Reuters
Sun Nov 18,
2007 12:00pm GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government on Sunday
accused Britain of
plotting to invade the southern African state and to kill
President Robert
Mugabe and some of his associates.
Mugabe's spokesman,
George Charamba, told the official Sunday Mail that
Harare was "well aware"
that former prime minister Tony Blair had considered
plans for a military
invasion of Zimbabwe, struggling with a deep crisis
many blame on Mugabe's
policies.
Reacting to a report in the Independent last week that Blair
had discussed
the plan with former British armed forces chief General Lord
Charles
Guthrie, Charamba told the Sunday Mail that "the idea had not been
abandoned".
"The (Zimbabwe) government was aware of the plans and the
president made
reference to the British's sinister motives on several
occasions," he said.
"A defence plan had been operationalised and, in
fact, it is still in
operation."
"We were also aware that short of a
full-fledged invasion, the British were
and are still contemplating the
elimination of our political leadership
through a number of assassinations,"
Charamba added.
Charamba was not available for further comment on
Sunday.
In the article entitled "Zim prepared for British invasion," the
Sunday Mail
quoted Charamba as saying that Blair was forced to shelve the
invasion plan
on the advice of former members of the British Military
Advisory Training
Team who worked in Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s and
said Mugabe had "a
very capable army".
Charamba also suggested that
Blair abandoned the plan after failing to win
unequivocal support from the
United States, although Britain feels a
historical obligation to protect the
interests of Zimbabwean whites, who are
mostly of British
origin.
"The invasion of Zimbabwe without concrete U.S. support was
unthinkable for
Britain," he said.
London has repeatedly rejected
accusations that it is interfering in
Zimbabwean politics and wants to
overthrow the 83-year-old Mugabe over his
seizure and redistribution of
white-owned farms to blacks.
But Britain and other Western powers say
Mugabe is guilty of gross human
rights abuses and of running down one of
Africa's most promising economies.
In turn, Mugabe -- in power since
independence in 1980 -- blames the
collapse of Zimbabwe's once thriving
economy on Western sabotage.
(Reporting by Cris Chinaka; Editing by Giles
Elgood)
Monsters and Critics
Nov 18, 2007, 12:15 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare(dpa) - The
practice of limiting presidents to a couple
of terms in office is 'a luxury'
and President Robert Mugabe should continue
to rule until he dies, according
to Zimbabwe's vice- president.
Joseph Msika, 84, one of two
vice-presidents of both the ruling party and
the government, was quoted in
the state-controlled Sunday Mail as he backed
the 83-year-old leader as the
party's sole candidate for presidential
elections expected in March
2008.
The ruling party is due to hold an extraordinary congress in
December at
which the only topic of significance is the ratification of
Mugabe's
candidature and prevent any others from standing. The national
constitution
has not limited periods in office since an executive presidency
was passed
in 1987.
Mugabe has been in power continuously for 27
years, since independence from
British colonial rule in 1980.
'We do
not change leaders as fast we change our shirts,' Msika said. 'In
Zimbabwe
we do not accept that. So the issue of changing a leader after a
specified
period is out of the question. It is a luxury we cannot afford. If
they are
still serving the people, then they should stay on or even die
there.'
Zimbabwe is in the throes of dramatic economic decline, with
gdp having
shrunk 40 per cent in the last seven years, inflation at 15,000
per cent and
the currency, which was at parity with British Sterling at
independence, now
worth 0000003 Pounds Sterling.
Famine has set in
for the fifth consecutive year in the west of the country,
the supply of
goods to shops and supermarkets has almost totally dried up,
fuel is
critically scarce and businesses, farmers and private homes suffer
from
continual power and water cuts as infrastructure in what was Africa's
second
most highly developed country, crumbles.
The collapse is blamed on
continuous misrule and reckless economic
decisions, from the lawless seizure
of productive white-owned farmland from
2000, to price controls decreed in
June that forced retailers to sell their
goods at prices far lower than the
wholesale prices.
Mugabe blames the situation on an alleged plot by
Western governments to
overthrow him.
Msika said Zimbabwe had
'continued to excel under Comrade Mugabe's
leadership.' Last week Mugabe
declared that the country 'will not collapse,
now or in
future.'
Msika's remarks are expected to raise eyebrows amongst regional
Southern
African leaders who are shepherding talks between Mugabe's ruling
ZANU(PF)
party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, with major
democratic reforms on the agenda, including the limiting of presidential
terms of office.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Ndaba
Sithole
Sunday November 18, 2007
The Observer
When you need to
travel by train in Zimbabwe these days, the overnight
services are an
unsettling experience. It is not only the stations along the
way that are in
darkness, you cannot count on much illumination inside the
carriage
either.
Most travellers on the poorly maintained inter-city trains bring a
torch.
Being a regular user of the train between the capital, Harare, and
the
second largest city, Bulawayo, 480km by rail, I have witnessed the
alarming
deterioration of the rail system in recent years.
To
begin with, because the rail fares are lower than those for road and air
travel - made worse by erratic fuel availability and prices - the demand is
very high and getting a ticket is a nightmare.
The less fortunate spend
two or three days trying to purchase a ticket. Some
sleep at the station to
increase their chances.
There have also been allegations that National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ)
employees work with outsiders to resell tickets
at exorbitant rates to
desperate travellers.
'Sorry, no electricity
on board,' the attendants will often tell you if you
do finally get a
ticket. And if you are getting off at towns along the way,
say Kwekwe or
Gweru, there are times that you find these places unlit due to
the power
cuts that have hit Zimbabwe owing to electricity shortages.
The cuts have
also meant that rail signals are usually down, putting
travellers' lives at
risk. A number of accidents have occurred in recent
years, including one in
which 13 people were killed in Dzivaresekwa, a
suburb of Harare this year.
Ageing equipment, including the railway line
itself, has also been
responsible for some of the accidents.
But even if you are not involved
in an accident, you are likely to be
subjected to a long and boring
journey.
Travelling between Harare and Bulawayo, you might spend up to 20
hours on
board, on a trip that not long ago would have lasted only about 10
hours.
The video sets installed a few years ago no longer work and all you
can do
now is just fiddle with your phone all the way.
More often
than not, water is also not available but passengers continue to
use the
toilets, creating a pungent smell. Cockroaches and mosquitoes are
also
regulars on board.
But for Josphat Karimazondo, a regular train user,
it's more a matter of
saving his hard-earned cash than travelling in
elegance.
'The situation is deplorable but we don't have much of a choice
really
because the train is cheaper. I paid Z$1.3m [£22] for a standard
class seat
from Harare to Bulawayo but if I had to board a bus, I would have
paid in
the region of Z$5m. At times we just have to worry about saving a
few
dollars because things are tough and we need every cent that we can
save,'
says Karimazondo.
'A few years ago travelling by train was
such a pleasure. But again you
really cannot blame NRZ alone for all this.
Which sector of this economy is
still functioning normally? These days it's
just a question of survival.'
But for Martha Nyathi, who used the light
from her mobile phone to serve her
husband supper, the experience was too
much to bear.
'This is unacceptable. I don't think we will ever use a
train again if this
is what we have to put up with,' she fumes. 'It's better
to use buses even
though they are expensive. At least you won't have to eat
in the dark, spend
so much time travelling and arrive at your destination
exhausted.'
The Telegraph
By
Stephen Bevan in Zimbabwe and special correspondents
Last Updated: 1:25am GMT
18/11/2007
Zimbabwe's education system, once regarded as
among the best in
Africa, is in crisis because of the country's economic
meltdown. Almost a
quarter of the teachers have quit the country,
absenteeism is high,
buildings are crumbling and standards
plummeting.
In one of the most shocking examples of the Dickensian
conditions, a
reporter witnessed hundreds of children at Hatcliffe Extension
Primary
School in Epworth, 12 miles west of Harare, writing in the dust on
the floor
because they had no exercise books or pencils.
The makeshift huts they use as classrooms are filthy and swarming with
insects. Instead of chairs, the children sit on mud bricks which leave red
stains on their tattered khaki uniforms. Similar scenes can be found across
the country.
"Starting this term, we are supposed to buy our
own teaching
mat-erials," said a teacher at Warren Park 1 Primary in Harare.
"With our
paltry salaries I don't see it working. We will just sit in the
classes."
At Insimbi Primary School in Gwanda, south-east of
Bulawayo, there is
one textbook for a class and only half the children have
exercise books. The
others cannot afford them.
Absenteeism is
rife. Concern Mkhwananzi, 42, who left three weeks ago
to seek work in South
Africa, said almost a quarter of his class of 45
pupils had dropped out.
"They were coming to school with empty stomachs
because there was no food at
home," he said. "Then they would faint, so they
preferred to stay at
home."
Conditions at the universities and colleges are just as bad.
Fees have
skyrocketed, student grants are almost worthless and teaching is
almost at a
halt. At the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, disused offices
and
storerooms have been turned into makeshift brothels by students and
staff
who have turned to prostitution to make ends meet. "What would you do
if you
were given a paltry Z$2 million (£1.20 at the black market exchange
rate)
per semester?" said one female student.
During a recent
visit to the university, several students showed signs
of malnutrition, and
conditions in their hostel were squalid. Lavatories
were blocked, water
flowed down unlit corridors and dustbins overflowed.
"The situation
is terrible," said Tendai Mbera, a second-year history
student. "There is no
food, and most of us have been forced to commute
daily, only to find there
are no lecturers." Half the university's 1,200
lecturers have left this
year, joining an accelerating exodus of teaching
professionals.
According to one of the main teachers' unions, the PTUZ, 25,000
teachers -
almost a quarter of the workforce - have gone abroad since
January - 10,000
of them in the past three months. Most moved to South
Africa, Botswana or
Namibia.
Progressive Teachers of Zimbabwe, an organisation that
assists
immigrants in South Africa, estimates that 20,000 Zimbabwean
teachers now
live in South Africa - many working in unskilled security or
construction
industry jobs.
Among them is Charles Khumalo, 43,
who resigned his post at a primary
school in Matobo, Matabele South
province, 18 months ago. Despite 17 years'
teaching experience, he has
managed to find only casual work as a security
guard and then as a plant
superviser. "I came here legally and I've done
everything to get work as a
teacher but without a South African identity
card it's very difficult," he
said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's schools are hiring unqualified
teachers. At
Mawani Primary School near Mnene, 300 miles south of Harare,
the teachers'
homes are deserted at weekends when most "temporary" teachers
go panning for
gold.
The government is so alarmed that Aeneas
Chigwedere, the education
minister, has urged neighbouring countries to
cease taking Zimbab-we's
teachers. But that did not stop Sithokozile
Ngwenya, 28, quitting as
geography teacher at a Bulawayo primary school last
week to go to Namibia.
"There is nothing to stay for in Zimbabwe," she said.
"My salary is not
enough. I had to leave as I have to fend for my two
children."
Until August, state school teachers were paid Z$2
million a month,
enough to buy four loaves of bread. After a strike last
month, President
Robert Mugabe raised this to Z$17 million but with
inflation at 14,840 per
cent, most teachers are still below the poverty
line.
The exam system, too, is in chaos. Examiners refused to mark
scripts
when they were offered just Z$79 a paper, enough to buy three small
sweets.
Suspected corruption might have been why in January thousands of
pupils
received no marks for subjects they had entered, while others were
deemed
"excellent" in subjects they had not sat.
The tragedy is
that the education system had been one of the few
achievements of which Mr
Mugabe could be proud. After independence from
Britain in 1980, the
government invested heavily in education and raised the
literacy rate to 80
per cent, one of the highest in Africa.
HOT SEAT TRANSCRIPT: FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT PETA THORNYCROFT ON MEDIA IN ZIMBABWE Violet Gonda speaks to foreign
correspondent Peta Thornycroft. In this, the first of a two part program, she
talks about her award and her concerns on the way the Zimbabwean media has been
covering the crisis in the country. Broadcast 6 November
2007 VIOLET GONDA: My guest on the programme Hot Seat
this week is veteran journalist Peta Thornycroft, who has just won a Lifetime
Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation, the IWMF.
Peta is a foreign correspondent for the UK Daily Telegraph and Voice of America.
Congratulations on the Award Peta. PETA THORNYCROFT: Thank you. I also work for Independent
Newspapers in South Africa, in fact I probably do more for them now than for
other papers because the stories, the story on Zimbabwe has really gone off the
boil. Thank you very much. VIOLET:
And I know you have plenty to say about the crisis in Zimbabwe especially
looking at the opposition and the media. But could you tell us first a bit about
your award, how did it come about? THORNYCROFT: I got an email from a South African colleague
in March this year. Somebody I’ve worked with Maureen Isaacson I’ve worked with
for many years and of course I’ve worked much longer in South Africa than I ever
have in Zimbabwe. I have no idea, I still have no idea why, I think she might be
a member of this organisation or she knows of it and she was determined and so
were some of her colleagues, her colleagues in the South African press,
determined to put my name forward for this Lifetime achievement award.
So they did and they emailed me and
I was in Harare and it was at the time when Morgan Tsvangirai was being
tortured. I was just so busy, I could barely keep up with my work at that stage
in fact I couldn’t keep up with it and I just was telling her all the time, I
haven’t got time for this, I don’t keep any cuttings, I haven’t got anything
I’ve ever done, this is a load of rubbish, I’m not going do this and she just
persisted. I didn’t actually, I think I sent her an elderly CV because it was
old, its one I’ve had lying around in my laptop for ages and I did send it to
her. She then did it all and the next thing is I got an email saying I’d won. In
fact when I was in Washington I discovered that it is quite a lengthy process,
they get these nominations from all sorts of people around the world and it’s
not for one. So in other words this award was not
for reporting on Zimbabwe per say it was reporting for 25years. Tremendously
interesting periods of time both in South Africa at the height of apartheid and
in the dying days of apartheid and also as we led up to democratic elections in
1994 which was tumultuous. Those were extremely tumultuous days for journalists. So it was broader than just
Zimbabwe although I noticed in the promotional material that they put out, that
the International Women’s Media Foundation mostly focused on Zimbabwe, but
certainly in my CV and the material I sent to them I certainly sent them more of
my earlier life as a journalist in South Africa. VIOLET:
Right and what did they actually want to know about Zimbabwe when you
were in America, to receive the award. THORNYCROFT: Well the IWMF produced promotional materials
so I did write them some stuff and sent them some copy and struggled to get back
copies of things, struggled terribly cause if you didn’t keep your work before
the internet you really struggled. And so I told them quite a lot about Zimbabwe
since I went up there in 2001. This period, of course I’ve worked in Zimbabwe in
previous periods. I told them quite a
lot and then I was a member of panels in Washington, New York and Los Angeles. I
was on various panels where I was interviewed. Can’t even remember how many
times I was interviewed by quite a number of news organisations.
Perhaps the most, the longest and
most comprehensive interview was that for National Public Radio in Washington
and it went out on a programme called Fresh Air. It was an hour long interview
and it dealt with Zimbabwe, and I was able to dispel a lot of myths,
particularly myths like trying to equate Zimbabwe with North Korea. It seems to
be in people’s minds that Zimbabwe is like North Korea and so I tried to tell
the story of what it was like and a very, very different situation from some of the winners of the
courage awards by the IWMF who are working for the McClatchy Bureau an American
news bureau working in Baghdad (IRAQ). I mean their stories are how they
cope everyday and the bombs, the bombs which not only kill people in the war but
have killed their own families, including their children as they try and
struggle to get the translations done, get their copies out and they do run a
most effective blog out of McClatchy. It was so extraordinary meeting them.
And then Lydia Cacho whose a
journalist from Mexico who’s been hunting down these pedophiles in Mexico and
she gave us the statistics of journalists killed, arrested etc in Mexico. Mexico
is worse than almost any country in Africa for the way it treats journalists.
Lydia is constantly under the watch of state guards. I mean in New York,
Washington and Los Angeles. In New York it was the NYPD who looked after her,
she had to be provided with two permanent bodyguards because she is under such
threat in Mexico she can’t even walk down the streets there without protection
and she has nailed a whole lot of politicians. She’s the first journalist to
have taken the government to court, to the Supreme Court. So I mean with these journalist
who’ve lived these extraordinary lives I have to say in comparison Zimbabwe
seemed very tame when one saw what they are going through. And therefore I had
to describe how it’s a very different kind of war in Zimbabwe, it’s the lack of
certainty, it’s sometimes just a lack of a story. If you actually think of
what’s going on in Zimbabwe today you have to be extremely creative to find a
new angle about what’s going on in Zimbabwe today and that’s what I try to tell
people and it was against a background I’d used in my speech. The background I’d
used in my speech was that women’s life expectancy is 34 to 38 years and of
course the highest inflation rate in the world at over 8000%. And so those were
the bench marks I used to show that Zimbabwe, why Zimbabwe has become a world
story because there is this feeling sometimes that Zimbabwe is kind of an
obsession of the British press. Certainly the American press knows
very, very little about us. There’s the occasional story maybe once a month down
a page in the features section in the New York Times. There’s the occasional
story on National Public Radio actually normally when I’ve done it, there’s
very, very little about Zimbabwe. They barely know the name and I’m talking
about well read people who read two or three newspapers a day and listen to
radio stations they know very little about Zimbabwe. And unless the story gets a
bit busier I suspect they’re not going to know, ever know very much. And so I
was really one of the first journalists able to be, to address an enormously
influential and powerful group of people in all three states, in Washington DC,
New York and Los Angeles about the situation in Zimbabwe. VIOLET:
I actually understand you met some Hollywood celebrities like Angelina
Jolie when you were in Los Angeles? THORNYCROFT: Oh I did, I had dinner
with Angelina Jolie and we shared jokes and she’s terribly intelligent and my
god she was well briefed on Zimbabwe. She really had done her homework before I
met her and she had done her homework on me which is all a bit embarrassing. I
thought it was a bit overblown and basically I’ve never been a journalist who
kind of goes for the limelight or you know in that celebrity sphere that is very
American and very different from the upbringing I’ve had in journalism.
Nevertheless, nevertheless it was
good to meet her, she’s just done this extraordinary film about Daniel Pearl the
Wall Street journalist who was killed in Pakistan. She plays Daniel Pearl’s
wife. Her husband Brad Pitt, the night
she came to give me my award, was babysitting the kids. He was one of the
producers of that film. So a) she had become interested in journalism, b) she
has a particular interest in Africa as she has two children with strong African
connections. Hers and Brad’s baby was born in Namibia and they’ve adopted an
Ethiopian Child. So they are very, very interested in Africa and she’s terribly
nice. I mean she’s just so ordinary. But my god you see the Hollywood press
flashing away with their flashes and it’s a totally different world!
I mean Christiana Amanpour the chief
correspondent of CNN who is a working professional working Journalist turning
stuff out day by day, she’s a superstar in Washington and she told me that she
really is a superstar I mean in Los Angeles but whereas in London she can walk
around and nobody notices her - that nobody has any idea who she is. It’s only
really in America where American anchors are superstars and she’s not the anchor
she’s the chief correspondent she’s a working daily journalist. It’s a very
different pace of life and different exposure and different resources. Of course
the stories in the American press are so much longer. Very long stories, I was
amazed by that and very little foreign news in the electronic media. It’s a very
different CNN that we in Zimbabwe see if you are lucky enough to have DSTV and
ZESA, very different CNN to the one Americans see. VIOLET:
I was also surprised at the lack of international coverage or coverage of
international issues in the American media, I’m here in America at school, and
there’s nothing, absolutely nothing about what’s happening in many countries
especially in Africa and I find that quite disturbing. THORNYCROFT: Yah in fact the major story is of course Iraq
and now Iran and they do, I mean I did see in the New York Times and LA Times,
everyday there are two, three or four stories on Iraq because of course they’ve
got soldiers there who are dying, American soldiers there. But there’s very
little on Africa and as for Zimbabwe there’s absolutely nothing. And there has been stuff on Darfur because
it’s a UN issue but it’s a very low priority story in America which is quite
nice because people didn’t know anything and they became quite curious about
it. VIOLET:
And you know Peta over 30years of covering the situation in South Africa
and in Zimbabwe, now what was the role of journalists during Apartheid in South
Africa and how different is it now with the way the crisis in Zimbabwe has been
covered by the Media. VIOLET: Well, just to go back to the
International Women’s Media Foundation they had of course honored Namibian
journalist Gwen Lister and on their board is Ferriel Hafegee (sp) who is the editor of the Mail And
Guardian on their board, so there is an African flavor to IWMF and they have
done training programmes in Africa for women journalists especially the most
recent one being how to report HIV/ AIDS which they did last year and I know
they are anxious to do very more in Africa and you certainly are going to be
seeing them around Southern Africa I’m sure next year. I mean the difference in reporting
South Africa and Zimbabwe from my point of view and the various times that I’ve
been there is that leading up to the end of apartheid it was real hard news and
it was shooting in the streets and it was everyday. I mean between 1991 and 1994
and the elections, more people were killed in civil society in that four year
period than in the whole of all the previous years of apartheid put together. I
mean it was between a 150 and 300 killed a month and then one looks at
Zimbabwe’s statistics in over seven years its about 350 to 400 deaths that have
been attributed to political strife in that period so it’s an entirely different
scale to what happened in South Africa, it’s an entirely different kind of war.
There were many press in South
Africa, those were the freest years that South African press has ever had
between 1991 and 1994. There was easy access to everyone because everyone wanted
to be elected, everyone wanted to put their points over. But then as a
background to that of course you had the constitutional negotiations which went
on at CODESA forever and ever and ever. The most boring stories for those poor
daily reporters that they had to do. That’s why these particular negotiations
going on now between the MDC and ZANU PF - when I knew that that was coming, I
knew I also had to find something else to do to cheer my daily diary up because
I know about constitutional negotiations and reporting them. They are difficult,
everyone is doing deals in secret. Even if CODESA was done in public, it wasn’t
really, they all went off in secret to go and knock out a deal on one of the
weekend retreats and we are going through the same thing on a much smaller scale
in Zimbabwe and its extremely boring stuff to report. But back in South Africa
as they were negotiating the constitution there was of course this appalling
violence, I mean it was appalling. This isn’t happening to any kind of the same
extent in Zimbabwe. I mean of course it’s a different kind of story - violence
in Zimbabwe seems to me to be the dismantling of an entire economy, which is
violence isn’t it? It’s making it impossible for people to feed themselves. That is extreme
violence. VIOLET: You’ve been particularly concerned
with the way the domestic media has been covering the crisis in Zimbabwe. Can
you tell us more about this? THORNYCROFT: Domestic media I think
here let’s define this we mean Zimbabwean journalists basically writing for
Zimbabwean audiences whether they be inside the country or outside the country
is that correct? VIOLET:
That’s right. THORNYCROFT: Ok, in other words I as
a foreign journalist I have a very different audience. I have an audience in the
UK which is a very different audience from the one in South Africa, which is a
very different audience to the African Service of VOA. I’m doing three different
audiences more or less whenever I do a story. But I think the domestic media
first of all the state stopped the Daily News, I mean the state has stopped
newspapers from telling that story, and so if one looks back at the Daily News
with hindsight being the perfect science and I don’t think we realized it at the
time, but I think the Daily News if I look back now, it was an MDC supporting
newspaper. Just as the Daily telegraph which I work for in the UK is a Tory
supporting newspaper. I think we didn’t say it at the time frankly, and maybe it
wasn’t important but the Daily News supported the MDC. And since its demise and naturally
because of its demise a whole lot of other publications have arisen on the
internet, you yourselves in London have emerged as a result of the repression,
the failure of people to be able to get news from home so people like you and
studio 7, ZimDaily, Zimonline, The Zimbabwean and Nyarota’s one - The Times of
Times of Zimbabwe I think it is, NewZimbabwe.com. Naturally those would emerge
because it’s so hard to get information from Zimbabwe apart from the Herald and
then once a week The Independent and The Standard level of news. And then of
course The Financial Gazette which there is a question mark over whether it is
in fact owned by people who are aligned
to the government or not . So I’ve been very disappointed with lots of the
external media. ZimDaily I suppose I now view ZimDaily as an essential part of
my life in covering Zimbabwe because it makes me laugh and the way
they… VIOLET:
(interjects) It makes you
laugh? THORNYCROFT: Yah makes me laugh, I
have shrieked with laughter at some of its stories and the way they have been
hounding the Chefs’ children - who are in universities and colleges overseas -
and some of the comments that followed on their website made me scream with
laughter. So I do not take it seriously as a news outlet, its kind of a
sideline. When this really became quite
difficult was when the MDC broke into two factions in October 2005 and with the
exception of NewZimbabwe.com and I would say SWRadio Africa mostly – although
there were individual people at SWRadio Africa who seemed to choose one faction
over the other - but what was distressing was that all of those publications
chose to support the Tsvangirai faction,
which there’s nothing wrong with that except in that they weren’t therefore
giving the other faction’s point of view and for any comment that was going on
whether it was on the economy, farming etcetera nearly all of that media (independent) would always quote
from the Tsvangirai faction. So they could not call themselves
independent because if they had been monitored as independent publications, say
they were funded by public funds, they wouldn’t have been allowed to do that.
BBC could never have done that because it’s funded, it gets public funds. So it
was a pity that people when their emotions were high they couldn’t get good
coverage on a daily basis inside the country. Remembering that the Independent
and the Standard newspapers actually got a very small population inside Harare
basically and a small urban population. The combination of the external
media reached quite a high proportion of Zimbabweans that are either living in
South Africa in exile or the UK, some inside the country but the message got
around, so I think it was very sad that message that got around at that time.
New Zimbabwe.Com as I saw them, tried very hard to source things with named
sources or else one suspected that the sources that they didn’t name were real
people. I used to wonder sometimes with some of the other publications where on
earth they got their stories from. And I think the foreign press just ignored
it. We ignored the stories I think we hardly ever picked up a story from those
outlets and quoted from them without doing work ourselves and checking if they
were true. And often when I checked the stories out they weren’t
true. VIOLET: But have things changed now? Do you
think the media coverage is better now, it’s more
balanced? THORNYCROFT: Yes, as I said something
like ZimDaily I take just as an essential part of the light heartedness one of
the few light hearted things about Zimbabwe, I love ZimDaily. Its not news, it’s
something else, it’s an aberration but it’s an amusing aberration. Zimonline has
tried to be, to do better sourcing recently. And I think Zimonline has often
tried to be good but I’ve never used them as basis for a story nor have I used
actually any of the alternative publications – there is an old fashioned word we
used to use in South Africa, as a basis for a story ever, because I’m always
worried about the sourcing. Except I have used the New Zimbabwe.com because they
very often have named sources. There are far too many stories on Zimbabwe that
go out without named sources. And so one gets this extraordinary
exaggeration. And The Zimbabwean newspaper which is mostly run by very
experienced journalists who have had a lot of advantages in their lives, I’m
quite shocked really at the standard of some of the reporting that goes out on
The Zimbabwean - that it just doesn’t fill the basics on the hard news pages.
Their stories often do not have the basic requirements needed for a news story
and it’s the type of paper which really looks very nice and useful to people
living in the UK – I haven’t often found that some of the sensational front page
stories stood up to any kind of professional scrutiny. And I think that’s a
pity. I think we need really good media, I
think we need really good and accurate sources and we’ve all made mistakes and
it’s so easy to make a mistake because we work in a hideous situation where we
can’t get statistics, we can’t get comments from the government, we can’t trust
any of the statistics. We have a hideously partisan state press in the Herald
and the ZBC and you can’t use them as a resource. It’s very hard to balance our
stories in the way we’ve all been taught to balance our stories - that there are
always two sides to the story. How easy
is it to get a quote from ZANU PF? It’s damn nigh
impossible! So there are great hazards in it but I do
think it is recently been getting better. Maybe people have got more resources,
maybe the story has changed maybe its because the MDC faction loyal to founding
president Morgan Tsvangirai is going
through such trauma itself that some of his most loyal journalists in these
various organizations, like Studio 7, etcetera who’ve always been very loyal to
him are beginning to question their loyalty. I don’t know, I don’t know if
that’s the answer but it does seem to be getting a bit better maybe there are
more resources as well. VIOLET:
Now Peta let me pause here because we’ve run out of time but we are going
to continue with this discussion next week and I’d like to hear your thoughts on
the turmoil you made reference to that’s in the MDC, and also to hear your
thoughts about the third way and ZANU PF. Thank you very much for the time
being. THORNYCROFT: Oh not at all. Thank
You. Comments and
feedback can be emailed to violet@swradioafrica.com
Zim Online
by Batsirayi Muranje Monday 19 November
2007
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai at the weekend
urged South Africa to pressure President Robert
Mugabe to end political
violence and repeal tough security and press laws,
according to sources.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki is mediating
in talks between Mugabe’s
governing ZANU PF party and the main opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party aimed at finding a solution to
Zimbabwe’s long running
political and economic crisis.
A key
objective of the talks is to ensure Zimbabwe’s presidential and
parliamentary elections next year are free and fair. Analysts say truly
democratic polls are vital to any initiative to pluck the once prosperous
country out of the mire.
Sources said Mbeki met Tsvangirai, head of
the main faction of the divided
MDC, on Friday before meeting Arthur
Mutambara, who leads the smaller
faction of the opposition party yesterday
to brief the opposition leaders on
progress on the talks that are backed by
the Southern African Development
Community (SADC).
According to a
source close to Tsvangirai, the MDC leader told Mbeki that
Mugabe had to act
to end “violence against the opposition and civic groups,
allow the MDC
access to the public media and reconstitute the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission (ZEC) or the talks would become irrelevant.’
The two MDC
formations have appointed a joint-delegation to negotiate with
ZANU
PF.
Tsvangirai's spokesman William Bango confirmed the MDC leader visited
South
Africa at the weekend but said he was not aware if he met
Mbeki.
Gabriel Chaibva, spokesman for the Mutambara-led MDC, said he was
unable to
“comment directly or indirectly on matters relating to the
negotiating
process,” because parties to the talks are sworn to total
secrecy.
Tsvangirai wants a reconstituted ZEC to undertake a fresh voter
registration
exercise and demarcation of constituencies for next year’s
polls, according
to sources.
The MDC has in the past accused the
government of taking advantage of a
chaotic voters’ roll to rig polls and of
gerrymandering constituencies to
ensure it wins. The government denies
rigging elections.
Tsvangirai, who nearly unseated Mugabe in a
presidential poll in 2002, is
said to have also told Mbeki that Mugabe and
ZANU PF should bring back
banned independent newspapers as a
confidence-building measure and called
for the SADC, African Union and the
United Nations to observe polls next
year.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of
a debilitating economic crisis that is
highlighted by hyperinflation, a
rapidly contracting GDP, the fastest for a
country not at war according to
the World Bank and shortages of foreign
currency, food and
fuel.
Mbeki, who is expected to take up the MDC’s concerns with Mugabe
and ZANU
PF, insists talks will deliver truly democratic elections in
Zimbabwe next
year and set the once prosperous country on a path to
recovery. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Prince Nyathi Monday 19 November
2007
HARARE - The ruling ZANU PF party has set aside Z$4.4
trillion (US$367
million on the parallel market), enough to meet the
country's fuel needs for
a month, for the printing of election campaign
material for President Robert
Mugabe, ZimOnline has learnt.
Sources
within ZANU PF told ZimOnline at the weekend that the party's
finance
committee chaired by David Karimanzira had already approved the
budget that
will see the party's regalia being distributed across the
country.
Mugabe, who is set to be endorsed as ZANU PF's election
candidate at the
party's December special congress in Harare, faces a tricky
election next
March that political analysts say he could lose because of an
unprecedented
economic crisis affecting the southern African
country.
Of the $4.4 million, $1 trillion had been allocated to the ZANU
PF Women's
League that has rallied behind Mugabe amid discontent within the
party over
the Zimbabwean leader's candidature during the
elections.
"The department has come up with a $4.4 trillion budget for
printing
T-shirts with the president's portrait, party flags and bandanas to
be
distributed to people. The finance department has already approved the
budget," said the source.
The source said ZANU PF had also prepared
separate budgets for the senate,
house of assembly and local government
elections all set for early next
year.
The source added that the
campaign material, with Mugabe's portrait and
printed "Presidential
elections 2008" below, was already being distributed
to the party's 10
provinces across the country.
Karimanzira refused to discuss the matter
when approached for comment at the
weekend saying he does not discuss party
matters with outsiders.
"What benefit will the party get by discussing
the issue with you? I don't
discuss party issues with outsiders," he
said.
ZANU PF is scheduled to hold its special congress next month that
is set to
endorse Mugabe as the party's election candidate for the polls
next March.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that has
manifested
itself in the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 8 000
percent,
unemployment and shortages of almost every basic survival
commodity.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
and major
Western governments blame the economic crisis on mismanagement and
repression by Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain 27
years ago. Mugabe denies the charge. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Hendricks Chizhanje Monday 19 November
2007
HARARE - Veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war say
the long-delayed
Harare "million men" march in support of President Robert
Mugabe's
candidature for next year's presidential polls will now take place
at the
end of this month in Highfield suburb.
Highfield is seen as
the cradle of Zimbabwe's liberation war, being the
suburb where founding
nationalists met in the 1960s to plot the liberation
of the then
Rhodesia.
The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association
(ZNLWVA) announced
at the weekend that the 30 November march would start and
end at Zimbabwe
Grounds in the suburb where Mugabe would address the
marchers.
The march would take the former freedom fighters through the
Old Highfield
where Mugabe and the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo lived
before
independence and Mushandirapamwe Hotel where the leaders of the
ruling ZANU
PF party held political meetings in the 1960s.
ZNLWVA
chairman Jabulani Sibanda said the freedom fighters would use the
march to
show support for Mugabe's stance against Britain and other Western
countries.
"We are also supporting his stand against oppression
applied by bigger
nations to smaller nations," said Sibanda who was quietly
brought back into
ZANU PF after being suspended from the ruling
party.
The veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence wield immense
influence
in ZANU PF after waging violence and terror against the opposition
at every
major election since 2000 to ensure victory for the ruling
party.
Mugabe is patron of the ZNLWVA and has often used war veterans to
intimidate
opponents to his rule and they were at the vanguard of farm
occupations
during his controversial land reform programme which began seven
years ago.
The veterans have in recent weeks held marches across the
country to show
support for Mugabe who they say is the only one fit to rule
Zimbabwe,
despite a worsening economic crisis and food
shortages.
Zimbabwe holds presidential and parliamentary elections next
year.
Mugabe, who earlier this year said there was no vacancy for his
position,
has said he will stand for re-election next year to take his rule
to more
than three decades.
ZNLWVA vice chairman Joseph Chinotimba
said the association was mobilising
other people for the march, which has
been on the cards since August.
"We don't have one million war veterans
but every Zimbabwean is invited. We
need one million men and women even you
and your wife," Chinotimba told
ZimOnline.
He said they chose
Highfield because it was the suburb where Zimbabwean
nationalism started in
the 1960s.
"The patron of the war veterans, who is also the president and
who will
automatically win next year's presidential elections, will address
the
people," Chinotimba said.
Other marches have been held in
Zimbabwe's 10 provinces to show support for
President Mugabe who the
liberation war fighters say is the only one fit to
rule Zimbabwe.
The
marches are timed to silence dissenting voices within ZANU PF who want
Mugabe to retire and make way for a new leader.
Mugabe is under
pressure to step down from rival factions within ZANU PF
linked to former
army commander Solomon Mujuru and Rural Housing Minister
Emmerson
Mnangagwa.
There has been growing speculation that a faction within ZANU
PF led by
former army commander Solomon Mujuru could spring a surprise at
the party's
December congress by nominating a challenger to
Mugabe.
The Mujuru faction is said to be mobilising behind the scenes to
push former
finance minister Simba Makoni or Vice-President Joice Mujuru to
take a
strike at Mugabe's job.
Political analysts say the message
coming out of the solidarity marches
illustrate growing opposition to
Mugabe's leadership within ZANU PF as shown
by the incorporation of war
veterans to silence dissenting lieutenants in
the party.
Already
leaders and members of the women's assembly and the youth wing are
currently
holding meetings and marches in the country's provinces to back
President
Mugabe's candidature in next year's elections. - ZimOnline
IOL
November 18 2007 at 09:27AM
By Myrtle Ryan and Peta
Thornycroft
This week three Zimbabwean elephants proved that rhinos
and elephants
can form close bonds, and that elephants do
mourn.
Gruesome pictures flashed around the world this week of the
three
black rhinos shot by members of the Zimbabwe Army, dressed in
camouflage
uniforms and carrying AK-47 rifles. Each rhino had had a guard,
but they
were assaulted during the attack at Imire Safari Ranch in Wedza
last week.
When elephants Mundebvu, Makavusi and Toto were taken to
where their
former rhino companions Amber, DJ and Sprinter were buried, they
reacted in
almost human fashion, touching and supporting each other and
showing obvious
grief. While elephants have been known to behave in such a
fashion around
remains of their own kind, people might be surprised to find
them behaving
in the same way around rhinos, which are sometimes treated
with animosity.
According to Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the
Zimbabwe
Conservation Task Force, since the attack, money has been pouring
into a
special fund set up by the Travers family - the owners of
Imire.
Rodrigues said: "Four armed poachers dressed in camouflage
uniform
assaulted and tied up the rhino guards and opened fire on the three
adult
rhino in their pens."
All three were killed.
Imire is one of the few privately owned conservancies left in Zimbabwe
and
its rhino breeding programme has attracted international donor
support.
Rodrigues expressed "utter shock, horror and disbelief" at
the
killings. He said over the past 20 years the Travers family "have
lovingly
reared and bred these animals", successfully releasing 13 black
rhino back
into Matusadona National Park.
"The three rhino were
dehorned six weeks ago to make them less
attractive to poachers.
Nevertheless, the poachers tried to hack out the few
centimetres of new horn
growth from one of the rhinos before being
frightened off."
John and Judy Travers appealed for funding for a reward to anyone
giving
information leading to the capture and conviction of those who had
slaughtered the rhinos.
DJ, Sprinter and Amber were used in a
breeding programme to
successfully reintroduce endangered black rhino to the
Zambezi valley. All
were brutally killed, leaving a seven-week-old calf,
Tatenda. Amber was due
to give birth to her calf this week.
Speaking about the relationship between the animals, Nicola Roche, a
family
member, said the elephants and rhinos often walked around together.
At night
the rhinos were kept in the boma while the elephants slept outside.
"They
[the elephants] must have been very aware of the shots and screams [of
the
rhinos]," said Roche.
She said Judy had told her how the elephants
had reacted when taken to
the rhinos' burial spot two days after the
incident.
"Something like this affects everyone and everything,"
said Roche.
"The elephants were passing sticks to each other and Judy said
you could see
their tears running down their faces."
She said
Amber and her foetus were buried under a beautiful msassa
tree - where she
was born.
On reaching this spot Mundebvu (who is herself in calf)
dug down for
about one metre to try to reach her former companion,
constantly letting out
screams and shrieks as the other two elephants
supported her.
This article was originally published on
page 1 of Sunday Independent
on November 18, 2007
Boston Globe
By Robyn Dixon
Los Angeles Times / November 18, 2007
HARARE,
Zimbabwe - People have been waiting for bread for nearly two hours
in a
trash-strewn lane behind a supermarket. It is midmorning, the sun
blazing
down on the 50 or so people in line, when three police officers
stroll to
the front.
A rumble of discontent rolls along the line like a
thunderstorm.
Then a stranger named David Kaodza appears out of nowhere. "I
was right
behind you, remember?" Kaodza says. "You saw me before."
He
has a ready smile and the ingratiating patter of someone jumping ahead in
line.
In Zimbabwe, where runaway hyperinflation has reached 7,900
percent and
people have used their entire savings just buying food, life has
been
reduced to this: the line. Go to any Zimbabwean town these days, and
you'll
find lines everywhere.
Kaodza, a hustler in a country where
the flour has all but run out and bread
has become a luxury, gives a quick
tutorial on how to get ahead in a queue.
You don't just line up and wait to
buy. There is an unspoken etiquette with
subtle rules. Only those in a
police or army uniform get to ignore the queue
entirely.
According to
local etiquette, you can leave the line, but never for long. To
rejoin, you
need the recognition of the person you made an agreement with.
But if you
neglect to pay the guard in charge of the line, you still won't
be able to
creep back to your place, Kaodza says.
Misleading newcomers about the
length of the wait, and even what the line is
for, is a common ploy to
minimize the competition, Kaodza says.
Not everyone in line is as lucky
or pushy as he is. Many are hungry, tired,
desperate to get food for their
family, and spend their days waiting.
"That woman behind you, she came a
long way," Kaodza says. "She was dirty,
that woman, because where she comes
from there is no electricity and water's
a problem. . . . She wakes up very
early, and by the time she's walked to
town she is all dusty."
He
says some people collapse while waiting, but others are afraid to help
for
fear of losing their place.
"It's better not to be a witness for anyone
who's sick in line because if
they die, the police will take you away to the
next of kin and you will have
to explain what happened," Kaodza
says.
Women wearing the uniforms of city street cleaners trawl by,
proclaiming
that they should join the front of the line because they have to
work all
day. At first, people guffaw at their clumsy attempts to jump ahead
of
others. But when the smell of freshly baked bread wafts out the doorway,
there are shouts of indignation. The women squeeze inside the door as the
first loaves are handed over.
The first batch runs out. The doors
close. "People are prepared to fight in
the queue," Kaodza
says.
Kaodza usually gets six to eight twist loaves, each of which he
cuts in half
and adds a smudge of margarine and a couple of slivers of
sausage to sell at
a profit. He makes up to 3 million Zimbabwean dollars, or
$6, a day on
sandwiches and in five days earns more than teachers did in a
month before
their raise.
The main bread factory ran out of flour
weeks ago: Now the only bread is
found at small bakeries in supermarkets. As
shortages bite deeper, the
International Crisis Group warned in a September
report that Zimbabwe was
"closer than ever to complete collapse."
zimbabwejournalists.com
17th Nov 2007 22:32 GMT
By Nyasha
Nyakunu
THE appointment of a Committee to re-look into the Associated
Newspapers of
Zimbabwe (ANZ) application for an operating license raises
more questions
than answers on the process and individuals selected by the
Minister of
Information and Publicity, and the lack of a clear mandate on
how this will
be accomplished.
The Committee was appointed on 14
November 2007. The ANZ are the publishers
of The Daily News and The Daily
News on Sunday, two of the four newspapers
banned by the Zimbabwe government
through the Media and Information
Commission since
2003.
MISA-Zimbabwe notes with concern that while the appointment of the
committee
seem to be complying with court rulings on the need for the Media
and
Information Commission (MIC) Chairperson, Dr Tafataona Mahoso, to recuse
himself from the ANZ matter, the appointed individuals are still MIC members
who, at the end of the day, are accountable to the Executive Chairperson, Dr
Mahoso and the Minister of Information and Publicity Dr Sikhanysio
Ndlovu.
The individuals selected are questionable if one goes by their
personal and
institutional views on the political, economic and social
situation in
Zimbabwe.
The Chairperson of the Committee,
Chinondidyachii Mararike is a prominent
state media columnist who has
written widely on the political and social
situation in Zimbabwe in The
Herald. MISA-Zimbabwe investigations also
reveal that Charity Moyo once/or
is still working in the External Affairs
section of the ruling party, ZANU
PF.
MISA-Zimbabwe notes that the personal views and political
affiliations of
the committee chairperson and its members on the political
situation in
Zimbabwe , which they are entitled to, are the same issues that
the Zimbabwe
government accused The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday
of
misrepresenting.
Such accusations and a tag of war on the role of
The Daily News and its
sister paper, resulted in the arrests, beatings and
harassment of the
newspaper's workers on several occasions since 2000. The
hatred directed at
the ANZ resulted in the publishing entity being bombed
three times and
finally silenced under the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA) in September 2003. It is important,
therefore, to take note of
this political context to understand why the new
committee constituted of
persons of a particular political view is not in a
position to deal with
this matter partially. In this case justice should not
only be done, but
should be seen to be done.
While the Minister of
Information and Publicity says the committee was put
in place "in the true
spirit to demonstrate a democratic and liberalised
media", MISA-Zimbabwe
contends that the true spirit of democracy will be to
repeal AIPPA and all
undemocratic media laws that put shackles on the
operations of the media and
enjoyment of freedom of expression rights in
Zimbabwe. In the same vein the
Minister should order the police to return
ANZ equipment seized in 2004 and
ensure the pursuance of criminal elements
that bombed the ANZ printing press
in 2001. That, we believe will be a
demonstration of the true spirit of
democracy.
MISA-Zimbabwe further notes that even if the ANZ is licensed,
the publishing
house still has to contend with restrictions placed on the
work of media
workers through AIPPA, Public Order and Security Act (POSA)
among other
laws. MISA-Zimbabwe also argues that the mere fact that the
media operates
at the benevolence and whims of committees appointed by a
government
Minister is the truest demonstration of an undemocratic
government that is
averse to different and critical views.
This ANZ
issue, coming as it does, against a background of the arrests of
The
Financial Gazette, Jacob Chisese and Hama Saburi and The Zimbabwe
Independent, Raphael Khumalo on 9 November 2007, demonstrates a government
still determined to repress independent media voices. The Incomes and
Pricing Commission arrested the managers of the two newspapers for
increasing the prices of their publications.
The newspapers hitherto
priced at ZWD$600 000 (approximately USD66 cents)
have been reduced to ZWD
150 000 (USD15 cents). These arrests and arguments
in support if this action
fail to account for the production costs of the
newspapers and that in a
normal economic environment newspapers would, in
fact, want and drive to be
read by as many people as possible hence the
pricing of newspapers is not
driven by any intention to cut out anyone from
reading the newspapers but
make ends meet.
The state media on the other hand receives state support
in the form of
subsidised newsprint and fuel among other material and
financial; support.
This, contrary to Minister Ndlovu will not create a
diverse and plural media
but a dominance of one political view, that of the
government and ZANU PF.
It is in this environment that the ANZ might be
licensed back by the
committee, knowing very well that the economy itself
and the new tactics by
the Incomes and Pricing Commission might as well
maintain the ANZ off the
news stands.
It is in light of this that the
latest developments have to be seen in the
broader context of the political,
economic and social situation in Zimbabwe
and not in isolation.
MISA-Zimbabwe dismisses the latest developments as a
mirage to hoodwink the
local and international community and raise, the
waning democratic
credentials of the government and its sub organs as the
MIC. MISA-Zimbabwe
believes that the ANZ and many other newspapers can exist
better in an
environment where there is no AIPPA and POSA.
Nyasha Nyakunu is
MISA_Zimbabwe's Information Officer.
Mmegi, Botswana
Friday, 16 November 2007
*TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
Dear
Anibal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal, Your Excellency,
I hope you
are ready for the Zimbabwean entourage that you invited to your
country
against all common sense. The invitees are singing a song called
'Portugal,
here we come.'
Sir, your country, Portugal, the worst of all
colonisers, has always behaved
in very awkward ways in and outside 'its
territories.'
Today in 2007, you are at it again and causing confusion
within your
so-called 'European Union.' In terms of democracy, your history,
along with
a country called Germany, does not show on the radar screen. You
should
welcome Angela Merkel because her country, as a nation called Namibia
can
testify, was as much a disaster in Africa as you were. Incidentally,
Merkel,
like you, is campaigning to welcome dictators to your dining
table.
They are on their way.
Cavaco Silva, I wonder why you want to
harass even your own European Union.
Salazar is never going to come back nor
will you ever see Lourenco Marques
again; it's called Maputo now and it is a
permanent name.
I find it really pathetic that Portugal is today
attempting to cause a split
within the ranks of your fledgling European
Union. When did Portugal start
loving Africa that much? If you love Africa,
why not love the people not the
dictators who are killing Africa and the
Africans?
Granted, the world never expected democracy or common sense
from Portugal. I
do not know how you are faring against the former 'East
block countries' but
you are shamelessly keeping up your notorious
tradition.
Through that invitation to violate European Union sanctions,
Portugal
pleased one Robert 'Pol Pot' Mugabe and his fellow assassins. They
are
already buying foreign currency on the black market in preparation for
next
month's summit in your country to which you invited them. I am dismayed
that
they are buying US dollars and British pounds, currency from countries
they
denounce every time they see desperate reactionaries like you with your
ears
to the radio.
But first, let me tell you that you made a very
silly decision. Portugal was
a bumbling coloniser that did not get along
with Portuguese representatives
running the colonies. It is good you lost
the war and left. Even the manner
in which you left shows how much of a poor
coloniser you were.
You see, Mr Silva, when Ian Smith left Rhodesia, we
had one of two of the
best hospitals in Africa and a university to match.
Our tobacco, gold,
industrial products and other minerals and agricultural
products were sought
after world wide.
And tell you what, Smith was
so confident of himself and his 'achievements'
that he did not run away like
the Portuguese did. He remained in the country
with the rest of us. At that
time, there were no 'war veterans' because
there was enough for everybody.
We were all enjoying Ian Smith's economic
fall-out. The infrastructure for
everything was in place and Rhodesia was
self sufficient even though it was
under an economic embargo.
Actually, Rhodesia exported products world
wide while it was under
sanctions. But South Africa and Portugal were
Smith's friends, offering him
a lifeline. Portugal and South Africa loved
the Rhodesian dictator. Today,
it is again Portugal and South Africa who are
sympathetic to the Zimbabwean
dictator.
But when the Portuguese
realised that the game was up in Mozambique, which
you shamelessly called
Portuguese East Africa, you ripped out toilet bowls,
cisterns and water taps
and actually shipped them to Lisbon before blowing
up the toilets! We
remember you very well because we, Zimbabweans, knocked
off a couple of your
racists when we fought alongside FRELIMO.
So, here we are again with
Portugal playing the idiot of the world. Only
last week did the government
of Mozambique announce that they were on a
massive national campaign to
teach their people English. Just what did
Portugal do in Africa?
Be
that as it may, Portugal has decided to cause anxious moments within the
EU
thereby showing the world that the EU is not ever united at all. Why
should
the EU not take a common stand on issues that affect the Union as a
whole?
Do member states of the EU have differing opinions on murderous
dictators?
Or is it nostalgia?
Your Portugal, Mr Silva, for the second time in a
decade, is, once again,
causing anxiety within the union. And this really is
an indication of
Portugal's delinquency and moronic attitude towards the
world, human rights
and common decency.
However, now that Portugal
has gone against 'common sense' and invited an
unrepentant murderer and
dictator to a summit in its capital and against the
EU's ban on Mugabe, the
honour is on Portugal to engage Mugabe in what must
amount to an acrimonious
engagement at that summit and it is Portugal that
must lead the onslaught so
as to redeem itself.
A fellow head of state, Gordon Brown, notified
Portugal, the host country,
that he would not attend the summit if dictator
Mugabe attended. You went on
to issue an invitation to Mugabe in a slight of
your fellow EU member. Very
well then, Portugal must now justify its
invitation of Mugabe and must not
pretend to talk about aid to deserving
countries when it knows that there is
a serious problem in Zimbabwe.
Portugal has to show that there is a better
and effective way of dealing
with Mugabe other than isolating him. Or is
Portugal just being a spoil spot
as always?
Mr Silva, shame Gordon Brown and show the world that you and
your country
are not just cuddling an aged but dangerous dictator but know
what you are
doing. You disgraced your country in colonial times; you are
now
embarrassing better countries in Europe that have embraced you as an
equal.
I am hoping that you invite that dictator and mass murderer to
your home so
you can publicly rebuke him. Offer him asylum if you want but I
don't think
he will take it for you are not that glamorous a
country.
Portugal has a bad history of irregularities, laziness and
stinginess.
Portugal is proving to the world that it is not worth our trust.
It,
therefore, stands to reason that Portugal demands an agenda on Zimbabwe.
Portugal must put Zimbabwe on the menu and make sure Robert 'Pol Pot' Mugabe
is confronted and forced to conform to international standards on human
rights and good governance; he must be given stern warnings which should be
upheld by everybody in attendance, especially the so-called EU which is
showing us how disunited they are. As for the African presidents, well, how
can they reform or be forced to reform when renegade countries like your
Portugal easily succumb to meaningless blackmail?
Portugal must
justify its embrace of a dictator. Portugal must talk and warn
dictator
Mugabe about his abuses of humanity and must make noise. One day
Portugal
will find its nationals in the wrong hands and it will seek help
and
leverage from the same countries that it is embarrassing in the EU. It
happens all the time.
It is time for Portugal to redeem itself and
show the world that it has come
a long and better way since Columbus mistook
America for India causing an
upheaval in both geography and
history.
And I can see that, even now, Portugal has not gotten its
bearings right.
Portugal should at least try to catch up with current world
events since it
still can't keep up with Africa.
*Tanonoka Joseph Whande
is a Botswana-based Zimbabwean writer.
The Telegraph
By David Owen
Last
Updated: 12:46am GMT 18/11/2007
The Government are reviewing
sporting links with Zimbabwe in a sign that
they may finally be prepared to
take decisive action on an issue that has
plagued international cricket
since 2003.
With Robert Mugabe's regime facing growing international
pressure over the
African country's economic collapse, the Government have
seized on the
opportunity afforded by new Cabinet ministers -David Miliband
and James
Purnell -at both the Foreign Office and the Department for
Culture, Media
and Sport to re-examine the subject.
Ministers had
insisted in the past that the Government had no powers to
prevent cricketers
from travelling to Zimbabwe -a stance that left the
English game vulnerable
to possible International Cricket Council sanctions
should fixtures be
called off.
Now, though, amid suggestions of a hardening of attitudes
since Prime
Minister Gordon Brown took over at No?10, the Government are
looking again
at legal options.
Under the ICC's future tours programme,
Zimbabwe are due to visit England in
2009 to play two Tests and three
one-day internationals.
They would also be expected to enter a side in
the next ICC World Twenty20
event, to be hosted by England, also in 2009.
The year happens to be the
ICC's centenary.
The next scheduled
England tour of Zimbabwe is not until 2012.
Zimbabwe are presently on
self-imposed suspension from Test cricket and have
not played a Test since
2005, when India inflicted a 2-0 series defeat. The
African country continue
to play one-day internationals, however, and
participated in this year's
World Cup in the Caribbean.
They last clashed with England as recently as
September, losing a World
Twenty20 match in Cape Town.
Accountancy
firm KPMG are engaged on what the ICC have termed a "forensic
audit" of
Zimbabwe Cricket.
News of the review breaks with England having just
arrived in Sri Lanka for
a three-Test series and less than two months after
Bill Morris, the former
trade union leader and present England and Wales
Cricket Board director,
called for a review of English cricket's stance on
the Zimbabwe issue.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lord Morris
said: "The Prime
Minister is on the record saying in blunt terms that he
doesn't want to be
in the same room as Robert Mugabe. That raises the whole
question of 2009,
when Zimbabwe are due to share the tour with
Australia.
"If the PM doesn't want to be in the same room as Mugabe, how
fair is it to
ask sportsmen and women to be on the same field of play with
representatives
from the regime?
"It will become more and more
political as the regime becomes more and more
oppressive and this will be
one of the things the board will have to grapple
with and the chairman will
have to show leadership on."
Ever since the 2003 World Cup, when
England's players refused to travel to
Harare for their group match against
Zimbabwe because of security concerns,
the ECB and the Government have
failed to get to grips with the political
dilemma.
The issue flared
up most damagingly ahead of England's tour to Zimbabwe in
late-2004.
Ministers' stance then was that they would not instruct the ECB
to boycott
the country, with Jack Straw, then Foreign Secretary, telling a
news
conference in May: "The British Government has no such power to
instruct
people not to leave the country to play sport."
David Morgan, the then
ECB chairman who is now president-elect of the ICC,
said that while touring
Zimbabwe would be "unacceptable to the majority of
the British public",
refusing to tour would produce "the real threat of very
severe sanctions
which could have a devastating impact on the well-being of
our
game".
In March 2004, the ICC's executive board agreed that touring teams
failing
to fulfil obligations could face suspension, a potential penalty
costing as
much as £50?million.
With Zimbabwe out of Test cricket,
the threat of sanctions arising from the
long-form game has clearly, for
now, disappeared. Even so, compensation is
thought to be among the points
that the Government are considering.
Should the Government decide on a
blanket ban on all sporting links with
Zimbabwe, it is possible the effects
might be felt beyond cricket. Such a
move might raise questions, for
example, over Zimbabwean participation in
the 2012 London Olympics.
zimbabwejournalists.com
18th Nov 2007 16:40 GMT
By Masimba
Biriwasha
THE shock decision this week by the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria to (GFATM) to reject another request from
Zimbabwe for funds
deals a critical setback to efforts aimed at addressing
major health issues
in the country.
The Global Fund has now turned
down Zimbabwean proposals in five of its
seven funding rounds to date, each
time citing technical shortcomings of
proposals as the
reason.
Zimbabwe's failure to secure backing in this latest round of
funding
seriously undermines the country's struggle to build its capacity to
effectively respond to the three epidemics.
"Proposals submitted by
Zimbabwe sought a total of US$48.5 million to
address malaria and US$25.5
million to tackle tuberculosis over a five-year
period," according to a
Voice of America interview with Nicolas Demey, of
the GFATM. Demey was
quoted as stating that the proposals were turned down
for "technical
weaknesses".
"The limited funding that is finding its way to Zimbabwe is
specifically for
AIDS programmes. Sources of support for civil society to
undertake TB
activities, particularly for community-based interventions, are
non-existent," said Lindiwe Chaza-Jangira, Executive Director of the
Zimbabwe AIDS Network (ZAN). "Movement of people within SADC further
threatens to increase MDR and XDR-TB in the region, and for Zimbabwe this is
made worse by a weakened health system."
"We therefore feel this news
is a terrible blow and will continue to
advocate for resources to support
the work of NGOs in response to this dual
TB/HIV epidemic," she
added.
The GFATM proposal could not have been declined because of
inadequate need.
Among all nations, Zimbabwe is one of those most heavily
affected by
tuberculosis (TB). The 2007 Global Tuberculosis Control Report
from the
World Health Organization (WHO) ranks Zimbabwe among the 22
countries with
the highest TB burden.
For the past 20 years, Zimbabwe
has fought TB fairly successfully, providing
free access to WHO-recommended
treatments. But in the past few years, TB
disease has re-emerged as a
leading killer, especially among people living
with HIV (PLHIV). An
estimated two-thirds of Zimbabweans with TB are also
infected with
HIV.
At the epicentre of the HIV epidemic, Zimbabwe now has a staggering
six
times more TB cases than it did two decades ago.
Funding,
laboratory and diagnostic systems and technical support need to be
directed
towards fighting TB in the country to prevent the epidemic
worsening even
further.
Zimbabwe currently also has access to very limited resources to
tackle other
mounting humanitarian health disasters.
For example, the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates average
international HIV
spending in southern Africa is about US$74 per PLHIV per
year. In Zimbabwe,
that figure is a paltry US$4.
Without essential international support,
the deadly combination of TB and
HIV epidemics is likely igniting a silent
and uncontrollable epidemic of
drug-resistant TB that could negate previous
national health gains.
Malaria is also a serious health threat in
Zimbabwe.
"After HIV and AIDS, it is the biggest killer of children under
five in
Zimbabwe," says UNICEF. "The estimated one million cases of malaria
each
year in Zimbabwe are also a serious threat to pregnant women and
newborns,
the leading cause of work-absence due to illness, and a severe
brake on
economic growth."
Combined with a high prevalence of HIV
infection, the overall immunity
against TB and malaria is considerably
reduced, making mortality rates in
the country very high.
"There is
an immense need for the funds to address TB and Malaria which are
compounding the nation's response to HIV," said Sara Page, Deputy Director
of Southern Africa AIDS Information Dissemination Services (SAfAIDS), a
non-governmental organization based in Zimbabwe.
"Zimbabwe has
demonstrated exceptional efforts and commitment to HIV
prevention and
behaviour change, which has translated into a substantial
reduction in HIV
prevalence and incidence," she added. "However, there is an
ongoing need to
strengthen and support national efforts in care and
treatment of HIV and
TB."
There can be no question that the longer the delay in funding
responses to
the three major epidemics in Zimbabwe, the greater the cost
will be in terms
of human suffering and loss of life, but also in future
economic terms as
the cost of medical care and support also
escalates.
Despite these numerous challenges, real progress has been made
in addressing
health issues.
Zimbabwe is the first country in the
southern Africa region to record a
decline in levels of HIV. The country has
seen a steady decline in HIV
prevalence rates, from over 26 percent of the
population in 2001 to around
15 percent in 2006, according to recent reports
from the United Nations
Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
In
light of country's achievements, and the scale and intensity of its
people's
need, the Global Fund has moral and humanitarian responsibility to
reconsider its decision to reject Zimbabwe's latest request for support to
tackle TB and malaria.
According to its own reports, the Global Fund
was created to "finance a
dramatic turn-around in the fight against AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria."
In the five years since it was created, the fund
has awarded over US$8
billion in grants to recipient countries. In that
period, the fund has
committed US$85 million to Zimbabwe - around US$6.5 per
citizen. About 40%
of the committed funding has actually been received by
Harare.
Mmegi, Botswana
Friday, 16 November 2007
Mmegi correspondent GALE NGAKANE finds
Zimbabweans consigned to the margins
trying to eke out a
living.
FRANCISTOWN: They swarm the streets of Francistown like
bees on their way to
their beehives and if you were to be put to a bet, odds
are that every time
you blink your eyes, there will be a Zimbabwean in front
of you.
Like a policeman on a march, just come to attention anywhere in
one of the
streets of Francistown's main mall. Turn right. Turn left, take a
step
backward, do a forward match.
Four out of five times there will
be a Zimbabwean.
The nectar along Haskins and Blue Jacket Streets and of
course Nswazi Mall
at the station, is usually the Chinese shops where you
will find the
Zimbabweans of all shapes and gender perambulating along the
cheap clothing
racks and electronic gadgets.
Go to the suburbs,
eastwards towards Donga, southwards towards Somerset East
or West, westward
towards Riverside, Area W, Blue Town and Aerodrome. If you
are on foot,
there is 85 percent chance, there will be a Zimbabwean keeping
you
company.
Many of these Zimbabweans have actually entered the country
through gazetted
points, especially at the Ramokgwebana border post. Aletha*
and Patience*
are two of such people and when I enquired as to how they made
it into
Botswana, they confidently whipped out their passports, which showed
they
entered the country on October 28.
They are to be in Botswana
for the next 90 days.
The duo, from Gweru and Masvingo and aged 24 and 23
respectively had each a
half-eaten loaf of bread by their side and a Sprite
cool drink.
"We are here to look for jobs. Aletha plaits hair while I can
do any job
that is available, especially washing clothes," said an
extroverted
Patience.
They told Mmegi that though they know of
illegal immigrants, they are never
going to be caught entering the country
through un-gazetted points.
"We are always going to come into this
country legally.
This is my third time to be in Botswana. Every time my days
elapse, I either
extend them or go back home. I do not want any hassle with
the police and
immigration officials," Patience said as Aletha nodded in
agreement.
A young man who gave his name as Alex* sat with a group of
other newly
arrived Zimbabweans on the benches opposite Chinese shops on
Haskins street.
He said though he has never jumped the border, there was
a possibility of
him becoming an illegal immigrant while still in the
country.
"Sometimes our days elapse while you are still here may be
waiting to be
paid by someone who owes you. What do you do? You try to stick
around until
you get your money.
"There have been instances where
immigration people in Francistown have
refused to extend our days and we end
up being illegal immigrants," he said,
adding that his only problem was the
attitude of Batswana towards
Zimbabweans.
"Just today I witnessed a
very unpleasant incident at the Ramokgwebana
border. Drivers of buses that
ferry us into town were competing to have us
in their buses. One of them
just pulled out a sjambok and started whipping
people.
"It was only
after we started protesting and reporting him to the police
that he
stopped.
The police in fact confiscated his whip," said Alex.
At
the waiting room at the station, another young man sat covering his face
with a newspaper, but because he was unmistakably a Zimbabwean, I took a
cautious chance to approach him.
And after I showed him my press
card, he actually loosened up and started
telling me how he arrived in
Francistown.
He admitted to being an illegal immigrant and that he had
successfully
evaded arrest by security officials who, the previous week,
were out in
force sweeping the streets of aliens.
He said he had been
in the country for over a month now. "I sleep where I
can. I eat anything.
Sometimes I eat leftovers here at the station. I also
do piece jobs. I do
not engage in crime though because I am a law-abiding
person," he
said.
He said it was not an easy decision he took when he crossed the
border into
Botswana through a hole in the border fence at
Matsiloje.
"Firstly, I do not have a passport. I used to have one, but it
expired
recently. Nowadays, it is not easy to obtain a passport in
Zimbabwe.
I think it is actually impossible to get one.
"The situation
at home had gotten so desperate (that) I had to do something.
For days on
end there was nothing in the house.
It got to a point where I thought my
children were going to die. This
desperation made me decide to come
here.
"Please tell the authorities that some of us are not here to engage
in
criminal activities.
We just want to make an honest living," he
said, as tears started cascading
down his cheeks.
* names with-held
for safety reasons.
Mmegi, Botswana
Friday, 16 November 2007
GALE NGAKANE
CORRESPONDENT
Mmegi
correspondent GALE NGAKANE meets three Zimbabweans to mull the
question of
Batswana's respect for the migrants.
FRANCISTOWN: Every morning
he opens the door of the office he shares with
the school's coordinator, KTM
College Headmaster for Primary Department,
Jonathan Nyanungo sighs with
relief.
Locals no longer treat him with scant regard, which they used to
do when he
first came to Botswana. Because he is now a professional who
holds a
respectable post of headmaster at a reputable private school,
Batswana,
notorious for their disdainful attitudes towards foreigners,
especially
Zimbabweans, are treating him with a lot of respect. When the
father of
three daughters first came to Botswana, a citizen of this country
gave him a
taste of the bitter pill of intolerance.
Nyanungo a motor
mechanic by training and a teacher by profession, after
arriving in Botswana
in September 2006, sustained himself with piece jobs
like fellow Zimbabweans
coming to Botswana for the first time. So, when he
was in Tutume, it
happened that he was engaged by someone to fix his car.
They had agreed on a
price of P400. After finishing the assignment, his
customer would not pay
up.
"Instead, he went to report me to the police saying I was an illegal
immigrant.
Fortunately, I had all my documents with me. The police
ordered the man to
pay me," said Nyanungo.
Nyanungo adds, "There is a
perception that everything bad has to be done by
a foreigner especially a
Zimbabwean. Then there is this issue of
name-calling where we are referred
to as 'Makwerekwere'".
"I do not think I like that. Generally, when you
are identified as a
professional things change. They (locals) look at you
differently. In short
they give you a lot of respect."
Nyanungo
thinks the reason why Batswana exhibit such a high degree of
intolerance
towards foreigners is that they have not travelled
internationally. They
believe stories from the television and newspapers, he
said, adding that
because of that, Batswana's attitudes towards them
(Zimbabweans) will take
time to change. There are 12 Zimbabweans in a staff
compliment of 24 at KTM
College and Nyanongu said his compatriots have also
adapted well to
Botswana. Opposite Meriting Spar, Winston Mbewe, a
pharmacist runs his own
practice called Living Waters. He has been in
Botswana since 2002. Regarding
intolerance, Mbewe said it varies from
individual to individual. There are
some people in Botswana who are
intolerant and there are those who are not,
he said.
"Generally, I think Batswana's attitudes are changing
Zimbabweans. There was
a time when negative sentiments were the order of the
day. But not now.
Batswana are getting used to seeing Zimbabweans around,"
he said.
But another Zimbabwean who did not want to identify himself did
not agree
with Mbewe.
He told Mmegi that Batswana still exhibit a
great deal of intolerance."I was
travelling on the train the other day.
There was a man stretching on the
train's three-seater couch and two elderly
Zimbabwean women were trying to
plead with him to give them space so that
they too could sit, but he
refused. "He was telling them that if they need
to be comfortable they
should take a hike on a Zimbabwe Railways train. That
made me angry, but
there was nothing that I could do about it. "Just a few
days ago at the
Ramokgwebana border post, I saw a bus conductor whipping my
compatriots
forcing them to board his bus. Fortunately, they protested and
the police
intervened.
"The police confiscated the man's sjambok. But
it goes to show how some
Batswana can be intolerant towards Zimbabweans.
They treat them as nothing
but trash," said the fellow who was getting
heated by the minute.
There were so many of us at the
Vigil that when it began to drizzle there
was not enough space for everyone
under our tarpaulin. Fortunately the rain
didn't last long. We are building
a stock of umbrellas in case we have a
downpour.
We were joined this
week by the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe
(ROHRZim) activist,
Stendrick Zvorwadza, who gave us an update on the
situation at home. We
know what we are fighting for but sometimes it seems
so remote in our
comfort zone in the UK. So having Stendrick telling us
about people being
beaten to death by agents of the Mugabe regime produced a
hushed silence.
He said it was important to challenge the authorities on
their obligation to
observe human rights and said that RORH is pursuing the
wife of Zimbabwe
Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi, who instructed
soldiers who beat a man
to death. Another is fighting for his life in
hospital.
Vigil
co-ordinator Rose Benton said that the Vigil co-ordinating team had
been
considering how we could further support ROHR. ROHR's remit was in
accord
with the Vigil's mission statement in that we were both fighting to
establish a democratic space where people could exercise their rights
without fear. She advocated a formal partnership between ROHR and the Vigil
under which they could co-operate on initiatives to establish an environment
leading to truly free and fair elections. She asked supporters to let the
Vigil team know how they felt about this. There were no dissenting voices
so the Vigil team will meet with ROHR to map the way forward.
We are
making good progress with our plans to barrack Mugabe in Lisbon.
Seven
people are already booked to go and we have strong indications of more
funding for others to join them. We have made contact with a human rights
organisation in Lisbon (Associacao de Defesas dos Direitos Humanos [ADDHU])
who have invited us to join them in a demonstration during the first day of
the summit (Saturday, 8th December) at a venue close to where the summit is
being held. It is really helpful to have local people to get the necessary
permission from the authorities. They have even agreed to lend us a drum
and help us with translating our publicity material into Portuguese. We
are pleased to hear we are being joined by friends in Germany from the
Harare- Munich Municipal Partnership. Last year the Vigil sent a team to
liaise with this group and we are glad to have a continuing contact with
them in Lisbon.
We were happy to be joined by Sybilla Claus, Africa
Editor of the Dutch
daily newspaper 'Trouw'. She was researching a story
about how Zimbabweans
live in the Diaspora and interviewed several of our
supporters. Also with
us today was Susan Pietrzyk, an American PhD
candidate who was researching a
project on HIV. She has been a welcome
visitor for several weeks and says
she has found her association with us
useful for her research.
Dorcas Nkomo who got her papers about 6 months
ago brought her three
children recently arrived from Zimbabwe. It was great
to welcome them to
the UK. We celebrated the birthday of Jenatry Muranganwa
whose dancing seems
to improve each passing year.
For this week's
Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 151 signed the register (of whom 39 people came for the
first
time). Supporters from Banbury, Becontree, Birmingham, Bournemouth,
Brighton, Chatham, Coventry, Dagenham, Derby, Dudley Port, Feltham,
Guildford, Hatfield, Huddersfield, Ilford, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool,
Luton, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Northampton, Nottingham,
Oxford, Reading, Romford, Sheffield, Sittingbourne, Southampton, Southend,
Tunbridge Wells, Walsall, Wolverhampton and many from London and
environs.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday, 19th November 2007, 7.30 pm. Central
London
Zimbabwe Forum. "Zimbabwe - a sinking Titanic" - Stendrick Zvorwadza
of ROHR
will speak about its work in Zimbabwe: their attempts to mobilize
people to
confront the repressive regime and empower them to claim their
rights.
Venue: downstairs function room of the Bell and Compass, 9-11
Villiers
Street, London, WC2N 6NA, next to Charing Cross Station at the
corner of
Villiers Street and John Adam Street.
Vigil
co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand,
London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against
gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
zimbabwejournalists.com
17th Nov 2007 22:38 GMT
By Fungai Chuma
THE
recent unwarranted arrest of 200 women belonging to Woman Of Zimbabwe
Arise
(WOZA) on the 15th of October 2007 as they marched peacefully to
Parliament
to protest against police brutality and mounting hardships smacks
of double
standards in the application of the law in Zimbabwe by law
enforcement
agents.
While these peace loving women were arrested and barred from
presenting a
petition to the Speaker of Parliament John Nkomo under the
repressive Public
Order and Security Act (POSA) that outlaws public
demonstrations, the same
cannot be said about the way the police in Bulawayo
treated war veterans who
successfully took to the streets in their thousands
in a pro-Mugabe demo the
previous week.
It is this discrimination in
the application of the law which saw the police
beating the day-lights out
of an executive member of the MDC and female
activist Grace Kwinjeh on the
11th of March 2007.
Kwinjeh's only "crime" in the eyes of the politicized
Zimbabwean police
force was that of merely trying to attend a prayer meeting
organized by
local churches which the police somehow saw as a threat to
"State security".
So bad was the assault such that Kwinjeh had to
seek medication outside
Zimbabwe since there is hardly any medicine to talk
about in Zimbabwe's
health institutions caused by a coterie of Zanu (PF) fat
cats who have grown
rich on the proceeds of power while relegating everybody
to a life of
poverty.
It befuddles the mind just why strong and
well fed police officers would
heavily descend on an unsuspecting and
defenseless woman as Grace was on
this fateful day. Doesn't this say a lot
about how the vulnerable and weak
are treated in present day Zimbabwe? Is
our police force by any chance
sensitive to gender issues?
The
ill-treatment that Zimbabwean women have endured at the hands of the
police
ever since the 2002 Presidential elections has still not been lost in
our
memories. For example WOZA has it on record that ever since the year
2002,
86 women have been stripped to their underwear by the police, tortured
in
custody and sexually abused.
To you my big sister Grace I say forward
ever and backwards never. Your
torment at the hands of insensitive State
thugs will forever be a source of
inspiration to some of us. And as for Bob,
let him be reminded that the
chickens are finally coming home to roost; the
push is coming to shove.
Aluta Continua!!
zimbabwejournalists.com
17th Nov 2007 23:18 GMT
By Student Solidarity
Trust
Students Solidarity Trust (SST) on International Students
Day
The Students Solidarity Trust (SST) joins the Zimbabwe National
Students
Union (ZINASU).Students Christian Movement of Zimbabwe (SCMZ),
National
Movement of Catholic Students (NMCS) and the International Student
Community
at large in commemorating the International Students
day.
While other students in other country are able to commemorate this
day
amidst pomp and fanfare, it is unfortunate that this day, and the
objective
conditions for students in Zimbabwe, demand that this be a day of
critical
reflection by the students movement on the state of our nation and
the
education sector which is now a far cry from what it used to be in post
independent Zimbabwe up to the late 90's.
In the spirit of the
founding commemoration of International Students Day in
1941, which marked
the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the
University of Prague after
demonstrations against the killing of Jan Opletal
and the occupation of
Czechoslovakia, and the execution of nine student
leaders, together with
over 1200 students sent to concentration camps, and
the closing of all
Czechoslovakian universities and colleges, this years
commemoration also
marks the abuse and victimization of student activists to
similarly shocking
proportions, with over 1487 student activists having been
either unjustly
arrested or detained, suspended or expelled this year alone.
The day also
allows us to remember the brutal murders of Batanai Hadzidzi on
the 9th of
April 2001; Lameck Chemvura on the 24th of November the same
year, and the
hundreds of students who have lost their academic lives
because of their
pursuit and dedication to the respect of students and
academic rights, the
right to education and the existence of a just and fair
society in
Zimbabwe.
The Student Solidarity Trust cherishes a free state where
academic freedoms
are not only recognized but respected, and urges the
government of Zimbabwe
to begin appreciating the empowering right that
education is and make it a
central component of our countries developmental
drive.
In the same vein the SST urges the government and Tertiary
education
authorities to desist from unwarranted victimization of student's
activists,
keeping in mind that there cannot be wholesale enjoyment of the
right to
education without the appreciation and respect of students and
academic
rights.
Viva the Right to Education!
Viva students and
academic rights!
Aluta Continua!
Struggle is our birthright!
OUR
OBJECTIVES ARE:
1. To implement Support programs for students victims of
human rights abuses
2. Monitoring and Reporting on Human Rights Abuses in the
Students Movement.
3. Promoting popular participation and social
dialogue.