Mugabe declares runoff in defiance of Electoral Commission

Times Online
May 1, 2008

President Robert Mugabe’s party declared today that there would be a runoff
between the veteran leader and Morgan Tsvangirai, the head of the
opposition - in defiance of the official verification process.

Bright Matonga, the Deputy Information Commissioner, said today: “As far as
I’m concerned, there is going to be a runoff. We have got our own results.”

His statement came as representatives from the main parties met in a Harare
hotel to begin comparing their results from the presidential poll, which the
Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) said would pave the way for an
official tally to be released.

But the process was marred by Mr Matonga's statement, which suggested that
Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party was gearing up for a bruising electoral run-off
without thought to the official results.

Senior government officials officials leaked results yesterday which
apparently handed victory to Mr Tsvangirai – but not by enough votes to win
outright.
According to the leaks, Mr Tsvangirai won 47 per cent of the vote against Mr
Mugabe’s 43 per cent. He needed more than 50 per cent to avoid a second
round.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed to
have won 50.3 per cent of the vote based on results published at polling
stations.

But a month after the March 29 poll the official tally has still not been
released, prompting accusations of vote rigging against the government.

Mr Matonga would not say whether the leaked results were correct or give
details about the Zanu PF party’s own figures. But he maintained that no one
won the 50 per cent vote needed to avoid a runoff.

Individual polling stations have posted results, allowing parties and others
to compile their own tallies while the nation awaits official results from
the ZEC.

In Johannesburg yesterday, Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman reiterated that the
opposition would not take part in a runoff because it believed only
fraudulent results would deny the MDC outright victory.

“If Robert Mugabe cannot accept the real results now, what’s the guarantee
he’ll accept the real results after a runoff?” George Sibotshiwe said.

The MDC said in a statement today that 20 of its activists had been killed
in the last month. Independent rights groups in Zimbabwe have given more
conservative tolls, but they also have said not all deaths have been
reported.

The main trade union federation claimed that two schoolteachers were beaten
to death in the latest wave of violence.

“We have received bad news. As we speak two teachers have been killed,
beaten to death,” Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said at a May Day rally at a stadium in
Harare today.

Mr Chibebe, whose movement is closely allied to the main opposition, said
the two had been killed at a school in the northwestern Guruve region.

Zimbabwe opposition, commission at odds over vote result

Yahoo News

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

HARARE (AFP) - Talks hosted by Zimbabwe's electoral commission to verify
results of a presidential election broke up for the day after the opposition
claimed outright victory, sources at Thursday's meeting said.

The sources said that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
had presented figures claiming its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 50.3 percent
in the March 29 poll, thus avoiding a run-off against the incumbent Robert
Mugabe.

However both Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and electoral commission (ZEC) officials
came up with figures that showed Tsvangirai had fallen short of the 50
percent threshold.

"Everybody else is coming up with a figure between 47 and 48 percent so ZEC
has asked them to go back to retally their figures so tomorrow morning we
can come back and resume," one source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A second source present at the meeting in Harare said that all sides had
come up with different figures.

Asked if anyone else apart from the MDC had presented figures showing
Tsvangirai had won more than 50 percent, he said: "obviously not."

Zimbabwe Political Parties Told Tsvangirai Won

nasdaq

HARARE (AFP)--Officials from Zimbabwe's electoral commission told all-party
talks Thursday that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.8% in the
March 29 presidential election while Robert Mugabe got 43.2%, sources in the
meeting said.

A third candidate, former finance minister Simba Makoni, won 8% while the
remaining votes went to rank outsider Langton Towungana, the sources told
AFP on condition of anonymity.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  05-01-081423ET

Zimbabwe government tally shows presidential runoff needed

Yahoo News

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer Thu May 1, 11:16 AM ET

HARARE, Zimbabwe - A runoff will be necessary to decide Zimbabwe's
presidential election, a Cabinet minister said Thursday, citing the
government's own election results.

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga's comments came a day after
Zimbabwe's opposition rejected a runoff. That's despite a media report that
the official tally — still not released more than a month after the vote —
showed its candidate beat Mugabe, but not by enough to avoid a second round.

Matonga said Mugabe's party will take part in a runoff.

"As far as I'm concerned, there is going to be a runoff," Matonga told The
Associated Press. "We have got our own results."

On Wednesday, CNN quoted an unidentified senior official with Zimbabwe's
ruling ZANU-PF party as saying results from the March 29 election gave
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai 47 percent of the votes while Mugabe
trailed with 43 percent.

Matonga would not say whether the CNN report was correct or give details
about the figures he said the government has. But he said no one won the 50
percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff.

Independent observers have been saying that Tsvangirai won the most votes,
but not enough to avoid a runoff. Tsvangirai insists he won outright.

Individual polling stations have posted results, allowing parties and others
to compile their own tallies while the nation awaits official results from
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Tsvangirai and rights groups have accused
Mugabe of withholding the results to buy time to steal a runoff through
intimidation or fraud.

Electoral commission officials said late Wednesday that no official results
had been released and that party officials would not see them until the
verification process, which began Thursday afternoon.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai sent representatives and independent candidate Simba
Makoni himself attended. Journalists were allowed inside for only a few
minutes as the process began, and were given no indication when it would be
completed.

The opposition says a campaign of terror and violence since the first round
of voting has left the movement in a disarray, with its main leaders staying
out of the country for fear of arrest.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement Thursday
that 20 of its activists had been killed in the last month in postelection
violence. Such figures have been difficult to verify. Independent rights
groups in Zimbabwe have given more conservative tolls, but they also have
said not all deaths have been reported.

In Johannesburg Wednesday, South Africa, Tsvangirai spokesman George
Sibotshiwe reiterated that the opposition would not take part in a runoff
because it believed only fraudulent results would deny Tsvangirai outright
victory.

"If Robert Mugabe cannot accept the real results now, what's the guarantee
he'll accept the real results after a runoff?" Sibotshiwe said.

Independent rights groups also say postelection violence makes it unlikely a
runoff could be free and fair.

The 84-year-old Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from
Britain in 1980, has been accused of brutality and increasing autocracy.

But the main campaign issue for many here had been the economic collapse of
what had once been a regional breadbasket.

A land reform campaign Mugabe launched in 2000 saw the often-violent seizure
of farmland from whites. The key agriculture sector was devastated.

Mining, tourism and tobacco exports — once the three nation's biggest hard
currency earners — reported massive losses in recent weeks. In the Reserve
Bank's quarterly fiscal policy statement Wednesday, central bank governor
Gideon Gono acknowledged that the government is virtually broke.

In his statement, Gono announced a new hard currency exchange rate he said
would be set by banks in willing seller-willing buyer deals based on
availability of hard currency that would draw money into the banking system
from the dominant black market in hard currency.

He gave no indication of what the new rate might be, but currency dealers
said it needed to approach the black market rate of about 100 million
Zimbabwe dollars to $1.

Gono told business leaders and government officials at a briefing shown on
state television that the central bank was relinquishing its monopoly on
controlling hard currency inflows.

He said he did not abolish the official exchange rate of just 30,000
Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. dollar but was allowing the market to determine
another legal exchange rate.

Zimbabwe farm violence spreads

The Telegraph

By Peta Thornycroft in Harare And Sebastien Berger
Last Updated: 8:00PM BST 01/05/2008
A white landowner in Zimbabwe has told how he fought off thugs wielding guns
and axes after hundreds of men invaded his property.
The assault near Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, is evidence that the
latest farm invasions have spread to the western half of the country in the
wake of the disputed election.

The armed assault on the farmer, who asked not to be identified, happened
only a few miles from where the first farmer was murdered when President
Robert Mugabe first unleashed his land invasions in 2000.

The latest assault happened close to the property where the farmer and his
family, including his bed-ridden grandfather, are under siege from around
200 so-called "war veterans".

He was confronted in his office by a group of invaders. One of the was armed
with a rifle and in a scuffle the farmer suffered a hand injury from an axe.
"There was one guy who pointed a gun at me ... I said 'If you’re going to
shoot me, shoot me'," the farmer said yesterday.

"I tried to grab the barrel of the gun from him and a big brawl broke out
between my workers and these guys. They were all hitting each other with
sticks and stones.

“One guy hit me on the hand with the back of his axe handle. One guy had a
weapon pointed at me and fired at me, then fired another three shots.

"I'm just lucky to be alive. It’s an extremely worrying situation. We’re
just trying to keep our heads down without them getting taken off."

Police at first refused to attend the scene, then arrived only to confiscate
three shotguns from the farmer.

The presence of land invaders in the Matabeleland North province is a sign
that the campaign of violence instituted by the ruling Zanu- PF party is
spreading.

When the farmer Martin Olds was killed eight years ago the murder was
carried out by a group of Shona-speakers, who are concentrated in the east
of Zimbabwe and form the bulk of the Mr Mugabe’s support.

In Harare, the final stage of Zimbabwe’s tortuous presidential election
count began on Thursday, as candidates and their representatives gathered in
a five-star hotel to agree on the results.

Mr Mugabe’s election agent, the hardline outgoing rural housing minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa, arrived at the hotel looking relaxed and said he had "no
idea" how long the verification process would take.

Chris Mbanga, representing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said: "This process can take a day, a week, even
two weeks. It depends on whether we agree on and can tally our figures."

According to the MDC, its latest tally of results gives Mr Tsvangirai 51.7
per cent of the vote, enough for outright victory.

By contrast senior officials of the ruling Zanu-PF party say he scored 47
per cent and the contest must go to a run-off.

It is already more than a month since the poll, and Zanu-PF is widely
believed to have engineered the delays to give it time to launch a campaign
of violence against MDC supporters to bolster its chances in the second
round.

Mr Tsvangirai said: "How can you have a run-off when Mugabe over the last
month has been unleashing violence, death squads and violence against our
structures?"

Two Zim teachers killed - unions

IOL

    May 01 2008 at 04:48PM

Harare - Two schoolteachers have been beaten to death in the latest
wave of violence after Zimbabwe's general elections, the head of the
country's main trade union federation said on Thursday.

"We have received bad news. As we speak two teachers have been killed,
beaten to death," Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said at a May Day rally at a stadium in
Harare.

Chibebe, whose movement is closely allied to the main opposition, said
the two had been killed at a school in the northwestern Guruve region.

The Movement for Democratic Change had previously put the death toll
from politically-motivated violence following disputed elections on March 29
at 20. - Sapa-AFP

Too scared for school: the plight of Zimbabwe's teachers

Times Online
May 1, 2008

Catherine Philp in Harare
It was May Day and the schools were out for the holiday but Tatenda Makura
had come to St Peter’s Secondary School anyway, looking for the headmaster.
He joined the queue of other boys waiting in the empty corridor, hoping to
win a place at the sought-after church school.

“This is the only one that has enough teachers,” Tatenda explained. When the
new term began this week at his own school, Harare High, only two out of
eight of his teachers turned up. “Maths, science, geography, accounts,
history - we are not getting any of these,” the earnest 17-year-old reeled
off. “I need to learn these but the teachers are not there.”

As Zimbabwe’s new school term began this week after a six-week election
break, thousands of teachers failed to turn up, kept away by violence,
intimidation or simply poverty caused by hyperinflation that has spiralled
since March’s disputed elections.

Exacerbating the crisis in an education system already crippled by a
national brain-drain and chronic underfunding, teachers’ unions reported
that 9,000 teachers failed to report for work on Tuesday.

Hundreds of rural schools are battling to reopen at all after thousands of
teachers fled a campaign of violence against local activists for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change and local officers for the
Zimbabwe Election Commission.
Thousands of teachers took employment as election officers during the school
break to supplement their shrinking incomes. But in the last week at least
100 teachers, including several school principals, have been arrested on
suspicion of electoral fraud.

Yesterday the country's main trade union federation announced that two
teachers had been beaten to death at their school in the northwestern Guruve
region, apparently by ruling party militia.

“These are being accused of rigging the elections in favour of MDC,” said
Raymond Majongwe, secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of
Zimbabwe. Others who worked as presiding officers have been targeted by the
ruling party militias currently terrorising the opposition in rural
strongholds such as Mudzi and Mutoko, where schools have been hit hardest.

Arthur, a secondary school English teacher, was asleep at home in Kumburai
village, Mudzi, two weeks ago when 40 Zanu (PF) militiamen smashed their way
into his home. “They asked me ’where are your colleagues?’ I said I didn’t
know and they began to beat me. They said if you don’t tell us, we will kill
you.” He fled to Harare with two other teachers to receive medical
treatment. One of them, Harold, had endured a seven-hour torture ordeal
before he escaped.

Despite the start of term back home, all three remain in hiding in the
capital, too afraid to return, a situation repeated across the country.

“Hate speeches are being uttered against teachers. Some are being
systematically assaulted,” Mr. Majongwe said. “There is no way that they can
go back to such dangerous areas.” The crisis has left thousands of students
without tuition in an education system that teachers have long warned is
providing little real learning because of the external pressures of Zimbabwe’s
desperate plight. Tatenda has little idea why his teachers did not turn up
at the start of term; he has seen dozens leave for other countries and two
die “from tuberculosis” – most likely Aids-related – over the past five
years.

“I am worried I cannot get a proper education now,” he sighs. He came to St
Peter’s yesterday to see if he could find a place there. St Peters’ has been
less affected than some other schools: teachers say the faith-based ethos
has kept them loyal to the profession despite their own crushing economic
needs.

Joseph Magorimbo, 18, had just arrived from Kwekwe, 100km southwest of
Harare, to seek place at St Peters after all but a handful of teachers
turned up at his own school the start of term. His own mother was a teacher
there but she died four years ago from Aids. “My granny brought me up here
because she said my mother would want me to have an education above
anything,” he said. And most parents here desperately do.

Education is highly prized in Zimbabwe, not least because of President
Mugabe, a former teacher himself, who prioritised school building and
teacher training in the early years of his rule. Every morning, from the
slums of Mbare, schoolchildren emerge in a rainbow of coloured uniforms –
greens, blues, purples, brown – heading off in the morning light to lessons.

“Even if the uniforms are torn, they all have them,” Lucy, a secondary
school teacher, said. “The parents make sure of that.” She did not return to
work this week, not because of security fears but because she can simply no
longer survive on her paltry salary, Z$5 billion a month, shrinking every
day through hyperinflation at 165,000 per cent and rising.

The schools themselves are struggling too, and not just from lack of
teachers. At St Peters, as the prospective pupils waited, a parent-teacher
committee had given up their day’s holiday to hammer out a rise in school
fees. Last terms’ were Z$80 million; they had done their sums and worked out
that this term would need Z$4 billion per pupil just to keep running.

“This school is a good one and even it is nearly bankrupt,” Gilbert
Musintonga, a teacher from the primary department said. But the rise in fees
is likely to put severe strain on parents already struggling to pay off last
term’s debts. “That is the situation,” Grace, a committee member shrugged.
“They will try their best because they want education for their children.
Without education, they can do nothing. Some will refuse. It will be tough
for them.”
Tatenda is also an orphan and lives with his grandmother but his school fees
are paid by his aunt, a nurse working in London. She will make sure his fees
are paid, however high they rise. Others are not so lucky and even if they
can meet the bills, it is debatable how long the quality of education they
receive will be judged worthy of the cost.

The Government, anxious to keep up appearances, has stuffed schools full of
relief teachers, unqualified for the job, so even when they do show up, the
teaching is a far remove from what it used to be. Zimbabwe’s trained
teachers, meanwhile, wait in their thousands on the restaurant tables of
Johannesburg and elsewhere, unable to find the jobs they were trained for.

“I am worried for the future of these children,” Mr Musintonga sighed. “We
don’t have books, we don’t have equipment, we don’t even have chalk. We only
have our teachers but without them, the children cannot learn anything. This
term, we have five classes without teachers and we don’t know where they
are, or whether they will come back.”

Zanu-PF split on next move after defeat

Financial Times

By Alec Russell in Johannesburg

Published: May 1 2008 18:18 | Last updated: May 1 2008 18:18

These are testing times for stalwarts of Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party as
they try to safeguard their future. For four febrile weeks, as the
authorities have delayed the release of the March 29 election results, there
have been mounting suspicions at home and abroad that President Robert
Mugabe was trying to “fix” the figures to ensure he stayed in power.

Yet as results have at last started to trickle out, it has become clear that
the regime lacked either the will or the means to overturn evidence that Mr
Mugabe and Zanu- PF were defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change.

First came last weekend’s admission by the Zimbabwe electoral commission
that a partial recount of the vote, far from tipping the parliamentary
results in Zanu-PF’s favour, as government critics predicted, merely
confirmed victory for the MDC. Then leaked presidential figures suggested Mr
Mugabe came in second place, with 43 per cent, behind Mr Tsvangirai on 47
per cent.
“People in Zanu-PF are very much affected by the uncertainty,” Ishmael Dube,
a former high-ranking diplomat, told the Financial Times. “Many are hoping
we have a government of national unity. But then there are also deep
divisions. There are those radicals who do not want to work with the
opposition and the reasonable ones who believe there is no alternative.”

After a month of incubation, any results from the electoral commission or
the government have to be regarded with scepticism, analysts caution.
Diplomats note that, conveniently for the regime, Mr Tsvangirai’s figure was
at the lowest end of a projection by independent monitors; Mr Mugabe’s was
at the highest end of his projected figure. The MDC has rejected the leaked
figures as fraudulent, insisting its leader won an outright victory and
suggesting the leak was designed to prepare the ground for a run-off.

But it is still striking that the presidential figures leaked by government
concede that for the first time in his 28 years in power, Mr Mugabe suffered
an electoral defeat.

“Probably they did want to do a bit of rigging but then found it harder than
they hoped,” said one regional diplomat. “The motives for having a recount
and delaying the release were wholly impure but the result is clearly less
corrupted than they would have wanted.”

Wilfred Mhanda, a veteran of the independence war who has broken with Mr
Mugabe but retains close contacts with party insiders, said most party
officials had over the past month been paralysed by uncertainty. “They are
in a quandary. They have no game plan. The plan was to buy time to come up
with a real plan, and they haven’t. The hardliners are going down the
fatalistic route and refusing to compromise, but others are saying, ‘we have
to do a deal with the MDC’.”

Mr Mhanda believes that the authorities found it far harder than they
expected to induce electoral officials to endorse a fraudulent result. His
assessment chimes with comments by Zanu-PF insiders who say despite public
bravado, the party’s authority is not what it once was.

The government’s fall-back strategy appears to be a run-off. State-backed
militias have conducted a ruthless campaign of intimidation against MDC
activists in the past month, in particular in the rural areas where it made
headway in Mr Mugabe’s traditional strongholds. The MDC said yesterday 20 of
its supporters had been killed in post-election violence.

In the closest indication yet of official thinking, Bright Matonga, deputy
information minister, said yesterday the ruling party’s figures indicated a
second round would be necessary.

Calls for a run-off would pose a dilemma for the MDC. If it competes it
faces a possible fresh wave of intimidation. But unless regional leaders
back its view that a second round is unjust, to decline to compete would
hand victory to Mr Mugabe.

Equally, many in Zanu-PF are aware that contesting a second round after
conceding a first-round defeat is not what they originally had in mind. “At
the end of five weeks they have bought a bit of time,” said one western
diplomat. “But for what? What have they achieved?”

CIO Implicated in Rusape Woman's Murder is Based in the U.S.

SW Radio Africa (London)

1 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008

Lance Guma

A CIO agent who is based at the Zimbabwean embassy in the United States, is
alleged to have shot and killed female MDC activist Tabitha Marume last week
Friday in Rusape. The MDC have named Daniel Romeo Mutsunguma as the man who
pulled the trigger and shot the woman in the stomach. She died on her way to
Mutare General Hospital.

Marume was part of a group of 7 MDC activists who walked to a torture camp
at Manonga School, demanding the release of their colleagues who had been
abducted by soldiers. Daniel Mutsunguma travelled all the way to Zimbabwe to
take part in this terror campaign that has been unleashed on opposition
supporters.

Pishai Mucharauya, the newly elected MDC MP for Makoni South, said their
investigations have revealed that Mutsunguma's wife works at the Zimbabwe
embassy in Washington as well, as a receptionist.

Muchauraya also disclosed that on 16th April Air force commander Perence
Shiri, Wing Commander Winnie Mandeya and Mutsunguma held a meeting in Ward
16 of Makoni West where they warned people that MDC supporters would be
dealt with.

Mutsunguma was part of the group of war vets and Zanu PF militia who carried
AK-47's and fired into the crowd, who had done nothing more than appeal to
have their colleagues released from a torture camp.

General Could Decide Mugabe's Fate

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

1 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008

Kitsepile Nyathi
Harare

Army generals have propped up President Robert Mugabe since he led Zimbabwe
to independence in 1980, and they might once again decide in a few days
whether he will stretch his long rule to 33 years.

This is despite the fact that Mr Mugabe appears to have lost his first
election in Zimbabwe's history to long-time rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the March 29 polls.

President Mugabe's Zanu PF was also beaten by the MDC in the parallel
parliamentary elections.

But the ruling party sparked a political impasse when it demanded a partial
recount of votes before the presidential election results could be
announced, in what critics said was a ploy by Mr Mugabe to plot a violent
fight-back.

A month after Zimbabweans went to the polls, the recount in 23 disputed
constituencies revealed no major changes and only confirmed that, for the
first time since independence, Zanu PF had lost control of parliament.

During the standoff, and as the world keenly awaited the results of the
presidential election, the 84-year-old leader remained firmly in control of
his crumbling country, with the assistance of the generals.

This led to claims by the MDC that a cabal of army generals had taken over
soon after realising that Zanu PF had lost the elections, an accusation
denied by the government.

Observers say the election standoff had more to do with security forces
chiefs' fear of retribution by a new government than the electoral
authorities' failure to conclude the exercise on time.

"So the transfer of power from an election is impossible, certainly
difficult where you have institutional resistance," said an analyst.

Now that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has called the presidential
candidates for the verification of ballots on Thursday (today) paving the
way for the release of the final results, analysts say the army generals
have to decide whether Zimbabwe must become another military dictatorship or
allow for a smooth transition.

Analysts say that the verification - a strange arrangement in itself where
contestants have to agree on the results before they are released - shows
that the transition will not be decided by the final tally of results but
through negotiations.

The security commanders are likely to seek assurances that they will not be
prosecuted for any crimes they might have committed, a condition that the
MDC has so far failed to guarantee.

Mr Tsvangirai says he beat Mr Mugabe outright in the polls, but Zanu PF
insists that his victory margin was not enough to avoid a runoff.

The results, although still unofficial, have not pleased the generals, who
are now accused by the MDC of leading a violent fight-back on behalf of the
ruling party, which has caused the death of 15 opposition supporters and
injured thousands.

On Tuesday, the government admitted for the first time that soldiers had
shot at opposition supporters, killing one and injuring several others.

In the run-up to the elections, the service chiefs, who are also war
veterans, had vowed that they would not salute Mr Tsvangirai if he beat Mr
Mugabe, accusing him of being an agent of "Western imperialists".

As the country anxiously waited for the release of the presidential election
result, the state media admitted publishing forged letters alleging links
between the MDC and former colonial masters, who sought to reverse the
country's land reforms.

Analysts said this was an indication of the desperation of Zanu PF
hardliners and army generals to stop the MDC from taking power.

They wanted to maintain the status quo through a military coup using the
excuse that they were preserving the country's independence.

Former Information and Publicity Minister, Prof Jonathan Moyo, who is also a
former close ally of Mr Mugabe's, says as much as the generals would want to
preserve their privileges guaranteed by their former guerilla commander, the
economic situation might force them to respect the people's will.

"The generals around Mugabe experience this (economic problem) in ways that
are different," he said in an interview with a South African paper. "They
have access to subsidised fuel.They have state vehicles, they even get
subsidised foreign currency so they are able to live in a fantasy world
within hell for everyone else."

However, Prof Moyo said despite that, these trappings, the generals were not
insulated against the hardships facing the ordinary Zimbabweans who rejected
Mr Mugabe at the polls.

The army is not giving the forces adequate rations and the procurement of
weapons from other countries is becoming harder each day because of the
world's growing impatience with the Zanu PF government, and they are even
failing to provide uniforms.

"You see, some of them say this is not what a soldier should look like,"
Prof Moyo added. "The police are not able to attend to their normal duties
because they do not have transport.

"It's no longer possible for the civil service to function in a normal way
.so you have generals who may have subsidised lifestyles leading
impoverished forces.

"These people who are led by the generals have connections with other
ordinary people."

The other problem for the generals to continue propping Mr Mugabe comes from
the divisions within the ruling party and his waning popularity among
Zimbabweans.

The divisions in Zanu PF were dramatised by the defection of former Finance
Minister, Dr Simba Makoni, who was backed by a number of ruling party
heavyweights in his challenge for the presidency.

Although he came a distant third, Dr Makoni left with a number of supporters
from the ruling party.

Added Prof Moyo: "It is embarrassing for those generals to sit with Mugabe,
look at him and start explaining why he did not got the votes. And if you
are a politician and you lose the political support that you bring to the
table, then they will start asking of what use you are because you become a
source of insecurity whereas when you were in command, you were a source of
control, cohesion and so forth.

"Mugabe's problem right now is that he stands humiliated before his
generals.

"He is no longer able to say to them, "Look, these multitudes behind me,
they support what we are doing, they support me," and that is a very
dangerous situation in the context of the political standoff.

Analysts say it is inevitable that the generals will see that that the Zanu
PF ship is sinking and abandon Mr Mugabe.

So, as much as the release of the presidential election results might
confirm that Mr Tsvangirai won, the decision as to who leads them will come
from a negotiated settlement.

Even if Zanu PF insists on a runoff and President Mugabe wins by hook or
crook, he will not be able to form a stable government.

The two MDC factions now enjoy a majority in parliament, with 109 seats
against Zanu PF's 97. It is against this background that some Zimbabweans
feel that the two political sides can no longer do without each other.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has been given a fresh mandate by the
South African Development Community (SADC) to bring the political foes back
to the negotiating table.

Many, including those in Zanu PF, believe that it is Mr Mbeki's mediation that would solve the impasse, not the delayed results or a runoff.

Worrying developments in Zimbabwe

The Spectator

Thursday, 1st May 2008

From a Zimbabwe Citizen 11:40am
There have been some terrifying signs that the violence in Zimbabwe is
intensifying over the last 24 hours. with tactical assaults on the few
remaining commercial farms increasing  in preparation for an election "run
off" between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe.

We understand that Wayne Munroe, a farmer in a part of Matebeleland North
called Nyamandlovu, "the place of the meat of the elephant", has been under
siege since early yesterday [30th April], his property encircled by a
tactical assault group of 100 Zanu PF militia.

People working for Munroe, according to one informed source, have been
"savagely beaten, horribly brutalised" in the course of the quasi military
operation. Munroe himself was struck with an axe on the hand and escaped a
rifle wielding assailant by spraying pepper spray into his eyes.

Munroe's wife and two children were separated from Munroe until limited
police intervention allowed the family to be reunited this afternoon.

Munroe's own constituency MP, Obert Mpofu – a slavish adherent of Robert
Mugabe - has failed to take any action to halt the militia attack.

It has been an open secret since the assassination of another Matebeleland
North farmer, Martin Olds in April 2000, that key lieutenants of Robert
Mugabe in Zanu PF's Politburo have been implicated heavily in the targeted
killings of white farmers.

Olds was murdered in a military operation which saw police roadblocks being
lifted to allow a heavily armed party of approximately 300 militia with
tactical assault weapons to encircle his home.

Olds was a constituent of Obert Mpofu, as is Wayne Munroe.

Though he signally failed to intervene or even offer comment at the time of
the all out assault on Olds's homestead, there is of course no evidence  to
suggest that Mpofu, a former Minister of Industry and International Trade,
was involved in the Olds assassination.

The controversial Minister was, however, promoted following Olds's murder
and appears to maintain his access to power by continually beating the
anti-white drum.

Since the death of Martin Olds Mpofu has played a significant role in
attempting to evict the handful of remaining farmers from his fiefdom.

Leaking of results one way and another

www.swradioafrica.com

 
The other 'leaked' results from the Zimbabwean newspaper

BY CHIEF REPORTER
HARARE

MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai actually garnered 51.7 percent in the first
round of voting, with Robert Mugabe garnering 43.3 percent, according to
official Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) figures leaked from the Police
General Headquarters (PGHQ).
The figures on the leaked official ZEC tally show Simba Makoni with 4.9
percent and Langton Towungana with 0.1 percent.

The PGHQ figures give Tsvangirai a marginally higher tally than what the MDC
parallel voter tabulation audit had revealed. The party had earlier said
Tsvangirai had garnered 50,3 percent.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti however stated then that there had been an
approximate three percent margin of error, which explains the small
discrepancy, but which still vindicates the MDC position that Tsvangirai had
won by an absolute majority.

But impeccable security sources said these official results would never see
the light of day, and had already been “classified.”

“There has been so much manipulation of figures and ballot boxes, were
secretly stored at the old Reserve Bank Building before the ongoing recount
in 23 constituencies,” our source said.
The recount has been called in a desperate bid to overturn the MDC’s
parliamentary majority and underestimate Tsvangirai’s presidential poll
tally so that it is shy of the 50 percent needed to assume the presidency.

And with the run-off to take place, the jostling for power has already
began. However, it all appears to be heading in one direction despite a
determined State-sponsored onslaught on the electorate.
All the opposition presidential candidates have publicly declared their
support for Tsvangirai - and between them they garnered 5 percent of the
vote, which will widen Tsvangirai’s lead.
“People are asking for change, and it’s a good thing Makoni, Mutambara and
the other guy have all said they will support Tsvangirai to complete the
change they have began,” said political commentator Ronald Shumba.

“A snake isn’t quite dead until you cut off its head, so they have united to
cut it off in the run-off. Mugabe is better advised to concede now and avoid
a run-off because he is set for an embarrassing defeat.”
Mugabe is increasingly becoming vulnerable as he is beginning to lose
regional diplomatic support over the results hold up and his attempts to
retain power through force. His erstwhile allies in SADC this week united in
condemning him and barring a 70-ton arms shipment from docking at their
ports, causing the ship to be recalled to China.

There is also pressure from SADC, whose chairman Levy Mwanawasa did not hide
his impatience with Mugabe this week, as well as South African ruling party
leader Jacob Zuma, who fired a broadside at the Mugabe regime, in stunning
contrast to Mbeki’s impotent quiet diplomacy.
The United States has also taken an active interest, dispatching its top
Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer to neighbouring South Africa on Thursday for a
round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at dealing firmly with Mugabe.

“I think for the first time at a very crucial moment, Mugabe is losing
diplomatic support in the region and without that support his ability to
survive politically is diminished,” said University of Zimbabwe political
science professor, Eldred Masunungure.

Jendayi's Safari Exposes Western Hypocrisy

The Herald (Harare)

OPINION
30 April 2008
Posted to the web 30 April 2008

By Stephen T. Maimbodei
Harare

When the Zimbabwe Election Support Network released their "projected" 2008
presidential result, little did they know the impact they would have on
Zimbabwe's bumpy political terrain.

For purposes of discussion, the ZESN figures will be reproduced in this
analysis:

Candidate Projected vote Error margin

Makoni, Herbert Stanley Simba 8,2 1,1

Mugabe, Robert Gabriel 41,8 2,6

Towungana, Langton 0,6 0,

Tsvangirai, Morgan 49,4 2,4

On April 2, the MDC-T secretary-general, Tendai Biti, shocked the world when
he announced what they called their own set of presidential results, which
they claimed were based on ZESN's figures.

However, upon close scrutiny, the MDC-T and ZESN figures do not tally.

The MDC-T results also posted on their website claim that Tsvangirai got 1
169 860 votes, while President Mugabe received 1 043 451 votes, and Simba
Makoni 169 636 votes. The MDC-T concluded that Tsvangirai's vote translated
to 50,3 percent of the total presidential vote cast, and thus according to
their claims, he had "won the election with no need for a run-off".

Biti told the media that the results they had released had been "confirmed
by the figures pasted outside the polling stations in accordance with the
law".

And so on.......

Zimbabwe still counting, Mbeki still silent

International Herald Tribune

Published: May 1, 2008

Zimbabwe's voters have waited more than four weeks for the results of the
March 29 presidential election. A recount was supposed to begin on Tuesday,
but it was again postponed. The only explanation for the delay - and the
mounting attacks against the opposition - is that President Robert Mugabe
and his henchmen are still trying to figure out a way to fix the vote.

Mugabe has wreaked havoc on his country - inflation is more than 100,000
percent and life expectancy has dropped to below 40 - and most Zimbabweans
are eager, indeed desperate, for a change.

An official recount of the parliamentary election showed that the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, known as the MDC, won a majority of seats.
Meanwhile, independent election observers say that the MDC's leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, came in first in the presidential vote, with 49.4 percent to
Mugabe's 41.8 percent. We would have preferred a clean count in which the
presidential election results were officially certified and accepted by all
sides. At this point, the government has had more than enough time to stuff
as many ballot boxes as it wants. So it is time for an imperfect solution.

South Africa and other African nations must put aside their hero worship and
find ways to persuade or pressure the 84-year-old Mugabe - who helped lead
his country to majority rule in 1980 - to allow a peaceful transfer of power
to Tsvangirai. Whether that means Tsvangirai enters into a power-sharing
deal, serves a full term or temporarily holds office until a new - fair -
election takes place should be decided by Zimbabwe's new Parliament.

South African dockworkers who refused to unload a shipment of Chinese arms
bound for Zimbabwe's military deserve praise for supporting the democratic
process in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, the South African president, Thabo
Mbeki, who has the most potential influence, is still refusing to get
involved.

We don't know if there is any way to get through to Mugabe. But his cronies
and his army generals are vulnerable to outside pressure.
Mbeki and other African leaders must tell them that any further
manipulations and thuggery will be punished - with restrictions on their
bank accounts and denial of visas.

We applaud the UN Security Council for taking up the issue. A UN envoy could
help ease the transition. And if Mugabe continues to resist, the Security
Council will need to ratchet up the pressure, starting with an arms embargo.
This charade must end.

Results dispute signals more delays in Zimbabwe

Yahoo News

by Susan Njanji 41 minutes ago

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe election officials and the opposition locked horns
Thursday over the outcome of a March 29 presidential poll with the main
challenger claiming an outright victory over veteran leader Robert Mugabe.

Election officials told all-party talks designed to reach agreement on the
voting figures that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.8 percent
and Mugabe had won 43.2 percent, according to several sources in the
meeting.

But the Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) in turn presented its own
figures claiming Tsvangirai had won 50.3 percent, just scraping past the
threshold needed to avoid a second round run-off, the sources added.

Although the talks were due to resume at 0700 GMT on Friday, the
disagreement paves the way for yet further delays to the final results of a
vote that took place nearly five weeks ago.

Tsvangirai, who is currently in South Africa, again insisted in an interview
he saw no need for a run-off but refusal to participate in a second round
will merely hand victory on a plate to his 84-year-old rival Mugabe.

Representatives for Mugabe and Tsvangirai, as well as two minor presidential
candidates, met at a Harare hotel for the talks chaired by chief elections
officer Lovemore Sekeramayi in the presence of observers and diplomats.

"Where we don't agree, we will pull out every relevant document to ensure we
have the same figures," commission chairman George Chiweshe said earlier.

"At some stage, we have to agree," Chiweshe said.

Tsvangirai, whose party wrested control of parliament from Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party in legislative polls also held on March 29, reiterated his claim on
Thursday in an interview that he had won more a "decisive" victory and
doubted the credibility of any result from the commission given the lengthy
delays.

Based on results from individual polling stations, the MDC has "come up with
a result which we feel is credible. That result gives us a decisive victory
so there's no need for a run-off," Tsvangirai said.

In his interview with the news channel France 24, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe
of unleashing a wave of violence which he said would make it impossible for
a second round of voting to be free and fair.

"How can you have a run-off when Mugabe over the last month has been
unleashing violence, death squads and violence against our structures?"

Zimbabwean and international rights groups say an upsurge in violence is
designed to instill fear in MDC ranks. The MDC says 20 of its supporters
have been killed by pro-government militias since the vote.

A first-round defeat would be a major blow to Mugabe, a former guerrilla
leader and hero of Africa's national liberation movements who has ruled the
former British colony uninterrupted since independence.

Already reeling from his party losing parliament for the first time in 28
years, it would leave him at his weakest point since coming to power amid a
spiralling economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where inflation is at 165,000
percent.

However, his control of the security apparatus has led the MDC to conclude
that he will simply intimidate voters into giving him a sixth term of office
at a run-off which should take place within three weeks of the results.

Tsvangirai has been out of the country for most of the time since the
election, trying to drum up diplomatic support across southern Africa,
although he indicated he would return after the results became clear.

A third candidate, former finance minister Simba Makoni is widely expected
to back Tsvangirai in any second round. A fourth, Langton Towungana, is
unlikely to get even one percent.

Poll projections released by Zimbabwe's main independent election monitoring
body soon after the polls gave Tsvangirai 49.4 percent, Mugabe 41.8 percent,
Makoni 8.2 percent and Towungana 0.6 percent.

US tells Mugabe to "call off his dogs" in Zimbabwe

Reuters

Thu 1 May 2008, 17:18 GMT

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - The United States cast doubt on Thursday over
the credibility of Zimbabwe's long-delayed election results and said
President Robert Mugabe must "call off his dogs" and stop attacks against
political opponents.

Zimbabwean officials started verifying results from the March 29
presidential election on Thursday, a move that State Department spokesman
Tom Casey said was way overdue.

"There has been an absolutely unconscionable and inexplicable delay in the
process of releasing those, and at this point, whatever those results show,
they are probably going to have limited credibility," said Casey.

Casey said it was hard to see how there could be a fair run-off election
because of current state-orchestrated violence against the political
opposition led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Senior Zimbabwean government sources said on Thursday Tsvangirai has beaten
Mugabe in the election but not by the outright majority needed to avoid a
run-off ballot with the veteran leader, who has held power for 28 years.

"President Mugabe must call off his dogs and cease his security services and
his supporters' attacks on those who are simply trying to express their
views," said Casey.

"The government of Zimbabwe owes its people an opportunity to let their
voices be heard and the results speak for themselves," he added.

Tsvangirai's party has accused Mugabe's government of launching a campaign
of intimidation ahead of the possible second round and said 20 of its
members had been killed by pro-government militias. (Reporting by Sue
Pleming; Editing by Xavier Briand)

No Workers to Celebrate May Day

SW Radio Africa (London)

ANALYSIS
1 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008

Tererai Karimakwenda

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) organised a number of events
around the country in commemoration of May Day on Thursday, but there was
nothing to celebrate.

The main event was in Harare at Dzivarasekwa stadium, where some
entertainment was planned to try and lift spirits that have been crushed by
the harsh economic climate.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchmewa visited several high and low-density
suburbs, speaking to people about this year's celebrations. Many said they
were feeling depressed because the only work available is in the informal
sector, selling oranges or tomatoes.

Unemployment is over 80%, inflation is about 500,000%. Companies are
shutting down and there is hardly any food. Those who have jobs are working
for poor salaries that cannot keep up with the hyperinflation. As a result
many skilled workers have left the country seeking better opportunities.

The shortage of foreign currency has led to a shortage of fuel. Most workers
cannot afford the cost of transportation to go to work. They are walking
long distances in the mornings and evenings and are usually too tired to do
much else in their free time.

A rival government-sponsored organisation, the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade
Unions (ZFTU), held their celebrations at Gwanzura Stadium. Muchemwa said
ZFTU members are mostly civil servants who are afraid of losing their jobs.
They are also forced to attend political functions organised by the ruling
party, under the guise of being 'war veterans'. Muchemwa was quite sure that
there was not much celebrating at Gwanzura Stadium either.

The Youth Forum in Zimbabwe issued a Workers Day message that said: "There
is a great need to resuscitate the dampened spirits of people following the
illegitimate regime's deliberate frustration of the majority of Zimbabweans
after they unequivocally expressed their will on the 29th of March. We take
this as both a de facto and de jure coup against the wish of Zimbabweans and
therefore issues such as inflation, poor wages, unaffordability and
unavailability of basic commodities, poverty, unemployment, poor health and
education delivery systems, deterioration of infrastructure and other
economic, social-political grievances have automatically become secondary,
the primary issue being to pave way for the legitimate president Morgan
Tsvangirai to start putting the house in order as mandated to him by the
Zimbabweans on the 29th March harmonized elections."

Tsvangirai says he will return to Zimbabwe

Financial Times

By Reuters, May 1

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he would return to Zimbabwe
after verification of results from the March 29 election, in which he says
he beat President Robert Mugabe.

Checks of the results were due to start on Thursday to ensure that all
candidates are happy with the electoral commission’s figures.

The month-long delay to the results has raised fears of bloodshed and
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has accused Mugabe -- in power
for 28 years -- of prolonging the wait to rig the outcome.
Tsvangirai has spent weeks outside Zimbabwe in a bid to raise foreign
pressure on Mugabe to concede the election in a country suffering economic
collapse. It is unclear how long the verification process will take.

”I am sure that the verification exercise will not be difficult because we
will all have to compare the figures and ultimately come out with the
outcome that everyone can agree to,” Tsvangirai said in an interview
broadcast on French news channel France 24.

”Once that is done, then we know who has won the election and then I will
make the necessary steps to go back,” said Tsvangirai.

No result has been announced to the public yet, but senior government
sources have told Reuters Tsvangirai won 47 percent of the vote against the
president’s 43 percent. If confirmed, that would mean that a run-off is
necessary.

The MDC won control of Zimbabwe’s parliament in a parallel election more
than one month ago, and it says that Tsvangirai also won an outright
majority in the presidential poll so that there is no need for a run-off.

The MDC has accused the government of launching a campaign of violence and
intimidation ahead of the possible second round and said 20 of its members
had been killed by pro-government militias.

The government denies carrying out a violent campaign and accuses the MDC of
political attacks.

Tsvangirai has said there is no need for a second round, but has also
suggested he could take part if international observers led by the United
Nations monitored the process. The only observers at the first round were
from Zimbabwe’s neighbours.

If Tsvangirai refused to take part in a run-off, Mugabe would be declared
the winner, according to election rules.

Zimbabweans had hoped the election would ease economic turmoil. But severe
food, fuel and foreign currency shortages are worsening, and there are no
signs an inflation rate of 165,000 percent -- the world’s highest -- will
decrease.

Another brutal murder of an MDC hero

zimbabwejournalists.com

1st May 2008 15:41 GMT

By Farai Maruzani

A COUPLE of weeks ago I reported the brutal assault on Sekuru Jaison. His
fate is unknown. He disappeared the second night after he was brutally
beaten up by ZANU PF thugs in Buhera South Constituency. Nobody knows where
he was taken to or weather he is dead or alive. However there are disturbing
reports from the same reliable people, the ZANU PF thugs are now taking away
their dead victims and disposing of them quickly in order to destroy
evidence.

I was reliably told that some MDC activists who are murdered are being put
into extra large aluminium coffins and they are covered by concrete before
they are tossed into deep dams and lakes around the country by the ruthless
ZANU PF killing operatives.

There are many political activists who have been thrown into the Kariba Dam
in concrete filled aluminium coffins. The Mugabe regime is also alleged to
have a tank full of highly concentrated and corrosive sulphuric acid where
their opponents are submerged and they are simply corroded by the acid and
vanish without a trace.

Minister Patrick Chinamasa said that those who allege violence in Zimbabwe
must give names of ZANU PF victims of political violence. Today I want to
give Chinamasa a very simple task. I will give him everything he needs and
more, for him to check, and I will be happy if he responds to the following;

The following murder took place 15 kilometres from Rusape on the Rusape to
Hwedza Road at Marume homestead under Headman Hera. This place is not far
from Chinamasa’s mother’s home. Chinamasa’s mother is from the Mandeya
family and he was actually contesting in a constituency of his maternal clan
area. It should be easy for Chinamasa to investigate this one. In this case
the murdered victim is actually his maternal cousin (mainini vake) – a very
close relative, but who supported a different political party.

A widow named Thabitha Marume (Mandeya) woke up in the morning last Saturday
26 April on a bright but windy morning to sweep around her homestead.
Thabitha was an effective Organising Secretary and she led an effective
campaign against ZANU PF, leading to Chinamasa losing the seat in a stunning
MDC victory in that constituency. The victory was largely credited to the
bravery and hard work of this MDC widow Thabitha Marume(46).

After sweeping around her yard she took a 20 litre tin used to fetch water
and walked to her vegetables garden some one and half kilometres away to
water her vegetables . Some 30 minutes after she left her 20 year old son
John woke up after hearing a commotion of over 30 men running through their
homestead. John saw his friends being chased through the homestead but did
not know who was chasing them and for what reason, so he did not run away.

He later saw that the people who were chasing his friends were eight heavily
armed people in civilian clothes, some of them in white long sleeved shirts.
The men were armed with AK 47 rifles and machine guns. Their weapons looked
new and it was clear from the way the armed men were dressed that they were
not local peasant farmers. They looked like civil servants or most likely
off duty soldiers. They were accompanied by local Green Bombers (Zanu PF
militia) who had recently graduated from the nearby Border Gezi College.
These youths are the people he knew very well. It seems that they were
directing these men on where to go. The youths were campaigning for ZANU PF
in the last elections.

Two soldiers and three youths went to where John was and on top of their
voices they shouted ‘where is your mother? Over and over again. John said he
did not know. Without any provocation the men and the youths became more and
more agitated and angry and shouted asking ’Who did you vote for?’ dozens of
times. They had now surrounded John who was less than 1 metre away but the
shouts could be heard a kilometre away. John said he voted for MDC. He was
brutally beaten up and he collapsed 3 times but he was asked to rise up and
run towards Gunda Village where a large meeting was going on and being
addressed by ZANU PF people who looked restless and angry.

On arrival at the big meeting the armed men produced a long list of people
they accused of causing ZANU PF to lose the elections and on top of the list
was Thabitha Marume. After reading the 10 names on the list they started
singing the following song.

‘Ndiro gidi vakomana, richatonga Zimbabwe, richatonga nyika yedu nyika yedu
vakomana.’

As this happened Thabitha arrived at the meeting looking for her son. John
was there but she never got to him. She was asked to identify herself when
she was 15 metres away as she approached the meeting and to declare her
position in MDC. She answered bravely that she was Thabitha Marume and an
organising secretary for the MDC in this constituency.

One of the armed men immediately picked up his AK 47 and emptied the AK 47
magazine into her chest….31 bullets. Thabitha collapsed and died immediately
in front of about 200 fear rocked villagers and her son. They continued to
sing the above song for the next hour after Thabitha has been killed and she
lay there uncovered. Nobody was allowed to cry or attend the funeral. Its
unclear how they intend to dispose of the body. If in doubt please go to
www.mdc.co.zw and go to the pressroom where the names of MDC supporters
murdered are posted. The village I have mentioned is near the said Rest
Camp.

I would like Patrick Chinamasa to prove me wrong on this murder. At least
this should be easy as this is his own cousin (mainini vake).

Please be advised that Zimbabwe is now full of bloodthirsty draculas,
vampires and ninjas, all at ZANU PF service. Some of these murders and
bloodsuckers are local but Mugabe may have imported others from Angola,
Pakistan, Israel and China to teach and perfect the terror techniques and
impart the knowledge on the local murderers.

There were some funny faces at the high table during the independence
celebrations on 18 April 2008. Zimbabweans are at risk and vulnerable.
Mugabe is also giving a space for criminals who mount attacks for revenge
purposes under cover of this murderous political environment.

Some are taking the opportunity to settle non-political vendettas to kill
innocent people in the name of politics. Jealous people are also at work and
some people are being forced to pay huge sums of money in ‘protection fees’
especially those with children who work abroad.

What does Chinamasa say about all this madness?

Farai Maruzani can be contacted on fmaruzani@yahoo.com

Zimbabwe Elections: ACDP Condemns Cowardly Actions by SADC for Hiding behind Mbeki

African Path

May 01, 2008 11:58 AM
By Trust Matsilele

President Mbeki; SADC heads of State; Africa you should be ashamed of
yourselves said a worried South African organisation over their reluctance
in making a meaningful intervention to the Zimbabwean political impasse.

South Africa's leading opposition party has lashed at the regional body for
their failure to protect Zimbabweans in their dire time of need as post
elections worsens.

At least 20 deaths of alleged opposition supporters have to date been
recorded whilst Southern Africa Development Community continues to rally
behind Mbeki's failed mediations.
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) said in its recent statement
time for SADC to continue listening to Mbeki's false testimonies was over
and it was time for the regional body to protect Zimbabweans.

"We condemn SADC leaders for their cowardly response in expressing
confidence in Mbeki as a mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis when they know the
extent to which he has failed.
"Mbeki has failed dismally in his role as a mediator and does not have a
hope or even the slightest desire to be impartial. His callous, blinkered
and uncaring approach is unhelpful to say the least. Mbeki must be replaced
as mediator, said ACDP's Cheryllyn Dudley.

The ACDP also lamented that Zimbabweans had been left alone by the region on
the mercy of the bloodthirsty Robert Mugabe regime that left 20 000
civilians dead in Matabeleland in the 1980s atrocities.

"There can be no words powerful enough to express the absolute pain and
rejection Zimbabweans are presently experiencing at the hands of callous
leaders in Africa.
"Zimbabwe is an African problem which needs an African solution and it is
despicable that Zimbabwe has been deserted over and over again.

The ACDP also hailed Zimbabweans, civic organisations and the Movement for
Democratic Change for their godly response from Mugabe's evil temptations.

"ACDP wishes to congratulate the MDC not only on their victory at the polls
but for persevering in the face of tremendous opposition, violence and
propaganda.

"We also recognize the brave and relentless efforts of Zimbabwean civil
society who have poured themselves, at great risk, into the task of
defending and fanning the dying embers of democracy in Zimbabwe," said ACDP
with a heavy heart.

Operation Glossary - a guide to Zimbabwe's internal campaigns

Photo: IRIN

Over 150,000 children were made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina

JOHANNESBURG, 1 May 2008 (IRIN) - The Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979 paved the way for Zimbabwe's independence in April 1980. President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government has been at the helm since the former British colony gained independence, and has increasingly used military-style campaigns to impose measures ranging from acts of alleged genocide to attempts to rein in hyperinflation. IRIN has compiled a list of some of these operations.

Operation Mavhoterapapi (Who did you vote for)

Operation Mavhoterapapi was launched after the local government, parliamentary and presidential elections on 29 March 2008, in which the ruling ZANU-PF government lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have claimed that their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,won the presidential ballot by the required 50 percent plus one vote, negating the need for a second round of voting. The results of the presidential ballot have not yet been released. ZANU-PF have maintained that no presidential candidate obtained the necessary majority, and that a second round of voting would be required. Since the poll, the MDC have alleged that at least 20 people have been killed in post-election violence, orchestrated by the police, soldiers and so-called war veterans, as part of Operation Mavhoterapapi. There have also been widespread reports of torture, the razing of houses and killing of livestock, perpetrated against people in rural areas suspected of voting for the opposition in the recent elections. The MDC have also claimed that Operation Mavhoterapapi was part of a strategy to intimidate people into voting for Mugabe in a possible second round of presidential voting.

Operation Reduce Prices

In July 2007, in an attempt to control rocketing food and other commodity prices as a result of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation - then running at about 4,000 percent annually - the government compelled businesses and manufacturers to slash the prices of their goods by 50 percent. Teams of inspectors were sent to retail shops and other businesses, and owners and employees who did not comply were either imprisoned or given hefty fines. The price controls saw the shop shelves empty within days, but businesses could not afford to restock and widespread shortages followed. Goods were sold on the informal, or black market, at prices far exceeding what they had cost before Operation Reduce Prices. Shortages of food, fuel and other commodities are commonplace in Zimbabwe.

Operation Chikorokoza Chapera/Isitsheketsha Sesiphelile (No Illegal Panning)

More than 25,000 gold-panners were reportedly arrested in this operation in November 2006, in a bid to curtail artisanal mining. The economic meltdown, which brought an unemployment rate of 80 percent, encouraged informal mining as one of the few sources of income available to poverty-stricken Zimbabweans. After Operation Murambatsvina (see below) deprived small traders of their stalls and goods, and Operation Sunrise (see below) destroyed savings, many people were left with little option but to pan for gold in the mineral-rich country. Police also mounted roadblocks on the three main highways leading to neighbouring Zambia, South Africa and Botswana to recover any gold being transported. Human rights activists claimed people were made to "queue like goats and cows" as they awaited "inhuman searches".

Operation Sunrise

Operation Sunrise was launched in August 2006 in a bid to curb Zimbabwe's hyperinflation. The rationale behind the operation was to reduce inflation by lopping off three zeros from the currency, so one million Zimbabwe dollars became a thousand, and a thousand Zimbabwe dollars became one Zimbabwe dollar. The new currency was in the form of bearer bonds with expiry dates printed on them. The operation forced people to surrender their old notes to Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank within three weeks. Poor communication meant people in the rural areas were unaware of the plan, while urban dwellers battled long queues. It was illegal to carry more than Z$100 million in old dollars and roadblocks manned by ZANU-PF's youth militia, also known as "Green Bombers", searched "unpatriotic" Zimbabweans, many of whom were carrying their old dollars to exchange at the bank, and confiscated any excess money. As an attempt to curb inflation, Operation Sunrise was a failure: Zimbabwe's inflation rate has reached 165,000 percent annually and is still rising.

Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle (For a better life)

Five weeks after Operation Murambatsvina, the government launched Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, said to be a programme to build houses for the victims of their "slum clearance" operation. Amnesty International, the global human rights advocacy organisation, said the operation was not a solution to the government-inspired destruction of houses, as it did not assist the victims of Operation Murambatsvina. The few houses that were built were reportedly given to civil servants, police and soldiers. Amnesty said Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle was a wholly inadequate response to the abuses committed against the victims of Operation Murambatsvina. There have been no other significant government programmes to assist the hundreds of thousands of victims of Murambatsvina.

Operation Murambatsvina (Drive out the Filth)

In the winter of 2005, the ZANU-PF government launched Operation Murambatsvina, also known as Operation Restore Order. It was officially described as a slum clearance programme that was also intended to flush out criminals. More than 700,000 people were left homeless after houses and shacks were bulldozed, while informal traders' stalls were demolished and their goods confiscated, leaving them without a livelihood. United Nations Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka visited Zimbabwe in the wake of Murambatsvina said the operation had breached both national and international human rights law. General Constantine Chiwenga, chief of Zimbabwe's defence forces, and Augustine Chihuri, chief of police, were directly involved in the planning and execution of the operation. Chihuri reportedly said the operation was to "clean the country of the crawling mass of maggots bent on destroying the economy". International legal experts view Operation Murambatsvina as a gross violation of human rights and, should Zimbabwe become a signatory to the Rome Treaty, suggest the perpetrators could be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Operation Maguta/Inala (People have had their fill)

In an attempt to increase food production, the government deployed soldiers to farms in 2005 to oversee the production of maize, in an exercise called Operation Maguta. Food production was severely reduced after the government's fast-track land reform programme began in 2000. Defence force members were deployed to former commercial farms identified as under-utilising agricultural land to oversee maize production. New farmers were instructed to plant maize and wheat at the expense of other crops. The government has declared the operation a success every year since it was launched, but production figures have never been published. In 2007 the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said Zimbabwe had a grain deficit of about 891,000 tonnes - production being almost 50 percent below the 2006 harvest - on account of adverse weather, severe economic constraints that led to shortages of key inputs, deteriorating infrastructure, especially irrigation and, most importantly, financially unviable government-controlled prices. In the past year one-third of the population, or about four million people, have received food aid.

Third Chimurenga (Struggle)

The Third Chimurenga, otherwise known as the Fast Track Land Reform Programme, was launched in 2000 and resulted in most of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white-owned commercial farms being redistributed to landless blacks. Led by veterans of Zimbabwe's Independence War - the Second Chimurenga (1966-1980) - the chaotic land redistribution exercise has been cited as the beginning of Zimbabwe's eight-year recession. New farmers were handicapped in their endeavours by the inability of the government to supply agricultural inputs, such as seed and fertilisers, while there have been reports that many farms were handed out to a politically well-connected elite. Zimbabwe's armed forces chief, General Constantine Chiwenga, is alleged to have received 17 farms since 2000. Chimurenga, the Shona word for "struggle", was the name given to the indigenous resistance mounted against British settlers between 1896-1897 after their land was seized by colonists.

Operation Gukurahundi (The rain that washes away the chaff before the spring rain)

In 1983, the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade, under the command of Lt Col Perence Shire, once known as the "Black Jesus", but currently the commander of Zimbabwe's air force, was the vanguard unit in a campaign against alleged dissidents that has also become known as the Matabeleland Massacres. At least 20,000 people were killed in the operation. The target of Gukurahundi was members of the rival liberation movement, ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo and drawn mainly from Zimbabwe's Ndebele people in the southwest of the country. There were numerous accounts of children murdered, women raped and killed, and homesteads razed. Regarding the deaths of civilians, Mugabe reportedly said in April 1983: "We eradicate them. We don't differentiate when we fight because we can't tell who is a dissident and who is not." Unlike other army units, the 5th Brigade, comprised of Shona-speaking people, reported directly to Mugabe.

On 22 December 1987 Nkomo signed a Unity Accord, merging ZAPU with ZANU-PF. Mugabe signed a host of amnesty bills pardoning all dissidents and army units, including the 5th Brigade, in 1988. During Gukurahundi, two security ministers presided over operations: Emerson Mnangagwa, known by his supporters as Ngwena (The Crocodile), is currently the rural housing minister; he was succeeded by Sydney Sekeremayi, who currently holds the minister of defence portfolio. Retired Lt Col Lionel Dyke, commander of the parachute battalion during Gukurahundi and formerly commander of the Rhodesian African Rifles, which fought against Zimbabwe's liberation movements, is alleged to have participated in several acts of torture. He now is reportedly involved in demining and security operations in such places as Lebanon and Iraq. A human rights pressure group based in The Hague, Crimes Against Humanity Zimbabwe, is campaigning for Gukurahundi to be recognised as genocide. 

Zimbabwe: Untrammeled spirit

Mercy Corps

Date: 03 Apr 2008

Tryphine Chikabida lost her father when she was seven years old, then her
house at age 12. But today, still just 14 years old, she is striving to
persevere despite the considerable difficulties of life in Zimbabwe. Mercy
Corps is connecting her to the help she needs to overcome the challenges
thrown her way at such an early age.

Tryphine lives on the outskirts of Mutare, a sprawling city in eastern
Zimbabwe that is the country's fourth-largest urban area. She said that life
was once "rosy" for her and her family, because her father was employed and
able to provide the food, school fees and housing to take care of the
family. But illness took him in 2000, leaving Tryphine and her mother to
fend for themselves in Zimbabwe's worsening economy.

They managed to make ends meet, living alongside hundreds of other poor
families in Sakubva township, an agglomeration of makeshift houses and
shelters on Mutare's periphery. Life wasn't easy there, a place teeming with
migrants and street children, but they had a roof over their heads.

Then, in 2005, they lost even that small measure of security. Zimbabwe's
government began carrying out Operation Murambatsvina - a local-language
word that ignominiously means "drive out rubbish." Thousands of shantytowns
on the outskirts of Zimbabwe's cities were bulldozed with little warning,
leaving their already-poor residents with neither shelter nor anywhere else
to turn.

The United Nations estimates that Operation Murambatsvina has affected at
least 2.4 million people - including Tryphine and her mother, Juliet.

After their home was razed, Tryphine and her mother moved to the courtyard
of a local bar. They did not have anywhere to go nor did she have the money
to rent a room for her family.

Meanwhile, Tryphine was forced out of school because of inability to pay
school fees and other related costs. In the last few days before she left,
the school's mentor indicated that Tryphine's performance at school was
poor - similar to other vulnerable children in the area, who often perform
poorly at school due to stress, fatigue and hunger.

Rebuilding their lives

In 2006, after a visit to the area by Mercy Corps field staff, Tryphine was
registered for the Mercy Corps Education program under the Joint Initiative
for Urban Zimbabwe. Seven global humanitarian agencies, led by Mercy Corps,
are working in Zimbabwe's cities to restore the dignity and reduce the
suffering of 12,000 households. Mercy Corps oversees implementation of the
project and also manages the project's educational component, which is
directed at helping 1,400 orphans and vulnerable children.

Tryphine now receives a school fee waiver, which allows her to attend her
school for two years. Her school receives textbooks, supplies and other
material support. The addition of new textbooks, in particular, improved the
quality of education at Tryphine's school: previously, up to 12 students in
a class had to share a single textbook.

Tryphine is also a regular attendee at a Mercy Corps-funded support center
in the neighborhood, where she receives counseling, homework tutoring and
other services. Her mother, Juliet, has joined another program component, a
savings-and-loan group. With training and other assistance, she recently
opened a small vegetable stall and now brings in a steady family income.

Today, Tryphine is striding past the obstacles of the last several years.
Juliet is ecstatic about the programs they have been able to access through
Mercy Corps.

"Mercy Corps' intervention came at a time we had lost hope," Juliet says,
thoughtfully. "The feeling that there are concerned people who use their
precious time and resources to help the most disadvantaged members of the
community raises hope and makes the world a better place for children to
live in."

With the support of individuals just like you, we are helping more than
100,000 people in Zimbabwe. You can provide children and youth like Tryphine
with educational and other critical support by joining our monthly Give for
Kids program. You can choose your donation level. Thank you for your
interest.

The pressure on Robert Mugabe steadily mounts

May 1st 2008 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition

There is no sign of an early end to the crisis, but the beleaguered
president is looking a bit more isolated
MORE than a month after the elections on March 29th, Zimbabwe remains in an
agonising limbo. In the past week, however, international pressure on
President Robert Mugabe has grown. For the first time, Zimbabwe's crisis was
discussed in the UN's Security Council. Regional leaders in southern Africa
are becoming more irritated, to say the least, both by Mr Mugabe's refusal
to let his electoral commission announce the results of the presidential
poll and by growing reports of government-sponsored violence against the
opposition. Mr Mugabe has been further weakened by the commission's
confirmation that his ZANU-PF party has lost control of Parliament for the
first time since independence in 1980. Finally, there have been more
mutterings, in ruling circles and elsewhere, that the impasse can be solved
only by the formation of a government of national unity.

Mr Mugabe, however, has given no hint whatever that he is ready to step
down. Government sources leaked this week that the electoral commission was
poised to start “verifying” the results of the presidential contest and
admitted that the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had won the first
round—but only by 47% or so to Mr Mugabe's 43%, thus requiring a run-off. If
this is the case, Mr Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
will have to decide whether to compete again, amid rising
government-sponsored violence, intimidation and preparations for more
thorough rigging. If the MDC insists that it won outright and refuses to go
into a second round, it will lose by default. If it does compete, it will
try against the odds to ensure that there is a much more robust system of
monitoring by a wider range of international watchers.

Mr Mugabe's acknowledged loss of Parliament was a big blow. Despite fears of
rigging and manipulation, a recount of votes in 23 of the 210 constituencies
failed to change the overall result. The two factions of the MDC, which
together won 109 seats against ZANU-PF's 97, have promised to join forces in
Parliament. If Mr Mugabe manages to stay on as president, his government
will struggle to pass any law in the legislature. But the MDC would not be
able to rule the roost either. It lacks the two-thirds majority needed to
change the constitution. The president's wide powers could enable him to
rule by decree. He can appoint a third of the senators, so his party would
still outnumber the opposition in the combined Senate and assembly, which
could elect a successor if Mr Mugabe were to retire before his term was up.

Meanwhile, as the country waits anxiously for the presidential election
result, repression against the opposition has intensified sharply. On April
25th, armed riot police raided the MDC's office in Harare, the capital,
arresting about 200 people, most of them supporters who had fled violence in
the countryside and taken refuge in the opposition's headquarters. Pregnant
women, children and people recovering from beatings were among those rounded
up in lorries and taken away, along with computers and documents. The
authorities claimed they were looking for people responsible for arson
attacks. But they were probably trying to intimidate opposition people and
looking for documents backing the MDC's claims that Mr Tsvangirai had won
the presidential poll outright.

The police also raided the offices of an organisation of independent
electoral observers whose projections suggested that the MDC leader had won
the most presidential votes. The dozens of people arrested at the
headquarters were released a few days later, after the High Court ruled they
should either be charged or freed.

An unfazed Mr Mugabe, speaking at a trade fair in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second city, thanked the African Union and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), a club of 14 countries that has led the international
diplomacy, for its “support and solidarity”.

But international impatience is rising. Though SADC is still divided,
several of its members have begun to express open criticism. Calls for the
publication of the presidential result have multiplied. South Africa's
ruling African National Congress and its president, Jacob Zuma, have spoken
out against the delay and the mounting violence. So have its trade-union and
communist allies, which have asked African governments to shun Mr Mugabe.

Trade unions across the region refused to unload a shipment of arms bound
for Zimbabwe's army from a Chinese ship, now off the Angolan port of Luanda.
European countries and America have called for an international arms
moratorium against Zimbabwe, and have pressed the region to do more. The
United States has called for general sanctions.

The key, according to Western diplomats, is to persuade a critical mass of
SADC leaders to take the lead in diplomacy away from South Africa's
president, Thabo Mbeki, who still seems loth to see Mr Mugabe fall, at any
rate if he were to be replaced by Mr Tsvangirai; the MDC has accused Mr
Mbeki of bias against it. Instead, the MDC wants the UN to intervene and to
send a representative to Harare. The UN's secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon,
says there is a humanitarian crisis and has offered his “good offices”; the
UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned the violence. Though
the UN Security Council, over which South Africa has been presiding, debated
the crisis, it failed to agree on a collective response. But Zimbabwe is
creeping on to the UN agenda. And on May 1st Britain took over the Security
Council's monthly chair.

Presidential candidates or their representatives (Mr Tsvangirai has
controversially been outside Zimbabwe for more than ten days) were due on
May 1st to start verifying the results, comparing those they collected from
polling stations with those collated by the electoral commission. But all
sides must agree before the final results can be declared, which could take
days—in fact, as long as Mr Mugabe and ZANU-PF want—or end in a stalemate.
The MDC still says Mr Tsvangirai has won outright, but the ruling party
claims that a run-off would be necessary. It is difficult, in any event, to
imagine how that could take place amid the violence and intimidation already
being perpetrated by pro-government militias, the army and police.

How to get out of the hole
SADC is said to be pushing for a government of national unity. But it is far
from getting all parties to agree on who should lead it. ZANU-PF refuses to
work with Mr Tsvangirai and says it is ready for a second presidential poll.
The MDC stresses that a unity government would not mean power-sharing; as
the biggest party in the assembly, it would lead a broad government
including some members of ZANU-PF and other capable outsiders. But it is
adamant that Mr Mugabe must step down and Mr Tsvangirai be declared
president. Regional leaders have been keen to promote Simba Makoni, a former
ZANU-PF finance minister who ran as an independent, but he appears to have
won less than 10% of the votes, too few for a compromise president.

Moreover, if Mr Mugabe and his senior security men were to step down
graciously, they would need to be guaranteed a peaceful retirement. The MDC
has said it is not vengeful and would let Mr Mugabe stay in Zimbabwe. But
security chiefs, especially those involved in gross human-rights abuses, no
doubt fear an MDC-led government and are determined to hang on. Zimbabwean
campaigners have created a Truth and Justice Coalition for Zimbabwe to
prosecute those responsible for human-rights abuses. It says it has 200-plus
names—from the ruling party, the armed forces, militias and war veterans'
groups—of those responsible for harming civilians. It also promises to
disclose these people's personal assets, illicit money-laundering and
collusion with some Asian and other African states.

As the stalemate persists and violence increases, the MDC's supporters may
be increasingly loth to obey their leaders' calls not to turn violent. But
Mr Mugabe's people still have the guns.