Green Left Weekly, Australia
Briggs
Bomba
The cruel impact of the Zimbabwean crisis on the lives of ordinary
Zimbabweans can no longer be fully described through terms such as rate of
inflation, percentage unemployment, GDP, and so forth. Today one has to talk
in terms of the complete dehumanisation and social breakdown that is ripping
the nation apart - te breakdown of families, increasing levels of domestic
violence, the violent crime that is getting out of hand and premature deaths
and sickness related to the hopeless situation of abject poverty that the
majority has been condemned to.
The crisis is now eating away at the
very social fabric that defined us as a
people. Families can no longer come
together, even in times of mourning,
because traveling costs have become
prohibitive. So everyone has been
condemned to their own lonely
space.
In the ghettoes, young people whose dreams have been mercilessly
shattered
are now forced to become beasts preying on each other.
Would-have-been
engineers and responsible community members are now thugs
and prostitutes on
the streets gambling with death. So desperate is the
situation that
thousands of mostly young people are braving the
crocodile-infested Limpopo
River for perceived greener pastures, which
mostly turn out to be a
dehumanising nightmare.
On the other hand the
regime of Robert Mugabe is in a state of thoughtless
denial, refusing to
wake up to the unsustainability of the status quo and
childishly hoping that
this crisis can be contained through repression.
To show how completely
removed from reality the regime has become, the
government splashed hundreds
of millions of US dollars on fighter planes and
luxury vehicles. This at a
time when people are desperate with no medicine
in hospitals, food
shortages, perennial fuel crisis and company closures due
to forex
shortages. No wonder why some rightly ask if this is a curse worse
than
Malawi under Hastings Banda; rule by an irrational dictator who lacks
even
the decency to die on time.
The main question today is how to unlock the
current political stalemate and
create a tipping point in favour of masses.
It is in this regard that recent
initiatives through the Christian Alliance
to unite Zimbabwe's progressive
forces in the democratisation and
socioeconomic transformation struggle must
be welcomed as a long overdue
move.
One cannot overemphasise the need to regroup progressive forces to
a common
platform if the democratisation struggle is to move forward. The
Christian
Alliance initiative, which resonates with calls that have been
coming from a
number of quarters, is probably the most important opportunity
yet for a
united democratic front and all efforts must be made to critically
support
it.
Critical support at this stage is indispensable when one
considers the fact
that we have had a plethora of "Broad Alliance"
initiatives that mostly been
stillborn.
Most of these alliances were
exposed when they could not mobilise anything
near a coherent response to
Operation Murambatsvina last year. We must be
able to say what is different
with this new alliance so that it does not
suffer the same fate. This is the
time to ask questions why previous "broad
alliances", some going by that
very name, failed and what must be done now
to create a functional united
front.
There should not even be a question on whether a united front is
necessary.
The undeniable fact in any sincere analysis of the current status
of the
broad opposition in Zimbabwe today is that no opposition group has
the
capacity on its own to create a tipping point.
A fact needs to be
acknowledged that the Movement for Democratic Change is
no longer the lion
that roared in 1999 when the people broadly endorsed the
MDC to carry the
mandate to lead the process of democratisation and tackling
the
socioeconomic crisis.
At that point the MDC became the common platform to
which everyone in the
"democratisation" struggle ultimately channeled their
energies through.
Unions used the MDC chinja maitiro ("change your ways")
slogan at labour
forums, in the student movement back then chinja maitiro
became a war cry at
our rallies, people in civic society were using their
phones and time to
inform on MDC activities and mobilise support, a lot of
groups were even
selling cards recruiting people.
This built a
whirlpool of resistance that handed Mugabe a defeat in the
referendum and
almost won the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Today's reality is a
completely different scenario. Especially after the
2002 presidential
elections there has been a steady withdrawal of movements,
organisations and
individuals to their own sectoral platforms.
The split in the MDC was
probably the lowest point along this withdrawal
path as the "spagetti mix"
of 1999 came face to face with contradictions in
its ingredients. It is
therefore clear that a united front that regroups all
progressive forces is
critically important in moving forward the
democratisation process. A united
front built in good faith by all
stakeholders has the potential create a
tipping point and unleash another
massive wave of resistance that can take
down Mugabe through the ballot, the
bible, or toyi toyi on the streets.
Whichever way.
The biggest crisis of broad alliance politics in Zimbabwe
is that most of
the times it is not even top-to-bottom but just a top-level
alliance. The
grassroots is always left out and the broad alliance ends up
being reduced
to a meeting of the top leadership of a few organisations.
Such a broad
alliance obviously is extremely handicapped as a vehicle to
advance the
transformation agenda.
To build a massive wave of
resistance you need a mass alliance and therefore
the question of mass
grassroots engagement is of vital importance. A
constant question that must
be asked is, where are the people? So a
deliberate process of going back to
the masses and consulting on the
stalemate itself and the process of moving
forward is crucial
A new united front mandate and commitment must be
sought from the people
through a thorough process of national consultation,
which at the same time
works to effectively remobilise people. This
consultation must be at the
scale of the 'Vote No' campaign involving
community-based processes and
engaging all stakeholders. Such a consultation
is different from rallies. In
fact it cannot be done at rallies. Because you
want people to speak, take
responsibility and own the process. So there has
to be small community and
shopfloor-based meetings. Rallies can only be the
culmination.
Building a united front now must not be confused as meaning
the same thing
as uniting the split factions of the MDC. The only viable
united front is
one that creates enough space for all progressive forces to
make a
contribution. And yes, including those in or, that were in, ZANU-PF
(Mugabe's
party, Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic
Front).
This must include all progressive faith-based organisations and
the
progressive churches, labour, community-based organizations, women's
movements and organisations like Women of Zimbabwe Arise, youth
organisations, HIV/AIDS groups, residents, cross-border traders, artists,
students, social forum constituencies, civic groups, opposition political
parties and unaffiliated individuals.
A strong commitment from the
leadership in all these sectors to forge an
alliance and mobilise their
constituencies as part of a united front program
can create the tipping
point and tilt the game in favour of the democratic
forces. And obviously
such a united front can only work on the basis of
democratic principles and
this is why some have been playing with phrases
like "united democratic
front". The progressive church in particular can
play a key role in
facilitating this regroupment.
Beyond the commitment to forge a united
front, the next important thing is
the ideological orientation such a
formation assumes. While acknowledging
the fact that broad alliance
politics, by definition, ultimately implies
compromising on one's maximum
program to a common denominator, to mobilise
the wider masses progressive
forces need to reclaim the radical-democratic
agenda that informed the
massive struggles we waged in '90s culminating in
the formation of the
MDC.
While terms like legitimacy, governance, and constitution are
legitimate,
the ordinary man and woman on the street interprets the crisis
more in terms
of its socioeconomic havoc. Thus we must articulate our agenda
in terms of
questions of hunger, poverty, wages, availability of
anti-retroviral drugs,
affordable sanitary pads, student grants, water and
electricity cut-offs,
the collapse of municipal services, harassment of
cross-border traders and
vendors, food shortages, transport costs, price
increases, access to land
and so on.
This is the language that will
resonate with people's day-to-day lives and
together with civil liberties
must form the basis of a People's Charter.
But such an agenda for
socioeconomic transformation cannot be stated in
abstract. The world over we
now know how ESAP (the Economic Structural
Adjustment Program) and
neoliberalism condemns the vast majority of the
people to suffer in
conditions of desperate poverty. Thus progressive forces
need to make a
commitment to an anti-ESAP agenda if we are serious in
wanting to resolve
poverty. This fundamentally means that we must advocate
from this very
moment for a people-centered economy.
Lastly there is a question on
tactics and strategies. Sometimes you get a
sense that people are now
begging for talks with Mugabe. While we must
welcome anything positive that
can come out of talks, we need to know that
Mugabe never surrenders anything
on a silver platter and has no ears for
words like "please".
So, in
order to create a tipping point, there is no option besides
rebuilding
united mass resistance, starting with small confidence rebuilding
measures.
As a united democratic front people can then democratically
decide on
whether to talk, participate in an election or engage in an active
boycott.
Despite Mugabe's claims of recent reincarnation as a ghost with the
doctor-certified bones of a 28 year old, the old man is at his most
vulnerable.
His regime is completely clueless on how to contain the
economic meltdown,
his party is riddled in corruption and gangster
factionalism, and his
traditional social base including war veterans and the
peasantry is now
questioning its loyalty. Hence this is the time to organise
and prepare for
a decisive challenge.
Shinga Mushandi Shinga / Qina
Msebenzi Qina! - History is on our side, We
shall overcome!
[Briggs
Bomba is a social justice activist; he can be contacted at
briggsbomba@yahoo.com.]
From
Green Left Weekly, September 27, 2006.
Zim Online
Monday 25 September
2006
HARARE - At least 330 candidates from both
factions of Zimbabwe 's
splintered opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party have been
disqualified from next month's rural district council
polls after they
failed to produce clearance letters from village headmen in
their areas.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman of the main wing of the
MDC led by
Morgan Tsvangirai, said nomination court officials had last week
demanded at
the last minute that their candidates produce letters from
village headmen
and chiefs to confirm that they lived in their
areas.
A large majority of traditional chiefs and village headmen
are
sympathetic to the ruling ZANU PF party and the government, which
provide
them with salaries and other pecks, such as electricity for their
homesteads.
For example, in Shamva in Mashonaland Central, a
ZANU PF stronghold,
village headmen had refused to grant the letters to MDC
candidates resulting
in several candidates failing to meet the nomination
court deadline.
"The party has already written to the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
(ZEC) raising serious reservations over these glaring
irregularities," said
Chamisa.
Chamisa also claimed that in
some cases opposition candidates had been
disqualified "because nomination
court officials insisted that their
passport-size photographs (which are
mandatory for those contesting the
polls) were not clear."
Officials from ZEC were not immediately available for comment on the
matter
last night.
A rival faction of the MDC led by prominent academic,
Arthur
Mutambara, however succeeded in fielding 294 candidates mostly in
rural
Matabeleland North and South provinces. The party won two seats
uncontested
in Nkayi and Mangwe districts.
But in the Midlands
district of Zhombe, five candidates from the
Mutambara-led MDC were also
disqualified in seven of the contested wards
while another four candidates
were disqualified in the ZANU PF stronghold of
Mhondoro and Mberengwa
district.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, the deputy secretary
general of the
Mutambara-led MDC, could not be reached for comment on the
matter last
night.
The MDC has in the past accused the ZEC,
which was appointed by
President Robert Mugabe last year, of lacking
sufficient bite to make
independent decisions.
A number of
electoral challenges filed by the MDC after controversial
parliamentary
elections last year were all ruled in ZANU PF's favour raising
doubts over
its independence in the face of glaring electoral
discrepancies. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 25 September
2006
KARIBA - Opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party
legislator for Kwekwe constituency, Blessing
Chebundo and Kariba executive
mayor John Houghton, were arrested at the
weekend for holding a meeting with
supporters without permission from the
police.
Chebundo and Houghton, the only white mayor in Zimbabwe,
were arrested
together with 15 other MDC officials. They were still in
police custody by
late Sunday afternoon.
Nelson Chamisa, who is
spokesman of the main wing of the MDC led by
Morgan Tsvangirai, said the
party was battling to get its activists released
from jail.
He
said: "We are running around trying to get lawyers to get them
released. The
police are charging them with holding a meeting without
authority but we
believe it is purely harassment as the regime is panicking
as we mobilise
the party rank and file in preparation for mass action."
Tsvangirai
and his MDC have promised to stage mass protests to force
President Robert
Mugabe to accept sweeping political reforms.
Police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena said he was unaware of the arrest of
the opposition officials and
was therefore unable to comment on the matter.
Under the
government's draconian Public Order and Security Act,
Zimbabweans are banned
from meeting in public in groups of three or more to
discuss politics
without permission from the police.
The MDC accuses the police of
using the law selectively to prevent the
opposition party from meeting
Zimbabweans to market its programmes and
policies.
The police,
who have used the security Act to ban several MDC rallies
but have never
banned meetings by President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF
party, deny
using the law to cripple the opposition. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 25 September
2006
HARARE - Several of Zimbabwe's biggest
pro-democracy and human rights
groups boycotted a weekend conference to lay
out the groundwork for the
setting up of a statutory human rights commission
in protest against what
they says is escalating repression by the
state.
Among other key groups that boycotted the United Nations
facilitated
meeting are the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwe
Doctors for
Human Rights, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the
Media Institute
of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter, the National
Constitutional Assembly
and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
Some officials of the groups that boycotted said they saw no reason
to
discuss the creation of such a commission because there was no political
will to uphold human rights given the way state security agencies brutally
assaulted and tortured ZCTU leaders two weeks ago for attempting to stage
demonstrations against worsening economic conditions.
"There is
no basis to discuss the setting up of the human rights
commission (because)
the government is not serious about the commission
considering the way ZCTU
leaders were arrested and treated by the police,"
said Rashweat Mkundu,
director of MISA-Zimbabwe, among those that boycotted
the Thursday to Sunday
conference.
A ZCTU official said his group had not sent
representatives because it
feared the government would not allow the
proposed Zimbabwe Human Rights
Commission to operate independently but would
seek to use the commission to
cover up on human rights abuses in the
country.
"They (the government) just want to set up the commission
so that they
will be able to use it to block groups such as the African
Commission for
People's and Human Rights Commission (ACHPR) from coming here
to probe human
rights violations," said the official.
But in a
sign of division within the independent human rights
movement, the National
Association of Non-governmental Organisations (NANGO)
and other groups
attended the Thursday to Sunday conference, apparently
hoping that by
co-operating they could be able to influence how the proposed
Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission will function.
"We are sabotaging ourselves. We
are just trying to iron out issues
and not to rubber stamp the setting up of
the commission," said Fambai
Ngirande, the spokesperson of NANGO, the
largest umbrella association of the
country's pro-democracy and civic
bodies.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is spearheading the
formation
of the state rights commission, was not available for comment on
the matter.
President Robert Mugabe's administration, accused by
the ACHPR and
other international bodies of trampling on citizens' rights,
says its
proposed rights commission shall have the autonomy to probe human
rights
violations and act on findings. - ZimOnline
IOL
September 24
2006 at 03:49PM
Harare - Zimbabwe has lost half of its public
health professionals in
the last few years and is the African country
hardest hit by a "brain drain"
driven largely by economic hardship, a state
newspaper reported on Sunday.
Zimbabwe's official Sunday Mail
newspaper said skilled health staff
have migrated mostly to Western Europe
and some neighbouring African
countries in search of better salaries and
better work conditions.
"Zimbabwe is the country hardest hit by the
brain drain on the
continent, resulting in a loss of 50 percent of key
professionals within the
public health institutions," the Sunday Mail said
quoting a report by the
state Health Services
Board.
"So critical is the situation that junior
doctors and inexperienced
nurses form the bulk of personnel manning most of
the institutions," it
said.
The embattled southern African
country is struggling with a severe
economic crisis many critics blame on
President Robert Mugabe's government.
The health sector is
struggling to function amid the crisis, which has
brought shortages of food,
fuel and foreign currency along with water and
power cuts and an inflation
rate of over 1,200 percent.
The government's five major hospitals
were operating with 36 senior
doctors instead of 145, 72 specialist
consultants instead of 189, and two
specialist pathologists out of eight
required, the newspaper said.
By last December there was up to 89
percent vacancies for laboratory
technicians, 44 percent for senior nurses
and 88.4 percent for primary care
nurses, it added.
An
estimated three million Zimbabweans - a quarter of the national
population -
have sought jobs and homes abroad, many of them illegally, as a
result of
the political and economic crisis blamed on Mugabe's increasingly
controversial rule.
But Mugabe, 82, who has ruled the country
since independence from
Britain in 1980, rejects charges he has misruled
Zimbabwe.
He blames the economic crisis on sabotage by his
opponents and Western
sanctions imposed over allegations of political
repression and land
transfers.
ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE
24th September 2006
We have
just received the following disturbing report. The incident took
place on
the 6th and 7th September 2006. We have informed National Parks and
the
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources but have had no response
from
them whatsoever.
SAFARI HUNTING IN OUR PART OF THE NEW GREAT AFRICA
TRANSFRONTIER PARK.
Local tourists who were booked in at Sumaweni camp at
Buffalo bend in the
Southwest of GONA RE ZHOU were refused the camp and had
to move to another
camp close by, because a safari company VICTORIA FALLS
HUNTERS had been
allocated their camp.
The tourists asked the
receptionist at Mabalahuta why and what was going on,
he answered that the
safari outfit had arrived a few days before with their
client Mr. Edd
Chitziva from Victoria Falls to hunt in the park. He went on
to say that they
VICTORIA FALLS HUNTERS had connections in government and
that the warden was
ordered to make the change in the camp arrangements. The
person that they
were talking to was very apologetic and helpful, so the
tourists left for
their accommodation.
The next morning the tourists saw two safari
vehicles leave the camp with
people on the back of the vehicle holding
rifles, a few minutes later they
heard shots fired from a heavy caliber rifle
which made them very nervous
because it was so close to the camp. The
tourists then decided to pack up
and leave, whilst they were doing this three
more shots were fired with one
bullet ricocheting some where close by. They
hurriedly finished packing and
then made their way over to the offices at
Mabalahuta where they asked to
see the warden. They described what was going
on to the warden who was very
apologetic and seemed to be very embarrassed
about the hunting that was
going on in our part of the Transfrontier Park, he
went on to say that he
had no say in the matter at all. When the tourist
mentioned that this was
part of the new Africa Transfrontier Park the warden
indicated that they
should not talk about what they had seen.
The tourists
then asked for their money back, this was complied with minus
the value of
one nights stay.
Local tourists visiting the Chipinda pools side of the
park are reporting
seeing snares at Benji Dam and at
Fishounds.
THIS IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY AND IS UNACCEPTABLE.
10
days later, local tourists from Chiredzi visiting Gonarezhou through
Chipinda Pools on the weekend of the 16th and 17th September 2006 went down
to Chinguli. During one of their game drives, opposite the Nyahomgwe River
confluence with the Lundi River, they came across a well used vehicle track
that they had not seen before. They decided to go down it as part of their
game drive and after a few hundred metres they came across a camp occupied
by National Parks personnel. They noticed there was quite a lot of meat
hanging in the trees drying and they asked about it. The spokesman for the
camp explained that they were an anti poaching unit and they had found 2
impala in snares and this was the meat from them. The tourists said that the
meat they saw drying was a lot more than just 2 impala. The next day when
the tourists passed the same road, they found that it had been blocked off
with dead trees and scrub, obviously to prevent anyone else from using
it.
It has also been reported that there are 2 free lance professional
hunters
who are hunting for A2 settlers on a ranch in the Mwenezi area
despite the
fact that the owner of the ranch, who lives in South Africa has
a court
interdict protecting his property. The two hunters are hunting for
an outfit
whose name keeps cropping up with regard to unethical hunting
practices.
Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation
Task Force
Phone 263 4 336710
Fax 263 4
339065
Mobile 263 11 603 213
Email galorand@mweb.co.zw
www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
www.zimbabwe-art.com
David Coltart is being interviewed on BBC Hard Talk the week beginning Oct
2 on BBC world.
There is a focus on Zimbabwe so it may be worthwhile
watching from now until
then. Jonathan Moyo has already been
interviewed.
New Zimbabwe
By
Cris Chinaka
Last updated: 09/25/2006 04:39:37
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert
Mugabe's ruling party is considering delaying
presidential elections in 2008
and holding the vote with general
parliamentary polls in 2010, state radio
reported on Sunday.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation quoted Nathan
Shamuyarira, information
secretary for Mugabe's Zanu PF party, as saying
although discussions were at
preliminary stages, the party was looking at
the possibility of postponing
the 2008 poll in order to consolidate the
voting calendar.
"The ruling Zanu PF party is consulting party members
and will soon lobby
parliament over the possibility of holding joint
presidential and
parliamentary elections in 2010, a senior official has
revealed," the ZBC
said.
"Comrade Nathan Shamuyarira said the party
was likely to push for the joint
presidential-parliamentary elections to be
held in 2010."
Shamuyarira was not available for further
details.
Officials of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) could
also not be reached for immediate comment, but has in the past
said it would
oppose any attempt to change the electoral
calendar.
The MDC has tried unsuccessfully to press Zanu PF to accept
inter-party
talks on Zimbabwe's crisis over disputed elections, security and
media laws
and constitutional reforms, with Mugabe saying the MDC must raise
its
problems in parliament.
A change in the electoral calendar would
require a change in the
constitution. The ruling party enjoys a technical
two-thirds majority in
parliament so it can pass such amendments
easily.
Shamuyarira did not say whether Mugabe, 82, and in power since
the southern
African country's independence from Britain in 1980, would
remain in office
to 2010 or hand over to someone when his current six-year
presidential term
ends in March 2008.
Mugabe has previously suggested
he will retire in 2008, but has not been
categorical about the decision -- a
point which analysts say means that the
veteran Zimbabwean leader is keeping
his options open.
There has been speculation over the past year that
Mugabe might hang onto
power until 2010 or retire in 2008 but only under a
law allowing his chosen
successor in Zanu PF to hold power for a couple of
years before facing the
opposition in a 2010 general
election.
Political analysts say Mugabe and Zanu PF fear an electoral
challenge amid a
deepening economic crisis many blame on his government, and
might hope a
delay would allow time for improvement in an economy struggling
with the
world's highest inflation rate of over 1,200 percent.
The
opposition charges that Mugabe's government has robbed it of victory in
three major elections in the last six years, and says his government has
become more repressive in the face of the economic meltdown.
Mugabe
denies the charge, and in turn accuses the MDC of being a puppet of
Western
powers seeking to overthrow his party over its controversial
seizures of
white-owned farms to redistribute to landless blacks. - Reuters
The Herald (Harare)
September 23,
2006
Posted to the web September 24, 2006
Itai
Musengeyi
Cairo
PRESIDENT Mugabe arrived here yesterday on his way
home after attending the
61st session of the United Nations General Assembly
in New York.
In New York, Cde Mugabe addressed the UN General Assembly
where he lambasted
Britain and the United States for frustrating development
efforts in
Zimbabwe through the illegal economic sanctions which they have
imposed on
Harare.
The President attended a farewell reception for
outgoing UN secretary
general Mr Kofi Annan hosted by Ghanaian President Mr
John Kufuor.
Mr Annan leaves the UN in December after 10 years at the
helm of the world
body.
He also held bilateral talks with his
Tanzanian counterpart Mr Jakaya
Kikwete that focussed on co-operation
between the two countries.