300 mn Russian pledge for Zimbabwe mystery

Mineweb

By: John Helmer
Posted: '17-OCT-06 10:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2006

MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) --An announcement last week by Zimbabwe government
officials in Harare that a Russian group has signed a pledge to invest $300
million in Zimbabwe's mining, power, and aviation sectors is unsupported by
the Russian side, and may even be a hoax. On the other hand, the past
history of Russian visitors to Harare suggests that RusAviaTrade may be the
camouflage for something more serious that is yet to be disclosed.

"These MOUs [memorandums of understanding] are worth $300 million, but we
hope we will develop our relations so that we bring more investments into
the country," Yury Panchenko, external affairs director of RusAviaTrade, was
quoted by wire services as saying after the signing ceremony. The investment
pledge wound up a visit reported to include 31 Russian businessmen and 17
journalists, who had been invited by Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's
Central Bank. Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Moscow, Phelekezela Mphoko, has
refused to identify the names of the Russian delegation members, or their
company affiliations.

Russian Ambassador to Harare, Oleg Scherbak, also declined to respond to the
same questions from Mineweb. According to the Zimbabwe media, he reportedly
said: "These investors have various business interests ranging from
transport, power and mining to tourism, telecommunications and agriculture.
Russian journalists will meet local journalists from various media houses
and will have an opportunity to share and exchange ideas."

In Moscow, Panchenko's company is so small, it is unknown to the major
aircraft builders located at Zhukovskiy, the Moscow suburban aviation
centre. Sources at Renova, the Russian mining group most active in southern
Africa, said RusAviaTrade is unknown. Renova owns an unrelated company
called RusAviaAuto; this is a bus operator at a small airport Renova owns.

Russian Aviation Company (RusAvia) told Mineweb that, despite the similarity
in name, it has never heard of RusAviaTrade. RusAvia says it operates only
within Russia, repairing World War II-vintage aircraft, and publishing books
and magazines for Russian plane enthusiasts. A company source said RusAvia
has a representative in India, but it has never been in Zimbabwe.

RusAviaTrade has no website, and two telephones listed at its identified
office do not work. The company has been identified through the Russian
Center of Small Aviation Omega, where officials confirmed that RusAviaTrade
is their subsidiary. Omega says it operates small aircraft for joyrides
around the Moscow region. It also claims to sell Cessna, Piper, and
Beechcraft imports, and to enable novice Russian fliers to attend local and
European flying schools and receive European pilot accreditation. "Flying
with us," Omega's website declares, "you become the pilot of a private
plane. You will get acquainted with very interesting people, the
surprisingly fine world of aircraft, and you will expand your horizons."
Noone at RusAviaTrade could explain how Zimbabwe has suddenly appeared on
the investment horizon. Panchenko was uncontactable.

The Russian Foreign Ministry told Mineweb it has no information on the
delegation's visit to Zimbabwe, or its outcome.

The zealousness with which Zimbabwe government officials have pursued the
appearance of international investment has led to Russian embarrassment
before. In July 2003, a burst of local publicity surrounding the visit of a
group of Russian corporate executives led to an embarassed announcement that
there was no Russian intention to buy into Zimplats. A year later, fresh
evidence indicated that that intention was under discussion at the time in
Harare.

The categorical Russian denial followed a report in the Zimbabwe Herald,
claiming that three officials of Norilsk Nickel had visited Zimbabwe a few
days earlier, and met with executives of Zimplats to discuss a Russian
interest in the company. Norilsk Nickel, Russia's leading mining company, is
a natural rival of South African producers of platinum and palladium, and
the news triggered special interest in Johannesburg. According to the Herald
report, the meeting had been arranged by the Russian Embassy in Harare, and
the results were under review by Norilsk Nickel.

Sergei Chernitsyn, Norilsk Nickel's principal spokesman, responded at the
time: "the report by the Zimbabwian newspaper is nonsense. No delegation of
Norilsk Nickel was in Zimbabwe."

Dmitri Suslov, who was then in charge of the Russian Embassy in Harare, told
Mineweb the embassy had helped arrange a meeting with Zimplats for a recent
group of Russian visitors, but he said there were no representatives of
Norilsk Nickel in the group. According to Suslov, the group included
Vladimir Shubin, an academic from the Moscow-based Institute of Africa, who
had stopped in Harare after visiting South Africa. Suslov said the visit may
have been exaggerated in the Zimbabwean media to counteract negative reports
about business conditions in Zimbabwe in the western press. "The visit was
not officially prepared," Suslov said, "and the embassy was not warned about
it in advance." He said he does not know what the results were of the visit.

At the time, a source close to Norilsk Nickel claimed that, following the
completion of its acquisition of US palladium producer, Stillwater Mining
Company, Norilsk Nickel was not in the market for further foreign
acquisitions. Nine months later, in March 2004, Norilsk Nickel bought Anglo
American's 20% stake in Gold Fields for $1.16 billion.

What was not known until some time after the July 2003 visit to Zimbabwe was
that among the Russian visitors at the time, was Andrei Dubina, the South
Africa-based lobbyist and business scout for the owners of Norilsk Nickel,
Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov. Dubina had set up a Johannesburg
office with an associate, Artem Grigoryan, and they prepared the ground for
the Gold Fields bid. At the time, their role was so secret in Moscow, senior
executives at Potanin's holding company Interros, and at Norilsk Nickel,
claimed to know nothing about it. On the other hand, in South Africa, Dubina
introduced himself to international and South African corporate sources as
advising Norilsk Nickel and Interros.

The attempted Russian takeover of Gold Fields was subsequently abandoned,
and the prime mover at Norilsk Nickel, Leonid Rozhetskin, was ousted from
the company in January 2005. This week, Moscow prosecutors told Mineweb they
have issued an international warrant for his arrest in relation to another
investment operation. The prosecutors added they do not know where
Rozhetskin is now living abroad. Grigoryan currently sits on the Gold Fields
board of directors.

Police still to investigate ZCTU assaults as trial is postponed again

      By Lance Guma
      17 October 2006

      The trial of 31 trade union members accused of holding an 'illegal'
demonstration last month was postponed for a second time this Tuesday
because the state has yet to provide details of the charges. The next court
date has been set for 30 October. Alec Muchadehama, the lawyer representing
members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), says the police
accused his clients of 'carrying placards and shouting political slogans'
and that some of them ridiculed Robert Mugabe. He told Newsreel in an
interview that no specific details have been provided and the police are
simply trying to find excuses.
      Muchadehama says his clients were clearly assaulted by police during
the demonstration and up to now no investigation has been carried out into
that brutal response. The police have denied the assault charges and say the
union leaders were 'heavily resisting arrest,' and this forced them to use
'minimum force to calm the situation.' This is despite a secretly filmed
video showing police officers beating up union leaders and forcing them into
a Mazda B2200 truck even though there was not enough space inside to
accommodate all of them. Muchadehama says they will use the video in court
and that if the police have their own video showing ZCTU leaders assaulting
them they were free to use it.

      ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo told Newsreel they felt sorry for some
of the police officers involved in the trial because they are being forced
to sign false affidavits claiming things, which never happened. He
questioned how they could be accused of jumping from police vehicles and
hurting themselves when they were in fact locked inside the same police
vehicles. The ZCTU staged a protest on the 13th September against the lack
of HIV/AIDS drugs and poor wages in the country. Mugabe's regime responded
with a countrywide deployment of security forces and the assault of the
unionists was seen as an attempt to send a message to the opposition, which
has in the past said it is planning similar protests.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Zimbabwe wants China to build houses

IOL

          October 17 2006 at 11:29AM

      Harare - Zimbabwe is trying to persuade close ally China to help
construct houses for more than a million people in need, a newspaper
reported on Tuesday.

      Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo told the head of a visiting
Chinese delegation that providing housing in Zimbabwe's towns and cities was
his government's biggest challenge, reported the Herald daily.

      "We think joint ventures with your people will help. We understand you
have big construction companies in Hubei (province in China). We can make
use of them in road, water and sewer construction," the minister said.

      The lack of housing in Zimbabwe was controversially worsened last year
when President Robert Mugabe's government demolished shacks in a shock
campaign that the UN said left up to 700 000 people homeless and jobless.

      The authorities said Operation Restore Order was meant to bring back
cleanliness to Zimbabwe's teeming cities and promised more than a million
new houses would be built in the wake of the chaos.

      But so far only 3 000 have been confirmed built and cash-strapped
local authorities have resorted to handing out plots of land.

      Chombo said the Zimbabwe authorities were becoming interested in the
high-rise models of low-cost Chinese housing.

      "We were used to large stands which consume a lot of land. We should
now begin to densify and house more people. It is also cheaper to provide
electricity and water on such housing units," he told the delegation from
Hubei, led by political official Ding Fengying.

      Shunned by many Western countries because of concerns over land reform
and alleged rights abuses, Zimbabwe has turned to strong ally China for
increasing numbers of business and investment deals in the past three years.

      But concerns have been raised by government critics who believe Mugabe
may be mortgaging Zimbabwe's rich mineral reserves in return for a quick
financial fix from the Chinese. - Sapa-dpa

Opposition Civil Society Tries To Mobilize Zimbabwe's Grass Roots

VOA

By Patience Rusere
      Washington
      16 October 2006

Zimbabwean civil society groups are developing a program of outreach to
residents of provincial cities to mobilize grass-roots support against the
government of President Robert Mugabe, hoping to build on a recent wave of
demonstrations.

Groups such as the National Constitutional Assembly, the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights were to hold a meeting
in the Midlands town of Kwekwe on Tuesday, civic leaders said. The Zimbabwe
National Students Union and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were also
to participate.

NCA Chairman Lovemore Madhuku said a recent lull in street protests reflects
a shift to organizational activities outside the capital in provincial
cities like Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo. Organizing efforts are also
slated in Mashonaland Central and East provinces, and the coalition intends
to organize at the level of rural districts.

Madhuku told reporter Patience Rusere that: the NCA organizers are meeting
with ordinary people "to persuade them to be courageous and join
demonstrations."

Meanwhile, Movement for Democratic Change founding president Morgan
Tsvangirai told supporters in Bulawayo on the weekend to brace for extended
protests to force President Mugabe to step down. Correspondent Netsai Mlilo
reported.

From New York To Zimbabwe: Families Torn Apart To Stay Alive

NY1 News

      October 16, 2006

      While their numbers here are small, immigrants from Zimbabwe play a
huge role in helping their families back home stave off hunger, and in some
cases, starvation. As NY1's Solana Pyne explains in Part 1 of her series
"From New York to Zimbabwe," families are being torn apart to stay alive.

      Tears come to her eyes as Sibusisiwe Gadhlula looks at photographs of
her two children. The pictures, which I carried back from Zimbabwe, were the
first she has seen since she left the country for the United States six
years ago. She only recognized her son, who was two when she left, by the
shirt in this photograph. One she had sent him.

      "It is so difficult, but there's nothing I can do because I'm here to
work for them," said Sibusisiwe.

      Sibusisiwe moved to Harlem from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, when her family
could not afford her father's medical care. She got a job as a live-in home
care assistant Monday through Friday and works odd jobs on the weekends.
More than half her salary goes to her family in Bulawayo, often more than
$1,000 a month.

      "I would say roughly about 15, 15 people are being supported," said
Babriba Gadhlula, Sibusisiwe's brother.

      Fifteen people in an extended family that has become increasingly
dependent on her support to make ends meet. The Zimbabwean economy is in
free fall. And inflation now routinely tops 1,000 percent, the highest in
the world.

      "So now you find that with your salary you cannot make ends meet up to
the end of the month," said Babriba.

      Gaps that have to be filled by the money Sibusisiwe gives if the
family is going to eat.

      "It is very important to the family because we buy food, school fees,
rent, everything," said Sibusisiwe's sister, Lindiwe Gadhlula.

      This household is entirely supported by the money that Sibusisiwe
sends. It buys everything from the seed that planted vegetables to pots and
household appliances.

      And it is not just money. Sibusisiwe packs suitcases with new and used
clothes, that a friend carried over to neighboring Botswana, where her
sister picked it up.

      "It's a lot of clothes," said Sibusisiwe. "I think I won't even take
them all. I will pack a new bag for next time. There's always next time."

      Working for that next time helps carry Sibusisiwe and her family
through rough moments, like when her father died and she was unable to
return for the funeral.

      "She cries through the phone," said Adelaide Molebatsi, Sibusisiwe's
cousin. "She always listens to people crying through the phone. It's so
painful."

      As is the fact that even her 13-year- old daughter, who said she
misses her mother most on birthdays, understands. This is the message she
asked me to carry to her mother.

      "Thank you very much for taking care of me," said Millicent Sibanda. "And
I love you so much"

      And for Sisbuisiswe, that makes the distance bearable.

Prosecute Mugabe, exile asks Ottawa

Globe and Mail, Canada

MARINA JIMENEZ

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

A human-rights lawyer from Zimbabwe who was beaten and electrocuted by his
government and forced to drink his own blood and urine is calling on Ottawa
to use its crimes-against-humanity legislation to indict the country's
President for torture.

Gabriel Shumba, executive director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum in Pretoria,
wants Canada to take the lead in bringing Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
and officials in his government to justice.

"My case is symptomatic of what is happening to most Zimbabweans who defend
human rights. More than a million Zimbabweans have been tortured since 2000.
Just a few weeks ago, a labour activist was assaulted so badly she was
bleeding through her ears," Mr. Shumba, 32, said in a telephone interview
from Vancouver. "Canada as a country within a community of nations is bound
by international obligations to prosecute international crimes, including
torture."

Mr. Shumba was in Vancouver yesterday to begin a three-week speaking tour
sponsored by Rights and Democracy, a Montreal-based human-rights
organization.

Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have become increasingly violent and
repressive in an effort to hang on to power since a strong opposition party
emerged in 2000. The economy has collapsed, inflation is now at 1,000 per
cent and people are starving, due in part to a controversial land
redistribution process.
Ottawa's standing committee on foreign affairs adopted a motion this past
summer calling on the Justice Minister to study the feasibility of using
Canada's crimes-against-humanity and war-crimes legislation against Mr.
Mugabe, and the minister is due to report back by Nov. 15.

A spokesperson for the Justice Ministry said the question is under review
and it would be inappropriate to comment before Nov. 15.

Mr. Shumba, who first put his request forward in 2004, was told by a
spokesperson in the then-Liberal government that there must be a Canadian
victim or a Canadian connection for a case to proceed under Canada's
legislation. He said he has the names of several Zimbabwean victims of
torture who now live in Canada.

His own horrific case of torture began in February of 2003, when Mr. Shumba
was abducted by several central intelligence agents and taken to a torture
chamber outside the capital, Harare.

"I was kept there for three days, denied food, stripped naked and then sheer
terror was visited upon me," Mr. Shumba recounted. "They put electrical
shocks in my mouth and on my genitals and virtually everywhere on my body. I
was made to drink my own blood and urine." After being forced to sign a
false confession, he was released five days later and eventually his case
went to trial. After his acquittal, he received death threats and was forced
to flee Zimbabwe. He lived in exile in Johannesburg until a recent attempt
on his life prompted him to relocate to Pretoria. Several armed men tried to
kill him after an address to a meeting of political organizations.

His bid to ask Ottawa to prosecute Mr. Mugabe for crimes against humanity
may seem like a long shot, but his supporters say it is legally possible.
For the case to proceed, the Attorney-General must give his permission and
then Canadian lawyers may prepare the case, said Amir Attaran, a University
of Ottawa law professor who is assisting Mr. Shumba.

"The government passed the crimes-against-humanity and war-crimes
legislation in 2000 but the previous Liberal government then proceeded never
to use the law," he said. "We are not asking the Attorney-General to
prosecute. We are asking to be given a green light so that we can bring a
case."

Dr. Attaran does not believe that there must be a Canadian connection for a
case to proceed, and pointed out that the legislation is open on this point.

"The Liberals were a big disappointment on this file. The present government
takes a more constructive view and is more concerned about what is going on
in Zimbabwe than the Liberals ever were."

African Consolidated fights Zim diamond rush

Business Report

October 17, 2006

African Consolidated said yesterday that "several thousand" people had
occupied land in Zimbabwe on which it was prospecting for diamonds after a
dispute over exploration rights.

An unidentified company had claimed an "alternative kind of" exploration
permit and was disputing the validity of African Consolidated's licence,
chief executive Andrew Cranswick said yesterday. The dispute would be heard
this week in the Harare court.

State-controlled Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe was trying to
invalidate claims granted to UK-based African Consolidated earlier this
year, the Zimbabwe Independent reported yesterday, citing unidentified
lawyers. It gave permission for the illegal mining by artisanal workers on
condition it had the right to buy any gems found. - Bloomberg

Neighbours Help Out to Pay for Funerals

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Well-wishers offer practical help as well as tears for bereaved Zimbabweans.

From Grace Bhasera in Harare (AR No.79, 16-Oct-06)

A long-forgotten burial custom has been resurrected to help impoverished
Zimbabweans, who are losing an average of one family member a month to AIDS
and other diseases now classified as "incurable" because of the country's
crumbling healthcare system.

In the distant past, when a poor family lost a member, neighbours would
bring what little they could afford along to the funeral to help the
bereaved feed the mourners. For the most part it was the staple maize meal,
or groundnuts which could be boiled in salt water to make a quick meal.

These token contributions were known in Shona as "chema" or "tears",
representing a gift to transform the tears of mourners into something more
useful.

The rich did not need "chema", for they prided themselves in being able to
bury their dead in lavish style.

"We are now seeing the re-emergence of the custom of 'chema' for two
reasons," a Harare pastor explained to IWPR. "With the AIDS pandemic,
families are losing more members than they would otherwise do; and with the
collapsed economy, families have become so poor that they are looking
increasingly to neighbours for assistance.

"What is interesting is that this was mainly a rural custom where villagers
were all basically related. Now the custom has come to the urban areas,
where your neighbour more often than not is a complete stranger."

Thanks to the revival in the custom, families in poor suburbs are able to
give reasonably decent burials to their relatives, as the AIDS pandemic
continues to claim victims with grim regularity.

"Without the assistance being given through 'chema', many poor families
would be giving their dead paupers' burials due to the current harsh
economic situation in the country," said the pastor.

These days, ordinary Zimbabweans are barely able to meet their daily needs,
let alone raise at short notice the hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean
dollars charged by funeral parlours, and also find the money to feed
relatives and people who come to console them in the manner demanded by
tradition.

At one reputable funeral parlour, the cheapest coffins cost between 60,000
and 120,000 Zimbabwean dollars (240 to 500 US dollars), while the swisher
white coffins favoured in better times now cost anywhere between 160,000 and
195,500 Zimbabwean dollars. A grave plot at Harare's Granville Cemetery,
which is mainly for poor urbanites, costs between 20,000 and 38,000
Zimbabwean dollars.

These funeral costs are high for a country where the unemployment rate has
risen above 80 per cent and the lowest-paid workers earn less than 15,000
Zimbabwean dollars a month, while economists estimate the average monthly
salary at 40,000 Zimbabwean dollars.

Large numbers of breadwinners have died from HIV/AIDS, leaving most
Zimbabwean households headed by the elderly and children.

In increasingly harsh times, many town-dwellers can no longer afford the
funeral insurance they used to take out to ensure their loved ones were sent
on their journey to the next world with some dignity and style.

"I recently attended a funeral of a close friend in Highfield [a poor
suburb] and was amazed at the unity displayed by friends, people living in
the area, her church pastor and church members," Mary Badza, a Harare shop
assistant, told IWPR.

Badza said that when her friend Joyce died, the extended family had spent
almost all the money they had left on her medication, and they were so broke
that for a time they could not afford to buy bread and other basic
foodstuffs.

The head of the family, the late Joyce's brother, is an unskilled labourer
for a construction company. Badza said that when he heard the news of his
sister's death, he almost collapsed - less because of the bereavement than
because he did not know how he would raise cash for the funeral.

But "chema" came to the rescue. The family received gifts from friends worth
more than 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars - over 400 US dollars - for Joyce's
burial from friends while the local church provided transport to ferry
mourners.

At the graveside, Joyce's the brother was in tears as he thanked God for the
friends, neighbours, church and many others in the neighbourhood who had
given them "chema" to buy food and pay for a grave and other funeral costs.

Badza said Joyce was lucky that she died at a time while neighbours can
still afford to help each other out.

"A time will come when we will not be able to bury each other, when we will
not afford to buy coffins, grave space, pay for other burial costs," she
said. "My friend was fortunate that she had so many friends, and people
sacrificed the little money they had to assist. The church has also assumed
a new importance in these circumstances."

Grace Bhasera is the pseudonym of a journalist based in Harare.

Zimbabweans Flood Across Limpopo

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

      An IWPR contributor gets caught up in the exodus of would-be refugees,
many of whom are detained in harsh conditions in South Africa and then sent
home.

      By Zakeus Chibaya in Johannesburg (AR No.79, 16-Oct-06)

      Timothy Mashinda, a frail Zimbabwean clad in tattered,
dust-impregnated clothes, looked dejected and hungry as he was led by South
African soldiers from an army truck into a detention centre for illegal
immigrants.

      Mashinda had earlier been arrested by the military at a farm on the
banks of the Limpopo River, which forms South Africa's northern border with
Zimbabwe. The farm, known as Chivaramakura -"tough land" in the Shona
language - hires many of the hordes of Zimbabweans fleeing increasing
hardship back home. They work for low daily wages of 45-50 Rand, about five
US dollars, harvesting tomatoes, oranges and potatoes.

      Mashinda had been at Chivaramakura for three weeks and had not yet
been paid when soldiers, police and officials from South Africa's home
affairs ministry swooped in search of foreigners without proper documents.

      All along the border, police arrest Zimbabwean migrants who fail to
verify their identity or legal status, often assaulting them and extorting
money, according to a new report by the international rights watchdog group
Human Rights Watch.

      Many people drown or are taken by crocodiles, as they attempt to cross
the Limpopo under cover of darkness; some are crushed to death by elephants.
The river was memorably described by Rudyard Kipling as the "great,
grey-green, greasy" Limpopo but in 2006 it is a wild zone of
people-smugglers, corrupt security forces and a never-ending flow of illicit
human traffic across the water.

      The report, "Unprotected Migrants: Zimbabweans in South Africa's
Limpopo Province", said Zimbabweans continue to stream into South Africa to
escape their own country's deteriorating economic and political conditions.
It said the vulnerability of the estimated 1.2 to three million Zimbabweans
now living in South Africa is made worse by their frequent lack of legal
status, effectively making them refugees.

      I met Mashinda after I too was clapped into the open-air detention
centre at the South African border town of Musina, after trying in vain to
persuade police that my documents were in order on returning from Zimbabwe.
Mashinda said that in the two days since his arrest he had been given no
food, and he felt desperately cold and hungry.

      South African president Thabo Mbeki pursues a policy of "quiet
diplomacy" towards President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean government. This
policy is so silent that many critics wonder what it actually consists of.

      Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants from Zimbabwe looking for
jobs are harassed and ill-treated by South Africa authorities trying to stem
the human flood across the Limpopo.

      During my time as an inmate in the Musina detention centre, I
discovered that the policy is to provide neither bedding nor food to
inmates. Instead, the detainees have to scrounge desperately for scraps of
food and blankets.

      I spent more than two days in detention trying to persuade officials
that my documents were in order. To my surprise, I met five close relatives
and two classmates who also had been arrested after fleeing Zimbabwe.

      For some reason, I was regarded as a VIP and was the only person given
food by police cooks. One Zimbabwean detained for a fifth time as he tried
to enter South Africa offered me money for my bread, but I decided to share
my food among as many of my hungry fellow-countrymen as possible. Some were
able to bribe policemen with small sums of money or cigarettes to bring them
small plates of "sadza" or maize porridge from outside.

      As illegal immigrants, we were kept in an open-air compound,
surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with razor wire. From what I heard,
the compound is officially meant to accommodate 50 people, but it is always
overcrowded, particularly on Thursdays following the arrival of the weekly
train bringing Zimbabweans in from the giant Lindela Repatriation Camp, near
Johannesburg, 500 kilometres to the south.

      The compound had no latrines or running water. During the day, we were
escorted on request to an outside toilet, but at night we defecated and
urinated around the edges of the compound. We were unable to wash, and to
drink; we scooped water from a single cooking pot.

      The risk of detention and expulsion do not deter Zimbabweans from
heading for South Africa in huge numbers, as they attempt to earn an income
to feed and clothe the relatives they leave back home.

      Once they are expelled, most avoid contact with officials of the
Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration, IOM, working from
offices in Beitbridge, the small Zimbabwean border town on the north bank of
the Limpopo, who offer food, counselling and transport in attempts to get
the deportees to settle permanently in their own country.

      "The whole [IOM] programme is operated by the Central Intelligence
Organisation and Border Gezi youth militias who are persecuting us in the
country. I will not accept their offer unless they work on finding the
solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe," one Musina detainee, Admore Chihitani,
told me.

      The Central Intelligence Organisation is President Mugabe's
much-feared, ubiquitous intelligence service which enforces governmental
decrees, often violently and extra-legally. The Border Gezi youth militias,
also known as the Green Bombers because of their olive-green uniforms, are
used by Mugabe to enforce rule by his ZANU PF government and to intimidate
and assault opposition supporters.

      Most of the deported Zimbabweans opt to try repeatedly until they make
it into South Africa.

      Tichaona Shava, who told me he had been arrested and deported five
times in just over two weeks, said, "I will always try my luck to go back to
South Africa even if they arrest me. I can't survive in Zimbabwe because of
the economic conditions."

      Samson Matobo, from the southern town of Masvingo, said he lost both
his house and job in Mugabe's continuing Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out
the Rubbish), in which soldiers, police and ruling party militias used
violence to destroy the homes and small businesses of hundreds of thousands
of poor people living on the outer edges of Zimbabwe's towns.

      "My wife and I were left homeless by Murambatsvina, so I decided to
come to South Africa to look for a job to fend for my family and parents,"
he told me. "Mugabe has reduced us to beggars and it is difficult to think
of returning to Zimbabwe to face another worse starvation."

      Food fights are common among the Zimbabwean detainees as they scramble
for left-over scraps from nearby prison cells housing South African criminal
suspects.

      With my fellow inmates, I spent most of the daylight hours either
asleep on the ground or basking in the sun. At night, we all huddled
together against the cold. Through the hours of darkness we sang church
hymns and choruses - and our voices were swelled by those of South African
women in the prison cells. For variety, some of the detainees broke into
anti-Mugabe songs that are illegal back home.

      I watched South African policemen rob my countrymen of what little
money they had. A group of Zimbabweans from Lindela gave 100 Rand (ten
dollars) to police officers to buy bread. But instead of doing so, the
police immediately locked the group in a prison van.

      "Police often mistreat undocumented workers when they arrest them,"
said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "While
awaiting deportation at police stations, undocumented migrants are given
inadequate shelter and food, and some are detained beyond the 30-day legal
limit."

      Civil society organisations in South Africa said they are very
concerned about conditions at the detention centres. Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh,
director of the Refugee Rights Project at South Africa's Lawyers for Human
Rights, said there had been talk for years about using army barracks so that
Zimbabwean detainees would at least have a roof over their heads, but
nothing has ever been done.

      The flow of Zimbabweans coming to South Africa illegally has increased
steadily this year. There are an estimated million Zimbabweans working on
South African farms, mostly in Limpopo Province.

      I was eventually permitted to phone South Africa's Department of Home
Affairs in Pretoria, so that officials there could confirm to the Musina
police that my political asylum documents were in order. The police
reluctantly released me, ordered me into the back of a truck and dropped me
on a pavement in central Musina, from where I hitchhiked to Johannesburg.

      Before I obtained my freedom, I watched Mashinda and other illegal
immigrants being loaded onto open trucks in preparation for deportation.
According to official figures, an average of 265 of my countrymen are
returned to Zimbabwe each day. But Mashinda said he and most of the others
would attempt to cross back over the Limpopo within a couple of nights.

      IWPR contributor Zakeus Chibaya is a Zimbabwean journalist living in
Johannesburg.

Hunger, Evil Spirits and Apostolic Preachers

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Nutrition-based illnesses are seen by the poor and minimally educated in
both urban and rural areas as the consequences of witchcraft.

By Benedict Unendoro in Harare (AR No.79, 16-Oct-06)

We began to worry when Innocent, our gardener, told us he was taking his
wife to the "Apostolics" for faith healing.

A year earlier, we had helped him pay maternity fees for his wife who
delivered a healthy baby boy. We now wondered whether we had made as many
inquiries as perhaps we should have done on the post-natal progress of both
mother and child.

Innocent works for us two days a week and, frankly, in Zimbabwe's parlous
economic circumstances with an almost worthless currency, that does not give
him much. But he is quite enterprising. With the little money we do manage
to pay him, he finances a trip every Friday to Darwendale Dam, some 45
kilometres outside Harare, the capital, where he buys fresh fish for resale
to city dwellers.

But recently he began complaining, "The money isn't enough for anything.
It's like some evil spirit takes it away from me in my sleep."

For some time, we failed to understand this was not an Innocent joke. My
response had been to say, "Of course, the problem is that the tokolosh is
taking your money at 1000 per cent interest a year."

A word of explanation is necessary here for anyone who does not understand
that many fascinating spirits stalk Africa's souls. The tokolosh is
particularly real to many Zimbabweans and other southern Africans. He is a
dwarf spirit about a metre tall, with one buttock and an extraordinarily
long sex organ that he slings over his shoulder. Some believe he originated
in the womb of a witch as a result of her copulation with a baboon. It is
extremely unwise for women to have an affair with a tokolosh because the
resulting baby may be disabled.

A snakeskin worn around the wrist can deter him, but he loves stealing
money.

Innocent did not appreciate my little jest about the tokolosh.

And here you also need to do some "Zimbabwean money maths", which is
becoming more far-fetched than stories of the tokolosh. For eight days work
with us each month, Innocent earns 16,000 Zimbabwe dollars [66 US dollar, at
the official exchange rate]. We wish we could give him more. A trip to and
from Darwendale eats up 1000 Zimbabwe dollars of his income if the bus
operator has not bought the fuel on the black market, in which case it can
cost 600 more. By the time he has transported the fish and resold it, he
perhaps adds 4,000 Zimbabwe dollars [16.50 US dollars], after expenses, to
his monthly income.

This is when Zimbabwe's most merciless tokolosh interferes - inflation,
running at 1,200 per cent and forecast by the International Monetary Fund to
reach 4,400 per cent next year. The price of bread and maize meal,
Zimbabweans' staple diet, has rocketed and increases daily.

The five kilogrammes of maize meal which Innocent's family needs a week now
costs 700 Zimbabwe dollars and is rising. They cannot afford meat. Innocent
has rent to pay and he needs at least one mug of traditional beer, brewed
from millet or sorghum, each day.

By the time Innocent comes to our garden for his two days each week, he is
broke. But on those days he eats three or four good meals at our expense.

But we have been foolish to take comfort at having fed him. As he ate
heartily at the Unendoro home, we should also, with hindsight, have given
more thought to his wife and baby.

Just recently we decided to visit Innocent and his family at their house,
scarcely more than a shack in one of the capital's many deeply impoverished
neighbourhoods. His wife was in their tiny bedroom. The window was covered
with a blanket in addition to the curtain. In the darkness, she told us she
could not stand light. And, indeed, when we removed the blanket and drew the
curtains she recoiled into the bedding.

In the light, we saw that her skin was inflamed and covered with red
lesions. The baby was crying. On lifting him, we discovered he was
extraordinarily weightless even though his little body was heavily swollen.
His hair was feathery.

We summoned our private doctor who quickly diagnosed in Innocent's wife
pellagra, a vitamin deficiency disorder which is ultimately fatal if it goes
untreated. The baby, who weighed only 3.5 kg, had kwashiorkor, a childhood
protein deficiency illness.

Although we were appalled and moved, we were not really shocked. Medical
experts have been saying throughout the first years of this century, as
Zimbabwe plunged ever more deeply into destitution, that cases of
kwashiorkor and marasmus, another form of acute protein malnutrition in
children, are increasing exponentially.

Doctors are noting growth stunting throughout the child population as a
consequence of inadequate nutrition in Zimbabwe's families, the overwhelming
majority of whom are deeply impoverished.

As the government regime of President Robert Mugabe cracks down ever more
ruthlessly on opponents, the people seem to have accepted listlessly their
predicament while consoling themselves with the belief that as long as they
can put something, no matter what, in their stomachs they will somehow be
okay.

The diet of the poor lacks just about all the essentials - carbohydrates,
protein, fat, vitamins, mineral salts and fibre - in the correct
proportions.

One medical doctor, requesting anonymity, told IWPR there will be ever more
problems associated with lack of nutrients in coming months. "Protein
deficiency is the biggest problem that we are likely to face," he said.
"Lack of protein compromises the immune system. And in Zimbabwe, with one of
the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection levels, we are likely to see a faster
disease progression, higher infant and adult mortality rates and the
country's growth continuing to head rapidly into negative territory. Lack of
energy-giving food will impact on the labour force and on the general
performance of the population."

But as the government grapples with the economic problems it has inflicted
on the population, it is clear that nutrition is low on its list of
priorities. Ours, after all, is a country where the second most powerful man
in the land, security minister and intelligence chief Didymus Mutasa, has
callously asserted that Zimbabwe would be better off with half the current
number of people.

In the absence of any coherent government strategy to resolve the people's
hunger, nutrition-based illnesses are seen by the poor and minimally
educated in both urban and rural areas as the consequences of witchcraft.

Apostolics - or "Vapositori", as the poor call them - are an expanding
pseudo-Christian sect with huge following that mixes traditional beliefs and
biblical teachings. Innocent has joined the Apostolic flock. They believe
that their prophets, who are mostly self-professed, can heal through prayer
and the use of salt and water. The prophets do not allow members to seek
modern medical treatment. Meanwhile, the collapse of the public health care
system and the high cost of private hospitals have helped the Vapositori
become the fastest growing church in the country.

Innocent was urged to drop all his superstitions by my doctor, who explained
to him, "Human bodies are like cars, which need a constant supply of fuel to
burn, a reasonable amount of water to keep the engine cool, a little oil,
and a few new parts now and then. For humans, the fuel is carbohydrate, the
oil is fat, the parts are amino-acids and protein."

We told him more simply, "Don't sell all your fish. Give some to your wife
and baby. And we backed the doctor and said: forget the Apostolics."

Benedict Unendoro is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe.

"ZCTU Will Not Be Cowed" - Matibenga

Zimbabwejournalists.com

      By Ian Nhuka in Bulawayo

      THE brutal police beatings that the leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU) suffered following foiled demonstrations last month
will not extinguish the will of Zimbabweans to liberate themselves from ZANU
PF misrule, a senior trade unionist and opposition leader said Sunday.

      Addressing a rally in Bulawayo to mark the seventh anniversary of the
formation of the Movement for Democratic Change(MDC), Lucia Matibenga, the
chairperson of the women's assembly in the main faction of the party and
also ZCTU vice-president who was savagely assaulted during the
demonstrations, said the strong-arm tactics by police only served to
strengthen the resolve of democratic forces in their quest to free the
country from the ruling party.

      "They beat us but our agenda will continue to go ahead.  They beat us
but that gives us more courage," she said.

      Other trade union leaders who were tortured include secretary general,
Wellington Chibebe and chairman, Lovemore Matombo.
      Matibenga was the only woman in the group.  She suffered a fractured
arm, perforated eardrum and bruised kidneys and received treatment at
Johannesburg's Milpark Hospital.

      Others suffered multiple injuries and were also hospitalised.
      Doctors who examined them after the demonstrations revealed that the
trade unionists were tortured. However, police say the unionists injured
themselves while resisting arrest despite video evidence to the contrary.

      Undeterred by the possibility of police brutality, Matibenga said the
ZCTU would continue championing the interests of workers.

      In future, she said, when the trade union calls for street marches;
the masses should pour out onto the streets in numbers. More than 1000
people braved the searing heat to attend the rally, which attracted the top
leadership of the main MDC faction.  The rally was held at White City
Stadium in Bulawayo, a stronghold of the party.

      Also addressing the cheering crowd, Morgan Tsvangirai, the founding
      president and leader of the camp, warned President Robert Mugabe that
his time was up. He said the MDC would not allow the veteran leader's regime
to dictate the rules of the political process in the country.

      Tsvangirai said that his camp would keep the pressure on the embattled
Mugabe government until it accepted opposition demands for a new and
democratic Constitution, one prerequisite for free and fair elections.

      "Mugabe cannot be allowed to set the rules in this country for us to
      follow.   We will never succeed if we allow him to do that.  Anyway,
we do not recognise his leadership so there is no need to allow him to set
the rules for us," Tsvangirai said.

      The former trade unionist slammed Mugabe for consistently rigging
      elections since the watershed parliamentary election in 2000, which
the MDC lost by five seats.

      "We won all the elections since then but lost power," he said.
      Tsvangirai stressed the need for a united front of opposition forces
in the struggle for democracy. His party, Tsvangirai added, would continue
to engage any democratic forces that seek to bring about change in the
country.

      He singled out the pact signed by opposition leaders in the country in
July as one way to achieve change in the country.

      "The challenge to liberate Zimbabwe is on you and that must be done as
a matter of urgency.  All the people of this country must commit
      themselves to the 'Save Zimbabwe Project,'" he added referring the
opposition agreement.

      Tsvangirai said the past seven years were difficult.  However, the
      party has managed to survive amid government machinations to crush it.

      "When I look back to the past seven years, I see a very tough time for
the democracy in this country.  I also see a regime that is determined to
fight against its own people.  Its preoccupation is just power... But Mugabe
must know that the will of the people will soon prevail despite his
suppression," he said.

Harare Bolsters Teacher Compensation Ahead of Rural Elections

VOA

By Jonga Kandemiiri
      Washington
      16 October 2006

Zimbabwean teachers struggling with soaring living costs have gotten some
relief from the government in the form of increased allowances for transport
and housing.

President Robert Mugabe announced the increased allowances at a ceremony on
the weekend in Gweru, the capital of Midlands province, as he donated 100
computers to 10 Midlands schools. Officials said monthly transport and
housing allowances were to rise more than threefold to Z$16,000 (US$64) and
Z$22,000 (US$88), respectively.

President Mugabe said teachers' base salaries would also be reviewed, adding
that teachers deserve respect and proper compensation given their key role
in society.

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said the raises were welcome but
long overdue. Secretary General Raymond Majongwe told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the government had rolled out
the increases to influence the rural district council elections coming up
later this month.

Zimbabwe Soccer Fans Outraged By Racial Insults to Player in Serbia

VOA

By Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye
      Washington
      16 October 2006

Zimbabwe football fans expressed outrage Monday at reports of racial abuse
aimed at Zimbabwean striker Mike Temwanjira by fans from his Borac Club in
Serbia.

News reports said fans in the town of Cacak put on white hoods like those of
the U.S. white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan and held up placards
saying Temwanjira was not wanted in Serbia and should go away.

The incident is alleged to have taken place after a match against Vozdovac
Belgrade Saturday. Police later told reporters that eight fans had been
detained and would face charges of spreading racial hatred and intolerance.
About 30 others were released.

Temwanjira's home supporters said the Zimbabwe Football Association ought to
take action against the Serbian club to ensure the safety of Zimbabwean
players abroad.

Sports Commentator Michael Kariati told reporter Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that ZIFA could lodge a complaint with the
International Football Federation, or FIFA, and the Football Association of
Serbia, or FSS.

Challenging ZANU PF's Structures of Power: Understanding The Sources Of Power

Zimbabwejournalists.com

      By Alex T. Magaisa

      Dear Reader,

      This is not an academic piece; at least it's not meant to be. I have
had to refer to the source of the principal idea, only because it is not my
idea, but rather one that I have adapted and I was taught that what is not
mine I must acknowledge. Do not therefore be put off by my reference to my
source, if that makes it appear like another impenetrable academic piece
meant for a journal - I have tried as far as possible to keep the model
within the limits of simplicity, at the risk in fact of oversimplification
perhaps to the chagrin of the more sophisticated and inquiring reader. You
may find that most of it is probably obvious but before you condemn it, I
like to think that I have repackaged the seemingly obvious in order to see
the possible avenues of resistance and change. And rather sadly, it is
necessarily long and this despite my strenuous efforts, I have not been able
to avoid. I can only ask for your patience. But I hope that at the end of
it, it would have been worth your effort. If not, please accept my apologies
in great abundance for subjecting you to the torture.

      Toita sei/Senza Njani? /How do we do it?

      Fundamental questions that occupy the minds of most people in Zimbabwe
and beyond who have been frustrated by the economic decline and increasing
poverty are whether it is possible at all to replace the ruling ZANU PF and
if so, how that is possible, in the face of failures of the commonly
employed methods. Such approaches, ranging from participation in elections
to mass stayaways and street demonstrations have largely proved ineffectual
in recent years. Despite the visible decline, ZANU PF appears even more
entrenched and despair has taken over where once there was hope and
expectation.

      I have read a number of contributions and listened to interesting
debates hosted by Violet Gonda on SW Radio Africa involving various
activists and commentators engaged with the Zimbabwe question. Each time,
the question on what to do to overcome the challenge has been debated
vigorously, but time and again there appears to be no answer on the question
of what's to be done. As an occasional writer, similar questions have often
been posed to me. I realize as do many others that the Zimbabwean problem is
easy to describe but few of us have ventured to explore ideas on what's to
be done. Toita sei?, is the question. This here is my attempt to look at the
challenge from another angle, by no means the best, but an idea shared is
better that one buried in one's mind.

      Problem of Generalisation

      First, it appears to me that one of the weaknesses in approaching the
challenge has been a generalization of the issues at hand, which has led to
the adoption of general and predictable methods and a failure to explore
alternatives. The challenge has been framed as one of taking political power
from ZANU PF without however posing to explore and understand the nature of
ZANU PF's power. "Political power" has been defined generally and taken for
granted yet in reality the nature of political power is multi-faceted and
more complex. It is a tried and tested rule that when confronting a
challenge, it is important to fully understand its nature. Long before the
fighters confront each other in the boxing ring, they would have studied
every move of the other, noting his strengths and weaknesses - ensuring that
on the big day he exploits the weaknesses while trying to undermine the
points of strength. Whichever way, the fighter knows that he must understand
the nature of the challenge before him, in order to overcome it. My
contention is that understanding the nature of ZANU PF's power is critical
because it allows an avenue to see its strengths and weaknesses and also
open up space for new alternative to approaching it. The question therefore
is: from which sources does ZANU PF draw its power?

      Strange's Model

      Having applied my mind to these questions, I have resorted to the work
of Susan Strange one of the major voices in international political economy.
Almost 20 years ago, Strange brought great insight, in a book entitled
States and Markets, into the nature of power within the international
system. It is appropriate that I explain my decision to use Strange's
illuminating model for international power relations within the national
context and in particular, Zimbabwean politics:

      I have always thought that the most important thing about the
literature we read and the studies we embark on, whether it is science,
economics, law, fiction or other discipline, is how we can make it relevant
to our local circumstances. I do not think we have to read or study simply
for the sake of it or that certain work must be restricted to academic
journals. In fact, I despair when I see some brilliant pieces of work that
members of the public should ordinarily read, packaged and stored away in
thick academic journals in the vast libraries or sites accessible only on
payment of huge sums and used occasionally by students to write essays and
pass exams, after which they gather dust on the library shelves. So although
I am not a political scientist and whilst Strange's model was designed
within the context of international political economy, I still found it
useful a few years ago when I wrote work on intellectual property rights and
have found it useful again now as I confront the question of power within
Zimbabwean politics. I have therefore shamelessly borrowed Strange's model
and adapted it to the national circumstances of Zimbabwe in a bid to
understand the nature of ZANU PF's power and how it might be approached.

      The nature of Power

      It makes sense to give a basic outline of Strange's model of power as
adapted to the national sphere. Power itself is defined simply as one's
ability to impose his/her will on others regardless of their
wishes/interests. Strange identified two kinds of power: first, Relational
Power, which is the power that one wields to get another person to do
something that they would not otherwise do and second, Structural Power,
which is the power to shape and determine the structures within which others
operate; the power to set the agenda and decide how things are done. It is
important within this context to understand how ZANU PF uses Structural
Power in the way it sets up the framework in which individuals and entities
including political parties and corporate enterprises operate and relate to
each other within the political and economic landscape. It is understanding
the nature of ZANU PF's Structural Power that is the focus of this article.

      Now, according to Strange, there are four key sources of Structural
Power namely, Production, Finance, Security and Knowledge. Put simply, the
proposition is that that have structural power reposes in those that are
able to:

      - exercise control of people's security;
      - make decisions and control the manner of production for survival;
      - control the financial architecture, i.e. supply and distribution of
finance and
      - control the definition, development, dissemination, storage of and
access to knowledge broadly defined to include information, ideas and
beliefs.

      These facets of power are the same whether at the family unit,
national or international levels of power relations. The important thing is
that the control of these structures determines the balance of power between
the members of a given space. In a traditional family, the father's power
over the family may arise from security that he is able to provide, the
control over production because he has title to and control of the means of
production, the control of family finances - he holds the purse, pays school
fees, purchases goods, gives children pocket money, etc, and promotes the
belief systems that privilege patriarchy and the status of men.  However,
this can change over time if the mother becomes a greater producer, say, by
holding a superior and better-paying job or when the child graduates from
University and becomes the bread-winner and provider of security and also
promotes a belief system that privileges the power and superiority of
education. It is within this model that I have sought to explore and
understand the power of ZANU PF and possibly open ways in which it can be
approached.

      Production Structure

      This is probably the most commonly known source of structural power,
Marxists having long argued that power reposes in those in control of the
means of production. The ones that decide the mode of production and control
production levels necessarily have the power over those with an interest in
accessing the means and items of production. They seek to strengthen and
defend their position and establish rules and institutions to create
enclosures that others cannot challenge.

      It is within this context that we can see ZANU PF's strategy in
relation to land reform and lately other areas of production such as
industry and the mining sector. ZANU PF knew that in an agro-based economy,
it lacked sufficient control of the production structure. Instead, the
commercial farmers with greater control of the production structure appeared
to favour the new opposition party, the MDC. It therefore became necessary
to break this pattern to avoid having the power from the production
structure residing with the MDC. To be fair ZANU PF probably had illusions
that the transition from the old to the new farmers would be smooth but as
we now know, these illusions were without foundation. ZANU PF's power
arising from the production structure would have been greater today had
agricultural productivity been maintained at the pre-2000 levels. But this
did not materialize and while it controls the means of production, its power
from this structure is actually weak because of low productivity. The only
reason why it is important is that it has managed to deprive others of the
opportunity to draw power from this structure because of its monopoly that
is supported by a strong security structure as we shall see a little later.

      Before I conclude, I would also point out that it is within this
context that we can understand ZANU PF's desire to assume greater control of
the mines and is hard on the local industry, setting the prices of essential
goods and therefore levels of production and also its active participation
as a shareholder in local industries.

      But it is also important to realise that people are not without
power - as I will demonstrate later when people withdraw their labour,
through strikes or similar action, they are principally demonstrating their
power over the production structure.  For example, while an employer draws
power from his control of the production system on which employees depend
for employment and livelihood, employees can whenever they feel the employer
has abused his power, withdraw their labour or engage in other action that
forces the employer to meet their demands. We have seen however, that mass
stayaways, strikes or similar action do not seem to have had the desired
effect on ZANU PF power This is probably because power from this structure
is already weak anyway as there is no real production to talk about and so
ZANU PF wouldn't care less.  Withdrawing labour does no more harm to the
power from the production structure, which is already weak. ZANU PF has
nothing to lose in this respect. It would be different however if people
engaged in other parallel forms of production, hereby creating a parallel
structure from which they draw power but ZANU PF has no control. However
positive action such as this is difficult where ZANU PF can deploy power
from the security structure.

      Finance Structure

      This structure consists of control over finance, generally defined.
This involves the control and availability of credit and other financial
facilities. Its influence is more defined in advanced economies but is
generally important because it affects the power arising from other
structures - production, knowledge development and security. The old adage
that he who has wealth has power applies with equal force in this case. In
Zimbabwe we can see the manifestation of ZANU PF's power from this structure
in its tentacles spread across the financial sector, especially major local
banks. It can also be seen in the Reserve Bank's forays in to the retail
banking sector (under the cloak of temporary "Operations") - becoming a
principal source of finance for industry and agriculture and a key player
via institutions like the ZABG and similar banks. Private institutions have
been forcibly taken over or sidelined by the all-powerful RBZ and in the
process ZANU PF is effectively assuming control of the key sites of the
finance structure thereby seeking to enhance its power.

      A question is not often asked - why are there people who appear to
support ZANU PF, despite its failings? They are often dismissed as ignorant
and mostly rural folk. But the fact is that when you look at the way even
the so-called sophisticated corporate entities and urbane individuals in
business succumb to the power of ZANU PF in respect of this structure, you
begin to see that supporting or opposing ZANU PF is not simply an exercise
limited to election time. In other words rural folk are not the only ones
who supposedly prop up ZANU PF through votes because by supporting ZANU PF's
power arising from such structures as finance, there are many others who
unsuspectingly prop up the party. People or entities that tow ZANU PF's line
do so not necessarily because they believe in its ideals but only because by
doing so they secure access to facilities within ZANU PF controlled
financial architecture. They do so because they depend on it - if the had an
alternative they probably would not tow the line. But looked at another way,
if they chose to reject it they would be exercising creating their own
parallel source of power. Looked at in this way, the parallel market is no
more than a refusal to succumb to the power of the ZANU PF controlled
financial system. If all the funds circulating in the parallel market were
in the formal system, it would greatly enhance the power of those in control
of the finance structure. Given that the parallel market provides a parallel
finance structure, it is no surprise that ZANU PF would be very keen to keep
a watchful eye and retain control. To that extent, participation in a
parallel market can be seen as a mass withdrawal of consent to the formal
system from which the ruling establishment draws its power, creating a
parallel power structure of which only the people are in control. That in a
way is a form of mass action, although it is not commonly identified as
such.

      In addition, and perhaps more importantly people underestimate their
relative power within this finance structure. They (including the corporate
world) unwittingly prop up the banking sector because they keep their
savings within the banking system. By so doing, they succumb to the power of
the controlled banking system because they have to restrict their
withdrawals in line with the demands of the RBZ, again enforced by the power
from the Security Structure. It is their money but they have allowed their
rights to be restricted because they remain participants in a banking system
that gives power to their adversary. You can vote against ZANU PF but as
long as your finances are within the finance structure that it controls, you
have little cause to complain when it uses that power to thwart your choice.
You think you have voted against but in another way you are propping it up.
If there are so many people who oppose the control, what would be the effect
on the finance structure if they withdrew their funds from the system? Are
people not playing unwilling participants in propping up the power of that
which they appear to oppose? Could mass non-participation or withdrawal from
the finance structure be considered a form of mass action?

      Knowledge Structure

      The old saying that knowledge is power is appropriate here. It simply
means that those who are able to define and control the development, use,
dissemination and access to knowledge have important structural power.
Knowledge is defined broadly to include evolving technology, ideas, beliefs
and information. Knowledge in this sense is important because it controls
the mind and therefore the behaviour of individuals. The control of
knowledge involves withholding certain kinds of knowledge from people
thereby keeping them in ignorance or feeding them certain kinds of knowledge
that favour the controller. Knowledge also affects the other three
structures - in terms enhancing or decreasing security, technology for
finance and also for production. By 1990 ZANU PF had already increased
attempts to control the knowledge structure by enhancing control and
interference with academic freedom at universities via the notoriously
controversial University of Zimbabwe Amendment Act. The same efforts can be
seen in the control of syllabi of key subjects that teach liberation history
and also the increasing attempts to take control of the private education
sector. Similarly, re-education programmes and the national youth service
constitute attempts to control the knowledge - the spread of ideas that
support a certain position. Repeated more often with increased volume and
large print, the ideas, information and beliefs become part of the daily
vocabulary. Used everyday, it becomes part of the routine, part of life.
When the oppressed begin to use the language of the oppressor, you can see
the power deriving from the knowledge structure, even though the oppressed
may not realize their capitulation.

      Occasionally, the knowledge structure relies on the security structure
to ensure that these ideas are enforced by coercion. More importantly, ZANU
PF has maintained control of power arising from the knowledge structure
through a system of closure or withdrawal of knowledge. This is the context
in which we can understand the media monopoly of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings, the threats and actual acts of violence against the Daily News
culminating in the continued refusal to issue a licence, the dominance of
Zimpapers. At the same time we can see attempts by others to break this
power, such as the radio stations like SW Radio Africa or newspapers like
the Zimbabwean or online sites like NewZimbabwe.com. But the interference
with transmission of radio stations represents the attempt to maintain the
control of the knowledge structure by preventing alternative voices.  All in
all, ZANU PF knows that immense power resides and can be drawn from the
knowledge structure. That is why it keeps a tight grip on all aspects that
constitute this structure.

      The question therefore is whether those that oppose ZANU PF's ways
have any strategy aimed at breaking this source of power. The question is
knowing what sustains the vehicles through which knowledge is developed and
transmitted - The party mouthpieces need revenue from advertisers and
subscribers but how many among these potential advertisers and subscribers
are unwittingly keeping it afloat? Some people say they buy the paper only
for the classifieds section or for the sports news, but that makes little
difference to its sales figures - they record that newspapers have been sold
and revenue has been received and in that way the power of the knowledge
structure is enhanced because the companies stay in business. What would
happen if all those people who would not otherwise buy if there was an
alternative choose not to buy it at all? And if people chose not to purchase
goods and services from companies that run commercials in that media? Such
power works when exercised collectively and can be more effective in
changing the behaviour of otherwise complicit corporate enterprises who like
to play victim but at the same time exploit the benefits of the system.

      Security Structure

      This is probably the most important of all structures from which ZANU
PF draws power but as we have seen it is by no means the only one. The fact
that this is a strong structure of power for ZANU PF should not take away
attention from the other structures of power, which have their own
weaknesses that can be exploited. The security structure cannot operate on
its own, it requires the other structures and hence it is often deployed to
ensure that the other structures of power remain in existence - sooner or
later it poses its own threats even to the ruling party, because the real
controllers of the structure may at any point choose to free themselves from
the party structures - which is why in some countries military personnel
have used the power from the structure to take power from politicians
through coups, as happened recently in Thailand. Since everyone requires
security, those in control of security have power over those who need it.
But the power to protect can also mean the power to withdraw protection and
in extreme cases, to threaten insecurity by using coercion and violence. It
becomes more extreme when the security machinery itself is used to threaten
the security of individuals, in which case people conform by means of fear
and coercion.

      As we have seen, power derived from the security structure can also be
used to support other structures, for example using coercion of the Youth
Militia to promote certain ideas and beliefs, using the police force or army
to confiscate funds held by individuals, failing to provide security to
farmers when threatened with violence during the land invasions. The most
brutal use of power from the security structure to coerce obedience and
compliance was the deployment of the notorious Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland
under the guise of suppressing dissident activity. The most visible
manifestation of ZANU PF's power arising from the security structure in more
recent times was the announcement by the uniformed security chiefs just
before the Presidential election in 2002 that they would only support a
leader who had participated in the liberation struggle. This was in effect a
clear demonstration of the superior power drawn from the security structure.
If one's security cannot be guaranteed by the security forces all other
interests become secondary and irrelevant.

      It stands to reason therefore that securing power does not lie in the
realm of elections or mere demonstrations but measures that neutralize the
power drawn from the security structure. Given the nature of the Zimbabwe
state and the historical circumstances of its birth it is no surprise that
the centre of power lies in the security structure. Any attempt therefore to
win power requires ways of getting some of that power. An opposition
movement needs some measure of support emanating from within this structure,
in order to draw the necessary power. To pretend otherwise is to bury heads
in the sand and refuse to understand and accept the realpolitik of the
Zimbabwean situation.  The opposition movement in Zimbabwe has largely
pursued textbook politics that describes democracy in pleasant terms and
assumes that all things are equal but fails to take into account the power
structures and relations that must be confronted and overcome in different
situations. We expect elections to be the medium for change and while this
probably makes sense in the mature democracies but we do not understand that
within our landscape elections is just a part of the wider equation.
Penetrating the security structure could involve making oneself relevant to
the agenda and interests of those that form part of the security structure.
This is not easy but also not impossible. The MDC tried it when some
legislators allegedly tried to woo top military personnel a few years ago,
though their attempt was probably awkwardly executed and therefore failed.
That was an attempt to have a share of the power from the security structure
which ZANU PF monopolises.

      It must also be recalled that the security structure is only relevant
to the extent that people require security. When it becomes a threat, there
comes a point when people may exercise a choice to reject the security
because it has become irrelevant to their needs. In that case the power
arising from the security structure is diminished because the people for
whom it is meant no longer need it. This much is evident in Zimbabwe's own
history when in the 1970s the liberation movements chose to reject the
security structure of the Rhodesian regime and instead created their own
machinery which sought fairly successfully in the end to establish a new
structure, from which ZANU PF now derives power.

      What emerges from the above is that instead of talking of ZANU PF's
power in general terms, it helps to dissect its structures in order to
understand more precisely its strengths and weaknesses, by understanding its
sources of power.  Conversely, this helps to unravel the various options and
avenues available to those that seek to challenge its power. When people
have talked about its superior power, they have largely referred to its
power arising principally from the security structure. They have not
specifically considered its power arising from other structures and the
weaknesses that lie therein. When considered in total, it is easy to see
that because of the weaknesses in other power from other structures, they
have had to be propped up by the security structure. That is why people talk
of the militarization of the civil service and other state institutions -
whereby personnel from the security structure have been deployed to
positions in otherwise civilian areas. Therefore, ZANU PF is relying more on
the security structure as a principal source of power.

      Power is Reciprocal

      Notwithstanding the immense power from the security structure, it is
also important to realise that power is reciprocal. It may not be equal
reciprocity but the fact remains that one's power is relevant only to the
extent that he controls things that are required by other people. In return
for their desire for security the people cede power to those that are able
to offer security. Conversely, once that security becomes a threat or is no
longer available, people no longer require it and may therefore seek
alternatives. The history of Zimbabwe itself is testament to this fact -
when the liberation parties realised that the security offered by the
Rhodesian Front was not in their best interests but had instead become a
threat to their freedoms, they decided to reject that form of security and
create an alternative source of their own. Similarly, the shopkeeper has
power over consumers only to the extent that he controls the goods and
services that the consumers desire. If he sells rotten food or increases
prices beyond the consumers' reach, the consumers can exercise their
reciprocal power by withdrawing their custom. If the shopkeeper cannot sell
his wares to any person, he no longer has power over the consumers and he
may relent. That is the power of consumer boycotts - mass withdrawal of
custom which tips the balance of power in the consumers' favour. Is that not
also a form of mass action? But this works only if the consumers are united
in their effort. So for example, if everyone chose to walk and avoid public
transport which is expensive; if everyone chose to walk and abandon their
luxury vehicles until the price of fuel is reduced, that might force the bus
operators or fuel merchants to think twice and change their methods. The
point here is that far from being powerless and lacking in alternatives,
people actually have power which they can exercise without engaging in any
positive action. No amount of force can coerce a person to go into a shop to
buy what he does not want; similarly, no amount of force can push a person
to deposit his funds in a bank or to use public transport. So even though
the security structure is powerful, it can only influence the strengths of
the other structures if people are prepared to participate.

      All too often protests in Zimbabwe have been predicated on the basis
of doing something - demonstrating in the streets, voting in elections. Save
for the initial stayaways of the late 1990s (whose success owed much to
their novelty), there has been limited thought given to the strategy of
protests which involve doing nothing when the system requires you to do
otherwise. Positive action like street marches has been attractive because
it is visible and helps the showmen to demonstrate to the world and their
benefactors that they are actually doing something about the problem but
time and again it has been neutralised via ZANU PF's power from the security
structure. The predictability probably explains George Aittey's views
recently that the ZCTU marches were ill-considered and ineffectual. Other
than providing good material for thick human rights reports and more
recently video documentaries showing the brutal force of ZANU PF's security
structure it has done nothing substantial to influence change.  The reports
and videos simply confirm what is already known about the Zimbabwean regime
and so do not add anything new. The question is whether there are other
methods that target the structures of power but are not vulnerable to the
power arising from the security structure? Perhaps it is useful to look at
other forms of confronting this challenge - enabling people to realise that
they have power, albeit invisible, and can in fact if truly united make use
of the power which no amount of coercion can neutralise.

      I have attempted to show in this lengthy piece, the sources of ZANU PF's
power with the hope that it opens up alternative ways through which people
can exercise their power, which is actually available in abundance. The only
question is whether they are prepared for the sacrifices required in order
to use it. Once people think of ZANU PF's power they immediately retreat
because they think only of the power arising from the security structure.
What they have not sought to do is to appreciate that ZANU PF's power is
drawn from other sources on which the security structure is also dependent.
That is where the leadership question arises - the leadership that shows
this vision and explains to the people the power dynamics involved and what
can be done and achieved. Simply resorting to the same old methods, the same
catchwords will produce similar ineffectual consequences. The opposition
also needs to win a share of power arising from the security structure -
this is a matter of realpolitik, because no matter how much they win by the
ballot box, they would still need to win over the power from this crucial
structure. I ma not be what the textbook democrats want but that is the
demands of realpolitik - the practical power politics of the Zimbabwean
situation.

      Reader

      I know it has been a long read, but at the very least, I hope it has
been comprehensible.

      Dr Magaisa can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk

How to stage mass action and live happily ever after

Zimbabwejournalists.com

      By Bill Saidi

      HERBERT MUNANGATIRE was on of the most colourful people it was my
pleasure to work with.

      We pent four eventful years together at African Newspapers, the
publishers of The African Daily News, among other publications. Apart from
the cigar-chomping, which he did with such gleeful disregard for other
people's sensibilities of the smoke, he was also a master of hyperbole and
theatrics.

      The African Daily News may have had its detractors, but it did try to
live up to its reputation as a first-class, modern newspaper, working with
the most modern newspaper technology.

      For instance, the office was in regular radio communication with a
vehicle used by reporters in the field. So, when there was a riot in Harare
township, the man on the spot could report "live" to the office desk, a
blow-by-blow account of what was happening.

      I was at the wrong end as Munangatire's voice bombarded me with a
rat-tat-tat account of events as riot police fired teargas at the crowd.
      His most memorable communication was: "Look, look, look, they are
firing teargas, they are firing teargas!"

      Later, when he was back at the office, I joshed with him about that
rather melodramatic communication. "It was really exciting," he said,
earnestly.
      Mass action was a method of protest used frequently by the nationalist
movements. They were obviously effective in raising the people's awareness
of how numbers mattered in the head-to-head confrontation with the
colonialists.

      I marched in one from Cyril Jennings Hall to the Harare township
police station, where they teargassed us as we squatted on the ground
outside the station, in protest against police harassment - or some other
such acts of abuse or indignity.
      I marched with the late George Silundika, one of the first people to
be interred at Heroes Acre. We talked a lot along the way. Silundika was one
of the leaders who would not accuse me of being anti-this or anti-that, as
far as the cause of the liberation struggle was concerned, even when we met
in Zambia.

      The settlers were visibly unnerved by the protest marches, for their
reaction grew more and more vicious The general aim was to demonstrate to
the people the consequences of such temerity - you could get killed.

      Yet nobody actually gave up. They came back for more of the same
medicine and seemed to love it as it got more and more vicious. By the time
people were being killed and the air in the townships reeked of the stench
of rotting corpses, people knew this was a fight to the finish. The gloves
were off and it was bare knuckles time.
      It may be fashionable for some of the churlish present-day heroes to
dismiss the mass action then as so much feeble, childish tantrums. Yet that
is where it all began.
      We all know now that mass action can be an effective form of protest
against unpopular regimes.
      What is paramount is to ensure that, after the tears and the cries of
agony, you can live happily ever after - in freedom.

      After the break-up of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, set in
motion by the watershed policies of glasnost and perestroika by Mikhail
Gorbachev, some of the independent states which emerged had very short
lives.
      One reason was that they tried to implement the same hard-line
policies as the Soviet Union had used to keep the people subservient and
docile.

      But once the people had tasted freedom - albeit woefully limited
freedom - under the short-lived Gorbachev regime, they would never tolerate
any restrictions that smacked  of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
      One man who fell victim had been Gorbachev's foreign minister, Edvard
Shevadznade.
      He fled his country of Georgia and sought refuge in Russia. A few
others took the same route after their experiment with Soviet-style
totalitarianism found little favour with their people.

      We all know that in The Philippines, it was "people power" under
Corazone Aquino which toppled Ferdinand Marcos. Recently, the prime minister
of Thailand, a very wealthy man, was out of the country when the soldiers
decided they had had enough of his brand of despotism.
      There were no demonstrations against the coup, which meant that the
soldiers acted with the people's mandate. The people had protested massively
and loudly against the prime minister and his paternalistic style, which
they saw through as corrupt and selfish.

      In Hungary, we had the spectacle of a prime minister telling the
people he had lied to them to get  their vote in the last election. Most of
Hungarians were furious and wanted his head. How he survived may be a
peculiarly Hungarian feat. These people have a history of acting in fits and
starts as far as their rights are concerned.
      Lying to the people is the stock-in-trade of most politicians. In a
number of instances, the people react to these lies with mass action,.

      The trade unions and the opposition parties in Zimbabwe have
threatened to stage mass action for the same reason - the lies Zanu PF and
the government of President Robert Mugabe have tried to ram down their
throats.
      Reaction to the threats has been typical - gratuitous violence, not
unlike that of the colonialists.

      Yet they cannot escape the truth: a well-organised demonstration can
be a challenge to the army and the police. They can't kill everyone.
      Moreover, it is futile for either Mugabe or Zanu PF to believe that
the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai cannot, by itself, mount a mass
action which can test the resilience of the army and the police.
      This is the same party which gave Zanu PF a bloody nose in 2000 and
2002.

      Even in its present state of seeming disintegration, it can still
attract many neutrals who know that the chances are enormous that someone
else can do better than Zanu PF.
      Moreover, Zanu PF itself is plagued with factionalism. There are some
in the party who must wish they had a Nelson Mandela in the leadership or
even on the periphery of the leadership, as Madiba is.
      Someone of that stature and foresight could quietly convince every
leader and the rank and file that in-fighting ended with the stupidity of
the splits of the 1960s,
      But who can be as effective a catalyst for unity in Zanu PF as
Mandela is in the African national congress in South Africa?

      You can hardly point to anyone, with an office at Shake Shake
building, with that kind of selfless dedication to their country. They all
seem consumed with greed or an ego the size of the Kariba dam.

      In Zimbabwe today, most people speak only of how much life has
changed, how much corruption in high places there is and how all this has
devalued the meaning of independence and freedom, how old and young people
prefer to risk life and limb crossing the crocodile-infested Limpopo river
for a chance to live happily ever after, in a foreign country, working at
the most menial job imaginable - cleaning public lavatories, for instance.

      It is by no means trite to say, as some of the so-called unpatriotic
scribes have done, that the country is sitting on a political powder keg.
Discontent with the government is palpable everywhere - in the Kombis, in
the 110-passenger buses, on the commuter trains from Dzivarasekwa into the
city,  and on  the long-distance trains to Bulawayo or Mutare.

      In the pubs and at the bottlestores people risk being arrested for
speaking out of turn while under the influence - like calling the president
of the republic something not entirely "presidential".
      If someone convinced them that mass action would remove the nightmare
of joblessness, hunger, inexpensive transport to and from work, disease for
which the cure is beyond them, the lack of schools, hospitals and clinics,
decent houses, freedom of _expression, freedom from police and political
harassment - and they made it plausible enough - people would willingly risk
life and limb.

      They must be convinced that, at the end of the mass action, there
would be no more empty promises from Gideon Gono, to end the nightmare of a
currency that is so worthless it's making the citizens themselves feel just
as worthless.

      Above all, they must be convinced that, after the blood and the
bruises of police batons, they can live happily ever after.
      There is much solid evidence on the ´ground that not one ordinary,
proud Zimbabwean of average intelligence could find that proposition
outlandish, unattainable or unrealisable.

Zimbabwe's latest confiscation plans

Mineweb

By: Jim Jones
Posted: '08-MAR-06 09:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004

ST JEAN (Mineweb.com) -- While Zimbabwe's finance minister Herbert Murerwa
is scampering around the IMF hoping for help for his country's collapsing
economy, the announcement that the country's foreign-owned mines are next in
line to be grabbed does not help his plaint. And that is putting it mildly.

President Robert Mugabe has already presided over a grab of white-owned
farms without compensation -- not to help rural peasants but to hand over
assets to his supporters. Those farms are not being run efficiently as they
were by their white owners. A kleptocratic government that inherited a
country once seen as the southern African region's bread basket is now
responding to the fact that the state-owned granaries have less than a
couple of weeks' stocks of wheat by putting the army on high alert as a
precaution against food riots.

Non-agricultural industry, too, is all but moribund as private-sector firms
close down because of the chronic shortages of raw materials and foreign
currency that the Mugabe regime has inflicted on them. White minority rule
by the government of Ian Smith may have been illegitimate, but the economy
survived despite sanctions and new mines were opened at a steady rate.

Now, the Zimbabwean mining industry is facing the threat of expropriation.
Mugabe's cronies want an immediate handover of 25% of all mines to be
followed by a further 26% by the year 2009. Sure, the 26% will be paid for,
but payment will be in virtually worthless Zimbabwean dollars and the price
will be calculated at exchange rates prevailing when miners such as Rio
Tinto and Impala Platinum invested US dollars in expansion and mine
development.

Effectively, then, this is confiscation. And will Mugabe's looters stop
there? They are not deterred by the fact that investment funds were
introduced into the country legally and in compliance with
government-mandated conditions established long after independence. No
chance of blaming previous governments or former colonial powers for this
one. And Mugabe needs more assets to enrich his supporters.

The foreign mine owners are faced with little or no choice in Zimbabwe.
Impala's CFO David Brown has said that the 51% takeover will render his
company's 86.7%-owned Zimplats and 50%-owned Mimosa mines uneconomic. But if
Impala and others refuse to comply with the latest snatch, mines minister
Amos Mdizi threatens, their entire assets will be seized and handed over to
other - Chinese and Indian - natural resource companies that have already
been identified.

Impala is in an invidious position. It needs Zimbabwean platinum resources
to maintain longer-term production as its South African resources start to
run out or cannot support expanded production. But Impala and other South
African miners cannot count on any help or protection from their own
government. Pretoria has been tardy in signing a bilateral investment
protection accord with Harare. So, even if the South African government felt
inclined to intervene to support its own country's investors, it has no
ground to stand on.

Zimbabwe is among Africa's more egregious regimes when it comes to
protecting private property. But others such as Chad and Angola are not far
behind. So it is hard to tell whether corruption or incompetence has left
two iron-ore companies, South Africa's Kumba and India's Mittal in something
of a stand off in Senegal. The Senegalese government has allocated rights to
Mittal that it had already assigned to Kumba and where Kumba has already
spent several million dollars on exploration. And the two companies do not
want to waste time fighting a legal battle.

Across in Kenya, the government's response to media reports of corruption
that reaches way up into the cabinet has been to send it elite police and
military units to close down an independent television station to sabotage
newspaper presses and to burn newspapers. Government's specious response has
been that the media company's journalists had been bribed to stir up ethnic
hatred.

Perhaps we should not forget that the emergence from colonial rule was
hailed in most African countries, right back to the days when Kwame Nkrumah
emerged as the first president of an independent Ghana and through to
Zimbabwe's emergence from the white-led regime of Ian Smith.

Next to Kenya only a couple of years back, Uganda's president Yoweri Musveni
was being hailed at home and abroad for his perceived success in reversing
his country's HIV/Aids epidemic. Now he is reviled for rigging elections to
keep himself in power for another twenty years. How unlike countries such as
South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana where presidents retire quietly from
office at the ends of their constitutionally mandated terms.

Of course, there is always the option of bribing politicians so as to
protect one's investment. Trouble with that is finding an honest politician
to bribe. As Ambrose Bierce defined it in his Devil's Dictionary: "An honest
politician is one who, once bought stays bought."

Zimbabwe trade unionist wins UK "Women of the Year" award

      By Violet Gonda
      17 October 2006

      Thabitha Khumalo, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions 2 nd Vice
President was one of the recipients of the Women of the Year Award. She won
the Window to the World Award sponsored by Pilkington plc in the United
Kingdom. She was among 4 recipients of the annual award by the Women of the
Year organisation, which recognises women who offer true inspiration,
compassion and who strive to make the world a better place.

      The trade unionist has been arrested and beaten up several times by
state security agents in her quest to fight for better standard of living
for Zimbabweans.

      This year she embarked on a campaign called "The Dignity Period
Campaign" to fight for the basic female human right to have access to
sanitary protection. Several celebrities and organisations in the UK helped
fundraise and at least 2 million products were shipped to Zimbabwe to be
distributed.

      Sponsors said: "This award is a salute to a woman whose work and
courage, in often dangerous or intimidating circumstances, has opened all
our eyes to a world we otherwise would not have understood."

      Kathryn Llewellyn, Action for Southern Africa - Head of Campaign said;
"Thabitha has been working with Action for Southern Africa on the Dignity
Period Campaign and obviously Thabitha, as a Zimbabwe trade unionist, has
been going through a very difficult time. through her activism. It's a
combination of the work that the campaign has done along with a recognition
of the struggles that Tabitha & the ZCTU have had in trying to get the
international community to listen to the problems that Zimbabweans have,
particularly with this issue of the lack of sanitary products."

      It's reported that as a result of this awareness campaign, Action for
Southern Africa has teamed up with the ZCTU and a Zimbabwean manufacturing
company to supply and distribute the sanitary products to the most
vulnerable areas and schools in the country.

      Thabitha's mission is to continue campaigning and bringing the plight
of women into the international forum. Life expectancy of women in Zimbabwe
is 34 and is the lowest in the world. Due to Zimbabwe's economic collapse
the majority of women are no longer able to afford sanitary pads, and have
to resort to the unhealthy use of newspapers, rags or even leaves.

      Lorraine Clinton, Director of Architecture & Glazing from Pilkington
says, "Thabitha's courage and determination to bring the lack of a basic
human right to the world's attention is truly admirable. Thabitha's
resolution to fight for the rights of Zimbabwean women in the face of
imprisonment and intimidation shows remarkable strength of character".

      UK cancer sufferer Jane Tomlinson MBE, who has overcome her illness to
raise more than £1 million for charity, was among the women honoured in the
Women Of The Year Awards. They received their awards at a lunch in London
attended by 400 women, on Monday.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Zimbabweans denied right to work and education in South Africa

      By Tererai Karimakwenda

      17 October 2006

      The Department of Home Affairs in South Africa has been urged to
investigate why a group of at least 40 Zimbabweans who applied for legal
documents at the Rosettenville centre were issued asylum-seekers' permits
denying them the right to work or study in South Africa. The Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum (ZEF) sent a letter to the department on Tuesday saying they had
received several reports from Zimbabwean asylum-seekers who had been issued
these permits in the week beginning October 9. An official at the ZEF said
refugees are legally entitled to a means of survival and to education in the
host countries they live in. The ZEF official explained that South Africa's
own constitution provides for this and the courts in the country agreed.
Even applicants whose cases are pending are to be extended the same
opportunity to support themselves.

      There are also several international statutes including the United
Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention that
extend the right to work and education to asylum seekers. The ZEF believe
denying the Zimbabwean asylum seekers was illegal, and they are urging the
Home Affairs department to stop issuing that type of permit immediately.

      ZEF said so far it appears that only asylum seekers from Zimbabwe had
experienced this injustice and only an extensive investigation would reveal
whether other nationalities had been affected.

      All the permits that were shown to the ZEF were issued last week from
Rosettenville. In the same week other centres that process refugees issued
the standard permits. The ZEF, whose mission is to assist Zimbabwean
refugees, say South Africa's Home Affairs must take back the offensive
permits and replace them with standard ones. They also believe reparations
are due to those affected or they will take legal action.

      SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

CHRR Lashes Out At SADC Leaders On Zimbabwe

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

October 17, 2006
Posted to the web October 17, 2006

KONDWANI MAGOMBO
Lilongwe

The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) has accused Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC) leaders of failing to support the
Zimbabwe people in their ongoing human rights and economic crisis saying the
problems need external intervention which can best be offered by the
region's leaders.

CHRR Executive Director Undule Mwakasungura said this Thursday in Lilongwe
during a press briefing his organisation held jointly with a visiting
Zimbabwean civil society organization, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) in
a bid to find ways of helping the Zimbabweans regain their economic and
human rights freedoms.

Mwakasungura said SADC leaders ought to have supported the Zimbabweans by
drawing President Robert Gabriel Mugabe into a discussion to persuade him to
improve the living standards for the people of Zimbabwe.

"SADC leaders have failed to support Zimbabweans. The people of Zimbabwe are
in a major crisis and Zimbabwe is collapsing. But what kind of support are
the SADC leaders giving to the people of Zimbabwe?" queried Mwakasungura.

He further criticised President Mutharika's failure to take advantage of
Mugabe's recent visit to Malawi to deliberate on the welfare of the
Zimbabweans, adding that CHRR would be happy to see the Malawi government
engaged in a struggle to "free the Zimbabweans".

"We would be happy if our president (Mutharika) took steps to draw other
SADC leaders to round table discussions - even at the expense of the
tax-payer's money - we wouldn't mind. We need to help our friends in
Zimbabwe," said the CHRR Executive Director with some passion.

In his remarks, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Coordinator Jacob Mafume
criticised the current government in Zimbabwe, describing it as being
repressive and corrupt, with unemployment and inflation rates estimated at
80 and 1204.6 percent respectively; the highest in the world.

"This is symptomatic of a collapse in the socio-economic and political setup
in Zimbabwe which has been caused by a corrupted governance structure that
is characterised by repressive legislation; a breakdown of rule of law, a
weak parliament and a total lack of accountability," said Mafume.

According to Mafume, the Zimbabwe legislature closed down four independent
newspapers and he said to date, Zimbabwe does not have any private nor
community radio and television stations.

He further said the Zimbabwe government has brutally suppressed the
activities of civil society, trade unions, churches, opposition parties and
any progressive initiatives.

"A number of civic actors have been tortured and brutalised in the exercise
and pursuit of their democratic rights. The latest is the torture and
inhuman treatment, while in police custody of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) leaders last month.

".To date there has been no response from African political leadership to
this human rights violation which is contrary to the anti-torture provisions
of the African Charter on Human Rights and People's Rights," said the CZC
Coordinator, who is also a journalist for the coalition's four-page
newsletter, The Crisis Informer.

He called on all African leaders in general, and those in the SADC region in
particular, to realise that the Zimbabwean situation is getting worse as the
Mugabe government continues to suppress the people of Zimbabwe, adding that
the region must take leadership in working together with the Zimbabwean
people to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe.

The CHRR Executive Director, while admitting that civil society
organisations in the country are divided owing to different views they hold
as regards Mugabe's visit to Malawi recently, assured the visiting Zimbabwe
civil society grouping that HRCC would call its fellow human rights groups
to a discussion table to strategise on a way forward on the Zimbabwe crisis.

Present at the conference were CZC media consultant, Luckson Chipare,
Executive Director for Christian Agency for Responsible Democracy
Development and National Unity (CARDDENU), Bishop Moses Phiri, and his
deputy Francis Antonio and CZC Programmes Manager for the South African
desk, Nkosilathi Tshuma.

Last year President Mugabe launched an unpopular Operation Murambatsvina, an
exercise that rendered over 700,000 people homeless and affected 2.4 million
people in varying degrees.

Robert Mugabe by and large, has lost international support and favour with
many international western countries with some donor communities cutting
ties with the country. Mugabe, despite this action that has brought a once
prosperous nation to its knees has never been moved by any of these
withdrawals of favour. He remains largely arrogant and belligerent, further
bringing pain and discomfort to Zimbabwe and its people.

South Africa's Thabo Mbeki has preferred to play a 'quiet diplomacy' game
that has seen further suffering for Zimbabweans. Many believe it is this
action by South Africa that has created difficulties for other SADC leaders
to take a firmer stand on Mugabe.

President Mutharika's invitation to the Zimbabwe leader to Malawi where he
named a road in his name caused consternation in the nation with some
Malawian vandalising the name sign placed on the road. Mutharika's support
of Mugabe many believe is a result of the ties that the first lady, Ethel
Mutharika has with that nation. She is a Zimbabwean and they posses a home
and farms in that country.

O-Level Exam Papers Stolen

The Herald (Harare)

October 17, 2006
Posted to the web October 17, 2006

Noah Pito
Hurungwe

A HURUNGWE headmaster last week lost three Ordinary Level examination papers
to a stranger he had given a lift on his way from collecting the papers.

Mashonaland West police spokesman Assistant Inspector James Sabau confirmed
that on Wednesday last week the headmaster of Dandawa Secondary School in
Magunje, Mr Makisi Jimu, had boxes containing "O" Level English Paper 1,
Geography and History Paper 1 papers stolen by the suspect, Jabulani
Ngwadzayi (19).

"I can confirm receipt of reports to the effect that boxes containing
examination papers were stolen from a headmaster and Magunje police made a
follow-up and arrested the suspect in Karoi on Thursday.

"The suspect is assisting police with investigations. We are appealing to
anyone with information on the issue to assist the police," said Asst Insp
Sabau.

Efforts to get comment from the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council
yesterday were unsuccessful.

Pupils are scheduled to sit for the English paper this Friday, History paper
on October 23, and Geography paper 1 on October 25.

According to Asst Insp Sabau, police have recovered both boxes -- one with
all the packs intact while in the case of the other they are awaiting Zimsec
confirmation on whether or not the packages were tampered with.

Asst Insp Sabau said that English Paper 1 was one of the exam sheets whose
number needed verification by Zimsec.

Mr Jimu told police that he only discovered that the boxes containing the
exam papers were missing when he stopped at St Boniface Business Centre,
several kilometres after Ngwadzayi had alighted.

He then drove to report the matter at Magunje Police Station the same night.

Mr Jimu collected the boxes -- one for his school and another for
neighbouring Madzima Secondary School -- from Magunje Growth Point on
Wednesday afternoon.

From Magunje, Mr Jimu headed for his school along Chiumburukwe Road and
reportedly gave a lift to Ngwadzayi.

Ngwadzayi indicated that he would be dropping off at his home in Kandororo
Village and sat at the back of the truck where the two boxes had been
placed.

In the darkness, Ngwadzayi is believed to have thought the boxes contained
clothes or other valuables.

He then allegedly threw out the boxes while the vehicle was in motion before
alighting a few metres later.

When he dropped at Kandororo bus stop, he tracked back and took his loot
only to find out that they were Zimsec November examination papers.

In November 2004, Zimsec rescheduled the "O" Level Mathematics Paper 1 after
suspicion that the paper had been leaked through spoilages taken to Kadoma
Paper Mills by the security printer.

Last year, Zimsec proceeded with "O" and "A" level examinations despite a
suspected leak after question papers fell off a vehicle along Simon
Mazorodze Road in Harare while in transit.