http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
27 November
2009
The trial of Roy Bennett, the MDC-T deputy Minister of Agriculture
designate, has been adjourned to early next year, exactly ten days after his
trial for terror charges began at the High court in Harare.
Friday
was the last day of business for the High court this year. Bennett's
trial
will continue when the High court resumes sitting for the 2010 legal
year.
Kumbirai Mafunda, communications officer for the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human
Rights, told us that the state's key witness, Peter Hitschman, had
been
lined up to testify in court on Friday.
'I understand that Hitschmann
failed to turn up to court because of a
communication breakdown with the
Attorney-General's office. Our
understanding was that Hitschmann would be
the last state witness to take to
the stand but all that has changed because
he's appearing as witness number
six and not 15,' Mafunda said.
As a
result of the adjournment Bennett's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa,
immediately
applied to the court for the relaxation of his bail conditions
and the
return of his passport. Currently Bennett has to report to the
police once a
fortnight and is restricted from leaving the country.
Judge Chinembiri
Bhunu told both the defence and prosecution teams that he
would inform them
of his ruling on Mtetwa's application sometime next week.
On Tuesday
Bennett described his terrorism trial as an 'absolute farce' and
'a joke'
saying he was frustrated with the slow pace the trial is taking. He
pleaded
not guilty at the start of his trial on 17th November, denying all
charges.
The state, led by Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, is accusing
Bennett of
plotting to overthrow Mugabe by force.
The former Chimanimani coffee
farmer is accused of providing $5,000 to Peter
Hitschmann to buy weapons,
including eight Uzi sub-machineguns, 19 grenades
and six stun grenades. The
state has said the plot was hatched between 2002
and
2006.
Hitschmann, who is the state's key witness, faced similar charges
in 2007
and was acquitted, although he was jailed for two years on lesser
charges of
possession of firearms - even though he is a registered firearms
dealer.
Hitschmann says that when he was arrested he was tortured by state
agents
and forced into making a confession, implicating
Bennett.
Human rights lawyer Gabrial Shumba expressed concern at the slow
pace of
Bennett's trial saying it all fits in well with a ZANU PF grand plan
to
delay his swearing-in because his issue is still a 'sticking point' in
the
talks.
'In legal circles we say justice delayed is justice
denied. This is exactly
what they're doing to Bennett. This is a clear
deliberate ploy to deny him
justice because of his well documented personal
problems with Patrick
Chinamasa, who happens to be the justice minister,'
Shumba said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet Gonda
27
November 2009
Welshman Ncube, the Minister of Industry and Commerce and
one of the
Mutambara MDC negotiators to the talks, said there is no SADC
deadline for
the implementation of the Global Political Agreement. This is
despite
various statements by the MDC-T and Morgan Tsvangirai saying Robert
Mugabe
had been given 30 days to implement the outstanding
issues.
The SADC communiqué issued after a summit of the Troika in
Mozambique on
November 5th said the political parties should engage in
dialogue with
immediate effect, within 15 days and not beyond 30 days. It
said the
dialogue should include all outstanding issues.
But a
statement by the MDC shortly after the SADC summit quotes Tsvangirai
addressing over 30 000 MDC supporters at Chibuku Stadium in Chitungwiza
saying, 'All outstanding issues should be agreed within 15 days and
implemented within 30 days.'
But speaking on the progress of the
negotiations as the deadline approaches,
Ncube said: "That is a creation of
those who grandstand and who are masters
of deception. There never was a
SADC deadline. Those who want to believe
there was, is their problem not
mine. SADC provided a framework."
Speaking on the programme Hot Seat on
Friday Ncube said the SADC resolution
was that the parties were to meet
immediately and after 15 days the
facilitators would review the progress
made. He said after a further 15 days
the facilitators would report to the
SADC chair on the progress of the
talks.
"Then the SADC might then
consider what further assistance or what further
action is required. And in
my vocabulary those are not deadlines, those are
frameworks," Ncube
added.
Last week the MDC-T launched a blistering attack on the
negotiators from the
MDC-M, Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga,
branding them as
'mischievous and insincere' for delaying talks to resolve
the outstanding
issues in the unity government. But Ncube denied this and
described the
allegations as 'nonsensical and idiotic.' He claimed his party
had been the
one pushing for the talks. He said that of the 15 scheduled
days, the two
negotiators were available for most of them, accept for four
because they
had to attend meetings overseas, which were predetermined
before the
framework was set by SADC.
Meanwhile the talks were on
Wednesday adjourned to this weekend because some
of the negotiators from the
different parties have other engagements. Ncube
said the schedule of
meetings takes into account the prior arrangements of
the parties and had to
be adjourned because of various commitments by the
negotiators.
He
said almost all the negotiators were required to attend a cabinet
committee
meeting on Thursday, where Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is
one of the
negotiators for the MDC-T, was providing the framework for the
budget. On
Wednesday ZANU PF's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had a
prior
engagement to travel to Botswana, while Minister Elton Mangoma from
the
MDC-T took time out to attend a bilateral investment protection deal
between
South Africa and Zimbabwe which was finally signed in Harare on
Friday.
Ncube, Misihairabwi-Mushonga and ZANU PF's Nicholas Goche were also
on
Friday travelling to Chirundu to inspect progress on the upgrade at the
Chirundu Border post.
http://www1.voanews.com
Zimbabwe, South Africa sign
long delayed trade deal after last minute
attempt by South African farmers
to stop the agreement from being signed was
settled
Peta Thornycroft
| Harare 27 November 2009
"Negotiations started in 2004 and it has
now taken the inclusive government
to conclude that
process."
Zimbabwe and South Africa have signed a long delayed trade
deal, which
Harare hopes will boost Zimbabwe's beleaguered economy. A last
minute
attempt by South African farmers to stop the agreement from being
signed was
settled late Thursday.
South African farmers whose land
was seized under President Robert Mugabe's
land reforms starting in 2000
were seeking a court order on Thursday from
the Pretoria High Court to stop
the two countries from signing the
investment agreement.
Shortly
before the court was to hear the case, South Africa and the farmers'
unions
reached an agreement.
The farmers wanted the South African government to
recognize a ruling last
year by the Southern African Development Community's
Tribunal, a court of
last resort for the region's citizens. The Tribunal
found that Zimbabwe's
white farmers, including several South Africans, had
suffered racial
discrimination during the land seizures. It ordered that Mr.
Mugabe's
government should pay compensation to those who were evicted from
their
farms.
Both Zimbabwe and South Africa are members of SADC,
but the Mugabe
government says it does not recognize the Tribunal's
ruling.
South African Industry Minister Rob Davies, who was in Harare for
the
signing ceremony, explained the nature of the agreement with the
farmers.
"There was a reference to the SADC Tribunal judgments and an
undertaking on
our side that we would respect those particular judgments.
That is the
essence of the agreement," he said.
He said the
investment protection agreement gave previous and future South
African
investors security in Zimbabwe, with the exception of seized land.
Davies
also said the South African government was committed to the political
agreement signed in September last year by Mr. Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, which
won elections earlier that year. That agreement led to the formation of a
power-sharing government in February.
Elton Mangoma, Zimbabwe's
economic planning and investment promotion
minister, who signed Friday's
investment protection agreement on behalf of
the government, said the
agreement made it possible for Zimbabwe to trade on
equal terms with the
rest of the world.
He said the deal could not have been reached before
the establishment of the
power-sharing government.
"Negotiations
started in 2004 and it has now taken the inclusive government
to conclude
that process," he explained. "For those who do not believe that
the
inclusive government has got a life of its own, which is different from
the
previous government, this is one testimony that they can see that
clearly
things are different," he said.
Both ministers said the bilateral
Investment Promotion And Protection
Agreement would strengthen regional
trade and help rescue Zimbabwe's
shattered economy.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
November
27, 2009
Jan Raath in Harare
The Prime Minister of
Zimbabwe welcomed the prospect of his country's
readmission to the
Commonwealth six years after it withdrew as the heads of
government prepared
to debate the subject at a summit in Trinidad on
Saturday.
Morgan
Tsvangirai, whose Movement for Democratic Change shares power with
President
Mugabe, said that he was "committed to seeing Zimbabwe being
welcomed back
into the family of nations, and I trust that this move by the
Commonwealth
will be matched by similar moves within Zimbabwe to ensure the
restoration
of the rule of law and freedoms for the people".
Ephraim Masawi,
spokesman for Mr Mugabe's ZANU(PF) party, said was not
averse to returning
to the organisation. "It's a club," Mr Masawi said. "If
they think we can
rejoin them, it's entirely up to them."
However, reaction was muted
elsewhere in the capital, where the institution
now seems a distant
memory.
Lawrence Makoka, 17, a senior pupil at Prince Edward School,
Harare's top
state boys' school, knew about the Commonwealth but, he said:
"Growing up
here, the image we have been given is biased - that it is
something Western
and exploitative" - a perception instilled by Mr Mugabe's
relentless
progaganda.
Fellow pupil Mafudzi Chihambakwe knew of the
Queen but he said, "She doesn't
mean much to us."
Moses Kumberanwa,
23, a painter, was blank when I asked how he felt about
Zimbabwe's possible
return to the Commonwealth. The word had a familiar ring
for Stanford
Mukwezhe, 31, a gardener, but nothing more.
Most Zimbabweans have
forgotten that it was the Commonwealth summit with
Margaret Thatcher in
Zambia in 1979 that set up negotiations that led to the
end of a seven-year
war and to independence under President Mugabe five
months later. Or
Zimbabwe's own hosting of the Commonwealth summit in 1991
that produced the
ringing Harare Declaration, establishing the organisation's
foundations as
"democracy, democratic processes and institutions, the rule
of law and the
independence of the judiciary". In 2002 Mr Mugabe trampled
over the same
commitments in that year's savage elections, prompting
Zimbabwe's suspension
from the Commonwealth. An attempt by South Africa's
then president, Thabo
Mbeki, to have the suspension lifted at the summit in
Abuja, Nigeria the
following year was crushed by African, Caribbean and
Asian votes. In a fit
of pique, Mr Mugabe declared Zimbabwe's withdrawal,
declaring that the
Commonwealth was "an English tea party".
Few reminders of the
Commonwealth remain in Zimbabwe. The Cenotaph in Harare
Gardens dedicated to
the "Europeans and Africans of Rhodesia" who fell in
the First World War has
had the bronze plaque bearing their names prised
off. However, in cemeteries
in the cities of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and
Gweru, the graves of
servicemen tended by the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission are islands of
brilliant colour and order in a sea of ruin and
filth.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Correspondent Saturday 28
November 2009
JOHANNESBURG – Giant South African fixed-phone operator
Telkom is said to be
eyeing a 60 percent share of Zimbabwe’s sole operator,
TelOne, it emerged
this week.
TelOne spokesperson Collin Wilbesi on
Thursday confirmed the Zimbabwe
state-run company was negotiating with a
foreign partner, but declined to
give details.
“We are currently
engaged in discussions with some party that we cannot
disclose at the moment
because of the non-disclosure agreement that we have
signed with them. Our
negotiations are at a very advanced stage such that we
would not wish to
jeopardise them by divulging details in the press,”
Wilbesi
said.
South African government sources said Telkom – Africa’s largest
fixed-phone
company with operations in Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia – has
already
conducted due diligence on TelOne.
TelOne managing director
Hampton Mhlanga has said his company is $200 000 in
debt, and at one point
had to block calls from its customers to mobile
operators to manage a
growing interconnect debt.
Sources said the Zimbabwe government is
however reluctant to give Telkom a
controlling stake in the loss-making
parastatal, preferring that the
operator comes in as a technical
partner.
Zimbabwe’s controversial indigenisation laws also mean Telkom
cannot get
more than 49 percent of TelOne. However, Indegenisation Minister
Saviour
Kasukuwere has said the state was open to discussions on the
controversial
empowerment Bill.
A group of 60 South African
businessmen who attended Friday’s signing
ceremony in Harare of an
investment protection agreement between Zimbabwe
and South Africa also held
talks with the government on investment
opportunities. – ZimOnline
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
27 November 2009
Human
rights groups in Zimbabwe have lashed out at football’s world
governing
body, FIFA, for allowing Robert Mugabe to hold the FIFA World Cup
trophy as
it passed through Zimbabwe on Thursday.
The trophy, which symbolises the
ultimate prize for football players in the
world, is on a tour of all 53
African states ahead of the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa. But many human
rights defenders in Zimbabwe criticised FIFA
for handing a ‘propaganda coup’
to Mugabe.
At a ceremony in Harare on Thursday, Mugabe made jokes at the
expense of his
Western critics, while lifting the solid gold cup. Mugabe
used the media
opportunity to lash out at Britain and Germany, in an
apparently
light-hearted manner. He was quoted as saying that “Britain does
not have
any gold, neither does Germany. I am tempted to think that it came
from
Africa, and from Zimbabwe, and was taken away by adventurers who shaped
it
into this cup.”
Mugabe’s comments reportedly raised laughter at a
ceremony attended by
government officials, football fans and journalists at
Harare international
airport. He added: “When I hold the cup, I know all of
you will have the
urge that I should not let it go because this could be our
gold.”
Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union
of
Zimbabwe, said FIFA should not have given Mugabe legitimacy.
He told
the UK’s Guardian newspaper: “It’s a symbol of sporting excellence
and the
trophy every world leader craves to hold in their lifetime. They
could have
sent a political message by keeping it away from Zimbabwe. But
with this
Mugabe was able to say, the World Cup will come and go and he will
still be
there.”
http://www.coastweek.com/xin271109-06.htm
"People
marry to build relationships, not to beat each other" - Men's
rights group
director Leo Wamwanduka
.
HARARE (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has launched
nationwide debates on the issue of
lobola (bride price) to get people's
views on the meaning of lobola and its
link with domestic violence, an
official said on Friday.
Men's rights group Padare/ Enkundhleni director
Leo Wamwanduka said the
decision to hold the discussions emerged from
training that the organisation
carried out in 36 rural districts on gender
based violence and the Domestic
Violence Act early this year.
He said
during the training, it emerged that most men were refusing to treat
women
as equals since they paid lobola to live with them.
"We want to hear
the perspectives of the people on the meaning of lobola
and whether it is a
license to abuse women," he was quoted by local media
New Ziana as
saying.
Wamwanduka said the dialogue was also meant to establish the
historical
perspective of lobola and whether something could be done to
prevent the
practice from causing domestic violence.
Traditionally,
lobola was used as a token between families to build
relationships.
Over the years, the practice has been commercialized
to the extent that
people are using it as a means of acquiring
wealth.
As a result, men are using the payment as justification to
oppress and abuse
women who they view as property which they
bought.
"People marry to build relationships, not to beat each
other," said
Wamwanduka.
Wamwanduka said for the purposes of the
dialogue, the country had been
divided into five regions namely Mashonaland,
Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland
and Matabeleland in order to compare findings
from the different
communities.
He said so far debates had been held
in Mashonaland Central province where
chiefs were gathered at Manhenga
Business Centre in Bindura and in Harare
where it was recorded on the
popular Mai Chisamba television show to be
aired sometime next
week.
"After that we are moving to Bulawayo then Masvingo and we will
finish
with Manicaland," he said.
"We want to reflect as much as
possible the thinking on the ground at
the moment so that we can come up
with results based on evidence," he added.
After the dialogue process,
which is expected to end on Wednesday next week,
the teams would share
results and publish a booklet on their findings.
Women's rights group
Msasa Project said it expected the dialogue to assist
in finding a way
forward on the issue of lobola, whether it should be
discontinued or it
should be reduced.
.
http://www.epolitix.com/
Fri 27th
Nov 2009 | Ben Moody
The main beneficiaries of Zimbabwe's so-called land reform
programme are not
poor, landless peasants but those well-connected to the
Mugabe regime, a
meeting of an all-party parliamentary group was told this
week.
Gertrude Hambara, general secretary of the General Agricultural and
Plant
Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) told the APPG for Zimbabwe that
violent
farm evictions in Zimbabwe benefit only a "rich, political elite and
Mugabe
cronies".
In contrast to the image portrayed by the Mugabe
regime, Ms Hambara reported
that a number of "grabbers" own five to ten
farms already.
Ms Hambara spoke to the APPG on Wednesday as a guest of
the trade union
UNITE.
At the meeting, chaired by Kate Hoey (Lab,
Vauxhall), she reported that the
power-sharing deal between Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has not
halted violent farm evictions.
Ms Hambara said the land reform programme
has now displaced approximately
350,000 farm workers, a number that rises to
two million people when their
families are included in the
count.
These families now face increasingly difficult circumstances. In
addition to
losing their homes and employment, evicted workers lacking a
fixed address
also lose the ability to register to vote. Many end up as
poorly-paid
roaming workers. Vast numbers have emigrated to South Africa
where they live
and work in poor conditions.
Ms Hambara also
discussed the extent of hyperinflation before the recent
adoption of the US
dollar, and displayed a number of Zimbabwean $100 million
notes to the
APPG.
She reported that dollarisation has brought inflation down, but has
created
a dual economy whereby those without access to US dollars cannot
access
foodstuffs and basic medical supplies. Even those in work are paid as
little
as $10 per month.
In response to questions at the end of the
talk, Ms Hambara said that the
MDC needed to move into rural communities
before they become 'no-go areas'.
Harare, November 27, 2009: The United
States Embassy joins Zimbabwe and the
international community in
commemorating World AIDS Day. "On World AIDS
Day, we honor the millions of
people around the world who have been impacted
by the AIDS epidemic - those
who are living with HIV, those who have lost,
and the caregivers, families,
friends and communities who have provided
support," said Katherine Dhanani,
U.S. Embassy Chargé d'Affaires.
As part of activities to mark the occasion,
the Embassy's Public Affairs
Section (PAS) will host a month-long exhibition
featuring images captured by
teenagers in Mutasa District in Manicaland.
The youth went through an
intensive training with American facilitator
Jeremy Jenkins under the
auspices of Nhaka, a non-governmental organization
based in the province.
They were given disposable cameras to shoot images
portraying the shifting
perspectives on HIV and AIDS in their rural
communities. These images will
be on display under the broad theme
"Cultural Crossroads" starting Tuesday,
December 1. The general public is
invited to view the exhibition at PAS on
the 7th floor, Goldbridge, Eastgate
Shopping Center.
On December 10, 2009, the United States Agency for
International
Development (USAID) will honor outstanding Zimbabwean HIV and
AIDS activists
at a ceremony to be held in Harare. This year's event will
mark the ninth
remembrance of the life of Auxillia Chimusoro. Auxillia is
one of the first
persons in Zimbabwe to openly disclose her HIV positive
status, in 1987, at
a time when silence shrouded HIV and AIDS.
The awards
go to organizations and individuals who have demonstrated
commitment and
courage in breaking the silence, reducing stigma and
discrimination, and
caring for infected and affected people. The awards
have attracted interest
across a wide range of players in the health sector.
Past winners of the
Auxillia Chimusoro awards include corporate
organizations, medical
practitioners, religious leaders, artists and
journalists.
As part of the
United States' efforts to combat the spread of HIV in
Zimbabwe, the U.S.
Government, through the President's Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR), has
invested over 200 million dollars since 2000 in Zimbabwe's
health system and
services. The U.S. Government will commit $46 million in
FY 2010 on HIV and
AIDS programming in Zimbabwe.
"The fight against global AIDS is a central
piece of the foreign policy and
global health agenda outlined by the United
States," says Tim Gerhardson,
Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy.
"This U.S. Government Global
Health Initiative will continue my country's
leadership on global health
priorities like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria,
as well as expand our focus
on integrating current programs with those that
address maternal and child
health, family planning and neglected tropical
diseases."
# # #
Contacts: Tim Gerhardson - Public Affairs Officer,
U.S. Embassy, Tel.
+263 4 758800/1
Cary Jimenez, Development Outreach and
Communications Officer, USAID, Tel.
+263 4 252401
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is a man of extremes. His
reactions are very seldom
'middle of the road' - no, he prefers the sublime
or the ridiculous. Nothing
in between.
Either silence or
violence.
If another country's government, or an international body, or a
politician
from the MDC within Zimbabwe has something to say which may have
some
poignancy, Mugabe deigns it beneath his dignity to make a public
response.
This is what I deem his 'silence'.
In the majority of
cases where Mugabe and his party, ZANU PF, bite their
tongues, it is becomes
obvious very quickly thereafter that he or his party
should have said
something. But once they make up their minds, that is it -
end of
story.
Examples of this are pretty easy to find in recent history in
Zimbabwe.
Not that long ago, Mugabe's wife beat up on a photographer in
Hong Kong and
then escaped prosecution by claiming 'diplomatic' immunity.
Not long
thereafter, two security personnel in Hong Kong beat up on another
two
photographers trying to get photos of Mugabe daughter, Bona.
It
now transpires that the two guards were working in Hong Kong on visitor
visas - and, therefore, were working illegally.
Mugabe doesn't say a
word, but has the guards replaced by two others, and
the offenders are flown
home poste haste. In this case, Mugabe expects to
get away with having
people work close security for his daughter - and he
chooses to say
nothing.
If an officer in an armed force orders a junior to commit a
murder, and the
junior does it, who is guilty - the officer or the
junior?
It also transpired not that long ago that the Auditor-General
tendered a
report of huge corruption within one government department, where
laptops,
desktop PC's, vehicles and money were converted to personal use by
ministers - and Mugabe once again chooses to keep quiet.
Would it not
make things a lot clearer if he were to make a public statement
about the
assaults and the illegality of the security personnel - or the
gross theft
going on within his government?
But then we look at the other extreme.
When the first round of the
Presidential election needed to be re-engineered
so that Morgan Tsvangirai
failed to cross the required 50% plus one vote,
Mugabe quietly gave the
green light to ZANU PF thugs - and they set about
terrorising the MDC voter
base.
Over 130 people died in that reign of
terror. Mugabe never said a word in
public - as his party were talking with
their fists, batons and shamboks.
There was no need for a word to be
spoken.
A week before the run-off election, Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew,
citing the
violence as unbearable. Mugabe went on to win a sham one man
election
securing himself, once again, as President of
Zimbabwe.
Violence has been used in the land grab, where many people have
been killed
by the invaders. Farmers, workers - and yet Mugabe has never
said one word
to stop the illegal activity - and no one has ever been
brought to book for
the killings.
If something threatens to go
against the ZANU PF protocol, we hear the war
veterans, or the army or the
youth militia stating that they will go to war
with the people.
And
Mugabe says nothing to stop the announcements, nor to prevent any
subsequent
action on the ground.
It all has his tacit authority.
This is how
Mugabe rules Zimbabwe - by silence or violence.
Robb WJ Ellis
The
Bearded Man
http://mandebvhu.instablogs.com/entry/silence-or-violence/
http://www.swradioafrica.com
OUTSIDE
LOOKING IN -
Dear Friends,
After
weeks of zero activity and near-paralysis on the 'Talks' front, on
Thursday
came the announcement that President Zuma has appointed three new
facilitators, to 'speed up the talks' we are told. After the complete news
blackout that had shrouded the talks, this development must be a welcome
respite for the hungry hacks, starved of any hard news for so long. Even the
venue for the talks was top-secret and wild stories that the parties were
changing the venue for the talks every day had journalists following
ministerial cars in a desperate attempt to find out just where they were
meeting. Wild speculation had taken the place of hard news and the
long-suffering Zimbabwean people - at home and abroad - were reduced once
again to mere spectators as their future was decided behind closed
doors.
Meanwhile the Zanu PF negotiators, under instructions from their
wily boss
no doubt, had sneaked in another condition for the MDC team to
meet before a
settlement of the outstanding issues could be reached.
Anything to delay the
process is Mugabe's unspoken agenda! As well as
getting rid of US and EU
imposed Sanctions, 'Pirate radio stations'
broadcasting from outside
Zimbabwe must be dismantled! It is the MDC's
responsibility, claims the Zanu
PF team not only to remove Sanctions but
now, they must also close down
these dratted 'Pirates' operating outside the
country. And who are these
fearsome 'pirates'? Why, none other than SW Radio
broadcasting from London
and VOA from Washington, they are the dreaded
'pirates' operating on the
high seas and spreading lies and disinformation
about Zimbabwe - or that's
what Zanu PF would have us believe! What they
really want, of course, is to
be the only voice Zimbabweans can listen to,
the one they hear from the ZBC.
In the absence of the Media Commission, the
setting up of which was clearly
laid out as one of the conditions of the
GPA, Zanu PF still has complete
control of the media, and that's just what
they want to keep in their
vice-like grip. Regardless of the fact that there
are 15 hour power cuts
going on daily, the Zanu PF chefs still choose to
believe that the
Zimbabwean people are faithfully listening to ZBC and
swallowing the lies
and propaganda. What the zanies have failed to grasp is
that Zimbabweans of
all classes are desperate to hear the truth about what
is happening in their
country and the only places they can do that is with
the wicked 'Pirate
Radio Stations'. Exactly how the MDC can silence these
'Pirates' is not
clear. I have visions of pitched battles aboard the good
ship SW Radio with
the pirate chief Gerry Jackson and her First Mate, the
redoubtable Violet
Gonda, plus all the rest of her swashbuckling crew in
bandanas, armed with
cutlasses fighting off Captain Morgan and his MDC team
as he boards the
illegal vessel and attempts to gain control of the
microphone! It is a
laughable image but it illustrates the nonsensical claim
from Zanu PF that
the MDC has the power to close down radio stations - or
get international
Sanctions lifted for that matter.
All I know is
that here in the diaspora, without SW Radio, I would never
hear the real
news from home, good and bad. Zimbabwe barely features in the
British papers
any more and the BBC is strangely silent on the subject
despite their
'agreement' with Zanu PF's Minister of Information that they
were free to
cover all parts of the country. Without SW Radio, I would never
have heard
in such detail the joyous news of President Obama's presentation
of the
Robert F. Kennedy Award to our wonderful Woza women. Without SW
Radio, I
would not have heard the awful news that my old home town is once
again
under threat from the Green Bombers, I would not have heard the actual
words
of the Zanu PF member who told the residents of the town that they
could
expect another jambanja if they failed to accept the Kariba draft, "If
you
hear screams in the night, don't go outside." was his blood-curdling
advice.
And without SW Radio, the trial of Roy Bennett would not be fully
reported
and I would never hear the truth about the ongoing and horrific
farm
invasions -something else which the BBC has failed to cover.
In the five
years since I left Zimbabwe, SW Radio Africa has been my
lifeline and for
all my friends and family at home the same is true. The
only thing that
could make it an even more valuable source of news is if
Gerry Jackson and
her 'pirate' crew were to be allowed to broadcast from
inside the country.
Will the arrival of these new South African appointees
bring that day any
nearer? Will they, Mac Maharaj, Lindiwe Zulu and Charles
Nquakulu, be able
to bring some urgency to the near- moribund negotiations
going on in Harare?
An agenda has been agreed, so we are told, which
includes no less than
twenty items and time is passing, just 10 days before
the SADC deadline
expires. With the 2010 World Cup getting nearer by the
week, South Africa
needs to see the Zimbabwean problem solved before
visitors from all over the
world start to arrive. Perhaps, as with Ian Smith
decades ago, it will be
South Africa who forces the dictator to loosen his
grip and accept reality
at last? Once again, we wait and hope.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle
PH. aka Pauline Henson author of Case
Closed published in Zimbabwe by Mambo
Press, Going Home and Countdown
political detective stories set in Zimbabwe
and available from Lulu.com and
Amazon.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Mutumwa Mawere Saturday 28 November
2009
OPINION: The world has gone through a significant correction
whose real
effect has been to test humanity's confidence in the ability of
free markets
to support and underpin human development.
The world as
we knew it last year has significantly changed.
There has been a great
deal of economic dislocation to billions of people
and Africans have not
been spared.
The vulnerable people at the bottom of the opportunity
ladder who do not
have any financial strategic defence shield to buy
themselves out of the
devastating and unprecedented effects of the global
financial meltdown are
more exposed today than at any time in human
history.
In the post-Cold War era, we all had come to look to the
American system as
the model for human development and the theatre for
trusted financial
engineering innovations.
With the collapse of the
socialist economic system, the supremacy of the
market as an instrument for
delivering sustainable growth appeared to be
unchallengeable.
We all
know what the absence of markets can produce.
If there was any doubt of
the inappropriateness of non-market instruments in
resource allocation and
efficiency, our recent history offers many lessons
on how to build enduring
nations and how to squander opportunities.
In fact, the emergence of the
BRIC (Brazil, India and China) countries as
economic powerhouses has to be
located in a seismic shift in terms of
ideological thinking.
Even the
Chinese knew acutely well that the promise was to be found in
opening the
economic system to competition underpinned by a constructive
loosening of
the socialist clenched fist.
The Cultural Revolution had a real and
negative impact of human development
and yet its architects were convinced
that social engineering could produce
the same if not superior outcomes than
a market-based system.
At a time when consensus was beginning to emerge
that free markets could
provide the kind of answers that address human
development challenges, the
crisis visited the world with its genesis in the
very citadels of a model
that people had come to take for granted as the
compass for reducing the
frontiers of poverty.
Although our
collective confidence in the efficacy of the market system has
been dented,
there is no doubt that the system has produced historic results
transforming
a population of 300 million in America into the world's most
powerful
political and economic machine.
The market has also lifted about 500
million people out of poverty in the
last 20 years.
Although the
relationship between Africa and the market system has not been
a healthy and
sustained one, we can safely conclude that the continent's
future lies in
integrating its promise with the rest of the global family of
nations than
pursuing inward looking strategies.
More significantly we also now know
that notwithstanding its limitations,
market-driven development offers a
more secure and brighter future than a
state engineered future.
It
cannot be disputed that no society can prosper without a thriving private
sector and even in the face of global ideological confusion; Africa cannot
swim against what has been universally proved to be a working and reliable
poverty reduction instrument.
As we try to put meaning to the current
global challenges, we must take
comfort in drawing a conclusion that a
positive and synergistic relationship
between people and markets in
necessary for sustained growth and
development.
Human civilisation
has failed to provide any alternative viable arrangement.
In searching
for an Africa that can secure our future and offer promise, we
can only draw
lessons from other nations that have walked the path to a
better and more
secure future.
We have seen market behaviour that can undermine markets
and public interest
exposing the many who can least afford to respond to the
consequences.
The market system needs to be informed not just by the rule
of law but also
by an economic morality that has been found wanting in
developed states.
This is the core of the Africa Heritage Society www.africaheritage.com ideal
and
our continent's future must be underpinned by rule of law and respect
for
property and human rights and more significantly by a fair and just
system
of governance.
Like the global economic system, Africa needs to be better
governed not just
by good constitutions and laws but by ethics
too.
We all wish the best for Africa and yet many are not prepared to be
the
change that they want to see. We want to be better governed and yet
rarely
do we want to impact on the governance process.
Yes,
post-colonial Africa like its precursor has invested in fear to the
extent
that citizens are afraid to speak their minds.
The effect of the global
economic meltdown has been to shift the locus of
economic power to emerging
markets some of which have not invested in an
alternative value system that
responds to the known ills of the current
model.
Can China, for
example, guarantee the freedoms that we have generally seen
in the West? Can
India, for example, be expected to transform its concept of
citizenship
beyond what looks Indian in as much as Europe has had to live
with mosques,
for instance?
What kind of financial and economic system do we want in
Africa? This
question should form part of our daily conversations because in
responding
to it we can better manage our present and future with more
clarity and
conviction.
We have seen what a market system can produce
and also what an alternative
to a market system can also produce.
We
can make choices and Africa's brain trust has tended to migrate to
countries
where there is a perception of security.
We have yet to see mass exodus
from Africa to China, for example. This is
not accidental but a reflection
of real human risk perceptions.
Our decision makers in corporate Africa
have to pause and think about what
kind of society they want to
see.
We have to accept the encroachment of the state in markets and if no
investment is made on improving political governance and the relationship
between market and state actors, the future of Africa will be greatly
compromised.
Our knowledge of money and its role in human development
has to improve as
we seek to reshape Africa's confused and uncertain
future.
We need a new values-based approach to development in Africa in
the face of
the fundamental challenges that we confront including --
widespread poverty
and inequality, climate change, pressure on natural
resources, and conflict.
We can respond to these challenges if we are
better organised and in
partnership.
I have come to the conclusion
that in the quest for human development it is
risky to trust any person let
alone a leader to do what one cannot do for
oneself.
What we know is
that working together there is no mountain that is not
scalable with effort
and determination. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
27th
Nov 2009 21:18 GMT
By Chenjerai
Chitsaru
MONTHS AGO, a number of senior army officers died - literally
one after each
other. One particular officer met his death at a rail
crossing. His wife has
been raising hell over his death. She has virtually
accused the government
of President Robert Mugabe of killing him.
She
inserted advertisements in the government's own newspapers, raising
doubts
about the cause of her husband's death. In one reply to the
accusations, the
goertnment insisted the man had died in an accident.
Period.
Most
people, long suspicious of Zanu PF's and the government's respect or
the
truth, sympathized with the general's wife. They also expressed
suspicion
that there had been an attempted coup.
The accident deaths of the army
officers were not mishaps. A few people
decided the government could kill
army officers, why would it hesitate to
kill them, mere civilians and mostly
liberation credentials?
Then just a few weeks ago, a number of soldiers
were reportedly picked up
after a massive theft of rifles in an armory. One
of them was sentenced to
15 years in jail.
A number were to be
court-martialed.for their part in the theft of the
submachine
guns.
The soldiers are fed up: they are not being fed enough or being
paid enough.
There has been no coup in Zimbabwe since independence. But
there have been
attempted coups.
One reason cited unofficially by the
disgruntled soldiers is the corruption
in high places - among politicians
and the top military brass. So, Mugabe's
government is not only unpopular
with the bulk of he civilian population -
their vote against him and Zanu PF
in 2008 is eloquent testimony of that.
The unpopularity has spread to the
uniformed forces.
In plain language, the targets of the Zanu PF's
assassination squads are
both soldiers and civilians, including the former
ZTV cameraman Edward
Chikomba. He was targeted speciorically because he aws
seen as having turned
against Zanu PF - and joined the MDC.
In spite
of all this murder and mayhem,, Zanu PF insists it is on the right
path,
"right enough" to expect the people to vote for it against the
opposition in
any election. The insult to the intelligenceof the people is
staggering.
In most political systems, it is not unusual for the
chief players - and
even the bit players - to take the people for granted.
In Zimbabwe , Zanu PF
and the government have been hard at work, trying to
sell us the fiction
that the media - its newspapers and the electronic media
- are entirely
balanced in their coverage.
I was reminded of the
amazing contention by an independent newspaper
columnist that Zimpapers was
owned by the people. Its newspapers, by such a
definition, were to serve the
people -all the people, regardless of their
political
inclination.
Incredibly, this suggested the newspapers were answerable to
the people, in
general. This was a naïve contention.
Since 1981, when
the government took over all the levers of national
communication, nobody
has been continued in that job if they so much as
hinted the journalist's
job was to decide what was news and what was not.
That decision was
wrested from the editors. It now belonged to the Minister
of Information or
his minions.
In the Soviet Union , Izvestia was said to serve "the people's
interests"
similar function, rather than Pravda (The Truth) which was the
party
newspaper. But there was no difference between the two - they were
lapdogs
of one-party The System.
Imagine the head of the state-run
ZBC-TV squandering people's precious by
trying to convince them that that
lapdog of a network is balanced. There can
be only be a handful of people in
the entire nation who sincerely believe
every bulletin on State radio and
television bristles with genuinely news.
This is the news that people can
listen to with riveted attention, for its
originality, its lack of bias, its
topicality.
Happison Muchechetere became increasingly strident as he
tried to defend his
outfit. For moment, he sounded as if he would scream at
us: "What other kind
of fairness can you expect us to dis out? We are
government owned , for
heaven's sake! We are not Studio 7 or the old Joy TV
which once featured a
full-length interview with Morgan Tsvangirai when he
was not even in the
government?
Muchechetere is a genuine war
veteran. I doubt if he can conceive of radio
and TV station which doesn't
take its orders from Shake Shake building and
State House. This, to him, it
would only be an imperialist network,
controlled by London, Washington,
Paris, Berlin and Ottawa, apart from Rome,
Canberra, Auckland and other
cities such as Rome, Warsaw, Vienna, Oslo,
Stockholm and
Copenhagen
Muchechetere came back from the war loaded to the ears with
knowledge about
journalism "in the bush". This is the kind that is
one-dimensional. In
civilian life, he started working for the government
media and has never
branched out of there, or smelt the coffee of
independent journalism, as it
is understood to mean that which was not
controlled by the government.
independent journalism, as understood to mean
that which was not controlled
by the He is a loyal party cadre: he is
someone whose view of journalism is
that it must serve only the interests of
government and the party.
The Zanu PF hierarchy has always believed in
that doctrine, of the
Marxist-Leninist. Mugabe is particularly aghast at any
suggestion that there
must an independent media working in a country as
freely as the government
media.
The Access to Information and
Protection of Pirivacy Act (AIPPA) was crafted
for that purpose. The
widespread expectation among libertarians that AIPPA
is to be repealed is
understandable. But it might be misplaced.
The government media is
patently Zanu PF. News of the two MDC formations is
rare. If it is
published, it is either negative or scandalous. There is
little the MDC can
do to counter this open bias. Once in a while, one of the
formations puts
out a free news bulletin on its own perspective of what the
real news is.
It's mostly sold out whenever it appears. This is not
surprising. It
circulates in he cities and does not match the Zimpapers
titles in
circulation.
Zanu PF is not subtle in its aim of scandalising the MDC
reputation as an
election looms. The question if this campaign getting
dirtier need not be
speculated on for long. It is bound to happen. Zanu PF
is aware there is no
magical formula it can employ to turn the tide against
the opposition
parties. But it will try and thereby hangs the real
possibility of the
campaign getting dirtier.
The likelihood of the
country being plunged into a Somali-like scenario
ismnot so remote. Zanu PF
has to be naïve to believe that, this time around,
the MDC will just lie
down and die.