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900 tortured and assaulted in Zimbabwe

National Post, Canada

Peter Goodspeed, National Post  Published: Friday, May 09, 2008

Violence has been the hallmark of Robert Mugabe's career. The former school
teacher, who is inordinately proud of an academic record that includes seven
graduate and postgraduate degrees, has often publicly boasted he also "has a
degree in violence."

Now, as he clings to office despite a March 29 election defeat, he is once
again resorting to violence and intimidation on a grand scale.

More than 30 opposition figures have been murdered, critical journalists
have been jailed and 40,000 farm workers who dared to vote against the man
who has ruled Zimbabwe since its creation 28 years ago have been beaten,
terrorized and driven from their homes.

On Friday, Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights said its members have treated
more than 900 victims of torture and assault since the presidential poll.

The doctors estimate they have seen only a fraction of the real number of
victims since many cases of intimidation and assault go unreported.

John Worsley-Worswick, head of the Justice for Agriculture Trust, an
advocacy group for Zimbabwe's farmers, says attacks on farm workers who
supported opposition parties in the election have escalated in the past
week.

There have been reports of beatings, burned huts and intimidation, he said.
The attackers are usually young men wearing military clothing.

In one case, a farm worker was beaten with iron bars and sticks, while
another was strangled with wire.

The advocacy group says since the election 142 farms have been invaded, with
Mashonaland, the northern region that used to be the backbone of Mr.
Mugabe's rural support, the hardest hit.

This week, members of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum and a farm workers
union said Mr. Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwean African National Unity-Patriotic
Front party (ZANU-PF) has launched "a countrywide terror campaign" to
discourage opposition voters from voting against him in a runoff election.

Up to 40,000 farm workers and their families have been forced to flee their
homes by armed youth militias loyal to Mr. Mugabe, Gertrude Hambira, head of
the General Agriculture & Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe, told a news
conference in Johannesburg.

"We have had security agents going out to the farms, addressing the farm
workers. Some of them have said, ‘We need to discipline you because you
voted for the opposition,' " she said. "It is really bad."

If the farm families are not in their home districts when the runoff is
held, they will be unable to vote.

According to Zimbabwe's constitution, the runoff should be held on May 24,
three weeks after results of the March 29 election were officially
announced.

It took the election commission more than a month to make the announcement,
which officially showed Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, beating Mr. Mugabe with 47.9% of the vote to 43.2%.

The MDC insists Mr. Tsvangirai won the election outright, with more than 50%
of the vote, and says there is no need for a runoff.

A week after the results were announced, the MDC still has not said if it
will participate in a runoff election. Opposition groups insist Mr. Mugabe's
supporters may have launched the latest wave of attacks simply to discourage
the MDC from challenging him again.

"It will be very difficult for them to win the runoff because the people
have been thoroughly intimidated," said John Makumbe, a political scientist
at the University of Zimbabwe.

"A lot of people have been displaced. The political field is grossly uneven
and ZANU-PF is using all this extra time to rig the elections. They are
already marking ballot papers for Mugabe. They are likely to rig this
election in overdrive so the MDC has little chance of winning."

Before he will agree to take part in a runoff, Mr. Tsvangirai is calling for
international observers to monitor the poll. He has been backed by Ban
Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General.

Mr. Mugabe banned Western observers from the first election, accusing them
of bias after they said there had been widespread fraud in previous Zimbabwe
elections.

Now, amid reports of mounting violence and growing uncertainty, Harare is
starting to lash out at other critics.

On Thursday, police arrested Davison Maruziva, editor of the independent
weekly newspaper The Standard. He has been charged with "publishing false
statements prejudicial to the state" for printing an article critical of Mr.
Mugabe by an MDC leader, Arthur Mutambara.

At the same time, police arrested Harrison Nkomo, a prominent human rights
lawyer, for "insulting or undermining the authority of the head of state."

After bailing two other journalists out of jail, Mr. Nkomo apparently told a
staff member in the attorney general's office Mr. Mugabe should quit.
Unfortunately for him, the civil servant was a nephew of Mr. Mugabe.

A 2002 law made it a crime to criticize the president or his office.

Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, says the two sets
of arrests "may signal the government's escalation of its crackdown on
perceived opponents."

It may also be an attempt to intimidate Mr. Tsvangirai into conceding the
runoff before it is even announced. Officials with the MDC have said Mr.
Tsvangirai will make a "definitive statement" on his intentions during a
news conference in South Africa Saturday.

Meant to strengthen, land grab weakened Zimbabwe's Mugabe

Los Angeles Times

Few war veterans benefited from the redistribution of land. Now the question
that will hang over a possible MDC government is whether a small circle of
powerful people will retain ownership of seized
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:31 AM PDT, May 10, 2008
HARARE, ZIMBABWE -- When Ishmael Dube got his own small plot of land, it
felt like justice. He'd grown up a black child under a racist white regime
when this country was called Rhodesia. Half his youth was gobbled by
darkness: war and prison.

He got the farm in 2000, two decades after Zimbabwe's independence from
Britain, when President Robert Mugabe urged liberation war veterans to
invade white farms. For the war veterans, it was a time of exhilaration and
violence. For white farmers, it was a time of bitterness and terror.

"When the land invasions started happening, people were excited," Dube said.
"When we were fighting, land was one of the things that we were fighting
for."

But Dube lasted just one year; farming was much more difficult than he had
expected. After 12 months, the veterans were evicted from the land by a
ruling party heavyweight.

Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980, often draws on land, history, blood and
race in the bitter liberation rhetoric that peppers his speeches. He called
the March 29 elections a new phase in the war over land, describing the
opposition as British puppets poised to give back property to white farmers.

But the dire warnings are no longer working. Even many of the war veterans,
who helped Mugabe oust the British and stay in power for nearly three
decades, aren't listening. And that could mean the end of the liberation
hero's long reign.

"People have seen through that kind of cheap propaganda," Dube said.

Mugabe's rhetoric about land and the liberation war now has a tiny, but
extremely powerful, circle of supporters: the cronies who still have farms,
mainly Mugabe relatives, ministers, generals, judges and intelligence,
police and security chiefs. Many of them own several farms, most of them
unproductive.

"Mugabe is now losing, because of his greed," said Percy Gombakomba, 53, a
war veteran and former bureaucrat in the president's office. "I believe that
if Mugabe walked in the streets, he would be stoned.

"People ask, 'Why did you go to war? What were you fighting for?' If you say
you were fighting for the land, they will laugh at you."

So few have benefited from the land redistribution that Mugabe's broader
support has been undermined among traditional allies such as the war
veterans. But he was careful to ensure that the top military and security
commanders, on whom he relies for protection and survival, got one or more
farms.

With Mugabe looking increasingly precarious, analysts believe that in the
end it will be the "securocrats," the 20 or so commanders who form the
strategic Joint Operation Command, who will determine whether the president
goes.

Mugabe began the land seizures in 2000, after he faced his first serious
political threat: the emergence the year before of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change from the union movement, supported by white farmers.

Last month, Mugabe's regime began a new wave of evictions of the few
remaining white farmers after it lost control of parliament for the first
time since independence in 1980. He sent out his security forces in a
campaign of intimidation targeting farmers, opposition supporters and
activists.

But many influential Mugabe supporters in the ruling ZANU-PF party don't
believe the violence is working this time. Most believe that Mugabe will
lose an expected second round of voting in the presidential election.

"I think we allowed corruption to go uncontrolled to the extent that it
affected the majority of the people," said one influential ruling party
figure and war veteran who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said public
support for Mugabe had eroded because of corruption in the ruling elite.

"They're saying if you live with thieves and protect them, you are also a
thief."

One reason Zimbabwe's economy imploded was Mugabe's failure to manage the
expectations of war veterans. The more he revisited the liberation war
rhetoric, the more the veterans expected pensions, land, businesses or jobs.

War veteran Gombakomba said Mugabe should have given them "a good reward"
for their wartime sacrifices.

"That's why we thought of grabbing the farms. People had to jump into farms
before they saw any fruits of the liberation struggle," he said. But after
Mugabe paid out lump sums to war veterans in 1997 and pledged monthly
pensions, the Zimbabwe dollar collapsed, never to recover.

When they seized farms in 2000, war veterans such as Dube had no idea how to
farm. There was no hope of bank loans for equipment without title deeds to
use as security.

Agricultural production, the country's biggest export earner, plummeted and
the economy lurched further into crisis.

Gombakomba and eight war comrades invaded a farm near Lake Kariba. He said
the owner had fled to Zambia. But like Dube, he did not last long.

"The thing is, I was never a farmer myself," he said. "I didn't know what
farming was, to tell you the truth. And there was no equipment, no financial
support. It was difficult. And that's when we began to understand that
farming was not a picnic.

"We had the place for two years. We wanted to put in soya and maize but when
we were ready for plowing, a big man came from the president's office and we
had no power and we were chased off.

"One by one, all the farms were given to these bigwigs."

Belatedly, Mugabe's regime is trying to the counter the widespread cynicism
over the land redistribution with promises to hand over more farmland.

Twice before the recent elections, a ruling party chief approached Dube
offering him a new farm in place of the one confiscated from him and his
comrades in 2001. They refused, seeing the offer as a belated attempt to buy
back their support.

"He tried to convince us to return," Dube said. "But even if we went back to
the land, what were we going to do? There's no equipment. We simply said we
were angry with the first decision."

As the farmer-generals contemplate the ruling party's defeat, what worries
them most is losing their farms. When it comes to land, most of them
distrust MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the senior ruling party figure said.

Without a clear guarantee from Tsvangirai to top military commanders that
they can keep their land, "there will be chaos."

" And if, as soon as he comes in, he tries to reshuffle the army, he won't
be able to control them. There will be chaos, serious chaos."

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Dixon recently was on assignment in Zimbabwe.

'Conditions are at their worst'

Mail and Guardian

      

      Percy Zvomuya | Johannesburg, South Africa

      10 May 2008 06:00

             The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) may seem
hopelessly undecided about whether to fight or boycott the presidential
run-off against Robert Mugabe, but sources confirm it will go to the polls
in run-off election, the date of which still has to be announced.

            MDC secretary general Tendai Biti continues to insist that
"we won the election".

            But he also said the party's exiled leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, would make an announcement on the run-off this Saturday. "It's
futile to talk about a run-off, but if we have to embarrass Robert Mugabe
again we will do so," he said.

            Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the initial poll by 47,9% to
43,2%.

             What remains unclear is whether the MDC will attach
conditions to its participation. Biti insisted that if "there is to be a
run-off election it has to be held in conditions that respect the rule of
law", adding that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would
have to play a supervisory role.

            The MDC has no illusions about the uphill task it faces.
Biti, who has not visited Zimbabwe since he left at the beginning of last
month, said that "fascism continues in Zimbabwe" as the "regime embarks on a
vicious mode of retribution".

            Nelson Chamisa, the party's Zimbabwe-based spokesperson,
acknowledged that "the conditions have always been unfavourable but are now
at their worst".

            The MDC "had a humanitarian crisis on its hands to
address", he said, referring to the hundreds of supporters who have fled
election-linked violence and sought shelter at Harvest House, the party's
headquarters.

            Jestina Mukoko, national director of the Zimbabwe Peace
Project, a civic organisation, confirmed that "many people are being
harassed and displaced" and that if the violence continued "many people will
be disenfranchised".

            Mukoko said that ongoing violent intimidation presented
the MDC with grave logistical problems, as the election would be ward-based.
Those who had fled their homes would not be able to vote.

            Most of the violence was concentrated in Mashonaland east,
west, central and in the Midlands provinces, former Zanu-PF strongholds
where the MDC had scored significant victories.

            Many party supporters who openly wore MDC regalia during
the first round of polling are now being targeted. She estimated that up to
3 000 families had been displaced by violence.

            An immediate election could work in two ways, analysts
said. The MDC might lose some of the support it recently gained as the
voters buckle under the onslaught of Zanu-PF militia. Alternatively,
Zanu-PF's first parliamentary and presidential election defeats have left it
in disarray and could embolden voters to deliver a coup de grâce.

            The MDC could also cash in on the wave of popular anger
against Zanu-PF. One analyst predicted that the longer it takes to stage
elections the slimmer the MDC's chances of victory -- unless the elections
are supervised by SADC.

            In one sense the MDC is in a strong position: either it
wins or it loses on a playing field the world, and increasingly Africa, will
see as grossly uneven.

            A victorious Mugabe would also have to explain how factors
other than violence enabled him to increase his share of the vote by more
than 6% -- particularly as the other first-round candidates, Simba Makoni
and Arthur Mutambara, have pledged to support Tsvangirai in the run-off.

            Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, national director of the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network, said the MDC has little choice but to contest the
run-off, as a refusal to do so would hand another five-year term to Mugabe
by default.

            But she conceded the adverse conditions. "They have to
participate in the elections. although the ongoing violence might work
against them."

Violence could disenfranchise thousands

By Our Correspondent

BULAWAYO, May 10, 2005 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - Politically motivated
violence, which is flaring countrywide, could worsen as the presidential
run-off approaches and disenfranchise thousands who have been displaced or
had their identity documents burnt, a human rights activist has warned.

Jestina Mukoko, head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) issued the warning
Thursday while addressing journalists during an election reporting workshop
here.

Mukoko, whose organisation monitors and documents human rights violations,
blamed Zanu-PF supporters, including so-called war veterans, the youth
militia and soldiers for instigating and perpetrating the violence.

“The masters of the violence, according to our findings are Zanu-PF, their
agents and the war veterans,” she said.

“Mainly, the violence has so far been most concentrated in Mashonaland East
province. We have people there who are bearing wounds all over their bodies
because of beatings. Some had their houses and property burnt and they are
coming to our office for assistance.”

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) estimates that as many as 25 of its
supporters have been killed in the aftermath of the March 29 elections, as
Zanu-PF

continues to mount a nationwide wave of retribution against an opposition it
accuses voting for the MDC.

In addition, the party said at least 5 000 had been displaced from their
homes, especially in the rural areas.

While Mukoko did not say how many people ZPP had established to have been
killed, she said according to their count, at least 3 000 have been uprooted
from their homes.

“The violence is serious because it does not end with perceived MDC
supporters being assaulted with their houses being torched,” she said. “We
have some people who say their cattle have been killed in the countryside
and you can imagine the situation when it goes to that extent. Zanu-PF thugs
have set up what they refer to as bases, but we call them torture camps.”

Her organisation has graphic details, including pictures and video
recordings, showing the extent of the torture of MDC activists. Mukoko said
this evidence had been presented to a South African fact-finding mission
that visited Zimbabwe this week.

The violence has received international condemnation, heaping more pressure
on the beleaguered President Robert Mugabe.

On Wednesday, an independent electoral watchdog, the Zimbabwe Election
Support Network (ZESN) urged the police to curb the violence. The African
Union, Southern African Development Community and South Africa have all sent
emissaries to Zimbabwe to discuss the post-election environment, the
impending presidential run-off election as well as the growing violence. The
United States has also condemned the mayhem.

In addition to MDC activists, human rights advocates and local observers to
the March 29 elections are being attacked, said Mukoko.

As the beatings, torture and displacements continue Mukoko fears that a
humanitarian challenge could be in the offing.

“These are people who are left with nothing apart from the clothes they have
on,” she said.

“They have no food and no clothing. This is a humanitarian disaster in the
making. Many of them could be unable to vote because this will be a
ward-based election, so when you are displaced and are afraid of returning
to vote in your ward, you are disenfranchised. Others have lost their
identity documents when their homes were burnt and without an ID you cannot
vote.”

Commenting on the alleged burning of huts belonging to Zanu-PF activists in
Mayo, Mashonaland East Mukoko said, if MDC supporters were involved, then
they were only retaliating.

“It is Zanu-PF which starts violence,” she said. “So in events such as in
Mayo, it is highly probable that the Zanu- PF people attacked MDC people
first and the latter just acted in retaliation. But what you see on ZBC is
when (First Lady) Grace Mugabe dishes out assistance to the alleged victims
of violence, but (does not address) its cause.”

Political violence amounts to crimes against humanity

The Zimbabwe Times

By Ntando Ncube

JOHANNESBURG, May 10, 2008 (thezimbawetimes.com) - The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
(ZEF) on Friday urged the African Commission to condemn the atrocities and
political violence perpetrated by armed youth militias loyal to President
Robert.

The forum said the outbreak of post-election violence in Zimbabwe would soon
amount to crimes against humanity if regional leaders failed to censure
Mugabe and his ruling party Zanu-PF.

The Pretoria-based rights group which last year attempted but failed to have
Mugabe prosecuted in Canada accused him for unleashing terror against
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters ahead of
forthcoming presidential run-off polls.
In a letter addressed to the Africa Commission on Human and people’s Rights
(ACHPR) Gabriel Shumba, the ZEF executive director said the violence against
the opposition was swelling and over 32 civilians has been killed in
gruesome deaths.

‘ZEF calls upon the African Commission to further condemn the atrocities in
Zimbabwe, and to work with the African Union to ensure that loss of life in
the country is prevented because of the alarming instances of post-election
violence that could amount to crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe.” Shumba
said

“In the aftermath of elections, violence against opposition MDC supporters
and civil society actors has escalated with the result that to date, about
32 people have died gruesome deaths, while thousands of people have been
displaced, after their homesteads and villages have been burnt down and
destroyed. “he added

ZEF also called upon the AU Special Rapporteur for Refugees and Internally
Displaced Persons to assess the human rights situation and treatment of
Zimbabweans in South Africa and Botswana in the context of continued
violence in Zimbabwe.

“The post election atrocities in the country have inevitably let to yet
another exodus of Zimbabweans to South Africa and Botswana. ZEF calls upon
the AU Special Rapporteur for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons to
renew his call to visit South Africa and Botswana to assess the human rights
situation and treatment of Zimbabweans in these countries,” he said

Day by day the pressure grows

Zimbabwe Today

How Zanu-PF is attempting to make sure that if votes are cast, they are for
Mugabe

While the bullying, beatings and killings continue in the countryside, in
the towns it's a case of death threats, imprisonment, and dirty tricks.
Zanu-PF appears willing to try every move in the book to make sure that if
there is a full re-run of the presidential election it will end in victory
for Robert Mugabe.

Whether the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai will agree to the re-run still hangs in the balance at the
time of writing. But meanwhile the Mugabe men are going into overdrive.

In prison this morning are two journalists - Davison Maruziva, editor of the
weekly independent Standard, and Howard Burditt, a Reuters
photographer.Their crime, apparently, is being journalists.

Specifically, Maruziva is accused of publishing an opinion piece by Arthur
Mutambara, leader of the small MDC splinter group. He's been charged on two
counts under the Criminal Codification Act, which relates to "false
statements prejudicial to the state."

Burditt, a Zimbabwean national, has been detained apparently for using a
satellite phone to file pictures while covering the aftermath of the
elections.

Joining them in jail is a lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, who sinned when defending
a client of his, another journalist called Frank Chikowere, who faced
charges of committing public violence. Apparently in presenting his client's
case in court, Nkomo made an "insulting statement towards the state" -
something it must be difficult not to do when defending someone in those
circumstances.

Meanwhile my sources in the police force say their masters are going to
great lengths to ensure their re-run votes all go in the right direction.
Various young officers - and their wives - have been told that their voting
papers will carry their serial numbers and names, and that any who vote for
Tsvangirai will be shot.

To their credit, many officers are saying that their pay is now so minsicule
and worthless, they will still attempt to vote out the President. "If they
want to shoot me, let them do so," a young constable in Bulawayo told me
defiantly.

Now the country waits to see if the re-run becomes a reality. I understand
the MDC is insisting on four conditions. They are:

1. The cessation of all government violence

2. Sadc to verify all results.

3.  Results to be published within 48 hours of polling.

4.  International observers allowed in before, during and after the poll.

Stand by for an announcement any time this weekend.

Posted on Saturday, 10 May 2008 at 08:47

On the Roadsides

www.cathybuckle.com

Saturday 10th May 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
It's hard to believe that six weeks ago the MDC won a parliamentary majority
and their leader Morgan Tsvangirai got more presidential votes than Mr
Mugabe. It's even harder to believe that the parliamentary and presidential
losers have managed to completely obfuscate the entire process and remain in
positions of power and authority as if nothing had happened - as if we'd
never had an election at all.

How can this be happening, is the question we are all asking. Its like being
stuck in an impossible horror story. The will of the people has not been
heard. The aspirations of a broken nation have been ignored. The voices of
the majority have been obscured in fear and betrayal. We all thought that by
now the breath of life would have begun blowing through the country bringing
desperately needed food, fuel, medicine and stability. Perhaps even some of
our family and friends, in exile for eight years, may have begun thinking
about coming home. So far the inevitable conclusion has not taken hold and
every day has become a blur of utter exhaustion and real trauma for ordinary
people. Trauma of finding food and having enough money to buy it and extreme
trauma associated with the orgy of violence, intimidation and retribution
which has engulfed our countryside.

While Zimbabwe remains paralyzed in time, every day lost this May 2008 is
condemning us to yet more hunger. We are now in the main wheat planting
season and yet farmers everywhere are in crisis. With inflation at 160
thousand percent, no fuel for ploughing or transporting inputs and virtually
no electricity for irrigation, there seems little hope that we can grow
anywhere near enough wheat for the coming year. The situation is being
exacerbated as farm workers have now been caught up in the brutal political
punishment campaign.

This week the agricultural workers union said 40 thousand farm workers and
their families had been cast out, beaten up and were destitute. The Union's
Secretary General, Gertrude Hambira, said: "Our members and their families
have been left homeless. They have been attacked by a group of militia
wearing army uniforms. They have been accused of voting for the opposition.
Most of them are on the roadsides. We are trying to find ways of taking food
to them."

Every day the international talk is of a global food crisis and yet Zimbabwe
seems hell bent on adding to it. Blessed with fertile soils and a temperate
climate and once proud to be called the breadbasket of Africa, to our shame
Zimbabwe is wasting another wheat growing season. It seems that bashing
heads and breaking legs is far more important than growing food this winter
because losers simply won't accept defeat.

With so much negative news, there is still hope because, even though
convinced he won, Morgan Tsvangirai has agreed to take part in a re-run
Presidential election. Hopefully this means the President-in-waiting will
now come home and see for himself the hell his supporters are enduring.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

Ncube,Sibanda imposition meets resistance

Zimbabwe Metro

By Philip Mangena ⋅ May 10, 2008
Despite the MDC unity pact,the imposition of losing MDC candidates and MDC
heavy weights Welshman Ncube,Gibson Sibanda and Paul Themba Nyathi,in the
looming by-elections in Redcliff,Gwanda and Pelandaba-Mpopoma is being
heavily resisted by MDC-Tsvangirai candidates.

Samuel Sandla Khumalo,the MDC-Tsvangirai candidate for
Pelandaba-Mpopoma,told Metro this morning that he is not stepping down as he
was chosen by the people.

“I don’t know where those reports are coming from,as far as I am concerned I
am the candidate for MDC -Tsvangirai,anything else is just speculation.”

The Independent reported this week that Vice President Gibson Sibanda will
instead stand in Pelandaba-Mpopoma in place of the Tsvangirai candidate,the
replacements will also be repeated in Gwanda for Nyathi and Redcliff where
Welshman Ncube is reportedly eyeing.

Tapera Sengweni and Nephat Mdlongwa won MDC-Tsvangirai primaries in Redcliff
and Gwanda South respectively.

But Khumalo poured water over the report,”Those spreading those rumours are
just desperate to get back to Parliament,I will represent MDC-Tsvangirai in
the by-election.”

The Pelandaba-Mpopoma by-election follows the death of incumbent MP MDC
Milton Gwetu,he will fight it out with information minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu who lost a re-election bid twice in 2000 and 2005.

MDC -Tsvangirai sweep all House of Assembly seats in the second largest
City,all but one in the Senate and swept the Bulawayo City Council elections
as it won 23 of the 29 seats, the Arthur Mutambara faction, which previously
held 18 seats, walked
away with six. Thirteen sitting councillors lost their seats.The new
councillors will be electing a mayor and his deputy soon.

Khumalo is a two term councillor for ward 13.Three years ago his dreadlocks
once reached down to his chest. All that remains of them now are prickly
halos of hair that surround several centimeters of split, swollen scalp.

The 45-year-old was among the first to arrive in 2003 outside then governor
Obert Mpofu’s office in Mhlahlandlela in Bulawayo for a peaceful protest
against high cost of living. Several dozen demonstrators had barely begun to
gather when police charged the crowd.

Khumalo received two cracks to the head before police officers dragged him
by his dreadlocks for nearly a kilometer, until they reached a police
station where they thrashed him with their batons and ripped out his matted
tresses with their bare hands. Khumalo and two other protesters were then
blindfolded and driven 20 km out of town, beaten again and dumped in the
bush.

Khumalo’s ordeal is just one skirmish in President Robert Mugabe’s war on
dissent. Over the past six weeks, Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF is being accused
of killing 30 MDC supporters and a union leader said 40 000 farmworkers and
their dependants had been made homeless.

The Central Intelligence Organization, is reported to have seized X-rays and
medical reports from state hospitals to suppress evidence of assaults.

An open letter to Gideon Gono

The Zimbabwe Times

By Kudakwashe Nyoka
May 10, 2008
DEAR Dr Gono,
I read your opinion piece in your newspaper, The Financial Gazette, and was
astounded by your insincerity and dishonesty in avoiding to point out the
real issues affecting our country today.
You want us Zimbabweans and the world at large to believe that the current
economic malaise afflicting the country is a result of Western sanctions
period. Not only is this dishonesty at its most abominable level but it goes
a long way to show the type of person who is charged with looking after the
nation’s treasury. In your vacuous and long-winded article you talk of a
pre-run off PACT between the prospective contestants yet you are busy
funding the agents of Zanu-PF to commit acts of barbaric terror against
defenceless members of the opposition. It is common cause that without the
resources they are getting from your bank these thugs would not be capable
of committing the atrocities they are committing.
Your continued funding of organs of state terror is designed to create an
atmosphere of fear among opposition supporters so that they become too timid
to vote or are displaced from their constituencies so as to give an unfair
advantage to Zanu-PF. As a result Zimbabweans have since a long time ago
lost any confidence in your ability to turn around the fortunes of the
country and as a result your own credibility has been sullied by your close
association with a regime which seems to want to cling to power at all
costs.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police, if we may dignify this increasingly corrupt
and inept ruling party militia by calling it thus, is receiving funds from
you to enforce the law selectively. Recently they have arrested lawyer
Harrison Nkomo, ZCTU officials Lovemore Matombo and Chibhebhe and Editor
Davison Maruziva on very spurious charges. At the end of the day we all know
that their cases will fall away for lack of evidence. Instead it is Zanu-PF
officials like the not-so-bright Bright Matonga, Police Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri et al who are making inflammatory statements and who
should be arrested for being a serious threat to national security.
 You are complicit in the current acts of violence that are being committed
by Zanu-PF thugs against perceived opposition activists because you are
paying the so-called war veterans. Some of us who witnessed the war
first-hand know that these are not veterans of any war. They are instead
state sponsored a rent-crowd thugs who have been paid handsomely by your
bank to act in the manner they do.
You know very well that as we speak the last batch of commercial farmers are
being driven out of their farms by violent state-sanctioned thugs to the
further detriment of food production which has dwindled to a trickle. What
the nation needs at this hour are honest and prudent leaders who are able to
tell Zanu-PF that its time is up, that they have systematically destroyed
the country by their ruinous policies of patronage and the printing of money
when industry is not producing.
They must be told that as long as they want to protect their own selfish
interests the country shall not be able to attract any foreign investment,
that as long as there is no observance of due process and the rule of law
Zimbabwe shall continue to wallow in its present economic quagmire.
No amount of quasi-fiscal policies or introduction of huge denomination
notes is going to tame inflation. This is not rocket science .It is basic
elementary economic and common sense. We exist in a global market and cannot
afford remain isolated for any longer.
The dinosaurs in Zanu-PF had better realise this. If they want to become
extinct so be it but they should be fossilised in their own history and let
those who care about Zimbabwe carry on in with resuscitating and
rehabilitating this comatose and traumatised  country without further delay.
You, Dr Gono, emphasised in your article that what you were writing were own
personal sentiments. My own personal advice to you is that your position is
now untenable. Your association with Zanu-PF has severely compromised your
ability to discharge your duties diligently and without favour. You have now
become part and parcel of the problem.
(Kenneth Kudakwashe Nyoka is a former public prosecutor and magistrate.)