Reuters
Tue 22 May
2007, 12:41 GMT
GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF)
urged Western donors on
Tuesday to put aside politics and back its health,
nutrition and education
projects in Zimbabwe, where nearly one in three
children is stunted by
malnutrition.
Only $2.6 million has been
received towards an appeal of $13.8 million
launched six months ago, leaving
programmes "grossly underfunded", the
agency said.
"The message we
are trying to convey is that yes, there is a standoff
between the government
of Zimbabwe and several parties inside and outside,
but the children should
not suffer," said Roeland Monasch, UNICEF deputy
representative in
Zimbabwe.
"... if you are concerned for whatever reason about
channelling money
through the government, as UNICEF we are able to reach the
children," he
told a news briefing after meeting officials from donor
countries in Geneva.
UNICEF programmes aim to provide vaccines against killer
diseases, bed nets
against malaria, school books as well as food and
nutrition counselling
directly through communities.
Recent studies
show that 29.4 percent of children under five are stunted,
the highest rate
since 1988, according to UNICEF.
The country is also one of the countries
hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, with one in five adults carrying the
virus. About one in four
children have been orphaned by the
disease.
"Zimbabwean people don't understand why they're living in a very
difficult
political and economic situation and yet through no fault of their
own
they're being punished by the rest of the world who seem to be
abandoning
them," said James Elder, UNICEF spokesman in Zimbabwe.
Financial Times
By Alec Russell in
Johannesburg
Published: May 22 2007 18:47 | Last updated: May 22 2007
18:47
As he emerged one chill evening recently from a meeting in
Bulawayo, David
Coltard, one of Zimbabwe's most respected opposition
leaders, saw a tall man
coming out of the shadows. He checked for a moment,
they had a stilted
conversation and then they went their separate
ways.
A casual observer might have assumed that Mr Coltard, a
human-rights lawyer,
had encountered one of the agents from President Robert
Mugabe's feared
Central Intelligence Organisation, who regularly tail the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
But the awkward
encounter testified to a far more poignant difficulty facing
Zimbabwe's
opposition. The two men are actually old friends and fellow MDC
luminaries,
but they are now on opposing sides of a bitter rift that could
destroy their
chances of unseating Mr Mugabe in elections next year.
"It's such a
tragedy," said a mutual friend who did not want to be
identified. "They both
care so much about getting rid of Mugabe, but it's
almost too painful now
for them to talk."
As South Africa prepares to host talks next month
between the MDC and
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF, the former party's two wings
have papered over
their divisions and agreed a common position on
pre-conditions for their
taking part in parliamentary and presidential
elections due next March.
But hopes that a meeting between the factions
this week could lead to a
rapprochement came to nothing. "The idea of a
coalition is not officially a
dead letter, but it's not going to happen,"
said a senior supporter of the
larger wing, which is led by the MDC's
founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, a
burly former union leader.
"The
two groups will fight the election independently."
A senior figure in the
other wing, led by the more bookish Arthur Mutambara,
was fractionally less
gloomy. "It's not the end of the road, but we had
hoped to reach an
agreement on a coalition but didn't," he said.
The two sides have agreed
that Mr Tsvangirai should be the party's sole
presidential candidate. But
they are split over how many parliamentary races
should be allocated to each
faction.
The dispute has reopened old wounds. The formal reason for the
rupture in
late 2005 was tactical: the party was divided over whether to
contest senate
elections. But that was just the spark in a long-brewing feud
between senior
figures over ideology, policy and Mr Tsvangirai's leadership
style.
For 83-year-old Mr Mugabe - seeking to extend his 27 years in
power with a
fresh term - the MDC's disharmony is great news. His own party
is also
split, with senior members questioning the wisdom and legitimacy of
his
nomination this year as presidential candidate.
But in the
countdown to the election, Zanu-PF can be expected to exploit the
opposition's rifts to the full.
A recent clampdown on MDC activists
seems to have concentrated on Mr
Tsvangirai's wing. If this was deliberate,
it would not be the first time
that Zanu-PF - and other influential forces
in the region - appear to have
played one MDC wing off against the
other.
Over the past 18 months, Mr Tsvangirai's aides have accused South
Africa of
favouring Mr Mutambara's wing. But since regional leaders mandated
South
Africa to mediate in the crisis in March, Pretoria has been scrupulous
in
speaking to both factions.
However, sources close to the mediation
team suggest that the South African
government thinks the best bet for a
stable Zimbabwe is a post-Mugabe
government of reformist Zanu-PF
members.
Mr Mugabe inadvertently gave the opposition a new lease of life
on March 11
when his riot police brutally beat dozens of MDC leaders and
supporters.
Images of Mr Tsvangirai's bruised features led to his elevation
worldwide as
the face of freedom in Zimbabwe.
Frustratingly for MDC
politicians, however, they are still deemed to have
much to prove and
desperately need to reunite. "They are fully conscious
that if they don't
hang together they'll hang separately," said one
diplomat. "Unfortunately,
personality differences still exist at the very
top."
This article is
the second in a series on political and business life in
Zimbabwe
Business Report
May 22,
2007
Gold production in Zimbabwe plunged to its lowest in 90 years, the
independent Chamber of Mines said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe was also the
only mineral-producing country in the world that
failed to benefit from high
global metal and minerals prices, said Jack
Murehwa, head of the chamber, an
umbrella group for the country's private
and state mining
operations.
"Our industry continues to experience declines in volumes ...
despite the
very buoyant mineral prices which prevailed for the past 18
months," he said
in report available Tuesday.
In the year up to
March, Zimbabwe produced eight 8 metric tonnes (just under
nine short
tons)of gold. In 1916, at the height of the colonial-era gold
boom in
southern Africa, the former British colony mined 29 metric tons
(about 32
short tonnes) of gold.
Murehwa said the world price for gold rose from
about US$275 an ounce in
2001 to more than US$600 last year. Nickel,
platinum and copper prices also
soared.
"What excuse can our industry
give for not benefiting from this worldwide
boom in metal prices?" he
said.
The answer, he said, lay in what he called "policy inconsistencies"
in the
economy that led to hyperinflation, acute shortages of gasoline and
hard
currency for equipment and spare parts, regular power outages and an
exodus
of skilled mining personnel to better paid jobs in other
countries.
He said despite the high world prices, investors in mining
stayed away from
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic
crisis since independence in 1980,
blamed largely on corruption,
mismanagement and disruptions in the
agriculture-based economy after
President Robert Mugabe ordered the
often-violent seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial farms in 2000
for handing over to black
farmers.
Since then, mechanised farming in some areas has been replaced
by age-old
animal drawn plowing.
Inflation is a record 3,714 percent,
the highest in the world. Last month,
consumer prices for most goods doubled
in a country already facing shortages
of food, gasoline, medicines and other
imports.
According the central bank, overall foreign investment declined
from
US$444.3 million in 1998 to just US$50 million last year. It cited
"perceived risk" and worries over security of ownership as the main
disincentives for investors.
Mugabe has regularly vowed the
government will take a bigger stake in mining
in its efforts to turn over
more economic production to "indigenous"
Zimbabwean interests. - Sapa-AP
IOL
May
22 2007 at 04:24PM
London - Zimbabwe and Venezuela have not been
cooperating with the
Kimberley Process, the international effort to stamp
out trade in conflict
diamonds, the Antwerp-based World Diamond Council
(WDC) says in its May 22
Antwerp Facets.
WDC chairperson Eli
Izhakoff had told a meeting of Kimberley Process
members in Jerusalem that
both countries had asked for his help to become
compliant.
Commenting, Namibian minister of mines Kennedy Hamutenya said Sierra
Leone
and the Democratic Republic of Congo had also asked his country for
similar
help.
"African countries have realised they have to work together
to stop
the trade in conflict diamonds," he
said.
"It is hard to eliminate all smuggling of
such small, high-value items
as diamonds, but African countries deserve
credit for the progress they have
made."
Leader of Global
Witness, the London-based NGO that first highlighted
the issue, agreed
incidences of conflict diamonds were indeed on the
decline, but said much
more remained to be done to compile reliable
statistics.
The
Central African Republic, DRC and Angola were particularly
troubling
areas.
Meanwhile, Liberian minister of mines and energy Eugene
Shannon has
said he will crack down on diamond smugglers. - Sapa
New Zimbabwe
By
Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 05/23/2007 04:33:10
ZIMBABWEAN soldiers could
starve if the government does not intervene with a
financial rescue plan
before the end of June, MPs were told on Tuesday.
The Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Defence Trust Maphosa told the
Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Defence and Home Affairs that they were
allocated Zim$32
billion to spend on rations for the whole year, but it has
been
exhausted.
The committee which is chaired by Zanu PF Bikita West MP
Claudious Makova, a
former soldier, had called for the hearing to get
information on the army's
first quarter budget performance.
Maphosa
revealed he was scheduled to hold crisis meetings with Ministry of
Finance
officials late Tuesday to secure more funding for the defence
forces.
"For rations, we were allocated $32 billion and so far we
have used 92
percent of that," Maphosa said. "What that means is that we have
been left
with just eight percent to take us for the rest of the
year.
"In reality, we do not have anything because that money (remaining
8
percent) will go towards transport costs."
Maphosa told the MPs
that all along they have been moving money from other
areas to boost the
food budget.
He said the army had no other source to raise the funds
except through
treasury, which is why he was seeking an emergency meeting
with finance
ministry officials.
Currently the armed forces of
Zimbabwe are completely integrated and are
composed of an army (ZNA) and an
air force (AFZ). The ZNA currently has an
active duty strength of 30,000.
The air force has about 5,000 men assigned.
Thousands of soldiers have
quit in recent months over poor pay, with many
enlisting as security guards
in neighbouring South Africa.
Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic
crisis in history, with inflation
projected to hit the 4000% mark by the end
of the year.
Monsters and Critics
May 22, 2007, 6:59 GMT
Harare - Zimbabwean police have
mounted roadblocks on major roads in the
country to seize maize destined for
the illegal market as the country
battles to stave off massive shortages of
the staple grain, reports said
Tuesday.
The roadblocks, set up in
conjunction with the state-run Grain Marketing
Board (GMB), are intended to
stop farmers selling their maize harvest to
private buyers in town who offer
higher prices than the GMB.
A person is allowed to carry not more than
five bags of maize (250
kilogrammes) when travelling and those caught on the
wrong side of the law
will be reported to the police and charged under the
Grain Marketing Act,
Alex Muzambi, the loss control manager of the GMB told
state news agency New
Ziana.
The GMB is also carrying out inspections
on farms and awareness campaigns to
ensure farmers comply with the law, the
report said.
Maize and wheat are controlled products, which means they
have to be sold to
the official grain company at a set price.
Last
month the government said it would pay 3 million Zimbabwe dollars per
tonne
for maize (worth just 133 US dollars on the parallel market for
foreign
currency) to local farmers, but the commodity fetches a higher price
on the
black market.
Zimbabwe has declared 2007 a drought year. Crops in some
areas have been
almost completely written off.
The country faces a
shortage of more than a million tonnes of maize and will
need to use scarce
foreign currency to import from its neighbours in order
to cover part of the
shortfall.
In a separate development, parliament heard last week that the
country had
planted less than a tenth of the wheat crop targeted for this
year due to
shortages of fuel, fertilizer and tractors.
© 2007 dpa -
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
22 May, 2008
At a time when the country is faced with
serious shortages of sugar, it has
been reported that senior army officials,
including the commander of the
defence forces, have been looting tonnes of
sugar for personal gain.
According to the Zimbabwe Times website it all
started when junior soldiers
at King George VI Barracks in Harare routinely
checked a heavily loaded
rural truck leaving their premises. What they found
led directly to army
commander General Constantine Chiwenga and four other
senior officials. The
truck contained three tonnes of sugar and the general
phoned the soldiers
and ordered them to let it pass.
Chiredzi farmer
Gerry Whitehead told us top government officials have been
taking sugar from
the mills directly to the border for years now. He has
seen a vast network
of roads develop near the border with Mozambique and
Botswana. When he
recently tried ordering sugar to sell to supermarkets in
Masvingo that had
none, Whitehead was told it had all been ordered.
What seems quite clear
is that top officials are benefiting from the ongoing
lawlessness and have
no desire to resolve the political and economic crisis.
According to The
Zimbabwe Times Chiwenga and his partners ordered the sugar
under the
pretence that it was for use on military barracks around the
country. But
it's then diverted and resold at very large profits locally and
on
international markets. The driver of the truck in Harare said he been
instructed to contact Major General Engelbert Rugeje with any queries. It is
believed Rugeje then contacted the army commander.
Scams like this
one create a shortage for ordinary Zimbabweans and push up
the price beyond
affordability. Similar scams have caused shortages of maize
meal, cooking
oil, soap and other basic commodities.
Whitehead said the few remaining white
farmers in the lowveld all have been
given deadlines by which they are to
vacate their properties. He added: "I
don't think there will be any white
farmers left down here next year."
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance Guma
22
May 2007
The outgoing president of the University of Zimbabwe students
union, Tineyi
Mukwewa, who was reported missing for several days, has been
found safe but
still in hiding. Washington Katema a coordinator with the
Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU) told Newsreel Mukwewa was detained
in a secret part
of the university security control room. He says this is
why an inspection
done by students and defence lawyers failed to locate him.
Mukwewa was
however released the following day around 1am in the morning and
decided to
run away and seek refuge somewhere safe. Katema explained how his
colleague
was not sure what would follow the detention and decided to lay
low for a
while.
ZINASU say Mukwewa will continue in hiding as are
several other student
leaders now working underground. Several have been
arrested and tortured in
a government crackdown aimed at crushing dissent.
Last week at least 8
student leaders were suspended while a 9th, Terence
Chimhavi, was expelled
for allegedly masterminding a demonstration on
campus. Katema also says with
lecturers on strike and most students not
attending classes as a result, the
student movement was finding it hard to
mobilize any protest. They will
however seek legal redress from the courts
over the expulsions and
suspensions.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
By Tererai Karimakwenda
22 May, 2007
Back in April on the
programme Zim Alive we reported on events in the rural
district of Murehwa,
where a large number of youth militia had been
dispatched to harass local
church officials who had read out the critical
Pastoral letter issued by the
Catholic Bishops. The letter said those in
authority are bad examples for
Zimbabwe's youth because they are corrupt,
greedy and immoral. The Catholic
Bishops also criticised government for
sponsoring violence against its
opponents. In response, the authorities did
just that.
Our Murehwa
contact Kumbirai says ZANU-PF structures in Mashonaland East
have since sent
a threatening letter ordering them to discontinue their
church activities or
be prepared to deal with tough consequencies. Written
in Shona the letter
named six individuals from the church who would be
harmed if nothing
changed. It was signed by unnamed ruling party thugs in
Mutoko, Mudzi, UMP,
Goromonzi and Murehwa.
Addressed to the congregation of the Roman
catholic church the text of the
ZANU-PF letter says:
"Nyaya yamatanga ine
ngozi. Namatayi Mwari mosiyana ne politics dza Pius
Ncube (MDC). Regai
kubvisa vanhu pana Mwari. Mukaenderera mberi hondo yacho
tinoigona.
Mogadzirira kutakura mikwende. Mukaramba muchiita izvi ticha
kutorayi one by
one. Saka chisarudzi zvamunoda- hondo, runyararo kana
kuvhara sangano renyu.
Pasi ne MDC navateveri va Pius Ncube.
From- Mutoko, Mudzi, UMP, Goromonzi ne
Murehwa ZANU-PF."
Translated, the words read: "The saga you have started
is madness. Worship
God and leave the politics of Pius Ncube and MDC alone.
Stop removing people
from God. If you continue we will win this war. Prepare
to pack your
belongings. If you keep this up we shall take you one by one.
So choose
whether you want war, peace or to stop your church activities.
Down with MDC
and the followers of Pius Ncube."
Kumbirai said all six
threatened people are still in the area because they
have nowhere else to
go. They have families and established contacts that
are vital to their
survival. And no-one can simply shut down a church based
on political
threats. ZANU-PF thugs have also been threatening religious
leaders around
the country who were associated with the Bishops' pastoral
letter that
criticized top officials. It seems no critic of the government
is
safe.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Citizen
BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday
sharply criticised
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and called on other
African leaders to
use their influence against his regime.
"The
policies of President Mugabe are not acceptable," Merkel said at
the opening
of a meeting on Africa to prepare for next month's G8 summit.
"I appeal
to political decision-makers in Zimbabwe's neighbours: 'Use
your influence
for the good of the Zimbabwean people,'" she added.
Mugabe has ruled
Zimbabwe since 1980 after his guerrilla forces won a
civil war against
minority white rule, and is seen as having turned the
country into an
economic ruin with the highest inflation rate in the world
and unemployment
of around 80 percent.
The former liberation hero is now regarded as a
despot who brutally
oppresses the political opposition.
African
leaders, in particular South African President Thabo Mbeki,
have been
criticised for failing to rebuke Mugabe. -Sapa-AFP
Last updated
22/05/2007 18:48:53
zimbabwejournalists.com
22nd May 2007 16:47 GMT
By a Correspondent
HARARE - The Zimbabwe
dollar has shed about 63 percent of its value in the
last month since the
technical devaluation of the local currency by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) in April.
RBZ Governor Gideon Gono technically devalued the dollar
to $15 000 per
American dollar in his 26 April monetary policy review
statement.
Demand for foreign currency on the parallel market, where it
is available
has continued to rise as income flows from the export of the
country's once
major currency earners tobacco and minerals, fails to ease
demand.
The local dollar is currently trading at $40 000 to the US dollar
up from
$25 000 shedding 60 percent of its value in one month.
The
dollar lost 43 percent to trade at $5000 to the South African Rand up
from
$3 500. It lost 63percent against the British pound sterling from $40
000 to
trade at $65 000. Some traders are now going as far as $73 000 to one
British pound. The rates change everyday.
Bulawayo-based economist
Eric Bloch forecasts parallel market rates to
continue to spiral upwards for
the next four months because of increased
demand.
"The rate on the
alternative market will continue to spiral upwards for the
next four or so
months," said Bloch.
"The shortage of foreign currency on the formal
market has led to increased
demand on the alternative market."
Bloch
said the little foreign currency trickling into the formal market was
going
towards the importation of food, anti-retroviral drugs, electricity
and
fuel.
Zimbabwe is battling a critical foreign currency shortage after the
seven-year land invasions virtually decimated a once prosperous economic
mainstay.
Production of tobacco, once one of Zimbabwe's major foreign
currency
earners, has plummeted to about 60 kg per season down from 260 kg
per
season.
In his monetary policy statement Gono said security of
tenure needed to be
urgently addressed to stimulate investment in the
agricultural sector.
The Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
21 May 2007
Posted to the web
21 May 2007
Marondera
THERE was drama at a TM Supermarkets branch
in Marondera last Saturday when
an angry mob looted two cartons of sugar
that a policeman had allegedly
bought through the back door.
The
people were incensed because they were being restricted to only 4kg per
individual at the branch, yet hordes of well-known black marketers in the
town and police officers were allegedly buying cartons of
sugar.
When the policeman was leaving the supermarket through the
back door with
his sugar, the angry customers quickly mobbed him. One of
them grabbed his
cap with the rest going for his sugar and he recovered
nothing from the
ensuing pandemonium.
Residents of Marondera
expressed concern at the trend prevailing in the town
whenever sugar was
delivered.
"Sugar irikupedzwa nemapurisa nemakorokoza eblack
market.
"Right now sugar is finding its way into other shops where it is
being sold
for $85 000 a packet over the counter.
"We suspect that
most of it belongs to officers and it's no wonder that the
black market is
thriving in the CBD without any arrests or confiscation of
the sugar," fumed
Mr Rueben Vengayi of Rujeko suburb.
The sugar was being sold for $12 200
and it has become the norm that
whenever limited supplies were delivered,
those tipped off by shop staff
quickly snapped the commodity.
People
selling sugar on the streets of Marondera refused to indicate where
they
were sourcing sugar for resale but indications were that they had an
uninterrupted chain of supply from some retailers or their employees.
Efforts to get a comment from Provincial Spokesman inspector Austin
Chikwababa were fruitless.
Nehanda Radio
22 May 2007
By Edward Marange
A
coalition of civic groups under the Save Zimbabwe Campaign umbrella have
demanded inclusion in mediation efforts by South African President Thabo
Mbeki who is trying to broker a compromise between the ruling Zanu PF party
and the opposition MDC.
Save Zimbabwe officials told Nehanda Radio
they will present their own plans
to members of the regional and
international community next week. A document
will be released titled: 'The
Save Zimbabwe Campaign Position on Dialogue.'
It becomes the second high
profile proposal after Zimbabwean academics in
the United Kingdom calling
themselves the Peoples Policy Committee (PPC)
came up with their own
proposals.
Skepticism has greeted efforts by Mbeki to broker some kind of
exit package
for Mugabe who analysts believe is the major stumbling block to
achieving
prosperity in the country. Others have suggested the 83 year old
leader
needs assurances he will not be prosecuted for crimes against
humanity as an
incentive for him to relinquish power.
MDC president
Morgan Tsvangirai also stirred a hornet's nest when he
suggested he might
consider immunity for Mugabe if it would bring peace to
Zimbabwe. Victims of
Mugabe's abuse however cried foul and said the
opposition leader should not
have made the remarks. Others did see the logic
in the offer and stood by
him. SADC leaders last month tasked Mbeki to end
the crisis rocking his
neighbour. It's the secrecy in the talks that has
however frustrated many
Zimbabweans into believing the process is a waste of
time.
zimbabwejournalists.com
21st May 2007 22:29 GMT
By Nyasha
Nyakunu
ZIMBABWEAN Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with
observer status at the
African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights'
session underway in Accra,
Ghana, have refused to address the Commission on
the human rights situation
in Zimbabwe citing security concerns arising from
remarks made by justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa.
At least five
NGOs from Zimbabwe, among them the Media Institute of Southern
Africa
(MISA-Zimbabwe), Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT) and
the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), were expected to deliver their
statements last Saturday.
Instead, the NGOs released a joint
statement through the Civil Liberties of
Nigeria in which they expressed
strong concern over statements made by
Chinamasa.
In a live radio
interview in Accra, Chinamasa branded Zimbabwean civic
society organisations
as regime change activists and singled out
MISA-Zimbabwe's Legal Officer
Wilbert Mandinde as one such activist working
for a British and American
funded non-governmental organisation.
"The remarks by the Minister place
accredited non-governmental organisations
from Zimbabwe in a position where
they cannot publicly, and without fear of
retribution, address this
Commission, as is their obligation in updating the
Commission on the current
situation prevailing in Zimbabwe," reads the joint
statement.
"In
light of these threats, we would want to urge the Honorable Commission
to
challenge the Government of Zimbabwe to demonstrate its sincerity in
suggesting that the human rights violations in Zimbabwe are imaginary, not
real, and exaggerated, by making an undertaking that they will not subject
any of the participants to this forum to some form of harassment,
intimidation or such other harm only on account of having participated
legitimately and lawfully in the proceedings of this session. We request
that this undertaking be made public.
"In the absence of such
undertaking, we request that the African Commission,
through its Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders should take all
precautionary measures
to ensure that all those who enjoy Observer Status
and have participated in
this Session will not be subjected to harassment,
or attack on account of
their participation, whether here in Ghana, or upon
their return to
Zimbabwe."
Presenting a statement on the human rights situation in
Zimbabwe during the
41st Ordinary Session of the ACHPR, Chinamasa attacked
NGOs from Zimbabwe as
regime change activists. He also called on the West to
lift targetted
sanctions against the Zimbabwe government leaders.
He
told the Commission that problems in Zimbabwe were being caused by
Western
countries which had allegedly poured resources to political
malcontents and
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for purposes of
destabilising the
country.
Chinamasa also made the same allegations when he appeared on a
Joy FM live
radio interview on 18 May 2007.
Reacting to an
intervention by MISA-Zimbabwe's Legal Officer Wilbert
Mandinde who said that
the Zimbabwean government is persecuting journalists
and has also refused to
open the airwaves, Chinamasa retorted: "I want to
attack Mandinde, I mean
respond to what he has said. Mandinde is a regime
change activist who works
for a British and American funded organisation on
the regime change
agenda."
These developments come in the wake of calls by African NGOs for
the
Zimbabwean government to desist from the wanton arrests, harassment and
torture of journalists.
The call was made in a resolution adopted at
the end of a three-day Forum
held in Accra from 12 - 14 May 2007 on the
Participation of NGOs in the 41st
Ordinary Session of the African Commission
on Human and Peoples' Rights.
During the Forum, African NGOs expressed
concern over the situation of
journalists and freedom of expression
activists in Africa especially in
Zimbabwe, Eritrea, The Gambia, Ethiopia,
Sierra Leone and Somalia and called
upon these and various other African
states to respect provisions of the
African Charter, the Declaration of
Principles on Freedom of Expression in
Africa and their various
constitutions on the right to freedom of
expression.
On Zimbabwe, the
Forum also called upon the government to fully and
thoroughly investigate
all outstanding issues.
"We call upon the government of Zimbabwe to
thoroughly investigate all
outstanding issues including the bombings of the
Daily News printing press
and Offices of the Voice of the People Trust as
well as the abduction and
murder of freelance cameraperson Edward Chikomba,"
said the Forum.
The Forum said the government should urgently repeal laws
which hinder the
enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression such as the
Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public
Order and
Security Act (POSA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).
The Scotsman
Tue 22 May 2007
CRAIG BROWN
THE Church of Scotland has refused to condemn the
Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe,
as it fears that could result in Christians
living there being persecuted.
The admission came during the first day of
the General Assembly yesterday,
after the World Mission Council was
criticised from the floor for failing to
discuss adequately in its annual
report the situation there.
When the convener, the Rev Colin Renwick, was
invited to condemn the regime,
he replied it was the council's position that
to do so could exacerbate the
already difficult situation for the local
church in southern Africa.
"We're very conscious that anything coming
from the British government is
not particularly well received," he said.
"We're also very conscious that
sometimes when assemblies make damning
criticisms of governments, they do so
believing that they are doing the
right thing. This doesn't always help the
churches on the ground in the area
concerned, and sometimes, in fact, it can
inflame a situation even
further.
"So, we walk a fine line, showing solidarity with our partner
churches but
not making the kind of statements that can complicate a
situation."
The Church of Scotland does not currently have missions in
Zimbabwe but is
planning to send volunteers if it is judged safe
enough.
Mr Renwick said that he had "no doubts about the problems in
Zimbabwe"
citing the hyper-inflation rate of 2,000 per cent that the country
is
suffering.
Speaking outside the Assembly Hall, he went on: "It's
very easy to make
statements about governments of which you are critical,
but we have to
listen carefully to our Christian partners in these
countries. We would be
more inclined to support the statements coming from
the area, rather than
making our own statements."
He also praised the
Catholic bishops' "courage" in taking a stand on the
matter.
Global Politician
Lawrence Ndlovu -
5/22/2007
HARARE- Zimbabwe should brace for bread shortage during the course
of the
year as the country has put only a tenth of the projected hectarage
under
wheat crop ahead of the 31 May deadline highlighting the chaos in the
agricultural sector. Shadreck Mlambo, permanent secretary in the ministry of
Agriculture told a portfolio committee on Land and Agriculture that a paltry
8000 hectares had been put under crop against a target of 76 000 as the
planting season comes to an end on Thursday next week (31
May).
Mlambo told the stunned lawmakers that putting land under crop
after the cut
off date was ill advised as this would reduce yields. Mlambo¢s
revelations
comes at a time the majority of Zimbabweans are gruelling under
power cuts
introduced early this month to cater for winter wheat
programme.
James Jonga, director of the District Development Fund, a
government agency
that provides tillage to farmers told the committee that
it was unattainable
to till 2000 hectares a day to meet the target as the
tractors fleet had
been depleted over the years. According to Jonga, the
parastatal requires at
least 1000 tractors to attain that feat. Currently
DDF has 240 tractors with
some of them grounded due to lack of spare
parts.
This development is likely to further suffocate the baking
industry
currently fighting with government for the removal of price
controls. Dozens
of bakers have closed shops since the beginning of the year
citing unviable
conditions. Bread is a controlled commodity whose price is
determined by the
government.
Zimbabwe requires at least 350 000 tonnes
of wheat annually, with the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) saying at best
Zimbabwe would harvest 50 000
tonnes.
The CFU, an organisation
representing the interests of commercial farmers
says that a continued wave
of farm invasions have affected production on the
farms and at least 30 of
their members were forced to stop planting by
invaders.
Zimbabwe,
once the bread basket of the region is now a hopeless basket case
following
the spectacular collapse of the agricultural sector. Once the
mainstay of
the economy, Zimbabwe agriculture took a battering over the past
seven years
after government allowed liberation war heroes of the 1970s to
invade
commercial farms. Dubbed the fast track land reform to redress
colonial
injustices, farm invasions have led to low output as the new breed
of
farmers have neither the skills nor wherewithal to be successful
farmers.
Analysts say the failure to import adequate hectarage under crop
would means
that the central bank will print money to import wheat further
fuelling
inflation. Inflation climbed to new highs last month touching off
at 3 700
percent a 1 500 percentage increase from the previous
month.
Zimbabwe will have to import maize after a disastrous agricultural
season
produced only 500 000 tonnes against an annual requirement of 2.4
million
tonnes. Analysts put the blame on President Robert Mugabe government
for the
economic woes. But the 83 year old leader in power since
independence from
colonial rule in 1980 denies the charge instead blaming
illegal sanctions
and successive droughts for the country woes.
New Zimbabwe
By Obert Chaurura
Gutu
Last updated: 05/22/2007 09:52:44
THE New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD) was formed by African
leaders, in Abuja, Nigeria, in
October 2001.
The prime movers of the NEPAD project were Presidents
Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa, Olesugun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abdoulaye Wade of
Senegal and
Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria. NEPAD is basically a promise by
African
leaders, based on shared vision and beliefs, to urgently:
.
eliminate poverty on the African continent;
. work towards the
sustainable growth and sustainable development of every
country on the
African continent; and;
. actively participate in the global economy and
political structures.
In layman's parlance, therefore, NEPAD can be
defined as an economic
programme aiming at growth and sustainable
development, eliminating poverty
and ultimately empowering Africa to benefit
from globalisation.
Indeed, as a concept, NEPAD is
a brilliant
programme; coming from Africa for the benefit of Africans living
on the
African continent and in the diaspora. NEPAD, at least on paper, is a
vision
and a programme of action for the socio-political and economic
development
of Africa.
I have absolutely no problem in accepting the concept of NEPAD
as a welcome
visionary approach in the management of the African body
politic. However,
it is my humble view that before embracing the very noble
concept of NEPAD,
Africa should go back to basics first.
As a
starting point, Africa should first of all rid itself of political
mistrust
and intolerance, rampant corruption, poor governance and general
abuse of
basic human rights at a national level. If Africa fails to go back
to basics
first, the dream of NEPAD, like several other African dreams
before it, will
never see the light of day.
The concept of NEPAD is very tempting on
paper. But then, Africa should not
just conceptuliase brilliant ideas and
programmes that are never followed by
any serious implementation process.
Put alternatively, African leaders
should not only talk the talk but they
should also walk the talk. For the
dream of NEPAD to be realised, Africa
should immediately reject its
fragmented and half-hearted commitment to the
international Bill of Rights
as incorporated in the African Charter of Human
and People's Rights.
NEPAD will always remain a pipedream if Africans
fail to make it synchronise
and harmonise with the basic values and notions
enunciated in the African
Union Charter. Almost six years after the
formation of NEPAD, there is
absolutely nothing one can identify, on the
African continent, as having
benefited from the NEPAD concept.
The
African continent remains the poorest continent under the sun. Basic
human
rights continue to be flouted with reckless abandon by African
dictators and
rulers. Crises in Africa are continuing instead of dwindling.
For instance,
the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Western Sudan
continues
unabated. The African Union exists but what has it done to assist
the
helpless victims of state terrorism in the Darfur region? What has the
African Union done about the worsening human rights crisis in Zimbabwe?
Opposition politicians, trade unionists, student activists and now even
lawyers continue to be "bashed" and abused but again; there is deafening
silence from the African Union. And we seriously think and dream that NEPAD
will help eliminate poverty on the African continent?
In order for
the dream of NEPAD to be realised, the African Union should
drive the
concept more seriously. NEPAD should thus be aggressively driven
by the
African Union itself and not by the five or so African leaders who
sanctioned it in October 2001. NEPAD should be accepted as a wholly African
agenda and it must locate its core interest in the whole of Africa in order
to benefit all Africans; be they living in Africa or in the diaspora. In my
humble view, NEPAD should be legally reconstituted as part and parcel of the
African Union Charter.
All members of the African Union should be
compelled to be members of NEPAD.
NEPAD should not be a voluntary exercise.
It is a notorious fact that
dictators always shun to become voluntary
members of any institution where
the observance of basic and fundamental
human rights is strictly enforced
and monitored. Put bluntly, dictators
thrive in an environment that is not
transparent and also in an environment
that does not have any serious
punitive measures against public officials
who abuse basic human rights. It
does not come as a surprise therefore that
only ten of the SADC countries
are full members of NEPAD. Zimbabwe is not
one of them.
The crucial tool of NEPAD is the African Peer Review
Mechanism (APRM). This
tool should make African leaders commit themselves to
behave responsibly
when it comes to the observance of democratic values,
sustainable economic
management and conflict resolution. I make no apology
in strongly advocating
that NEPAD should make it compulsory for other
African countries to
interfere in undemocratic political systems such as the
one presently
obtaining in Zimbabwe.
Of course, dictators will always
raise the argument of national sovereignty.
My own view is that national
sovereignty is not and cannot be absolute.
There are basic standards and
norms of good governance to which every member
of both the African Union and
NEPAD should be made to adhere . Hence, my
argument that NEPAD should be
made an integral part of the African Union. If
a country is a member of the
African Union, it should also become
automatically a member of NEPAD and
thus; submit itself to the African Peer
Review Mechanism. Anything short of
this will make NEPAD a complete white
elephant.
I respect the NEPAD
concept because at least for the first time in history,
Africa is seeking to
look forward and forget the past; not asking for
foreign aid but for
partnership. As Africans, our destiny is in our own
hands. We should move
ourselves away from being underdeveloped and excluded
in a globalising
world.
Surely, why should the majority of Africans continue to live in
poverty and
squalor when the African continent is endowed with so many
natural
resources? Why should we allow African dictators to continue to
plunder our
resources and to stash their loot in secret bank accounts in
developed
countries in Europe and North America? The time for African is
NOW! Africa
should refuse to be used and abused. Africans should wake up and
smell the
coffee! Put simply, Africa should refuse to be poor.
Whilst
I accept that the developed world, particularly Europe, helped in the
pauperisation of Africa, especially during the era of slavery and
colonialism, we as Africans should now take responsibility of our own
political and economic emancipation.
Yes, I agree that the G-8 has
been part of Africa's problems and thus it
must be part of its solution. But
as Africans, we should see to it that the
NEPAD dream does not go awry NEPAD
marks a new beginning for Africa. As
Africans, we must see to it that within
a specific time frame, the NEPAD
dream is realised. Failure is not an
option.
Obert Chaurura Gutu is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writes from Harare
This Day, Nigeria
By
Akinwale Akintunde, 05.21.2007
The International Bar Association's (IBA)
Human Rights Institute has accused
the Zimbabwean Government of committing
serious violations of the African
Charter and called on the government to
observe its international human
rights obligations.
The IBA which prides
itself as the global voice of the legal profession also
called for an
immediate end to the escalating police violence and harassment
against
lawyers in Zimbabwe. It particularly expressed concern about recent
police
attacks on prominent Zimbabwean human rights lawyers seeking to
defend both
opposition members and other lawyers.
These concerns were expressed in a
statement issued last week by the IBA.
The Association's Human Rights
Institute, Amnesty International and other
international NGOs had recently
released a joint report strongly contesting
the content of the submission by
the Government of Zimbabwe to the African
Commission on Human and People's
Rights.
The Institute had in the report catalogued how the impartiality of
the legal
profession in Zimbabwe had been severely compromised through the
persistent
harassment and intimidation of judges and lawyers. These attacks
on the
legal profession, it stated, had greatly undermined the authority of
the
courts, resulting in serious violations of due process and greatly
limiting
the access Zimbabwean citizens had to the justice system.
The
report which aimed at providing a realistic picture of the current
situation
in Zimbabwe, to the African Commission, exposed the failure of the
Zimbabwean authorities to comply with obligations under the African Charter
and uphold the most fundamental human rights, categorically contesting the
Zimbabwean Governments point of view.
'The IBA's Human Rights Institute
has taken the unprecedented step of
joining with other renowned
international NGO's to submit this report on
Zimbabwe to the African
Commission,' We urge the Commission to hold the
Zimbabwean Government to
account for grave breaches of the Charter. The
arbitrary arrests and violent
beating of members of the legal profession by
the Zimbabwean police this
week further compounds the evidence collated in
the report.'
All five
contributing organisations contended that the Government of
Zimbabwe had
failed to protect the rights contained in the African Charter
and hoped
that, despite the positive picture depicted by the Zimbabwean
Government in
its own submission, such assertions surrounding the country's
human rights
record will be found to be inconsistent with the realities on
the
ground.
The IBA called for Zimbabwe to observe its international human rights
obligations.
"Zimbabwe is bound by Article 14 of the International
Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and Article 7 of the African Charter
on Human and Peoples'
Rights to guarantee the right to legal counsel of
one's choosing."
IBA Executive Director, Mark Ellis said, 'the ongoing
assaults and
intimidation of human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe indicates that
Robert
Mugabe remains unperturbed by widespread international criticism of
his
attacks against political dissenters and human rights defenders. The
situation is deplorable and the international community should not continue
to stand by and watch Robert Mugabe 's Government destroy the last vestiges
of the rule of law.'
The Association called for the immediate release of
Alec Muchadahama and
Andrew Makoni, both lawyers who had been detained and
charged with terrorism
for representing 31 members of the opposition party,
Movement for Democratic
Change. The police had detained the lawyers in
violation of a High Court
decision absolving them of wrongdoing, but since
released them on bail.
The Association also wrote the Zimbabwe Police
Commissioner, Augustine
Chihuri, expressing its alarm that Zimbabwe police
had beaten a number of
highly-respected lawyers for being involved in a
peaceful and
legally-constituted protest against the arrests of Mr. Makoni
and Mr.
Muchadahama, to which it said no response was been received.
International Federation of Journalists
22/05/2007
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
today called on the
Zimbabwean government to end its attacks and harassment
of journalists and
to stop police harassment of newspaper photographer
Boldwill Hungwe.
"We are very upset by recent incidents that show a
pattern of media
repression and we urge the government to put an end to it,"
said Gabriel
Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office. "Violent attacks on
journalists
and other media workers are having chilling effect in Zimbabwe
and sending a
message that the government will use force to silence
journalists that
publish news it wants to keep out of public
view."
Hungwe is a photographer with The Standard newspaper. In its
Sunday's
edition, the paper published pictures of attorney Beatrice Mtetwa
severely
injured after she was abducted and tortured by police. The security
forces
broke up a gathering of lawyers in Harare the previous week.
According to
IFJ sources, after the photo was published the police called
Hungwe and told
him to turn himself in at the police station. The
photographer has been in
hiding since then.
Violence against
journalists has been increasing in Zimbabwe. The dead
body of cameraman
Edward Chikombo was found in April a few days after he was
abducted from his
home by armed men. Chikombo was suspected of having leaked
the footage of
the demonstrations and images of brutalised opposition
activists which
flooded international media organisations like the BBC and
CNN. A few weeks
before his death at least three other journalists were
arrested and badly
beaten in custody.
The IFJ is also calling on authorities to
release Luke Tamborinyoka,
who has been imprisoned for two months after a
crackdown on the opposition.
Tamborinyoka, press officer of the
opposition party Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested along
with about 30 MDC members when
police raided the party's headquarters on
March 28. He was reportedly badly
beaten and tortured while in custody and
has been denied access to medical
treatment and legal representation since
his arrest. Tamborinyoka was the
former news editor of newspaper The Daily
News until it was banned in 2003
and he is a former Secretary General of the
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists.
For further information contact
the IFJ: +221 842 01 43
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in
more than 115 countries
zimbabwejournalists.com
22nd May 2007 16:06 GMT
By Zinasu
THE Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU), representing 43 institutions
of higher learning and
more than 260 000 students in the 10 provinces of
Zimbabwe is shocked but
not surprised by the purported introduction of the
bonding system to college
and university student graduates.
The bonding or cadetship scheme was
confirmed by the permanent secretary of
Higher and Tertiary Education, Dr.
Washington Mbizvo in The Sunday Mail of
May 20-26 2007.
The decision
by the government is misguided because it gives the impression
that it is
sponsoring students in tertiary education in the country when it
is common
cause that the bankrupt administration in Harare long stopped this
programme
due to unbridled corruption, gross mismanagement of the economy
and its
mischievous policy that students in higher education were opposition
political elements.
The new scheme is another great betrayal to the
students of Zimbabwe and a
direct attack on the right to education enshrined
in the African Charter on
Human and People's Rights and the International
Covenant on Social, Economic
and Cultural Rights on the following
premises:
Technically, there is no student in Zimbabwe who is getting
grants or loans
from the government. Students were asked to complete state
loan forms 3
months ago but up to now nothing has materialized.
The
semester is about to end without any loans for the suffering students.
90%
of the students are living in abject and chronic poverty and are
sponsoring
their own education. How then can the government bond students
that it is
not sponsoring? If this is not madness then God help this regime.
We
would also like to remind the government that more than 95% of the civil
servants are living below the poverty datum line (PDL), which, according to
Central Statistics Office (CSO) is currently pegged at $ZW 1 700
000.
Given such, bonding all college and university graduates will
automatically
mean that they will all fall under the PDL. The starting point
for all
government employees is ZW$490 000, thus bonding in other words is
euphemism
for condemning young Zimbabweans into abject poverty.
There
is no any single child of a senior government official who is studying
here
in Zimbabwe, henceforth, they are not affected by the new scheme. Their
children and relatives are studying abroad and benefiting from the world
class education systems there.
The scheme is a violation of the
initial contract between the students and
the provider of initial
educational funds (Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe Bank,
Metropolitan Bank) on
behalf of the State. By signing loan forms, the
students bound themselves by
a caveat that they would repay the funds in the
stipulated period. The
bonding system on this basis is arguably outside the
scope of the
contract.
The students, being the major stakeholders were never consulted
prior to the
purported introduction of the scheme. This further exposes the
FLAWED
EDUCATION POLICY in Zimbabwe, which by and large views students as
periphery
stakeholders.
Students therefore refuse to be used to
resurrect a dying regime by being
turned into objects of cheap labor by a
government that has destroyed the
economic infrastructure of this
country.
Comment from In Touch with Church and Faith, 18 May
What is politics? The answer is simple: public affairs;
that which concerns
everyone. One of the most silly slogans in recent years
said: Leave politics
to the politicians. Given their record, they should be
the last people one
would leave public affairs to. Politics makes or breaks
our lives, it makes
for war or peace, for hunger or prosperity. Everyone has
a stake in
politics. No one must be excluded. The President, in his
indignant response
to the Pastoral Letter "God Hears the Cry of the
Oppressed", warns the
Bishops against becoming "political". But why should
the life and welfare of
the people not be the concern of their spiritual
leaders? The whole point of
the Bishops' letter is precisely that the
present crisis of Zimbabwe is not
just political and economic, but moral and
spiritual. This is precisely what
is fundamentally wrong with Zimbabwe; that
politics is taken to be the sole
concern of a narrow ruling elite. Our
current misery shows that leaving
politics to the politicians spells
disaster. "They [the bishops] must know
that we will reciprocate as
politicians," in other words, ruthlessly. Is
that what the President means
to say, that politicians are not bound by the
moral law? In fact, their
current behaviour seems to suggest it. The State
is breaking its own laws by
assaulting its citizens violently and brutally.
"Church and State
must work hand in hand". Indeed. The Bishops of Zimbabwe
said at
Independence 1980 that "while the Church and the State are
independent and
autonomous in their own spheres, both are at the service of
man. The more
they co-operate, the more effectively will they serve the good
of all
citizens." But the Bishops said also about the political community
(the
State), "the common good of its people is the whole meaning of its
existence." It is precisely the contention of the Bishops twenty-seven years
later that the leaders are not serving the common good, but only their own
narrow self-interest as ruling class. And by saying this the Bishops are
doing no more than they claimed as their right and duty at
Independence.
The Church "must be in a position to preach the faith.
She must carry out
her mission unhindered. She must be in a position to make
moral judgments,
even on political matters, when fundamental human rights or
the salvation of
men require it. " This was stated publicly all those many
years ago, and no
one should be surprised that the Church today is doing
what has been her
duty all along. Clashes between Church and State are
nothing new. When the
Church denounced in 1983 the atrocities committed by
the Fifth Brigade
against the civilian population of Matabeleland and the
Midlands, the then
Prime Minister lashed out against the Bishops calling
them "sanctimonious
prelates". The Bishops are not attacking the leaders
personally. They are
calling on them "to repent and listen to the cry of
their citizens". Christ
called for repentance and change of heart from the
beginning. His Church,
obedient to Him, is still doing exactly that even
today. A change of heart
is the only way forward for the leaders. Violence
is not getting this
country anywhere.
From Zim Online (SA), 22
May
Police defy High Court order to vacate farm
By
Nqobizitha Khumalo
Bulawayo - Zimbabwe police have defied a High
Court order to vacate a
white-owned farm they seized two months ago and
instead have over the past
week deployed more men at the lucrative game farm
in Matabeleland North
province. High Court Judge Francis Bere last week
ordered the police to stop
interfering with operations at Portwe farm and
that they should return guns
and farmhouse keys they had unlawfully
confiscated from the owners. But a
week after Bere's order, the police are
still camped at the farm and in one
of the most vivid illustrations of
lawlessness on farms and in the country
in general, the police have over the
past week actually moved more men onto
Portwe farm. "The situation is still
the same, they have brought in more men
into the farm and they even ordered
me to create more room in my cottage as
they said they were expecting more
personnel to come in next week," said
Margaret Jourbet, the wife of Dave
Jourbet one of the farm directors.
Joubert said their lawyers were preparing
to file a contempt of court suit
against the police, who over the past few
years and with tacit approval from
President Robert Mugabe himself have
defied several court orders they deemed
not to their liking. The police
first invaded Portwe farm last March
arriving in a convoy of 20 marked
police cars and declared the farm now
belonged to the law enforcement
agency. They chased away foreign tourists
who were at the safari lodge on
the farm and seized keys to all the
buildings at the farm. The farm invasion
is the first time that the police
organisation has seized a white-owned
farm. The Zimbabwe government has
expelled more than 90 percent of the
country's about 4 500 white commercial
farmers, plunging the country into
acute food shortages because the Harare
administration failed to give inputs
and skills training to black peasants
resettled on former white farms to
maintain production.
zimbabwejournalists.com
22nd May 2007 17:47 GMT
By Andrew M Manyevere
AFRICAN
scholars and legal expects alike doubt whether the lack of an agreed
position on how to deal with human rights issues by African governments is
borne by the fact that they have a stockholding on poor governance by
default or simply by lack of political will to defending the moral
principles involved.
It is possible that both views hold water
depending on which side the
involved is standing. It is somewhat puzzling
that even men of Minister
Patrick Chinamasa's status, should be found
salivatingly arguing for the
cessation of freedom of expression in the free
world; in order to cover the
sins of Zanu PF and its leader Robert
Mugabe.
Many Zimbabweans should be taken aback by this very hideous
behaviour
demonstrated by those who would have been considered to be
moderating
factors for a possible persuasion on a return to democracy in the
country.
Zanu PF should not look at blaming the West for their lack of
good
management of the country's resources, including that of maintaining
law and
order for the safety of citizens.
Events at the African
Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights' session
underway in Accra, Ghana,
are a shocking surprise, to fathom the degree of
deceit to hoodwink Africa
through a double-edged message, against the West
and exploiting Africa's
past relations with the West to best advantage.
Chinamasa threatened
representatives of the Zimbabwean NGOs to such an
extent that they refused
to speak. It is shocking.
The surprise is not so much that they should
not take part in the Zanu PF
government, than that they should choose not to
use their influence to make
President Robert Mugabe realize that his course
of action do not meet people
expectations, as promised during the esteemed
liberation struggle.
It is also common sense that if Zanu PF was expected
to change from within,
then this could have been done; more so now that the
half-hearted-back-door
talks on skirmishes of complaints from either Mujuru
or Mnagangwa, are
suspected to be brewing.
These stories remain
another wild imagination on Mugabe succumbing. The role
of Zanu PF using its
divisions as a chance to snap at up-coming opposition
political
organizations and maintain an upper hand on both opponents as on
internal
squabbles - this shows the craftiness in dishonesty at the
employment of
state resources to coerce emergency of a strong political
multi party
society.
Zanu PF favour a docile career political opposition party that
helps the
government to be acceptable as a democratically elected
government.
I am sure Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of the MDC must have
come across such
intimations, a reason why Zanu PF leaders would now prefer
to kill him than
have him live. Stooges of the West normally do not face
punishment with
impunity from little governments in Africa but are imposed
to protect their
influence.
Moses Tshombe was to protect the Congo
from the influence of the east
ideology which he succeeded except that the
system played a game on itself
choosing the best of stooges Seseko Mabuto to
Tshombe.
Genuine thinkers have suffered hate and dislike both from the
West and from
Africa's puppetry leadership. Patrice Lumumba, Samora Moses
Michael and
numerous others in South Africa who were silenced before sunrise
in their
political careers.
Given that Zanu PF does not consider
itself as a political party any more,
but as the defacto owner of Zimbabwe;
one may slowly begin to understand the
mistaken root of arguments such as
those employed by Minister Chinamasa at
the Africa Commission meeting on
human and people rights.
The Zimbabwe government, after successfully
enacting laws that hinder
independent journalism in the country, hoped they
would hoodwink the African
Human and People Rights Commission through
Chinamasa's misplaced threats.
SADC countries like Tanzania and South
Africa, it must be observed, have
been on the forefront of advocating for
people oppression at the exclusion
of President Mugabe's punishment except
for the extended stay in power at
any cost.
This false sense of
promise for support from African leaders, and perhaps
the most misleading
diplomacy, based on lies, finds ministers from Zimbabwe
going off topic to
get away with murder as usual.
It seems the African Union is a club of
friendship and common ground on the
suppression of the common people as a
deliberate ploy to encourage
dictatorship on the continent with
impunity.
To think what effects the radio stations that operate outside
Zimbabwe, born
out of Mugabe's tyranny on Zimbabweans, should be closed down
so that Mugabe
and his cronies can do their dark management without no
report is actually
shuttering.
Let the world know that this is
exactly what is happening in the rural areas
where outsiders wishing to
visit are having to seek approval or escorts from
the notorious green
bombers/militia: A true image of brutality and cruelty
in the eyes of the
masses.
No wonder it is true that Mugabe has had it too easy on the
African Union,
which he has used as blessing for him to subduing and
attacking his citizens
without good reason except to save his position. We
hope that some of the
west African and North African countries will have
good political bearing
and serenity of the mind to feel sorry for the
citizens who are being taken
for a ride without recourse to anyone, than the
west nations who literary
come to help despite their doubtful motives
historically.
It is true to note that in almost every other African
country history can
point with certainty at the acts of rape; killings
caused by individuals on
others from those who were or are more powerful and
who got away with
impunity. The circulation of this rot is slow but sure;
changing rulers from
one tribe to another with citizens' awareness that it
is almost their turn
to go through the murder saga next.
Unreal
though it may sound, it is however, within the realm of brutal action
commandeered by leaders in Africa with impunity.
Necessary it is
therefore, for the citizens of Africa to watch events of
this African
Commission on human and people rights and see if Africa learns
anything from
her past mistakes. It should be noted that the recent SADC
leaders meeting
in Tanzania, when southern African leaders met and decided
Thabo Mbeki
should mediate in the Zimbabwean crisis - it reveals deeper
shortcomings to
the political solution by political architectures that are
complicity to
poor governance.
Africa must be quizzed on why she cannot appoint her
retired judges, for
example, to preside over matters constitutional than
always appointing
political gurus even when there is need for expertise on
value judgments of
principle and law.
Zimbabwe's electoral
misrepresentations, for example, is one such case which
deserves expertise
at law to review pitfalls and give open advice to
political leaders
publicly. Zimbabwe is a case of a government abusing its
mandate beyond the
limits of law and circumventing law for personal glory of
a party and
individuals than to a national interest.
Understood in this context, why
should Africa remonstrate at imperial
interference but fail to bring her own
solutions due to lack of political
integrity? We should not accept that only
those appointed on political
connections are with the heart of Africa's
well-being at heart. Much as it
should be observed, president Thabo Mbeki
is not the suitable umpire when
it comes to resolving the Zimbabwean affairs
because of his vested interests
in the politics of Zimbabwe.
I doubt
if many Southern African leaders would be happy to see a
labour-based
government formed in Zimbabwe. This should be enough to explain
the
procrastination on solving Zimbabwe's problems by the SADC leadership.
Ostracising the opposition is just another ploy of Mugabe, through some of
his SADC country mouthpieces to detract work at hand in Zimbabwe, mainly the
need for a free and fair election in 2008.
One should therefore
understand why Mugabe's ministerial crew holds the
African Commission with
such disrespect that they talk of issues not related
to serious issues that
have to do with the human and people rights to live;
without being subjected
to numerous harassments due to their political
opinions or
expressions.
It is honest to argue that the 2003 position of the Africa
Commission on
people and human rights should remain the same with even a
much more serious
position being made after the 11March 2007 outride murder
attempts at made
MDC leadership. The fact that even to this date, President
Robert Mugabe
after having promised more beatings on those who want to
oppose him, retains
detainees in jail without trial; is indicative of his
despise on the African
protocols against violence and abuse of
people.
The human and people rights conditions, in Zimbabwe, are
currently made
worst by the fact that even lawyers are being subjected to
the level of
criminals without either trial or indictment. They are beaten
when they seek
to represent their clients as showdown between the power of
government and
the concept of separation of powers. For the ordinary people
and even the
elite, it is difficult to accept that condition as just a
passing phase
without assurance that the condition will not be permanent to
thwart
democratic processes and growth.
At least if Zimbabwe's
political problems were resolved as a result of
Africa's involvement, it
shall work as encouragement to discourage other
African countries with
dictatorial government from going along the same way.
The case of sugar
coating the impunity of leaders to get away with issues
illegal and
illegitimate because they are claiming majority parliamentary
seats after
cheating, can only help the rot to grow worst when people of
Africa will
again be forced to appeal to the West for freedom from their own
kith and
kin.
Dealing with human life as if one is dealing with animals should be
revised
and Africa should put a stop to this habit which is borne of the
impunity
that continues to go on unabated on the whole
continent.
African impunity over human and people rights should cease,
starting with
Zimbabwean authorities. The African human and people rights
commission
should continue to put pressure for strict adherence to law and
order. They
should bring the Zimbabwe government to book.
By Violet
Gonda
22 May 2007
Zimbabwean business mogul Mutumwa Mawere, who had
his business empire seized
by the Zimbabwean government in 2004, has taken
the case to the South
African High Court. The South African based
businessman has been on a
campaign to expose how his business empire was
systematically destroyed and
is being sold off by the Zimbabwean government.
He was accused of
externalizing foreign currency and his assets were frozen
by the Mugabe
regime under the Prevention of Corruption Act in
2004.
The government passed a decree which paved the way for it to
appoint an
administrator, which reports to the cabinet, to run his
companies. "For the
first time in Zimbabwe's history you have a political
monster appointed by
politicians purporting to be creditors. The
administrator then comes into
South African jurisdiction exporting the
illegal actions that were taken in
Zimbabwe," Mawere said.
35
companies of his were affected including his SA companies that were
supplying goods and services to Zimbabwe. The businessman is appealing to
the South African courts not to recognize Zimbabwe's controversial
nationalization laws, which violate international laws. He said:
"Recognizing that law is actually assisting in the enforcement of
expropriation action by Zimbabwe."
Mawere's vast business empire
included Zimbabwe's sole asbestos mining
company Shabanie Mashaba Mines,
plus Fidelity Life Insurance, ZIMRE
Holdings, CFI Holdings and First
Bank.
The businessman has filed the application in South Africa's Supreme
Court
but the constitutional court has sent the matter to the High Court.
Mawere
said they did not deal with the merit of the case but the
procedure.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news