an operation that started
on
Friday last week.
The exact number could not be established
yesterday but sources said
at least 40 people had been arrested at the start
of the operation.
The police blitz followed several complaints by
the farmers over the
looting of their property by settlers and so-called war
veterans in the rich
farming area.
The property included
tractors, a lorry, motorcycles, cattle and
domestic appliances.
Unconfirmed reports said some of the ring leaders were freed after
war
veterans demanded their release.
Charles Manhiri, the area
public prosecutor for Mashonaland East,
yesterday confirmed that some of the
cases were brought to the Marondera
Magistrates' Court on Monday and Tuesday
but he could not disclose the
numbers.
The police in Marondera
refused to comment and referred questions to
Senior Assistant Commissioner
Mary Masango, the officer commanding
Mashonaland East Province.
She could not be reached as she was said to be out of town.
At
Igava Farm on Tuesday this week, workers said so-called war
veterans and
resettled people from the neighbouring Svosve communal land
engaged in a
pitched battle over looted farm equipment, household goods
and
crops.
One said: "They have been fighting to share the
property, especially
the farm equipment. The police have arrested them since
Friday last week."
Police officers and two soldiers were at the
farm in the afternoon,
monitoring the situation.
The farmers'
club at Igava has been closed down and is now occupied by
men claiming to be
war veterans, most of them too young to have taken part
in the liberation
war, which ended in 1979.
One of the youths said: "We chased away
the whites and the club is now
occupied by the war veterans."
According to the Commercial Farmers' Union, at least 90 farmers were
evicted
from their farms in Mashonaland East province since the 9-11
March
presidential election.
The province is the worst hit in
the country.
On Tuesday, a source in Marondera said a man claiming
to be a war
veteran allegedly extorted $100 000 from a farmer, Angus
Campbell, of Uitkyk
Farm along Igava Road south of the town, claiming it was
compensation for a
paprika crop destroyed by his cattle.
Campbell, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, is said to
have
paid the man but the police intervened and returned his money.
The
man threatened Campbell several times in front of the police,
forcing
Campbell to withdraw the charges against him.
The source alleged
that an army colonel had taken over the farmhouse
at Bruce Farm in the same
area.
The colonel reportedly shared an unspecified number of the
farmer's
motorcycles among fellow war veterans. He and a colleague allegedly
stole a
tractor plough, which was later recovered at his colleague's home in
Hwedza.
Daily News
By Sandra Nyaira Political Editor
5/9/02
12:18:53 PM (GMT +2)
Bill passed
THE Land
Acquisition Amendment Bill, which gives the government powers
to speed up its
controversial land reforms, was passed in Parliament
yesterday amid strong
protest from the opposition MDC parliamentarians.
The Bill
seeks to regularise the Presidential Powers (Temporary
Measures) Act invoked
to enable the government to proceed with its land
reform programme. The
temporary measures expire today.
Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, who steered the Bill through
Parliament, immediately adjourned the
House to 6 August when President Mugabe
would have officially opened the
next parliamentary session.
Chimanimani MP, Roy Bennet, was thrown out of the House for being out
of
order.
Bennet was responding to remarks by Chinamasa that the MDC
was
"inhabited by the avenging spirit of Rhodes and you need to exorcise it"
and
that the whites in the country were "waging their battles using
black
generals and black troops" to fight land reform.
Bennet,
who made his contribution in Shona, said the "black generals"
being used by
the whites were in actual fact senior Zanu PF officials who
were in business
partnerships with whites like John Bredenkamp.
Daily News - Leader Page
Peasantry's spontaneous nature works
against democracy
5/9/02 11:43:53 AM (GMT +2)
By
Takura Zhangazha
IN 1975 the Catholic Commission for Justice and
Peace in Rhodesia
published a dossier that it called The Man in the Middle,
Torture,
Resettlement and Eviction and Civil War in Rhodesia. This report was
the
first of its kind in the then Rhodesia and was condemned in typical
fashion
by the Rhodesian government at that time.
The
significance of this little book is not so much the controversy
that it
kicked up at that time, but in the manner in which it outlined the
political
suffering of the peasantry at the hands of the government of
the
time.
More significantly, the stories told in that booklet
allow us to
compare the treatment meted out on rural folk then and now in
independent
Zimbabwe. This will allow us to see whether the peasantry are
still a class
that is intimidated by political shows of power or are able to
harbour
political ideas that transcend the threat of the use of physical
force
against them.
Before independence, it is a fair point that
the rural people had a
vision of removing the shackles of colonial
exploitation. Indeed, the
political experience that contemporary Zimbabweans
now call the First
Chimurenga is clear testimony to this. The vision though
unattained in the
1896 wars, fuelled the Second Chimurenga. But as the
originators of the
vision of a free Zimbabwe, the peasantry did not have a
significant role in
remoulding the vision to suit the decolonisation process.
The main movers of
the form and content of the vision became the missionary
educated young
intellectuals and teachers whose attitude was of reverence to
the heroes of
the First Chimurenga.
The peasant values of spirit
mediums and elders playing leading roles
in the struggle were sidelined to
the periphery.
What became more important were Maoist mobilisation
processes that
clearly had more to do with a centralised and somewhat
scientific socialist
organisation. The peasants in this regard no longer had
a specific leading
role as was the case then, but remained amenable to the
vision of a free
Zimbabwe because of their historical significance in the
First Chimurenga as
well as in the manner in which the liberation movements
applauded their role
in the First Chimurenga.
As such, the
peasantry acquired a historically infallible role and
even the Rhodesian
government realised this. In this case, the Ian Smith
government countered
any association that the peasants might have with the
new type of guerrilla
fighter, a thing which the guerrilla movement also
deliberately opposed by
dishing out its own propaganda in favour of the war.
Whilst the peasantry
clearly supported the latter, the unfortunate event was
that the propaganda
war became more vicious on either side with deaths
occurring for as little a
reason as having been seen to be sympathetic with
either side.
And
this is where the trauma of the peasant as an independent
political vision
forming class begins.
The liberation movement began to use the
previously glorified
historical role of the peasantry as exactly that: a
istorical role that
could not be challenged or changed with the deliberate
participation of the
peasant. As such, the peasantry assumed a stagnant class
status. There were
to be remembered for their role in the First Chimurenga,
become vehicles of
the
second and to ultimately serve a reserve
force for the most blunt
forms of nationalism in what has now come to be
called the Third Chimurenga.
In contemporary Zimbabwe the stagnancy
of the rural population has
remained intact to a larger extent. The ideas
that still remain priorities
for the peasantry remain the same as was in the
years before independence.
Issues such as land redistribution and raw
race-based nationalism are still
a component of the rural political
landscape. Moreover, the acceptance of
the violent nature of the ruling party
indicates that there has been very
little change to the political culture of
the Second Chimurenga that was
characterised by forcing people to toe the
line of the revolution or else
face involuntary exile or death.
The ruling party has found this strategy as a necessary tool of its
survival
in power and would be comfortable with such a state of affairs
where the
rural areas are inaccessible to different political persuasions.
For the opposition movements, however, there is the mind-boggling
question:
how can the political culture surrounding the peasantry be
changed? The
initial assumption had been that there was a silent
consciousness in the
rural people. The reasoning was that the violence and
intimidation being
unleashed by the ruling party was not enough to undermine
the confidence of
the rural people in the secrecy of the ballot and,
therefore, whilst people
attended rallies, they would
secretly vote opposition. This B3silent
campaignB2 strategy was not
coherent on the part of the opposition. And where
there was no silent
campaign but obvious confrontation in the form of rallies
and open
campaigns, the opposition did not have staying power for obvious
reasons
like the bias of State security agents.
Therefore, it is
likely that the rural populations of Zimbabwe are
currently not central to
the struggle for emocratisation in Zimbabwe. They
are poorly organised,
immobile and still too steeped in a liberation wartime
that prevents them
from becoming an independently conscious class in
Zimbabwe.
Their significance on the political stage only arises in the numbers
that
they can bring to a national election, but not a concerted campaign
for
political democratisation in Zimbabwe.
In the currently
unlikely event that the urban populace will take on
the sitting government by
protesting in the streets for prolonged periods of
time, the peasant will
still accept it with ease. The peasant will serve as
back-up to a besieged
government and thus will allow for the clear division
of the nation into a
worker-versus-peasant scenario. The peasant will not be
averse to being
subjected to the tactics of the liberation struggle by the
ruling party and,
therefore, will accentuate the latter's stubborn hold on
power. The
spontaneous nature of the peasantry that Franz Fanon ably
outlines will work
against democracy in Zimbabwe because theirs has ceased
to be a revolutionary
role.
This essentially means that the rural populace can only be
shifted
from their current position through a deliberate show of power and
control
within villages. Only if the opposition manages to prove a greater
show of
physical power than the ruling party will the peasantry join their
ranks in
droves.