Solidarity Peace Trust Initial Thoughts on the Matabeleland
Constitutional Outreach Experience By Shari Eppel – Solidarity Peace Trust We invite you to participate in discussion stimulated by this article by following this link and submitting comments on this or other essays included in the section on our website known as the Zimbabwe Review. You may also respond via email: please send your comments to discussion@solidaritypeacetrust.org. Please note that some comments may be selected for publication on our website alongside the article to further stimulate debate. The views and impressions expressed in this article are those of the author alone and in no way claim to represent the official views of COPAC itself. I have on my desk, a silver, two-shilling, 1947, Southern Rhodesia King George VI coin, and two big copper pennies with holes in the middle, one from 1949 (Southern Rhodesia) and one from 1956 (Rhodesia and Nyasaland). These are prized souvenirs of my time in a COPAC outreach team, physical memorabilia for one of many fascinating memories that my trips into the farthest corners of rural Matabeleland have left me enriched by. I came by these coins in a remote rural village (that shall be kept nameless to protect its inhabitants) where we had a very outspoken and ebullient meeting with around 150 people, unbelievably squashed into one school classroom. It was one of those windy days that one gets in late winter, ahead of the rains – gusting dust across a dry and barren landscape. People in this area harvested very little last year, there is no grazing left now, and every living creature is hungry and waiting for the rains – desperately waiting for them. As was our usual experience, scores of people were patiently sitting in the sparse shade of the thorn trees, looking out for our convoy of four 4x4s to arrive from Bulawayo to give them their turn to speak out, to tell us what they wanted a new Zimbabwean constitution to say. We also, predictably, had the usual clutch of plain-clothes police and secret police, who had arrived in a vehicle ahead of us. This was a typical COPAC gathering for Matabeleland – out of well over one hundred participants, only sixteen people were visibly aged under twenty five, with the majority aged over fifty, and a good smattering of octogenarians. There is simply a missing generation out there – nearly all the young adults have gone to Johannesburg or elsewhere in search of work. Many people were skeletally thin. Most were dressed in their best, in recognition of the importance of the occasion – old suits held together with careful, obvious stitches on the corners of pockets and along the frayed ends of jacket sleeves; beautiful but often thread-bare dresses, along with coats and scarves. Some had shoes that were so cracked and torn that it was hard to believe that they still remained on a pair of feet. A scattering of mostly very well behaved babies sat on their mothers’ laps, breastfeeding and dozing, and occasionally coughing with that hacking cough of winter. As the meeting progressed the numbers swelled, as people who had walked many kilometers to be there finally arrived, and as word spread that the COPAC team really had arrived for the advertised meeting. And towards the end of the meeting, as evening approached, women began to filter out, to go and begin cooking what could well have been the only meal for that day, before the light disappeared entirely, leaving them in the electricity-less dark of their huts. This particular grouping was anxious to speak out immediately – they were unstoppable in their opinions on everything. From the minute the national anthem was over, they began to express their views on how they were being governed. They were angry, but in a polite and orderly fashion. One after another, they stood up and blamed the government for their poverty, for their lack of development, for the fact that their children had all had to leave the area in order to survive, and had had precious little schooling in the last few years. There were no skills training opportunities locally, there were no jobs, there was no food, there had been no government sponsored development projects of any kind since 1968… Yes, but in view of all this, what therefore do you want to see in the constitution, they were constantly reminded. What should the constitution say about your rights? about youth? about empowerment? about the media? We want a constitution that does not let one person stay in power for thirty years! We want a constitution that gives us compensation for Gukurahundi – we were murdered in this region more than twenty years ago, and there are widows and orphans from those years that have remained poor all their lives because of these murders! Yes, yes! – this angry man had very obvious support, he was being egged on by many of those present. An old man stood up with the aid of his walking stick and announced – I am more than seventy years old, and have no birth certificate. I lost it many, many years back and went to (main town in district) and was told that I must go to Harare to get a long birth certificate. To Harare! He waves his stick in disgust. How am I supposed to get money to go to Harare? I now accept that I shall die without a birth certificate – at my age! As if I had never been born. He sat down. A woman put her hand up and then related that when her old mother went to the local government offices to apply for a passport, she was shouted at by a Shona-speaking youngster who ordered her to speak Shona. She could not, and so left the office in confusion. This is Matabeleland, the woman politely pointed out to us, government officials must speak to us in our language, in SiNdebele! We want a constitution that says this. We want our children taught in their first language up to grade seven – and we want local radio stations in our language. Some people here speak Kalanga and others elsewhere in Matabeleland speak Tonga, and Venda and Sotho. They must all have radio stations, and schools, in their languages. One of the few young men present, made a point about empowerment – we want local jobs for local people, and we want local control of our resources. Why do people come from Harare and show a paper that they say is permission from the government to chop down our trees, in this district so far from Harare? They do not even employ locally, they bring outsiders to chop our trees! And wild animals like elephants have more rights than we do – they trample our crops, even our children, but we cannot kill them, by law. An old woman stood with difficulty, and smoothed down her skirt. We think we should be able to send someone from our village to Harare to see how the national budget is drawn up, and to make sure those who draw up the budget understand our needs. How is it that every year there is a government budget for roads, and schools and clinics, yet we have never seen any of these things built in our area, for how many years? Maybe they don’t know that we need these things. And so on, and so on. Our rapporteurs consulted and translated these issues into ‘constitution-speak’: language rights, minority rights, cultural rights, local rights, media rights, freedom from torture and murder, the right to compensation after government abuse – and the big one – devolution of power. People across the Matabeleland region expressed their frustration and indignation at the lack of accessibility to official services locally, the centralisation of power and processes in Harare, the opaque nature of decision making, far away, around issues that intimately affected their daily lives. The overwhelming request was for greater powers for local authorities, and local control of expenditure in the provinces across the board. Will the COPAC findings result in a constitution written by “the people”? To be honest, it has never been my conviction that “the people” and the monumental 30,000 pages of rapporteurs’ reports, were really going to contribute more than marginally to a new constitution. Ultimately, lawyers and politicians are going to sit around many tables, and argue for possibly many months, about what should be in our new constitution. This will be a continuation of a discussion that has been going on for over a decade that has involved civics and all political parties since the National Constitutional Assembly first made a new constitution a national issue in the 1990s. It is in fact almost nonsensical to talk of ordinary people writing a constitution. At a meeting where the COPAC team had just asked what “the people’s opinion” was, in relation to the offices of the ombudsman and the comptroller general, an old man pointed out – it is as if you have just described to me a new food that I have never heard of, or seen, and then asked me how I like the taste! Most people at our meetings had no idea of what the difference was between an ‘Independent’ and an ‘Executive’ Commission, which commissions currently existed, or how their members should be appointed. They had no clue as to how judges are currently appointed and therefore could only guess on the spur of the moment how they should be appointed in the future. Is it on the basis of such guesses and wondrous exclamations that our constitution should be written? On the other hand, certain broad trends that are relevant to our future constitution were clear after listening to what “the people” had to say. For example, while a full range of opinions were expressed over time, the emphatic trends in our meetings were the desire for devolution of power to provincial governments, and a dominating idea that all government positions at national and provincial level should be filled either through elections, or by appointment of parliament – and not the president. And as already illustrated in the earlier description in this article, people have ideas of what should be in a Bill of Rights. Yet it is equally clear that these broad trends have varied considerably depending on which province in Zimbabwe was expressing the opinions, and depending also on how free people felt to speak out. The COPAC experience has been far from uniform – and much of the independent media reporting has exposed the atmosphere of fear and intimidation in which many outreach meetings were held, in Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland – and which we in Matabeleland were luckily spared. In Harare, some meetings over the weekend of 30 October once again degenerated into a ZANU controlled farce. How then, is it going to be possible to reconcile the often very opposed and oppressed opinions that have come to the fore nationally? These opinions will simply become the fodder for the teams of lawyers, who will use their very general prevalence to lobby for their particular viewpoints during those months of round table negotiations. But as a constitutional lawyer recently pointed out to me, constitutions are not written to protect the rights of majorities, but to protect minorities and the powerless. Writing a constitution is not a process where the numerically dominant view automatically has to prevail; the principles that best protect the rights and needs of all people are what should be included, not the possibly repressive, power hungry position of a controlling majority. Choosing principles for a constitution should not be about “vote counting” but about weighing up which systems are most democratic, and would allow all people including minorities, a strong say in their own governance. But, in our intensely polarised Zimbabwe, each political party will try to push whichever version of a constitution favours its own power base, and principles of inclusivity and fairness are in danger of being pushed to one side for short-term political gain. This obsession with short-term gains rather than the two-hundred-year perspective was very clear during the outreach exercise. People seemed unable to think beyond the next election, and which system would most benefit their party in that election. When ZANU PF supporters argued for the continuation of a supreme president with sweeping powers, I couldn’t help wondering if it ever crossed the corners of their minds that the next, all powerful president just might not be from ZANU PF, and whether, in that event, they might regret him having enormous powers? Similarly, when MDC supporters argued for a 24 hour hand-over/take-over after elections – and ZANU PF argued for a six month hand-over/take-over, I again wondered if anyone was really thinking beyond the next election and to all the elections thereafter. While MDC supporters may shout – out, out, the president must just go, same day as the election result – I wonder if they will be still saying that in a hypothetical six or ten or twelve years, when it may be their president who must “just go”. And would ZANU PF in that latter situation be arguing for him to stay another six months to ensure a smooth transition…? It is to be hoped that cool, calm constitutional experts with a longer perspective will play a role in our constitution-making…. What did the COPAC outreach achieve, if anything? Our constitution will of course be the product of political compromise, as bearing in mind the balance of political powers in the current unity government, all three principles will have to agree to it, however grudgingly, before it is put to public referendum. No single party can carry the 66% majority vote needed in parliament to adopt a new constitution, and therefore by the time a draft appears in the public eye, the political horse-trading will have already been done. If it is horse-trading that will indubitably decide our constitutional future, what then has been the benefit, if any, of COPAC outreach? Here, I can speak only from personal observation, resulting from three months of almost daily outreach meetings. In spite of the presence of police and CIO, each of our Matabeleland meetings ended with a tangible burst of excitement and relief, as people filed out with a sense, at the very least, of having spoken out without being told that this, or that, was something that they could not say. People in our region experienced the power of cartharsis, as they stood up and recited tales of frustration and despair while others listened, and these small moments of ‘truth telling” certainly left outreach teams with a clear message and hopefully gave those who spoke out a sense of being heard, which can be beneficial in and of itself. These remote communities had never before had an official delegation, including members of parliament, sit and listen to them without judgement for hours on end, simply asking questions and writing down what they said. MPs and other ‘important’ people might on rare occasions have appeared previously, but this would have mostly been in the context of political rallies, where people would have been lectured at, and given the usual false promises. COPAC allowed ordinary folk to turn the tables, to lecture and pronounce back at officials for once in their lives, and to criticise those who make false promises and abuse them. Furthermore, people who showed up at our COPAC meetings and sat through twenty-six “talking points” left with a more developed sense of what is included in a constitution, and of how a nation is governed. It was not the role of COPAC to offer detailed civic education. This should have been done prior to COPAC by civics, but by and large was not, partly owing to lack of political space in large parts of the country, and owing also to civic misgiving over the process, which meant that many organisations held back. Nonetheless, every COPAC meeting was a crash course in the constitution, exposing many people for the first time to the idea of separation of powers, and to the existence of various structures and checks and balances that are supposed to make states accountable. “New foods” were briefly described to audiences hungry to hear about them. Every COPAC meeting was video recorded and tape-recorded. This means that an incredibly rich archive now exists, which – in our region at least – has captured on a wide scale the preoccupations of ordinary people in 2010: their daily vexations, their assumptions and preconceptions about government, about the police, about citizenship, land, war veterans and traditional leaders. And many of these opinions were surprising. A gold mine of reference material now exists, much of which is more relevant to social historians and humanitarian agencies than to those who write constitutions, and it is to be hoped that in due course, once the constitutional exercise is well over, this material will be made available to scholars and policy makers across a broad spectrum. In parts of the country beyond Matabeleland, where many outreach meetings were reportedly highly repressed, resulting even in violence on occasions , one lesson at least is clear from COPAC – the political space to hold an election simply does not exist, if a simple meeting to gather views around the constitution is not possible without thuggery and intimidation. Further observations The overwhelming impression carried away from one remote Matabeleland village after another was the profound alienation of ordinary people from the body-politic, and their very clear and unambiguous perception that their grinding poverty should be laid at the doors of those who have (badly) governed them for all the decades of their lives – both pre and post independence. It is not my conviction that anything is going to change in the lives of Zimbabwe’s poorest rural dwellers any time soon. Certainly a new constitution will change little on the ground, however wonderful or otherwise the final draft may be. A constitution is a piece of paper, and while it can lay an important foundation for governance, it will require many significant shifts in socio-economic conditions before life advances for most Zimbabweans. Democratisation consists of so much more than a constitution, it needs a state that cares enough to enforce the Bill of Rights, to provide quality health care and education and food to all citizens, to ensure a country in which economic expansion can provide work for generations of youngsters to come – and many other things. The people who gathered to speak to us were poor, mostly extremely so, and many appeared to have a deep-seated awareness that they currently had no control over whatever-out-there might change that for their children. The desire to make it very clear to COPAC how national policy has driven the already poor into worse poverty was demonstrated graphically at that late winter gathering in Matabeleland, where we began this account. An old man rose up very deliberately in the middle of the meeting and came up to the front tables. As he walked towards us, he fished deep into his pockets, and by the time he reached us, his hands were full of coins and notes of all descriptions. These he thrust down in front of us, stood back and pointed at them – a pile of worthless Zimbabwe coins and notes of every denomination – the old ‘bearer cheques’ and the ones that came before and after these – hundreds, thousands, millions and billions in obsolete currency. How is it possible, he asked, for a man to have so much money in his pocket and to be starving? How is it possible for a man to be so rich and yet to have no money to buy food? This is what Zimbabwe has done to us. Behind him people laughed and cheered in appreciation and identification, as we did too. This was not the first time our COPAC team had been reminded that people have huts full of worthless notes, but the first time it had been so graphically illustrated. This was clearly a long planned and deeply felt statement. The old man must have thought about it for days when he heard COPAC was coming. He must have gathered up his junk money and deliberately brought it to the meeting and then sat there, waiting for his moment to throw it down and express his indignation. I was staring fascinated at all these coins, when I spied the three – the silver two-shilling piece and the two pennies. I commented, and asked to meet the old man after the meeting. I explained that some people collected such old coins and I would take his name and address and look up the value on the internet for him, and get in touch in the future. This I did, and established the worth of the silver two-shillings and the pennies. In due course, I arranged to swop ‘real’ money for these collector’s items. Now I have these three coins on my desk, to remind me every day of how people who deserve better have been abused by their governments over the decades, of how honest, hard working men and women have seen their frugal savings turned to dust. These coins also remind me of the dreams, aspirations and frustrations of the thousands of Zimbabweans we met, and who hope, although not always with conviction, that a new constitution might change the future for them – or that COPAC might, at the very least, convey their heartfelt disempowerment up the ladder of control.
For further information, please contact Selvan Chetty - Deputy Director, Solidarity Peace Trust Email: selvan@solidaritypeacetrust.org Tel: +27 (39) 682 5869 Address: Suite 4 |
(AFP) – 5 hours
ago
JERUSALEM — Members of the Kimberley Process diamond watchdog began
talks in
Jerusalem on Monday over whether to allow Zimbabwe to resume
exports of the
gemstone from its controversial Marange fields.
The
organisation, which is meant to ensure diamonds are "conflict free,"
suspended its certification of the Marange fields last year, over claims of
forced labour and torture at the gem mines.
But it agreed in July to
allow Zimbabwe to export two shipments of diamonds
if Kimberley Process
monitors were given access to the Marange fields.
"The Zimbabwe issue is
still not resolved, hopefully they will reach a
decision this time," said
Sharon Gefen, spokeswoman for the Israeli Diamond
Industry, which is hosting
the meeting in Jerusalem.
"Over the last month, they sent one new fact
finding mission to see if
everything was in accordance with the Kimberley
Process, and they will
present their findings this week," she told
AFP.
Ahead of the meeting, Human Rights Watch called on the organisation
to ban
all diamond exports from Zimbabwe "until the government makes clear
progress
in ending abuses and smuggling."
The New York-based rights
group said research carried out between July and
September showed large
parts of the Marange fields remained under the
control of Zimbabwe's
military, which was smuggling diamonds and abusing
local
workers.
"The government made a lot of promises, but soldiers still
control most
diamond fields and are involved in illicit mining and
smuggling," HRW Africa
director Rona Peligal said in a
statement.
"Zimbabwe should mine its diamonds without relying on an
abusive military
that preys on the local population."
The meeting,
which brings together some 300 delegates from 75 countries is
expected to
announce a decision on Thursday afternoon.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
01
November 2010
Human rights groups are demanding that a ban on Zimbabwe’s
controversial
Chiadzwa diamonds be upheld, as a meeting that will decide the
country’s
trade future got underway on Monday.
Members of the
Kimberley Process (KP), the certification scheme started to
end the trade in
‘blood diamonds’ are meeting in Jerusalem this week, and
Zimbabwe is once
again top of the agenda. The group is under pressure to
reach a final
decision on Zimbabwe’s trade future, with KP members still
bickering over
whether to allow full exports to resume.
Sales from the Chiadzwa region,
where possibly the richest alluvial diamond
deposit in the world has been
discovered, were barred over rampant human
rights atrocities there. In 2006
the then ZANU PF regime forcibly took over
the fields from the private
mining firm and, using the military, brutally
clamped down on the entire
area. The result has been violence, death, forced
labour, and
smuggling.
Despite pressure to completely suspend Zimbabwe from trade,
the KP instead
decided to give the government time to fall in line with
international
standards and clean up its act at Chiadzwa. Earlier this year,
an agreement
was eventually reached between the government and the KP to
auction two
batches of stockpiled Chiadzwa diamonds, under monitoring
conditions. This
was meant to pave the way for a return to full exports, and
the meeting in
Jerusalem this week is set to make this decision.
But
human rights group have warned that the abuses at the hands of the
military
are still ongoing, and are calling for the KP to uphold a ban on
sales until
there is significant change. New York based Human Rights Watch
is leading
the calls, and on Monday said the Zimbabwe government must make
“clear
progress in ending abuses and smuggling.”
The group’s Africa Director,
Rona Peligal, told SW Radio Africa on Monday
that the government has not
fulfilled its promises to the KP, by refusing to
withdraw the military from
Chiadzwa. She said that “research from July
through September found that
large parts of the diamond fields remain under
the control of the Zimbabwe
Defence Force soldiers, who harass and
intimidate the local community and
engage in widespread diamond smuggling.”
Last year the government agreed
to a phased withdrawal of the armed forces
from the diamond fields, and for
a monitor to examine and certify that all
shipments of diamonds from
Chiadzwa met KP standards.
“The government made a lot of promises, but
soldiers still control most
diamond fields and are involved in illicit
mining and smuggling,” said
Peligal. “Zimbabwe should mine its diamonds
without relying on an abusive
military that preys on the local
population.”
Peligal also raised concerns that that the firms currently
mining Chiadzwa,
in partnership with the mining parastatal the Zimbabwe
Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC) have clear connections to
ZANU PF.
Peligal said this supports fears that diamond proceeds are being
used to
prop up the Robert Mugabe regime further, and that the proceeds
“will be
used to fund political violence ahead of the next elections.”
Mines
Minister Obert Mpofu has insisted that the government has met all the
minimum standards set by the KP, and that the Ministry is ready to resume
full exports immediately. The Minister has already made plans to exchange
US$1.2 billion worth of rough stones to an Indian diamond consortium, in
return for training. However the MDC Minister, who is Mpofu’s Deputy in the
Unity Government, has raised questions about this deal.
The deal was
signed by the newly formed Zimbabwe Diamond Consortium (ZDC)
and the Surat
Rough Diamond Sourcing group, but deputy Mines Minister Gift
Chimanikire
said the agreement does not reflect government policy. He said
that as far
as he was concerned the auction system was going to remain and
there was no
way someone could be assured of a certain quantity of the
gemstones.
“We are still using the auction system and the best
bidders will win,” he
said. “If they have the best bid so be it, but if they
don’t then there is
nothing for them.”
The deputy minister also
questioned why the deal was signed by the
Affirmative Action Group (AAG)
boss, Supa Mandiwanzira, saying they were not
a company and therefore could
not be involved in the bidding process.
“They are an agent and need to
look for a company that will do the bidding
for them. The AAG cannot be an
applicant in this case,” Chimanikire said.
Ironically Chimanikire is not
at the KP meeting in Jerusalem this week,
where the AAG’s Mandiwanzira is
accompanying Mpofu. Critics have already
warned against the involvement of
the notoriously ZANU PF aligned AAG in
diamond deals, raising fears of more
corruption.
http://af.reuters.com
Mon Nov 1, 2010 2:11pm
GMT
* To sell from controversial Marange fields
* Country has
stockpile of about 4.5 million carats
* Regulators to determine level of
compliance
By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, Nov 1 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe plans to resume selling diamonds from
its controversial Marange
fields within days, saying it fully meets the
standards required by the body
that regulates trade in conflict diamonds.
Obert Moses Mpofu, Zimbabwe's
minister of mines and mine development, said a
report that will be unveiled
at this week's Kimberley Process meeting in
Israel shows the African country
should no longer be subject to industry
sanctions.
"We have done
everything in our power to meet the minimum standards of the
Kimberley
Process certification scheme," Mpofu told Reuters on the sidelines
of the
four-day meeting in Jerusalem that began on Monday.
"This puts us in a
position to resume exports without sanctions. We will
start selling diamonds
again immediately after the meeting," he said.
Mpofu said Zimbabwe, in
which 30 percent of the economy comes from minerals,
has a diamond stockpile
of about 4.5 million carats that are due for export.
"We can't continue
to hold them with no reason," he said.
In June, Zimbabwe's government
agreed that diamonds from Marange would only
be sold under the Kimberley
Process -- a certification scheme aimed at
preventing the diamond trade from
financing violence.
Marange became involved with the Kimberley Process
after 30,000 illegal
diggers descended on the fields in 2006, prompting the
government to deploy
the army to stop rampant panning and
smuggling.
Rights groups accused the security forces of committing
atrocities during
the crackdown.
Zimbabwe has accused the West of a
plot to stop it from benefitting from
diamonds but it received approval for
two shipments of diamonds in July. The
Marange mine -- at 66,000 hectares
(163,100 acres) considered the largest
diamond find in the last century --
is largely untapped, making its
potential huge.
"There is recognition
that there have been marked improvements in Marange,"
said Stephane Chardon,
chairman of the Kimberley Process working group on
monitoring. "But only
some parts are compliant and in other parts, less
progess has been
made."
During this week's meeting, the main item on the agenda of the
some 75
countries participating will be Zimbabwe's compliance with the
Kimberley
Process.
Chardon told Reuters that Zimbabwe still needs
further action to curb
illicit trade and smuggling of diamonds.
He
said that by the end of the meeting, the Kimberley Process will issue
conclusions on how much more of compliance, if any, will be required from
Marange.
"Do we still need closer monitoring or can they export
freely?" Chardon
said.
Boaz Hirsch, chairman of the Kimberley
Process, said there is agreement that
Zimbabwe has implemented its rules to
a certain extent but there were
disputes as to whether the implementation
was 50 percent or 90 percent.
In addition to Marange, Zimbabwe exports
diamonds through a domestic unit of
global miner Rio Tinto.
The
Kimberley Process was formed eight years ago and officials believe it
has
succeeded in virtually ending wars financed by conflict diamonds.
Another
issue to be discussed at the meeting is how the Kimberley Process
can deal
with human rights issues, a key demand by its partner, Civil
Society.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Irene Madongo
01
November 2010
Zimbabwean civic groups are calling on the parties in the
government of
national unity to meet with the country’s security chiefs to
find ways to
ensure there is no interference with the electoral
process.
The groups are still powerless to bring about a democratic election
because
the political environment and government structure has still not
changed,
the head of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has
said.
Last week over 50 civil society organizations met in theVumba to
talk about
electoral issues in light of the possible referendum on the new
constitution
and elections in 2011. The groups noted that the environment
was not
conducive for holding democratic elections because the political
environment
remains highly volatile and uncertain, and that the institutions
and
infrastructure that support violence - the youth militia, war vets and a
partisan security force - have still not been reformed. They also stated
their concern for the safety of human rights defenders and
activists.
Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, the director of ZESN which convened the
meeting,
said: “The most we can do is meet and discuss, despite these big
fears for
violence because our hands are tied. It is very true we might
analyse very
good papers on the Zimbabwe situation, but in terms of the
strategy and the
way forward, that becomes a problem because certain things
are beyond our
control.”
The call by Robert Mugabe to hold a general
election in 2011 has been
greeted by civic organisations in the country and
abroad with fears of
another violent election. The 2008 election was
characterised by extreme
violence and the MDC says at least 200 of its
supporters were killed, tens
of thousands tortured and hundreds of thousands
displaced.
Chipfunde-Vava said nothing new was raised at the meeting and
that although
the groups could not get changes made, they still have an
important role in
the country’s elections. “From 2000 up to now, in terms of
elections, we do
have cosmetic piecemeal reforms. We are pointing those
loopholes, what needs
to be done, it is very important. As civic groups our
basic function is to
advocate, inform and educate and lobby for things to
take place. In terms of
whether those things take place or not is beyond our
means,” she explained.
ZANU PF members continue to make it clear they
have plans for a violent
poll. It was reported that at a constitutional
meeting at the weekend a
female ZANU PF activist called for the death
penalty for those who call for
sanctions against Mugabe and on individuals
friendly to the West. Meanwhile
there are increasing reports of political
violence in the country, such as
the widely reported terror campaign of ZANU
PF war veteran Jabulani Sibanda
in Manicaland.
In May this year the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition compiled a report which
stated that ZANU PF has
re-launched Operation Surrender, originally launched
in the run up to the
June 2008 election, which involves the training of
youth militia to attack
villagers.
http://www.voanews.com/
Zimbabwe
Peace Project Chairman Wellington Mbofana said most of the
incidents
occurred during the just-completed constitutional revision public
outreach
process
Jonga Kandemiiri | Washington 01 November 2010
The
Zimbabwe Peace Project in a new report said human rights conditions in
the
country remain volatile with a rising number of reports in September
directly linked to actions by agents of the state security
apparatus.
The non-governmental organization said it recorded more than
800 cases of
political and human rights abuses, mainly by militants of the
former ruling
ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe against members of
the former
opposition Movement for Democratic Change whose main formation is
led by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe Peace Project
Chairman Wellington Mbofana said most of the
incidents occurred during the
just-completed constitutional revision public
outreach process, and were
concentrated in Mashonaland East, Central and
West provinces in eastern
Manicaland province and in central Midlands
province.
http://news.radiovop.com
01/11/2010
14:33:00
Harare, November 01, 2010 - Two freelance journalists
arrested while
covering weekend consultative meetings on a new constitution
were released
on Sunday after paying fines of US$20
each.
Phojournalist Andrison Manyere and Nkosana Dlamini, together with
an
Movement for Democratic Change of the Morgan Tsvangirai Faction (MDC) T
employee, Diana Nyikadzino and two others were arrested on Saturday at St
John’s Retreat in Harare South before being locked up overnight at
Waterfalls Police Stations.
They were later taken to Harare Central
Police Law and Order section where
they were charged with violating the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act. Police accused them of being
“criminal nuisance”.
Observers said Manyere and Dlamini were arrested
after participants demanded
that the duo be ejected from the meeting and
apprehended as they allegedly
had no authority to
cover
proceedings.
However, Piniel Denga, the MDC T legislator for Mbare, who
was the co-team
leader of the Team 9 Mashonaland East which presided over
the meeting, said
the two journalists were authorised to cover the
meeting.
The same group of participants also called for the arrest of
Nyikadzino
accusing her of disrupting the meeting after she contributed on
the National
Youth Service.
Meanwhile, Joshua Manyere, the
participant at the St John’s retreat COPAC
outreach meeting who was attacked
by suspected Zanu (PF) supporters on
Saturday was reportedly recovering at a
Harare hospital.
Manyere was stoned on his genitals and stabbed at the
back of his head.
Nurses at the hospital told Radio VOP that X-rays taken on
Saturday revealed
that the 32 year old man from Hopley farm had not suffered
any life
threatening injuries.
According to eye witness accounts, the
vocal Manyere upset suspected Zanu
(PF) supporters when he made
contributions which were contrary to their
party position.
During the
meeting it is alleged that one participant slapped Manyere on the
cheek in
the full glare of COPAC officials and began pulling down his
trousers
demanding that stops contributing.
Manyere raised complaints with the
COPAC team which ignored his pleas for
help and instead, police dragged him
to a secluded area where suspected
youth militia and Zanu (PF) supporters
attacked him using clenched fists,
stones and a knife before he was whisked
away to a local hospital by his
family.
http://www.mg.co.za
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Nov 01 2010 08:31
The
European Union will not interfere with Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's
redeployment of ambassadors, the recently appointed EU ambassador
to
Zimbabwe Aldo Dell'Ariccia said.
Dell'Ariccia said the posting of
diplomats should be left to individual
sovereign states, Zimbabwe's Herald
Online reported on Monday.
"This is a reflection of internal matters,
which must be dealt with
internally," said Dell' Ariccia shortly after
making his contribution on the
sanctions on Zimbabwe debate organised by a
local NGO.
In his contribution, Dell'Ariccia said the EU would continue
engaging
Zimbabwe because it was strategic to the bloc's economic
interests.
Early last month, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wrote
letters to the
United Nations, EU and South Africa demanding the expulsion
of some recently
redeployed diplomats in those countries.
MDC
secretary general Professor Welshman Ncube on Sunday said problems could
not
be solved by writing letters to foreigners or addressing rallies.
"Yes,
there are problems but they cannot be solved in the media or by
writing
letters to foreigners but through negotiations," he said.
"We do not
subscribe to those letters written to various international
bodies and
governments because we believe in dialogue," he said.
A fortnight ago,
the United Nations dismissed the MDC-T leader's plea for
the world body not
to recognise the deployment of ambassador Chitsaka
Chipaziwa as Zimbabwe's
permanent representative to the UN in New York.
UN deputy spokesperson
Farham Haq brushed aside Tsvangirai's letter, arguing
Chipaziwa was properly
accredited.
"The appointment of an ambassador is an internal matter for a
member state
which is to be decided upon in accordance with the provisions
of its own
domestic law.
"Ambassador Chipaziwa was properly
accredited as permanent representative of
the Republic of Zimbabwe to the
United Nations headquarters in New York on
28 June 2010. We will be bound by
the letter of his accreditation until
advised otherwise by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs,” he said. - Sapa
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Monday 01
November 2010
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s economic recovery programme is
unlikely to get full
marks from a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF)
team amid
allegations that the Bretton Woods institution is unhappy about
policy
slippages by Harare’s fragile coalition regime.
A six-member
IMF team, which arrived in Zimbabwe last weekend, has been
meeting
government officials, bankers and business leaders and is expected
to issue
a statement on its findings at the end of this week.
Treasury sources
said that although Zimbabwe’s economic policies improved
since 2009, the
Fund was concerned about renewed political instability and
subsequent policy
slippages that have intensified the country’s financial
vulnerabilities.
“They have raised concern about the deterioration in
both the political and
economic environment in Zimbabwe since their last
visit three months ago,” a
Ministry of Finance official said.
“Of
grave concern is the negative impact of the political feud between the
GPA
(global political agreement) principals on agreed government programmes
and
policies.”
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
have clashed
over appointments of key government officials, with the latest
spat between
the two involving the former’s unilateral rehiring of
provincial governors
without the latter’s consent as stipulated under their
power-sharing
agreement or GPA.
In a development likely to worry the
IMF and other Zimbabwe watchers,
Tsvangirai has boycotted some Cabinet
meetings over what he said Mugabe’s
violation of the GPA.
Harare
economist John Robertson concurred, saying the IMF team was likely to
criticise government decision to go ahead with a controversial plan to force
foreign investors to sell substantial stakes in their businesses to local
blacks as well as the increasingly tense political atmosphere in the
country.
Analysts fear that ongoing election talk will derail
government programme,
with Mugabe expected to increasingly return to the
populist policies of his
former Zanu (PF)-led government in order to endear
himself to the electorate
ahead of polls tentatively set for
mid-2011.
The IMF team last visited Zimbabwe in July for Article IV
Consultations
which included discussion of efforts to rebuild the southern
African economy
as well as Harare’s overdue financial obligations to the
Poverty Reduction
and Growth Trust.
Zimbabwe owed the IMF about
US$135 million in outstanding loan repayments as
of the end of last
month.
In an interim report published soon after its last visit, the IMF
team
warned that Zimbabwe’s economic recovery remained fragile and called
for the
urgent address of “significant policy challenges” to restore
stability.
It warned of significant “domestic and external imbalances”
that are
building up in the fragile economy.
The mission urged
Harare’s coalition government to implement radical changes
in economic
policy without delay, including sufficient budgetary allocations
to key
infrastructure rehabilitation projects and social programmes.
It also
recommended better prioritisation of budgetary expenditures and the
need to
reduce the government wage bill as a share of revenues, including
through
the elimination of ghost workers based on the results of the
on-going
payroll audit.
The government’s wage bill makes up 68 percent of the
national budget.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Nkululeko
Sibanda
Monday, 01 November 2010 18:25
BULAWAYO - Renowned
economist, Eric Bloch whose company managed funds
collected by the
Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) Limited has said
the funds were
chewed by the run away inflation that hit the country at the
time.
In an interview Bloch cleared his name by saying, "It is
indeed true that
my company managed the funds from the MZWPLimited. What
happened is that
after shares from the money had been sold, we raised $2,5
million Zimbabwe
dollars that we put in a building society.
After
that nothing happened to the money until it was affected by the
slashing of
zeros from the country's currency. At first, nine zeros were
slashed
followed by four zeros and subsequently another 12 zeros.When yuou
sklash 25
zeros from 2,5 milliion you remain with nothing and thatis the
situation
that unveiled itself with regard to the investment by shareholders
who
bought shares in the MZWP Limited."
The project,which was designed to end
teh water woes in Matebeleland, has
been on the drawing board for over 90
years.
The revelation comes amid lack of clarity on how the funds
collected from
government, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the Bulawayo
City Council,
and Bulawayo residents, amongst other stakeholders, was
expended.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign currency as well as
billions of
Zimbabwean dollars was harnessed by the Matabeleland Zambezi
Water Project
(MZWP) board with the aim of funding the construction of the
Gwayi-Shangani
dam.
The dam was viewed as the mainstay of the entire
project.
Speaking at a consultative meeting held in Bulawayo Thursday,
regional
agro-economist, Fanuel Sibanda, who was part of the group that
established
the MZWP, told government ministers and Bulawayo residents Bloch
was the
custodian of the funds.
“Most of you have been saying a lot
of things about the issue of money
raised by the Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project Limited.
“I can safely tell you that the funds raised by the
limited through sale of
shares in that company was given to Eric Bloch who
was expected to manage
the funds,” said Sibanda.
He revealed that
Bloch, through his business acumen, was expected to invest
the money so that
it would not lie idle in the company’s accounts.
“There was an agreement
that Bloch, as an economist, would know how to have
the money invested.
However, most of the people who made investments and
bought shares in that
company do not know where the funds went to besides
Eric Bloch,” Sibanda
added.
Sibanda also revealed that the MZWP got varying amounts of money
from the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe-monies he said were not handed over to the
project
administration.
“There are funds that the project got from
the RBZ. Some of the funds came
as loans under the various RBZ schemes. It
is pretty difficult now to tell
what happened to those funds,” Sibanda
added.
He castigated some whom he accused of wanting to be viewed as
angels who
deserted the project when it was undergoing major
challenges.
Responding to questions from the floor and Sibanda’s
comments, Water
Resources Development and Management minister, Samuel Sipepa
Nkomo told the
conference the funds raised through the MZWP Limited had been
chewed away by
inflation.
He also confirmed Bloch had been appointed
as the custodian of the funds.
“I raised this issue with Bloch and
(Dumiso) Dabengwa. I had gotten wind of
it and I confronted both of them and
asked them to explain what had
happened.
“Dabengwa has told me his
hands are clean on the issue of handling of funds
as he has audited accounts
for the funds he managed. As for the other funds,
Bloch has told me
categorically clearly that the funds were chewed away by
inflation,” said
Nkomo, much to the chagrin of the participants.
Added Nkomo: “We have
asked the RBZ to furnish my office with documentation
on what they gave to
MZWP. I am glad to say that they have since given my
office an inventory of
funds they released, both in Zimbabwean dollar terms
and in foreign
currency. All that we are now doing is that we are carrying
out an audit of
these funds so that we get to the bottom of all this.”
The stakeholders
consultation meeting was attended by several ministers,
government
officials, and Bulawayo residents.
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/
By: Creamer Media
Reporter
1st November 2010
South African hydropower plant
developer, owner and operator NuPlanet has
been granted a generation licence
to build a 5-MW greenfield hydropower
plant at the Mutirikwi dam, Zimbabwe’s
largest reservoir.
An eight-month technical feasibility and
environmental-impact assessment
phase for the project would start next year,
with procurement, contracting
and construction to commence
thereafter.
The plant could potentially be commissioned by late
2012.
NuPlanet MD Anton-Louis Olivier said that the company was pleased
to have
been awarded the generation licence, adding that the project has
been on the
cards for some time.
“In hydropower projects, one needs
to take a long-term investment view and
we are comfortable that our decision
to invest in Zimbabwe will prove sound
and profitable,” he said.
The
company partnered with Zimbabwean developer MOL Power to enter the
Zimbabwean power market.
NuPlanet is developing a pipeline of about
300 MW of hydropower potential
across Southern Africa.
It already has
two operating plants, the 3-MW Sol Plaatje and the 4-MW
Merino hydropower
plants, in South Africa, with construction on a further
three projects, with
a combined capacity of 11 MW, to start next year.
“We have a strong
position and track record in the South African market,
which we are
capitalising on to develop our regional projects. Without the
support of
South African consultants and financial institutions, long-term,
project
finance-based transactions outside of South Africa would not be
possible,”
stated Olivier.
http://www.rnw.nl/
Published on : 1 November 2010 -
12:27pm | By RNW Africa Desk
“I have been sleeping outside for a week
now. Because there are no toilets
to use at night, I have to relieve myself
in the open." says Chipo Chipare,
a 28-year-old unemployed widow and mother
of three while waiting in line for
a passport in Zimbabwe.
By Nkosana
Dlamini, Harare
Chipo is among hundreds of desperate Zimbabweans who
queue for days and
nights outside the registrar general’s offices in the
capital Harare to
obtain a passport.
Survival
A 90 percent
unemployment rate in Zimbabwe, coupled with high cost of
living, has forced
ordinary Zimbabweans to try every means possible to
survive.
The most
common option for millions of poor locals is to make regular visits
to
neighbouring Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Mozambique to
buy
petty goods to resell back home, thus increasing the demand for
passports.
“I want to support my ailing parents back in the village.
I am the only
bread winner," says Elliot Makuvise, a passport seeker. "I
need a passport
to look for employment outside the country so that I can
send the bare
necessities back home.”
Exploit the situation
With
this kind of desperation, there are more than one who have found ways
to
exploit the situation.
“I come here everyday and book three front
positions in the queue. I charge
40 US dollars for
each position. This
could be painful to others but this is how I make my own
money” says Moses
Chamunorwa.
Then there are corrupt officials who demand bribes ranging
between 20 to 50
US dollars to give preference to certain applications.
Those who cannot
raise those amounts are forced to queue for
days.
Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone believes the situation is not
unique to
Zimbabweans.
“It’s like this all over the world,” she says.
“The situation could be worse
here because there is a bottleneck somewhere.
The fact that the government
does not have a bigger machine to process
booklets faster.” Makone has
promised to investigate the rampant corruption
at the passport office.
Deportation
An estimated 3 million Zimbabweans
out of an estimated population 12 million
have been forced to live abroad by
recurrent political and economic
instability.
Out of desperation for
not being able to afford a passport, many locals have
resorted to crossing
the crocodile infested Limpopo River into South Africa
to find employment.
On those trips, some women are said to be gang raped as
they traversed the
thick bushes to elude border security officers.
But it’s a catch-22
situation for over a million illegal Zimbabwean
immigrants settled in South
Africa. They are now forced to regularise their
stay in Africa’s most
vibrant economy.
Thousands of them face deportation if they fail to
obtain a passport and
relevant documents.
http://news.radiovop.com/
01/11/2010 14:30:00
Bulawayo, November 1 2010 - The
ZIPRA Veterans has rolled its peace
building, reconciliation and national
healing programme in the Midlands and
Harare provinces following a success
of the programme in some parts of
Matabeleland where the initiative
started.
The chairman of the ZPRA Veterans, Retired Colonel Razarus Ncube
told Radio
VOP that his organisation had already approached some of the
chiefs in areas
considered to be political hot spots such as Gokwe,
Mberengwa, Kwekwe and
Chiundura.
“With the coming up of the
referendum and the anticipated elections next
year we expect more or worse
political violence to come. It is against this
background that we have
stepped up our efforts to heal communities. Some of
the chiefs whom we are
closely working with in the Midlands on this
initiative are chief Sigodo,
chief Malarisa, chief Gambiza and chief
Chiundura,” said Ncube.
As
part of the programme Ncube said his organisation last week trained 32
war
veterans on conflict resolution and national healing at a local hotel.
The
ex- freedom fighters were drawn from all the various districts of the
province.
“Our first target in this programme is the liberation
fighters because these
people were never given the requisite skills to
prepare them for
reintegration with communities when they were disarmed and
demobilised after
independence.
This has persistently exposed them to
errant politicians who tend to abuse
them each time there is an election
coming up,” said Ncube.
The ZPRA Veterans has also formed Peace
committees in Harare.
“Last week we also formed peace committees in
Harare. Before the formation
of the peace committees, we first trained 38
war veterans drown from some
parts of Harare, Mashonaland Central and East
on the importance of
coexistence in the areas which have always been
afflicted by conflict.
During the trainings we also try to seek solutions
which entail public
participation and inclusiveness in attending to
issues.
Ncube pointed out that after the training workshops of key
stakeholders, the
organisation will take the initiative to the grassroots
level where
community healing sessions will be carried out.
So far
the ZIPRA Veterans have successfully carried out community healing
sessions
in Mangwe, Bulilima, Tsholotsho and Nkayi.
ZPRA veterans is a membership
based organisation which was formed among
other
things to engage in
conflict resolution , peace building , reconciliation,
national healing and
related civic education programmes within and outside
Zimbabwe.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
31 October, 2010 09:13:00 MERNAT MAFIRAKUREWA/FELUNA
NLEYA | HARARE
MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa has come out guns
blazing against Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara describing him as
“lost and mistaken” for
claiming that the mainstream MDC was unprepared for
elections any time soon.
Chamisa said the robotics professor should
concentrate on his waning
political star instead of dwelling on whether the
larger faction of the MDC
was ready for polls.
He was reacting to
remarks by the former student activist — who switched
from academics to
plunge into Zimbabwe’s treacherous political waters — at a
public policy
dialogue where Mutambara claimed the MDC-T was now enjoying
the trappings of
power therefore not interested in polls.
This is despite calls by MDC-T
leader Morgan Tsvangirai that his party
supporters should brace for
elections expected to be held next year if
President Robert Mugabe gets his
way.
At the meeting organised by Sapes Trust headed by academic and
publisher
Ibbo Mandaza, Mutambara, who is facing a rebellion from within his
party for
siding with President Mugabe’s politics, said: “MDC-T is not
confident on an
election. I am just coming from Parliament, (where)
ministers, who will
remain nameless, were begging Welshman (Ncube), were
begging me: ‘What can
we do? We can’t have this election’.
“They were
saying: ‘Can you go and talk to this old man (President Mugabe)? — MDC-T
ministers, when they appear on TV, say ‘we are ready’. Tendai Biti, Chamisa are
enjoying ruling. Do you think they want to go home next year? You are
lying.”
When approached by NewsDay, Chamisa said Mutambara’s utterances
were “stupid
and rubbish”.
“Do you think we enjoy being driven around
in government vehicles?” Chamisa
asked. “We are in prison. He himself
(Mutambara) is enjoying that and he
should stop appropriating a job that is
not his for himself.
“We have able persons in our party, he (Mutambara)
should be focusing on
issues in his party.”
Chamisa said to the
contrary Mutambara, who dismally lost the Zengeza West
seat in Chitungizwa
during the 2008 synchronised polls, was afraid of
elections as his time in
government would come to a “screeching halt”.
“He is completely mistaken
and lost because he doesn’t know how we function
as a party,” Chamisa said.
“I don’t know where he gets that from. Mutambara
should speak on his behalf
and his party.
He is not my spokesperson neither is he Biti’s unless he
has hired himself
to be one seeing as he is on the brink of being
fired.
“We have not hired him unless if he is looking for another job.
Besides,
what motivates him to say that?”
Chamisa said the focus
should be on the conditions for holding free and fair
elections not about
readiness.
“For some of us our destination is democracy, real change and
it’s not about
individuals,” Chamisa said. “We are vessels of the people. We
are here on
behalf of the people and not to say we are enjoying.
We
are actually getting peanuts. Mutambara should tell people that he is not
ready and stop saying that we are not ready.”
President Mugabe wants
a referendum on the new constitution to be held next
March and the polls in
June. - News Day
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Stanley Gama
Monday, 01 November 2010
15:00
HARARE - A Johannesburg bound British Airways plane, operated
in Zimbabwe by
Comair on Sunday aborted takeoff at Victoria Falls
International Airport
after running into a flock of birds, slightly damaging
the engines.
Airport officials at Victoria Falls airport confirmed to
the Daily News that
a major mishap was avoided when the pilots decided to
return to the airport
to assess the aircraft. The birds are said to have
damaged the engines
making it impossible to proceed with the journey to
Johannesburg.
British Airways had to send another plane to fly the
passengers to
Johannesburg.
An aviation expert who spoke to the Daily
News said if a plane runs into
birds on takeoff, it can crash.
“Birds
literally choke the engines as they damage sensitive parts which
might
result in the plane losing power and then crashing. The plane will
also be
forced to fly dangerously low and that is why probably the captain
decided
to return instead of taking the risk of proceeding to Johannesburg,”
said
the expert.
Officials at British Airways in Harare confirmed the incident
but said their
South African office would issue a
statement.
Zimbabwe’s airspace is among the most dangerous in the world
after the Civil
Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) chief executive
officer, David Chawota
told a parliamentary portfolio committee that the
company was using obsolete
equipment acquired way back in 1992.
The
airports themselves are not entirely safe from animals.
Last year in
November, an Air Zimbabwe plane hit warthogs on takeoff at
Harare
International Airport and swerved away from the runway and only
stopped in a
bushy area after all tyres had deflated. No-one was seriously
injured but
the plane, a Chinese MA60 model was extensively damaged.
A month later, a
South African Airways plane had to abort take off after
striking the
warthogs.
However, the issue of birds causing mayhem on planes is not
new. Last year,
a US Airways Airbus A320 struck a flock of birds during
takeoff at LaGuardia
Airport in New York but the captain miraculously landed
the damaged plane in
the nearby Hudson River.
Worldwide since 1960,
crashes of more than 25 large aircraft were caused by
bird strikes,
according to a published study by Richard Dolbeer, a retired
ornithologist
with the Department of Agriculture at the Wildlife Services in
Sandusky,
Ohio. In 23 of these incidents, the strike occurred below 400
feet.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
sibanda
1 November 2010
Zimbabwe’s blind cricket commentator Dean Du
Plessis has bemoaned the lack
of opportunities in the country to expand his
career in sports broadcasting.
The 33 year-old Du Plessis told SW Radio
Africa on Monday he dreams of
working full time for a major international
sports channel because he feels
‘very underused’ in the job he loves
best.
‘I still feel I have a lot to offer to cricket but my concern is
I’ve been
very much underused. I still haven’t fulfilled anyway near to what
I would
like to do. I would like to be a full time presenter on radio or
television
but I still feel I’m not being given a fair chance,’ Du Plessis
said.
Does his blindness turn away potential employers? ‘I think so
because as
soon as people learn I’m blind they back off. But I’m grateful to
those that
have given me a chance but mostly I’m cast as a guest
commentator,’ Du
Plessis said. There is no doubt however, even with his
handicap, that he’s
left cricket fans, touring sides and commentators alike,
awestruck by his
gift.
Asked how he was able to tell the kind of
delivery bowled Du Plessis said;
‘Shayne Warne (former Australian spin
bowler) has body movements and verbal
grunts that were easy to discern. He
used a lot of his upper body muscle so
it was easy to distinguish his
delivery through sound’.
He went on; ‘Although people have been very kind to
write wonderful articles
about me in magazines, newspapers and on various
websites, not much has come
off it. I still feel I have so much more to
offer.
‘Broadcasters out there should give me a fair chance to prove
myself and I
can guarantee the world will take note of what I am capable
of.’
Already Du Plessis has shared commentary boxes with the world’s best
in
South Africa and Asia and earned many colleagues’ respect. He has done
commentaries in Tests, one-day and Twenty20 tournaments, involving all the
Test-playing nations in worldwide radio broadcasts.
Although he
cannot take the role of anchor (lead commentator) Du Plessis
says he’s very
capable of being the main ‘supporting actor’ giving ‘colour’
to the
commentary.
Talking about how he became involved with cricket he said;
‘It was during my
time at the school for blind in South Africa that I fell
in love with
cricket. I got involved by listening to the radio one day when
South Africa
had just been readmitted to the international scene—and they
were playing
India.’
‘What really struck me was the unbelievable
noise, listening on the radio,
the fireworks and the crowds and slowly and
surely I started listening to
all matches. But what really got me hooked was
the 1992 World cup when
Zimbabwe beat England by 9 runs. It was really,
really special and since
then I’ve not really looked back.’
http://af.reuters.com/
Mon Nov 1, 2010 11:02am GMT
By Cris
Chinaka
HARARE Nov 1 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
appears set on
calling a general election by next June, almost a year
earlier than many
expected, but is facing resistance from the opposition
over outstanding
democratic reforms.
The country's major political
parties agreed in early October that a
national referendum on a new
constitution would take place on June 30, 2011,
after a month-long drafting
programme in January.
But an increasingly confident Mugabe says he sees
no need to extend the life
of a power-sharing government he established with
arch rival Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai after disputed elections in
2008, and wants the referendum
early next year and general elections by
mid-2011.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was forced into the fragile coalition
with
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as well as another
smaller MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara by a severe economic crisis
which has since eased considerably.
However, the southern African
state remains a political minefield, with
serious risks for its drive
towards economic recovery and social
stability.
CONSTITUTION
Although a multi-party parliamentary
committee leading a constitutional
review process says it will respect the
wishes of ordinary Zimbabweans, the
final charter is likely to be compromise
between ZANU-PF and the MDC, which
both lack a two-thirds majority in
parliament needed to pass the new supreme
law on their own.
A
referendum on a version in which there is no agreement between the two
parties could lead to a blood-and-thunder violent confrontation among their
supporters.
Tsvangirai says Mugabe has already used his traditional
political crack
troops -- liberation war veterans, party youth brigades and
security
forces -- to whip up support in the countryside, which has allowed
ZANU-PF
to dominate public debate on the new constitution.
[ID:nLDE68L1RR].
ZANU-PF denies the charge and says Tsvangirai is already
preparing an excuse
for his party's defeat.
What to watch:
-
Compromise deal. Many Zimbabweans hope that a new constitution, replacing
one drafted in 1979 before independence from Britain, will strengthen the
role of parliament, curtail the president's powers and guarantee civil,
political and media reforms.
MEDIA REFORMS
The Zimbabwe
coalition has licensed several private newspapers after
establishing a new
media commission, but Tsvangirai has so far failed to
push Mugabe to open up
radio and television broadcasting to private
operators.
Mugabe's
officials say they are still looking at the issue -- nearly two
years after
the power-sharing government was set up, and analysts say this
will get more
difficult as the country heads towards elections.
The officials have also
resisted calls to repeal tough media laws barring
foreign journalists from
working long-term in the country, and still quietly
restrict visiting
journalists.
What to watch:
- Authorities rejecting major
applications for private broadcast licences,
raising further friction in the
unity government. ZANU-PF accuses Western
journalists of leading a "racist"
hate campaign against Mugabe over his
nationalistic policies, and says it
may not concede any more media reforms
until "pirate radio stations" run by
Zimbabweans from Europe and the U.S.
stop broadcasting into
Zimbabwe.
RIGHTS ABUSES
Although the unity government has set up
an independent human rights
commission to handle cases of rights abuses,
critics say it is taking too
long to start work and an atmosphere of fear
still exists in the country.
Rights groups say Mugabe's supporters have
increased psychological pressure
on MDC structures, and are threatening a
wave of violence similar to one
that marred the 2008
elections.
Mugabe has ignored demands by Tsvangirai for security sector
reforms, and in
a clear demonstration of his political impotence, the MDC
leader has been
stopped by police or forced to postpone some meetings with
MDC supporters in
township halls in the capital Harare.
What to
watch:
- Changes to security laws but with limited practical impact.
Parliament is
debating changes to a tough Public Order and Security Act
(POSA), including
removing the need for political parties to get police
clearance for rallies.
Mugabe has used the police to muzzle the opposition
over the years.
Analysts say there is no guarantee that Mugabe's police
and military
supporters will obey the law even if POSA is
amended.
FRUSTRATION
Critics say while Tsvangirai and his
lieutenants have legitimate complaints
against Mugabe over outstanding
reforms, there is growing frustration among
his supporters that he is being
outwitted by Mugabe, a cunning political
veteran.
White farmers who
have lost their properties under Mugabe's controversial
land seizures over
the last decade say Tsvangirai has lost his voice on
their case - an issue
the MDC fears Mugabe would use to portray him as a
stooge.
A
traditionally supportive private media has turned increasingly critical of
Tsvangirai's leadership, calling on him to exploit public goodwill in his
fight against Mugabe. Tsvangirai denies he has been outflanked by Mugabe and
says although the MDC may lose some political battles, its sights are on the
ultimate prize of delivering a democratic Zimbabwe.
In a sign of
rising tensions, Tsvangirai this month said his party would not
recognise
senior appointments -- including the central bank governor and
judges made
by Mugabe -- a symbolic move unlikely to affect the government.
[ID:nLDE6961WD]
Zimbabwe's last election in 2008 ended in dispute
after Tsvangirai defeated
Mugabe but election officials withheld results for
five weeks, only to call
for a run-off vote which Tsvangirai boycotted
blaming violence against his
supporters.
What to watch:
-
Tsvangirai's supporters walking out of some government functions and
demonstrating against some of Mugabe's officials, in media stunts which
could invite police reaction.
LIFE PRESIDENT?
Mugabe, 86, is
ZANU-PF's presidential candidate in the next election, and
critics say he
appears bent on dying in power, which he has held since
independence from
Britain in 1980.
In an interview with Reuters on Sept. 9, Mugabe
dismissed rumours of
ill-health, laughing off suggestions that he was dying
of cancer and had
recently suffered a stroke.
He expressed surprise
at constant speculation over his health, saying he
paid little attention to
the reports.
Although there have been reports over the last 10 years on
Mugabe's health,
he has no publicly known serious ailment.
What to
watch:
- Mugabe securing his presidency, and probably starting serious
moves to
sort out the succession issue.
Despite having two deputy
presidents in his party, many Zimbabweans fear
that if he dies in office
before installing a successor, the party might
split in a bitter leadership
fight.
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
Mugabe says he wants to normalise ties
with Western powers which imposed
sanctions on ZANU-PF over its policies.
But he will press ahead to hand
control of foreign firms to local
blacks.
Mugabe signed an Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act in
2008 and the
government this year issued regulations in terms of the law,
providing
details of how foreign-owned companies should achieve at least 51
percent
blacks within five years.
There are, however, sharp
differences on the policy which his rivals say
could hurt economic
recovery.
What to watch:
- Timelines and details of how the
government plans to proceed with the
empowerment programme in the different
economic sectors, which would address
investor fears.
Mugabe
maintains that the policy will be implemented in a pragmatic manner,
and
says foreign investors are lining up for Zimbabwe's mineral wealth.