http://www.radiovop.com/
By Millie
Phiri
Harare, October 25, 2009 - The three signatories to
Zimbabwe's Global
Political Agreement (GPA), which brought about the
inclusive government, are
expected to meet on Monday although it is unclear
what will be on the
agenda.
The meeting follows a
request by the leader of the main Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
faction, Morgan Tsvangirai, who recently announced
that his party will not
be engaging with Zanu PF on all matters pertaining
to the inclusive
government until all outstanding issues are dealt with.
The state-owned
Herald said Saturday the three leaders were expected
to meet on Monday on a
"routine" meeting. "Earlier this week, Mr Tsvangirai
asked to meet President
Mugabe and the request was granted. The three
principals to the GPA are
expected to meet on Monday, for their routine
meeting," said the
paper.
A Zimbabwe minister also said last Wednesday he was hopeful
President
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai would meet this week
to resolve
disputes that forced the MDC to boycott the unity
goverment.
Welshman Ncube, Industry and Commerce Minister and
secretary general
of a splinter MDC headed by Arthur Mutambara, told
industrialists at an
investment conference, that Tsvangirai's decision to
disengage from Mugabe
ZANU-PF had shaken renewed investor confidence in the
country.
The MDC boycott has sparked the country's biggest
political crisis
since the formation of a new administration and while
analysts say the
decision may not mean the end of the fragile coalition, it
will put pressure
on regional leaders to act.
"I am happy
to say that in the last 48 hours the political leadership
of the three
political parties have resolved that they need to holistically
look at the
issues that have led to the current situation," Ncube said. "We
hope that in
the next two to three days there will be a meeting of the three
leaders to
discuss those issues."
Ncube's boss and deputy prime minister
Mutambara met Mugabe on Monday
over the MDC boycott. Mutambara urged Mugabe
to "shape up or ship out",
accusing him of derailing the unity government
progress.
'The matters the people are complaining about in the
MDC-T are that we
should now voluntarily, from our side, you see, give away
aspects of our
authority, we will not do that," said Mugabe commenting on
the MDC's
decision for the first time on Saturday. "They can go to any
summit, any
part of the world to appeal - that will not
happen.''
Tsvangirai last week was on a Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) tour to meet leaders and brief them on the
party's decision and to
seek their intervention in the Zimbabwe crisis.
Media reports said last
week, DRC President Joseph Kabila had agreed to
travel to Zimbabwe soon to
mediate in the political crisis.
Mugabe said no party in the inclusive Government could give another an
ultimatum since the Government subsisted by virtue of agreements between the
three parties.
Despite MDC-T's antics, the President said he
was sure the party's
leadership would not leave Government. ''I do not read
that they would want
to leave the inclusive Government, I think that they
will come back to it
soon.''
Meanwhile the Sunday Standard said
the Ministry of Media, Information
and Publicity had ordered Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings and other
state-controlled newspapers to stop covering
MDC-T ministers until the party
reverses its decision to suspend contact
with Zanu PF.
ZBC chief executive Happison Muchechetere was said to
have told the
state broadcaster's senior editors about the directive on
Friday evening.
The paper quoted sources saying all radio stations
and ZTV had
dropped all stories where MDC-T ministers are the main sources
following
Muchechetere's edict.
"He said the ministry said the
MDC-T ministers cannot speak on behalf
of government following their
decision to disengage," said the source. "So
until the party reverses its
decision, the ministers will not be covered."
The MDC-T has said it
remains part of government but will not attend
cabinet and council of
ministers meetings with Zanu PF until outstanding
issues in their
power-sharing agreement are resolved.
MDC Secretary-General, Tendai
Biti, told a meeting with civic society
on Friday that the decision to
disengage had been made after the MDC had
realised that the transitional
government had been arrested and there was no
movement in resolving
outstanding issues.
"We are disengaging from forums that we
interact with Zanu PF at the
executive arm of government, which is the
Cabinet and Council of Ministers,"
said Biti.
He added that the
MDC felt insulted by the way the party's
Treasurer-General and deputy
Agriculture minister designate, Senator Roy
Bennett had been treated by the
State following his arrest on trumped-up
charges, the none appointment of
MDC provincial governors, the unilateral
appointments by President Robert
Mugabe of the Attorney General, the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, the
alteration of Ministerial mandates and the
resurgence of violence in most
areas across the country, among other issues.
He said other toxic
issues included the continued persecution of MDC
MPs and other party
functionaries, the disregard of the rule of law, the
slow pace of
Constitutional, media and the security sector reforms.
"The
National Security Council only met once and it was just
introductions, they
have not properly met as is mandated by the GPA," said
Biti.
He
said hate speech in the public media, farm invasions, the
militarisation of
the country side and the lack of respect for the MDC as an
equal partner had
poisoned the political relationship with Zanu PF.
However, Biti
said the party was still carrying out consultations with
the people of
Zimbabwe which will end on 31 October 2009.
But Mugabe said:''There
is nothing in the GPA that has not been done
by Zanu-PF, nothing at all. We
have fulfilled everything that the GPA wanted
us to fulfil; the legal
aspects we were very accurate about them. The
swearing in of all those who
were supposed to be sworn in, that was done
timeously and in an appropriate
manner.The matters that had to do with what,
beyond the legal aspect we had
to do, we have done.''
Mugabe said removing sanctions, which he viewed
as the MDC's
responsibility, was fundamental, much more than the appointment
of
governors. "Anyway that is a matter that is within the prerogative of the
President and that is for me to decide,'' he said.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Zimbabwe
mail
Sunday, 25 October 2009 15:46
Armed State agents raided a
house belonging to Zimbabwe Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's party
claiming they were searching for weapons, a top
party official said on
Saturday.
"Last night armed police numbering over 50 raided this
residence on
the pretext that they were looking for arms stolen from the
police or the
army," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general
Tendai Biti
told journalists.
"They ransacked every room and took a
bunch of valuable party material
from a room occupied by our organising
secretary Morgan Komichi. "They beat
up the wife and sister of the caretaker
before they started digging part of
the garden ostensibly in search of
weapons. "The decision we took last week
and the efforts we are making in
government to protect public funds all have
to do with these acts of
frustration."
Party leaders such as Tsvangirai's deputy Thokozani
Khupe, chairman
Lovemore Ncube and youth leader Thamsanqa Ncube used to
occupy the house
until they were given official state residences, Biti said.
Biti said the
raid was the work of members of President Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party and
security forces opposed to the country's power-sharing
government.
There were fears the police may have "planted" weapons
during the
raid, Biti said.
The raid came days after the MDC said
it was suspending contact with
Mugabe's party in the power-sharing
government to protest over delays in
resolving outstanding issues stalling
the work of the government. "We regard
this as further evidence of lack of a
paradigm shift on the part of ZANU-PF
to treat us as an equal partner," Biti
said.
"We regard it as serious evidence of a few in ZANU-PF and
securocrats
who want us out of the government. "On our part, this is nothing
new. They
will continue to plant arms and attempt to kill us but we will
look the
dictatorship in the eye
http://www.sabcnews.com
October 25 2009 ,
9:45:00
John Nyashanu, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's police
spokesperson Wayne Bvindzijena says they will
investigate the raiding of a
house belonging to the leader of the country's
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai. MDC
Secretary-General Tendai
Biti says the police conducted the raid under the
pretext that they were
looking for arms stolen from the police or the army.
He says they
ransacked every room and took a bunch of valuable party
material from a room
occupied by organising secretary Morgan Komichi.
Tsvangirai was yesterday
accused by President Robert Mugabe of failing to
act in the national
interest after withdrawing his support for the country's
fragile unity
government.
Tsvangirai's MDC said earlier this month that it would
no longer
co-operate with Mugabe's Zanu-PF. The move is in protest at the
renewed
detention on terror charges of the Prime Minister's aide, Roy
Bennett.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in South Africa
has come out
to say a favourable exit strategy for Mugabe is the only way he
will
relinquish power. The DA says such a strategy should guarantee him and
his
generals immunity from prosecution.
By Griffin Shea (AFP)
- 4 hours ago
PLUMTREE, Zimbabwe - Onias was 16 years old when he ran
away from his home
in rural Zimbabwe. Schools were shuttered and his village
had run out of
food. But after his mother died, leaving him an orphan, he
set out on his
own.
So he borrowed some money from a friend and made
his way to the border with
Botswana some 250 kilometres (150 miles) away,
slipping across unnoticed at
once of the many rural crossing
points.
He made it as far as Francistown, Botswana's second city located
near the
border, where he spent months doing odd gardening jobs until police
stopped
him last month.
"The police stopped me on my way home. They
said, 'We need to see your
passport'. But I didn't have a passport," Onias
said.
Onias is among the average 110 Zimbabweans deported by Botswana
every day, a
small fraction of the 100,000 Zimbabweans believed living
illegally in the
country, according a report by the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees.
Like most of the deportees, he simply can't afford a passport,
which costs
143 US dollars, slightly less than Zimbabwe's per capita gross
domestic
product last year which was 200 dollars.
The UN's
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) runs a centre just
inside the
Zimbabwean border, where Botswana authorities take the deportees
in clean
white trucks.
Some have little more than the clothes they're wearing, but
others unload an
astonishing cache of plasma televisions, kitchen appliances
and overstuffed
sacks of clothing -- whatever the authorities would allow
them to pack.
IOM gives them a meal, medical care if needed, a place to
spend the night,
and helps them organise transportation to their homes in
Zimbabwe. Minors
like Onias are given an escort for their trip home,
explained Andrew Gethi,
who manages the centre.
Since Zimbabwe's
unity government took office in February, the numbers of
deportees have
dropped sharply, down from a peak of 237 a day in January,
Gethi
said.
Traffic across the border generally has slowed, as Zimbabwe's
economy has
stabilised with the abandoning of the local currency, left
worthless after
years of hyperinflation.
Shops that were empty last
year have re-stocked while import restrictions
have eased, meaning
Zimbabweans can again buy food locally.
"The number of cross-border
traders has dropped, because goods are locally
available again," Gethi said,
adding that tens of thousands of Zimbabweans
still cross the border legally
every month.
Botswana's migration problem is small compared to the
estimated 1.2 million
Zimbabweans living in South Africa, but has an
outsized effect on a nation
with only 1.9 million people.
The exiles
are among the at least two million Zimbabweans who have fled
their country's
daily hardships, forming a lifeline to their families back
home.
Since Harare abandoned its local currency, remittances from
relatives abroad
is one of the only ways rural Zimbabweans can receive the
foreign currency
now needed to survive.
For that reason, the
overwhelming sentiment among the deportees is the
painful shame that they
can no longer provide for their families.
"I left everything in Botswana.
I was working as a hair stylist, and now
I've come back empty-handed," said
a woman who gave her name only as Molly.
She was arrested in eastern
Botswana town of Serowe, but said her family in
Zimbabwe would never learn
of her deportation.
"I have to go back to my business," she
said.
Botswana spends more than any country in the region except South
Africa on
deportations, about 285,000 dollars a month, according to the
UNHCR study.
But South Africa this year stopped deporting Zimbabweans
after changing its
immigration laws to grant them 90-day, renewable visas
that allow them to
take jobs.
Botswana's labour ministry said last
month that authorities were also
considering changes to its policy of
arresting and deporting illegal
migrants, but no new proposals have been
announced.
Meanwhile, many of the deportees say they will just slip
across the
800-kilometre (500-mile) border.
"We are going back
tonight," said Andrew Patson as he registered to receive
a meal at the IOM
centre. "We miss home, but we can't go home empty-handed."
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The
Zimbabwean
Friday, 23 October 2009 12:44
HARARE - A leading
child rights group has urged the Registrar General
(RG)'s office to assist
children on farms obtain birth certificates, saying
that most children
living in farm communities did not have the birth
registration documents
exposing them to abuse including child labour.
The Coalition
Against Child Labour Zimbabwe (CACLAZ) said a survey it
carried out recently
showed that nearly 90 percent of children on farms do
not have birth
certificates and therefore their ages could not be verified,
a situation
that some unscrupulous elements were taking advantage of to hire
these
children as labour.
The group implored the RG's office to make special
provisions such as
setting up mobile registration offices on farms to make
it easier for
families to obtain birth certificates for their
children.
Group project coordinator Pascal Masocha said: "CACLAZ would
like to
implore the Registrar General's office to give special attention to
children
and parents in farm communities with a view to help them acquire
the
documents at affordable costs, and also to have mobile registration
offices
with a special focus on these communities."
The RG's
department does not charge Zimbabweans to obtain birth
certificates but most
of the department's offices are located in towns and
at rural district
administration centres that are in most cases far removed
from farming areas
and many families cannot afford the cost of transport to
the registration
offices.
RG Tobaiwa Mudede was not immediately available for comment on
the
matter.
The CACLAZ said in according to size of family.
addition to being
conscripted to work as child labourers, many children on
farms are unable to
proceed with education because they cannot write public
examinations without
birth certificates.
The lack of the identity
documents also made it difficult for families
to register all their children
to receive food and other humanitarian
assistance that is often given
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by NEVER CHANDA
Friday, 23
October 2009 13:25
HARARE - Diamonds from Zimbabwe's Chiadzwa field are
being smuggled as
far as Sierra Leone and Guyana as an international
pressure group last week
blasted the industry watchdog of manufacturing
"polite fiction" to cover up
for shortcomings by Zimbabwean
authorities.
Partnership Africa Canada, an Ottawa-based group
fighting for the
eradication of "blood diamonds" around the world, said
Zimbabwe exhibited a
wide variety of serious problems ranging from smuggling
and illegal seizure
of diamond leases to outright denial of easily
verifiable murder and human
rights abuse in its diamond fields.
"In
2009, Zimbabwean industrial diamonds, easily identified by their
size and
colour, showed up as far afield as Guyana and Sierra Leone," said
Partnership Africa Canada in a publication titled "Other Facets" released
last week.
It accused the Kimberley Process (KP) of turning a blind
eye to the
illegal activities taking place in Zimbabwe and other
diamond-producing or
importing countries.
Greater
range
"If low-value diamonds like these travel that far and that easily
in
search of a laundry, it is clear than high value goods have even greater
range and speed," the group observed.
The group said the KP in
particular was not doing anything to stem a
thriving illegal diamond market
that has emerged in Mozambique's Manica town
which is supplied with the
precious mineral smuggled out of Zimbabwe by army
and government
officials.
"Just five miles across the border from Marange in
Mozambique a
vibrant trade in smuggled diamonds flourishes for anyone to
see. It has
taken the Kimberley Process a full year of internal bickering
and public
embarrassment to reach the point where an exemplary decision may
(or may
not) be made," PAC said.
The military are now accused of
press-ganging local people to mine for
them in return for a
pittance.
The crackdown saw widespread arrests, beatings and killings
of anyone
suspected of involvement in unsanctioned diamond mining or
smuggling.
The KP and human rights groups have accused Mugabe of
authorizing
attacks on artisan miners by the army.
Human rights
abuses
The KP review team that visited Zimbabwe in July recommended the
country addressed security issues in Chiadzwa by demilitarising the diamond
fields and also take steps to address allegations of human rights abuses by
the security forces.
Pressure groups have accused the KP of not
taking decisive action on
the atrocities on Zimbabwe's diamond
fields.
"Regardless of whether KP participants agree or not, Zimbabwe
has been
covering its diamonds with blood - an example if one was needed of
how
quickly a polite fiction can descend into chaos and murder," said
PAC.
In June the New York-based pressure group, Human Rights Watch
cited
accounts from more than 100 witnesses, miners, police officers,
soldiers and
children alleging human rights abuses by troops.
It
said its researchers had gathered evidence of mass graves and
accounts of an
incident in which military helicopters fired on miners while
armed soldiers
on the ground chased villagers away.
Villages and towns deemed too
close to the diamond fields were
demolished and their residents forced to
move away.
At the height of the mini-boom and before the military
crackdown, the
nearby city of Mutare was seen as a "wild west" town with
cash-rich miners
flaunting their wealth in new goods, cars and US
dollars.
The diamonds would be smuggled out through the nearby
Mozambique
border where dealers from Lebanon, Belgium, Iraq, Mauritania and
the Balkans
were waiting to buy in cash.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24066
October 25,
2009
VIOLET Gonda of SW Radio Africa's Hot Seat programme got
more than what she
had bargained for when one of her two guests, Didymus
Mutasa, Minister of
State for Presidential Affairs, hung up the phone up on
her in the middle of
a live interview.
Mutasa and Gorden Moyo,
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office,
presented their respective
parties' positions with regard to the political
deadlock currently
threatening to tear apart the fragile government of
national unity. Before
his dramatic exit Mutasa said Zanu-PF was not taking
any notice of the MDC
boycott. He said the MDC leaders were behaving like
"little babies". He said
the boycott would not take the MDC far or achieve
anything.
Meanwhile, Moyo argued that out of 34 important items that
were agreed to in
the GPA, only four had been fully implemented, because of
stalling by
Zanu-PF. He said the MDC would maintain its boycott until there
were
fundamental reforms.
(Broadcast on October 23,
2009)
VIOLET GONDA: My guests on the programme Hot Seat are Didymus
Mutasa, the
Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Gorden Moyo, the
Minister of
State in the Prime Minister's Office. With the political
deadlock
threatening to tear apart the fragile coalition government I
started by
asking Minister Mutasa for ZANU PF's reaction to the MDC
boycott.
DIDYMUS MUTASA: Well, that is what they have decided to do but I
do not
think that it will take them far because it is giving them a very bad
name.
There's no reason why they should boycott, they should have sat down
as they
are hoping to do now, as principals, and talked. But to go on strike
like
little babies is not what the Global Political Agreement is all about.
So I
think it's a very silly thing that they are doing, and I do not think
that
it will achieve them anything.
GONDA: Right, and you say they
have gone on strike like little babies but
the MDC have said that there's a
stalemate on the issue of outstanding
issues and that is why it is appealing
to SADC to intervene. Can you give us
your assessment of .
interrupted
MUTASA: That's nonsense, that's nonsense. The outstanding
issues are wide -
for us the most important outstanding issue is the
question of sanctions not
the issue that Bennett has been arrested and is
going through the courts of
justice. That's nonsense. Why aren't they doing
something? Why do they not
boycott because the Americans and the European
Union are refusing to lift
sanctions, which are a more important issue for
this country than the arrest
and trial of Bennett.
GONDA: I'll ask
you shortly about the issue of sanctions but what about the
other
outstanding issues that they've talked about? For example the
appointment of
the Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono and the Attorney
General, Johannes
Tomana? What is Zanu-PF's position on this?
MUTASA: For goodness sake,
for goodness sake, let me say I wonder why you
are repeating that because
that is nonsense! What has that to do with the
Global Agreement? The fact
that the President of this country has the right
and power to do so and that
he has done so - it's a finished accompli (sic).
And so why are they raising
it because they know that our President is not
going to change his mind
about that and there's nothing outstanding about
it.
GONDA: But
Minister Mutasa, Gono is widely accused by the MDC of being
responsible for
the trashing of the economy and the Attorney General is
accused of abusing
the legal system, so if your party is interested in
moving the country .
interrupted
MUTASA: Are you, are you yourself a member of the
MDC?
GONDA: No I'm not but.
MUTASA: .and if you are.
GONDA:
.I'm a journalist.
MUTASA: Then you should ask your questions a little
better than that.
GONDA: How would you want me to ask
them?
MUTASA: Because.sorry?
GONDA: How would you want me to ask
you on the issue of Gideon Gono and
Tomana, because.
interrupted
MUTASA: Because you are convinced, you seem to be convinced
that Gideon Gono
has done something wrong about the economy of this country
and that is
nonsense. There is nothing wrong that Gideon Gono.
interrupted
GONDA: I have said. interrupted
MUTASA: Excuse me.
There's nothing wrong that Gideon Gono has done about the
economy of this
country. He is in fact a man who has done everything to
sustain the economy
of this country and I do not understand why you, who is
where you are, are
speaking like that and in fact that is what our President
has referred to as
information imperialism. You are just repeating what
other people have
repeated in the past and that is absolute nonsense.
GONDA: With all due
respect minister, I'm asking these questions according
to what the MDC is
saying. For example the Finance Minister has said the
Central Bank's
operations are illegal, so with that perception that Gono and
someone like
Tomana's actions have polluted the current environment, how do
you think
this has to be resolved?
MUTASA: Well my dear that is going to go on.
Tomana is going to remain the
Attorney General of this country and Gideon
Gono is going to be the governor
of our Reserve Bank and that is full
stop.
GONDA: But. interrupted
MUTASA: And the less you repeat it
the better for everybody.
GONDA: Surely if there is a deadlock over just
these two men, they are mere
individuals. interrupted
MUTASA: There
is no deadlock my dear, there is no deadlock! Let me repeat
that again.
There is no deadlock because our President is not going to do
anything about
it!
GONDA: Well there is a deadlock because the MDC right now - the Prime
Minister is touring the region. interrupted
MUTASA: And then they can
go on strike and be themselves like little babies
and Zimbabwe is going to
go on without them as it has gone on without them
in the past.
GONDA:
And you. interrupted
MUTASA: Don't you think, and don't ever think or
believe that this country
is going to stop because of the reactions of the
MDC. It is simply going to
go on and none of us is going to take any notice
of what they are doing
because they are behaving like little
babies.
GONDA: OK, hear me out on this one and tell me if it is only the
MDC that's
behaving like little babies as you have said. The MDC is
complaining that Mr
Mugabe is refusing to swear in Roy Bennett as their MDC
Deputy Minister of
Agriculture and then on the other hand you have these
individuals from your
party, Gono and Tomana, so surely all these people are
individuals, why not
just let them go and all parties agree to appoint new
people? Isn't this
what a new beginning, a new Zimbabwe should be
about?
MUTASA: A new Zimbabwe with who? A new Zimbabwe with criminals or
people who
are charged with criminal offences like Bennett, Roy Bennett? And
you say
that is the sort of new Zimbabwe that you are thinking of, or the
MDC is
thinking of, my dear it's not the sort of Zimbabwe that we are
looking for.
GONDA: But when you say Roy Bennett.
interrupted
MUTASA: We do not want a Zimbabwe that is governed by people
who are charged
of offences that the court is still in the process of
assessing.
GONDA: You know I actually spoke to the Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur
Mutambara last week and he said it is very interesting that you are
concentrating on Roy Bennett's case and that Robert Mugabe is refusing to
swear him in because he is facing serious charges in the courts but Mr
Mutambara went on to say there are people like himself, like Tendai Biti and
even people like Patrick Chinamasa from your party who was actually
convicted but still he was sworn into the new government. So why is Roy
Bennett different when you have other people - even like the Deputy Prime
Minister who is facing charges in the courts?
MUTASA: My dear I have
never heard of those other charges that you are
talking about. If that is
what the Deputy Prime Minister told you then he
probably knows where those
charges were arising from, and which court
decided on them. I don't know any
of that. I don't know that Patrick
Chinamasa is under any charge, I don't
know even that the Deputy Prime
Minister himself or Biti have any criminal
offences that they are facing.
GONDA: What about you yourself, are you
not facing charges of contempt of
court? Didn't a Chinhoyi magistrate just
recently. interrupted
MUTASA: where, who told you that? That is absolute
rubbish.
GONDA: Did you not.
MUTASA: I have never.
GONDA:
Did you not call Magistrate Ngoni Nduna just a few days ago very
stupid?
MUTASA: Where have you heard that? Where have you heard that
from my dear?
There is absolutely nothing like that. I have not appeared
before any court
for contempt of court. Contempt of which
court?
GONDA: Were you not supposed to appear in a Chinhoyi court to
testify in a
case involving a Chinhoyi farmer Robert Mckersie and you were
subpoenaed to
give evidence. interrupted
MUTASA: What was the
offence? Excuse me - to be subpoenaed is not facing a
criminal
charge.
GONDA: I did not say you are facing a criminal charge but you
were supposed
to have testified in court and you failed to
attend.
MUTASA: My dear you are actually talking about something that you
don't
understand and I would rather you please stop this interview because
you don't
really know what you are talking about.
GONDA: So can you
tell us what it is about?
MUTASA: What it is about is simply a subpoena
that I should appear and be a
witness against myself and I have never heard
of that process of law
anywhere in the world.
GONDA: Why were you
going to testify against yourself?
MUTASA: Excuse me. I don't know what
it is all about except that some white
man is being required to vacate the
farm that he thinks is still his and I
am being required to say why he
should leave. He should leave because there
is a land reform programme going
on in this country and I have allocated
that land to someone else in terms
of the land reform programme and that's
all. So there's really nothing, you
know outside the law of this country and
it is all the right thing to be
done because of the land reform programme.
It is all done legally and so
there is absolutely nothing wrong that is
happening here, but you are
talking as if everything that has been done .
and I have as you say I have
been before the courts, charged with contempt
of court and all that which is
all nonsense.
GONDA: No but there's a warrant of arrest for you Mr
Mutasa.
MUTASA: That's not true. You are telling lies.
interrupted
GONDA: According to the magistrate there is a warrant of
arrest for you.
MUTASA: There is no, first of all there is no warrant of
arrest for me. That
is all nonsense and it is a lie. Please madam and I
would like to stop this
conversation because you don't know what you are
talking about.
GONDA: But Mr Mutasa you can help us understand what is
happening.
MUTASA: Please let's stop this interview.
interrupted
GONDA: What has been implemented out of the contested issues
to do with
governors, .
GONDA: Hello?
MUTASA: hangs up
phone.
GONDA: Hello? And that was Minister Didymus Mutasa ending this
discussion
in the usual format. Unfortunately after that I was unable to get
him back
so I spoke to his counterpart in the MDC, and that is Gorden Moyo,
the
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office.
Mr Moyo, I have
just spoken to Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of State in the
President's
office and he said the boycott by your party will not take you
far and he
said you are behaving like little babies. What is your reaction
to
this?
GORDEN MOYO: No Didymus Mutasa is as old as my grandfather
therefore I am
not going to respond to such kinds of words from him. My
African tradition
tells me that I should not engage in the altercations with
my grandfather so
I'm not going to respond to his statement about little
babies.
GONDA: But what about the other issue that he is adamant that the
only
important outstanding issue is the question of sanctions and not the
issue
of people who are facing criminal charges like Roy Bennett and that
Robert
Mugabe has the right and power to appoint Gideon Gono and Johannes
Tomana
and he basically said Mugabe is not going to change his mind on this.
So
what are your thoughts on that?
MOYO: It's either Didymus Mutasa
he has not read the Global Political
Agreement or he is naïve to be in
contempt of that document. The issues of
Tomana and Gono are outstanding
issues of the Global Political Agreement.
Mugabe appointed Gono and Tomana
in breach of both the MOU that was signed
on the 21st of July 2008 by the
political parties and also in breach of the
Global Political Agreement
signed on the 15th of September 2008. Gono was
appointed on the 26th of
November 2008 after the signing of the Global
Political Agreement and after
the signing of the MOU - so which means it was
in breach of both. Tomana was
appointed on the 17th of December 2008 again
after the signing of the Global
Political Agreement and after the signing of
the Memorandum of Understanding
between the political parties in the
inclusive government. Now the Global
Political Agreement and the MOU both
state unequivocally that the President
will only appoint senior government
officials in consultation with the Prime
Minister and that was not done.
Therefore Mugabe breached, violated the GPA
and violated the MOU so I don't
know what Mutasa is talking
about.
GONDA: And you have said you will only suspend the boycott after
all the
outstanding issues are resolved so can you briefly clarify these
outstanding
issues especially as Minister Mutasa says there is only one
outstanding
issue and that is the issue of the sanctions.
MOYO: You
see Violet, the inclusive government has celebrated its seventh
month, and
we are now into month number eight. Now there are about 34 items,
critical
items of the Global Political Agreement. If you make a casual
assessment of
them, just a casual assessment, you would realise that out of
the 34 key
items of the Global Political Agreement, 17 have not been done
completely,
13 have been partially done and only four have been done. Now
seven months
are long, it is a long time for the implementation of the
Global Political
Agreement and there are critical issues, critical
challenges into the entire
programme of implementing the GPA. Firstly there
are issues that are
outstanding from the GPA, and those issues are known and
they are in the
public view. These are the issues of the Reserve Bank
governor and the
Attorney General. Those are outstanding issues - and they
are deadlock
issues in the sense that the principals have not agreed, they've
failed to
agree so there is the deadlock. And that is why in August these
issues were
taken to the chairperson of the SADC, Zuma and Zuma went with
these issues
to Kinshasa in the DRC.
But we've also have issues of implementation
where agreement was reached -
for example - the provincial governors. It was
agreed between the principals
that come the 1st of September there shall be
new provincial governors for
Matabeleland North, for Matabeleland South, for
Bulawayo, for Harare, for
Mutare and for Masvingo. The conditions of
termination of the current
governors were agreed, termination date was
agreed but implementation has
never been effected.
So was the issue
of Roy Bennett. It was agreed that he was going to be sworn
in together with
the provincial governors - that was not done. Now these are
implementation
issues resolved but not implemented.
But we also have issues of
non-compliance of the breach of the Global
Political Agreement such as the
selective arrest of senior and ordinary
members of the MDC. We know the
Members of Parliament that have been
arrested, that are being prosecuted
selectively. We know of disruptions
taking place in various farms in
Mashonaland West and also disruption in the
conservancies throughout the
country. These are breaches that are being
perpetrated by Zanu-PF. And as
the inclusive government, as part of the
inclusive government we cannot
simply stand and watch the willy-nilly
breaches of the Global Political
Agreement.
We have come to a point whereby we have said no we need to
engage on what is
called constructive disengagement. Disengaging from
participating in those
institutions which legitimise Zanu-PF, for example
the Cabinet. Our
continued participation in the Cabinet tells a story to the
people in
Zimbabwe, to the people in the region and internationally that
things are OK
in Zimbabwe, the Global Political Agreement is being
implemented fully. As
long as we participate in the Cabinet meetings we are
saying things are OK
but we have to realise that things are not OK and we
cannot continue
participating in an inclusive government particularly to
Cabinet level
whereby the other players are acting in bad faith. That's why
we have
disengaged from Cabinet, that why we have disengaged from the
Council of
Ministers - but this does not mean we have pulled out of
government.
We have not pulled out of government, we are part of
government, we are the
government, and elections were won in March by the
MDC at the legislative
level as well as at the Presidential race where the
President of the MDC
came first. So in terms of legitimacy of government,
MDC is a bone fide
member of that government therefore it cannot disengage
from itself, it
cannot pull out of itself but we have disengaged from those
institutions
that give Zanu legitimacy.
GONDA: But Mr Moyo what will
the MDC do if Zanu-PF does not give in because
just listening to Minister
Mutasa, he clearly spells out that Zanu-PF will
not take notice of the
boycott and there's this great clarity that Zanu-PF
will not change so what
will you do?
MOYO: No the verdict of the people will prevail. We will go
back to the
people of Zimbabwe and they will determine the next course of
action.
GONDA: What about this criticism though, that you want to stay in
this
coalition government because you have tasted the benefits - hence only
the
disengagement. As it remains you've still got your comfort cars, the
perks.
What do you say about that from people who think you are only doing
this
for. interrupted
MOYO: Most of us had better cars. I mean it's
not the first time to drive a
car. I've had my own cars before. It doesn't
make sense for people to say,
or for those people who are criticising us,
anyway criticism is the only
gift that mediocrity can give to success. What
we are saying is Zanu is
misbehaving, Zanu is not implementing the GPA, Zanu
is not acting in good
faith, therefore we have to take a decision as people
in government we need
to make decisions and take decisions at the same time.
We have taken the
decision that we shall not legitimise Zanu. We shall not
continue to lie to
the people of Zimbabwe and say things are happening,
there are changes in
the country, and we have reforms taking place in the
country, when in actual
fact we have retrogression taking place in the
country. So we have taken a
decision, it's a hard decision but we have taken
it because Zanu-PF need a
paradigm shift to accept that they signed a
political agreement which needs
to be implemented and implemented fully.
That's all I would say.
GONDA: But you are also saying you are not
pulling out of this government
and Zanu-PF is making it very clear that it
is not going to listen to your
demands and Mugabe has continuously made it
clear that he will not change.
So why do you think you can work from within
and change this attitude?
MOYO: We are not saying we are working from
within - within what?
GONDA: With this government because you say you
will remain in this
government but Zanu-PF is not taking any notice of your
boycott.
MOYO: We are also not brooking any nonsense of what they are
doing by
arresting people willy-nilly. We are refusing to participate in
their games.
We are saying we cannot be part of a system that is arresting
people. We are
part of a reformed government. If those reforms are not
taking place we are
not going to continue to be part of that process. By the
way, if MDC pulls
out of this government, there shall be no government. I
don't know what
Mutasa is thinking about because Mugabe is a President of
Zimbabwe in
respect of the GPA. Without the GPA he is not the President of
Zimbabwe.
Mutasa is a minister in respect to the GPA, without the GPA he is
not a
minister, he is illegitimate. So we all derive our existence in
government
from the GPA. So they cannot wish the GPA away out of existence.
They can
only derive their existence politically from the GPA. So we have a
mutual
fate together there under the GPA. Without the GPA there is an
election, it
means there is no government in Zimbabwe, we need to start
afresh.
GONDA: Let me go back to the issue of the region. You mentioned
that you had
sent a letter to the SADC Chair, the then SADC Chair Jacob Zuma
and the
matter was already with SADC so why did you boycott before you had
received
any feedback from SADC and right now the Prime Minister is actually
touring
the region? What is happening with that?
MOYO: There was a
big issue that took place, where the Treasurer General of
the MDC Roy
Bennett was selectively put behind bars by the Attorney General
of this
country. That became proximate cause and not a fundamental cause, a
proximate cause. We have had fundamental grievances against Zanu-PF since
Day One, they have not been implementing the GPA but the frustrations came
to a level where we could not accept this issue any further and that is why
we said we now need to disengage from Cabinet, we now need the guarantors of
the GPA to come in, we are putting pressure on Zanu-PF to implement the GPA.
We are not asking for something new, we are not asking for fresh
negotiations, we are asking for the full implementation of the GPA. That's
all that we are talking about. So anyone who is against the full
implementation of the GPA is against the GPA.
GONDA: So what is the
latest from SADC?
MOYO: The latest is that we are expecting the SADC to
act. They're supposed
to act, they're supposed to come together and bring
all the parties together
to make sure that the GPA is fully
implemented.
GONDA: You know press reports are saying that President Zuma
has actually
told the Prime Minister to go back and reengage with Robert
Mugabe. Isn't
this another indication that the MDC is stuck and you are not
going to get
the necessary support from the region?
MOYO: We are
getting the necessary support already. We are looking forward
to the next
Troika meeting where these issues shall be tabled and we are
expecting that
the SADC Troika is going to work on these issues and there
shall be full
implementation of the GPA.
GONDA: But are they not saying go back and
reengage with Zanu-PF; something
that you've already done and it has failed
to work?
MOYO: I don't know of that. What I know is that we are engaging
the heads of
States of the SADC, we are engaging the Troika, we are engaging
everybody so
that they can enable us together to implement the GPA. To make
sure that
pressure is put on Zanu-PF to implement the GPA. We are not asking
for
anything new from SADC or from wherever. We are asking for what has
already
been agreed.
GONDA: But what sort of pressure would SADC
really put on Zanu-PF?
MOYO: The pressure that we need from them is to,
they are the guarantors.
The GPA says, the SADC and the African Union are
the guarantors, if we've
got any problems in the implementation of the GPA,
they should come in and
facilitate the full implementation of the GPA. So we
want them to play their
role to enable us as partners who entered into the
inclusive government to
implement the GPA. That's all we are asking from
them. What kind of approach
they are going to take is not up to us. We are
expecting them to come up
with their approach, we cannot prescribe to them
their approach, we cannot
even prematurely say this is what they are going
to do. We are expecting
them as the guarantors to come up with an approach,
to come up with a
mechanism of making sure that the inclusive government is
placed back on the
rails.
GONDA: But are you happy with the way they
have been handling the matter so
far?
MOYO: I do not want to either
criticise them or to pass any judgement now.
We are expecting them, we are
talking to them therefore we cannot at the
same time pass judgement before
they have actually acted.
GONDA: You know in response to your decision to
disengage from Zanu-PF,
South Africa's main political opposition party, the
Democratic Alliance,
presented its road map to democracy in Zimbabwe - and
this was in the South
AfricanPparliament. They said that Mugabe cannot be
part of Zimbabwe's road
to democracy, saying he must be offered an exit
strategy if the country is
to ever recover. What is your response to
this?
MOYO: We determine our own course of action as Zimbabweans. I think
colleagues all over the world are free to pass opinions, to pass their own
comments, to pass their own plans of action but we as Zimbabweans have the
final say, we shall determine our own course of action that shall not be
influenced by any of the actors outside the boundaries of
Zimbabwe.
GONDA: And what is your reaction to statements by some who say
that the
signing of the GPA was the biggest blunder that the MDC ever made
and that
Zimbabwe has gained very little from this GNU and that the only
person who
has benefited is Mugabe as the GNU got him off the hook and has
given him
time to regroup?
MOYO: I am not sure about that. What I
know is that by the end of last year
inflation was at 500 percent. That
inflation has dropped to a single digit
now. The people of Zimbabwe can walk
around the streets, they have food now,
and they have a future now. I think
it was because of the inclusive
government. But I agree with them to a
certain extent to say that this has
given a new lease of life to Zanu-PF
because they'd lost elections, they'd
lost elections but because of the
inclusive government they are back in
government. To that extent I agree
with them but in terms of guaranteeing
stability in the country and avoiding
the leadership for being authors of
chaos I think it was important for this
inclusive government to be
constituted.
And what is more important
now is the implementation of the GPA. I don't
think the signing of the
agreement was wrong but what is wrong is the lack
of implementation of the
GPA. It would be seen that Zanu-PF is playing
political games. They are
using this GPA just to reorganise themselves, just
to extend their longevity
in government and not to reform the government and
not to restore and
rehabilitate the economy of the country. So that is the
only problem that we
are facing. Otherwise the idea of the Global Political
Agreement and the
idea of an inclusive government I think it was a noble one
under the
circumstances - realising that Zanu had refused to accept
electoral defeat,
they had refused again to have a fair and free election so
the only
available game in town was to sign the Global Political Agreement.
Now
those that are saying it was a big mistake, if they've got an
alternative,
if they can tell us how best we would have handled the
situation or what was
the alternative I think it would be appreciated.
GONDA: And a final word
Mr Moyo.
MOYO: I want to respond to what Mutasa said about sanctions. I
now honestly
believe that Zanu-PF want sanctions, they want these
restrictive measures to
remain in place because once they are removed,
Zanu-PF has no message at
all. Without sanctions Zanu-PF has no message at
all otherwise they would
have accepted by now Zimbabwe being reclassified as
a Highly Indebted Poor
Country (HIPC) so that all financial penalties are
then dealt with - so that
all our debts and our arrears are cancelled but
they do not want that.
It means they want sanctions because they use
sanctions to mobilise the
people of Zimbabwe to come up with infrastructural
violence, as people who
are working against the imperialists. That's their
notion that they have
otherwise they need these sanctions.
GONDA:
Gorden Moyo, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, thank
you
very much for participating on the programme Hot Seat.
MOYO: You are
welcome.
Feedback can be sent to violet@swradioafrica.com
http://sundaystandard.info
Botswana
by Ray Ndlovu
in Bulawayo
25.10.2009 1:07:05 P
Local authorities in the border town
of Plumtree have embarked on an
intensive operation to rid the town and
surrounding areas of bandits who
waylay travellers along the
Zimbabwe-Botswana border.
Confirming these developments, the town council
vice-chairperson, councillor
Paulos Hobane, said, "Since these thugs invaded
our area, we have seen an
increase in criminal activities and as authorities
we could not sit and
watch thugs turn our town into a criminal
zone."
Locally known as 'omagumaguma', the bandits are a highly organised
crime
syndicate involved in robbing travellers as well as facilitating
illegal
entry for border jumpers into neighbouring Botswana. Women have
proved to be
an easy target for the bandits with some women being gang-raped
in the past.
Reports from Botswana also suggest that these same bandits
are inextricably
linked to the spate of livestock theft that has rocked the
outlying villages
of Tshesebe, located close to the Zimbabwe
border.
Although Hobane refused to say how many of the bandits had been
netted since
the beginning of the offensive earlier this month, it is
understood that
residents have been actively participating in helping the
authorities.
Hobane revealed that the council had embarked on door to door
searches of
houses in the border town to ascertain the number of inhabitants
living in a
given house. This, he pointed out, was relatively easy to do as
the town had
a small population and was easy to keep an eye on suspicious
newcomers into
the town.
"All the councillors know their residents,
so when we get to a house and
find new faces, the owner would be compelled
to explain. The other thing
that makes the operation easy to conduct is that
'omagumaguma' are lush
spenders and we take note of such people."
It
is hoped that this operation will go a long way into making the border
town
safe, as well as quelling the tensions between Plumtree residents and
those
in Botswana who have raised concern over the criminal activities
spilling
over to their side.
http://sundaystandard.info
Botswana
by Sunday Standard Reporter in Bulawayo
25.10.2009 12:35:38
P
A top Zanu PF official, who is also the vice president of a local
pressure
group, the Affirmative Action Group (AAG), Themba Mliswa, has
threatened to
confront and force MDC Ministers of Finance and Economic
Development, Tendai
Biti and Elton Mangoma, to release funds to new farmers
who benefited from
President Robert Mugabe's land reform in 2000.
He
said the two ministers were sabotaging the inclusive government by
refusing
to channel $500 million acquired from the IMF towards agriculture.
"The
two ministers are sabotaging the successful land reform programme. They
are
reluctant to disburse the IMF funds towards agriculture.
We want to warn
them that we are not going to let them sabotage the economy
by refusing to
give farmers loans, we are definitely going to take action
against them,"
said Mliswa. "We want these politicians not to politicise the
issue of
agriculture because it is a national food issue."
"Farmers do not have
anything to give banks as collateral because they have
not been making
profits over the past five years because of illegal
sanctions."
The
AAG has also warned to take over Nestle Zimbabwe if it continues to
refuse
to buy milk from First Lady, Grace Mugabe.
Meanwhile farm equipment
distributed last year by controversial Reserve Bank
Governor, Gideon Gono,
to members of Police Protection Unit (PPU), is lying
idle at Tomlinson Depot
in Harare as the beneficiaries have nowhere to put
them.
PPU is
responsible for escorting the Presidential motorcade, guarding
diplomats and
Zanu PF ministers and senior party officials.
In a bid to persuade them
to remain loyal, last year the Reserve Bank
Governor gave each one of them
an ox-drawn scotch-cart, generator, a harrow,
ox-drawn plough and knapsack
sprayer. All these are lying idle in the police
camp.
According to
police officers who benefited from that programme, they were
just given the
farm implements without soliciting for them.
"Everyone in the PPU
department was given a full set of the equipment. Most
of us sold the
implements because we had nowhere to put them. We do not have
farms and the
Government bribed us with these irrelevant things," said one
police officer
who is left with a scotch cart which has no wheels.
"Last year was a
difficult year and we benefited from selling the equipment,
which we traded
at give away prices to real farmers who were supposed to
benefit. Scotch
cart wheels were sold to car owners, and I am planning to
sell the scotch
cart body to the members of the Apostolic Church who are
bothering me," said
another police officer, who is part of the presidential
guard at State
House.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Gift Phiri
Friday, 23 October 2009 13:01
HARARE - Police last week barred human
rights activists from marching
through Harare city centre, ordering the
rights campaigners to carry out
their African Human Rights Day march at
Harare Gardens, outside the central
business district and away from the
crowds. (Pictured: Police escorting
rights activists marching on African
Human Rights Day last week)
Harare Gardens on the western boundary
of the city central business
district is never a venue for public
demonstrations. The park is instead
frequented by lovers, wedding parties
and other city residents seeking a
time away from the hustle and bustle of
the crowded city centre.
Police officials told organisers of last
Wednesday's march that they
could not be allowed into the city centre
because the police did not have
enough manpower to ensure law and order or
public safety during the march as
a huge number of officers was tied up with
the ongoing COSAFA soccer
tournament.
ZimRights and the Zimbabwe
NGO Forum officials who were behind the
march were told that it could only
take place around Harare Gardens, an
offer that the groups either had to
accept or cancel the march altogether.
ZimRights director Okay Machisa
told The Zimbabwean on Sunday: "In
terms of us sharing our views and
distributing certain messages to the
government of Zimbabwe we managed to
score, it was quite successful, but in
terms of us gathering, we still think
our right to march and send a signal
to as many people as possible was
curtailed."
Africa Human Rights Day is commemorated every year on
October 21, the
day when the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
came into force in
1986.
The Charter seeks to protect and promote
human rights in Africa while
also upholding African values. However, the
document has been violated many
times by African leaders including President
Robert Mugabe.
Meanwhile on a positive note, the police -- who a few
months ago would
have wasted no time breaking up such a march - this time
round escorted the
marchers, with a police lead vehicle clearing the way,
while the police band
marched along with the activists, playing music.
http://sundaystandard.info
Botswana
by Sunday Standard
Reporter in Bulawayo
25.10.2009 12:34:43 P
State owned rail company
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has stopped
using electric trains due to
vandalism and theft of the railway equipment.
NRZ Public Relations
manager Fanuel Masikati told a local independent weekly
newspaper that they
had suspended the electric locomotives as a result of
extensive vandalism of
their equipment.
"There is extensive damage of railway equipment - people
are stealing
electric cables. Because of this, we have stopped using all
electric
locomotives," said Masikati.
Masikati said that apart from
the massive vandalism of the overhead cables,
the thieves were also
targeting the poles supporting the wires as well as
the machines, which are
used for control.
This is straining NRZ, which is the backbone of the
country's transport
sector, as it is the most cost-effective mode when it is
fully operational.
"Replacing the vandalised infrastructure would cost an
estimated US$10
million," Masikati said.
He said a number of
industries, especially those that transport heavy or
voluminous materials,
are directly affected by the vandalism of NRZ
equipment.
Agriculture,
for example, relies heavily on railway transport for
transportation of
inputs such as seed and fertilisers because road transport
costs three times
more.
Profit margins in the agricultural sector are so narrow that
farmers would
prefer using rail because it is the cheapest mode of
transport, and its
infrastructure needs to be replaced to serve the
nation.
However, before the country looks at replacing the vandalised
infrastructure, NRZ and other companies, which have been hit by vandalism
should put in place measures to eliminate cases of cable theft.
"We need
to address the issue of theft and vandalism before we replace the
equipment
because once someone is used to vandalism, then they would do the
same to
the installed wires," Masikati said.
One of the major problems is that
there is a ready market for the wires in
Zimbabwe and in the
region.
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) says the vandalised
equipment
was usually used by the informal sector with "some contraband
being targeted
for the export market".
One way of curbing cable theft
is to heavily guard the infrastructure; this
could be done by employing
either the private security guards or the
security forces. An increase in
security could deter cable thieves who have
become daring to the extent of
vandalising electrical cables within the
high-density areas of
Harare.
The other option is to have deterrent sentences for vandalising,
buying or
selling copper cables.
We gathered as news broke of a police raid on an MDC house in Harare – ‘looking for weapons’. We have been there before. Zanu PF was predictably trying to produce a red herring before the SADC Troika meeting in Harare on Thursday. It knows any pretext will work with SADC.
The Vigil remains convinced there will be no solution in Zimbabwe until South Africa acts. There is little evidence that this is on the cards at present. But as the situation worsens and the World Cup approaches perhaps this will change.
A telling confession of deception came from the MDC itself at a news conference addressed by Tendai Biti on Thursday. He admitted that the party had been telling lies about so-called progress made by the coalition government. Read the MDC media release (http://www1.zimbabwesituation.com/old/oct24_2009.html#Z3). One of the most alarming comments in this statement is that ‘there is a resurgence of violence in most areas across the country’.
Vigil stalwart, Josephine Zhuga, shared with us this email message she has just received:
‘I am quite sure that news has reached you that the coalition government is about to collapse and that an orgy of violence might befall us once again. I have had the opportunity to interact with some people within SADC and it seems nothing is going to happen when the Troika on security, politics and defence meets. I understand Morgan was told by President Zuma to go back and work with Zanu PF while SADC deal with the issues. As for us human rights defenders we have been receiving warnings that we need to be cautious with our movements when in Zimbabwe since Zanu PF has begun an active process of re-oiling its violence machinery.
‘I am also worried that if you have any plans in the near future to come back home you might not be met with the historic smiles we used to experience at the airport or in Glen Norah since you might be a target as a result of your active involvement with the Zimvigil and other human rights organisations. I did see your photos. They were
amazing but a recipe for disaster if you decide to visit or return home permanently.
‘Last week an MDC supporter was beaten to death and the WOZA women and other progressive organisations continue to receive the lash from state agents and the case of Roy Bennett is a point in issue since it whittles down any hope that we were beginning to build around the all inclusive government.
‘I am told that Zanu PF and its coterie of thugs is beginning to target human rights activists so as to silence any dissenting voices so that any violations undertaken would be swept under the carpet.
‘I am not trying to frighten you since you are fighting for your country from a different battle front but the truth must be told that things are beginning to lose track and we might find ourselves in another cycle of violence.’
Well, we in the UK have rather more mundane problems to deal with. The Vigil was interested to see that a Zimbabwean asylum seeker has been jailed for 3 years by Leeds Crown Court for his part in a fraud which cost banks about £1 million (see: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/4687845.Asylum_seeker_jailed_over___1m_fraud/). We recognised his name – Sonny Chibuwe – because he wrote an article attacking the Vigil and Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) which was published on the Zimeye website on 21st June (http://www.zimeye.org/?p=6098). On the basis of no evidence whatsoever he blamed us for the booing of Morgan Tsvangirai at Southwark Cathedral when the Prime Minister called on the diaspora to return home because all was now well. The Vigil and ROHR did not orchestrate anything; our presence there was to draw attention to human rights failings in Zimbabwe. In a piece titled ‘The day I was embarrassed to be a Zimbabwean’, Mr Chibuwe said ‘There are some bad elements within our Zimbabwean community’. Quite! (Now expect more poisonous articles attacking the Vigil and ROHR on these trashy websites written by Chibuwe’s pals such as Brilliant Stinko and his like.) The judge in the Chibuwe case said the sentence meant Chibuwe was now liable for deportation. We know recommendations like this sometimes fall by the wayside so we are sending a copy of this piece to the UK Border Agency to book his ticket. After all, in his article, Chibuwe supported enthusiastically the Prime Minister’s call for people to return home to start rebuilding Zimbabwe. He can start with the banks.
All in all we at the Vigil had both good and bad developments. First the bad: the Water Board has taken over most of our space to repair their sewers so Zimbabwe House doesn’t get cholera. Now the good news: despite all threats the rain held off. We were very vulnerable because we couldn’t have put up our tarpaulin. Another good thing was a new placard brought by Francesca Toft quoting the Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga’s comment: ‘In Zimbabwe Mr Mugabe is not part of the solution to the political problem; he himself is the problem’. Francesca’s parents, Sue and Alfred, organised a service for Zimbabwe at St Mary’s, Speldhurst, Kent, borrowing one of the Vigil drums. Sue led the prayers – including one that Mugabe should see the error of his ways.
Thanks to Dumi Tutani, Moses Kandiyawo and Kelvin Kamipura who represented the Vigil at an event celebrating Black History Month at City and Islington College. Their dancing and drumming is always a highlight. Pictures of the event are on the Vigil Flickr website. Thanks also to Jonathan Kariwoh and Tendai Gakanje who stepped in to look after the Vigil back table to replace Vigil management team members who were absent through sickness and other commitments.
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE RECORD: 159 signed the register.
EVENTS AND NOTICES:
· Southern Africa: Democracy and Development. Saturday 31st October at 2 pm. Venue: Unite, 128 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8TN. Will Zimbabwe's unity government collapse? When will the world wake up to the situation in Swaziland? ACTSA's Annual Conference will feature leading southern African trade unionists who will discuss key issues from the region, especially on democracy and development in Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Confirmed speakers include: Vimbai Mushongera, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and Vincent Dlamini, Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions. A British Government minister has also been invited. For more information please visit: http://www.actsa.org/page-1421-Annual_General_Meeting.html
· ROHR West Bromwich general meeting. Saturday 31st October from 1.30 – 5.30 pm. Venue: St Peter’s Church Hall, Whitehall Road, West Bromwich B70 0HF. ROHR Executive and a well known lawyer present. Contact Pamela Dunduru 07958386718, Diana Mtendereki 07768682961, Peter Nkomo 07817096594 or P Mapfumo 07915926323 / 0793221607
·
ROHR
Leeds general
meeting. Saturday 31st October
from 2 – 4 pm. Venue: Dock Green Inn, Ashley
Road, Leeds LS9 7AB. A well known human rights lawyer
will be present. Contact Leeds interim Chairperson Prosper
Mudamvanji 07897594874, David Munemo 07963708923, Benard Ndlovu 0795076774,
Donna Mugoni, Wakefield & Northern Region Chairperson also UK National
interim Vice Chair on 07533259373 or P Mapfumo UK National Co-ordinator
07915926323 / 07932216070.
ROHR
Swansea general
meeting. Saturday 31st October
from 2 – 4 pm. Venue: 9 Pleasant Street, SA6 6HJ, Swansea SA6 6HJ. There is a lot to discuss
please come early. Contact Kudzai Ruzwidzo 07908029638 / 07824967317, Phillip
Mpukutsa 07999615868 or Phyllis Chibanguza UK Co-ordinator
07908406069.
· ROHR Liverpool general meeting. Saturday 7th November from 2 – 5 pm. Venue: 80 Aspen Grove, Toxteth, Liverpool, L7 0ST. T-shirts available. NEW MEMBERS ARE VERY WELCOME. Contact: Desire Chimuka 07917733711, Anywhere Mungoyo 07939913688, Patrick Kushonga 07900857605, Trywell Migeri 07956083758.
· ROHR North London launch meeting. Saturday 7th November from 1.30 – 5.30 pm. Venue: Tottenham Chances, 399 High Road, Tottenham, London N17 6QN, Nearest Tube Station: Seven Sisters, then buses towards Tottenham, 3rd Bus Stop from 7 Sisters Station. Routes: 123, 149, 259,279, 349, 476, 341 243. Contact: Gladys Mapanda 07877670522, Collin Chitekwe 07957712691, Valerie Chengaose 07956586377, Bekithemba Nyahwa 07534905348, P Mapfumo 07915926323 or Phyllis Chibanguza 07908406069
· Zimbabwe Association’s Women’s Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays 10.30 am – 4 pm. Venue: The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT, Tel: 020 7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury Park. For more information contact the Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355 (open Tuesdays and Thursdays).
· Strategic Internship for Zimbabweans organised by Citizens for Sanctuary which is trying to secure work placements for qualified Zimbabweans with refugee status or asylum seekers. For information: http://www.citizensforsanctuary.org.uk/pages/Strategic.html or contact: zimbabweinternship@cof.org.uk.
· Vote for Betty Makoni of Girl Child Network as one of CNN’s top ten heroes of 2009 via this link: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/.
Vigil Co-ordinators
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 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.
http://www.groundreport.com
October 25,
2009
By Harriet Chigege
In July 2009 hopes that dictator
Robert Mugabe would be retiring were
thwarted after the party's Midlands
Province Coordinating Committee made a
resolution that endorsed the 85 year
old as ZANU PF's Supreme Leader. Good
enough as far as ZANU PF is concerned
but Viomak has refused to be
sidelined.
To show her resentment, on 21
February 2010 in celebration of the Supreme
Leader's 86th birthday, the
queen of protest music will release her 6th
protest music album to mark the
life president's destructive rule. She will
honour the military Supreme
Leader with a highly entertaining album that was
approached in a completely
different manner compared to her previous albums.
Armed with a unique form
of musical expression freedom spanning a period of
five years the political
activist-cum-protest singer continues to grace the
political crisis in
Zimbabwe through a unique musical journey that has seen
her remain the only
woman protest singer in Zimbabwe who is managing to
tackle the political
crisis through music intervention.
"Protest music is a necessity in troubled
undemocratic societies and it
deserves to find its way out of the dark
corridors and climb into the
limelight since it is a great tool in building
democratic societies". Viomak
said.
As she continues to milk her way out
of the backyard the banned but
determined singer-songwriter for the first
time gives credit to Mugabe for
managing to celebrate a pile of birthdays
whilst the life expectancy rate of
Zimbabweans continues to deteriorate. For
the first time also Viomak has
named one song on the album Supreme Leader
which is also the album title.
Her traditional Mugabe birthday albums never
had an album title track.
In respect of the president's newly acquired title
the album hosts 8 songs
for the Supreme Leader and a ninth song Chinja
maitiro (Change your ways)
,which she added on the album to help her
spearhead the campaign to have MDC
GNU leaders declare their personal assets
to combat corruption and
unaccountable leadership. The popular MDC slogan
Chinja maitiro is this time
used to ask MDC leaders to change their ways.
The MDC party uses the slogan
to ask Zimbabweans to change their ways and
vote for MDC and Viomak is
saying Zimbabweans have changed the way they vote
now it is time for the MDC
to change the Zimbabwean way of leadership which
is characterized by
lawlessness, corruption, incompetence and evilness. She
asks MDC to lead in
the right way by being accountable and
transparent.
One of the most exciting songs on the album is of course Supreme
Leader.
Viomak is hoping that since the song endorses Mugabe's newly
acquired title
it will be allowed radio airplay in Zimbabwe. As far as I can
see maybe the
song was going to be allowed airplay had she not asked God why
Zimbabweans
are innocent jail birds under Mugabe's rule. Viomak also reminds
Mugabe (who
she refers to as Matibili), that his mavhaivhai (showing off)
will come to
pass as she mentions that the disgraced leader is a koronyera
(dangerous
crook) and a guruvha (rogue) .This should not put Mugabe and his
supporters
off balance since they have a long history of thuggish behaviour.
They will
obviously not accept it since such kind of lyrics are degrading to
the
Supreme Leader.
Vakadyei (What did you eat?) is another scorcher. The
song sarcastically
applauds Mugabe for being a life warrior who keeps going
with no signs of
stopping anytime soon. In a celebratory manner Viomak asks
Mugabe what he
ate that keeps him strong. The exhaustive and exciting beat
adds a
Zimbabwean flavour to the song. If Mugabe chooses to listen to the
song with
no unnecessary antagonism I think it is a great complimentary song
that he
should appreciate. Even though the song praises the failed ruler for
being a
death champion it might never be played on state radio unless Viomak
changes
some of the lyrics which sarcastically question if Mugabe had eaten
stones
to remain strong, whilst asking the president to give us the stones
so we
can also eat and prolong our life spans.
"This is a great time for
the Supreme Leader who is managing to dodge death
whilst Zimbabweans are
dying of starvation and disease in the hands of an
uncaring and incompetent
government." said Viomak.
The instrumental of the song is playing on her
websites. By the way she has
two websites running now all because of the
viruses that have been invading
her old site.
The song Usiku hwekutambisa
(Wasted night) will obviously offend the Supreme
Leader. The verses of the
song are something that Mugabe would not love to
hear and the choruses come
in to remind the president that he is a wasted
night. Sampling the album I
found this track to be extremely danceable with
a deep meaning that will
definitely give Viomak's listeners moments of
sadness and laughter.
The
lyrics on most of the songs are sweet nothings for the Supreme Leader as
Viomak takes him on a merry go round only to leave him hanging in the middle
of the revolution when her lyrics suddenly turn from sweet to sour. Sour in
the sense that anything that despises the Supreme Leader is sour to the
leader and his supporters. The lyrics are very relaxed and easy going but
they come with a lot of controversy and truth. Her enjoyable mix of
controversial lyrics keeps her music above the norm as her verse to chorus
writing style remains in all the songs. Musically this means Viomak is
managing to reveal the unsung side of the Zimbabwean music
industry.
Supreme Leader also sees Viomak continue to embrace her high
position on the
protest movement culture in Zimbabwe allowing herself to
remain as gate
keeper in the protest music territory where some protest
musicians like
Raymond Majongwe are reported to have quit the game
preferring to become
just musicians.
The protest singer who says she has
no plans to depart from protest music
also finished writing two extra
politically charged albums Good Nonsense
Unearthed (GNU) and ZANU DC (ZANU
PF + MDC). The albums which are tightly
packed in truth and humour will not
be good to MDC-T's ears. Two songs of
great interest on the albums are
Nharembozha(Cellphone) and Ndiye akauraya
(He is the one who killed).To
those who have been following the news coming
from Zimbabwe your guesses on
what she will be singing about on these songs
are most likely right.
"We
should free our lips from voice slavery. We can't keep having an
incompetent
mess of bad leaders running the country and keep our lips sealed
as if all
is good. The spirit of protest music should therefore be preserved
and
respected and all bad politicians should be put to shame artistically."
she
said.
With themes far from the usual there's no doubt this soon to be
released
album delivers essential music that is defined by serious political
issues.
The music will largely bless protest music lovers and will remain a
great
asset to genuine patriots.
The other songs on the album include
Uchaisepi, Mbiri, Mhosva, Hapana
mutsvene and Yapidiguka. More about these
tracks after the official release.
Will Viomak ever sing music that will not
make her a musical criminal
according to Mugabe's unjust laws? She said yes.
After meeting Zimbabwean
cartoonist Tony Namate in Norway as they attended
the Global Forum on
Freedom of Expression in June 2009, the cartoonist
suggested to her that she
produces music that speaks on women issues. She
agreed.
"Instead of also singing about the socio-political issues that affect
them
many women musicians in Zimbabwe have chosen to concentrate on Godly
tunes
only forgetting that there are earthly issues that have to be resolved
before we see heaven. You can't keep singing about God only when the man in
your house is raping your daughter. " She said.
In respect of Namate's
request which Viomak took seriously she just finished
writing two more
albums which are dedicated to Zimbabwe women and Zimbabwe
girls namely Hello
Women and Child Abuse. The albums carry her from a
political to a social
activist and not a gender activist. To those who have
listened to her
political albums' lyrics just rewind and imagine her type of
lyrics shifted
to women and child abuse issues. The song paedophile on the
Child Abuse
album is one striking example of a song that will deter some
adults from
raping children.
"The two albums will give Zimbabwe women and girls the
respect they deserve
and will place them at the top of the roof and not
under the door mat where
most of them reside."Said Viomak.
The social
consequences are going to be huge .On top of that Viomak is going
to be the
first woman musician to tackle women and girls' issues head on
artistically.
Her protest music is currently talking and the women albums
will be talking
and preaching. More about the albums after the release of
Happy 86th
Birthday President R.G Matibili (Supreme Leader).I remain to see
if the
singer who has successfully thrived in a spirit of political music
controversy will thrive in a spirit of social music controversy.