Mugabe rejects constitutional reform, buys more time

Zim Online

Monday 30 October 2006

      HARARE - A church-authored national vision document could be the start
of efforts to end Zimbabwe's fast deteriorating crisis but analysts say it
fell short of directly putting the blame on President Robert Mugabe's
government and questioned the veteran leader's commitment to implementing
its recommendations.

      Mugabe on Friday accepted the church initiative to resolve the country's
problems, but more significantly rejected calls for a new constitution,
which political experts say is vital to any effort to pluck the southern
African nation out of political, social and economic crisis.

      Analysts said while Mugabe had seemingly embraced the church document,
this was a time-buying tactic by the veteran leader in the hope of riding
out a crisis many put squarely on his 26-year-old rule. They added that the
church's National Vision document, like many before it, was likely to fall
victim to government bureaucracy.

      "Let's not forget that Mugabe is a cunning politician who has in the
past managed to hoodwink opponents that he is changing policies," Eldred
Masunungure, chairman of the Political Science department at the University
of Zimbabwe said.

      "When you look at the document, yes it does raise important issues but
at the same time it does not identify the major causes and where they
originate from, such as mis-governance by the government," he added.

      In a bold challenge to Mugabe's policies, the Church alliance is
proposing the setting up of an independent land commission to ensure fair
distribution of land, a new constitution and a review of tough media and
security laws that critics say are being used to muzzle the opposition.

      But Mugabe, eager not to give ground to opponents, said he was not
convinced the country needed a new constitution and added that critics of
the current constitution were wrong to think the country's governance
charter was imposed by former colonial power Britain.

      "There could never be another constitution so dear, so sacrosanct.
True there might be amendments necessary to make, let us say so, but to say
this is not home-grown is as if the British imposed this on us," Mugabe
said.

      The 82-year old President generally treats calls for radical political
reforms as part of a drive fronted by local opponents but sponsored by his
Western enemies to oust him from power over his seizures and redistribution
of white-owned farms to black Zimbabweans.

      The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party did not
attend Friday's launch a move analysts said could mean the opposition did
not accept the contents of the document.

      The MDC has previously aligned itself with another group of church
leaders, the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, comprising more radical church
leaders who insist on human rights violations by the government and its
agencies not being swept under the carpet and who also do not see Mugabe as
part of the solution but part of the problem.

      The opposition, which has been splintered over tactics to confront
Mugabe, argues that a new constitution is paramount if the country is to
hold free and fair elections and further argues that Mugabe has manipulated
the national constitution to tighten his grip on power.

      The analysts said the MDC's absence from the church-led initiative was
likely to see the document failing as the opposition party was one of the
largest political forces in the country.

      The MDC is the only opposition party that has come closest to
unseating Mugabe from power and says it was denied victory in the 2000 and
2002 elections through violence and rigging by Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF
party.

      "The fact that the main opposition is not part of the Church efforts
could be a reflection that they do not have faith in the Church's efforts
and I would agree with that because Mugabe has shown in the past that he is
not an honest and sincere negotiator," John Makumbe, a UZ political science
lecturer said.

      "The Church needs to confront Mugabe and tell him to shape up and tell
him what the majority of Zimbabweans are saying; that we have lost
confidence in your leadership. Otherwise we will not be able to resolve the
problems we are facing today," added Makumbe, who is a strong critic of
Mugabe's rule.

      Analysts said the opposition's scepticism could be founded in Mugabe's
refusal in the past of several mediation efforts by local bishops, United
Nations secretary General Kofi Annan and fellow African leaders saying they
were influenced by the West.

      "So the opposition will say what will make Mugabe negotiate this time
around and that is point to take note of," Masunungure said.

      Zimbabwe is grappling with an economic meltdown described by the World
Bank as the worst outside a war zone. The crisis has manifested itself
through the world's highest inflation of more than 1 000 percent,
skyrocketing unemployment, shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel and
power, while poverty levels are soaring.

      Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from Britain,
denies mismanaging the economy and instead accuses the West of sabotaging
his government as punishment for his controversial drive to redistribute
former white land to blacks. - ZimOnline

ZANU PF retains mayoral seat, set for victory in rural polls

Zim Online

Monday 30 October 2006

      HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF on Saturday retained
the mayor's seat in the western city of Kadoma while it appeared also
cruising to an emphatic victory in rural council elections held countrywide.

      Incumbent mayor Fani Phiri of ZANU PF polled 4 614 votes against Jonas
Ndenda of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party, who garnered 2 491 votes in a violence-marred poll in
which the losing candidate's house was vandalised a day before the ballot.

      Ndenda told ZimOnline that the mayoral election was not free and fair.

      "My house was attacked. Our district chairman and the chief election
agent were brutally assaulted by ZANU PF youths while hundreds of people
were bussed in. It is not a reflection of the will of the people," the MDC
candidate said.

      Suspected ZANU PF militants allegedly stoned Ndenda's house last
Friday night, breaking windows, doors and the roof.

      The independent Zimbabwe Election Supporter Network immediately
condemned the violence which erupted despite assurances by the police that
they had put in place measures to prevent political violence ahead of
voting.

      Vote counting was underway in most rural wards and full results were
expected to be available by today.

      But ZANU PF is guaranteed of victory. The party has traditionally
dominated rural areas at all political levels and went into the weekend
elections with 463 seats in the bag already after its candidates were
elected unopposed.

      The two MDC factions won a total eight seats unopposed while one seat
was won by an independent. A remaining 863 wards were up for grabs.
      Both factions of the MDC were expected to make more in-roads in the
ruling party's rural stronghold as counting continued on Sunday.

      For example, the Tsvangirai-led MDC had managed to grab some wards in
Matobo, Gokwe, Gutu and Mutasa districts while the other faction of the
opposition party led by prominent academic Arthur Mutambara was also
expected to pick wards especially in the southern Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces.

      The MDC has never defeated ZANU PF before in any rural council
election.

      Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the Tsvangirai-led MDC, said: "While
we are certainly disappointed by the Kadoma loss, we are nonetheless
ecstatic that we managed to win some wards in the rural areas. Remember we
never had a ward in the rural areas, now we have pockets of councillors in
and around Zimbabwe."

      ZANU PF political commissar Elliot Manyika said his party was
confident of a landslide victory in the polls because Zimbabweans "have long
recognised that the MDC is a foreign party that does not have the people's
interests at heart." - ZimOnline

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary - 28th October 2006

Vigil supporters sent out a clear message to the South African government
this week: we will harass you until you stop supporting Mugabe.  Alois and
Wellington from Brighton and Ethel from Liverpool, among others, were ready
and waiting for the Vigil to start.  Both Alois and Wellington were booted
out for interrupting a lecture in London on Wednesday given by the South
African Foreign Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.  Alois said "We were
sickened to hear Dr Zuma talk about international solidarity when her
government is refusing to show solidarity with the persecuted people of
Zimbabwe".  After stewards removed Alois from the auditorium, the veteran
human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, another Vigil supporter, unfurled a
placard behind Dr Zuma reading "Mbeki's shame. ANC betrays black Zimbabwe."
As Peter  was conducted out, Wellington cried  from the balcony, "Why do you
(Dr Zuma) and your government persist with quiet diplomacy when it has
failed to deliver?"  The South African Foreign Minister sat silent even when
4 other Vigil supporters (Chipo, Yeukai, Dorcas and Juliet) appealed to her
for support for the terrible plight of Zimbabwean women, saying, for
instance, that they had no sanitary towels.  They were also evicted.  Dr
Zuma's refusal to comment on the Zimbabwean situation in spite of taunts
"Tell us what you think of Zimbabwe?" undermined the credibility of South
Africa's new membership of the UN Security Council.  She went so far as to
say that Zimbabweans in Britain had no right to speak about the situation in
Zimbabwe - apparently forgetting that she herself had spent part of the
apartheid era in exile here.  Her hypocrisy did not pass unnoticed by the
audience at the London School of Economics.  While she scuttled away through
the back door, many who'd come to hear what South Africa had to say stayed
behind at the protest outside to see what Zimbabwean exiles had to say.
Everyone at the Vigil was thrilled by the success of the Wednesday protest.

Thanks to Doubt who stood in last week as Vigil photographer and also
supplied Mike with the necessary information for the Vigil Diary.

We were pleased to have with us today young Tatenda Tsikire whose mother is
to be released from prison just before Christmas. In the Vigil diary of 30th
September, we wrote that she had been imprisoned for working with bogus
papers and appealed to the British government to allow asylum seekers to
work.  It was a joy to watch Tatenda dancing as previously he has been so
withdrawn.  Congratulations to Obey - we have a new Vigil baby, his
daughter, Florence.

When Luka of the Zimbabwe Association told us that another Vigil supporter,
Gabriel Shava, had died, it drew gasps of pain from Vigil supporters.  They
immediately broke into a Shona rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" which roughly
translated to "We'll meet again in Heaven".

For this week's Vigil pictures:
http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.

FOR THE RECORD: 69 signed the register.

FOR YOUR DIARY:
·         Monday, 30th October, 7.30 pm, Central London Zimbabwe Forum.  The
speaker is Tor Hugne-Olsen of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum who will
update us on the outcome of the second session of the UN Human Rights
Council. His update will determine how the Forum proceeds with its
multi-signatory campaign. Free Zim Youth will also update the forum about
the protest during  the visit to London of  the South African Foreign
Minister.  Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street,
London WC2 (cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway
to John Adam Street, turn right and you will see the pub).
·         Saturday 4th November, the TUC, Action for Southern Africa and
Amicus will host a conference in central London on "Solidarity with
Zimbabwean Trade Unions" at Congress House, Great Russell Street from 2pm
until 5pm. Speakers will include Lovemore Matombo, President of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, Kate Hoey MP, Euan Wilmshurst, Director of ACTSA
,and others. To attend please email campaigns@actsa.org  for a registration
form.  This conference is free and open to all who are interested.

Vigil co-ordinator

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk

Zimbabwe is dependent on illegal lifeline

Baltimore Sun

By Richard Boudreaux
Originally published October 29, 2006
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe // Andrew Dube was cruising across the savanna, past
baobab trees, donkey carts and herds of giraffes, when a flashlight pierced
the dusk, waving him off the highway.
A policeman approached, aiming the light at the sacks under a web of bungee
cords in Dube's open-top trailer. The driver muttered a curse in Zulu.

"Let's see what's inside," said the cop, who was searching for undeclared
foreign currency. Dube chewed nervously on a paper clip. His deliveries,
mostly food for 20 poor families here, were already late. The 800-mile drive
from Johannesburg, South Africa, had taken 24 hours and required bribes at
six checkpoints. Now a few miles from his destination, he was out of cash.

He turned to the 12 weary passengers crammed into his 1998 Toyota Venture
station wagon. Each had paid a $75 fare, about a month's salary for most of
them. "We can sit here three hours while the police search every package,"
he told them. "Or you can help me fill their stomachs."

The passengers scraped up $100, and the cash passed from the driver to the
policeman, who let the vehicle pass.

This ritual, performed daily by hundreds of cargo haulers known as
"runners," keeps a lifeline open for Zimbabwe in a time of economic
meltdown.

Four-wheel-drive taxis shuttle cash and care packages from migrant workers
in South Africa to their kin at home. On the return trip, drivers ferry
fresh waves of migrants across the border. Many of them are crossing
illegally to seek work as waiters, maids, seamstresses, farm or construction
hands and street vendors.

Their endeavor is part of a global movement. The World Bank reports that
migrants from poor nations sent home at least $167 billion last year, a
fast-growing sum that exceeds all foreign aid.

Remittances bring Zimbabwe an estimated $360 million to $600 million a year,
according to John Robertson, an economist in Harare, the capital. They rival
mineral exports as the biggest source of foreign income for a country of 12
million people.

Countries such as El Salvador, Haiti, Moldova and Yemen depend as heavily as
Zimbabwe on their citizens abroad. But those countries are closer to the
world's wealthy regions. About one-third of all the money sent home by
migrant workers flows from nations such as South Africa that are barely
better off.

The arrival of as many as 2 million Zimbabweans has fueled a backlash of
popular anger, human rights abuse and mob violence. South Africans accuse
them of fomenting crime, spreading AIDS and stealing jobs in a country with
a 40 percent unemployment rate by hiring on for rock-bottom wages that local
people won't accept.

Yet they keep coming.

Dube's weekly journey begins and ends in a fenced parking lot surrounded by
high-rise slums in Johannesburg's inner city.

The lot was bustling on a Saturday evening as runners hitched up two-wheel
trailers. Dube's passengers piled into the white Toyota with the cracked
windshield and booming sound system.

Wendy Masuku, a 21-year-old waitress, was going home to Bulawayo to marry
her boyfriend, but they would come back to jobs in Johannesburg. Precious
Moyo, 23, said she was going to bury an older sister and would return with
the sister's passport, hoping it would look more authentic than the fake ID
she had been using.

But they were extra. The primary purpose of Dube's trip was to move cash and
goods. Zimbabwe's economy, once the strongest in Africa, has been torn by
shortages of fuel, food, medicine and skilled labor in the six years since
President Robert Mugabe confiscated large, mostly white-owned farms that had
earned about half the country's foreign exchange. Thousands of businesses
have closed, at least 70 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed, and annual
inflation tops 1,000 percent, the world's highest.

To keep the dwindling reserves of foreign currency, the government maintains
rigid exchange controls. But the illegal parallel market pays two to three
times as much, so most migrants hire runners who deliver envelopes stuffed
with cash and, increasingly, consumer or industrial goods.

Dube's trailer was laden with not only care packages but containers of
paint, solvents and spare parts for Bulawayo's factories, 1,300 pounds of
cargo in all. No one wants to be caught moving large sums across the border,
so brokers in both countries have developed an elaborate payment scheme to
avoid it.

First, brokers in South Africa collect money that migrant workers want to
send home. Instead of sending it directly, they use the cash to pay South
African suppliers of materials ordered by Zimbabwean factories. The
suppliers then instruct the factories to release cash to brokers in
Zimbabwe, who distribute it to the workers' families. Finally, the runners
ferry the supplies across the border, along with documents showing they have
been paid for abroad.

For this trip, Dube was also carrying 3,000 South African rand, equivalent
to about $400, to deliver directly to families, along with 20,000 rand worth
of groceries, used clothing and kitchen cabinets. He charges senders a 20
percent fee on the cash, much higher than wire transfer costs in most of the
world, and heftier percentages on consumer goods. "The big mess in my
country, it's good for my business," said the runner. He earns as much as
$300 a week.

After shuttling people and goods across the border for 11 of his 42 years,
he moves seamlessly between the two countries, keeping a wife and two
children in Johannesburg and a girlfriend in Bulawayo, while cultivating the
gatekeepers in between.

Richard Boudreaux writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Is China the new colonial power in Africa

?

As Beijing prepares to host an African summit its economic involvement is
coming under scrutiny

Conal Walsh
Sunday October 29, 2006
The Observer

Once the targets of rioting and insurrection in Africa were European
colonial overlords. Today, though, jet-setting Chinese businessmen, arriving
in ever greater numbers, are causing a backlash in the world's poorest
continent.
Zambia was the scene of the latest trouble earlier this month, when Chinese
shopkeepers in the capital Lusaka were forced to use barricades to protect
themselves from looters at the culmination of a bitter election contest
fought largely on the issue of China's alleged 'exploitation' of the
southern African country.

Opposition leader Michael Sata won nearly a third of the vote after accusing
the Chinese of making Zambia a 'dumping ground for their human beings', and
across Africa there is growing alarm, as well as excitement, at China's
burgeoning financial and political involvement.

The perils and rewards of Beijing's engagement with Africa are well
illustrated in Zambia, where Lusaka's community of Chinese entrepreneurs,
diplomats and technicians has grown tenfold to about 30,000 in the past
decade.

Investment from China has resurrected the country's moribund Chambishi
copper mine, raising the promise of vital revenue. But miners have protested
over poor pay and dangerous conditions, which led to dozens of deaths in an
industrial accident earlier this year.

As China aggressively seeks new markets for its exports and new raw
materials to feed its explosive economic growth, its involvement in Africa
is increasingly the subject of heated international debate. Only last week
Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, criticised China for ignoring
human rights and environmental standards when lending to other developing
countries.

Beijing, however, shows no signs of being deterred. This week it will host
leaders from 48 African countries at a two-day summit designed to cement its
influence. China's trade with Africa has grown at an astonishing rate, from
about $10bn in 2000 to an estimated $50bn this year. Wei Jianguo, a
government minister, rejected Wolfowitz's criticism, arguing that China's
investments were 'like sending firewood in the snow' and would provide some
of the world's poorest countries with the infrastructure development that
they really needed.

He has a point. Chinese investors and state agencies have spent billions on
roadbuilding in Kenya, a hydroelectric dam in Ghana and a mobile phone
network in Ethiopia. Nigeria, where China has been snapping up oil assets,
has a Mandarin-language newspaper serving 50,000 readers - a community
greater in number than the British ever where, even at the height of Empire.

Chinese investment in Africa has overtaken Britain's, and stands only behind
that of France and the US. The opening of new trade and investment corridors
between developing countries - confirmed as a growing phenomenon in United
Nations figures released last week - is a disconcerting sight for the old
powers. China claims with some credibility to be the champion of developing
countries, and Africans are rightly suspicious of finger-wagging lectures
from their former colonial masters.

Even so, it is fair to say Beijing is not up with the latest thinking on
development. Like Wolfowitz, Bob Geldof, the Live 8 campaigner, has warned
that attempts to stamp out corruption in Africa risk being undermined by
soft loans and naked mercantilism from China. The country's banks do not
adhere to western banks' environmentally-conscious 'Equator Principles' of
lending, and its companies are not required to be transparent about their
deals with African dictators.

Beijing cynically sold arms to both sides in the war between Eritrea and
Ethiopia. It has swooped on investment opportunities in countries shunned by
the West, such as Zimbabwe and Sudan. Its close relationship with Khartoum
appears to have played a role in the UN's failure to take serious action
against Sudan in relation to massacres in Darfur. Human Rights Watch has
condemned Beijing's attitude. 'China can't continue to protect human rights
abusers at the expense of civilians just because it is profitable to do so,'
says Peter Takirambudde, the group's Africa director.

It is also claimed that some local industries are being snuffed out by cheap
Chinese imports. Overall, however, Africa's annual GDP growth is a healthy 6
per cent, and some experts suggest the economic benefits that China brings
outweigh even the political risks.

'Chinese companies are building roads and hospitals, and generally going
where western companies do not dare to go,' says Feng Zhang, an analyst at
the Foreign Policy Centre think tank in London. 'I understand the concern
over human rights but so far China's interest has been very good for
Africa.'

African summit to close Beijing

The Australian

Rowan Callick, China correspondent
October 30, 2006
BEIJING will grind to a halt this week to leave the roads free for the
limousines transporting the 48 heads of state expected to attend the
China-Africa Summit, as the communist state continues its drive to secure
natural resources in the 21st century scramble for Africa.
The summit, the most ambitious meeting the country has hosted for years,
encapsulates the energy China has deployed to win over Africa - whose
resources it is beginning to tap massively.

Authorities have erected vast hoardings throughout Beijing featuring motifs
such as giraffes, camels, zebras and the Sphinx.

The city has banned most government vehicles from the streets and has
instructed employers to stagger office working hours to reduce traffic
flows. It has told stores to cancel all sales that might attract extra
customers and forced all cars travelling to and from the airport off the
usual freeway and on to a long, circuitous route by back streets.

It has even removed the many benches along the tree-lined road outside the
St Regis hotel where many leaders will stay, presumably to prevent the
Africans from being offended by the sight of poor Chinese sitting or
snoozing.

The Government has asked communist party members and government workers to
come to work by bicycle. School children will be sent home early on Thursday
and Friday to further ease access for the official limousines. Cars from
outside Beijing will be banned from the city.

And people have been told to cancel visits to parks, stores and concerts
during the summit.

If successful in freeing up the city for its cosseted guests, the Government
is likely to consider adopting some of these severe measures during the 2008
Olympic Games.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, one of the leaders attending the summit,
at the weekend praised China's assiduous attention: "China is opening itself
up to Africa, coming with assistance. We have nothing to lose but our
imperialist chains."

China prevented discussion in the UN Security Council of the mass evictions
and destruction of homes and businesses in Zimbabwe last year.

China's trade with Africa has soared tenfold in 10 years, to a likely $65
billion in 2006 - although this is still only about 4.5 per cent of China's
total trade. The pace of the country's increased investment in Africa
though, already about 10 per cent of all its foreign investment, presages
continuing rapid growth in trade volumes as a result.

Angola has this year overtaken Saudi Arabia as China's biggest oil supplier.
And almost every African country has, like Australia, benefited from the
rise in commodity prices widely driven by Chinese demand.

The Chinese model of maintaining state control over key industries and
companies, and of ruling through a single party to which all media are
accountable and which does not permit accountability through elections,
holds some appeal in a continent still debating the advantages of liberal
democracy and capitalism.

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said last week that the Chinese
Government and the banks it owns fail to respect human rights or
environmental standards in their fast-growing involvements in Africa. "There
is a real risk of seeing countries that have benefited from debt relief
become heavily indebted once more," he said. "If it's a matter of buying
luxury cars for ministers, it is bad borrowing."

He was concerned that the Equator Principles, adopted by Western banks in an
attempt to ensure lending is ethical, sustainable and in accord with
environmental and human rights principles, were disregarded by Chinese
banks.

China's mining houses have also yet to embrace the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative that is gaining increasing adherence among Western
miners.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, responded: "China cannot
accept such comments. China adopts the principle of non-interference in
other countries' internal affairs when handling foreign relations. China
would not like other countries to impose their values and social systems
upon China and we will not impose our values and social system on other
countries."

Amnesty International has claimed that China's arms exports to Sudan - from
which it receives in return large oil flows, worth about $3 billion a year -
are fuelling rampant human rights violations there. Sudan's President Omar
Hassan al-Bashir will be among the leaders at this week's summit.

Mugabe's nephew in drive to remove union leaders

Reuters

      Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:04 PM GMT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's nephew will move a
proposal in parliament this week demanding the state fire trade union
leaders opposed to the government, an official newspaper reported on Sunday.

Under Zimbabwean law, the labour minister can in special circumstances
suspend or fire union officials over cases of gross mismanagement, criminal
conduct or the failure to execute the mandate of unions to represent workers
on labour issues.

The government charges that leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) are involved in what it calls a Western-sponsored programme to end
its rule after the seizures of white-owned commercial farms for landless
blacks.

Last month, Mugabe said union leaders, who say they were assaulted by police
after trying to stage a protest over wages, had defied authority and
deserved the beating.

In a move denounced by the unions as another attack on democracy, the Sunday
Mail said Leo Mugabe, a member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, would move the
motion seeking the removal of the ZCTU leadership "for unethical conduct ...
and for abandoning its core business of representing workers to pursue
politics."

Leo Mugabe had placed his motion on the parliamentary diary last week, but
failed to introduce the debate when business was adjourned to this week's
three-day session starting on Tuesday.

The weekly said: "Comrade (Leo) Mugabe will ask the minister of public
service, labour and social welfare, comrade Nicholas Goche, to replace the
ZCTU president, Mr Lovemore Matombo, and his team for their failure to
execute their national mandate."

Leo Mugabe was not immediately available for comment on Sunday. A top ZCTU
official said the labour movement would fight any attempts to remove its
leadership undemocratically.

"We view this as part of the government's intimidation tactics, as part of a
programme to further reduce the democratic space," he said, declining to be
identified.

"The ZCTU will obviously resist, and fight all attempts to remove its
leadership unfairly because as far as we are concerned all the programmes
the ZCTU is involved in are meant to advance the interests and welfare of
the workers."

Chenjerai Hove

From Poetry International

Irene Staunton

Born near Zvishavane in 1956, poet, novelist and social commentator
Chenjerai Hove now lives in exile in Europe. His critical social and
political commentary in the weekly newspaper The Standard (2000-2002) gave
rise to threats that he was forced to take seriously. For a creative writer
who cares deeply about his country's welfare, leaving is a moment of
profound loss. And yet for a writer for whom ideals are central, such loss
is intensified by what he believes is a betrayal of governance in an
independent Zimbabwe. Chenjerai Hove's four volumes of poetry - Up in Arms
(1982), Red Hills of Home (1985), Rainbows in the Dust (1998) and Blind Moon
(2003) - reflect the progression of his ideas and experiences from the hot
anger and challenge to colonial repression, through the scrupulous
observation of the effects of liberation war on rural communities, to
disillusion and bitterness over the failure of the new government's
promises. Hove's writing is infused with his belief in the people for whom
he bears witness, and informed by the excoriating pain of injustice. The Red
Hills of Home drew on Hove's deeply felt moral anguish over the brutalities
of Zimbabwe's war of liberation (1967-80), which he observed while teaching
in the rural areas during the period. His first novel, Bones (1988), which
won the Noma Award, shows the depth of his empathy for rural people and in
particular rural women. If Hove is (or was) a nationalist, he is also
fearless observer and outspoken social and cultural critic, and has never
shied away from recording the violence of the new Zimbabwe in his fiction,
poetry and journalism. Along with the novels Shadows (1994) and Ancestors
(1996), Hove's other work includes two collections of articles written for
newspapers: Shebeen Tales (1994) and Palaver Finish (2002), and Guardians of
the Soil - meeting Zimbabwe's elders (with Ilija Trojanow) (1996).

Power

this is how we dress
power:
with whistles and muskets and gunpowder
from outriders
flashing lights
smoked glass windows
motorcades
titles
minus handshakes
minus smiles
minus sorrow.
we dress power
like a pestilence.
Chenjerai Hove, 1998