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Zimbabwe
president says splits, greed threaten his party ahead of elections planned
this year
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, May 5, 12:17
AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s longtime president said splits and greed
are
threatening his party ahead of elections he is pushing for this year
during
a spirited speech at the funeral of a party stalwart
Friday.
President Robert Mugabe told mourners at the state funeral that
leaders have
become “too materialistic” and are fighting each other for top
party posts
ahead of elections he wants this year to end a shaky coalition
with Zimbabwe’s
former opposition.
Mugabe, 88, has been nominated
as his party’s sole presidential candidate in
proposed elections.
The
power-sharing coalition was brokered by regional leaders after violent
and
disputed elections in 2008.
Mugabe accused party factions of manipulating
recent voting for provincial
posts.
“We look forward to having an
election. Let’s get united,” he said during
the 50-minute speech at Edson
Ncube’s funeral.
Ncube, 74, served as a guerrilla fighter in the bush war
that led to
independence from Britain in 1980. He later became a senior
party
administrator.
Mugabe, commending Ncube’s role in the fight
against British colonial-era
rule, vigorously sang a verse from “Rule
Britannia,” an anthem about Britain’s
former colonial
dominance.
“They can rule the rest of the world but not Zimbabwe
anymore,” he said.
Mugabe has appeared frail and weak at recent public
occasions after
returning from medical treatment in Asia. On Friday he
looked fit and
energetic and did not refer to his health.
Ncube died
Sunday from complications of anemia in the second city of
Bulawayo. He was
declared a national hero for burial with military honors at
Heroes Acre, a
shrine for fallen fighters and politicians outside Harare.
“He was
reliable and honest. There are very few people like him who mean
every word
they say and tell the truth,” Mugabe said.
He said party leaders must
follow Ncube’s example to win support from the
people on their own
merits.
Mugabe said bitter factionalism was evident in contests for party
positions,
efforts to discredit rivals and vote-buying.
“It is bad to
do that, you are not a leader if you do it and if you buy
votes,” Mugabe
said. “You are destroying the party people like (Ncube)
fought hard for. Let
the people judge you.
“The leadership needs transforming,” he said. “We
have become too
materialistic and that is going to destroy the party,”
Mugabe said.
In a veiled barb against the pro-Western stance of the party
of Zimbabwe’s
black Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe said some
Zimbabweans “still
think a white man is better than a black man.”
“If
you can’t rule without going to Europe and the Europeans then you can’t
rule
this country at all,” said Mugabe, in a return to his often-used fiery
oratory.
Fireworks
rage at politburo meeting
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012 09:49
Faith
Zaba
THERE were fireworks at a decision-making Zanu PF politburo meeting
in
Harare on Thursday, as senior party officials engaged in heated exchanges
over the raging Select Committee of parliament on the new constitution
(Copac) disputes ahead of elections which President Robert Mugabe wants this
year at all costs.
This came as army generals and top police chiefs,
some of whom want to be
candidates in the next elections, have taken over
Zanu PF’s campaign drive
and demanded that party leaders include them in
their meetings. The Zanu PF
commissariat is now driven by security forces,
fronted by retired Air-Vice
Marshall Henry Muchena and former CIO
director-internal Sydney Nyanhungo.
Informed sources said a
group of about 50 top army and police chiefs, whose
ranks ranged from
colonel to major-general, who also included a deputy
police
commissioner-general and an air vice marshal, descended on Manicaland
last
Sunday for a meeting on elections with the provincial coordinating
committee
at Mary Mount Teachers College in Mutare.
Those present included
Major-General Martin Chedondo, Air vice Marshal
Shebba Brighton
Shumbayaonda, Brigadier-General Herbert Chingono,
Brigadier-General Mike
Sango, 3 Brigade commander Brigadier-General Eliah
Bandama and members of
the provincial Joint Operations Command (JOC). Police
deputy police
commissioner-general Godwin Matanga, was also present.
JOC, which
brings together security service chiefs, is the force behind
Mugabe and Zanu
PF, especially during elections. Without JOC, Mugabe and
Zanu PF would lose
elections.
Sources say the security forces told Zanu PF officials
they were not going
to stand by while the party loses elections as some
people had somewhere
outside the country to seek refuge, unlike them. So
Zanu PF has to win the
next elections by all means necessary to protect
their interests and future.
Zanu PF now seems geared for elections
despite growing factionalism and
infighting. The politburo met yesterday to
consider issues affecting the
party ahead of elections, including the
chaotic constitution-making process,
factionalism fuelled by District
Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections and
the party’s general preparedness
for polls expected this year or next year.
Senior party officials
told the Zimbabwe Independent last night the
politburo would have an
extraordinary meeting soon, preferably in two weeks’
time, to tackle the
issue of factionalism linked to Mugabe’s simmering
succession battle.
Mugabe’s succession fight is now intensifying amid fears
he would not be a
viable candidate, due to old age complications and
ill-health especially if
elections are held next year, .
Mugabe and his loyalists are now
pushing that Copac must fast-track its
process to produce a new constitution
hurriedly or else they would plough
ahead with elections without a new
founding law. The president and his
diehards are angered by Zanu PF faction
leaders grouped around
Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Defence Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa who are
now using Copac as a theatre for succession
battles.
Sources said there was heated debate in the politburo
yesterday, mainly
featuring Zanu PF Copac co-chair Paul Mangwana and party
strategist Jonathan
Moyo, as well as heavyweights who removed their gloves
to fight for their
positions. Mangwana defended Copac and its widely-
criticised draft, while
Moyo tore it apart, resulting in him securing the
backing of Mugabe and the
politburo. Moyo, it was said, would now be one of
a core team of senior
party officials, which includes Mnangagwa and
administration secretary
Didymus Mutasa, monitoring and clearing Copac
issues on behalf of Zanu PF.
Moyo is also in another Zanu PF committee
advising party officials in Copac.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo
told the Independent after the politburo
meeting: “The meeting indicated we
need to decide on the way forward if the
management committee does not come
up with answers. President Mugabe made it
very clear that he wants the draft
as soon as possible and gave them up to
next week to hand it over to them
(the principals)”.
Gumbo added: “We want the management committee to
produce a report that says
they have either resolved or deadlocked. If they
have deadlocked, then we
will say let’s forget about the process and use the
old constitution”.
On the security forces’ involvement in party
politics, Gumbo said the matter
would be discussed at a special politburo
meeting to be held in a fortnight’s
time, together with the factionalism
crisis.
“We are going to deal with that issue at our special
meeting,” he said,
adding it was the president who ordered the special
meeting in two weeks’
time to deal with the internal strife.
“He
said we should sit down and not be superficial about the issue.
President
Mugabe said we should sit down and talk frankly and pour our
hearts out and
decide on the way forward,” Gumbo said.
Sources in the provincial
executive who attended the meeting in Mutare told
the Independent yesterday
the army and police chiefs arrived in a
“no-nonsense mood”, and quickly set
the tone and tempo, warning Zanu PF
could not afford to lose the next
elections. This almost certainly would
raise the stakes in the next
elections, seen as do or die for Mugabe and the
Zanu PF.
In a bid
to crush dissent and whip supporters into line, police deputy
commissioner-general Matanga, who addressed the meeting which lasted less
than an hour, said they would now be working as a team with the provincial
leadership and party bigwigs in the province to ensure Zanu PF regains
constituencies lost to the MDC-T in the last elections.
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party won 20 of the 26 seats in the
province
during 2008 polls. It also holds four of the six senate seats of
the
province.
The top army and police chiefs called the meeting following
angry
demonstrations in the province by hundreds of disgruntled party
supporters
protesting the way District Coordinating Committee (DCC)
elections were
conducted. They alleged massive rigging, imposition of
candidates, use of
fake voters’ rolls and manipulated
results.
Factionalism within Zanu PF structures is threatening to
ruin the party
ahead of the make-or-break elections.
Sources said
Zanu PF national commissar Webster Shamu presented a report at
yesterday’s
politburo meeting on the DCC elections and subsequent infighting
in the
provinces. He is now expected to present a more comprehensive one at
the
extraordinary politburo meeting. Shamu and other senior party officials
have
been fire-fighting to prevent the infighting from spreading across the
party
like veld fire.
Factional battles rock
Mugabe's Zanu-PF
http://mg.co.za
JASON MOYO May 04 2012 00:00
Scenes of
Zimbabwe police firing warning shots and charging party activists
are
usually associated with the authority's frequent crackdown on opposition
groups. But over the past week the police have used force to quell violence
between rival factions of President Robert Mugabe's party.
Mugabe has
been trying to rally his party towards a new election campaign,
but the
grassroots structures that have long been the mainstay of Zanu-PF
appear to
be crumbling.
The factionalism that has divided the top leadership of the
party has now
seeped through to the grassroots at a time when Mugabe needs
it most in his
bid for new elections. With these structures in a shambles,
party officials
believe Mugabe may be forced to rethink his plan for yet
another election
campaign.
Across five party provinces Zanu-PF has
had to suspend district elections
after fights erupted over accusations of
vote rigging, the imposition of
candidates and
intimidation.
Grassroots structures have always been key in getting
Mugabe's supporters to
the polls during elections and, according to
opposition activists, they have
also been used to intimidate communities
into voting for Zanu-PF. Its
district elections are a key step towards party
primary elections it plans
to hold soon, under pressure from Mugabe to
organise quickly for national
elections that he wants to be held this
year.
Deeper rifts
But now Mugabe finds that the rifts among his top
lieutenants reach deeper
than he thought.
Even in the lowest
structures of Zanu-PF local leaders are aligning
themselves to the two main
factions, which are said to be led by Defence
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa
and Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
Mugabe has previously acknowledged the
divisions in his party, blaming them
for Zanu-PF's loss in the 2008
election, but rarely have these fault lines
shown up in the
grassroots.
In Masvingo, a traditionally pro-Zanu-PF province, the police
fired warning
shots and had running battles with rival factions. Police
spokesperson Wayne
Bvudzijena said officers had to step in to "maintain law
and order" at a
rural school in the province.
Walter Mzembi, the
Zanu-PF MP in the Masvingo area where the violence
erupted, said poor
discipline was "tearing at the core of leadership and
needs to be
stopped".
He said the grassroots support felt ignored by those in power
over the
choice of leaders, who he said had given themselves the "power of
self-deployment".
"In the final analysis, the party should arrogate
to itself the ultimate
role of deploying cadres if it is to check
individualism, selfishness,
factionalism, tribalism, regionalism and
ultimately the division so rampant
now everywhere," said
Mzembi.
Fighting talks
Rugare Gumbo, Zanu-PF spokesperson, said senior
party leaders were to meet
this week to discuss the fighting. Party
officials are worried that the
violence shows it is not yet ready for
another campaign. Mugabe's insistence
on new elections is only deepening the
divisions in Zanu-PF, one official
said.
In the Manicaland province,
where Zanu-PF lost 20 of the 26 available seats
in the 2008 election,
attempts to reorganise the party have been stalled by
factional violence. A
senior official said some party supporters had
defected to the Movement for
Democratic Change after party district
elections were abandoned over charges
of cheating and intimidation.
Webster Shamu, who, as Zanu-PF "political
commissar", is in charge of
running party elections and its "restructuring"
exercise, has now ordered
all elections stopped while the party investigates
the fighting.
Close
shave as Mugabe stumbles at ZITF
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Friday, 04 May 2012 09:48
THE
viability of President Robert Mugabe as a Zanu PF’s presidential
candidate
in elections he wants held this year was again put in doubt after
reports he
almost fell — for the second time within just over a week —during
the
official opening of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo
last
Friday.
Zambian President Michael Sata, who officially opened this year’s
exhibition
and Mugabe’s aides, came to the rescue.
The
incident happened just nine days after he had to be similarly rescued by
one
of his aides when he missed a step and almost slipped during
Independence
Day commemorations at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
Zimbabwe
Independent reporters witnessed the Independence Day
incident.
Witnesses who were at trade fair last week said Mugabe
almost fell before a
crowd of about 6 000 Zanu PF supporters bussed in
mainly from Umguza, Insiza
and Zvimba to bolster numbers and give the
visiting Sata the impression he
is still popular and capable of winning
elections. That would help Mugabe
in the Sadc region to lobby for early
elections and endorsement and
legitimacy of the outcome is
disputed.
Mugabe and Sata had earlier toured a few stands before
being dropped off in
front of the grandstand at the main arena just after
2pm.
“As the two presidents walked on the red carpet towards the
saluting dais in
preparation for Sata to inspect the guard of honour, Mugabe
bumped into one
of his guards, stumbled and almost fell down, but was
quickly rescued by
Sata and his minders,” said an eyewitness. “The crowd
went quiet as this
embarrassing situation happened.”
The latest
incident feeds into the growing perception that Mugabe is now
frail due to
old age and ill-health. This has resultantly caused grave
concerns in Zanu
PF about the viability of candidacy, especially if
elections are held next
year. Fears are mounting Mugabe might falter during
campaigns given his
increasingly undeniable infirmity. Seeing this, Mugabe
himself seems
uncertain about his capacity to withstand a grueling national
elections
campaign next year and is thus demanding polls this year, with or
without a
new constitution.
Zanu PF had organised bussedcrowds to make it
appear Mugabe was popular by
buying tickets for the trade fair for a large
number of their supporters. —
Staff writer.
Zim farmer
conciliatory on land grab
http://www.iol.co.za
May 4 2012 at 01:27pm
By
SAPA
Johannesburg - A Zimbabwean farmer who was told 10 days ago his
farm had
been confiscated, now says it looks as though the issue could swing
in his
favour, Beeld newspaper reported on Friday.
Henry Jackson's
widely publicised, conciliatory stance to the occupation of
his farm,
situated near Gweru, elicited strong reactions from South Africans
and
Zimbabweans.
Amongst other things, Jackson, 57, told the prospective new
owner of the
farm he would bless him and provide him with logistical
help.
Jackson said on Thursday it seemed as though high-ranking Zanu-PF
officials
were however taking issue with the land commissioner who was
trying to
expropriate his farm.
The Zanu-PF officials were sending
him messages saying he should stay on the
property, Jackson
said.
“It's as if I'm standing to one side, and they're fighting against
one
another.”
Jackson, also a pastor of the United Apostolic Faith
Church, cited the
biblical story of Gideon, who had stepped aside to allow
his enemies to
fight against each other, to explain his behaviour. Jackson
said he was
content to leave the issue in God's hands. - Sapa
Zimbabwe
starts reclaiming land seized from white farmers
http://www.africareview.com/
By KITSEPILE NYATHI in
HararePosted Friday, May 4 2012 at 17:09
Zimbabwe has started
repossessing underutilised pieces of land from
beneficiaries of its
controversial land reforms that started over a decade
ago.
President
Robert Mugabe justified the violent land grabs from white
commercial farmers
by saying it was meant to correct colonial imbalances.
Critics said most
of the productive farms were parcelled out to the
88-year-old leader’s
cronies who did not have any resources or interest in
farming.
Advocate Martin Dinha, the governor for Mashonaland Central
province, which
is a prime farming area, said the repossessed plots will be
allocated to
landless people.
"President Mugabe is on record saying
farmers not utilising land should be
removed and once he says something it
becomes policy,” he said.
“There is no going back on this thrust and
offer letters will continue to be
issued out as long as there are people who
still need land.
Mr Dinha added: “Land should be allocated according to
production levels,
land utilisation capacity and resources available. I am
concerned with
people who own large hectares of land but are not fully
utilising it.”
Zimbabwe’s agriculture production has plummeted over the
years as the new
farmers continue to struggle to access resources to
modernise their farming.
A number of frustrated black farmers have also
resorted to leasing their
pieces of land to the former commercial farm
owners drawing President Mugabe’s ire.
Aid to Zimbabwe must take
account of resettled farmers on contested land
The UK's decision not to
help Zimbabweans who were resettled on land owned by white farmers fails to
alleviate hardship
Fanuel Mtongozi, the 46-year-old headteacher of Village
Nine school, says it has 450 pupils and 12 teachers up to grade seven. The
school received textbooks from Unicef in 2010 but it has no furniture.
Photograph: Alex Duval Smith
It is 12 years
since President Robert Mugabe responded to divisions in his party and the rise
of an opposition by launching a "fast-track" resettlement programme in which
4,500 white commercial farmers were thrown off the land and replaced by 150,000
black families.
It feels as though
it is almost as long since Britain took a close look at Zimbabwe and
assessed what should be achieved with the £80m ($126m) of taxpayers' money spent
there each year. Britain's priorities count. Donors, led by the US, give more
than $900m per year in aid to Zimbabwe and they take their lead from the
Department for International Development (DfID).
Since the land
invasions began in 2000, donors have faced a conundrum: how to provide
humanitarian assistance to needy people without giving a penny to their
government. The challenge did not go away in 2009, when the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) was given a few ministries.
Britain came up
with a good plan – to channel aid money through two conduits. These are the
United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), which handles education, health and
social welfare, and the Protracted Relief Programme (PRP), which uses NGOs to
support 2 million communal farmers. The system is reactive to emergencies – such
as the 2008 cholera outbreak – and has provided for consultation with
MDC-controlled ministries. Importantly, it allows for the travel and business
sanctions imposed against Mugabe and other individuals to appear not to affect
ordinary people.
However, while the
donors have studiously been perfecting routes to circumvent the treasury,
Zimbabwe has fundamentally changed.
DfID officials
stress that British taxpayers' money does not go to people living on "contested
land", meaning farms for which former owners have not been compensated. Britain,
they say, only helps people living on communal lands – those whom Britain has
always helped, and whose security of tenure is at the whim of traditional
chiefs.
The assertion that
aid is not reaching new farmers on "contested land" means Britain is ignoring
the humanitarian needs of the 150,000 families – about 750,000 people – who have
been part of the largest demographic movement in southern Africa in the past
decade.
Here are some
snapshots of Zimbabwe now:
• On Portelet
Estates, a former commercial farm near Chinhoyi, 450 children attend a
"satellite school" with no furniture or blackboards in a barn on the verge of
collapse. The headteacher, Fanuel Mtongozi, 46, says the school opened in 2002
for children of settlers in Village Nine. Unicef delivered the first textbooks
last year. There are 1,363 satellite schools in Zimbabwe, but they are not
mentioned in Unicef's Education Transition Fund plan.
• A white
pensioner begs in the car park at Avondale shopping centre in the northern
suburbs of the capital, Harare. She says she lost her farm, then her husband
died, and her pension became worthless under hyperinflation in 2008. There are
now no more than 500 white farmers left in Zimbabwe, most of them past
retirement age, many living in hardship and reliant on
charity.
• Near Macheke, a
man in his 40s, called Patrick, squats in dilapidated buildings that used to be
the productive fruit and tobacco farm where he worked. It has been resettled
under "fast track". He is not a beneficiary, but he has nowhere else to go and
lives by doing odd jobs for the resettled farmers. Zimbabwe has an estimated 1
million internally displaced people – 8% of the population. They are often
former commercial farm employees. There is no support for them as long as they
remain on "contested land".
• Near Goromonzi,
Mathias Mandikisi, a former "war vet" – who played an active role in occupying
the land he now farms – has had a bumper tobacco crop on his six hectares (14.8
acres). He bought his first car last year, at the age of 53. This year he
intends to trade in his Mazda 323 for a one-tonne pick-up.
Contrary to
popular belief, the majority of "fast-track" farms have not been given to
high-ranking officials of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic
Front (Zanu-PF). They are plots of land that have been given to low- and
middle-ranking civil servants and to people like Mandikisi who were previously
living in townships. Mandikisi said: "Some of us are doing well and we are very
grateful to President Mugabe for giving us back the land. Others are not
succeeding so well as farmers. But even they are staying on the land. There are
no jobs in the location [township] and at least here everyone can grow their own
food."
It could be argued
that it is for Zanu-PF to provide the new farmers with seeds and fertiliser. But
they, as much as all Zimbabweans, need clinics, schools, boreholes and
roads.
Another reason to
start including the resettled farmers in calculations of the humanitarian needs
of Zimbabwe is to ensure that aid is going where it is most needed. A shortfall
is predicted this year in the 2m tonnes of maize required by the country.
Guesstimates of production range from 700 tonnes to 1.4m tonnes. This is because
the output of the new farmers is not known.
Like him or loathe
him, Mugabe's policies over the past 12 years have radically transformed
Zimbabwe. "Fast track" happened, and in an agrarian society like Zimbabwe, its
impact should be at the centre of humanitarian policymaking. The changes should
stimulate rather than mute the analysis and debate about aid to the
country.
Information
Minister Shamu and his media threats
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
04 May
2012
ZANU PF’s information minister Webster Shamu has threatened a
crackdown on
the independent media in the country warning that “the gloves
may soon be
off.”
Shamu was speaking at a Zimbabwe Media Commission
(ZMC) function in Harare
that was meant to celebrate World Press Freedom
Day. In what many viewed as
a clear attempt to intimidate journalists ahead
of possible elections Shamu
said:
“If the clearly anti-African and
anti-Zimbabwe frenzy we have experienced
through some media outlets and
platforms in this country continues, and if
the conspiracy of silence within
the media industry and profession also
persists, the gloves may soon be off
here as well.”
“If the last five years of change do not show the media
industry and the
journalism profession to have fulfilled their promises,
then the sovereign
people of Zimbabwe have no option but to intervene and
protect themselves
through the instruments of the State, that is to revert
to the regulatory
regime of 2001-2007,” he warned.
In the period
referred to by Shamu Edward Chikomba, a veteran cameraman
formerly with the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, was abducted from his
home on the 29th
March 2007 by a group of armed men in a four-wheel drive
vehicle. He was
found dead two days later in Darwendale.
Those who worked closely with
him suspected he was murdered for allegedly
‘smuggling’ news footage out of
Zimbabwe. Chikomba’s brutal murder showed
the lengths the regime was
prepared to go in silencing the media.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai used a World Press Freedom Day
function in Kuwadzana to tell the
audience that if Shamu was an MDC-T
minister, he would have fired him a long
time ago for blocking media
reforms.
“I am saying to President
Mugabe, Shamu should be fired. We told this man as
principals and Parliament
that the board of ZBC should be dissolved and
reconstituted, but this has
not happened. Now do you think Shamu has the
powers to ignore all of us? No,
I do not think so, I think there should be
someone else higher than him who
is telling him to ignore us,” the PM said.
On the 8th February Tsvangirai
and his Deputy Arthur Mutambara met Mugabe at
State House for two and half
hours, and one of the key issues discussed was
the broadcasting authority.
Tsvangirai and Mutambara later issued a
statement in which they said it had
been agreed among other things that
Minister Shamu must:
“Immediately
implement the Principals’ directive to reconstitute the boards
of ZBC, Mass
Media Trust and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe in line
with the
agreed formulae. The licenses already issued by the illegally
constituted
BAZ board should be revoked forthwith.”
Nothing of the sort has happened.
In fact SW Radio Africa has in the past
chronicled how several members from
the army and state security agencies are
members of the same boards that
Shamu is refusing to reconstitute. It is
clear their role is to secure ZANU
PF interests at every turn.
Tsvangirai
And Shamu Differ On Media Reforms
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, May 04, 2012 -Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday said if
the Information Minister
Webster Shamu was from his Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party he
would have fired him for blocking media reforms.
Tsvangirai who was
addressing journalists and Kuwadzana residents to mark
World Press Freedom
Day was contradicted sharply by the minister who was
giving a speech to also
commemorate the day at a different venue.
Shamu told a function organised
by the parliament appointed Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC) that government
controls on the media should remain because
media reforms were not
benefitting the public.
Tsvangirai said unfortunately current provisions
of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) did not allow the new government to
fire Shamu. He said the
minister was refusing to take orders because "he is
listening to someone
above him”.
Shamu has refused to re-constitute
the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe
(BAZ) board which has so far given
out two radio licenses to players
believed to be sympathetic to the former
ruling Zanu (PF) party. Zimpapers,
wholly owned by government through the
Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust and Supa
Mandiwanzira, a journalist turned
businessman, were awarded licenses ahead
of about 15 others who had
applied.
Tsvangirai said Zimpapers should concentrate on newspapers and
let other
players enter the broadcasting sector to fulfil GPA requirements
of media
pluralism.
Shamu has since been ordered to appear before a
parliamentary committee to
answer the slow implementation of media reforms
as agreed in the GPA.
Tsvangirai accused the state-owned Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
of bias against his party.
“It is as
if I have committed a crime the manner in which ZBC are hostile to
me,” he
said. “Even the ministers who are working for the nation are also
being
vilified.
“We should have as many news outlets as possible before the
elections to
allow you to make your own choices,” he said, amid
applauses.
The commemorations, organised by media watchdog, Media
Institute of Southern
Africa- Zimbabwe chapter, were dampened after the
police restricted
participants to just 100 people.
Tsvangirai
described the directive by the police as a clear violation of
people’s
rights to access to information.
Meanwhile Shamu said: “I can assure you
that as we go into fresh harmonised
elections this year people will be
asking questions about the alleged
benefits of press freedom to them and
about the demonstrable results of all
the reforms introduced in the media
sector and in related areas in 2007.Are
the benefits only in terms of
increased numbers of publishers and
broadcasters? Has the quality of public
information improved?” asked Shamu
at a local hotel.
“It was clear
that behind the sweeping reforms of 2007-2011, there were
promises and
claims by media associations and activists to put their own
house in order
by exercising more and better professional responsibility in
relation to the
general public and exchange for the relaxation of direct
state
controls."
Shamu, who is also the Zanu (PF) political commissar, said
media
representative bodies had failed to regulate
themselves.
Tsvangirai's MDC-T has taken the issue of media reforms to
President Jacob
Zuma who is the Zimbabwe crisis mediator.
No
kind words after death of violent Chipangano leader
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
04 May 2012
John Murukai, a former freedom fighter who
spent his last days involved with
the violent ZANU PF Chipangano gang,
reportedly died at Parirenyatwa
Hospital last Sunday, following a short
illness.
According to reports John Murukai was a high ranking official in
the Mbare
based gang that has taken over control of council properties in
Harare and
turned the high density suburb into a no-go area for the MDC
formations.
Many Zimbabweans reacting to Murukai’s death on the NewsDay
website had
nothing good to say about the Chipangano chef. The consensus was
that he was
used by ZANU PF and others should learn from
that.
Murukai’s death was confirmed by the gang’s known leader, Jim
Kunaka, who is
the ZANU PF youth chairperson for Harare province. Kunaka
said Murukai was
buried Thursday at Warren Hills Cemetery.
Murukai
reportedly operated as Comrade Longchase when he was a Zanla
commander
during the liberation war. He continued serving in the army after
independence in 1980 and had become a captain by the time he retired in
1993.
Murukai will however be remembered for his involvement with the
violent
Chipangano thugs, who have become notorious for assaulting MDC
supporters
and making life in Mbare impossible on many levels. Vendors and
minibus
drivers are forced to pay daily fees to the gang to be allowed to
continue
working in the area.
The gang has reportedly opened chapters
in other cities and its members are
alleged to be collecting revenue from
council owned properties and getting
quite rich. The police refuse to stop
their activities because they have the
support of top officials within ZANU
PF.
Makoni
targets Tsvangirai coalition
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
04/05/2012 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
MAVAMBO-KUSILE leader Simba Makoni said Friday he was open
to the prospects
of a pact with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T to
help bring down
President Robert Mugabe at the next
elections.
Makoni, a senior Zanu PF official, pulled out of the party to
challenge
Mugabe ahead of the inconclusive 2008 elections and won eight
percent of the
national vote with the backing of the then-Arthur
Mutambara-led MDC faction.
But MDC-T supporters blame him for helping
keep Zanu PF in power by dividing
the opposition vote after Tsvangirai fell
short of an outright majority in
the first round and pulled out of the
run-off ballot accusing Mugabe of
brutalising his supporters.
The former
finance minister now says he would not have any problems working
with
Tsvangirai to defeat Mugabe.
“The prospects are very high of me teaming
up with many Zimbabweans,” Makoni
told the weekly Zimbabwe Independent
newspaper.
“Tsvangirai could be one of those millions of Zimbabweans that
we can team
up with.”
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said his
party was open to alliances
with like-minded individuals and
organisations.
“The MDC will want to work with all progressive and
like-minded Zimbabweans
for democracy,” he said.
Mugabe is pushing
for new elections this year to replace a coalition
government he says has
been rendered unworkable because of policy and other
differences between the
parties.
His rivals insist political and other reforms agreed as part of
the Global
Political Agreement – the power sharing pact – must be
implemented in full
to ensure a free and fair election whose outcome cannot
be contested.
Tsvangirai recently said a credible election is only viable
in 2013. But
Mugabe has since threatened to declare an election date,
accusing his rivals
of holding back ongoing constitutional reforms to delay
the ballot, fearing
defeat.
Analysts say Zanu PF wants the elections
held this year as concern increases
among the party hierarchy over President
Robert Mugabe’s advanced age – he
turned 88 this year – and reported ill
health.
Mugabe has repeatedly laughed off media speculation over his health,
insisting he is in robust physical condition.
Sikhala
claims rape arrest plot by CIO
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
04/05/2012 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
MDC-99 leader Job Sikhala has alleged a Central Intelligence
Organisation
(CIO) plot to arrest him and charge him with
rape.
Sikhala, acquitted last week on allegations of facilitating the
illegal
entry into Zimbabwe by a South African woman, says the allegations
have “no
substance”.
Earlier on Thursday, Sikhala’s MDC party
reported that detectives had raided
his St Mary’s home and conducted a
search in his absence. He said then he
was not aware why they wanted to
arrest him.
But in a statement on Friday, Sikhala said he had since
learnt that police
want to charge him with raping Sharon Bester – the same
woman he allegedly
brought into the country without a passport.
“The
charges of rape being levelled against president Job Sikhala have no
substance considering the fact that the woman, swore in court that even
though they shared the same room on one occasion, they did not engage in
sex,” his spokesperson said.
“The ‘alien’ who by now should have been
deported back to South Africa five
months ago, is now being used by the CIO
in circumstances reminiscent of the
Ari Ben Menashe sting against Morgan
Tsvangirai to achieve political ends.”
Married Sikhala was last month
acquitted on charges of helping Bester to
illegally enter the country after
meeting her in South Africa while
fundraising for his political
activities.
Prosecutors claimed Sikhala offered Bester work as a personal
assistant
before allegedly helping her enter the country illegally through
Beitbridge.
But Harare magistrate, Anita Tshuma ruled that there was
insufficient
evidence to convict the former St Mary’s MP.
Sikhala’s
party said the alleged plot against him was part of an ongoing
campaign
their leader.
“The MDC-99 condemns these latest actions by the police.
For the record, the
regime has arrested our president on more than 60
occasions and there is no
case with which he has not accused of except rape
which they have
manufactured now,” the party.
“The state is content
on bringing president Job Sikhala down as well as
bringing the MDC-99 into
disrepute with these fabricated allegations.
“We see this as an attempt to
hinder the cause of MDC-99 of fighting for
democracy, peace and justice in
Zimbabwe.”
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena on Friday asked for more
time to check if
there was a warrant of arrest for Sikhala. He said he was
not aware of a
police raid at his home on Thursday.
Mugabe
appoints new judges
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
04/05/2012 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has promoted a High Court
judge to the Supreme Court
bench to replace the retired Justice Wilson
Sandura, while appointing a
prominent lawyer to the High
Court.
Justice Anne-Mary Gora has been an acting judge at the appeal
court since
Justice Sandura quit in July last year at the age of
70.
Advocate Happious Zhou, a prominent defence lawyer, now joins the Harare
High Court.
The two judges were sworn-in by President Mugabe on
Thursday.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, meanwhile, has revealed
that Justice
Yunus Omerjee has also been promoted to the Supreme Court, but
he will be
sworn-in at a later date because he is out of the
country.
Chinamasa said Mugabe had made the appointments in consultation
with the
Judicial Service Commission in line with the
constitution.
Since forming a coalition with his opposition rivals in
2009, Mugabe has
been facing pressure from his MDC rivals to consult them
before making key
appointments – but Mugabe has been defiant, insisting he
is fully empowered
by the constitution to make the
decisions.
Chinamasa said: “We only came here to formalise their
appointments from the
Judicial Service Commission. These are the people who
know the competencies
of these persons.
“The law provides that we
cannot appoint unless we consult the JSC. The
names of these judges did not
come from me or the President, but the JSC.
Appointments to the bench should
not be politicised but should be by merit.”
Concern
for Matabeleland wildlife affected by coal mining
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
04
May 2012
Concern has been raised about the threat facing wildlife areas
in
Matabeleland North with warnings that increased coal mining activity in
the
area is having a negative impact there.
The Gwayi Valley
Conservation Area has expressed fears that that the
establishment of coal
mines will affect not only the wildlife but also the
tourism generated by
the wildlife.
This is not the first time the group has raised concerns
about the affect of
coal mining and in 2010 it sounded the alarm when the
government allowed the
Liberation coal mine to start operating. The mine,
situated in the Hwange
National Park and Binga areas, was ordered to stop
operations last year
because of the risk it posed. Local groups also
campaigned against the mine
because it was operating without an
Environmental Impact Assessment
Certificate.
It has now been reported
that another coal mining company, China Africa
Sunlight, has also started
operating without an Environmental Impact
Assessment. The Gwayi Valley
Conservation Area’s Chairperson, Mark Russell,
is quoted as saying that an
initial consultation was not done with the
organisation before the new mine
was given clearance to start operating.
“It is clear that no
Environmental Management Agency regulations were
followed and no
documentation is in place. We don’t see how the wildlife
producing farms
will co-exist with mining activities and this will
definitely result in
conflict,” Russell is quoted as saying.
Twenty different mining companies
have been given concessions to prospect
and mine for coal in Matabeleland
North. Since the mines started to operate
there have been increases in the
pollution of boreholes and also wildlife
water holes.
MDC
UK criticised for failing to assist Zim deportees
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
04
May 2012
The MDC structures in the UK have been criticised this week for
not doing
enough to help Zimbabweans facing deportations from Britain, with
the party
also being accused of falling victim to ZANU PF
infiltration.
This week another Zimbabwean asylum seeker in the UK was
held for
deportation after being arrested during his routine check in at the
Loughborough reporting centre. Trevor Chanetsa was set to be deported
earlier this week, but the flight was cancelled and he is still being held
at the Hammond detention centre close to Heathrow airport.
The
Nottingham based Zimbabwean has been in the UK for two years after
claiming
asylum on political grounds. It is not clear why he now faces
deportation,
but there is concern that he faces victimisation back in
Zimbabwe because he
is an MDC member.
Regis Manyanya from the Nottingham Zimbabwean Community
Network told SW
Radio Africa on Friday that Chanetsa is a known member of
the MDC, “and with
the political situation getting worse back home, I
wouldn’t be surprised if
he was picked up at Harare and
detained.”
Chanetsa’s detention comes after a fellow asylum seeker and
party member,
Frazer Muzondo, was detained last month during his routine
report to border
agency officials in London. His deportation was halted
after a last minute
intervention, with his asylum appeal still set to be
heard.
The Nottingham Zimbabwean Community Network’s Manyanya said on
Friday that
the MDC structures in the UK “have done nothing and continue to
do nothing”
to assist its membership facing deportation threats. He said the
party
should be serving its members better, warning that “there is serious
ZANU PF
infiltration.”
“We have seen the daughters and sons of ZANU
PF people getting placed in MDC
structures here and that is why the
membership is dwindling,” Manyanya said.
He meanwhile had strong words
for the UK government, calling them
“intolerant and dealing in double
standards.”
“This is victimisation and it sends a very wrong signal to
the Zimbabwean
community, because everyone feels under threat,” Manyanya
said.
Zimbabwe
trade with China tops US$800m
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
03/05/2012 00:00:00
by Business
Reporter
TRADE between Zimbabwe and China doubled to US$800 million
in the last two
years as ties between the two countries continue to
strengthen, outgoing
Chinese Ambassador to Xin Shunkang said on
Thursday.
Speaking at a public lecture organized by the Southern African
Research and
Documentation Centre, Xin said his tenure of nearly three years
in Zimbabwe
saw the two countries consolidating their economic, political
and social
ties.
"Bilateral trade has increased from US$400 million
to US$800 million during
my tenure," he said while presenting a paper on
"Outlook of China's economy
and Sino- Zimbabwe relations".
Ambassador Xin
leaves Zimbabwe this month to take up his new post in the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) region.
Tobacco is one of the major trade
commodities between the two countries,
with China standing as the single
largest buyer of the golden leaf.
The Chinese envoy noted that China had
provided support through donations to
various initiatives in Zimbabwe worth
more than US$25 million since 2009.
Political relations, he said, were
further cemented through high-level
visits by leaders from both
countries.
Zimbabwe has pursued a so-called ‘Look East” after relations
with the West
cooled over the last decade.
The United States and
Britain pushed the imposition of sanctions against the
country over
allegations of human rights abuses and suspected electoral
fraud.
But
President Robert Mugabe says the sanctions, which he blames for the
country’s economic problems, were meant to punish Zimbabwe for its land
reforms and economic empowerment policies.
Chinese involvement in the
local economy has become so dominant that
officials suggested the country
adopts the Yuan as its main currency and
drop the US dollar which, along
with the Botswana Pula and the South African
Rand, has kept the country
afloat following the collapse of the Zimbabwean
dollar.
Chinese firms
also dominated the just-ended Zimbabwe International Trade
Fair in Bulawayo.
Chinese
Envoy Urges Stability and Reforms In Zimbabwe
http://www.radiovop.com
By Nkosana Dlamini
Harare, May 04 2012 - Out-going Chinese ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Xin
Shunkang, has urged Zimbabwe’s leaders not to allow the
country to slide
back into the levels of political and economic anarchy
witnessed in the past
decade.
“Our advise is that try to keep the country’s stability in
economy and in
politics,” said the Chinese diplomat on Thursday when he bade
farewell to
Prime Minister Tsvangirai at his Strathaven home.
The
Chinese envoy, now headed for Namibia on similar deployment, urged the
country’s leaders to embrace change if they want to take the country
forward.
“Don’t forget to do reforms. When we talk about reform don’t
think that such
a reform is a frame work reform or the system reform. It’s
kind of to
correct your mistakes. Reform means that when you find somewhere
is not
suitable for this country then you need to do something to correct
your
mistakes,” he said.
Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe was well on course
for a possible credible poll
since the current constitution making process
was nearing completion.
“We have got our disagreements...I think that the
country is much more
hopeful and stable of course there are so many areas
where we have had
limited achievement,” he said.
Harare International Festival
to close with celebration of Tuku’s birthday
Posted by Tererai
Karimakwenda on Friday, May 4, 2012
Oliver Mtukudzi
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
04 May 2012
The annual Harare
International Festival of the Arts, which kicked off Tuesday night and runs for
six days, is due to close with a spectacular show this weekend which will
celebrate music icon Oliver Mtukudzi’s 60th birthday.
Sunday nights show
will also feature Senegalese legend Ismael Lo and rising Zim stars Edith
WeUtonga, a local band fronted by female bass player Edith
Katiri.
Edith took some
time from rehearsals Friday to talk to SW Radio Africa about the HIFA experience
and the importance of developing a thriving arts culture in Zimbabwe. She said
the opportunity to perform on the same stage as “Tuku” is both an honour and a
challenge, to prove she is ready for that level of success.
Edith said she was
excited about the HIFA experience because it gives Zimbabweans a chance to see
artists from all over the world and provides a platform for local artists, who
normally have no access to such large audiences.
“I saw a white
band from Germany and they were playing reggae, deep reggae, you know. There’s
something about HIFA. It seems everything changes and we wonder how come we
don’t live like this every day,” Edith explained. There are also acts from
Brazil, Canada, South Africa and the United States.
HIFA is something
of a family affair for Edith, whose sister is in a theatrical production called
“It Never Rains” and her husband is directing the live version of Zambezi News,
a parody of state news broadcasts, starring Comrade Fatso and Outspoken, the
country’s well known spoken word artists and founders of the Magamba Cultural
Activists Network.
Fatso agreed with
Edith that HIFA brought many different kinds of people together in a peaceful,
creative environment, giving Zimbabweans an opportunity to experience the world.
“It’s a fantastic mix here. There is old, young, black, white, coloured and
people from Borrowdale or Highfields,” Fatso explained.
Regarding Zambezi
News Fatso described it as a “comic news broadcast” performed live, but soon to
be televised as well. “It’s a parody delving humorously into issues Zimbabweans
are dealing with on a daily basis,” Fatso said.
As a spoken word
artist, Fatso said he was pleased to see this form of expression play a key role
at this year’s festival.
D-Day
looms for Zim killers
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Written by Bridget Mananavire, Staff Writer
Friday,
04 May 2012 15:04
HARARE - Judgement day is fast approaching for
Zimbabwean officials
implicated in human rights abuses, including murder,
and have been enjoying
protection from South African law
authorities.
The Pretoria High Court will on Tuesday next week hand down
ruling in a case
in which the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and
the Zimbabwe
Exiles Forum (Zef) are challenging the decision by South
Africa’s National
Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and police not to investigate
and prosecute
senior Zimbabwean officials alleged to have sanctioned the use
of torture.
The case was heard at the court a month ago, with Zimbabweans
exiled in
South Africa demonstrating outside the court to express their
displeasure at
South Africa’s decision to protect top Zimbabwean officials
accused of
torture. The case opened a can of worms as it unravelled in court
and
emerged that South Africa was keener on maintaining cosy relations with
the
Zimbabwean government than enforcing international law.
First,
South Africa’s NPA and police had said it was better for Zimbabwe
torturers
to walk free than face justice in South Africa because acting on
them would
soil relations with President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
Secondly, Anton
Ackermann, who as head of the Priority Crimes Litigation
Unit within South
Africa’s NPA overseas litigation on international crimes,
had forwarded
claims that the NPA had gone as far as using manipulation to
ensure the
investigations would halt.
Ackermann had recommended that investigations
proceed after receiving a
damning dossier on atrocities compiled by a group
of Zimbabweans. But that
recommendation was trashed.
Should the NPA
have taken Ackermann’s recommendation on board, Zimbabwean
top chefs, some
accused of leading political killings, would have been left
vulnerable.
Some of them are frequent travellers to South Africa for
business and
medical treatment, making them vulnerable to international
justice in spite
of their untouchable status at home.
But Ackermann
was “manipulated and misled” by colleagues with the NPA and
South African
Police Service (SAPS), resulting in his recommendation for an
investigation
being thrown into the dustbin, according to an affidavit
tendered in
court.
As a result, the NPA rejected the request to investigate the
“comprehensive”
dossier with names of junior and senior individuals
responsible for the
torture of Zanu PF’s political rivals.
The Daily
News cannot publish names of the alleged perpetrators named in the
dossier
compiled by a group of affected Zimbabweans for legal reasons.
In court,
Zef and SALC argued that Ackermann’s affidavit “makes clear that
he
recommended that an investigation be opened on the basis of our
submissions
to the NPA. He sought to have these views put before the court
but in effect
was refused representation by the NPA in doing so.”
His affidavit, they
said, demonstrated that the NPA deliberately disregarded
the views of a key
decision maker (Ackermann) within South Africa’s
International Criminal
Court regime to protect Zimbabwean human rights
abusers from
justice.
Zef chairperson Gabriel Shumba told the Daily News yesterday
that the
decision to hand down judgment next week is commendable “given the
deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe and the prospect of another violent
election”.
Copac
draft: New divisions emerge
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012 09:45
Wongai
Zhangazha
FRESH political divisions have emerged over the country’s new
constitution
after the draft published in the local media this week showed
there were
more areas of disagreement than the three previously
reported.
The published Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac)
draft
constitution shows the committee remains divided on more than 10
issues. The
draft shows that besides the three reported contentious issues
to do with
devolution, dual citizenship and systems of government, the three
political
parties in the inclusive government –– Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations ––
are in dispute on issues such as delimitation, land
compensation,
pronouncement of electoral dates, transitional clauses, the
composition of
the senate and voting rights of chiefs.
This week
Copac’s management committee failed to break the impasse and
referred the
draft back to political parties to go through, after which it
will be taken
back to the negotiating teams before it is submitted to the
political
principals.
Sources close to Copac said the “parked” issues in the
draft constitution
reflect the political interests of the three parties,
adding the whole
process had become highly-politicised.
Copac’s
final draft notes “a decision has to be made on the issue of
appointing a
vice-president who will be a member of parliament or appointing
two
vice-presidents.”
Copac is yet to agree on the timing of general
elections as revealed in
Chapter 8. It is also still to decide on whether
provincial assemblies are
to be established, something which Zanu PF is
opposed to.
Issues of compensation of people from whom the state or a
public authority
compulsorily acquire agricultural land in violation of
property rights
guaranteed by the constitution or protected by an agreement
concluded by the
state with the government of another country is still under
discussion.
MDC-T
debates primaries
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012 09:42
Owen Gagare
DEBATE
is raging in the MDC-T about how to re-align the expected new
constitution
and the party’s constitution, rules and procedures, mainly
relating to
primary elections.
MDC-T officials say many suggestions have been advanced,
including adopting
the party list system used by political organisations
like the ANC in South
Africa, in which officials elected at congress
dominate the register.
A senior MDC-T official said yesterday debate
was going on and the party
would soon choose which proposal to
adopt.
“It’s true there is ongoing debate about how we should
re-align the new
constitution with the rules and procedures of the party.
The new
constitution will introduce new issues, like proportional
representation,
and as a result we need to adjust our own constitution to
capture the new
realities,” the official said.
“Some people are
suggesting that proportional representation must only cater
for women in the
party but others have a different view. So debate is
ongoing over all these
issues and we have to come to a point where we decide
which route to
take.”
However, junior MDC-T officials say they fear the party list
might be used
to sideline them, while protecting senior officials who may
not win primary
elections. Although the matter has not been officially
discussed by the
party’s standing committee, insiders said consultations
were going on.
A member of the standing committee said the party had
not yet taken a
position on the issue although there was serious debate on
what to do. “In
whatever will be done, the will of the people will be
respected,” said
senior MDC-T official Nelson Chamisa. “We don’t have any
sacred cows.”
Securocrats
raise stakes in elections
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012 09:37
Owen
Gagare
THE increasing number of security forces members who intend
standing for
elections on a Zanu PF ticket in the next polls has brought the
role of the
military in the country’s politics into sharp focus once
again.
Several high-ranking members of the security sector want to challenge
Zanu
PF bigwigs whom they accuse of destroying the party by imposing
non-performing candidates during elections. Information to hand shows some
security forces are already on the ground campaigning for themselves and
Zanu PF as well.
The move has brought renewed focus on the
controversial civil-military
relations in Zimbabwe, given the often-violent
political intervention by the
security forces in civilian affairs ahead of
the next polls.
However, analysts believe the interest shown by
securocrats in Zanu PF
affairs is not surprising given the close link
between the party and members
of the security agencies which dates back to
the days of the liberation
struggle.
In fact, the security sector
has taken advantage of the historical links to
gradually increase its
influence in Zanu PF and civil matters as a result of
President Robert
Mugabe’s reliance on them whenever he is faced with serious
political and
even bureaucratic challenges, including running ministries and
parastatals.
At the height of the country’s economic problems,
security forces were
deployed to head underperforming parastatals as well as
fill in board
positions. This almost formalised the take-over of civilian
administrative
duties by the military and other security
arms.
Security analyst Martin Rupiya examined the government’s
increasing reliance
on the military to address socio-political problems
between 1999 and 2002
and the risk of the military consolidating its
influence in an article
entitled Civil-Military relations in Zimbabwe: Is
there a threat?
Rupiya said those in favour of the military approach
argue the army is
useful to civilian political leaders as it presents
obvious objectives, a
clear time-line in which to attain them as well as an
inherent efficiency
that is normally missing from other
approaches.
“However, herein lies the nemesis of relying on this
approach: it is
difficult to devise an early exit strategy,” Rupiya wrote.
“In practice,
once in politics they tend to expand and consolidate their
position,
effectively undermining the careful balance that is required for a
stable
civil-military relations framework.”
Rupiya said the close
relations between the military and political leaders
dating back to the
liberation struggle pose a challenge of where to draw the
line between
civilian and armed forces’ affairs.
“In Zimbabwe, the challenge will
be how to fashion a useful role for the
military within society in the
context of the close liberation movement
model, broadening this to become
national and less threatening to other
members of society,” he
said.
True to Rupiya’s assessment, the security sector has
consolidated its
position to such an extent that it is now directly involved
in determining
the country’s political course through the Joint Operations
Command (Joc), a
grouping of security service chiefs.
Joc, which
played a critical role to keep Zanu PF in power since 2000, is
behind
Mugabe’s current push for elections this year, with or without a new
constitution.
Security personnel also have a grip on key
positions in Zanu PF’s
commissariat department, with retired Air
Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena and
former CIO director (internal) Sydney
Nyanhongo running it.
Rupiya said although the security sector had
been involved in politics since
the pre-Independence era, the “no-holds
barred” involvement began after the
near defeat of Zanu PF in the June 2000
elections, followed by the bruising
campaign for the presidential election
in March 2002.
Major-General Douglas Nyikayaramba, recently promoted,
was even deployed to
the electoral commission to become chief elections
officer at the time even
though he was still serving.
Sobusa
Gula-Ndebele, a former colonel in the army, chaired the Electoral
Supervisory Commission which ran the 2002 presidential
election.
Nyikayaramba is one of those army commanders who have vowed
to defend Mugabe
to the hilt and resist or resign if anyone takes
over.
A few months before the presidential poll in 2002, the service
chiefs
publicly declared they would not salute a president without
“liberation
credentials”. This was interpreted as a veiled coup threat if
Mugabe lost.
They repeated this as individuals in 2008.
A recent
report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition questioned the
appointment of
military personnel to electoral institutions such as the
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec) and the Delimitation Commission (DC).
In 2004 Mugabe
appointed a four-member Delimitation Commission chaired by
former judge
advocate responsible for military tribunals in the Zimbabwe
National Army
and High Court Justice George Chiweshe. In 2008, Chiweshe was
appointed to
chair the Zec which presided over the discredited June 27
presidential
election run-off. He was later promoted to Judge President.
Zec
delayed the announcement of presidential poll results by more than six
weeks
amid widespread speculation this was used to manipulate figures in
Mugabe’s
favour. Zanu PF was defeated by the MDC-T in 2008 parliamentary
polls.
“After the formation of the inclusive government, the Zec
was reconstituted
with respected judge Justice Simpson Mtambanengwe as its
chairperson.
However, serious concerns remain that Zec secretariat
comprises military
personnel whose independence is questionable,” according
to Rupiya.
The crisis coalition group said the military’s meddling in
politics had
become toxic as evidenced by the June 2008 presidnetial
election run-off
where security personnel stepped in to rescue Mugabe who
had lost the first
round to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. “The military
effectively
overthrew the electoral process and unleashed violence and
intimidation on a
wide scale,” said the coalition.
“The military
emerged at this time as the bedrock and political commissar of
Zanu PF.
Following a defeat at the polls by the MDC in March 2008, Zanu-PF’s
evaluation noted the obvious — that the party structures were virtually
non-existent and lacked capacity to mount an effective campaign, hence the
strategy to turn to the military for a campaign of
coercion.”
Political analyst Eldred Masunungure says the security
sector has maintained
a symbiotic relationship with Zanu PF. “They are just
demanding their pound
of flesh,” he said. “These are people — most of whom
are war veterans and
were historically an integral part of Zanu PF.
Psychologically they are Zanu
PF. They regard themselves as Zanu PF. They
regard their organisations as
secondary organisations and Zanu PF as their
mother organisation,” he said.
Continuing power shortages cripple Zimbabwe economy
http://www.coastweek.com/3518_26.htm
SPECIAL
REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT
TICHAONA CHIFAMBA
HARARE (Xinhua)
-- Power outages have been on the increase of late and
continue to cripple
Zimbabwe ’s economy as the country’s debt-laden power
utility fails to
adequately supply electricity to industry, commerce and
agriculture.
With the winter season fast approaching with its usual
higher demand for
power than the other seasons, ZESA Holdings’ position is
far from being
enviable.
Apart from heating requirements by consumers
to beat the cold, hundreds of
farmers also need electricity to irrigate
winter wheat and keep other
operations on their farms
running.
Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development Minister
Joseph Made
last week bemoaned the power shortages which he said would
seriously affect
the revival of the agricultural sector and downstream
industries.
“Can you imagine a seed company using generators to dry
seed and still
expect to remain in business or sell the product at
profitable prices?”
Made told The Herald that he was disappointed to note
that some seed houses
were actually using generators to dry the seed because
of the power cuts.
ZESA now risks the danger of being accused of
derailing the winter wheat
season, even in cases where farmers fail to plant
for other reasons.
Even though Made has expressed his disappointment over
the power cuts,
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has already said that the power
deficit would
persist for the foreseeable future - notwithstanding the
on-going
rehabilitation program at power stations.
While billions of
U.S. dollars are required to fully refurbish and upgrade
current power
stations, the government only availed 40 million dollars for
energy programs
in 2011, with an average generation of 1,105 megawatts (MW)
realized against
an envisaged capacity of 1,600.
An increased output of 1,244 is now
envisaged for 2012, compared to demand
of 2,200 MW required to fire all the
sectors of the economy.
Under the 2012 budget, Biti allocated nearly 55
million dollars towards the
rehabilitation of Hwange and Kariba power
stations and the transmission and
distribution network.
An injection
of 1 billion dollars for the construction of new generation
plants at Hwange
Thermal Power Station and another 400 million dollars to
expand Kariba South
(Hydro) will create an additional 900 MW and satisfy the
country’s short
term needs, but the government does not have such a huge
amount.
Limited finances have also hampered the utility’s ability to
import from
neighboring utilities such as Mozambique ’s Hydroelectrica de
Cahora Bassa,
to which it is battling to clear an 80 million dollars
debt.
At midday, the utility was producing a total of 1,087 MW with
Hwange Thermal
Power Station, which has a potential of 920 MW, producing 392
MW while
Kariba hydro was producing 615 MW from a potential of about 740
MW.
The load shedding status was at the highest level of severe. The
utility has
five statuses—minimal, light, moderate, heavy and
severe.
Zimbabwe recently signed a memorandum of understanding with
Zambia to
jointly construct the 4-billion-dollar 1,650 MW at Batoka
Hydro-power
project on the Zambezi River .
However, work on the
project will only begin after Zimbabwe pays, or makes a
strong commitment to
pay off more than 70 million dollars it owes Zambia
from the sale of the
Central African Power Corporation assets which had been
jointly owned by the
two countries. The debt is supposed to be paid off in
three
years.
Generally, Zimbabwe has been engaged primarily in rehabilitating
infrastructure as opposed to construction of new power stations.
More
efficient use of power through the replacement of incandescent bulbs
with
energy savers, installation of pre-paid meters, among others, will also
result in a saving of 300 MW which can be channeled to the productive
sector.
The government has already removed duty on the importation of
energy saving
bulbs to promote their usage.
The MDC Today Issue - 349
Friday, 04 May 2012
Zanu PF thugs on
Monday burnt down a hut belonging to Ethel Tichawana, the
MDC Makoni South,
Ward 26 Women’s Assembly chairperson, destroying all her
2011 crop harvest
and groceries.
On the fateful day, Mai Tichawana had gone to Rusape Town
on family
business.
The incident happened a week after the MDC ward
executive had held a
successful and well attended meeting at Chimbundi which
angered and shocked
Zanu PF activists leading to this tragedy.
A
notorious Zanu PF hooligan, Rogers Nyaungwa led other Zanu PF youths in
the
arson attack on Mai Tichawana’s kitchen.
The arson attack on Mai
Tichawana’s homestead comes barely a week after a
similar incident in
Maramba - Pfungwe, where a another hut belonging to
Florence Kavhayi, the
MDC Women’s Assembly secretary for defence and
security was burnt down by
known Zanu PF thugs.
The attackers were identified as Cleopas Kufuka, the
Zanu PF district
co-ordinating committee (DCC) chairperson, Khumbula
Kurarama, a village
neighbourhood watch committee member, David Dizha, the
local village head
and Forbes Nhongo, the Zanu PF branch youth
chairperson.
The people’s struggle for real change – Let’s finish
it!!!
Green
fuels: National interest must prevail
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012 10:17
THE
unfolding saga over Green Fuel’s Chisumbanje ethanol fuel project makes
for
some sad reading indeed, giving the impression that the country is
jinxed
when it comes to investment,sorting out its fuel security.
Green Fuel, a
70-30 joint venture between private investors led by Billy
Rautenbach on the
one hand and government on the other, appeared to have
been a panacea not
only to the country’s fuel challenges when it was
launched two years ago but
also to the economy as a whole, starting with
the Lowveld in which the
project is sited. What with the 5000-odd people
that would be directly and
indirectly employed by the project.
What with 500 or so farmers
whose business boosted by the project’s demand
for at least 50 000 hectares
to be put under sugar cane. And consider the
120 megawatts that would be
generated from burning bagasse, the waste from
cane once its sap has been
extracted.
This was said to be enough to power the whole of the
Manicaland province in
which Chisumbanje is located. And what of the
multiplier effect of all these
activities? To cap it all, US$600 million was
to be spent in the venture,
which would fully become government-owned after
20 years under a Build,
Operate and Transfer (BOT) system.
In
terms of its core business, the plant could produce up to 2,8 million
litres
of fuel daily, nearly three times Zimbabwe’ daily requirements, which
fuel
had the further advantage of being environmentally-friendly, hence the
word
Green in Green Fuels. The surplus, of course would be exported, earning
the
country the ever-scarce foreign currency. Could Zimbabwe, which was
coming
out of economic doldrums, ask for more?
However, the ethanol plant is
threatening yet another white elephant.
Elsewhere in this issue, we
are told that government has thrown out Green
Fuel’s proposals for the
compulsory blending of the ethanol it produces
with ordinary petrol. Green
Fuel general manager Graeme Smith was this week
quoted as saying the
company was lobbying government to put in place
legislation to compel all
oil companies to blend their fuel with
locally-produced
ethanol.
Such an approach, though, smacks of the very
authoritarianism that has
become an anathema in Zimbabwe through acts such
as Posa, Aippa, land reform
laws and indigenisation acts. Energy minister
Elton Mangoma has a point in
indicating that that Parliament should not
enact laws to help individual
companies make a profit. That would set a bad
precedent.
However, it is very important for the nation to
support the Green Fuel
initiative, given its economic advantages outlined
above. After all, this is
not the first time Zimbabwe has resorted to
blending ethanol with imported
petroleum. During the sanctions busting era
of UDI an ethanol plant was set
up and this received a new lease of life in
1983 following the fuel crisis
of 1982.
A blend of ethanol
from that plant and petrol is what Zimbabwe had been
using ever since. What
has been labelled as “blend” at all service stations
is in fact the very
same type of product that Green Fuel is producing. It’s
only at the height
of fuel shortages during the hyperinflationary era that
the majority of
Zimbabweans began using unleaded petrol, as shortages
implied that
deliveries had to be made immediately, obviating the need for
blending.
Prior to that, unleaded petrol had been used only by the elite as
it was
more expensive.
It appears this is where Green Fuel has failed. Its
product has been priced
in such a way that it is uncompetitive. Given the
small price differential
(US6-8 cents per litre) between Green Fuel’s E10
(the old blend) and the
longer lasting unleaded petrol, the average motorist
will opt for unleaded.
In Brazil, the largest producer of ethanol in
the world, ethanol producers
get subsidies from government since they are an
entire industry and not an
individual company. Zimbabwe cannot afford that.
Green Fuels has to come out
in the open about its cost structure so that
viable prices can be charged.
But above all, the project must be
viewed as a national economic venture and
not a theatre for politicians to
settle scores and indulge inself
aggrandisements.In the end, national
interest — not individual agendas —
must prevail.
Editor’s
Memo: Let’s resist repression but also reflect
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012
10:14
Dumisani Muleya
YESTERDAY media houses and journalists, as
well as stakeholders around the
globe, commemorated World Press Freedom Day.
For 21 years this has become an
important event for journalists to reflect
on what has been happening around
them, taking stock of progress recorded
and the lack thereof.
The day also allows journalists to examine
what they are doing — right and
wrong.
This is
particularly important for journalists in Africa where press freedom
is
still in the intensive care unit and where frontiers need to be pushed to
broaden and deepen media freedom, while upholding journalistic ethics and
integrity.
World Press Freedom Day was jointly established in
1991 by Unesco and the UN
Department of Public Information within the
framework of a conference held
in Namibia which ushered the Windhoek
Declaration, underscoring press
freedom, as well as media pluralism and
diversity.
However, reactions to the Windhoek Declaration across the
continent have
been mixed, spawning an authoritarian backlash and, in some
cases, change.
Zimbabwe’s response has been a mixture of both, which is why
it remains an
outpost of autocracy.
The chilling conclusion to
the official Press Freedom Day address by
Information minister Webster Shamu
yesterday, warning “gloves may soon be
off” if the “anti-African” and
“anti-Zimbabwean frenzy” in the media
continues –– whatever that means —
further shows we live in a police state
where press freedom and journalists
remain in danger.
Although it is important for journalists to resist
intimidation and continue
fighting for their rights, especially when we have
ministers threatening to
take their “gloves off”, it is also equally
critical to look at ourselves in
the mirror and be honest as to whether we
are doing a good job, adhering to
ethics and upholding the public interest
–– not just making noise and banal
slogans, while airbrushing our own
shortcomings.
Even if there are radicals who want to redefine our
ethics arguing most of
the basic tenets are either clichéd or myths, it is
important for the media
to remain ethical. This is critical, particularly
when a revolution is
currently sweeping across the global media landscape.
There is need to hold
the line on basics: truthfulness, accuracy and
fairness, as well as public
accountability.
We don’t need
politicians or anyone for that matter to tell us this, but we
have to do it
as part of our professional responsibility. That’s why Shamu’s
threats are
entirely uncalled-for. What does he mean when he says “gloves
may soon be
off?” Is it necessary for the minister to so brazenly intimidate
journalists? What is he trying to prove? That Zimbabwe is a police state and
journalists work in a climate of fear?
However, this is not to
say journalists must be unprofessional and
intransigent in the process. As
an existential necessity and professional
duty, we must be ethical but also
firm, especially with public officials who
want to abuse power and scare
away journalists from exposing their
incompetence and
corruption.
We either adjust to change or die. It is clear a new
journalistic ethos is
required, given technological advances and the
Internet, as well as social
media.
The confluence of press freedom and
freedom of expression has given rise to
unprecedented levels of freedom,
keeping dictators under pressure and on the
back foot, even though
repression persists.
The use of social media, ICTs and satellite
television, for instance, has
played a revolutionary role in democratic and
political processes. This has
helped to enable civil society, the young
generation and communities to
wangle massive social and political
transformations. The Arab spring
revolutions come to mind.
World
Press Freedom Day is thus imperative, not just to media owners and
journalists, but also to ordinary people as it serves as an occasion to
inform citizens, some of whose political and civil liberties are being
trampled under, of violations of press freedom –– a reminder that in many
countries around the world, the media are still operating in repressive
environments.
Media houses are still being suppressed, censored
or closed, while
journalists are harassed, detained and even murdered. That
is why
journalists must fight on.
It is sad Zimbabwe remains one
of those countries in the world in which the
private media and journalists
are still subjected to systematic repression,
intimidation and arrests. The
state still openly abuses the public media and
maintains a vice-like grip on
airwaves. In short, media tyranny is still
endemic in Zimbabwe. Shamu’s
unnecessary and untenable threats yesterday
provided further evidence to
this.
dumisani@zimind.co.zw
Candid
Comment: Wily Chinese see opportunity in Zim malaise
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 04 May 2012
10:07
Itai Masuku
A GREEK philosopher once said “Opportunity is
like a man with hair on his
forehead, but is bald at the back of his head.”
You’ve got to grab him by
the hair.
The Chinese clearly understand this
phenomenon. Judging from their heavy
presence at last week’s Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair in Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe is an opportunity they
definitely do not want to miss. Of course,
the majority of people criticised
the fair, slagging it for having
deteriorated into a small and medium sized
enterprise event, as if to say
that in itself is a bad thing. Leading
emerging economies like Taiwan are
SME-driven.
Frankly speaking,
the majority rarely get it right, especially when it comes
to seeing
business opportunities. This is the very reason why the wealthy
rarely
comprise more than five percent of any population. The question
should be,
what are the Chinese seeing that we, the majority have not seen
in
Zimbabwe?
These people are certainly no fools to bring in a
delegation of 200 to an
insignificant trade show? In fact, the profile of
those in the Chinese
delegation reveals that these were not the everyday
lowly ones we’re now
accustomed to in the little shops that have mushroomed
across Zimbabwe.
This class from the lower echelons of Chinese
society, come here as part of
China’s strategy to ease unemployment back
home and create more revenue
streams. Many arrived here to pick up the
economic pieces during
hyperinflation. They are not the dragons. They are
more of the vultures that
came to feast on our economic
carrion.
Many of them were supported by state banks which funded
their initial
containers of retail goods. When they arrived in Zimbabwe they
didn’t check
into hotels, but lived like squatters in houses in Hatfield,
close to the
airport. But the goods they sold provided vital market
intelligence to the
manufacturing companies back home.
Now as
economic recovery beckons, Enter the Dragons, a high-powered business
delegation from Tianjin, a province in northern China, whose capital goes by
the same name. The capital is a metropolis ranking among the five national
central cities of the People’s Republic, the others being Beijing,
Guangzhou, Chongqing and Hong Kong City.
Tianjin’s Binhai New
Area is a new growth pole in China, and since 2010 has
maintained an annual
growth rate of nearly 30% of the GDP. There are 12 000
industry enterprises
in Tianjin with Gross National Product (GNP) of nearly
US$50 billion. Its
industry spans 180 categories, and has 36 large
enterprises.
The four pillar industries are: automobiles;
machinery and equipment;
microelectronics and also telecommunications
equipment; marine chemical and
petroleum chemical industry; and quality
steel tube and rolled steel. By the
end of 2010, 285 Fortune Global 500
companies had established branch offices
in Binhai, which has been described
as the base of China’s advanced
industry, financial reform, and innovation.
The fact that the delegation at
ZITF comprised no small fry suggests there
is more than meets the eye. Many
in the delegation were also from the
textiles sector, which used to be
Bulawayo’s mainstay.
The fact
that they have already pushed government to grant Special Economic
Zone
(SEZ) status to Bulawayo, an area of interest to them is also
significant.
SEZ status will allow them tax free status and many
concessions. They are
clearly pushing their agenda. Unfortunately, as usual,
our business sector
appears to have been caught napping. It doesn’t take a
genius to realise
that the Chinese are now virtually colonising Africa,
albeit without
guns.
Will a
new constitution make Zimbabwe more democratic?
http://www.csmonitor.com/
A draft constitution,
released this week, proposes term limits for
presidents, as well as a
commission to study past crimes against humanity.
By a Correspondent,
Correspondent / May 4, 2012
Harare, Zimbabwe
The fractious
coalition government that rules Zimbabwe released a draft
constitution this
week that seeks to limit presidential terms to just 10
years, and to
establish a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission to
look into human
rights violations allegedly committed during President
Robert Mugabe's 32
years in power.
The draft document – which will require approval by Mr.
Mugabe's cabinet as
well as Zimbabwe's opposition-dominated parliament – is
a harbinger of the
final product that is expected to pave way for elections
probably next year,
after the flawed and violent elections in 2008, which
claimed the lives of
over 300 supporters of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai. Mr. Tsvangirai, a
fierce critic of Mr. Mugabe, joined Mugabe's
government after nearly a year
of political stalemate between his own
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party over the
2008 election results.
After he was widely rejected – by the
international community, including the
African Union – as the legitimate
president of Zimbabwe following the bloody
June polls, Mugabe was forced
into marriage with his rival Tsvangirai into a
coalition government three
years ago.
The coalition government – a product of much international
pressure and
months of negotiation – was mandated to come up with a new
constitution in
order to hold freer and fairer elections. Friction between
the coalition
parties has been growing in recent months, and Mugabe's
ZANU-PF is thought
to seek elections by the end of this year.
This
week, Mugabe's cabinet, which includes members of Tsvangirai's party as
well
as those of a smaller MDC faction led by Welshman Ncube, will study the
draft constitution before it is sent on to the parliament for debate in
three months’ time. If approved by the legislature the same constitution
will then go for a referendum.
While the 2008 elections ended poorly,
both MDC and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party
are thought to be in full agreement that
elections are the key to a peaceful
transition of power, there is
disagreement over timing and the manner in
which they should be carried out.
Analysts also point out that, given
Mugabe's continued control over the
military and security agencies, a fresh
constitution is by no means a
guarantee that any new round of elections will
be free or fair. Mugabe led
the guerrilla warfare that ousted the colonial
regime in 1980, and today,
rumors that he excised proposed laws to guarantee
the rights of gay
Zimbabweans also suggests that the octogenarian president
intends to make
his mark on the future constitution long after he leaves
office.
It
is that very question – when Mugabe leaves office – that has hogged the
limelight.
Small wonder. Mugabe's rule has witnessed the slaughter of
rival liberation
parties, the unpaid confiscation of lands from white
commercial farmers, and
the economic meltdown of the country that led to
inflation rates of more
than 1 million percent.
According to a draft
of the constitution, obtained by the Monitor, the
constitution is very clear
that any future president will face strict term
limits. Chapter 6.8 sub
section (2) reads “A person must not hold office of
President for more than
two terms whether continuous or not, under this
constitution and the term of
office of president is period of five years.
Term limits aside, it may be
the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation
Commission which causes the most
discomfort among members of Mugabe's inner
circle. In the early 1980s,
Mugabe sent his notorious 5th brigade in a
counter-insurgency campaign
called "Gukurahundi," which reportedly killed
20,000 civilians, and a
separate anti-slum measure called Murambatsvina in
2005, which destroyed the
homes of opponents in urban and rural areas and
left millions homeless.
Together with a proposed Public Protector's Office,
this commission would
have powers to dig into both past crimes against
humanity as well as ongoing
corruption and abuse of power by Zimbabwe's
political elites.
In his
weekly blog, political analyst Takura Zhangazha writes that the draft
constitution is unimpressive, because it reflects more of the main party's
desire to remain in power, rather than a substantial change of the country's
political process. “Zimbabwe's current constitutional reform process,
whichever way one would like to view it, is devoid of a necessary national
political dignity or seriousness,” he writes.
Mr. Zhangazha blames
arguments that have “ranged from issues to do with
outreach reports, donor
funding, the role of political parties, and at the
time of writing, issues
to do with the final content of the draft
constitution” as weaknesses for
the forthcoming constitution.
The exercise, Zhangazha adds, was “highly
politicized” and “reflective of
partisan political positions that suit
solely the pursuit of political power
at the expense of the public
interest.”
*The Monitor's correspondent in Harare could not be named for
security
reasons.
Workers'
pay packets
http://www.cathybuckle.com/
May 4, 2012, 5:53 am
Looking in from the outside can
sometimes give the onlooker a misleading
view of what’s happening at home. I
could be wrong but it’s my impression
that there is dissatisfaction
throughout the country about inadequate pay
packets. There appears to be a
general feeling that it’s getting harder to
manage on current salaries;
whether that’s because the cost of living is
rising or because wages are so
low is not entirely clear. But when one reads
that council workers in some
cities – Bulawayo for one – have not been paid
for four months, it’s hardly
surprising that the workers opt for strike
action. Even private firms are
affected; workers of the private ambulance
organization, Mars, went on
strike this week and at the same time we heard
that maternal deaths have
increased simply because women are unable to pay
ambulance fees. Even when
wages are paid on time they are often very low.
The Chinese, for example,
who appear to enjoy special protection from Robert
Mugabe, have very little
regard for workers’ rights. Soldiers were called in
to break up a
demonstration by construction workers who had been fired
without notice by
their Chinese employers. The government is launching a
probe into the abuse
of workers by their Chinese employers but it’s
questionable that it will
lead to an improvement, remembering that the
Chinese enjoy the president’s
protection.
It cannot have escaped the president’s notice that Bulawayo
council workers
were on strike as he arrived for the official opening of the
Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair with the Zambian President Sata. These
council
workers are owed over 700.000 dollars by the Bulawayo council who
are
themselves owed 1.5 million dollars by the payers who are struggling
themselves. Councils up and down the country are in financial trouble but as
always in Zimbabwe, it is politics that are never far behind the problems.
Eleanor Sisulu said this week that economic recovery will not happen without
a political settlement. Saviour Kasukuwere’s Indigenisation programme has
inevitably caused massive unease in the private sector, particularly mining.
Whatever the occupation, greed and corruption go together: auditors are
currently visiting schools countrywide to investigate the allegations that
some head teachers are using School Development funds illegally.
So,
while the workers struggle just to survive, the ‘fat cats’ are, as
always,
doing very nicely. As May Day came round once again, Raymond
Majongwe
claimed that the GNU had failed to address the workers’ plight and
there was
no tangible improvement in workers’ conditions.
Meanwhile a lasting
political solution remains as far off as ever. Robert
Mugabe says he won’t
leave until all foreign owned firms have been
indigenised. Only then will he
call an election and only after that will he
announce his successor. Prime
Minister Tsvangirai, on the other hand, says
he wants political reforms
before elections and insists that the Unity
Government can only be ended in
accordance with the SADC Agreement: a new
constitution followed by a
referendum to test public opinion and then a new,
updated voters’ roll.
Mugabe’s repeated call for elections this year is
clearly impossible to
achieve if the SADC Agreement is adhered to. The
drafting of the new
constitution is already two years behind schedule and
the drafters have been
given until Friday this week to ‘clean up’ the
document, whatever that
means.
The continuing political uncertainty in the country means that
outside
investors are few and far between. News that the Gates Foundation is
to
invest in waste management, ie. converting solid waste material into
energy,
is of course welcome but it is unlikely to give the economy the
boost it so
desperately needs.
The overall picture is gloomy but one
image this week was a source of cheer:
the picture of a smiling health
worker in her new uniform, mounted on her
UNICEF-donated bicycle and riding
off to administer health care in the rural
communities - a reminder to
Zimbabweans in the diaspora of the quality we
miss most: the warmth and
humanity of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH
The Nationalist Narrative and Land
Policy in Zimbabwe
May
4th, 2012
[Part of the
Zimbabwe Land Series]
By Dale
Doré
Executive Summary
A narrative is a
selection of simplified stories that supports a particular interpretation of
history. It expounds a moral ‘truth’ in order to legitimise authority and
power.1 In Zimbabwe an African nationalist narrative has been
constructed around the ‘lost lands’ to justify the government’s land reform
programme. It recounts how British colonists stole the best lands without
compensating the indigenous African peoples. It speaks of a culture where land,
sanctified by custom, cannot be owned, but is shared equally by wise traditional
leaders for the benefit of the community. It celebrates heroic struggles to
recover the lost lands, regain the dignity of a wronged people, and defend the
country’s independence and sovereignty. And, like all good propaganda, the
narrative has a kernel of truth that is repeatedly reinforced by leaders to
convince their followers that any means are justified to claim their moral
right.
Why is it
necessary to challenge this narrative? Firstly, because it explicitly rejects
inconvenient truths. It does not recognise, for example, that the international
community and white Zimbabwean farmers consistently supported an equitable land
reform process to correct historical injustices. It turns a blind eye to
multiple farm ownership by the new ruling elite while communal farmers remain
mired in poverty. And it ignores international law and the SADC Treaty whose
tribunal ruled that the seizure of white-owned farms was both racist and
unlawful. Secondly, the narrative has become entrenched as nationalist doctrine.
As such, it shuts out alternatives voices for constructive engagement on
government policies based on principles of economic development and good
governance. Any talk, for example, of strengthening property rights and
developing land markets is dismissed as being foreign to Africans culture and
its concept of ownership.2 Few policy analysts today dare challenge
the current resettlement policy based on state acquisition, ownership and the
reallocation of agricultural land. And, thirdly, the narrative is exclusive and
divisive. Instead of ‘Zimbabwean’ meaning a citizen of Zimbabwe, it has come to
mean a black Zimbabwean. It separates the majority ‘us’ from the minority
‘them’, who are demonised and denied their constitutional rights to protection
or to own land on the basis of their race or political
affiliation.
Above all,
examining the nationalist narrative on land will open the door to understanding
how it has been constructed by the ruling elite for its own political ends; how
it has justified deeply flawed policy decisions on land; and how it has trapped
policy analysts in a circular and stultified debate. Only when we unshackle the
mental underpinning of this narrative can we re-enter the debating arena with
the confidence that different policy options can be robustly contested with
intellectual integrity, rigour, and goodwill.
The question that
has baffled so many, including Zimbabwe’s friends and supporters, was why such a
promising lower-middle income country, with one of the strongest agricultural
and industrial sectors in sub-Saharan Africa, suddenly embarked on a
controversial land reform programme which plunged the country into an
intractable political and economic crisis? This article argues that a core
contributing factor was the construction of a nationalist narrative of lost
lands. This narrative initially justified state control over land and a command
approach to policy implementation in the 1980s. After 2000 it re-emerged to
legitimise the seizure and nationalisation of white-owned commercial farmland.
Today it is used to oil the wheels of a patronage system that includes the
seizure of foreign-owned mines, banks and businesses.
Inalienability of land
The narrative
began to take shape when the winds of change swept through Africa in the 1950s
and 1960′s, when the cauldron of discontent over the Land Apportionment Act
(1930) and the Native Land Husbandry Act (1951) became the focus of nationalist
agitation for independence. It was not just the loss of Ndebele and Shona lands
in the 1890s that were a source of grievance, but the subsequent expulsion of
whole African communities from European Farming Areas after World War II that
made the land issue the centre piece of the nationalist narrative and emblematic
of the liberation struggle itself.
By sanctifying the
inalienability of customary land and invoking the notion of chiefly trusteeship,
the nationalists created a unifying narrative – both in the name of African
tradition and the ideology of the struggle, socialism. The essence of this
narrative was the state’s role as the custodian of land on behalf of the
people:
In respect of
agriculture, we have no difficulty because our own traditional system is
identical with the Marxist-Leninist approach: at least insofar as ownership of
land is concerned. Land has never belonged to individuals… It has always
belonged to the people as a whole. We must go back to that traditional position…
What we would like to see established is a system which brings land into the
ownership of the people as a whole. This means the state will act as the
custodian for the whole people.3
In seeking to
forge the tenets of communal tenure with those of socialism, the nationalists
simplified the narrative, ignoring the fact that customary tenure was a
tradition largely invented by the colonialists.4 They downplayed the
fact that traditional production systems consist primarily of economically
independent households with their own gardens, fields and livestock. Despite
calls for ‘individual title’ by smallholder farmers,5 the narrative
stressed traditional methods of labour co-operation: ‘The government policy on
co-operatives is based on the functions of traditional societies in Zimbabwe,
which have always worked together in the form of nhimbe or
ilima during harvesting.’6 The narrative then went on to
underline the moral imperative of socialism while denigrating capitalism and,
implicitly, markets as well.
Socialism … rests
fundamentally on the principle of morality. It is a moral question first and
foremost. … Surely, our own political history, with the obnoxious system of land
deprivation and concentration of resources in the hands of a racial minority
very familiar to us, demonstrates vividly the injustices that attend the
capitalist system.7
The Zimbabwean
government’s alternative to markets was centralised planning. So it was that the
Communal Land Development Plan of 1985 envisaged the state’s hand in planning
villages, determining farm sizes, allocating land on a leasehold basis, and
evaluating farmers’ performance. Only the state would have the right to
subdivide or sell communal farmland. Typically, an inter-ministerial
Co-ordinating Committee and a National Coordinating Committee involving 20
ministries and departments were to oversee the programme’s planning,
coordination and implementation at national, provincial and district
level.
For all the
seriousness with which the government deliberated on these plans, they came to
naught. The top-down command style of planning and implementation had not only
proved to be impossibly inefficient and alienating, but the Land Tenure
Commission of 1993 found that smallholders in the communal areas were actively
opposed to it. By the 1990s, it had been largely shelved and forgotten. As the
government’s land policy began to focus almost exclusively on resettlement, so
the communal areas again became a backwater of neglect and poverty. What
remained was state control over communal land, and the President as its
trustee.
Unsustainable resettlement model
The most obvious
way for one farmer to compensate another for the transfer of land would be to
simply buy it. To assist poor but deserving black buyers, the state could simply
have provided soft loans with repayment moratoriums to acquire land from white
farmers. But, by denigrating capitalism and markets as un-African and
exploitative the narrative justified the state capture and control of commercial
farmland for resettlement. It envisaged a central role for the state which,
represented by the President, would repossess the land from white farmers and –
not unlike traditional leaders – redistribute it equitably amongst its black
subjects. Initially, the beneficiaries were to be the poor and landless
Zimbabweans who could not afford to buy land. Indeed, the narrative saw no
reason why they should pay for land that had been ‘stolen’ in the first place.
But, especially after 2000, it would justify the seizure of commercial farms and
reallocate them to any black Zimbabwean, whether rich or poor. Beneficiaries had
only to believe in the narrative’s moral authority: that they were simply taking
back what was rightfully theirs. Thus, without any sense of irony, Bishop Abel
Muzorewa, the former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1978-79), would say
that he only wanted land that was taken from his forefathers without
compensation. He called his action a ‘correction of injustice’.8
A more insidious
side-effect of state control, however, was the financial implications of the
resettlement model. Since the narrative precluded individual ownership or
transfers via a land market, the state first had to pay for the land
then reallocate it, but without any institutional mechanism of recovering the
costs of either the land or the infrastructural development that was needed to
support newly settled farmers. In essence, the contradiction was this: the more
land and resources that were acquired to make a success of resettlement, the
greater the government’s financial burden. Within the nationalist narrative,
therefore, lay the seeds of a land policy which would produce an economically
unsustainable model of resettlement. Its ramifications would reverberate
throughout subsequent policy decisions which were driven by the need to meet
political commitments written into the narrative, but without the financial
means to deliver them.
There were three
ways in which the state tried unsuccessfully to bridge this ever-widening
financial gap. The first was to gradually erode the constitutional, legal and
property rights of commercial farmers, and thereby reduce the amount payable in
compensation for land. Rather than paying market-based compensation, a ‘fair’
price was to be administratively determined. At the same time, a ‘reasonable’
period for paying compensation would be redefined and extended. After 2000, the
government paid less and less for land, improvements and equipment, and
eventually, with the nationalisation of most commercial farmland in 2005,
nothing at all. A second method of reducing the cost of resettlement was to
provide less and less support for new settlers. In its original conception in
1980, the provision of infrastructure and extension services was seen as a
sine qua non for new settlers to make a success of farming. But no
sooner had an intensive resettlement programme began when an ‘accelerated’
programme was designed to settle families urgently. Planning procedures were
therefore cut to a minimum and only basic infrastructure provided.9
After 2000, not even the rudiments of infrastructural and extension support were
provided for those settlers occupying commercial farms. The third method of
reducing resettlement costs was to transfer responsibility for paying
compensation for land. As the resettlement programme faltered, demands for
Britain to resume funding became more strident. Eventually, in 2000, Zimbabwe
passed Constitutional Amendment No.16 which made Britain responsible for paying
compensation to white commercial farmers whose land had been compulsorily
acquired.
State control over land
State control over
the communal land was extended into resettlement areas by issuing those who
occupied it with various permits. As one World Bank report noted: “It would be
difficult to imagine a less secure form of tenure: uncertain duration, broad
powers of termination on the part of the Ministry, and few rights to
compensation for investments.”10
The ruling party
then used its narrative to exercise control over commercial farms and their
white owners. As a first step, an increasingly powerful executive undermined the
restraining hand of the judiciary. In the name of the narrative’s moral
imperative, farmer’s fundamental rights were systematically undermined after
2000 by post hoc legislation and other legal changes that were
described by a UN mission as ‘openly at variance with the doctrine of natural
justice.’11 After 2000, the rule of law itself was suspended as court
orders were ignored and personal protection withdrawn. Land disputes were no
longer to be settled through the courts of law, but by negotiation,
supplication, and the prerogative of the executive. The latest count shows that
barely 200 out of Zimbabwe’s original 4,800 white farmers remain on the land.
Worse, over 200,000 farm workers lost their jobs, and their families lost access
to housing, schools, clinics and other social services.12
With the state’s
control over land, hardly anyone in Zimbabwe today enjoys secure property
rights. Communal farmers lack transferable rights, resettlement farmers’ permits
offer no protection, and white commercial farmers are still prey to predatory
government officials. AI settlers who seized land after 2000 are being forced
off land by those A2 farmers who are being issued with ‘offer letters’. But even
these confer little security because of the wide discretionary powers granted to
the Minister to cancel them.13 All those possessing land are subject
to party sanction and are beholden to the state to continue farming their
land.
The road ahead
Informed debate on
restoring property rights and agricultural productivity requires re-examining
the premises and implications of the nationalist narrative. The fundamental
question is whether property rights should vest primarily in citizens or the
state. It means going back to the principles and practices that underlie
economic development, human rights, and calibrating land policies to reduce
poverty though pro-poor agricultural development and economic
growth.
Notes
1
Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984) The Postmodern Condition, University of
Minnesota
2 Preamble,
Communal Lands Development Plan (1985)
3 Robert
Mugabe (1983) Our War of Liberation: Speeches, Articles, Interviews
(1976-1979). Mambo Press: Gweru
4 Terrance
Ranger (1983) The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa. Cambridge
University Press
5 Zimbabwe
Farmers Union submission to the Land Tenure Commission, 1994
6 The
Herald: ‘Transformation to Socialism the Main Aim,’ September 9,
1983.
7 Inaugural
address by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe at a series of lectures entitled The
Construction of Socialism in Zimbabwe launched by the Zimbabwe Institute of
Development Studies in 1984.
8 SW Radio
Africa, 24 January 2008
9 Appendix E,
Intensive Resettlement: Policies and Procedures (Zimbabwe,
1985).
10 World Bank
(1991) Zimbabwe: Agricultural Sector Memorandum. Washington
D.C.
11 UNDP
(2002) Zimbabwe: Land Reform and Resettlement, New
York.
12
Sachikonye, L (2003) The Situation of Commercial Farm-workers after Land
Reform. Report: Harare.
13 UNDP
(2002). Ibid.
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This article can
be cited in other publications as follows: Doré, D. (2012) ‘The Nationalist
Narrative and Land Policy in Zimbabwe’, 4 May, Zimbabwe Land Series, Sokwanele:
http://www.sokwanele.com/node/2373
This entry was posted by Sokwanele on Friday, May 4th,
2012 at 6:48 pm.