Dear Family and Friends,
Within a fortnight or so the rainy season will begin
in Zimbabwe. For the
seventh year in a row, we are going into the season
under the most dire
circumstances. Hyper inflation is out of control. Fuel
(for transporting
seed and fertilizer and for ploughing) is near impossible
to find. The
World Meteorological Organization have warned that an El Nino is
developing
across the Pacific and weather experts meeting in Harare have
predicted a
below normal to normal first half to our rainy season. The few
commercial
farmers left on their land are continuing to be thrown off their
farms with
50 new eviction notices having been served in recent weeks. Two of
the
country's biggest wheat, maize and tobacco farmers are due in court
this
week for refusing to get off their farms. One of these farmers is
thought
to be the biggest maize producer in the country and has just
delivered 1000
tons of grain to the GMB. One commercial farmer in Masvingo
recently got a
letter from the provincial Governor which said: "Your farm has
just been
acquired by the government and we therefore request you to wind up
your
business before the start of the rainy season. You are advised to
comply
with this order since you risk being forcibly removed if you fail
to
comply. We also take this opportunity to tell you that you are not
allowed
to move out with any of your farming equipment." When faced with such
a
diabolical situation there are few, if any, words.
Also this week
came the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Bill. This
will give any
farmer who has received a Section 5 Notice of Acquisition at
any time in the
last 6 years, just 45 days to get out of his house and off
his land. Any
farmer without an offer letter or lease from the government
will face
criminal charges with a penalty of 2 years in prison. We aren't
talking here
of squatters, invaders, occupiers, settlers or whatever other
polite term is
currently in fashion, we are talking of men and women who
paid for their
land, built their houses and hold the Title Deeds. Men and
women and perhaps
one hundred thousand farm workers who have tried, against
all odds, under
extreme circumstances to keep food on our tables. As one ex
farmer wrote this
week, after the Bill is promulgated: "the ethnic
cleansing will be
complete."
I close this letter with a truly shocking report which has
appeared in an
independent newspaper this week. Journalist Mavis Makuni
reported that
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made has blamed a monkey for the
shortage of
fertilizer needed for the coming season. Answering questions in
Parliament
as to why precious foreign currency was being used to import
fertilizer,
Minister Made said: "Our investigations have shown that a monkey
caused
damage to a transformer, thereby sabotaging our preparations for the
coming
season. If it were not for that monkey, the situation was not going to
be
as bad." And this is the man in charge of food security in
Zimbabwe.
Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy. Copyright
cathy buckle
30 September 2006.
http:/africantears.netfirms.com My books
'African Tears' and 'Beyond
Tears' are available from: orders@africabookcentre.com
Waving a flag at the end of
the Vigil was 2 year old Tatenda Tsikire. His mother, Caroline, has been in
jail for the past 4 months for working with bogus papers. Hopefully they will
be reunited before Christmas when Caroline will have served half her sentence.
We are puzzled why someone like Caroline is parted from her young child and
jailed when the UK government is desperate to make room for criminals in prisons
. . . and when two asylum judges have been accused in a case involving hiring
an illegal worker. We are appealing to the British government to allow
Zimbabwean refugees here to be allowed to work to support themselves until such
time as they can return home. After all, a recent study showed that Zimbabweans
are the best-educated of asylum seekers coming to the UK.
We
were glad to have Peter Tatchell, the human rights campaigner join us and, with
Dumi’s encouragement, take part in the dancing today. The Free-Zim Youth from
Brighton were with us and told us they have launched a vigil in Brighton every
Sunday from 1 – 5 in Churchill Square. One of them, Wellington, said “Sometimes
we are joined by other Zimbabweans, sometimes not. But we are here with the
Vigil petition calling for intervention in Zimbabwe by the UN Security
Council”.
Another visitor was Alex Weir, a Zimbabwean who has devised
what he described as a way to ensure that rigged elections are a thing of the
past. A software developer, Mr Weir said modern technology is the answer – see
link:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=3&linkid=8&id=2317.
We were also joined by a group of young people from France opposed to dictators
in Africa, one of whom joined in the drumming. A whole bottle of water was
poured over Jenatry to enable him to keep up his frenetic dancing.
Thanks
to Chipo and Moses for representing the Vigil at the International Organisation
for Migration’s special meeting on Zimbabwe held in London. The Vigil was also
glad to be invited to help brief Gabriel Jugnet, the new French Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, who takes up the post on 11th October. We were impressed that he is
taking trouble to gather information from Zimbabweans in the
diaspora.
The Vigil co-ordinators reminded everyone that the Vigil’s 4th
anniversary in on 12th October. We are hoping to present our petition to the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office during the week beginning 9th October. The
anniversary will be commemorated at the 14th October Vigil, when we plan to wear
black armbands to mourn the death of freedom and democracy. We encourage our
supporters to bring posters to raise awareness of the worsening human rights
situation during the 4 years we have been protesting.
For this week’s
Vigil pictures: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
FOR
THE RECORD: 65 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday,
2nd October, 7.30 pm: Zimbabwe Forum. Plans for the Vigil’s 4th anniversary
will be firmed up and there will be a report back on the progress on the
multi-signatory campaign. Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam
Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a
passageway to John Adam Street, turn right and you will see the pub).
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy,
429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest
against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe.
http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
GOVERNMENT last week offered bakers a temporary reprieve by increasing the
retail price of bread to $295 from $200.
Bread had disappeared from
supermarket shelves for the past two weeks, after bakers stopped making it,
saying the $200-a-loaf price tag was not viable for them.
Moreover, bakers
said they were importing flour as there was not enough wheat in the
country.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe released US$10 million for
the importation of wheat to avert a serious bread shortage, but the industry
said it would take weeks before the wheat arrives in the country.
Zimbabwe’s
annual wheat requirements are pegged at 400 000 tonnes. National Bakers’
Association (NBA) chairman, Burombo Mudumo, said the new price would help bakers
break even.
The actual price of bread will be finalised by the recently
announced Interim Administrative Price Stabilisation Mechanism Committee (APSM).
In a press statement last month, the NBA said the industry needed a retail
price of $385 to keep pace with working capital cost increases due to inflation.
The NBA said: "The industry and government (through our parent Ministry of
Industry) are doing everything possible to keep bread affordable but
unfortunately the current hyperinflationary environment dictates that the price
of bread be reviewed upward monthly."
The NBA said the industry had been
overwhelmed by the 100% price increase of inputs. Production had declined to 30%
for smaller bakers and 15% for bigger operators.
Zim Std
Comment
FOR a long time business has enjoyed the protection of
the ruling party because it has funded most of Zanu PF’s functions such as
conferences and congresses. Consequently business had no moral position from
which to speak out against the State’s excesses. Business leaders basked in the
glory of proximity to the seat of power and viewed anyone speaking of the
government’s brutality as a nuisance with an agenda to tarnish the country’s
image and therefore scare away investment.
When the government swooped on
students during a general council meeting of the Zimbabwe National Students’
Union in Mutare at the beginning of September, there was a deafening silence
from business – even though these are children of the very business people that
fund ruling party events.
When workers complained about lack of progress at
the Tripartite Negotiating Forum and expressed concern about the huge
differential between wages and the Poverty Datum Line, business viewed workers
as a troublesome lot. Even as reports from the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries showed the alarming rate at which companies were closing down,
business refused to speak out for fear of upsetting the authorities.
However, a fortnight ago the government showed them there was nothing cosy
or permanent about this relationship. Police arrested business leaders and
locked them up on charges of increasing the price of their commodities without
State approval -— rendering nonsensical the government’s so-called desire to
work with business. The element of consultation was thrown out of the window and
government made no attempt to understand the concerns of business. For the first
time business has an appreciation of what it is like to be on the receiving end
of the state’s lawlessness.
Business has reacted angrily to the arrests. "We
condemn unreservedly the manner in which the police have gone about arresting
and incarcerating our managers," said a statement issued by the seven captains
of industry. "There are clearly laid out procedures that respect the rights of
citizens . . . We have taken this unprecedented position of going public because
we expect the authorities to fully respect and protect the legal rights of
persons to conduct their business without fear of intimidation."
It is
important for business to understand that when victims of the government’s
excesses complain and denounce such lawlessness as the arrest of the managers,
there is a need for consistency. It is also critical for business to recognise
that by complaining they are not giving the country a negative image – rather it
is the government’s arbitrary conduct that is tarnishing the image of Zimbabwe.
Without a change in the pattern of governance there will be no prospect of
economic recovery.
The next time the business sector sees National
Constitutional Assembly activists, students, workers, members of Women of
Zimbabwe Arise being arrested it needs to understand that their cause is the
nation’s cause. They will be protesting because of the injustice they are
subjected to or the stubbornness of the government in refusing to recognise when
and where it has erred.
The unlawful arrest of the business managers should
mark a turning point in relations between the government and the business
sector.
The greatest tragedy would be for business to continue to believe
that it can work with the government when the arrest of their managers
demonstrates precisely which party has worked assiduously since 2000 to court
negativity and drive away investors. It is up to business to decide whether they
stand for a real turnaround in Zimbabwe’s fortunes — which entails political
reform — or whether they are content to chase the mirage that Zanu PF and the
government dangle before them.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
BY
OUR STAFF
BURGLARS "with other motives" broke into the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general Wellington Chibebe’s office on Friday
night and took away documents and communications equipment.
They took away a
box with cassettes of Solidarity for Forever, containing a tribute to South
African workers, recorded live at the 8th Convention of the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (Cosatu). The album has not been released in Zimbabwe.
The Standard visited the ZCTU offices at Chester House and noticed that the
burglars forced the door open.
Chibebe is currently recovering at his home
after being brutally attacked by security agents while in custody at Matapi
police station.
ZCTU acting secretary general, Japhet Moyo, confirmed the
break-in.
Moyo said: "Whoever did it took with him our communications system
that included a handset and a fax machine."
Moyo said he suspected the
people had other motives besides theft.
"It is hard for me to suspect that
these were just thieves because they left new computers that were in the same
office. Moyo said he had reported the case to the police.
Wayne
Bvudzijena, the police spokesperson said he was out of town and had not heard a
report about the break-in. He referred The Standard to another police
spokesperson, Oliver Mandipaka, who was not available yesterday.
Meanwhile,
an official investigation into the brutal attacks on trade unionists two weeks
ago put the blame squarely on the victims themselves and absolved security
agents, The Standard has been told.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena last
week confirmed that "preliminary investigations" had established that the trade
unionists were not assaulted in the police cells at Matapi police station.
He said those who sustained bruises were "resisting arrest", first in
Harare’s Central Business District, and later when they were being herded into
the cells at Matapi police station.
Bvudzijena said a number of the
protestors hurt themselves after jumping off a moving vehicle at the corner of
Cripps and Harare Roads towards Matapi police station.
"In all three cases,
the police used minimum force to re-arrest the demonstrators. It’s not true that
they were assaulted in the police cells. That’s what we have found out so far,"
Bvudzijena said.
He said at least three police cars were damaged during the
skirmishes.
On Chibebe’s injuries, Bvudzijena said: "I am not sure if he was
among those who tried to jump off a moving vehicle."
Chibebe, who is now
recovering at home, suffered severe head injuries, broken fingers and bruises
all over the body.
Matombo and other labour activists were injured in the
attacks in Mbare.
Results of the preliminary findings by the investigators
emerged at a time when analysts warned that the probe could be a "cover-up"
after President Robert Mugabe praised the police action against the union
leaders.
Reacting to widespread international condemnation of the attacks,
Mugabe said union president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington
Chibebe "got what they deserved".
Analysts said these comments were "very
unfortunate" and could encourage the police and other law enforcement agents to
beat up people demonstrating against the government.
They said it was highly
likely that the comments would be interpreted by investigating officers, rightly
or wrongly, as a directive not to investigate the matter at all, or a warning to
absolve the police before the investigations get underway.
This would not be
the first time that security agents accused of human rights abuses were not held
responsible for their actions.
On top of the list is Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) operative, Joseph Mwale, alleged to have been involved in the
murder of MDC activists, Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya, in 2000. Six years
on, the police claimed they could not locate him, although he is understood to
be in Nyanga.
University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure
said Mugabe’s statement was "very unfortunate". It was unhelpful for the
furtherance of democracy.
"The investigating officer may feel the president
has already declared a verdict," Masunungure said.
"So, in a way it
pre-empts the investigations. It is a political statement which might be
interpreted as a directive not to investigate or to take a certain
stand."
Heneri Dzinotyiwei, a political commentator at the University of
Zimbabwe, said Mugabe’s comment showed he did not respect the rule of law.
The president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ), Joseph James, condemned
Mugabe for making such "leading" comments. He said the comments "trivialised"
the probe into the violence.
Joseph said he believed Mugabe’s comments would
influence the investigating officers. "It’s the police that I am worried about.
They may not take proper action as a result of the comments. Apart from that,
the police officers are investigating their own colleagues."
ZCTU acting
secretary general Japhet Moyo said it was unfortunate that Mugabe and the police
were colluding to lie about the brutal assaults.
"No one is allowed to lie,
but when it comes from a president then it is worse than blasphemy. His comment
encourages and incites the police to take the law into their hands," Moyo said.
Zim Standard
Role of journalists, dangers they face
(Continued from last
week)
Sunday opinion By Allister Sparks
THE migration of readers and
advertisers to the Internet, following on the early migrations to television,
and combined now with rising costs and falling revenue, is threatening the
financial well-being - even the very existence - of many newspapers, including
some of the oldest established and respected among them.
This trend is not
yet being fully felt here in Southern Africa where the business side of the
Internet has not yet taken off as fully as it has in the developed world. But
the migration of readers is already there, and some early consequences are
already being felt.
To get a foretaste of what is coming, one needs to look
to the developed world and especially to the United States. The most striking
event there was the death earlier this year of one of America’s biggest and best
newspaper companies, the Knight-Ridder Group, a chain of 32 daily newspapers
with a combined circulation of 3,7 million and with 18 000 employees.
The
question is how and why a fine newspaper company with relatively high profit
margins and a proud record of having won 85 Pulitzer Prizes came to be wiped off
the media landscape.
The answer is instructive. Knight Ridder was quoted on
the New York Stock Exchange, and as investors saw the ballooning growth of the
Internet they assumed that newspaper stocks would start to decline. Now in the
investment world, ASSUMPTIONS and PERCEPTIONS become facts. Self-fulfilling
facts. So the investors started to withdraw their money and Knight Ridder’s
share price began to fall even though it was still making good profits.
At
that point aggressive shareholders began to demand cost-cutting to keep profits
margins, and thus the share price, up. Knight Ridder’s CEO, Anthony Ridder,
resisted for a while but as the pressure on him increased he began to cut - and
as invariably happens in these circumstances, he cut editorial staff.
The
problem is, when you do that you inevitably cut the quality of your product –
which in turn affects sales and revenue, and so a downward spiral
begins.
That is what happened to Knight Ridder. As the share price weakened
further, one of the aggressive shareholders, Bruce Sherman, head of the
McClatchy Company bought out Knight Ridder. But he quickly found the same cycle
of pressures hitting his new acquisition, so that he, too, cut staff and has now
sold off 12 of the newspapers he bought.
The warning is there for all of us
to see. Jim McNaughton, a former editor of Knight Ridder’s most famous
newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, who quit in disapproval when the company
started paring the editorial staff, has had harsh words for the CEO who started
the cuts. "The real story of the decline and fall of Knight Ridder," he said the
other day, "is the notion that you can continue whittling and paring and
reducing and degrading the quality of your product and not pay a
price."
"Tony’s legacy," he added, referring to CEO Anthony Ridder, "Tony’s
legacy is that he destroyed a great company."
What this whittling and paring
does is to cut out the heart of good journalism, and thus of the newspapers they
work for. As staffs grow smaller there is less and less time for reporters to
practise good, well-researched, well-rounded journalism. They start having to
hack out too many stories, which means the reporting becomes shallower and
shallower. When you reach the point, already evident in some newsrooms in this
country, where individual reporters have to handle five or six stories a day, it
becomes what I call Microwave Journalism. A quick telephone interview with a
single source and you hack it out to get on with the next one. No time to check,
no time to amplify, no time to flesh out the implications.
Such shallow
journalism degrades both the product and the democratic role it is supposed to
serve. The answer, as at least one newspaper company in South Africa, Naspers,
has discovered, is two-fold.
Firstly, protect the company from shareholder
pressure by having a two-tier stock structure, with a special class of voting
stock that is separate from the traded non-voting shares.
Secondly,
diversify, diversify into the profitable new electronic sectors of the media,
into television and cellphones and the Internet, so that you can support the
print media and maintain their editorial quality which is vital for their
long-term survival and the democratic role they need to play.
I hope more of
our newspaper companies learn these lessons. We have the answers here. Don’t
let’s go the Knight Ridder route.
So let me leave you with those thoughts, my
dear colleagues and friends, so that you can get on with the important business
of announcing MISA’s Press Freedom Award.
This address was delivered at the
MISA Awards Dinner last month.
Zimbabwe standard
BY VALENTINE
MAPONGA
ZANU PF MP for Nyanga, Paul Kadzima, yesterday appeared in court on
10 counts of defrauding the Nyanga rural district council (RDC) of close to $10
000 (revalued) in 2004.
Kadzima, who was the Nyanga RDC chairman at the time,
is alleged to have defrauded the council between 2004 and early 2005 after he
wrote cheques to the council, which later bounced.
He was arrested on
Thursday and appeared at Mutare magistrates’ court yesterday.
He was granted
$20 000 bail by Mutare magistrate Fabion Feshete and was ordered to stay at his
home in Kadzima Village, Nyanga. He was also ordered not to interfere with
police investigations.
Area prosecutor, Levison Chikafu, said police
investigations revealed that Kadzima wrote a number of cheques using his
personal Stanbic account number, 01400 467790 01.
It is alleged Kadzima
would obtain cash from the RDC coffers to the same value of the cheque he had
written.
On more than 10 occasions, the cheques were dishonoured by the
bank.
"The recovered cheques were all written by the accused (Kadzima) and
bear the accused’s signature, which he is not disputing and the account which
the cheques were written belongs to the accused," said Chikafu.
Kadzima was
remanded out of custody to 16 October when his trial date will be set.
Kadzima’s arrest is the latest in a spate of arrests of Zanu PF leaders,
most of them on corruption charges.
Most of the cases have been dropped,
allegedly for lack of evidence.
Zim Standard
Sundayview
By Masimba Nyamanhindi
THE first major corruption scandal to be reported
in Zimbabwe was the famous Willowgate Scandal. It was a scandal which implicated
senior government ministers. Eventually, it led to the resignation of Enos
Nkala, and the subsequent death of Maurice Nyagumbo. Senior government officials
acquired Toyota Cressida vehicles at official prices, only to resell them at
inflated prices, making obscene profits.
Asked what he thought about the
corruption which was slowly creeping into Zimbabwe’s social fabric, President
Robert Mugabe retorted then that corruption in Zimbabwe was not much, and that
we could not be compared to countries like Nigeria.
Yet today Mugabe is
seemingly a troubled soul, trying hard to douse the flames of a fire which he
lit in the first place. Corruption, a cancerous ulcer was nurtured and pampered
by Zanu PF. At each every forum he speaks, Mugabe attacks corrupt elements
within his inner circle.
The point was further illustrated, dramatically, by
Augustine Chihuri, the Police Commissioner, when he was quoted as saying, "the
problem is that we are becoming too much of crooks. Each one of us is busy
crooking one another and I just hope Zimbabweans would stop this madness so that
the system can become normal". He was commenting on the seizure of money at the
airport. Ironically, some of the money which was confiscated was seized in
police trucks – how corrupt can a system get?
Subsequently, as the vicious
vortex of succession politics gets to the apex, rival groups within Zanu PF,
seeking the country’s top post, are at each other’s throats, with accusations of
corruption flying relentlessly. Recently, the Minister of International Trade,
Obert Mpofu, revealed that Ziscosteel had been prejudiced of foreign currency by
influential politicians and ministers. The report is still to be made public,
and the culprits are still to be named.
While Mugabe and his inner coterie
might want to bewail the corrupt nature of our society, it is important to make
the point that the nature of Mugabe’s rule has nurtured corruption – to levels
beyond redemption.
Zanu PF is a party that is held together by force,
patronage and loyalty. Unfortunately a society that is based on patronage and
loyalty breeds corruption. To Zanu PF, this loyalty and patronage is a licence
to pillage the country’s resources, often without restraint, and then seek cover
under the name of Zanu PF.
This is why we have seen press reports in the past
of people who can go to filling stations around the country, stealing in the
name of the Presidium even without consent. It is a norm in the country, that
some animals are more equal than others.
This is why, the son of a minister,
can gather the courage to assault a policeman, because certain individuals are
above the law. This is why ministers who are supposed to be custodians of the
rule of law can be brought to court for obstructing the course of justice and go
scot-free. It is clear that corruption that is inherent in the ruling elite has
directly led to the degeneration of the rule of law in the country.
Suffice
it to say, that this is the reason why senior government ministers in Manicaland
went on the rampage and looted farm equipment at Kondozi farm, an unfortunate
feature of the chaotic land reform programme.
To make matters worse,
Mugabe’s style of governance emphasises loyalty and patronage more than anything
else. This is why there are so many cases of influential people who have
plundered and pillaged the country’s resources, but are as free as the air on
top of Chimanimani Mountains. It is now a common situation: Sing a lot of
praises for Mugabe and Zanu PF – then steal, and thou shall be free. Some have
even raped, and have attempted to seek cover in the name of Zanu PF.
Zimbabweans have witnessed high level cases of looting for the War Veterans’
Compensation Fund, an inquiry was set up, but no one was ever brought to book.
There was despoil at NOCZIM, there was plunder at the Grain Marketing Board, no
action was taken. And Zanu PF would want us to believe that it was the British
and the Americans who were behind all these orgies of looting? The situation is
out of control, and Mugabe himself is unable to come to terms with the corrupt
nature of his lieutenants.
As much as Mugabe might want to chastise his inner
circle, there is nothing he can do to save Zimbabwe from corruption. This
corruption is also the precursor to the breakdown of the rule of law. "Commit
sin in the name of Zanu PF and thou shall be saved", is the unwritten law in our
country.
Zim Std
Sunday Opinion
By Prof Eldred Masunungure
ZIMBABWEANS are not congenitally risk-averse;
they were made risk-averse through a process of conditioning over time. The
risk-averseness has made them politically passive and inert.
Since Ian Smith
captured power from the rather risk-averse Winston Field in 1964, Zimbabwe has
been ruled by risk-taking elite. It was not until a critical mass of a
risk-taking black nationalist elite emerged to counter the white risk-taking
elite and to mobilise the masses that mass action took place in the manner of
the liberation struggle in its variegated forms. The risk-evading masses became
either risk-takers or at the very least, risk-neutrals.
It is my contention
though that the liberation struggle (specifically it’s most active phase from
1972 to 1979) was not sufficiently long to transform the orientations of the
masses on a permanent basis. The process of transforming a risk-averse people
into risk-takers was not completed. The 1979 Lancaster House process culminating
in the Lancaster House Agreement short-circuited the transformative process.
Therefore, at the psycho-political level, the liberation struggle was an
incomplete revolution.
Those who most actively and directly participated in
the armed struggle are invariably and understandably the most risk-taking
segment of our society. These are of course the war veterans and the war
collaborators who, unsurprisingly, are the ruling party’s storm troopers.
But this is also a generation that is on its way out, following the laws
of nature. Once this political generation is out of the equation, Zanu PF will
never be the same again, in character, composition and philosophical outlook.
Perhaps mindful of this inevitability, the Zanu PF leadership agonised over the
reproduction of the risk-taking class of war veterans, and, in my view, the
controversial youth training programme is an instrument to this end. It is
designed towards political regeneration.
After independence, Zimbabweans
suffered what the learned people (the lawyers) call recidivism. Zimbabweans
recoiled into their shells like tortoises and have by and large remained in this
position since then, only occasionally and hesitatingly popping out their heads
in a typical risk-shy fashion. In short, the risk-taking behaviour displayed by
Zimbabweans during the liberation war was a transient phenomenon and this
transitory character serves to prove the fundamental and underlying political
character of the average Zimbabwean; his/her subject orientation to authority,
any authority.
This is amply and daily displayed in virtually every
organisational or associational setting: in churches, schools – including
institutions of higher learning, firms, homes, political parties, etc.
In
short, this authority-worshipping tendency is manifest in all organisations.
Moreover, this attitude is deeply embedded in the Zimbabwean psyche and it will
take a painfully long time to unwind. And it is a product of more than a century
of uninterrupted authoritarianism. One does not have to be a Marxist to agree
with Karl Marx’s acute observation that "the tradition of all the dead
generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living".
The most
critical agents in the transmission of this risk-evading behaviour among
Zimbabweans and over decades have been the churches, schools and, for adults,
the media. The media has been particularly effective to the point where one
recent study explained the political subject hood among Zimbabweans in terms of
the "power of propaganda." And the power of propaganda – in its various forms –
has given birth to a peculiar mindset that my former colleague Professor
Jonathan Moyo creatively and brilliantly referred to as "normalising the
abnormal".
Briefly stated, the notion of "normalising the abnormal" starts
from the premise that there are some things or situations that are manifestly
abnormal. For instance, that it is abnormal to queue for food items as a result
of shortages of say, sugar, cooking oil, maize-meal, bread or for other
commodities like fuel, water and for other services like health care. And yet
people have over time been led to believe that it is in fact normal to queue for
such basic survival commodities and services. They even joke and heartily laugh
about it. This creates and inculcate fatalistic or defeatist values in our
society, presently and for future generations. The agency for transmitting such
values is the public media, which, through its propaganda leads otherwise
rational people to begin to accept bad things or situations as inherently good
just because the government or the ruling party says so.
The notion of
"normalising the abnormal" provides a paradigm for analysing our acceptance of
the dire conditions in which we find ourselves. It is a framework not only for
rationalising our situation, but also for immobilising ourselves. Before his
foray into the turbulent world of politics, Moyo had correctly argued that Zanu
PF was conditioning Zimbabweans to accept the abnormal as normal. He had
proceeded to warn us against the tendency of accepting this aberration as
normal, and that unless we resisted accepting the abnormal as normal, the
abnormal would become part of our culture.
Moyo later had the rare
opportunity to test this thesis in the world of practical politics. Because we
accept aberrations as normal, we see no need to correct them because we may even
see them as intrinsically good. Moreover, when and where people accept the
abnormal as normal, they have developed creative coping mechanisms rather than
seeking to deal with the source of the abnormality.
Maggie Makanza’s
lamentation in her The Anatomy of the Zimbabwean Problem (see my last
instalment) is essentially another way of lamenting the normalisation of the
abnormal. She asks: "Why has there been no eruption in Zimbabwe?" The simple
answer is that people who are supposed to erupt see no basis for such an
eruption because they have been so conditioned. Further, "normalising the
abnormal" reinforces the risk-averseness among Zimbabweans. This combination is
completely fatal to any strategy of organised mass action for the simple reason
that action-oriented masses are not there. To ‘mass act’ there must be the
masses who are so inclined.
Another tendency, flowing from both the
risk-averseness of the masses and their tendency to disengage from any
confrontation with the state is the atomisation of public reactions to
grievances. People react to a public problem not by organising other citizens in
a similar situation to collectively protest an injustice or agitate for redress.
Instead, people would rather deal with the problem individually and as best as
they can and evade the source of the problem.
I will give live examples we
can all easily relate to. ZESA abuses us by load-shedding causing all sorts of
miseries to our lives but what is our reaction? Nothing collective! Those with
the means buy generators and quietly and individually deal with this nuisance.
The less endowed quietly and individually buy firewood for cooking and candles
for lighting.
The Harare City Council and ZINWA collude to deny us our daily
water and what do Harare residents do? Those who are privileged sink boreholes
and quietly and individually deal with the problem. The ordinary people go to
fetch water from unprotected wells and streams with all the attendant health
hazards. And those who cannot afford transport fare to work simply walk to work,
even from Chitungwiza! These actions are clearly abnormal but flow from the
normalisation of the abnormal.
And risk-averseness keeps the aggrieved
masses from questioning the perpetrators of these injustices. We are witnessing
the individualisation of action and an aversion or at the very least,
indifference to collective action.
Now, can one reasonably expect
Zimbabweans to rebel? I have my grave reservations. My contention is that
rebelliousness to authority (any authority!) is not an integral part of the
political psyche of the Zimbabwean demos. This is despite the Second Chimurenga.
There is really no deep-seated tradition of resistance to authority or speaking
truth to power.
Our agents of socialisation reinforce this. This is why
Zimbabweans can tolerate abuse more than any other people in southern Africa.
Those who cannot tolerate the abuse would rather take the exit option.
It is
for this reason that Zimbabweans are the people easiest to govern — in politics
and indeed in any other social arena — than any other group of citizens in the
region, and probably beyond. In short, the road to organised mass action is
blocked because it has few takers. — Zim Online
Zim Std
BY WALTER MARWIZI
REACTIONS to comments by Zanu PF spokesperson, Nathan Shamuyarira, on the
thorny issue of compensation for victims of the Gukurahundi massacres, showed
that emotions are still running high on the issue.
Speaking last week in
Vumba, Shamuyarira said the actions of the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade in the
three provinces were "not regrettable". Shamuyarira had been asked to comment on
growing calls for compensation for the victims of Gukurahundi.
Speaking on
the sidelines of a conference on the National Reconciliation Process in
Zimbabwe, in Vumba last week, the Zanu PF spokesperson said the political
situation in the early 80s had to be considered first before people talked about
compensation.
He said the 5 Brigade had gone to Matabeleland on a specific
mission shortly after independence.
"It was because the dissidents were
killing people that Gukurahundi went to correct the situation and protect the
people," he said.
"The assessment of the operations of the 5 Brigade must be
seen in that context."
Shamuyarira said while people talked about
compensation, there was no need for them to "sanitise" the role of the
dissidents.
"We killed vana Gwesela in my own province in Mashonaland West,
in Sanyati. We killed him because he played havoc. In Matabeleland, they killed
Shona-speaking teachers; it’s not true to say that Ndebeles were the only
victims. Europeans in Mat South fled their farms and went to hide in the city."
Asked if he ever regretted the atrocities, Shamuyarira said: "No, I don’t
regret. They (5 Brigade) were doing a job to protect the people."
Dumiso
Dabengwa, a senior official of the former PF-Zapu, the party once reviled as the
sponsor of the so-called dissidents whose activities led the government of then
prime minister Robert Mugabe to unleash the 5 Brigade ostensibly to quell the
insurgency, said yesterday from Bulawayo: "If Shamuyarira said something, just
publish what he said and let the people of Matabeleland react. I can’t react on
their behalf."
But Welshman Mabhena, a former provincial governor in Mugabe’s
government, was furious. He said Shamuyarira’s comments exposed him. "Does he
have children?" asked Mabhena.
"He has no sympathy. While Mugabe said
Gukurahundi was a moment of madness, to Shamuyarira Gukurahundi was a moment of
soberness. In fact, Shamuyarira did not join the armed struggle. He only came to
light through Frolizi, which was tribalistic. Even Margaret Dongo told him this
in Parliament. He is inviting us to sue people responsible for the genocide,"
Mabhena added.
A former sergeant in the Zipra army, Max Mnkandla, now the
president of the Zimbabwe Liberators’ Peace Initiative said: "That Gukurahundi
issue is painful for most of us as it was a merciless struggle by Zanu against
defenceless people with no army.
For him (Shamuyarira) to say that shows
he is not only suffering from 1880s hangover — the feeling that the Ndebele also
did the same to the Shonas — it also shows that Shamuyarira is now old and
should retire."
Mnkandla lost his father, Siqanywana, to the 5 Brigade.
Shamuyarira’s comments came amid reports that a number of officials in Zanu
PF wanted the government to award compensation to the victims of Gukurahundi.
Party insiders said paying compensation could pave the way for Zanu PF to secure
the support of the Matabeleland provinces ahead of the 2008 Presidential
elections.
The provinces have voted overwhelmingly for the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change since the 2000 elections.
The North
Korean-trained unit committed gross violations of human rights as they hunted
down a small group of dissidents that operated in the region.
Participants
at the workshop organised by the Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa, spoke
about the agony of the survivors of Gukurahundi, more than 20 years after the
event.
Zim Std
Letters
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s remarks apparently justifying the police’s use of
torture on peaceful demonstrators sets a very wrong precedent, and is likely to
make police’s heavy handedness even worse.
The government Press quoted
Mugabe as telling Zanu PF party supporters and journalists that police were
right in beating up ZCTU leaders for demonstrating to protest against the
falling standards of living in Zimbabwe.
The demonstrations were largely
peaceful, and therefore the use of force could not be justified. Yet after
arresting the demonstrators the police beat them up, and later tortured them in
police cells. If the police were doing their duty of maintaining law and order
by arresting people holding an "illegal" demonstration, they certainly had no
authority to decide what sentence to give to those demonstrating.
It is the
duty of the courts of law to establish whether an offence had been committed.
Even if the demonstrators had been found guilty, it is unlikely that torture
would have been their sentence.
Now the President has given his blessing to
police brutality; this only means that in future the police will be even more
ruthless because they have the support of the head of State. Workers have a
right to demonstrate against poor living conditions, and every human being
should be allowed to express his views without fear. It is bad enough for police
to deny people their rights; but it is even more tragic for a President to
approve the use of State power to silence voices of dissent.
The irony of
this is that the President made these remarks on his way from the United Nations
Summit in New York, where he had castigated the powerful Western countries for
imposing what he called "illegal sanctions" on poor countries like Zimbabwe. It
is difficult for anyone to sympathise with him given that his country uses what
little power or resources it has to turn against its own citizens, who are only
asking for a better life.
While at the UN, Mugabe must have listened
attentively to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s tirade against US President
George Bush, calling him "the devil", among other vituperative epithets. Mugabe
himself has previously used the same forum to denounce those he does not agree
with. Despite this, the President still thinks it is acceptable for his
policemen to use force to thwart people who are holding peaceful demonstrations.
Why does he not think it is more civilised to give his own citizens the same
freedom and privilege he enjoys at the United Nations?
The President tried
to justify the torture of his own innocent people by telling the US and UK to
shut up because these countries also tortured people in Iraq, Afghanistan and at
Guantanamo Bay. Apart from the fact that two wrongs do not make a right, Mugabe
conveniently forgot to mention that these incidents are committed by overzealous
soldiers, and that the leaders of these countries never publicly justified
torture of prisoners. A number of US soldiers have been convicted for torturing
prisoners, and as I write some British soldiers are being tried in court for
torturing prisoners in Iraq. Even though it still does not make it acceptable,
at least US and UK soldiers (not police) have been accused of torturing foreign
prisoners, not innocent citizens from their own countries.
The majority of
people in Zimbabwe do not join in demonstrations because they are afraid of the
consequences, and not because they do not agree with the cause. In his old age,
which itself is a blessing, the President can be mistaken for thinking that
people’s silence is an approval of his rule. Nothing can be further from the
truth.
Hudson Yemen Taivo
Birmingham, UK
UK
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
BULAWAYO – Dumiso Dabengwa, a Zanu PF politburo member and
former cabinet minister, has been accused of sidelining former Zipra cadres from
their properties and farms.
The Standard was told last week by the former
cadres that Dabengwa was sidelining them to ease his way into taking over the
properties for his own use.
In Bulawayo last week, Dabengwa denied the
allegations: "I have not abused the properties or looted them . . ." He then
switched off his mobile. Efforts to seek further comment from him were
fruitless.
The ex-combatants allege Dabengwa has removed them from leadership
positions on Nitram properties. He has done this by ensuring that committee
members are his allies or are people loyal to him, they allege.
This has
caused serious discontent among the cadres who allege they are wallowing in
poverty, as they have not benefited from the properties.
According to former
fighters, Dabengwa is benefiting from the Nitram farms and properties by
sub-letting them to individuals he has hand-picked to be elected to influential
committees.
The Nitram properties were bought with money contributed by
Zipra cadres from various assembly points, at the end of the war.
Max
Mnkandla, the president of the Zimbabwe Liberators’ Peace Initiative said:
"There is no way Zipra properties can be surrendered to a Zanu PF-oriented
person like Dabengwa who did not contribute a cent for them . . .
"Dabengwa
was also in the military intelligence and not a commander of the Zipra Army as
is claimed and we wonder who gave him the properties in the first place."
A
representative of other Zipra cadres, asking not to be named said: "He was taken
to task at the last AGM in 2003 by cadres as to what he did with the money ($136
000 revalued) released by the government as compensation and for development of
the properties.
"He has not accounted for it. He has delayed any attempts to
have an AGM as he continues to abuse our properties. At the same time, he has
dissolved committees that were put in place and replaced them with his own
people, to hide the looting."
Among people Dabengwa is alleged to have
hand-picked to oversee operations on the properties are Stephen Mbizo, Maclaud
Tshawe, the Zanu PF provincial chairman, Toriso Phiri, the war veterans’
association chairman, and Zephania Nkomo.
The government returned the Nitram
properties to Zipra cadres in 2000. They were seized in 1982 over allegations
that the former cadres had cached arms on them in readiness for an attempt to
overthrow the government.
Nitram Properties include Castle Arms Motel in
Richmond and Black Cat Removals in Belmont.
Some of the Zipra farms
allegedly being abused by Dabengwa include Ascot Farm near Solusi, Nest Egg Farm
in Waterford, Hampton in Gweru, and Woodyglen Farm in Nyamandhlovu, which he has
leased to other farmers.
The allegations against Dabengwa follow recent
reports that timber processing equipment worth billions of dollars sourced in
Britain by the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo has been reduced to a wreck by
Dabengwa who was said to be using it to process timber in Matabeleland North
Province. He denies the allegations.
Zim Std
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
IT’S as early as 6AM but business for the so-called
"Hardbody multi-cabs," a cynical reference to the rickety train wagons, is
already in full swing as passengers cling precariously to the front bars for the
short hop into the city.
Inside the poorly ventilated coaches, there is
hardly standing room but those that manage to squeeze in consider themselves
fortunate; at least they are assured of getting to work on time.
This is the
"Freedom Train", a nickname given to commuter trains introduced by the National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). They were introduced to mitigate serious transport
problems encountered by urban commuters against a background of a crippling fuel
shortage that has dogged Zimbabwe intermittently over the last few years.
For many of the passengers on these trains, getting a ride is a test of
physical dexterity and endurance — for a minor slip-up can lead to serious
injury or even death.
But there is no alternative, say low-income workers,
hard-pressed to make ends meet in a hyper-inflationary environment, where fares
on conventional buses and kombis escalate almost daily.
Freedom Trains, whose
fares are just a quarter of the $200 demanded on buses, provide a more
affordable alternative. An added attraction is that because one can ride outside
the coaches and owing to the short distances, there is always a chance one can
get to their destination before being asked to pay.
When the trains were
introduced six years ago, those who used them were despised — just as
train-travel lost its glamour over the years, with people preferring faster
travel on commuter buses and private cars. But the situation is changing
fast.
With salaries of middle income professionals such as teachers,
accountants, journalists, soldiers and police officers lagging far behind an
inflation rate of over 1 200%, an increasing number of urban workers literally
scramble for space on the commuter trains.
Many of the workers say they now
shun commuter omnibuses because their charges are higher compared with the
trains. It costs more than $200 (revalued) to travel to Mufakose on a commuter
bus but only $50 for the same distance by train.
However, on average most
workers earn below $20 000, and cannot afford basic necessities.
The
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says a family of six now requires about $90
000 (revalued) a month to lead a normal life.
But cheap transport on the
overcrow-ded commuter trains has its own challenges for the passengers,
especially women.
They often complain of physical and verbal abuse in the
dimly lit coaches where, some say, the "law of the jungle" reigns.
"One day I
felt someone caressing my buttocks but because it was dark and crowded I could
not identify the culprit," said Cynthia Mugweni, a vendor at Mbare’s
Mupedzanhamo flea market who resides in Mufakose high-density suburb.
She
said: "Now, I put on a pair of trousers whenever I board these trains. I feel
more comfortable in them."
Even the train drivers are not
spared.
Recently, the driver of a commuter train on the City -Dzivarasekwa
via Warren Park route, refused to leave the railway station after passengers
hung precariously on the front bars of the train, obstructing his view.
"The
situation is fast getting out of hand because if there is a derailment, it would
be a national disaster," said the NRZ driver, who requested anonymity.
The
driver said the trains were most crowded on Friday evenings when some of the
coaches are assigned to inter-city trains such as those that ply the
Harare-Mutare or Bulawayo routes.
"Usually, we have 11 coaches for the
City/Dzivarasekwa route but on Fridays we remain with seven because the other
four are taken to inter-city routes," the driver said.
NRZ public relations
manager, Fanuel Masikati, said there was growing demand for the trains,
prompting the parastatal to embark on a massive programme to increase the
carrying capacity for both intra and inter-city commuter trains.
He said the
NRZ had also increased the seating capacity from 100 to 155 for each coach as
well as installing lighting.
"We know commuters are desperate for a cheaper
mode of transport but we don’t encourage them to cling onto bars outside of the
trains; this is dicing with death," said Masikati," adding, "We are carrying out
campaigns to make passengers aware of the risks involved."
But as long as
commuter bus fares remain unaffordable for the majority of urban workers, the
NRZ campaign has little chance of success.
Zim Std
Police are protecting Chabuda's killers: family
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE family of a Chitungwiza teenager killed by police detectives
last month have alleged the police are protecting his killers.
Winnet
Chabuda, the mother of 19-year-old Prince, said last week Glen Norah police had
still not recorded a statement on the killing, a month after AK47 bullets were
pumped into her son’s body by police pursuing the car in which he was a
passenger.
Mrs Chabuda (42) alleged this was an attempt to protect her son’s
"murderers".
Prince was shot dead at night near High Glen shopping centre
after his brother, Emmanuel, who was driving a family car, did not obey orders
by plain clothes police in an unmarked car to stop as he feared they could be
carjackers.
The detectives, pumped several shots into the teenager’s
abdomen, ripping it open.
Mrs Chabuda said Glen Norah police were refusing
to investigate the matter, saying, "they cannot probe their seniors".
"They
are refusing even to give us the names of the detectives. They are directing us
from one office to another, hoping this will frustrate us into giving up. But we
won’t give up. We want justice to prevail," she said.
The family has hired a
lawyer, Vote Muza of Gutu & Chikowero legal practitioners.
On 27
September, Muza wrote to the member-in-charge of Glen Norah police station,
demanding the names, ranks and residential addresses of the detective officers,
as he prepares his lawsuit.
The police were given seven days in which to
act.
"The police are trying to frustrate our efforts but this won’t deter
us," said Muza. "We are going to launch a two-pronged approach. We are
instituting criminal charges as well claiming damages from the detectives."
He said they had not come up with the exact amount of their claim "but it is
going to be quite substantial".
Police spokesperson, Oliver Mandipaka asked
the Chabuda family to visit the police’s public relations department at Harare
Central police station if they were not happy with the way they have been
treated.
"They will get help there. If they are not satisfied, they can come
to the Police General Headquarters and we will assist them," Mandipaka said.
Zim Std
By our staff
TWO National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) members were severely beaten by the police while
detained at Masvingo central police station, the NCA reported last week.
The
pair was arrested after an NCA demonstration in the city that caught the police
unawares a fortnight ago. More than 300 NCA members took to the streets in the
city centre, demanding a new Constitution.
Olivia Tobaiwa and Stephen
Nhatare, who were picked up by the police, were allegedly beaten up severely by
officers from the Law and Order section.
Tobaiwa and Nhatare narrated how the
police officers took turns to assault them during their two-day stay in the
cells. The two also told The Standard that they were helped by the NCA to
receive medical treatment for their injuries.
"They took turns to assault us
under the feet and all over the body," said Tobaiwa. "I have swollen feet and I
can hardly walk. A doctor who treated me said I sustained some internal
injuries," Nhatare.
He said: "I had two days of hell in the cells. Police
officers took turns to assault us. We were tortured. Some of the policemen said
we hadn’t learnt anything from the ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions)
leaders’ experience."
The leaders were tortured while in detention at Matapi
police station in Harare.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson, Fibion
Nyambo, said he was not aware of the incident.
NCA vice-chairperson, Mabel
Sikhosana, confirmed the incident. "Yes, two of our members were tortured while
in police custody," said Sikhosana.
"It is wrong for the police to assault
people while they are in custody. The police need not be a law unto themselves.
But this will not stop us from staging more demonstrations for a new
Constitution," she added.
The beatings come in the wake of the assault on
ZCTU leaders while in police custody at Matapi police station in Harare.
Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU president, secretary-general Wellington Chibebe and
other activists sustained serious injuries.
The ZCTU assaults were condemned
by the European Union, the United States government, Canada, Australia and
international labour organisations, including the Congress of South African
Trade Unions.