Zim Online
COSATU DELEGATION MUSCLES ITS WAY IN
Tue 26 October
2004
HARARE - State security agents detained 14 Congress of
South African
Trade Unions (COSATU) leaders at Harare international airport
for close to
two hours demanding they undertake not to meet some
non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe before they could be
allowed to enter the
country.
COSATU international relations
secretary Simon Boshiel told
journalists the delegation had stood its
ground, forcing the agents to let
them through without any guarantees they
were not going to meet the NGOs
during their four-day fact finding mission
in Zimbabwe.
Boshiel said: "They wanted us to guarantee them that
we will not meet
with Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe (CCZ), National
Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches
(ZCC).
"We could not give them the guarantee because we did not
know who they
were and we did not understand why this was
necessary."
The CCZ groups together labour, churches, opposition
political
parties, media, civic and human rights groups working for a
negotiated
solution to Zimbabwe's economic and political
crisis.
The NCA is an alliance of several groups including
political
organisations that campaigns for a new and democratic constitution
for
Zimbabwe. And the ZCC is the biggest representative body for churches in
the
country.
COSATU second vice-president Violet Seboni, who is
leading the mission
to Zimbabwe called the encounter with the security
agents hostile and
uncalled for. She said: "The hostile reception was
uncalled for. We are
Africans, ordinary workers and after all
harmless."
The delegation is in Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission
on the
country's deepening economic and political crisis.
Zimbabwe's Labour Ministry however wrote to COSATU last week advising
the
powerful union not to visit Zimbabwe because it planned to meet
anti-government organisations.
And it was also feared
immigration authorities would deport the COSATU
leaders back to Johannesburg
on arrival at Harare international airport.
But COSATU had vowed to
proceed with the mission saying it did not
need permission from the
government of Zimbabwe to visit the country to meet
with its colleagues at
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and with other
lawful organisations in
the country.
Speaking in Johannesburg earlier yesterday COSATU
spokesman, Pat
Craven, said: "COSATU did not need permission for a visit
which aims to meet
a broad range of organisations representing labour, civic
society and
government, get an accurate picture of the situation in the
country and make
a contribution to resolving some of the problems facing
Zimbabwe,
particularly its trade unions." - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Top ZANU PF politician quits
Tue 26 October
2004
HARARE - One of the ruling ZANU PF party's most senior leaders
from
Zimbabwe's minority Ndebele tribe, Dumiso Dabengwa, has quit active
politics.
Dabengwa, seen by many as the de facto leader of the
Ndebeles, after
the death of the founder of Zimbabwean nationalism, Joshua
Nkomo, told
ZimOnline yesterday that he was quitting politics because he had
"made
sufficient contribution" and was leaving room for
fresh blood
to take over.
The Ndebeles, the largest minority group in Zimbabwe,
make up about 14
percent of the country's 12 million people.
"I
will not be participating in any future elections because I believe
I have
made sufficient contribution in parliament. I have people that can
take over
from where I left in the constituency," Dabengwa said.
He however
said he would remain a member of ZANU PF and would be
available to assist
the party if required to do so.
But sources said, Dabengwa - who
was once jailed in the early eighties
by President Robert Mugabe and his
government on trumped up charges of high
treason - was leaving politics
because of mounting frustration at what he
saw as Mugabe's sidelining of
himself and his
colleagues from Nkomo's former PF ZAPU
party.
Dabengwa was released in 1986 as part of the negotiations
leading to
the Unity Accord signed between PF ZAPU and ZANU PF. PF ZAPU and
Mugabe's
ZANU PF party merged in December 1987 which saw Dabengwa together
with other
former ZAPU leaders being appointed into government.
The agreement also saw the ending of an armed rebellion against
Mugabe's
rule in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, home of the
Ndebele
people.
Dabengwa is also said to have been frustrated by the
government's lack
of urgency in implementing the Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project, an
ambitious project to draw water from the Zambezi river down to
arid
Matabeleland.
Trained in the old Soviet Union, Dabengwa
was the feared intelligence
supremo of Nkomo's armed wing the Zimbabwe
People's Revolutionary Army,
which together with Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Liberation Army,
fought for the country's independence. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mujuru edges closer to vice-presidency
Tue 26 October
2004
HARARE - The ruling ZANU PF party women's league will meet
next month
to formally nominate former guerrilla fighter and long-serving
government
minister, Joyce Mujuru, for the vacant post of party
vice-president.
The powerful league is pushing for Mujuru to
succeed the late Simon
Muzenda as one of President Robert Mugabe's deputies
in the party and also
possibly in government, in a move observers said was
linked to a silently
raging battle within ZANU PF for the succession of
Mugabe both as party and
national president.
The league had at
its last congress in September announced that it
wanted Mujuru to assume the
post of vice-president.
Mujuru's ascendancy to the vice-presidency
would block the party's
secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa,
who is also eyeing the
same post which he reportedly wants to use as a
stepping stone to Mugabe's
job.
A member of the league's
national executive told ZimOnline that Mugabe
had already assured the
women's wing that he would accept Mujuru if they
nominated her and she was
elected by the ZANU PF national congress in
December.
The
congress elects the party's leadership every five years.
"The first
step was to sway the support of the president which we
managed to do last
week. He assured us that he would accept Mujuru if
congress agreed and
elected her as ZANU PF's second vice president," said
the executive, who
requested anonymity.
Both ZANU PF women's affairs secretary
Thenjiwe Lesabe and chairman,
John Nkomo, could not be reached for comment
on the matter.
The special women's assembly, whose date is still to
be set, will be
attended by women members of ZANU PF's politburo, central
committee and
members of provincial and district executive committees,
sources said.
The women's league, which forms the cutting edge of
ZANU PF's election
campaign strategy, has been pushing for a woman to be
appointed to at least
one of the ruling party's top four posts.
ZANU PF insiders also say Mugabe would back Mujuru's candidature for
the
vice-presidency because he wanted to use her appointment to the key post
as
a carrot to curry favour with women voters ahead of a crucial general
election scheduled for March.
Mujuru is also backed by her
husband, Solomon, who is the former
commander of the Zimbabwe National Army
and wields immense influence in ZANU
PF politics. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Zimbabwe's envoy protests over Mugabe jab
Tue 26 October
2004
GABORONE - Zimbabwe's ambassador to Botswana, Phekezela Phoko,
has
officially protested against comments by a senior politician of the
ruling
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) describing President Robert Mugabe as
"greedy."
In a strongly worded letter to Botswana's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs,
Phoko accused BDP official, Patrick Balopi, of being
arrogant and hostile to
Mugabe.
He added that Balopi's
criticism of Mugabe was contrary to the good
relations between Harare and
Gaborone and accused the Botswana politician of
parroting Western countries
opposed to Mugabe's land reforms.
The statement, which was also
widely reported by the media here, read
in part: "Botswana and Zimbabwe
enjoy very cordial relations and the
relations between BDP and ZANU PF are
good.
"The embassy is very much aware that all the criticism
levelled
against President Mugabe emanates from the Land Reform Programme
where
President Mugabe redistributed land to the landless majority, from
multiple
commercial farm owners.
"As a result, political clowns
and intellectual parasites who have
nothing to offer beyond parroting
designed positions have surfaced."
Balopi, who is a former member
of President Festus Mogae's Cabinet
could not be reached for comment but BDP
executive secretary, Botsalo
Ntuane, told the Press that the ruling party
official was within his rights
in criticising Mugabe.
Addressing a political rally here about two weeks ago, Balopi called
Mugabe
a greedy leader who had ruined his country and wanted to cling to
power at
all costs.
Relations between Zimbabwe and Botswana have been
strained chiefly
because of Gaborone's outspokenness against Mugabe's
controversial
policies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Journalists to appeal to African Commission to help repeal
harsh Press law
Tue 26 October 2004
MASVINGO - Zimbabwean
journalists say they will appeal to the African
Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights to help pressure Harare to repeal
repressive media
laws.
At a meeting here at the weekend, journalists from the
country's
private media and human rights lawyers drafted a letter of appeal
to be
presented to the commission when it meets for its 36th session next
month in
the west African state of Gambia.
A lawyer with the
Media Institute of Southern Africa's Zimbabwe
chapter, Silas Dzike, said the
media groups were citing a case brought to
the country's Supreme Court by
the Independent Journalists Association of
Zimbabwe (IJAZ) two years
ago.
In the matter, IJAZ challenged several sections of the
government's
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act as
unconstitutional. The
court ruled against the journalists.
Dzike said: "The objective of the Masvingo workshop was to come up
with a
draft communication based on the IJAZ case for the African
Commission."
He said among other key issues the journalists and
human rights
lawyers were going to push for repeal were requirements under
Section 79 of
the press Act that journalists register before they can
practice in
Zimbabwe.
They would also cite Section 80 of the
same law which Dzike said
sought to criminalise journalism as it sought to
punish journalists who
publish falsehoods. - ZimOnline
New Zimbabwe
DANIEL FORTUNE MOLOKELA: FACING
REALITY
The Zimbabwe Leanmore Jongwe wanted
Last
updated: 10/26/2004 06:09:36
THIS week has been a very sentimental one
for me. I was remembering
the tragic and rather untimely death of one of the
most influential young
people in the history of Zimbabwe ever.
This week I was in deep mourning but also somewhat, celebrating the
life and
times of the late Learnmore Judah Jongwe. The late young national
hero died
under mysterious circumstances at the Harare Remand Prison on 22nd
October
2002. This was after his indefinite detention in the aftermath of
the tragic
murder of his wife, Rutendo, under very acrimonious
circumstances.
I had the privilege of being one of the last
people to see him alive.
I had visited him and spoken to him in his very
last afternoon in this
planet. This was to be the end of a political
friendship and rivalry that I
had shared and cherished with him for several
years.
I first met Jongwe in March 1995 when we were both admitted
at the
faculty of law at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). I was his
classmate and
peer until his graduation day ceremony, when I had the honour
of sitting
next to him during the entire academic ritual in August
1999.
But I must confess that I have a very limited number of
memories of
Jongwe as my classmate. The Jongwe I knew most was a politician.
During our
stay at college, we had a lot of political experiences together.
Suffice for
me to say that I served as his Vice President both at the levels
of the UZ
Students Union and Zimbabwe National Students Union
(ZINASU).
Jongwe is obviously one of the brightest political
prospects ever to
emerge from the ranks of the Zimbabwean students movement.
He was a
naturallly born leader. He was a very talented, intelligent and
ambitious
young man. He was also very articulate, an orator extra-ordinaire
who had a
very lyrical voice.
His clarity of purpose, vision
and direction so much belied his tender
age. It is obvious that at the time
of his sad death, he had achieved much
more than many people double or even
treble his age would have ever dreamt
of achieving in their entire long
lives.
In fact until his untimely death, many political observers
in Zimbabwe
easily regarded him as far ahead of his peers. But perhaps, he
was even
peerless.
It was thus no surprise that during his
four-year tenure as a law
student at the University of Zimbabwe, Jongwe rose
through the ranks of the
student leadership with such ease.
He
was first elected as an executive member of the Zimbabwe Law
Students
Association at the end of his first year. Towards the end of his
second
year, he was elected overwhelmingly as the President of the entire
university student union.
At the beginning of his third year,
he was also elected as the
first-ever national President of the revived
ZINASU. During his final year
at law school, he also served as the
Sub-warden of the university's most
luxurious hall of residence, the New
Hall.
Shortly after he left the university, he got a good job as a
Professional Assistant in what was then regarded as the biggest firm of
legal practitioners in Zimbabwe, Gill Gerrans and Godlontons.
Outside legal practice, Jongwe's political career continued to
flourish. In
October 1999, he was among the founding members of the nation's
main
opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). As a
result, he
was duly elected as the first ever Youth Chairperson of the MDC
in the
interim leadership of the party.
The high level of his popularity
was affirmed when the MDC held its
first ever People's Congress. During the
subsequent elections for a
substantive leadership, he was overwhelmingly
elected as the new MDC
Secretary for Information and Publicity. It was after
he assumed this
venerated role as the MDC's public face and spokes-person
that the world at
large started to notice his brilliant political
acumen.
As if it was not enough, Jongwe's ever growing reputation
was further
enhanced during the controversial June 2000 Parliamentary
elections. The
young man earned more kudos for himself when he successfully
vied for a seat
in the fifth Parliament of the country. He was
overwhelmingly elected as the
Member of Parliament for Kuwadzana, a
high-density suburb in Harare.
"The Jongwe legacy is a
lifelong quest for a full transition
towards a truly peaceful and democratic
Zimbabwe. We owe this not only to
Jongwe but our own
posterity"
DANIEL MOLOKELA
But for me, as a person
who had shared a lot of intimate political
experiences with him during his
illustrious days as a student leader, it did
not come much as a big
surprise. I had always expected a lot from him. I was
thus only pleased to
note that he had already begun to realize his full
potential as a
prospective source of future national leadership for
Zimbabwe.
But as we all know, Jongwe never lived to realize his fullest
potential.
Tragically, death dealt him its cruel blow just as his political
career was
beginning to take off. In fact, it was just when many were
beginning to tout
him as a potential successor to Morgan Tsvangirai.
Indeed, many
thought that Jongwe was a President in waiting, not only
at an MDC level but
also at a national level. It is therefore doubtless that
had he lived long
enough, he would have managed to storm into the corridors
of power at the
State House itself.
As such, Jongwe did not only represent the
future of MDC, his party
but also that of Zimbabwe as a nation at
large.
So when he died, I can dare say that his death did not only
rob his
family of a breadwinner, his party of a charismatic leader, but also
the
nation, was robbed of a potential national leader and
statesman.
Having said that, I wish to suggest that Jongwe did not
go down to his
grave with the future of Zimbabwe. He may have died but his
dreams for a new
Zimbabwe did not die with him. They in fact, remain with us
today, as his
legacy for our posterity.
Jongwe dreamt of and
hoped to see a Zimbabwe that was the complete
apposite of what we see today.
The Zimbabwe he wanted is still not here with
us. It remains elusive, like a
desert mirage, hiding somewhere in our
future.
The Zimbabwe he
wanted was completely different from the Zimbabwe that
the likes of Mugabe
have led us unto, today. The Zimbabwe he wanted was a
new country with a new
political culture founded on the premises of freedom,
tolerance, integrity
and self-respect.
He always dreamt that one day there would be a
new Zimbabwe that would
celebrate plurality, diversity and all-inclusiveness
as the foundation of
the entire nation human fabric.
He always
envisioned a new Zimbabwe that would be bereft of the
retrogressive politics
of hatred, violence, cronyism and patronage. He
always aspired for a new
Zimbabwe that would seek to promote and sustain all
efforts of individual
and national human endeavor on the basis of diligence
and
excellence.
The Zimbabwe he wanted would have to be a completely
new one. It would
be a Zimbabwe that would be like the Biblical Canaan,
flowing with rivers of
justice and dripping with the milk and honey of peace
and democracy.
I therefore appeal to all Zimbabweans, whether at
home or in the
Diaspora. More so even to the youths and students, to strive
to continue
with his legacy.
The Jongwe legacy is a lifelong
quest for a full transition towards a
truly peaceful and democratic
Zimbabwe. We owe this not only to Jongwe but
our own posterity. History will
judge us harshly if we fail to rise up to
this crucial but inevitable
challenge for our generation.
Let us therefore do whatever we can,
in our very own personal way and
make our contributions towards the birth of
the new nation. I mean, the new
Zimbabwe we all want to have.
No matter how discouraging the situation in Zimbabwe might seem today,
let
us not allow ourselves to wallow in the murky waters of political
despair.
Let us not agonise but seek to organize ourselves.
Let us all rise
up and join forces in the on-going struggle for a new
Zimbabwe. And as
Jongwe would have loved it, let us all seek to fight for
our country until
final victory. "Vincere caritate!" We all have no excuse
because whether we
like it or not, the struggle remains our birthright -
danielmolokela@yahoo.com
Daniel Molokela is the National Co-ordinator of the Peace and
Democracy
Project
Johannesburg, South Africa. His column appears here every
Monday
Sporting Life
DREADED TOUR NOW UPON ENGLAND
The tour the England and
Wales Cricket Board have been dreading and trying
to wriggle out of for
almost two years is almost upon us.
England have made no secret of their
desire not to travel to Zimbabwe and
explored numerous avenues to avoid
doing so in what has been a long and
tedious - but ultimately very sad -
saga.
The time has now come for the England players to pack their kit and
fly to
Africa to prepare for a series of matches that has blighted the ECB's
recent
history.
The side have enjoyed phenomenal on-field success
this summer, but the
Zimbabwe issue has always been looming in the
background.
Dealing with it has been put off and put off, always deferred
to later
meetings in the hope that someone or something may intervene in the
meantime
to prevent it happening.
The ECB have been stuck between a
rock and a hard place over the issue since
it first surfaced. On the one
hand there are serious moral objections to
playing in the country but on the
other they have obligations to the
International Cricket Council that their
failure to keep would incur heavy
penalties.
But there has been no
Government action, no security threats and little
International Cricket
Council action over the woeful state of the Zimbabwe
side, all of which
could have spared England the trip.
The last glimmer of hope was removed
last week when an inquiry commissioned
by the ICC reported that there was no
evidence that the Zimbabwe Cricket
Union were selecting sides on racial
lines.
That meant that Zimbabwe, albeit in their severely weakened state
after the
loss of 15 players due to a dispute with the board, would not be
excluded
from international cricket. Their Test status had been suspended
but it was
announced it would be restored in January.
That is too
late for the two Tests initially scheduled against England to be
rearranged
but the five one-day matches remain.
A security delegation is currently
assessing safety issues in the country
for the ECB but Australia toured
there earlier this year and left without
problem.
With Steve Harmison
pulling out of the tour on moral grounds and with Andrew
Flintoff and Marcus
Trescothick rested, England travel with a few
inexperienced players but they
should still win the series convincingly.
Zimbabwe have always been one
of the makeweights of international cricket
but they are now one of the
weakest sides ever to take to the field at the
top level.
The loss of
the 15 'rebels', who walked out and were later sacked after
Heath Streak was
removed as captain, left Tatenda Taibu, then 20, as the
youngest Test
skipper in history leading a side containing several
teenagers.
They
have been routinely hammered since and there are few signs of things
improving in the near future.
Taibu, an agile wicketkeeper and
competent batsman, was already an
international class player before the
dispute but him aside, quality is thin
on the ground.
Mark Vermeulen
and Doug Hondo have found themselves quickly elevated to the
ranks of senior
professionals even though they are still finding their feet
in the
international game.
The likes of opener Brendan Taylor and all-rounder
Elton Chigumbura are
promising players and would have found their way into
the side but they have
been thrown in at the deep end.
Taibu is a
confident character and believes that in two years' time Zimbabwe
will again
be competitive.
He is right to have faith in some of the talent in his
side because it does
exist. Not all of the 'rebel' players were established
internationals and
some of the young black players were deserving of a
chance.
Yet losing the likes of Streak, Andy Blignaut, Sean Ervine and
Ray Price has
left a big hole and it is difficult to see them winning a game
in the near
future.
Anything less than an overwhelming England
victory would be a surprise from
a series likely to prove as one-sided as
any ever staged.
Protesters target England matches
Wisden Cricinfo staff
October
25, 2004
In the same week that the England & Wales Cricket
Board is likely to
announce that it is happy with security arrangements
surrounding its tour of
Zimbabwe, a protester who was beaten by police after
waving an
anti-government banner during a World Cup match last year said
that he was
planning another demonstration during England's trip.
The
Sunday Telegraph reported how 19-year-old Kindness Moto was arrested and
tortured after protesting against Robert Mugabe during Zimbabwe's match
against Netherlands at Bulawayo in March, 2003. The newspaper said that he
was held by the police for four days and "raped by officers, starved,
electrocuted and beaten on the soles of his feet before being thrown from a
moving car." He has subsequently been arrested and beaten on three more
occasions.
Moto's story reflects that of Edsion Mukwasi, the
29-year-old former
official of the Movement for Democratic Change, who was
arrested outside the
Harare Sports Club - where England will play three ODIs
- during Zimbabwe's
match against Pakistan in November 2002 for distributing
leaflets
highlighting human rights abuses. While in custody it is claimed he
was
repeatedly tortured, and he died three months later from lung and liver
injuries resulting from those beatings.
Moto claimed that
potential protesters are already being rounded up ahead of
England's visit,
although he insisted that the demonstrations would still go
ahead. With no
free media inside Zimbabwe, and with foreign journalists
subjected to
considerable restrictions, opponents say that this rare
exposure to the
international community has to be seized on.
And, Moto added, with
few locals likely to attend - recent one-day
internationals have been played
out in front of dozens rather than even
hundreds of spectators - the ruling
Zanu-PF are planning to fill the stands
with schoolchildren to give the
impression that all is well.
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd
From: "Trudy Stevenson"
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 3:45 AM
Subject:
Voter registration etc at Mt Pleasant District Office and other
places
In view of the forthcoming General Election scheduled for
March next year
(although MDC is pushing for it to be postponed to enable
changes to make it
free and fair) it is important that as many people as
possible are properly
registered to vote in that election, including young
people as soon as they
turn eighteen. Please note that once the election
date is announced, voter
registration is normally closed for that election,
therefore it is important
to do any changes, new registrations etc
NOW.
I have discovered that there are four convenient Sub-Offices of
the
Registrar-General's Office here in Harare, where you can register to vote
as
well as obtain/correct ID, birth certificate, death certificate
for
relatives, etc:
Mount Pleasant District Office
Hatfield
District Office
Mabvuku District Office
Machipisa District
Office
as well as the usual Market Square and Makombe Building. Note
that voters
rolls are not yet available for inspection - these offices are
offering
registration and corrections only at present. Don't forget to take
the
relevant documents.
These offices are open weekdays 8 am - 4pm or
so, closed 1-2 pm for lunch.
At Mount Pleasant (Boardroom behind the main
District Office) there is no
queue whatsoever, so please go there if you need
this service.
Please pass this information on, especially to secondary
schools and
colleges. If possible, make a poster and put up at your local
school,
supermarket, church, club etc. Thank you!
Trudy Stevenson
MP
Harare North Constituency
Daily News online edition
NGO to besiege detention centre in
protest
Date:23-Oct, 2004
JOHANNESBURG - Members
of locally-based non-governmental organisations
plan to march to Lindela
detention camp just outside Johannesburg to protest
against the deaths and
ill-treatment of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants by
South African
authorities.
The South African Women's Institute for Migration
Affairs (SAWIMA)
director, Joyce Dube told the Daily News Online that it was
concerned about
the state of affairs and condition of illegal
immigrants.
She said they were living in crowded conditions and
had poor diet
which made them susceptible to disease.
Dube
said they would be carrying coffins on the march as a way of
mourning all
those who died at Lindela as well as praying for the sick at
the
camp.
"Some of them die but we are not able to ascertain the
number because
some of them do not have relevant identification documents
but we have
occasionally gone there to collect bodies of the immigrants for
repatriation
home," said Dube.
It is estimated that at
least three Zimbabweans die at Lindela every
month but the exact number is
not known. A senior official at the centre
this week told the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation that they also did not
know how many Zimbabwean
immigrants were dying at the centre.
Immigrants without
identification papers were given paupers' burials
while those whose bodies
could be collected by their relatives were given
the same type of
burial.
Dube said a recent visit to Leratho hospital where sick
immigrants
from Lindela were admitted had revealed that most, if not all
were suffering
from diseases that are caused by poor hygiene, poor living
conditions and
poor diet.
She said SAWIMA was willing to
work with authorities at Lindela to
explore ways of assisting illegal
immigrants' access proper treatment and
return to their
homes.
"But one of our major problems is that some of the
immigrants do not
want to go back home because they will be arrested. We
have some youths who
ran away from National Youth Training Centres and once
they get home they
will be arrested," said Dube.
There are
more that two million Zimbabweans living in South Africa,
the majority of
them are staying here illegally.
Lindela is a centre just
outside Johannesburg where illegal immigrants
are kept before
deportation.
Zim Online
TSVANGIRAI SEEKS MBEKI'S HELP TO POSTPONE POLLS
Mon 25
October 2004
JOHANNESBURG - Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has asked President Thabo Mbeki to persuade
President Robert
Mugabe to postpone the March 2005 parliamentary elections
to create enough
time to level the electoral playing field.
Tsvangirai made his request at a meeting with Mbeki in Pretoria early
today.
The meeting is Tsvangirai's first with a foreign leader on foreign
soil
after the seizure of his passport in early 2002 over trumped up charges
that
he plotted to assassinate the 80-year-old Mugabe.
Mbeki's spokesman
Bheki Khumalo confirmed the meeting but refused to
divulge details saying
they were confidential.
"There is nothing to be gained from
disclosing details of confidential
deliberations," said
Khumalo.
MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube also refused to go on
record over
the meeting. "All I can say is we have met the President and we
had fruitful
deliberations," Ncube told ZimOnline.
However,
ZimOnline is authoritatively informed that Tsvangirai asked
Mbeki to put
more pressure on Mugabe and ensure that he implements the
recently adopted
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) norms on free
and fair
elections ahead of crucial parliamentary elections next year.
But
Tsvangirai particularly wants Mbeki and other regional leaders to
persuade
Mugabe to postpone next year's elections to create enough time to
create the
appropriate environment for free and fair elections. These would
include
re-drawing a completely new voters' roll.
Mbeki is understood to
have advised the MDC leadership to participate
in next year's elections at
all costs. He is said to have promised the MDC
leadership that he would keep
trying to push for dialogue between the ZANU
PF and the MDC.
"Mbeki is of the view that the appropriate framework for elections
should
come out of negotiations but the MDC has advised him there is no
chance of
such dialogue because Mugabe is not interested," said an
authoritative
source. "The MDC told the President (Mbeki) that all Mugabe
wants is to win
a rigged election and then afterwards resume dialogue with a
cowed
opposition."
Tsvangirai is also understood to have reinforced his
party's stance
that the MDC would only participate in any elections if the
playing field
was levelled.
The MDC leadership dismissed the
electoral reforms being implemented
by Mugabe as merely "tinkering at the
edges".
Mugabe has proposed setting up an "independent" electoral
commission
appointed by himself to replace the army-dominated Electoral
Supervisory
Commission (ESC).
He has also proposed reducing
polling from two to one day and using
transparent ballot boxes, reforms
rejected by the MDC as being "cosmetic".
The MDC is completely shut
from the public media and a voters' roll
which it was finally granted access
to two weeks ago allegedly has more than
one million ghost
voters.
Tsvangirai is expected to proceed to Mauritius to meet that
country's
Prime Minister Paul Berenger before meeting the leaders of
Lesotho, Namibia,
Botswana and Tanzania. - ZimOnline.
NGO calls for elections to be delayed
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 25 Oct 2004
(IRIN) - Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections,
scheduled for March next year,
should be delayed, a local poll observer
network told IRIN on
Monday.
Reginald Machaba-Hove of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network
(ZESN) told
IRIN that the implementation of new electoral reforms, such as
voting in one
day, transparent ballot boxes and increasing polling stations,
"cannot be
done in time by March".
"There's no way we can have
elections by March next year, and say the
conditions were free and fair.
We're calling for the elections to be delayed
beyond March, so as to allow
for sufficient time for all the necessary
consultations to take place with
all stakeholders, including the opposition
and NGOs, and to make the
adjustments [required by new legislation]. Our
point is that it will take
time to have adequate consultations,"
Machaba-Hove added.
This
follows doubts raised by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC)
over the validity of the voters' roll, and news reports quoting
Zimbabwe's
foreign minister as saying that foreign powers were attempting to
discredit
the legislative poll before it was held.
Media reports quoted MDC
president Morgan Tsvangirai as saying that analysis
of a hard copy of the
voters' roll indicated it "has been manipulated to
secure even further
reductions in urban seats".
The roll was not consistent with the 2002
census, as it showed increased
voter registrations in rural areas and a
decrease in urban areas, where the
MDC has traditionally been strong.
Tsvangirai called for an independent
audit of the voters' roll.
The
ruling ZANU-PF party's secretary for information, Nathan Shamuyarira,
rejected Tsvangirai's accusation, adding that "we [the government] are
setting up an independent commission to conduct the elections and they [the
MDC] can complain there".
Machaba-Hove, meanwhile, said ZESN "have
not seen any copy of the voters'
roll, and our position has been and still
is that, as far as we are
concerned, a voter registration exercise is still
to be done properly, and
it is strange if the roll is completed
already".
He added that there "are fears that there could be
gerrymandering".
On Friday the official Herald newspaper reported that
Foreign Minister Stan
Mudenge believed some Western countries and
organisations were attempting to
discredit next year's parliamentary
elections, and were trying to influence
the composition of the Southern
African Development Community (SADC)
election observer team.
Mail and Guardian
We're not broke, say Zim propagandists
Harare, Zimbabwe
25 October 2004 14:53
Zimbabwe's state
broadcaster has denied its news department, a key
propaganda arm of the
government, is unable to pay its journalists and faces
bankruptcy, state
radio reported on Monday.
Chris Chivinge -- head of Newsnet, the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings news
department -- dismissed as false independent
newspaper reports saying that
Newsnet is broke and relying on loans from the
only one of its four state
radio stations that makes a profit to meet its
monthly salaries.
The sole state broadcaster has a television channel and
four radio stations,
with the biggest listenership and revenues from
advertising held by Radio
Zimbabwe, a service in the local Shona and Ndebele
languages.
The troubled state broadcaster has acknowledged in recent
months that it is
facing financial problems. Although the government still
owns the main
stake, it partially privatised the formally wholly state-owned
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation.
Zimbabwe has also appealed to Iran
and other donor countries to replace the
broadcaster's ageing
equipment.
Broadcast staff have repeatedly complained that their salaries
are paid
late, sometimes by several weeks.
The radio said Chivinge on
Monday also defended Newsnet's decision to send
five journalists to cover a
cultural gala in neighbouring Mozambique earlier
this month.
The
gala, at Chimoio, about 100km from Zimbabwe's eastern border, was held
to
honour Zimbabwean guerrillas who died at a rebel base there during the
Zimbabwe bush war that led to independence in 1980.
Chivinge said the
state broadcaster always strives to remind Zimbabweans of
their nation's
liberation struggle against colonial rule.
He said Newsnet's coverage of
the Chimoio music and dance gala was "grossly
inadequate". A lack of
finances prevented Newsnet sending more than five
journalists.
The
Information Ministry, which controls the state broadcaster, has been
accused
of wasting Z$2,7-billion (about R2,92-million) on a series of recent
cultural galas used for government propaganda.
After near five years
of political and economic turmoil, Zimbabwe is facing
its worst economic
crisis since independence in 1980. -- Sapa-AP
Communication Workers Union
25 October 2004
Zimbabwe : Harassment and
Intimidation of Workers Exercising their Legal
Right to Strike at ZIMPOST
and TEL-ONE.
UNI has been informed by their affiliate, the Communication
& Allied
Services Workers' Union (CASWUZ) that striking workers in the
Postal and
Telecom companies (Zimpost and Tel-One) are being intimidated and
harassed
by the government.
Management with Government officials are
even following workers home to
coerce them back to work. The government are
again using the Miscellaneous
Offences Act against union officials and
workers based on flimsy and made up
evidence.
We call on all
affiliates to help these workers, who need our support and
solidarity and
spend a few minutes to complete an online protest message to
the President
of Zimbabwe, Zimpost and Tel-One to demand that this
harassment ceases
immediately.
To send a message please visit :
www.union-network.org/uniindep.nsf/zimbabweoct?openform
Thank
you for your support.
Yours sincerely,
Philip J.
Jennings
UNI General Secretary
New Zimbabwe
Dialogue will correct wrongs
By Msekiwa
Makwanya
Last updated: 10/26/2004 04:28:28
IT is the duty of the
government to make it difficult for people to do
wrong, and make it easy to
do right. No matter how far we have gone down
wrong, we can still turn back
and I have no doubt that dialogue remains the
most appropriate option to put
things right in our only beloved country.
Morgan Tsvangirai said that the
"not guilty" verdict, initially denounced as
a travesty of justice by
Patrick Chinamasa the Justice Minister , could
"free up political space" for
his party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), to take part in the
poll. "It may provide the basis for rapprochement
and dialogue in seeking a
resolution to a national crisis that has been
dragging on for far too long,"
Tsvangirai said.
Addressing the Victoria Falls gathering Speaker of
Parliament Emmerson
Mnangagwa confirmed that talks were under way between
the two parties.
Mnangagwa told the gathering that they should develop
skills and techniques
to tackle the issues that faced the country in a
constructive and positive
fashion through negotiation, joint problem-solving
and consensus building.
Echoing Mnangagwa's words Mugabe said Zimbabwe's
problems could only be
resolved internally through dialogue.
Speaking
at the burial of the late Vice President Simon Muzenda, President
Robert
Mugabe acknowledged that Zanu Pf and MDC is made up of Zimbabweans,
of
course apart from his (Mugabe) party's perception that the MDC are
working
with the Tony Blair and George Bush to remove him from power.
"We would
like to welcome MDC leaders here. You are Zimbabweans. You eat the
same
sadza (maize-meal) that we eat, munodya matumbu embudzi (you also eat
goats'
innards). We are all sons of the soil and as sons of the soil, you
should
behave like sons of the soil. We should not fight against each other;
we
should sit down like brothers.
"As brothers and as the elder brother, I
should be able to give you advice
and you should also tell me as your big
brother where I am going wrong in
our house. You should not rush to (British
Prime Minister) Tony Blair. We
should resolve our problems internally,
that's all we want."
Zanu PF hawks led by Professor Jonathan Moyo, and
his other forms and shapes
believed to be Lowani Ndlovu, Nathaniel Manheru
seem to believe that Zanu PF
should not negotiate with the MDC. In the
process, I believe that the
professor confused dialogue with debate. There
is no harm in trying to
explain the difference to those who do not
appreciate or might not realise
the difference.
The word "dialogue"
derives from two roots: "dia" which means "through" and
"logos" which means
"the word", or more particularly, "the meaning of the
word." The image it
gives is of a river of meaning flowing around and
through the participants.
Effective dialogue creates better conversation as
opposed to debate.
Dialogue is a conversation in which people think together
in relationship.
Thinking together implies that you no longer take your own
opinion as final.
You relax your grip on certainty and listen to
possibilities that result
from being in a relationship with
others---possibilities that might not
otherwise have occurred.
Dialogue is collaborative; multiple sides work
toward shared understanding,
debate is oppositional; two opposing sides try
to prove each other wrong. In
dialogue, one listens to understand, to make
meaning, and to find common
ground; in debate, one listens to find flows, to
spot differences, and to
counter arguments. In the end dialogue enlarges and
possibly changes a
participant's point of view while debate affirms a
participant's point of
view.
I have no doubt that there has been
enough debate on the situation in
Zimbabwe organized by various interest
groups and Non Governmental
Organisations. It is common cause that Zanu Pf
and the MDC have not been
keen to share the platform in these conferences
and workshops for
understandable reasons such justified fear of being
vilified or being
targeted depending on the participants. Patrick Chinamasa
and Professor Moyo
have taken a very unfortunate view that the MDC should
not be accorded
access to the public media.
If we do not change
direction, then we are likely to end up where we are
headed. Clearly there
are issues that Zimbabweans do not disagree on and an
outsider who has some
degree of independence from the situation, although
not always neutral, can
bring us together. Zimbabweans naturally welcome A
SOUTHERN African
Development Committee (Sadc) troika, led by South African
President, Thabo
Mbeki, is expected in Zimbabwe soon to resolve the
political impasse between
ZANU PF and the MDC and to push for the Zimbabwean
government's
implementation of the regional block's electoral norms.
If you have
disagreements with other people the options are; to ignore them
and wake up
tomorrow to face up to the same problem; fight and put lives at
serious
risk; debate and prove them wrong or engage in dialogue, and submit
one's
best thinking, expecting that other people's reflections will help
improve
it rather than threaten it.
I know that there are people who believe that
it is waste time to talk to
Mugabe because PF Zapu led by the late Dr Nkomo
did it and they were
swallowed as they saying goes. "I am not here suggested
talking to someone,
rather I am suggesting talking with someone - that is
dialogue. We will not
need to agree on everything but we can reach an
understanding". We still
have the chance to talk about the SADCC protocols
on elections and when
Mbeki leading the Sadc troika both the Zanu Pf and the
MDC will have to
respond with principled flexibility and above all
pragmatism.
The writer is a social commentator based in London
Ecumenical News International
Malawian president halts prayer vigil for
troubled Zimbabwe
(ENI). Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has
ordered a stop to
interdenominational prayers organized jointly by civil
society activists and
churches to seek divine intervention for neighbouring
Zimbabwe's political
crisis.
Government officials claimed the prayers
were stopped for security reasons
that had nothing to do with
prayers.
The candle-lit vigils were initiated by the Civil Liberties
Committee
(Cilic), the Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation and the
Institute for
Policy Interaction and had been scheduled for 18 October in
Malawi's
commercial capital, Blantyre.
Human rights activists in
Malawi are particularly concerned with an amended
NGO bill which Zimbabwe
President, Robert Mugabe is seeking to enact in
parliament, restricting
donor aid to non-governmental organizations.
The Malawian civil society
groups have condemned the proposed law which is
seen as seeking to stifle
human rights groups and enabling the perpetuation
of abuses of the rights of
citizens already suffering serious violation of
freedoms.
The Malawi
groups urged South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian
counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo to cease their long running "quiet diplomacy"
approach and to press President Mugabe to adhere to the United Nations Human
Rights Charter.
"We were after all not holding a demonstration and we
don't see why the
president had to order police to disrupt the prayers,"
said Emmie Chanika,
the director of Cilic. She said that it was time
Malawians woke up as what
was happening in their neighbouring Zimbabwe could
also repeat itself at
home.
But Malawi's special assistant to the
president on religious matters, Malan
Mtonga dismissed claims that the
president had foiled the prayers.
"There was no way the president could
have stopped the prayers," said
Mtonga, adding, "he is a man who loves God
and peace. He in fact encourages
people to pray for crises in other nations
and issues in Zimbabwe. It could
be that the prayers were stopped for
security reasons."
Activists have since indicated they will apply for a
High Court order to
restrain police from aborting prayers scheduled for
another date.
Sources at the Malawi president's office told the civil
society members that
it was feared the prayer event would sour relations
between Zimbabwe's
President Mugabe and the newly elected Mutharika.
SADC Protocol WatchOn August 17 2004, SADC leaders, meeting in Mauritius, adopted a protocol on
guidelines and principles governing democratic elections.
On 25 August
the MDC National Executive unanimously agreed to suspend the party’s
participation in all elections pending the government’s full compliance with the
new SADC protocol.
On the seventeenth day of each month, the MDC will
publish a report, assessing the extent to which the Zimbabwe Government is
failing to comply with the SADC Protocol.
The second monthly report is
available HERE
MDC INFORMATION DEPARTMENT