VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
Southern Africa
13 September 2007
Zimbabwe's opposition, the Movement for
Democratic Change, was formed eight
years ago this week. When it was only
six months old, it delivered President
Robert Mugabe's first political
defeat. Now it is a shadow of itself, split
into two factions. As Peta
Thornycroft reports for the VOA, the MDC has
little chance of winning next
year's crucial national elections even if
there is electoral reform and a
less repressive political climate.
The Movement for Democratic Change was
established in 1999. Just six months
after the party came into being, it was
able to mobilize the people of
Zimbabwe to vote against a new constitution
in a national referendum.
It was a stinging blow for the aging Zimbabwean
leader, dealt by a fledgling
party under the leadership of the charismatic
former secretary general of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The party drew support across racial and tribal lines,
reflecting growing
dissatisfaction with Mr. Mugabe's rule and concern over
an economy that had
begun to shrink.
The victory in the referendum
sparked a fresh mood of optimism in Zimbabwe.
People in urban areas
responded to Tsvangirai and they became the party's
stronghold.
Just
months later, in June 2000, and despite massive repression and
accusations
that the MDC was foreign-funded and a stooge of British
imperialism, the
party came within four seats of beating the ruling Zanu-PF
in parliamentary
elections.
Mr. Mugabe had already launched his chaotic land
redistribution program,
taking farms away from commercial farmers. The
economy, dependent on
agricultural exports mostly produced by the evicted
farmers, went into rapid
decline.
Tough new security and media laws
were put in place. Ahead of presidential
elections in 2002, Tsvangirai was
charged with treason on a trumped-up
charge of plotting to assassinate
President Mugabe.
The trial drained the MDC's financial resources and put
Tsvangirai at a
disadvantage when he stood as the opposition
candidate.
Tens of thousands were unable to vote, especially in
Tsvangirai's
stronghold, Harare. The party presented evidence during a
subsequent court
challenge which they said demonstrated that Zanu-PF cheated
in order to give
President Mugabe a 15-percent victory at the
polls.
Following the election, more MDC legislators and supporters were
detained,
beaten and some were killed. The pro-MDC newspaper, The Daily
News, was
bombed and then closed down.
Squabbles emerged within the
MDC, aggravated by tensions between its Shona
and Ndebele leaders.
In
the March 2005 general election, the MDC lost more than a third of the
legislative seats it had won five years earlier.
The party finally
split over the issue of whether to boycott senate
elections later that
year.
The split caused dismay and confusion among its supporters and left
the MDC
divided along tribal lines. There was some violence between the two
factions.
The faction which chose to fight the senate elections asked
academic Arthur
Mutambara to lead it. He had been the first person from Mr.
Mugabe's Shona
tribe, as a student leader years earlier, to lead protests
against the
ruling ZANU-PF.
At present, both MDC factions have equal
numbers of legislators in
parliament, but most political observers say
Tsvangirai has more supporters
than Mutambara, particularly in densely
populated Harare.
At present, both factions are selecting candidates for
next year's national
elections.
Political observers say this will
split the opposition vote and give
President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF easy
victories.
Some political analysts say that if the two MDC factions do
not quickly
establish a coalition, the opposition party will lose the
presidential vote
and all but a handful of seats in legislative elections
due next March.
Afrique en ligne
Harare, Zimbabwe - A top agriculture official in Zimbabwe said
Thursday the
country was importing 3,500 tractors to buttress its
controversial agrarian
reforms.
Agriculture Engineering, Mechanisation and Irrigation
Minister Joseph
Made said the tractors had been imported from a number of
countries, and
were expected in Zimbabwe in the next six
months.
He said the equipment would be distributed to black farmers
resettled
on farms forcibly seized from white farmers, to buttress the
government's
controversial agrarian reforms.
"The country will
receive a total of 3,500 tractors from different
countries within the next
six months. As we prepare for the farming season,
we want to make sure that
we have all the machinery needed," he said.
He did not say,
however, how much the tractors would cost.
A few months ago, t#he
government imported tractors, combine
harvesters and other agricultural
equipment worth US$25 million.
Harare - 13/09/2007
Panapress
This is Nottingham
11:00 - 13 September 2007
Human rights
lawyers from Zimbabwe have joined forces with University of
Nottingham
experts to help fight against atrocities in their homeland.
The Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum hopes to use the Human Rights Law
Centre's expertise
and experience as they take on President Robert Mugabe's
government through
the courts.
Two members of the forum, which gathers information on
atrocities in
Zimbabwe to raise awareness in the international community,
visited
Nottingham for a debate One was lawyer Nokuthula Moyo, who says the
situation in her homeland remains dire.
And she says it is
not just the widely reported political issues that need
tackling but also
rising socio-economic problems.
"There is no food. There are water
shortages. Rubbish is going uncollected
and hospitals are short of staff and
equipment," she said.
"People are starving because supplies are low and
the shops and factories
are empty. We're relying on money sent from family
members abroad or brought
over the border from South Africa.
"We are
fighting to raise awareness of this, but also we are simply
begging - we
need help from whoever can help."
And she believes the Human Rights Legal
Centre can assist their fight.
Emilie Hunter, acting research and
programmes co-ordinator at the centre,
which works with governments, think
tanks and non-governmental
organisations, said: "It's through the work of
these NGOs that we receive
the information about what is going on in
countries like Zimbabwe.
"They are on the ground and not just reporting
on what's happening, but
actually doing great work within the
country.
"This is a good opportunity for us to support such a rigorous
organisation."
Dewa Mevhinga, co-ordinator of the forum, based in London,
said: "The
promotion of human rights issues in Zimbabwe is a matter of
international
concern - there has been a lot of misinformation about the
situation there.
"We are very excited about the opportunity this offers
us.
"There is a lot of expertise at the university that we can use as we
attempt
to challenge the Zimbabwean government [through the international
courts]."
The links with the centre began in September last year when one
of the
forum's lawyers, Brian Penduka, spent three months studying in
Nottingham.
This has now been reciprocated.
One of the
university's Masters students, Catherine Namakula, from Uganda,
started a
three-month placement at the forum's London office on Monday.
Catherine,
who started her internship on the same day she finished her
masters, said:
"I'm looking forward to gaining expertise and learning more
about human
rights issues."
For more on the work of the Human Rights Legal Centre
visit
www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/hrlc .
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum's
website is www.hrforumzim.com a
href="mailto:james.smith@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk"
class="lblue"
james.smith@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk
/a .
bizcommunity.com
By: Brenda
Zulu & Thandisizwe Mqolweni
Speaking at the annual Highway Africa
conference in Grahamstown as a member
of the panel on 'Producing and
presenting the radio talk show: the burden of
nation building', John Masuku,
director of The Voice of the People in
Zimbabwe, said Africa still needs
chat shows. Meanwhile, Alain Foka, Radio
France International (RFI) Talk
Show host observed that Africa was faced
with many critical issues. He said
not much of the issues were being
discussed and this turned out to be
Africa's downfall.
"This is not because people choose not to speak, but
because they are not
able to," said Foka.
Masuku said that state
media in Zimbabwe was not balancing issues and that
as an alternative media
this is where they come in to give the people a
voice. He explained that
usually in Zimbabwe, talk shows were recorded
because of the media situation
prevailing in the country at the moment.
Masuku added that a talk show
host has to be professional. He said it was
important to debate the issue
for discussion as a group before opening up
the airwaves. He advised talk
show hosts to look at issues that are of
concern to Africa's
citizens.
He however noted that low budget broadcasters faced many
challenges in the
way people would view the broadcasting station. "Some
people think we are a
pirate radio station funded by the West to effect an
illegal regime," said
Masuku.
The station employs journalists who
have been well trained and the challenge
for them is how to convince people
to make themselves available for
interviews. "Some people would come and
others would refuse."
He observed that a lot of people who accepted to be
on their talk shows were
those people who have been denied space in the
state media.
Foka added that the media was the vehicle used to mobilize
dialogue to
debate national issues, but this could be a problem where there
is no
freedom of expression. He said his talk show was appreciated by 45
million
audiences and the debates were open and the expression was
free.
"I choose the guests who are in the talk shows after I have worked
on the
theme for the show," said Foka.
Answering a question on the
importance of radio talk shows, Foka said the
debates should be open and
that his talk shows for the past 14 years have
not been influenced by his
employers.
He added that it was time for Africa to speak about African
issues.
Source: HANA www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za
SW Radio Africa
(London)
13 September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September
2007
Henry Makiwa
Zimbabwe's ports of entry have been thrust
into a crisis after the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) workers went on
strike to press for a 5 700
percent salary increase.
Thousands of
travellers and truck drivers were stranded at the country's
border posts
Wednesday and Thursday. This followed the nationwide strike by
the workforce
of the parastatal who is responsible for organising government
funds from
the country's corporate companies, through taxes. The revenue
authority also
collects duties and taxes on imported goods at border posts.
The
industrial action reportedly started at the Beitbridge border post, at
midnight Tuesday before spreading to Chirundu, Nyamapanda and other borders.
The development has caused serious problems among travellers seeking to
clear their goods. The Beitbridge post, bordering Zimbabwe and South Africa,
clears many vehicles and goods daily.
At Plumtree Border Post,
business was reportedly at a virtual standstill
while long queues were the
order of the day at Forbes border post in Mutare.
Traders importing food and
other basic commodities that are scarce on the
parched Zimbabwean market
dominate most of the business at the country's
ports. Shelves have gone
empty in Zimbabwe in the past three months due to
Robert Mugabe's economic
mismanagement through wage freezes and price
slashes. Observers see Mugabe's
policies as the root cause of Zimbabweans'
desperate search for basic goods
beyond borders, hence the escalating
numbers of people trying to import food
and other essential commodities.
Reports suggest the work stoppage cost
ZIMRA at least Z$1 trillion in
revenue alone on the first day of the strike,
besides inconveniencing
thousands of cross-border travellers battling to
clear imports into the
country.
One worker who refused to be named
said ZIMRA management had offered a 400
percent increment to be implemented
this month but the workers spurned the
offer.
He said: "The 400
percent increment would have taken the salary of a revenue
officer to only
Z$10 million at a time the poverty datum line is estimated
at over Z$15
million. We said that was too little."
ZIMRA's non-managerial employees
workers, estimated at over 2 000, have
downed tools at a time when
government has imposed a blanket freeze on
salary adjustments to rein in the
world's highest inflation that is topping
7 600 percent.
Reports
suggest that it is the disruption in Harare that will be a big blow
to
revenue collection as about 85 percent of ZIMRA's revenue comes from the
capital, through corporate tax payments as well as Value Added
Tax.
Cross border trader Mathius Zimuto urged the government to address
the ZIMRA
crisis with urgency.
Zimuto said: "At the Beitbridge Border
Post there were long winding queues
of both motor and human traffic
throughout the day. At the ZIMRA scanner
shed, there was only one officer
who was attending to trucks awaiting a
scanner checkup, while the entry and
exit counters were manned by one senior
officer.
"Officers could be
seen moving leisurely around the customs hall, while
queues were the order
of the day. All counters had been deserted, save for a
senior ZIMRA officer
who was manning both entry and exit sides," said
Zimuto, whose consignments
of goods were stuck on the South African side of
the border.
IOL
September 13
2007 at 04:08PM
Harare - President Robert Mugabe on Thursday fired
a broadside at
western media for biased coverage of events in Zimbabwe,
ignoring an
adultery case involving his staunch opponent, former archbishop
Pius Ncube.
"If one of my own ministers does mischief and takes
another person's
wife, it will be carried on television and they will say
this is what
Mugabe's ministers are doing," Mugabe said.
"It
will be carried on BBC, CNN, everywhere, but let the man who
speaks their
language and does their work, even if he is archbishop, commit
adultery they
will not publish it," he said at the official launch of the
country's
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
policy.
"They will seek to hide it even on CNN and
BBC and say nothing,
absolutely nothing about it. Or if they do, it is just
in passing. So let's
take care."
Ncube, 60, a leading critic of
Mugabe resigned on Tuesday following an
adultery scandal after a state
newspaper published compromising pictures,
alleged to depict the Bulawayo
archbishop having sex with another man's
wife.
However Ncube,
who has been head of the Bulawayo Diocese since 1998,
said his resignation
was intended to save the Church from further attacks
and enable him to
challenge the adultery charge in court in his private
capacity.
Mugabe said Zimbabweans should not risk being fascinated with new
communication technologies, which posed risks due to the content they
allowed people to access.
"We have our own sphere, our own
space, which we must self-determine
and govern as a sovereign people. We
will never be that image the British or
Americans have put on BBC or CNN. We
are in the middle of a fight for our
heritage.
"Our very space
or territory is being channelled by the British...
They have used propaganda
and their global news networks to leverage
international opinion against
us."
Mugabe's government has often accused the West of trying to
bring
about regime change in the country using "hostile" media.
Many Zimbabweans have turned to foreign-based radio stations and
television
channels for an alternative to broadcasts by
government-controlled radio and
television stations. - Sapa-AFP
SW Radio Africa (London)
13
September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September 2007
Henry
Makiwa
A Zimbabwean clergyman was on Monday picked up for questioning
by the
dreaded state security agents for allegedly organising a pastors'
workshop
with 'political intentions' in Masvingo last weekend.
The
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) agents picked up Reverend
Sonykis
Chimbuya, the chairman of the Pastors' Forum, accusing him of
holding an
illegal anti-government meeting last Saturday and Sunday.
At least 20
pastors from Pentecostal churches attended the meeting that was
held at the
Glen Livert Hotel, 20km east of Zimbabwe's oldest city of
Masvingo, to
discuss problems affecting disadvantaged communities in
Zimbabwe.
According to Chimbuya, the CIO agents were angered after
they discovered
that the meeting sought to discuss contentious issues such
as the government
slum clearing exercise, Operation Murambatsvina and the
Gukurahundi
atrocities that saw over 20 000 ethnic Ndebeles being massacred
during the
early 1980s.
"I was picked up for questioning by members
of the CIO on Monday. They
wanted to know what we were discussing at the
meeting. The CIO agents later
handed me to CID (Criminal Investigations
Department) officers who claimed
that the police, under the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA), had not
cleared the meeting.
"We were simply
contextualising the current crisis facing the country
whereby our flock can
no longer attend church because they are perennially
stuck in queues for
basic commodities; and our youths are leaving the
country for Botswana and
South Africa soon after finishing studies. We
wonder then what our role
should become if the state begins to censure the
voice of God through the
church," said Chimbuya.
Chimbuya said he told the agents that as a church
group, they did not need
to apply for police clearance when conducting
church services as required by
Zimbabwe's security laws.
Under POSA,
Zimbabweans must first seek permission from the police before
gathering in
groups of more than three people to discuss politics.
An increasingly
jittery Mugabe government has over the past seven years used
the tough
security law to stifle legitimate political activities around the
country.
SW Radio Africa (London)
13 September
2007
Posted to the web 13 September 2007
Lance Guma
Six
student leaders who were arrested by police at the Great Zimbabwe
University
on Tuesday and Wednesday have all been released from custody. On
Tuesday SRC
President Whitlaw Mugwiji, plus Mukudzei Shoko and Ogylive
Makora were
arrested during an orientation programme on campus that was
disrupted by
rowdy and drunken youths, thought to be from a state sponsored
rival
students union. A further 3 students were arrested after trying to
take food
to their colleagues at Masvingo Central Police station the
following day.
Female student leaders Brenda Mparutsa and Faith Nkomo were
released on the
same day of their arrest, while the 4 male students Mugwiji,
Shoko, Makora
and Secretary General Edson Hlatshwayo were only released
Thursday.
Prosecutors in Masvingo refused to take up the matter
citing lack of
evidence. The police had insisted the students engaged in
public violence,
however students under a state sponsored rival union the
Zimbabwe Congress
of Student Unions (ZICOSU) are thought to have been behind
the disruption of
the orientation programme. Simba Moyo the head of the
Rapid Response Team in
the Students Solidarity Trust was in Masvingo on
Thursday and explained to
Newsreel how ZICOSU members seized t-shirts and
fliers resulting in
fistfights on the campus. Instead of arresting the
perpetrators, police
focused on the victims. For many this confirms the
immunity ZICOSU members
enjoy from the state and how the formation of the
union was meant to sow
divisions.
Moyo says the state has now
made it official policy to arrest students as
soon as they gather for
anything. Whether they are charged or not is not
important, as the objective
is to simply cause disruptions. This he said is
how government is putting a
lid on student activism. Already there are
several student leaders from a
much talked about hit list who are in hiding
and not attending lessons.
Again ZICOSU, with valuable inside information,
is accused of helping state
security agents identify so-called 'problematic'
student leaders. An uneasy
calm remains at the university campus with the
SRC threatening more protests
over the harassment and the deteriorating
learning environment.
The NCA is in full support of the
Stay Away that the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called for
19 and 20 September 2007.
It is no secret that the workers of Zimbabwe
and indeed the majority of
Zimbabweans are suffering as a result of the
current government's flawed
socio-economic policies. These defective
policies are a result of an
undemocratic constitution that gives unlimited
powers to the Executive arm
of government at the expense of the welfare of
the majority of Zimbabweans.
It was as a result of the existence of a
defective constitution that workers
of Zimbabwe and other stakeholders came
together in 1997 and formed the NCA
to spearhead the campaign for a
democratic and people-driven constitution
that can help bring democracy and
development to Zimbabwe. Being satisfied
by the current constitutional order
that is primarily designed to let it
continue in power forever, the
Zimbabwean government has persistently and
constantly turned down the people
of Zimbabwe's demand for a new, democratic
and
people-constitution.
As a result of the ZANU PF government's interest to
continue in power,
Zimbabweans continue to be exposed to a constitution that
has brought untold
suffering to the majority of citizens.
In pursuit
of a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe, the NCA urges the
workers of
Zimbabwe to take heed of the ZCTU Stay away call and continue
pressing for a
democratic and people-driven constitution that will help
bring better living
conditions to the suffering people of Zimbabwe.
Inserted by the NCA
information & Publicity Department
MISA Communiqué
(Zimbabwe)
September 13, 2007
Zim media commemorate the closure of The
Daily News and The Daily News on
Sunday
Media practitioners from
Harare, Zimbabwe) made a call on the Zimbabwean
government to comply with
the judgment of the Supreme Court and High Court
by immediately disbanding
the partisan and partial Media and Information
Commission (MIC).
The
practitioners made the call during the commemoration to mark the closure
of
the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) publications, The Daily News
and
The Daily News on Sunday, held on September 11, 2007. The two
publications
were closed on September 11, 2003, after the Supreme Court came
up with its
infamous "dirty hands judgment".
Andy Moyse, the coordinator of the Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
(MMPZ) hailed The Daily News and The Daily
News on Sunday as being among the
most vibrant and vocal publications ever
to emerge from Zimbabwe. He stated
that the publications played a crucial
role in conscientising Zimbabweans
about their right to freedom of
expression and the need for media freedom.
He said that since the closure of
this publication, Zimbabweans have
suffered from an information deficiency.
Moyse however acknowledged the role
being played by publications such as The
Zimbabwean, The Standard and The
Financial Gazette which have continued to
wage the war of fighting for
freedom of expression.
Moyse went on to
state that, like mealie meal, bread and other basic
commodities, information
has disappeared from the shelf. He urged all
Zimbabweans to lobby for better
policies which would enable access to and
the free flow of
information.
Dzimbabwe Chimbga, from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights reiterated his
organization's commitment to ensuring the creation of
an independent and
pluralistic media environment. Chimbga stated that the
banning of media
houses and harassment of media practitioners was done with
disregard for
Section 20 of the Zimbabwean Constitution which talks about
freedom of
expression.
Chimbga said whilst Zimbabwe is a signatory to
a number of regional and
international instruments which promotes the right
to freedom of expression,
it is surprising to note that the same government
is on a mission to muzzle
the media and stifle its
operation
Participants at the commemoration expressed optimism that The
Daily News,
The Daily News on Sunday and other banned publications will one
day suffice
again to counter the propagandistic material being broadcast and
published
by the state media.
The commemoration was organized by the
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA) Zimbabwe in collaboration with
Harare Press Club.
The Zimbabwean
BY
ITAI DZAMARA
HARARE
Despite its much-touted, much-criticised policy of
quiet diplomacy and
public support for President Robert Mugabe, the South
African government is
aware that he the source of the problem has been
secretly working to remove
him from power.
According to information
gleaned from minutes of a meeting between a South
African government
delegation and members of the MDC (Mutambara) in February
this year, the
government of President Thabo Mbeki acknowledges that the
crisis in Zimbabwe
is about politics and governance and Mugabe is to blame.
The minutes also
reveal an admission by Mbeki's government that it let down
Zimbabweans by
adopting a wait-and-see approach. Minutes of meetings held
by Mbeki's
representatives and the MDC (Mutambara) in February this year
show that, in
their discussions on a solution to the country's political
crisis, SA
officials exposed their position about Mugabe and Zanu (PF).
The SA
representatives at the meetings held on February 22 and 23, were
Local
Government minister Sydney Mufamadi, Foreign Affairs Deputy minister
Aziz
Pahad and Reverend Frank Chikane as well as Advocate Mojanku Gumbi,
both
from the Office of the President. This is the same team involved in
current
mediation efforts between Zanu (PF) and the MDC factions.
Arthur Mutambara
led the delegation from his faction, which included
secretary general
Welshman Ncube, his deputy Priscilla Misihairabwi and
foreign affairs
secretary Moses Mzila.
"Minister Mufamadi noted: SA accepts that the crisis
is essentially
political and (about) governance; Admitted that they have
acted as a buffer
and protected RGM (Mugabe)," the minutes read. "Rev
Chikane and the SA
government had come to the conclusion that Mugabe never
meant to keep any of
the promises made to the SA government. This was seen
as the highest level
of abuse of the person and office of the presidency,
since commitments made
at such levels though not written were a binding
undertaking and expected
decorum from heads of state. The SA government
believes that Mugabe has
deliberately led their presidency along the garden
path and it would be very
difficult to fully re-engage with Mugabe and Zanu
(PF)."
Pahad is reported in the minutes to have confirmed a widely-held
belief that
SA feared most for the effects of the Zimbabwean economic
implosion on their
country.
"Deputy Minister Pahad briefly noted that
they were not making any inroads
and so needed to wait and see where they
could contribute meaningfully. They
had also hoped that the SADC troika
could be nudged to play a more active
role; they had tried the (Koffie)
Annan angle; the (Benjamin) Mkapa angle
but all these efforts had failed.
But if the meltdown continues this would
have a serious impact on SA," the
minutes state.
The SA officials have been lobbying for sustained
international pressure to
bear on the Mugabe regime. "Pahad outlined that
there was a good chance
that the support of the EU and the US for this
process could be garnered. He
noted how Mugabe did not seek SA's assistance
on attending the summit and
that there were rumblings in the EU on how to
deal with Zimbabwe issue,"
stated the minutes.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 09/13/2007
22:23:11
FIVE Zimbabwean women who went on hunger strike at a British
Immigration
Removal Centre last Monday have complained of exhaustion, but
remain
determined to continue their action, they said Thursday.
The
five failed asylum seekers -- Maud Kadango Lennard, Faina Manuel
Pondesi,
Zandile Sibanda, Rose Phekani and Pauline Chitekeshe - are held at
the Yarls
Wood holding facility in Bedford.
Three of the women have been told
they could be deported to Malawi within
days.
"I have been told I
will be deported on September 19, together with two of
the girls," Lennard
said by telephone Thursday. "We are determined to press
on with our strike
because the UK is deporting us to a foreign country with
the full knowledge
that we will ultimately be handed over to Robert Mugabe's
security
people."
The women wrote to the British Home Office last Sunday giving
notice of
their intention to go on hunger strike, but they were told they
had
exhausted their appeals and now face removal from the
UK.
Deportations to Zimbabwe are currently on hold, but the UK government
says
it will remove people who used "genuine" foreign passports to enter the
UK
before seeking to switch to their true identities.
In a letter to
the UK immigration service, the women said: "Given the
desperate situation
in Zimbabwe which has been commented upon by the United
Nations and all
major countries including South Africa, we cannot condone
the return of us
(sic) to that country at this time.
"Please can you release us or hunger
strike (sic)."
The Home Office, in its reply, told the women they
"can be in no doubt that
the Secretary of State does not accept your
claims."
The Home Office letter, signed by a D Smith, said: "The
decisions to refuse
you asylum have all been upheld by the AIT (Asylum and
Immigration Tribunal)
at every stage of the appeal process. You therefore
have little incentive to
respond to any terms of bail/temporary
admission.
"With regards to your specific fears of the country situation
in Zimbabwe,
your concerns are noted and supported by objective evidence.
The Home Office
published policy means that removals of failed asylum
seekers are not
enforced to Zimbabwe and so I would like to allay your fears
of being
forcibly returned. However, as the Home Office plans to return you
to
Malawi.the country situation in Zimbabwe has no bearing on your
situation.
"For above reasons, I find myself unable to grant you
bail/temporary
admission but would remind you that you can apply for AIT
bail at any time."
Hundreds of Zimbabweans put off by a UK visa regime in
Harare have used
foreign passports to enter the UK before claiming asylum.
The UK courts have
refused to accept them as legitimate Zimbabweans, lawyers
have complained.
Many have been deported to Malawi and South Africa where
they face lengthy
questioning and threatened with criminal charges, The New
Zimbabwe's
immigration expert Lloyd Msipa said this week.
Msipa
revealed: "The tragedy with this situation is that once these
Zimbabweans
are deported, they are forgotten. It's like putting people on a
conveyer
belt to nowhere.
"Nobody wants to touch these cases with a long stick
because legal aid is no
longer available to most of them, and the cases are
notoriously difficult to
win. I have seen people who have produced birth and
death certificates of
their parents, letters from headmen and many other
forms of identification
to invalidate their false passports, but they all
suffer the same fate.
Campaigners said the UK had no systems in place to
follow-up the deportees
to ensure they are safe.
[This is a message from the David Coltart Mailing
List]
__
Parliament of Zimbabwe 4th September 2007
MR
COLTART: We have just been entertained for the last ten minutes by my
hon.
friend. One thing that Hon Kasukuwere (the Deputy Minister of Youth
Development and Employment Creation responsible for the Youth Brigades) has
said I think should dominate this debate: namely the question - how do we
protect the vulnerable in our society? If we are to be committed patriotic
Zimbabweans that question should dominate this debate. The reality is that
our current economic situation has never been so depressed and poor people
have never been as vulnerable as they are now. This is not MDC propaganda;
if you look at the article on Zimbabwe, that the Zimbabwe government
sponsored to the tune of US$ 1 million, in the September edition of New
Africa magazine you will see some of the statements made in that document
support what I am saying.
Let me refer you to part of the magazine;
for instance it records that our
GDP as a nation is back to the level of
1953. We have lost over 50 years of
economic growth in the space of a
decade. It is estimated also in New
Africa magazine that 80% of Zimbabweans
are now living below the poverty
datum line including members of our armed
forces. Our economy is collapsing.
For example gold production last year was
the same as our gold production in
1907! It is the lowest gold production
since 1907. The last time we had
the coal production as low as it was last
year was in 1946. These are
facts that none of us can avoid. We see the
manifestation of these things
when we visit the supermarkets which the hon.
member has spoken about. The
reality is what we have seen in our
supermarkets is the symptom of a far
deeper cancer in our
society.
There has been a lot of debate and a lot of propaganda from the
other side
of the house about sanctions being to blame. This is of course
the chorus
from our friends from the other side but the reality is that
Zimbabwe should
be one of the wealthiest nations in Africa irrespective of
the targeted
sanctions imposed on the ruling elite. When you look at our
human
resources, when you consider our highly educated workforce, which is a
credit to this government, if you look at the literacy rate of Zimbabweans -
which used to be among the highest in Africa - possibly still are the
highest in Africa - you will see that we have some of the most productive
people in Africa. That is something that we can all be proud of as patriots
of this country; we certainly should be. We also have a very motivated work
force. We have natural resources that are not found in such abundance per
capita in any other country in the world. Once again I refer to the New
Africa article; in that articl
e you will find a document about our
natural resources and minerals. We have
the second biggest reserves of
platinum in the world. 60% of our nation
comprises the particular granite,
greystone-granite, in which gold is found.
We have nickel, diamond and
titanium in abundance - a full range of
minerals. This is one of the most
beautiful countries in the world. We
have one of the Seven Wonders of the
World, the Victoria Falls. In other
words Mr. Speaker, we have all the
resources I have mentioned that should
make Zimbabwe a great nation
irrespective of any sanctions. We seemingly
have had all the ingredients to
make a great nation over the last 27 years
since independence and yet we are
now faced with the catastrophic situation
of 7 500% inflation - the official
government figure - and 80% are below the
poverty datum line, and 3500
people are dying of preventable ailments. The
World Health Organisation
said last year that we have the lowest life
expectancy in the
world.
We as patriots need to sit down together and consider afresh this
catastrophe as Zimbabweans - whether we are ZANU PF, of whatever faction,
whether we are MDC, of whatever flavour. We need to go deep into our
history to find when it was that everything started to go wrong.. Why is it
that in 1958 we had an economy bigger than Singapore? And yet since 1958 we
all, black and white, have managed to reduce this country to the basket
status it now suffers from. In my view the problems started well before
1980. The root of our decay can be traced back to many of the policies
first implemented in the early 1960s. For example I believe that price
control regulations were imposed in the 1960's. Foreign exchange
regulations were imposed in the 1960's but most importantly Mr. Speaker what
happened in the 60's is that we removed one critical important ingredient
necessary for long term sustainable economic growth and that is summed up in
one word - democracy.
The Rhodesian Front government, in the
pursuance of white minority rule,
discarded whatever democracy was
developing this country in the 1950s under
the leadership of real patriots
such as Garfield Todd. Therein lies the
root of the economic collapse of
this country. The Rhodesian Front
bequeathed to ZANU PF an undemocratic
legacy including the Law and Order
Maintenance Act, an undemocratic
Constitution, complete control of the flow
of information - the RBC simply
became the ZBC and did not change its
policies of supporting blindly the
government of the day - price controls
and exchange control regulations.
ZANU PF merely picked up where the
Rhodesian Front left off.
Mr.
Speaker, it is time, if we are serious about the plight of our nation,
that
we start to consider the situation of the vulnerable in our society. -
[HMS:
Inaudible interjection] - Hon. Kasukuwere may not be seeing the plight
of
the vulnerable in his constituency but I do in mine. I have seen people
getting thinner by the week; I can see that thousands of people in Nketa
High density suburb have no or little access to food, water, drugs and basic
health care. We all need to move beyond rhetoric and consider the plight of
the vulnerable in our nation.
Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend blames
everything on sanctions and I want to
look at that now. The first point I
want to make is that we must consider
the history of this country in this
regard. We know that in 1966 the United
Nations very correctly imposed on
the white minority government of Rhodesia
comprehensive trade and economic
sanctions. They were a censure imposed by
the UN of racist policies. They
were overwhelmingly enforced. The only
countries that breached those
sanctions were South Africa and Portugal and
partially by some countries
like France. The point I am making is that
they were comprehensive trade
and economic sanctions imposed on the regime
led by Ian Smith - [an HON
MEMBER: An illegal regime] - yes illegal.
However the fact is that after
some 14 years of these sanctions in 1980 the
Zimbabwean dollar was stronger
than the United States dollar. In case
someone thinks I am trying to defend
the racist policies of the Rhodesian
Front, let me make no doubt about the
point I am making. I am not seeking
to be an apologist for the Rhodesian
Front. The point I am simply making is
that despite the imposition of
comprehensive trade sanctions over a period
of fourteen years on the
Rhodesian Front regime, the Zimbabwean economy was
nowhere near in a
catastrophic state as it is now - [HON KASUKUWERE: It was
a white man's
economy]- let me respond to Hon Kasukuwere: it may well have
been a white
man's economy but despite that most people of all races then
had basic
access to food, water and drugs, which they do not have now. Mr.
Speaker,
we are dealing with old historic facts. Irrespective of who is
responsible
for the imposition of the sanctions and what their scope is, the
fact
remains tha
t the present targeted sanctions are not as comprehensive as the
sanctions
imposed on 1966. This then begs the question: why then has our
economy
collapsed almost totally under a more benign regime of sanctions
now? The
reason is simple - the targeted sanctions imposed on the ruling
elite are
not the cause of our economic woes.
Secondly Mr Speaker the
sanctions, such as they are, were first imposed in
2002. However if you
look at the pattern of economic decline in this
country, we can see the
economic decline did not start in 2002 but started
in 1997. If my hon.
friend is prepared to consider the historic facts, he
will see that the
Zimbabwean economy started its major decline in 1997. The
first thing that
started the collapse, as my Hon. friend Mr Mashakada has
already stated in
his speech moving this motion, is that this government
sent Zimbabwean
troops, not in Zimbabwe's interests but to protect private
mining interests
of the ruling elite, to the Democratic Republic of Congo in
1997.
Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, unbudgeted payments were made to war
veterans in
1997 which greatly increased the budget deficit and as a result
the
Zimbabwean dollar plummeted and lost something like three to four times
its
value in November 1997 - on the day commonly known as 'Black Friday'.
If
one considers the economic records you will see that there was a further
steady decline from 1997 to 2002, five years before sanctions were ever
imposed.
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, there is the historical fact that
sanctions have not
been imposed on the Zimbabwean people but have been
imposed primarily on
particular individuals. There is, of course, the
American measure which
prohibits the American government from voting in
Zimbabwe's favour in the
IMF and World Bank. That however only applies to
the American government.
It does not apply to the European Union. It does
not apply to Japan, China,
Canada and many other wealthy
countries.
In other words, that provision is limited to one country. In
fact it does
not prevent the Zimbabwean government from seeking loans from
other
developed countries and it still has the right to seek assistance from
many
international financial institutions. The current sanctions regime
does not
prevent the government of Zimbabwe from seeking loans from any
country in
the world. The fact that we have battled to get support is not
because of
American sanctions but because our economic fundamentals are all
skewed. In
this regard Mr. Speaker Sir, we need to turn to what our
neighbours have
said and in particular we need to consider what none other
than President
Mbeki said in his weekly letter to the ANC just ten days
ago. He said two
things in particular: first was that the Zimbabwe
government needs to
address the overvaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar. The
second thing was that
the Zimbabwe government needs to end the quasi-fiscal
expenditure which has
been hallmark of this go
vernment's economic policy
over the last few years.
Mr. Speaker if we consider these two aspects of
economic policy, we will see
these comments go to the very core of what this
government stands for. The
reason that we have our exchange rate pegged at
ridiculous levels - the
reason the Zimbabwe dollar is still pegged at $250
to 1 against the US
dollar - is because this benefits the ruling elite which
is still able to
buy foreign currency at these ridiculous rates.
Mr.
Speaker, the regulations which require the productive sector to sell a
certain portion of its foreign exchange earnings to government at
ridiculously low exchange rates are part of this ruinous policy. The
tragedy is that much of the foreign currency that is acquired is not used
for the benefit of all the people of Zimbabwe. The tragedy - if the truth
is told -is that it is political elite in the country which benefits from
this policy. The preferential access to foreign exchange at staggeringly
low rates of exchange, that bear no relation to the real value of the
Zimbabwe dollar, is done at the expense of the Zimbabwean people.
Mr.
Speaker, until what President Mbeki said is listened to, until the
exchange
rate policy is looked at, until we bring to an end the preferential
access
that certain people have to foreign currency, until we bring to an
end the
unbudgeted quasi fiscal spending, until we end the irresponsible
printing of
money, our national economic woes will continue. We need to
take into
account very seriously what President Mbeki said to the ANC
recently.
Mr. Speaker, let me turn briefly to the issue of price
control and the
Indigenisation Bill. I will not dwell too long on these
issues. Let me
just say these price control measures were introduced as a
knee jerk
reaction to the rapid hyper inflation experienced in late June.
The tragedy
regarding the imposition of the price controls is that just the
opposite of
what was intended will now happen. Far from this quelling
inflation it has
already fuelled inflation. There has been some short term
benefit to some
people but time will show that that is only a small short
term benefit
because all that has happened is that products that were in the
formal
sector, and therefore subject to some form of control, are now being
sold by
the informal sector, the black market sector, and prices are
rocketing.
Until, Mr. Speaker, we get back to a situation where the
market determines
the price of products this price control policy will not
be in the interests
of impoverished members of our society. We must stop
kidding ourselves.
This new policy will only increase inflation.
Let
me turn briefly to the Indigenisation Bill in response to Hon.
Kasukuwere.
There is no doubt that because of the historical inequalities
and injustices
there is a need for balance and fairness in our society. The
problem is
that this policy as it is being devised will, firstly in my view,
not
benefit the generality of the people but will only benefit certain
people in
the ruling elite, which should not be the intention. Until the
whole
process is opened up, until we can see that assets are going to be
transferred to the vast majority of our population, it will not be in the
interests of Zimbabwe. We have the land reform programme as a precedent in
this regard. We can all see the evidence regarding what has happened in that
regard. Mr. Speaker, it is now clear to all objective observers that the
main beneficiaries of the land reform programme are those in the ruling
elite. The biggest benefit has gone to those political and military leaders
who have cherry picked the
most productive farms most of which have now
been rendered derelict. That
is not in the best interests of Zimbabwe. I
have no doubt that the same will
happen to our businesses if the
Indigenisation Bill goes through in its
current format.
Let me end by
talking about the future of our country. (Inaudible
interjections) Mr.
Speaker, I have the right to speak about Zimbabwe as
much as anyone here. I
was born in Gweru in 1957 and my roots in Africa go
back to 1820 - so I
think I have the right to speak about my country and I
will. We need to ask
ourselves the question - why is it that Singapore
which had a smaller
economy than ours in 1958 is now one of the strongest
economies in the world
and yet our nation during the last forty years has
been reduced to the
basket status it is now?
Long before sanctions or the MDC became part of
the body politic of this
country our country lagged behind Singapore. It
started lagging behind
Singapore in the 1960s when the racist and unjust
policies of the white
minority government were imposed. In the 27 years of
majority rule nothing
has changed regarding the deterioration of our economy
save that the economy
has rapidly worsened. After the last seven years of
social, moral and
economic collapse we need a national healing. We should
not be shouting at
each other when hundreds, if not thousands, of people are
dying each and
every day throughout the country.
We need to recognise
where the roots of our national malaise lie. We need to
recognise that they
go way beyond 1980; they go way beyond ZANU PF's rule.
The roots of our
problems go back to the time when the brief flicker of
democracy that we saw
in the 1950s was snuffed out. We need to go back to
that time to see
whether we can revive that tiny flame of democracy that had
started to shine
in the 1950s. We all need to transform our nation,
collectively, into one we
can all be proud of.
We need the following, Mr. Speaker, firstly we need
to rekindle democracy in
our nation. We need to take concrete steps to root
democracy. Integral to
that is a new constitution; but it must be a new
constitution that we all
agree to; a constitution which is owned, which is
embraced by all
Zimbabweans. It cannot just be a document we agree to in
this House; any new
constitution must be embraced by all our people. We
need to enter into a
new contract with each other and the Zimbabwean people
(Inaudible
interjections) - Mr. Speaker it is a great shame that some of our
colleagues
cannot listen to this because we are in an unprecedented national
crisis -
but that is the first point - we need to root democracy in our
nation
Zimbabwe.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, we need to remove many of the
controls over our
society and our economy. I would like in this regard to
return to Hon
Kasukuwere's speech and his example of China. Hon. Kasukuwere
spoke about
China as a great example. I think we have many lessons to learn
from China.
There are 4 or 5 provinces of China which are responsible for
the bulk of
economic growth enjoyed there at present. These provinces have
some of the
most liberal economic environments one can find anywhere in the
world.
There is minimal legislation which controls the activities of the
private
sector - indeed I stress there is less bureaucracy, less red tape
for
businesses in these provinces than there is in any other country in the
world. That is a fact.
In other words, the Chinese Government has
embraced the private sector and
this has promoted growth in its economy with
spectacular results. What we
are doing now in Zimbabwe through price
controls and through certain
provisions in the Indigenisation Bill is just
the opposite.
Price controls inhibit the private sector's ability to
grow. If we would but
embrace the free market that itself controls prices
through healthy
competition. If we discourage foreign investment in this
country, as the
Indigenisation Bill will do, we will only guarantee one
thing - that much
needed foreign exchange will become even scarcer. Without
substantial
inflows of foreign exchange into our country, we cannot not grow
our
economy, as we need to.
Mr. Speaker, I guarantee that in China
you will find that there are no such
prohibitions against foreign investors
controlling their businesses. There
is no 51% control clause as there is in
the Indigenisation Bill in any
Chinese law and that is why companies like
Nike and Chevron and thousands of
multi-national companies have invested in
China and have assisted China to
achieve the spectacular growth it
has.
In conclusion, may I repeat that our nation is in crisis - the
resolution of
that crisis should transcend partisanship. We need to put our
hands
together in this House to devise policies than can stabilise our
country. We
need to devise policies which will bring back our brains. Mr.
Speaker, it
is unacceptable that we have exported our best brains. Our
young people -
so supremely talented - are not in this country any longer.
We need to
devise policies to bring them back, to bring skills back so that
we can
stabilise and then revitalise our country. We should all work for an
economic turnaround and deal with the harsh realities facing our nation
rather than engage in meaningless and destructive rhetoric.
Mr.
Speaker, if we move away from rhetoric to constructive action I have no
doubt that this nation can still be the jewel of Africa - [DR. MUGUTI: It is
the jewel of Africa]-No, at present it is not but it has the potential to
become that - but that can only happen when all of us move away from all
this empty rhetoric to consider the harsh circumstances that the poor are
facing in our nation today. Our futile posturing must stop immediately. We
must, without delay, devise practical solutions to address this economic and
humanitarian catastrophe.
zimbabwejournalists.com
13th Sep 2007 10:22 GMT
By a Correspondent
HARARE -The Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings (ZBH) has increased radio and
television license fees, which will
result in rural listeners paying $50 000
and urban listeners $200 000 per
year.
According to Statutory Instrument 169 of 2007 Broadcasting
(Listener's
Licenses) (Fees) Notice 2007 published in the Government
Gazette of 7
September 2007, owners of both home radio and television sets
are now
required to pay a combined fee of $600 000.The new license fee for
car
radios is $1 million, up from $550.
The license fee for company
televisions has been set at $10 million per
annum. In addition, companies
will pay $3 million per year for office radios
and $5 million for their car
radios.
Prior to the latest increment, home radio and television
listener's license
statutory lnstrument 13A/2007 pegged the fees at $20 and
$650 respectively.
MISA-Zimbabwe hopes that these recent developments
will enable Zimbabweans
get value for their money. Currently, the state
broadcaster is a government
mouthpiece used to churn out propagandistic
material. Ordinary Zimbabweans
are made to endue this skewed broadcasting
stance; thus, this leads one to
question whether these fee hikes are
justified.
It is depressing to note that, the same license fee payers are
not accorded
an opportunity to be heard and seen on television or radio.
This is
exacerbated by the fact that there is no alternative media as a
result of
ZBH's monopoly.MISA-Zimbabwe believes that there should be equal
access to
the media regardless of one's political affiliation. This is more
so in
light of ZBH's claims of being a public broadcaster.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
The Zanu (PF)
government has hired intelligence operatives from Israel who
are deployed at
strategic points such as airports, government offices as
well as banks
specifically for the purpose of spying as the regime becomes
more
paranoid.
Information obtained in the past week shows that the Israeli spies
were
brought in to use their expertise in snooping on opposition activities
as
well as well monitor economic activities in the light of fears by the
regime
that Western countries were on an agenda to destroy the
economy.
This paper has established that the spies are controlling strategic
points
and departments at the Harare International Airport, and also
monitoring
foreign currency transactions at the RBZ and across the banking
sector
through state-of-the-art spying equipment and strategies.
"They
are more or less supervising the intelligence operations and working
with
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), the police and the army,"
a
government official revealed on condition of anonymity.
Sources within
President Robert Mugabe's circles say the aged leader fears
an invasion or a
possible foreign-inspired ouster of his regime through a
coup.
State
security minister Didymus Mutasa denied the existence of the spies
from
Israel saying "I don't know what you are talking about".
Zimbabwe is one of
only a few African countries having diplomatic ties with
Israel - a state
that is largely spurned in Africa because of the
Palestinian question. The
full extent of trade between two countries is
difficult to establish but
Israel has supplied the Mugabe regime with riot
control water cannons and
other armaments. - Itai Dzamara
Financial
Gazette (Harare)
12 September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September
2007
Kumbirai Mafunda
New York
Zimbabwe's poor human rights
record, made worse by a marked decline in
economic freedom, has once again
shut out the troubled country from
accessing development aid from the United
States under the Millennium
Challenge Account (MCA).
The MCA, which
is administered by the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC),
a US
government agency collaborating with some of the poorest countries in
the
world, aims to reduce global poverty through sustainable economic
growth.
Established in 2004, the MCC is based on the principle
that aid is most
effective when it reinforces good governance, economic
freedom and
investment in people. Out of 40 countries that the MCC is
working with, 19
are based in Africa and these include Mozambique, Lesotho,
Zambia, Tanzania,
Kenya and Ghana.
The value of the grants signed by
the African countries total over US$3
billion.
But Zimbabwe, which is
grappling with its worst economic and political
crisis since independence in
1980, has been excluded from accessing the
grants after scoring poor marks
on independent and transparency policy
indicators such as ruling justly,
investing in people and economic freedom.
In its recent assessment of
Zimbabwe, the MCC ruled that the country had
done little to improve the rule
of law and to control corruption. The MCC
also ruled that the government had
limited citizens' freedoms by
intensifying its clampdown on civil
liberty.
Zimbabwe's world beating inflation of over 7 600 percent also
ruled it out
of accessing grants under the MCA, as did its skewed fiscal and
trade
policies.
Besides failing to access aid under the MCA, Zimbabwe
has over the past
eight years been excluded from receiving aid from the
International Monetary
Fund and other developmental organisations, which
ditched the country over
President Robert Mugabe's controversial farm
seizures as well as his
government's human rights record.
The country
is currently battling acute foreign currency shortages, which
have spawned
shortages of critical medicinal drugs and food and resulted in
serious power
outages.
zimbabwejournalists.com
13th Sep 2007 10:09 GMT
By Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
UZ students
commence lessons as authorities deny them access to halls of
residence
The University of Zimbabwe opened doors for the second
semester on the 10th
of September 2007. Students are still being
barred
from returning to their residence halls. The country's largest
institute of
higher learning evicted more than 5 000 students from the
campus citing
arguments that the students are instigating acts of violence
and unrest at
the ailing institute of higher
learning.
The UZ's
position violates the high court order issued by Judge Ben
Hlathwatyo on 13
July 2007 who ruled that the plaintiff must
return to campus residence
without cost.
However, on 15 July 2007 his communiqué published in the
Sunday Mail, 15
July 2007, Dr Levy Nyagura, the University of Zimbabwe Vice
Chancellor
acknowledged receipt of the high court order but rather preferred
to be an
oasis of defiance. His declaration of intent was that he will not
comply
with the order because he fears for his life.
The
justification must be dismissed by the contempt it deserves. Students do
not
hold any form of weaponry or arsenal that can
justify Nyagura's
justification.
The institution's callous position has left the majority
of students coming
from outside Harare vulnerable as they are forced
to
secure expensive accommodation in the surrounding suburbs. More so, due to
the housing crisis in the country in the aftermath of
Operation
Murambatsvina, it is a daunting task for one to find shelter.
Students
have become a causality of the state's policy compulsion and
governance
crisis that has led to the deep rooted crisis
ever to confront the country.
Education has been reduced to a privilege
rather than a right for every
person as enshrined in the
country's constitution and the regional laws
stipulated in the African
Charter on Human and People's rights.
We
therefore call upon the University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor to honour
the
court order issued on the 13th of July 2007. The
students have been legally
given the green light by the high court to return
to their halls of
residence.
The police must intervene by enforcing the law impartially.
The police must
refrain from being used as pawns by the ruling party
and
return to their professional oath of serving the country with loyalty,
objectivity and cherishing the ideas of equity,
transparency and
accountability. Students are being traumatized, those
holding positions of
authority are wantonly defying court
orders but the police is yet to lift a
finger.
It is however disturbing that when the students register their
grievances
through peaceful and lawful avenues; the police are
quick to
activate their arsenal to thwart such genuine demands. The police
must
redeem their image and profession. Nyagura must
go on a soul searching
process. Students are the future leaders of this
country; they have been
traumatized for too long. They
deserve peace and a proper learning
environment if the country is to
succeed.
Tabani Moyo
Information
Officer
Phone: +263 4 788 135
Email: crisis-info@zol.co.zw
info@crisis.co.zw
Website: www.crisiszimbabwe.org
"OUR VISION
IS TO SEE A DEMOCRATIC ZIMBABWE"
By Tichaona Sibanda
13 September
2007
Rose Phekani, one of the five Zimbabwean women who went on hunger
strike on
Monday at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedford, was
deported to
Malawi on Wednesday evening. She is now in danger of facing a
lengthy jail
term in a Lilongwe prison for fraudulently acquiring a Malawian
passport.
Newsreel learnt on Thursday that authorities in Malawi have
vowed to
crackdown on all Zimbabweans who get deported to their country for
using
their passports. Its reported authorities there are still furious that
all
Malawians are now being requested to apply for UK visas, because of the
large number of Zimbabweans who were travelling on fake Malawi
passports.
Phekani, together with Maud Lennard Kadango, Faina Manuel
Pondesi, Zandile
Sibanda, and Pauline Chitekeshe are failed asylum seekers
from Zimbabwe who
used Malawian passports to travel to the UK where they
unsuccessfully tried
to apply for refugee status.
The five sent a
petition to the Home Office on Sunday asking to be released
from the holding
centre, complaining that they did not receive adequate
legal representation
during the fast track process under which their
applications for political
asylum were considered.
Speaking to Newsreel on Thursday, Kadango said
they were all saddened by
Rose's deportation. She had to be handcuffed and
physical forced onto the
plane after she tried to take off her clothes in
protest at being deported.
She was accompanied on the flight 'home' via
Nairobi, Kenya by two officials
from the immigration department.
The
remaining four are still on hunger strike although there are concerns
about
Pondesi who is reported to be very weak. The Home Office has been
deporting
failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe who travelled to the UK using
either
Malawian or South African passports. Those who claimed refugee status
using
Zimbabwe passports and were denied are not being deported.
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 13th September
2007
Last night I, and thousands of other Zimbabweans had a chance to
briefly put
the hardships of living in this broken country behind us for a
few hours as
we watched a young, plucky Zimbabwean cricket team beat the
worlds best in
the form of Australia in the 20/20 competition in South
Africa. It was
thrilling stuff with the man of the match winning the game
with a four on
the second last ball.
The sight of those kids pouring
onto the field and hugging each other and
then taking a lap of honor was
something as was the sight of the entire team
praying on the side of the
field when their immediate jubilation had been
spent. I have said it before
and it is worth repeating we are probably the
most Christian of countries
in the continent.
It reminded me of a cocktail party in London put on by
a firm of commodity
brokers in about 1977. We had just won the CC Cup the
top accolade for
cricket nations in the second league. I was a guest at the
function as Chief
Economist of the Agricultural Marketing Authority and was
talking to some
brokers about maize sales when we were joined by an elderly
man one of the
senior partners who, when he heard where I was from, turned
to me and said
³there is nothing wrong with a country that can play first
class cricket!²
In one sense he is right if we can produce 20 kids who
can play the best
and win and then hug each other and pray together, we must
be doing
something right. If only we could do everything else the same way,
but we do
not and we continue to violate all the rules for a sound
functioning
democratic and prosperous nation. There is nothing wrong with
Zimbabwe, we
have the people, the resources and the knowledge to be a
winning nation but
in an era where world commodity prices are at record
levels and Africa has
started to grow rapidly in economic terms (the
continent will average 6 per
cent growth this year) Zimbabwe remains a
shrinking, impoverished and
disabled country sliding into the category of a
failed State.
The reason we just do not play by the rules.
The
State continues to recklessly print money trillions of dollars every
month
and our currency continues its collapse. Today the local currency is
trading
in some quarters at 350 000 to 1 near the levels reached in June
when the
State tried to buy foreign exchange in the open market for
essential needs.
I suspect the same is happening today.
We have just devalued our official
exchange rate from an effective 16 000
to 1 for the USD to 30 000 to 1.
That is still only 10 per cent of the value
of the US dollar in the open
market. Interest rates are all over the place
you cannot get an interest
bearing deposit rate for money on short term
deposit and long term money
earns about 350 per cent per annum in an
environment where inflation is now
probably about 25 000 per cent. Under
these extreme conditions savings and
capital just evaporate.
The root causes of our collapse are political
the oligarchy who came to
power in 1980 as a result of the liberation war
and negotiations facilitated
by the big nations of the world, hangs onto
power and defends their hold on
power at the expense of every value that
they sought in decades of struggle
against white minority government. They
have failed, but refuse to leave the
field.
They exploit our inherent
character as a Nation our law abiding people and
their open and peaceful
character and abuse these worthy traits to secure
their positions and
privilege. They abuse the people who have built up the
country, robbing them
of their assets and destroying their enterprise and
savings. They behave
like feudal demagogues who think we are all peasants
and serfs, here for
their pleasure and nothing more.
Our greatest enemy is the idea that we
can do nothing about this situation.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Listening to the commentators last
night, time and time again they said,
³Can Zimbabwe really believe they can
beat the Australians?² That was the
key to the match was it possible that
they might imagine that the
invincible might be taken down and defeated? The
answer was yes; it is
possible.
We in the MDC have spent the last 8 years working on a
democratic transition
to a new government and society. We have been denied
that victory three
times by a regime that has simply moved the goal posts;
arbitrarily changed
the rules and bribed the umpires and even when that was
not enough, they
have arranged to beat up the opposite team and intimidate
their players.
When that was not enough they even interfered with the
scoreboard.
Now we have negotiated with the association that governs this
sort of game
in Africa and have an agreement on the rules to be applied to
the next
round. Not ideal, but at least they give us a chance to prevail
this time
round. The question is, do we believe enough in ourselves to think
it can
happen and to go out onto the field still the minnows in this game,
but
ready to win and take the prize back home?
Our greatest threat is
that we have no vision of what the future might be
like. We saw a little of
that last night. The Bible says that a Nation
without a vision dies. That¹s
where we are and we need to break out of the
slough of despond and get back
up and say we can do this. We can become a
winning nation again but it¹s
all up to us.