Zim Online
Friday 13 October
2006
MUTARE - The police have ignored a written
order from the Attorney
General (AG)'s department to arrest state secret
agent Joseph Mwale so he
could face trial for allegedly murdering two
opposition activists six years
ago, sources told ZimOnline.
Mwale is accused of petrol-bombing a vehicle carrying two opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party activists, Talent Mabika and
Tichaona Chiminya, in the run-up to the 2000 general election that was
controversially won by President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF
party.
The MDC activists died as a result of the bombing but Mwale,
who is a
senior member of the state's spy Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) and
remains employed by the secret agency, has never faced trial for
murdering
the opposition activists amid reports senior ZANU PF politicians
have
shielded him from justice.
The AG's office, which has
constitutional powers to prosecute all
accused of committing crime, gave
police in Manicaland province, where Mwale
is based, up to October 6 to hand
over the secret agent for prosecution - an
instruction police have so far
ignored.
The AG's office wrote to the police: "The accused is
facing a charge
of murder which was committed in the year 2000. The docket
was referred to
your office with instructions that you arrest Joseph Mwale
and bring him for
initial remand.
"To date we have not received
any information pertaining to the
progress made by your office. I need to go
through the docket with a view of
taking up the matter with my superiors .
submit the docket on or before 6
October 2006."
Mwale however
remains a free man because the police will not arrest
him.
Some
senior police officers who spoke to ZimOnline said inaction by
police was
because the Mwale case was considered sensitive and "no police
officer was
willing to risk their career by arresting a CIO agent accused of
victimising
MDC activists".
But the same police officers, who were speaking on
condition they were
not named, indicated Mawle could still be brought to
book if the AG's office
persisted in its efforts to get him
arrested.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was not available to
take questions
on why the law enforcement agency has not arrested Mwale. AG
Sobuza
Gula-Ndebele was also said to be unavailable to take questions on the
matter.
Mwale, who is notorious for committing violence and
torture against
MDC activists in Manicaland, is a prominent campaigner for
ZANU PF during
elections.
Former High Court Judge James
Devittie recommended in 2001 that Mwale
be tried for the murder of Chiminya
and Mabika, with the judge noting that
there was a strong possibility that
the CIO agent could be found guilty. And
in April this year, Tsvangirai
wrote to the AG's department requesting that
Mwale be brought to court for
trial. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 13 October
2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa on Thursday said
the country should not seek help from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank because the two
institutions have used double standards
against the southern African
nation.
Harare is frustrated because the IMF will not resume normal
relations
or financial assistance even after Zimbabwe cleared most of its
debt to the
international lender.
The blacklisting of Zimbabwe
by the IMF has seen other potential
development partners and donors withhold
millions of dollars worth of aid
and financial support to the
country.
Murerwa told a pre-budget consultative meeting with
business leaders
and other stakeholders in the second city of Bulawayo: "I
disagree that we
should seek assistance from the IMF and the World Bank. We
have paid our
dues yet they have not supported us.
"The two
institutions have become political and are dominated by major
powers, they
are implementing double standards when dealing with Zimbabwe."
The
business leaders had told the Finance Minister there was no way
the comatose
economy could be resuscitated without substantial help from the
Bretton
Woods institutions.
But Murerwa, considered among the more
progressive minds in President
Robert Mugabe's government insisted Zimbabwe
- which has no cash to import
electricity, fuel, essential medicines and
other basic commodities in short
supply - would have to go it alone and find
resources to fund its economic
revival.
The IMF cut aid to
Zimbabwe in October 1999 following differences with
Mugabe over fiscal
policy and other governance issues. The global lender
only stopped moves to
expel Zimbabwe altogether after the African country
repaid a third of its
US$300 million debt at the eleventh hour last
September.
An
economic recession triggered by the IMF withdrawal gathered pace
after
Mugabe embarked in 2000 on a controversial programme to expropriate
land
from whites for redistribution to landless blacks.
The land reforms
plunged the mainstay agriculture sector into deep
recession, with food
production declining by about 60 percent to leave the
country dependent on
aid from relief agencies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 13 October
2006
BULAWAYO - Police in Zimbabwe's second
biggest city of Bulawayo on
Wednesday arrested an opposition legislator and
former white commercial
farmer after they clashed with officials from a
pro-government labour union.
Abednico Bhebhe, who belongs to a
faction of the splintered Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by
Arthur Mutambara, and the farmer
Peter Goosen, were however set free on
Thursday afternoon.
The police said they will proceed by way of
summons.
The two were arrested for allegedly assaulting officials
from the
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU).
Police in
Bulawayo confirmed the arrest of the duo saying
investigations into the
matter were still in progress.
A lawyer representing the two,
Nicholas Mathonsi, said trouble for
Goosen and Ncube began when seven ZFTU
officials besieged a butchery shop
owned by the former white farmer in the
city demanding to see the company's
books.
Mathonsi said Goosen
refused to hand over the books and called Bhebhe
to negotiate with the rowdy
group. He said the group later left the scene
and reported the matter to the
police who responded by arresting his two
clients.
"The ZFTU
officials have no right to demand documents from any
businesses. The assault
allegations against my clients are false," Mathonsi
told ZimOnline last
night.
Several MDC legislators have been arrested over the past six
years on
flimsy charges by the police. None have been convicted in the
courts.
The MDC accuses the police of being willing tools of the
ruling ZANU
PF party in intimidating the opposition. The police deny the
charge. -
ZimOnline
nasdaq
(RTTNews) - In a major boost to fighting Zimbabwe's HIV
and Aids epidemic,
Britain has awarded £20 million to the program. The
Department for
International Development said that the cash will be utilized
for providing
testing and counseling services and encourage safe sex. The
scheme will
distribute more than 250 million condoms, including female ones,
through 700
hair salons.
The funding is being given to Population
Services International, a US-based
non-governmental organization which will
run the five-year program. The
scheme will be co-funded by the US Agency for
International Development.
It is believed that more than a million
Zimbabweans who are unaware they are
HIV positive will be benefited by the
scheme. Zimbabwe has one of the
highest HIV rates in the world, with one in
five adults infected will also
launch a national campaign aimed at breaking
down the stigma around Aids. It
will include workers visiting villages
around the country to educate
residents using games and music.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
LONDON - KATE Hoey,
the chair of the All Parliamentary Group on
Zimbabwe, yesterday accepted a
petition from Zimbabweans living in the
United Kingdom meant to pressurise
the outgoing United Nations secretary
general, Kofi Annan, into taking the
Zimbabwean crisis to the Security
Council for discussion.
Accepting the petition outside the Houses of Parliament, Hoey, who was
accompanied by prominent Liberal Democrat MP, Limbet Opik, a colleague on
the same committee, said time was running out for President Robert Mugabe
and his Zanu PF government.
The Vauxhall MP, who was recently
on a secret visit to Zimbabwe, will
forward the petition to the relevant UN
authorities. In the petition, put
together by the Zimbabwe Vigil, which
celebrated its fourth birthday
yesterday, the petitioners call on Annan to
"take measures to help free the
suffering people of Zimbabwe".
The petition was signed by 11 000 people who have passed through the
Zimbabwe Vigil held every Saturday outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in
London.
Extolling Annan to make sure their country's human rights
crisis is
discussed in the UN Security Council, the Zimbabweans, who three
years ago
presented a similar petition to the UN, said: "We hope that if you
decide
not to take action on this petition, you will leave it in the in-tray
for
your successor and warn him that we will continue to harass him with
similar
petitions until there is freedom in Zimbabwe."
Speaking
to zimbabwejournalists.com, Hoey said: "I will hand over the
petition into
the hands of Kofi Annan and the United Nations and its
basically asking the
UN to start putting Zimbabwe further up their political
priorities because
there isn't anyone taking a lead at the moment about
Zimbabwe. Clearly
President Mbeki has decided he does not want to do
anything so we do need a
UN involvement."
Hoey said the international community could only
do so much in
assisting those fighting for democracy in Zimbabwe but it was
up to the
opposition forces and the long-suffering Zimbabweans to unite and
fight for
their cause.
"Ultimately it will have to come out
from the people of Zimbabwe
themselves, they just have to say NO, they are
not able to live under Mugabe
anymore. We are seeing more and more of
protests all over the country. It is
very difficult to organise when there
is no money, no fuel but the kind of
spontaneous protests underway and the
regime beating up people. I think
shows support for the opposition, for
change and democratic elections, so
that's hopeful," she said.
She said she was pleased to be able to visit Zimbabwe recently and
meet up
with some of the trade unionists who were beaten during workers'
protests
for better wages, HIV/Aids drugs and related issues.
"I came back
quite clear that there is absolutely an overwhelming
feeling that Mugabe's
time has come and he has to leave and I just hope that
the protests and so
on that I saw - that they will be able to carry on
within their democratic
rights without being battered and so on," Hoey said.
She said the
Diaspora community was very important as it was assisting
many extended
families to survive in Zimbabwe.
Commenting on the thorny asylum
issues, Hoey said: "I'm very keen to
make sure anyone who is genuinely at
risk is able to stay in this country.
There is no justification for people
staying here who are not at risk. I met
people in Zimbabwe who are putting
their lives at risk everyday but there
are some people here who have never
been politically active and whose lives
are not at risk."
She
said her campaign to have UK legislators sign up to initiate
debate to allow
genuine asylum seekers from Zimbabwe to be allowed to work
here was still on
the cards. Hoey said the campaign was ongoing.
Hoey, who brought
messages of solidarity for the Zimbabwean activists
in the UK, was mobbed by
the protesters who applauded her for her efforts in
trying to put the
Zimbabwean crisis back on the international agenda and
making sure something
was done to return Zimbabwe to democratic rule.
Holding placards
and wearing vigil regalia, the protesters, who
marched all the way from the
Zimbabwe Embassy to the Houses of Parliament,
promised Hoey they stood ready
to return to Zimbabwe once the situation on
the ground improved. They sang
revolutionary songs and danced outside the
House of Commons.
Ephraim Tapa, chair of MDC UK, paid tribute to Hoey's work for
Zimbabwe
expressed disappointment about the lack of action by the UN on the
Zimbabwean issue despite being approached by the Vigil several times. He
said Zimbabwe had become Mugabe's private property and Zimbabweans his
slaves.
"Annan should have done something for Zimbabwe after
Operation
Murambatsvina - he had an opportunity to do something but he did
not take
the opportunity. We also had reports of massive human rights abuses
in the
country but nothing happened, rigged elections, people disappearing
and
being killed but nothing happened. Up to now bad things are happening -
people are being beaten up like thugs. So we are saying this must not
continue - we are saying to the UN do not forget us, do something about
Zimbabwe. Maybe this is Annan's last chance to remember the people of
Zimbabwe and come out with something from his time at the UN," said
Tapa.
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com |
October 12, 2006
Frontpage Interview's guest today is Geoffrey
Nyarota, founder and former
editor in chief of The Daily News in Zimbabwe.
He was awarded the World
Association of Newspapers 2002 Golden Pen of
Freedom in recognition of his
outstanding service to the cause of press
freedom in the face of constant
persecution. He was forced to flee from the
country to seek refuge in the
United States.
He became a
Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and subsequently a fellow of
the
Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy as well as
of
the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, both also at
Harvard.
Nyarota was awarded the Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist
Award by the
National Association of Black Journalists, USA, (1989 and 2003)
and UNESCO's
Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award in 2002. He is the
author of the
new book, Against the Grain, which discusses the trials and
tribulations of
the independent press under President Mugabe's authoritarian
regime in
Zimbabwe. The book also traces the decline of Zimbabwe from the
bread-basket
of southern Africa to a basket itself, while highlighting the
betrayal of
the citizens of Zimbabwe by the former heroes who led them to
independence
from colonial rule in 1980.
FP: Geoffrey
Nyarota, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Nyarota: Thank you.
FP:
What inspired you to write this book?
Nyarota: I was convinced that the
extraordinary personal experiences that I
encountered at the frontline of
the armed struggle for the liberation of
Zimbabwe and the ordeal that I
experienced as an independent newspaper
editor after Zimbabwe attained
independence were worthy of formal recording.
Apart from that, as I traveled
around the world in my work as a journalist I
recounted my remarkable
experiences. Invariably, people asked whether I was
recording these
extraordinary experiences for posterity in a book. Against
the Grain is that
book.
FP: Tell us what Mugabe has done to your country since he took
power in
1980.
Nyarota: Mugabe became the Prime Minister of an
independent Republic of
Zimbabwe on his return to the country after he
spearheaded a protracted
guerrilla campaign against the rebel government of
minority white Prime
Minister, Ian Smith. He implemented a program of
social development which
brought schools and clinics to previously neglected
rural areas, which had
borne the brunt of the war, areas where such
facilities did not exist
previously. His government brought down the
barriers of racial
discrimination which confined the black majority to
run-down and overcrowded
sections of the urban areas while in the rural
areas they were forced to eke
an existence out of poor sandy soils. The
white farmers settled on rich and
fertile soils where they owned vast
estates and lived in prosperity.
All these progressive
developments have now been overshadowed over the past
few years by
retrogressive government policies, which have seen the standard
of life
deteriorate in the face of a serious economic meltdown. Shortages of
commodities have become endemic while commodity prices have become
unaffordable for the majority of the population. Unemployment now runs at
more than 70 percent, with the rate of year-on-year inflation at 1,200
percent, by far the highest in the world. Not only has rampant corruption
become entrenched, but the government has suppressed the democratic rights
of citizens. Popular opposition to the government has been violently
suppressed. Political violence and abuse of power and human rights have
become prevalent.
FP: Why is the western Left so silent about
Mugabe's human rights abuses? If
the Left was so vocal in denouncing South
Africa's Apartheid, why does it
not hold Mugabe to the same standards in
terms of how an African government
treats its people? Are black people only
human beings worthy of attention
when they are persecuted by whites? The
Left's silence appears to suggest
that this is its belief system,
no?
Nyarota: The answer to this question is not simple. But let
me assure you
that this is an issue that baffles the citizens of Zimbabwe.
They do not
understand why Mugabe has, going back to the early days of
Zimbabwe's
independence, abused the human rights of thousands of Zimbabweans
with such
total impunity. There was not much of an outcry when thousands -
some put
the figure at 20,000 - innocent Ndebele peasants were massacred by
Mugabe's
Five Brigade during the Gukurahundi Atrocities from 1982 to
1986.
Every election since 1980 has been an occasion for ruthless
political
violence, perpetrated mainly by the ruling Zanu-PF party's
militants and
youth brigade. Political opposition has been violently
suppressed. Once in a
while statements have been issued in Western capitals
condemning such
violence, but they have mostly been of a token nature and
significance.
Meanwhile, the rights of citizens have continued to be
trampled upon by
their elected government with total impunity on the part of
the
perpetrators.
Curiously, when violence was visited on the
white farming community during
the farm invasions orchestrated by Zanu-PF in
2000 there was an overwhelming
international outcry, culminating in the
total isolation of Zimbabwe from
the international community. Unfortunately
I must agree with your suggestion
that, on the evidence available,
Zimbabwe's blacks appear to have been more
worthy of attention when they
were persecuted by the previous white regime.
Their new struggle against
oppression by a black government has not
attracted meaningful international
attention, at least not the same level of
attention as that created by the
plight of the dispossessed white farming
community.
The black
population of Zimbabwe was born a loser. They suffered the effects
of
oppression, denial and humiliation under the white settler regime. Now
they
suffer the same fate under a popularly elected black government.
FP:
My own two cents worth is that Mugabe is a leftwing monster and leftwing
monsters are exempt from criticism when it comes to the Western Left, which
controls the parameters of discourse in the mainstream media. And it is the
ideas of the Left that have created such monsters. The Left cannot admit the
horrid earthly incarnations of its ideals.
Furthermore, in
the leftist mindset, it is unconscionable when blacks are
oppressed by
whites, but when blacks are oppressed by blacks it is a
complete non-issue.
This reveals, of course, the pernicious racism of
leftists, who hold whites
up to a higher moral accountability than they do
blacks. By logical
deduction, this means they regard whites as being
civilizationally superior
and more "human" than blacks.
Let's move on to freedom of speech.
Can you talk a bit about how press
freedom suffered in Zimbabwe under
Mugabe?
Nyarota: After independence, it was one of Mugabe's dreams to
establish a
doctrinaire socialist one-party state in Zimbabwe. He embarked
on a campaign
to suppress opposition political parties. One of the
strategies of his
campaign was to establish total control over mainstream
media. During the
struggle for independence, radio and television were
already under
government control. Soon after independence, the government
extended that
control to encompass the print press. The state secured
control over the
country's largest newspaper publishing company, Zimbabwe
Newspapers,
publishers of a string of daily and weekly papers. I worked for
this company
in the early years of independence, being dismissed in 1988
from the
editorship of The Chronicle, one the government's two daily
newspapers. This
followed my exposure of widespread corruption involving
cabinet ministers
and other government officials.
The
government reacted to the so-called Willowgate Scandal by tightening
controls over the media. When we launched The Daily News in 1999, the
government's reaction was violent. Our printing press was destroyed in a
bomb explosion. Journalists were routinely harassed and arrested on very
spurious charges. Finally the paper was banned. As of now, the government
enjoys a monopoly of control over the mass media again. Press freedom has
been severely restricted. Existing independent newspapers are forced to
exercise self-censorship in order to survive. In the absence of genuine
press freedom other freedoms are curtailed.
FP: Tell us a bit
about the widespread corruption involving cabinet
ministers and other
government officials. Also, what exactly was the
Willowgate
Scandal?
Nyarota: Allegations of corruption involving Zimbabwe's
new ruling elite
were first voiced in the mid-80s, less than five years
after our
independence. The accusations were initially spurred by the
spectacle of
politicians who had recently returned to Zimbabwe from the war
effort in
neighboring Mozambique and Zambia with nothing in their pocket,
suddenly
embarking on a campaign of wholesale acquisition and self
enrichment. They
acquired farms and started or took over businesses. They
started to display
signs of conspicuous wealth. When the public, university
students,
especially, protested against what was then incipient corruption,
Mugabe
defended his lieutenants. What irked students mostly was the blatant
hypocrisy of politicians who preached abut socialism and self-denial during
the day while amassing wealth, in many cases corruptly, under cover of
darkness.
Mugabe challenged the public to produce evidence of
corruption instead of
making what he said were spurious allegations of
graft. The Willowgate
Scandal was the response of a Bulawayo-based daily,
The Chronicle to the
President's challenge. Relying on informants within the
Willovale Motor
Assembly plant in Harare the paper exposed, over a period of
weeks, details
automobiles corruptly obtained directly from the company by
cabinet
ministers. They resold the cars and made up to 300 percent profit.
One
minister confessed to either buying or helping other people to obtain a
total of 36 cars and trucks. One car was bought in the morning for $29 000
and sold in the afternoon for $115 000. Such was the serious shortage of
automobiles that those with money were prepared to pay anything to secure a
car.
Because of the Chronicle's exposure of the scandal
Mugabe was forced to
appoint a commission of inquiry. Six cabinet ministers
were forced to
resign. One immediately committed suicide.
FP:
This might be a repetitive question, since it is connected to our
previous
theme on the Left's silence, but why do you think we hear so little
about
Mugabe's ruthless tyranny in the Western media?
Nyarota: I
suppose Mugabe's tyranny in Zimbabwe is overshadowed in the
Western media,
especially in the United States, by accounts of tyranny
elsewhere in the
world. When filed, stories about the ongoing plight of the
people of
Zimbabwe compete for space with stories about the chaos in Iraq
and articles
about the nuclear threat posed by Iran and North Korea, as well
as coverage
of the ongoing onslaught by the United States against world
terrorism. The
crisis in Zimbabwe tends to pale into total insignificance,
in comparison.
So Mugabe benefits by default.
Coverage of Zimbabwe in the
Western media is also hampered by the dismissal
by the Mugabe regime of most
western correspondents from the country. They
are forced to cover Zimbabwe
from Johannesburg in South Africa - certainly
not the most ideal situation
for comprehensive coverage of an otherwise
complex story.
FP:
Let's get back to your personal journey. What motivated you to fight for
freedom in your homeland?
Nyarota: Thousands of lives were sacrificed
during the original fight
against colonialism and discriminatory white
minority rule. It is a betrayal
of the aspirations of the liberation
struggle that the new government of an
independent Republic Zimbabwe should
desecrate the very democratic values
and ideals for which the black majority
campaigned over a protracted period
of time. It is that betrayal of the
people's aspirations and expectations by
their popularly elected government
that has motivated them to engage in the
second struggle for freedom. As a
newspaper editor I found myself in the
forefront of that new
struggle.
FP: Why do you think democracy and modernity have such
difficulty
penetrating Africa?
Nyarato: I do not believe that
democracy and modernity encounter any
particular difficulty penetrating
Africa. You will find some of the fanciest
automobiles on the streets of
Johannesburg, Harare and Maputo. Johannesburg
is on par with any western
metropolis in terms of development and the usual
trappings of Western
capitalism. The wealthy of southern Africa drive fancy
BMWs, Mercedes,
Porches, Bentleys and the odd Ferrari or Lambhorgini,
especially in South
Africa. Some of them live in mansions unimaginable here
in the States. One
Harare tycoon of no discernable source of wealth built a
34-bedroomed for
the comfort of his family. It has parking for 20 luxury
cars as well as a
helipad on the room. Back in the village his relatives
starve.
A new wave of democracy penetrated most of Africa
with the demise of
colonial oppression in the early days of independence in
the 1960s and 70s.
Then the dictators emerged - Idi Amin of Uganda, Hastings
Kamuzu Banda in
Malawi, Mobutu Sese Seko, backed by the CIA in Zaire,
self-annointed Emperor
Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Mohammed
Saidi Barre in Somalia,
Sani Abacha of Nigeria - the list is endless. Now,
like a political
dinosaur, there is Robert Mugabe in
Zimbabwe.
In simple terms, democracy is incompatible with
dictatorship and corruption.
A free press undermines the security of any
tyrant. Once a dictator goes or
is removed from office suppressed democracy
immediately emerges.
FP: I apologize, when I asked the question,
I took it as a given that I did
not include South Africa. I meant black
Africa that has a history of black
dictators.
So what were
the circumstances that forced you to flee your homeland at the
end of 2004
and to go into permanent exile?
Nyarota: When the Daily News was launched
in 1999 it became extremely
popular at a time when the fortunes of Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party and
government were on the decline. As the editor of a
popular independent
newspaper, the government came to regard me as one of
those organizing
resistance to government's increasingly authoritarian rule.
I was publicly
denounced as an enemy of the state. I was arrested on a total
of six
occasions. I was threatened with death twice, while my name appeared
on a
death list. Then our newspaper was infiltrated at management and board
level
and I was forced to leave the paper in frustration at the beginning of
2003
after a period of in-fighting between me and the newly appointed chief
executive of the company.
Without the customary protection of
my newspaper I became exposed and
vulnerable. When the police came for me
again soon after my departure from
The Daily News I was left with no option
but to flee.
The government banned The Daily News and three other
privately owned
newspapers in September 2003. They remain defunct to date.
In the absence of
a strong independent press the fortunes of the opposition
movement have
declined. The ruling Zanu-PF party is on the ascendancy
again.
FP: What can the West do to promote freedom in
Zimbabwe?
Nyarota: The least that the West can do to aid and abet the
forces of
democracy in Zimbabwe is to offer them moral and financial
support. A
serious lack of financial resources is one of the more handicaps
encountered
by opposition political organizations. It is as costly to
campaign for and
participate in general elections as it is to fight the many
legal battles
that are a hallmark of opposition
politics.
Prospective supporters on the home front, the many
wealthy entrepreneurs
that I referred to earlier, are terrified by the
prospect of the ruling
party associating them with the opposition. Many of
them refrain from
advertising in the independent press for the same reason.
Zanu-PF has a vast
array of resources, many of them at the expense of
government. Its
well-oiled election campaign machinery is heavily subsidized
by government
through facilities such as transport, cash and a massive media
empire.
And, talking of the media, in the absence of a vibrant
independent press the
opposition is emasculated. The role played by The
Daily News is a case in
point. The West can promote democracy and freedom in
Zimbabwe by creating
strategies to strengthen the independent press. There
is little meaningful
democracy in the absence of a strong opposition
press.
Essentially, Zimbabweans themselves should be in the
forefront of fighting
for their own freedom.
FP: What are
your own future plans?
Nyarota: I am finalizing preparations for the
launch of a quality online
newspaper. The Zimbabwe Times is due for launch
this month. We are planning
to create a reliable and credible source of news
and information about
Zimbabwe for the benefit of Zimbabweans in and out of
the country and of
non-Zimbabweans around the world with an interest in
developments in a
country with potential for vast economic growth and
development. My personal
belief is that the madness that currently embraces
and destroys our nation
cannot be the final destiny of that beautiful and
potentially prosperous
nation.
Of course, my undying ambition
is to put another real newspaper on the
streets of Harare in the
not-too-distant future.
By the time I finished writing the
manuscript for Against the Grain after
three years, I realized I had been
bitten inexorably by the writing bug. I
am already organizing my thoughts
for a sequel to this first book. There is
an abundance of themes that one
could explore while writing about Zimbabwe.
FP: Geoffrey Nyarota, thank
you for joining Frontpage Interview today. You
are a true noble and
courageous warrior for freedom. It was an honor to
speak with
you.
Nyarota: Thank you, Jamie, for your time and for your interest in
beautiful
Zimbabwe.
Independent, UK
By Sharmeen Obaid Chinnoy in Diepsloot, South Africa
Published: 13
October 2006
As dawn breaks over Zimbabwe, Douglas Foster and five other men
crouch
behind a fence, waiting for a South African border police patrol to
pass.
Shivering in the cold September rain they wriggle their way through
three
sets of fences to enter South Africa illegally. Desperate to escape
the
spiralling poverty in Zimbabwe, they risk everything to join millions of
other African immigrants in one of the continent's most economically
prosperous nations.
No one knows how many illegal immigrants there
are in South Africa. A recent
census suggested 1.1 million, but the real
figure is almost certainly far
higher. They come from all over the continent
- Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo - but
their growing numbers are
causing a major backlash, leading to what some
describe as a second
apart-heid. Xenophobia is on the rise and in the past
three months more than
32 Somalis have been killed.
Poor South
Africans say that they are competing for resources with illegal
immigrants.
In Diepsloot, a sprawling, densely populated township of 120,000
people
north of Johannesburg, Somali-owned businesses have been torched and
looted
several times this year. Two months ago, Johannes Seloane of the
South
African Business Forum of Diepsloot wrote a letter to the Somali
shopkeepers
asking them to leave immediately or face consequences. For now,
most of them
have chosen to stay.
"I cannot stop my people from resorting to
violence," he said. "It's been
two months now and they haven't left. My
people are getting tired of them."
Hajir Omar, a Somali who came to
Johannesburg in 1994 and now owns a grocery
store in Diepsloot is scared of
what may happen. He said: "I left the
fighting in Somalia but now I'm facing
the same thing here in South Africa.
What do I do? I have nowhere to
go."
Not far from his shop a crowd gathered to sing protest songs. Neda
Jiyane, a
30-year-old mother of two children, said: "South Africa is for
South
Africans only. We fought for this South Africa, now it is for us, the
freedom is for us and not for illegals." Another woman used a loudspeaker to
urge the crowd to go from shack to shack. "Demand to see their passports and
identification documents, if they don't have them, destroy their shacks,"
she said.
As Channel 4's Unreported World reveals in "South Africa:
The New
Apartheid", illegal immigrants are being increasingly blamed for
everything,
from the high crime rates to soaring unemployment. In Hillbrow
in
Johannesburg, one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in South Africa,
Senior Superintendent Koos Van Rhyn said: "Zimbabweans deal in stolen goods
and they are very much involved in street robberies." Twice a week, his team
rounds up suspected drug dealers and robbers, almost all of them illegal
immigrants from Zimbabwe or Nigeria. "It's easy for them to hide," says Mr
Van Rhyn. "We don't have their names, finger prints or
photographs."
Five hours north of Johannesburg near the border with
Zimbabwe, white
farmers have taken things into their own hands. They believe
the local
police are corrupt and incapable of arresting the hundreds of
Zimbabweans
who cross into the country illegally every day, so they do it
themselves.
Annette Kennealy, an artist and farmer's wife, said Zimbabweans
are
responsible for a rise in crime. "Farm murders are probably the biggest
thing and I think because they have nothing to lose they've become easy to
co-opt into doing these things."
Unreported World - South Africa: The
New Apartheid, Channel 4, 7.35pm
tonight
As dawn breaks over
Zimbabwe, Douglas Foster and five other men crouch
behind a fence, waiting
for a South African border police patrol to pass.
Shivering in the cold
September rain they wriggle their way through three
sets of fences to enter
South Africa illegally. Desperate to escape the
spiralling poverty in
Zimbabwe, they risk everything to join millions of
other African immigrants
in one of the continent's most economically
prosperous nations.
No
one knows how many illegal immigrants there are in South Africa. A recent
census suggested 1.1 million, but the real figure is almost certainly far
higher. They come from all over the continent - Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo - but their growing numbers are
causing a major backlash, leading to what some describe as a second
apart-heid. Xenophobia is on the rise and in the past three months more than
32 Somalis have been killed.
Poor South Africans say that they are
competing for resources with illegal
immigrants. In Diepsloot, a sprawling,
densely populated township of 120,000
people north of Johannesburg,
Somali-owned businesses have been torched and
looted several times this
year. Two months ago, Johannes Seloane of the
South African Business Forum
of Diepsloot wrote a letter to the Somali
shopkeepers asking them to leave
immediately or face consequences. For now,
most of them have chosen to
stay.
"I cannot stop my people from resorting to violence," he said.
"It's been
two months now and they haven't left. My people are getting tired
of them."
Hajir Omar, a Somali who came to Johannesburg in 1994 and now
owns a grocery
store in Diepsloot is scared of what may happen. He said: "I
left the
fighting in Somalia but now I'm facing the same thing here in South
Africa.
What do I do? I have nowhere to go."
Not far from his shop a
crowd gathered to sing protest songs. Neda Jiyane, a
30-year-old mother of
two children, said: "South Africa is for South
Africans only. We fought for
this South Africa, now it is for us, the
freedom is for us and not for
illegals." Another woman used a loudspeaker to
urge the crowd to go from
shack to shack. "Demand to see their passports and
identification documents,
if they don't have them, destroy their shacks,"
she said.
As Channel
4's Unreported World reveals in "South Africa: The New
Apartheid", illegal
immigrants are being increasingly blamed for everything,
from the high crime
rates to soaring unemployment. In Hillbrow in
Johannesburg, one of the most
dangerous neighbourhoods in South Africa,
Senior Superintendent Koos Van
Rhyn said: "Zimbabweans deal in stolen goods
and they are very much involved
in street robberies." Twice a week, his team
rounds up suspected drug
dealers and robbers, almost all of them illegal
immigrants from Zimbabwe or
Nigeria. "It's easy for them to hide," says Mr
Van Rhyn. "We don't have
their names, finger prints or photographs."
Five hours north of
Johannesburg near the border with Zimbabwe, white
farmers have taken things
into their own hands. They believe the local
police are corrupt and
incapable of arresting the hundreds of Zimbabweans
who cross into the
country illegally every day, so they do it themselves.
Annette Kennealy, an
artist and farmer's wife, said Zimbabweans are
responsible for a rise in
crime. "Farm murders are probably the biggest
thing and I think because they
have nothing to lose they've become easy to
co-opt into doing these
things."
Unreported World - South Africa: The New Apartheid, Channel 4,
7.35pm
tonight
Zimbabwe VIGIL PRESENTS
PETITION DEMANDING UN ACTION
Time is fast running out for Mugabe said Kate
Hoey, Labour MP, Chair of the
UK all-party parliamentary group on Zimbabwe.
She said she had seen on her
recent clandestine trip to Zimbabwe a swelling
tide of people who were
saying Mugabe must go. "It's the beginning of the
end" she told the Zimbabwe
Vigil.
Kate Hoey was speaking at a
demonstration outside Parliament during which
she was entrusted with a
petition signed by many thousands of people from
all over the world who had
passed by the Zimbabwe Vigil held outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy every
Saturday afternoon. The petition calls on the UN
Security Council to
intervene in Zimbabwe. It was handed over by Vigil
Co-ordinator, Dumi
Tutani, and Kate is to deliver it to a UN representative
in
London.
Ephraim Tapa, a key member of the Vigil and Chair of MDC UK, paid
tribute to
Kate's work for Zimbabwe. She was visibly moved when Vigil
supporters broke
into applause. In return, she said how important the Vigil
is. "Everyone
wants to the diaspora to be active", she said. Ephraim
expressed
disappointment about the lack of action by the UN, despite being
approached
by the Vigil several times. He said Zimbabwe had become Mugabe's
private
property and Zimbabweans his slaves. He condemned as robbery the
recent
change to the Zimbabwean currency and declared "We expect the UN to
take
action. We want to go home."
Kate was accompanied by a prominent
Liberal Democrat MP, Limbet Opik, who is
also a member of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, and by a
trustee of the Zimbabwean
Association, Mike Steele of the Parliamentary
Press Gallery. Also there in
support were representatives of the Refugee
Council. They were all
serenaded with Zimbabwean protest songs by 40 or so
Vigil supporters, who
had sung and danced their way in brilliant sunshine
all the way from the
Zimbabwe Embassy ending up in the shadow of Westminster
Abbey.
Our
banner "End murder, rape and torture in Zimbabwe" could be seen from
Parliament. Supporters also carried posters "Vigil 4 Freedom" reflecting
the fact that the demonstration marked the 4th anniversary of the
Vigil.
For pictures of Vigil presentation:
http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
PS
we are encouraged by the messages of support we have received. Here is
one:
"Amhlope! Makorokoto! I am impressed your team has kept the spirit up
over
the past four years. You inspired me and a few others in Dallas Texas
back
then and we copied your lead. We did not manage to keep the sustained
vigils
you have kept, however we did manage to stage several successful
demonstrations amongst which were the protests against the "homelink"
nonsense, Mugabe's annual verbal diarrhoea at the UN General Assembly in NY
and several general protests at Ferris Plaza in Dallas. I have since moved
to Toronto Ontario, Canada and so far I have managed to stage an anti Mugabe
demonstration at Nathan Phillips square in downtown Toronto. Keep it up
fellow social democrats. You are serving your country well. Andrew
Mudzingwa". We have been in touch with Andrew over the years and salute his
persistence. He is much more isolated than us.
PPS the full text of
our letter to Kofi Annan: "Dear Secretary-General, We
respectfully submit
the enclosed petition calling on the Security Council to
takes measure to
help free the suffering people of Zimbabwe. It has been
signed by many
thousands of people from all over the world who have passed
by the Zimbabwe
Vigil held outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London every
Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00. You may recall that some 3 years ago we
presented a petition to
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN
Special Rapporteur for
Torture. It asked them to urge the Security Council
to send a team to
investigate human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Since then
UN envoys who have
visited Zimbabwe have reported gross human rights
violations there. So we
were disappointed at your failure to take the
opportunity at the recent
African Union summit to engage President Mugabe on
behalf of the
international community - let alone the people of Zimbabwe.
The upshot is
that there appears to be no dialogue under way at all. The
petition is
submitted today to mark our fourth anniversary. In these years
we have seen
mounting awareness of the ever-unfolding catastrophe in
Zimbabwe, which the
international community is sweeping under the carpet. We
hope that, if you
decide not to act on this petition, you will leave it in
the intray for your
successor and warn him that we will continue to harass
him with similar
petitions until there is freedom in Zimbabwe."
Vigil
co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
VOA
By
Patience Rusere
Washington
12 October
2006
With operations of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Company
severely
disrupted by the failure of six generators at the important Hwange
Thermal
Power Station and the disruption of transmissions from the Republic
of
Congo, the state-controlled power utility has expanded power cuts around
the
country to up to 12 hours a day.
The state-controlled Herald
newspaper quoted ZESA spokesman James Maridadi
as saying that the breakdown
of all six Hwange generators combined with a
shortage of coal has compounded
difficulties providing the country with
enough electricity.
Hwange
was supplying 400 megawatts of electricity. Maridadi said the
cash-strapped
power company is asking the government for US$30 million in
emergency
funds.
Former ZESA chief executive officer Simbarashe Mangwengwende said
repairing
the broken down generators, which were designed to run
continuously, is
likely to cost millions of dollars that the financially
troubled state
utility cannot afford.
October 11,
2006.
By ANDnetwork .com
The foreign currency exchange
rate continued to gallop on the dominant
black market last week, as one US
dollar and one South African rand rose to
more than $1 500 and $150 compared
to about $900 and $120 previously.
The sharp depreciation of the
Zimbabwe dollar against major currencies
comes against a background of an
inexorable rise in annual and monthly
inflation to 1204 percent and 29
percent in August.
The local currency started sliding noticeably
over the last four
months, as illegal traders in foreign currency started
gaining confidence in
the delayed establishment of the Exchange Rate Impact
Assessment Board
(ERIAB) by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to regulate
the market by
arriving at sustainable bands of exchange rate
adjustments.
In his monetary policy review statement for the first
half of this
year RBZ governor Gideon Gono said the ERIAB would meet monthly
to review
developments in the foreign exchange market and announce new
trading bands.
As a result of the delay in establishing the foreign currency
board, the
local currency has continued to trade at just $250 against one US
dollar and
about $33 against one rand, since 31 July.
Financial
sector analysts have partly attributed the galloping foreign
currency rates
on delays in establishing the regulatory board that has
resulted in rates on
the parallel market trading at a premium of more than
1000 percent of the
official rate.But since July 31, when intentions to
create the new foreign
currency regulatory framework were announced by Gono,
no new developments
have been witnessed.
As a result of the silence, the financial
sector, and the economy in
general has virtually remained in the dark
concerning the establishment of
new board and the country's foreign exchange
policy.
The latest developments in the depreciation of the local
currency are
expected to impact negatively on efforts to turnaround the
economy and
reduce high inflation to manageable levels in the absence of a
significant
review of the official exchange rate.
Financial
analysts said the latest depreciation in parallel market
rates would also
trigger an increase in most asset prices.
"With no decisive
measures in place to immediately address the root
causes of problems such as
declining productive output and low forex
generation/inflows the forecasted
patterns of similar inflation and parallel
exchange rate movement suggest
that equities and currency hedge assets are
suitable as an investment," a
financial research company said last month.
With fuel prices at
independent petroleum stations dictated by the
black market rate of the US
dollar in the past few months, continued
depreciations in the local currency
are also expected to have further
negative ripple effects on the
economy.
Last week some service stations in the city centre were
already
selling a litre of fuel for more than $1 500.
www.zimobserver.com
iafrica.com
Fri, 13 Oct 2006
The
SABC has blacklisted certain commentators and analysts, albeit not
officially, an inquiry into claims made earlier this year has
found.
It determined that AM Live anchor John Perlman was right when he
stated that
blacklisting of commentators and analysts was happening in
practice "by
instruction".
Where instructions were given not to use
particular analysts on specific
topics, "these instructions were not always
(objectively) justifiable," the
SABC disclosed on Thursday.
SABC
group executive Dali Mpofu has now been tasked by the SABC Board with
taking
"whatever steps he deems necessary".
SABC management set up a commission
- under former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu
and advocate Gilbert Marcus SC -
after complaints about a ruling, allegedly
by news head Snuki Zikalala, that
certain commentators and analysts not be
used because they were critical of
President Thabo Mbeki.
They apparently included independent political
analyst Aubrey Matshiqi; the
author of a book on Mbeki, William Gumede; and
Business Day staff members
Vukani Mde and Karima Brown.
The move, in
June, came shortly after the SABC "canned" an independently
made documentary
about Mbeki, and was criticised for this by the Congress of
SA Trade Unions,
and the Democratic Alliance and other opposition parties.
Mpofu, who
received the commission's report last week, released its key
findings and
recommendations on Thursday, explaining that the full report
was based on
untested evidence obtained in an internal process.
The commission found
that an SABC media statement that there were no blanket
bans on the use of
individual commentators "avoided the issue" and was
"misleading by
omission".
"Mr Perlman's position was in conformity with the factual
situation," the
report read.
The exclusion as an analyst of Brown
over questions around her credibility
was not accepted by the
commission.
Although there was no "blanket ban" on the use of Matshiqi,
the commission
rejected his exclusion over concerns about some of his
remarks, that he was
used too often and had no research capacity.
It
held that concerns voiced by Zikalala about the authenticity of Gumede's
book - and therefore his credibility - amounted to an instruction to exclude
him.
A direct instruction not to use Paula Slier for news reporting
because of
alleged bias was found to be improper and against SABC
policy.
On the use of Sipho Seepe, the commission determined that
Zikalala's
questioning of his partiality was tantamount to an instruction
not to use
him.
It also found that the reasons for the exclusion of
Zimbabwe commentators
Moeletsi Mbeki, Elinor Sisulu and Trevor Ncube were
not objectively
justifiable.
The commission could not find any
political motive or pattern behind the
exclusions and could not conclude
that there was an undue pro-government
leaning by Zikalala.
It
criticised the way in which the exclusions were carried out, particularly
the failure to adequately communicate the reasons downwards.
The
commission recommended that anyone instructed not to use a particular
analyst be entitled to ask and receive written reasons.
It also
suggested the development of guidelines on the use of commentators
and
analysts, regular audits of their use, and the training of reporters on
interviewing them.
The commission recommended that the SABC Board
"take close cognisance" of
concerns about Zikalala's management style,
particularly regarding problems
of communication and the "inappropriately
narrow" interpretation of the
SABC's mandate.
It nonetheless
expressed confidence in Zikalala and his staff.
It noted that they
operated "under very difficult circumstances in an
environment that is...
always challenging the integrity of the public
broadcaster for various
reasons, some of them political".
Sapa
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
12 October
2006
The Paris Club of Western creditor nations has stepped up
pressure on
Zimbabwe to resume servicing its debts to other countries and to
normalize
relations with the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank.
Diplomatic sources said Paris Club Co-Chairman Ambroise Fayolle
raised the
issue of Zimbabwe's arrears in a letter to Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa
this month.
The Paris Club regretted that "no
payments are being made," Fayolle told
Murerwa. He urged the government of
Zimbabwe to "normalise relations with
the IMF and the World Bank. Such
action, Fayolle said, would be "a
prerequisite for Paris Club treatment," a
reference to enjoying concessional
interest rates.
Paris Club and IMF
officials declined to disclose how much Zimbabwe owes
Paris Club members.
But the central bank said the country's foreign debt
totals US$3.9
billion.
Zimbabwe has had difficulty servicing its IMF debt and staved
off expulsion
moves by the IMF board by making surprise payments last year.
The IMF has
suspended the country's voting rights and cut off Harare from
receiving
further loans.
A spokeswoman for the Fund said an IMF team
was expected to visit Harare
later this month for a so-called Article IV
assessment, while the IMF
executive board is expected to review Zimbabwe's
status as a member some
time in November.
For a business perspective
on the demands by the Paris Club, reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe turned to economist Luxon
Zembe, a former president of the
Zimbabwe Chamber of Commerce, who said
Harare must normalize
ties.
University of Zimbabwe lecturer Mufandaedza Hove, a spokesman on
economic
issues for the opposition faction of Morgan Tsvangirai, said the
government
of President Robert Mugabe has not idea how to solve the economic
crisis.
VOA
By
Carole Gombakomba
Washington
12 October
2006
The Zimbabwean parliament's committee on communications says it
means to
correct a "misperception" by Media and Information Commission
Chairman
Tafataona Mahoso that the panel is in league with media to plot
"regime
change" in the country.
Parliamentary sources say the
committee will issue a statement condemning
remarks by the media regulatory
chief about a conference that was organized
by the Media Alliance of
Zimbabwe to seek reform of the controversial Access
to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act, and set up a Voluntary Media
Council.
Mahoso alleged that the conference was a hotbed of "regime
change"
conspirators - a charge reminiscent of President Robert Mugabe's
charges
against Western critics - but his broadside inadvertently took
members of
the communications committee.
When reached by telephone
from Washington, Mahoso declined to comment.
Deputy Legal Affairs
Secretary Jessie Majome of the Movement for Democratic
Change faction led by
Morgan Tsvangirai told reporter Carole Gombakomba that
Mahoso's remarks
could be tantamount to contempt of parliament.