http://www.newspress.com
EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated
Press Writer
September 24, 2008 5:15 PM
UNITED NATIONS
(AP) - Zimbabwe's president said Wednesday he sees no
obstacles to carrying
out a power-sharing agreement with rivals and hopes it
will lead the West to
ease sanctions, which he blamed for devastating the
country's
economy.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the 84-year-old
Robert Mugabe was
sharp, quick and animated - and made clear he is
determined to remain
president despite what he said were efforts by Britain
and the United States
to oust him.
''They are waiting for a day when
this man, this evil man, called Robert
Mugabe is no longer in control,'' he
said. ''And I don't know when that day
is coming.''
So he has no
thoughts of resigning?
''No - or a thought of dying,'' Mugabe
chuckled.
Mugabe, who is to address the U.N. General Assembly on
Thursday, dismissed
Western reports that the Sept. 15 power-sharing deal
could fall apart
''because I don't know of any hitch.''
Under the
agreement, Mugabe remains president but is supposed to cede some
of the
powers he has wielded for nearly three decades in the southern
African
country. Long-simmering and bitter differences as well as the
nation's
economic collapse, though, have put the deal under intense
pressure.
Mugabe said Wednesday the only outstanding issue is
deciding on four of the
31 Cabinet posts, and the negotiations are
continuing in Harare while he is
in New York. He declined to say which posts
are still being discussed.
''Every one of us is actually positive about
the agreement, or the need to
cement the agreement and make it work,''
Mugabe said.
''I don't see any reason why we can't work together as
Zimbabweans,'' he
said. ''We are all sons of the soil, as we say, and the
differences arise
purely from own conceptions of what Zimbabwe should be and
what the
government of Zimbabwe should be.''
Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai won the most votes in March presidential
polling, but not enough
to avoid a runoff against Mugabe. An onslaught of
violence against
Tsvangirai's supporters led him to drop out of the
presidential runoff and
Mugabe was declared the overwhelming winner of the
second vote, which was
widely denounced as a sham.
More than 100 opposition supporters were
killed in the violence, thousands
of people were beaten up and suffered
broken limbs, and tens of thousands
were forced from their
homes.
Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in
1980, and
Tsvangirai have been enemies for a decade. Tsvangirai has been
jailed,
beaten, tortured and tried for treason - charges that were dismissed
in
court.
But Mugabe made clear Wednesday that he was willing to
share power with
Tsvangirai, who would become prime minister under the
agreement, leading a
council of ministers responsible for government
policies and reporting to a
Cabinet headed by Mugabe.
Still, Mugabe
did not spell out who would have the final say if there was a
major
disagreement. And while he repeated several times that all parties
want the
agreement to work, Mugabe dismissed Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic
Change as a creation of Britain's three major parties and
beholden to its
government.
Mugabe described Zimbabwe's government as a pyramid with the
president at
the top, but he said ''the president never settles on the
matter alone,''
and always works with the vice presidents.
''And now
that we have a prime minister we rope him in and we discuss in the
presidency, or whatever we call it, together, and we look at the issues and
see what solutions can be applied to any problem that confronts us,'' Mugabe
said.
The power-sharing deal was mediated during months of
negotiations by Thabo
Mbeki, who has been forced to step down from the South
African presidency by
the country's ruling party.
Mugabe said it was
up to the Southern African Development Community to
decide whether Mbeki
continued as mediator. But the Zimbabwean president
offered praise for
Mbeki, saying he has been ''quite excellent'' and that
''he's really a man
who we praise.''
''There is a man who has been in the seat for so many
years as the father of
the African National Congress and democracy in one
stroke pulls him down,''
Mugabe said of Mbeki. ''Democracy without morality
is no democracy for
all.''
Tsvangirai has repeatedly said he does not
want a legal witch hunt in
Zimbabwe, but that he believes some kind of truth
and reconciliation process
is necessary to allow healing after years of
violence and repression. Mugabe
disagreed.
''At the moment, the fight
between us has been one between Britain and
ourselves - Britain, of course,
using as their front the opposition,''
Mugabe said. ''So the British and the
Americans, they've got to be
reconciled to us.''
Western nations, who
have shunned Mugabe's government and whose aid and
investment are sorely
needed, have reacted cautiously to the coalition
agreement. They have so far
stayed on the sidelines, waiting to see whether
Tsvangirai will emerge as
the main decision-maker. Millions of dollars in
aid are expected to flow in
if Mugabe actually shares power.
Mugabe said Wednesday the West should
now begin removing ''demonic''
sanctions, which have targeted individuals
and companies seen to be
supporting his regime. They were tightened after
elections this spring and
the European Union recently added an arms
ban.
''We don't expect investment from countries that are hostile,''
Mugabe said.
''They can keep their investment, but we would hope in the
first place that
sanctions would be lifted. There is no reason for imposing
sanctions on
Zimbabwe at all. There has never been any reason for it, you
see, except
hostility.''
European Union foreign ministers have
welcomed the power-sharing deal but
have said that Mugabe must prove he is
willing to restore democratic rule
before EU sanctions can be
lifted.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate even by the
official figure
of at 11 million percent, and independent economists put it
much higher.
Critics have linked Zimbabwe's economic slide to Mugabe's
2000 order that
commercial farms be seized from whites. Mugabe says the land
reform program
was meant to help poor blacks and blames the country's
economic collapse on
Western sanctions.
Food, fuel, hospital supplies
and other necessities are scarce as prices
skyrocket in the region's former
breadbasket. And millions of Zimbabweans,
including doctors, teachers,
business owners and others with important
skills, have fled the
country.
Can Zimbabwe return to its former economic status in five or 10
years?
''Yes, if only the West can leave us alone, you will certainly see
us come
up,'' Mugabe said. ''It will take us time because we have lost some
time
because of sanctions.''
While critics have complained about
Zimbabwe's human rights record, Mugabe
said the African Union and southern
African leaders have not. When asked
whether he would allow Human Rights
Watch and Amnesty International to come
in, he replied: ''Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha! Let them keep out.''
Mugabe also dismissed calls from those who
say he should be tried for human
rights abuses.
''I'm sure they
forget I am not Mr. Bush who invaded Iraq ... Probably they
mistake me for
him. Isn't that the man who should be tried before I am
tried?''
---
Associated Press Writer Brian Murphy contributed
to this report.
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek)
PRESS RELEASE
24 September 2008
Posted to the web 25
September 2008
On 16 September 2008, Peter Muchengeti, the regional
chairman of the
National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations
(NANGO) in the
Midlands Province, was freed after being held on charges of
communicating
falsehoods, owing to lack of evidence in the
matter.
Prosecutor Katherine Chisvo told Gweru Magistrate Irvine Mhlanga
that the
state was withdrawing its case against Muchengeti owing to lack of
evidence.
The state had argued that Muchengeti had allegedly told
Voice of America's
(VOA) Studio 7 in an interview broadcast from Washington,
D.C. that "six
bodies" had been discovered in Matshekandumba village at the
30-kilometre
peg along the Kwekwe-Gweru highway. The state dismissed the
allegations as
"wholly false". Following the accusations, on 18 July police
in Gweru raided
the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET) offices and
arrested and
detained Muchengeti for three days.
The police also
impounded office equipment amid reports that Muchengeti had
also been found
in possession of broadcasting equipment.
Muchengeti, who was represented
by lawyer Reginald Chidawaenzi, informed the
court that he had been
subjected to inhuman treatment and tortured while he
was in custody. The
state said it did not have any reports of the alleged
torture. Muchengeti,
however, said he had instructed his lawyer to institute
a civil suit against
state security agents and the Ministry of Home Affairs
for the torture he
endured at the hands of the police.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
25th
Sep 2008 02:02 GMT
By
Lovemore Moyo
MADAM Chairperson, delegates, friends and comrades,
thank you for the honour
of addressing you.
I bring you greetings
from my colleagues in Zimbabwe, from Morgan Tsvangirai
and my Comrades in
the MDC.
You are our sister party. You have been with us in our struggle.
Your
solidarity has sustained us.
Our people are hungry, angry and
traumatised. Our people have been forced to
flee from our beloved country;
millions driven into exile through poverty,
hunger, unemployment and
violence. Our people want change.
The torture and murder of our MDC party
activists by the state has been
terrifying. Many of our comrades were killed
this year in a wave of
brutality unleashed during the election campaigns.
The March and June
election campaigns have come and gone, but our people
have continued to live
in fear of brutality from state agents. Thousands of
Zimbabweans were made
homeless having been displaced by the terror campaign
waged against us.
But things are moving.
On September 11, 2008 a
historic power sharing agreement was signed in
Harare. This deal presents us
with a chance for a positive change. We have
always had faith. We have
always had hope. But now at last our hope is
turning into a reality. I was
one of the negotiators in the mediation and I
can tell you it was a very
tough process.
We felt we were confronting a conspiracy to block, at any
price, the
democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe as expressed on March
29, 2008. Or
to reverse the gains we had so clearly won. But eventually we
reached a
position we felt we could put our names to.
The agreement
is not perfect. The process is not complete. But we are
committed and
certainly, from our side, we're determined to succeed. It is
vital for the
people of Zimbabwe that we do succeed. It is vital for the
people of Africa,
and it is indeed vital for democracy that we succeed.
Personal vanity and
political greed have ruined too many economies in
Africa. And ruined
economies mean ruined lives. Our resources have been
plundered by an elite
with no regard for the future.
Your theme this afternoon is 'Britain in
the World'. There can be no finer
example of what Britain can do in the
world than your support for democracy
and human rights in Zimbabwe. When, as
a cynical means of political control
by the Mugabe regime, our people were
being starved you sent massive
humanitarian support. We thank you for
that.
I want to thank you all on behalf of MDC and the people of Zimbabwe
for
walking side by side, speaking for and on behalf of our suffering
people,
and for your solidarity in our struggle for freedom. What you do
here
matters to us out there.
I want to recognise men and women among
you who have dedicated and spent
precious amounts of their time working with
the people of Zimbabwe. To us
they are heroes. We salute them. I should
mention specially one of your own
MPs, Kate Hoey, who braved arrest and
ill-treatment to come and visit us
inside Zimbabwe several
times.
Above all I want to thank Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his
personal
commitment to our struggle. He spoke out boldly against the bad
governance
and brutality of Mugabe's regime. I know the Prime Minister and
his
government have made Zimbabwe a priority and we will be for ever
grateful.
When the people of Zimbabwe felt they had no voice in the world
you spoke
for us - at the UN, in the EU and in many other fora. We thank you
for that.
It is not easy to fight a dictatorship using democratic means.
But we have
tried - and I dare to hope we have prevailed. For too long in
Africa
politicians have used guns. It is a tribute to the leadership of
Morgan
Tsvangirai that in Zimbabwe we have resisted that. Others use
violence and
the threat of violence to terrorise and coerce the
people.
Our struggle is a democratic one. We believe in the people's
power.
My election on August 25 2008 as Speaker of the House of Assembly
was a
historic moment; I am the first Speaker since independence in 1980 not
to
have come from ZanuPF. This victory in Parliament reaffirmed the will of
the
people as expressed in the 29th March elections when they overwhelmingly
voted for the MDC. We will use our leadership in Parliament to promote
democratic accountability and to make laws for the good of all
Zimbabweans.
I was born in 1965, the year Ian Smith declared UDI and set
up his illegal
regime in the then Rhodesia. When I was twelve I crossed into
Botswana and
made my way to Zambia to join Joshua Nkomo's liberation army. I
went to war
as a boy freedom fighter. I fought for freedom then and I'm
still fighting
now.
Muthe, the village where I was born and grew up
in Matobo was completely
burnt to ashes during the liberation war. When
Rhodesian forces came looking
for so-called terrorists local people would
direct them to our village. My
family has a liberation war history and I am
proud of that.
Ziimbabwe's struggle for freedom has been the story of my
life.
So today you are thinking of 'Britain in the World'. But I am
thinking of
Zimbabwe in the World, a new Zimbabwe, a prosperous Zimbabwe,
and democratic
Zimbabwe. We look to our friends and comrades in the UK and
around the world
to help us rebuild our economy and institutions. We look
forward to renewing
the links that have been broken and to being welcomed
back into the
Commonwealth family.
Prime Minister your international
leadership and support for democracy in
Africa will always be celebrated and
remembered. I thank you.
Hon. Lovemore Moyo MP
National Chairman of
the Movement for Democratic Change and Speaker of the
House of Assembly,
Zimbabwe Address to the Labour Party Conference,
Manchester, UK -
22nd
September 2008
http://www.voanews.com
By Patience Rusere & Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
24
September 2008
Political violence is on the rise again in
Zimbabwe despite the signature
less than two weeks ago of an agreement to
establish a unity government in
which power would be shared by the
long-ruling ZANU-PF party of President
Robert Mugabe and the Movement for
Democratic Change, now in majority in
parliament, MDC officials
said.
The MDC formation led by party founder Morgan Tsvangirai,
slated to become
prime minister in the new government, issued a statement
saying there's been
a resurgence of violence against its supporters by
ZANU-PF militia members
and other militants.
The MDC grouping said
dozens of its supporters have been assaulted, turned
out of their homes or
seen them burned by militants of the former ruling
Tsvangirai MDC
formation spokesman Nelson Chamisa told reporter Patience
Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that such attacks run counter to the
spirit of
cooperation in which the power-sharing agreement was signed on
Sept.
15.
Some of that violence has been taking place in Mbare, a populous
Harare
suburb where according to MDC sources some 61 families were attacked
by
ZANU-PF militia members in full view of police at the Matapi station, who
took no action.
Members of those families were attempting to reclaim
their homes from which
they were expelled in June amidst election-related
violence, but met with
resistance despite being accompanied by a court
officer and the Mbare member
of parliament.
Witnesses said two
truckloads of ZANU-PF militia including the notorious
Chipangano gang
associated with ZANU-PF invaded the police station singing
songs denouncing
the MDC and beating party members while the police
passively looked
on.
ZANU-PF youth militia evicted MDC supporters from houses owned by the
city
council in the Mbare, Nenyere and Matapi flats and the so-called Joburg
Lines. A magistrate in Mbare recently issued an order supporting the evicted
tenants' claim to their homes.
VOA was unable to obtain comment
from the police or ZANU-PF officials.
Mbare Member of Parliament Piniel
Denga of the MDC Tsvangirai formation told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that
officers at the Matapi police station,
instead of taking action to halt the
assaults, accused him of inciting
people and sought to arrest him.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=4727#more-4727
September 24, 2008
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO - Victims of political violence during the run-up to
Zimbabwe's
June 27 presidential runoff elections have demanded the immediate
prosecution of perpetrators of violence.
The demand comes amid
reports that the police are still unwilling to arrest
the
perpetrators.
Some the victims from Masvingo in the southern part of the
country yesterday
thronged Masvingo central police station to make fresh
reports as pressure
mounts on the government to bring to book all the
perpetrators of violence.
Some the victims lost their relatives as well
as property during a bloody
campaign in the run-up to the presidential
election runoff in June in which
President Robert Mugabe was declared winner
after MDC presidential candidate
Morgan Tsvangirayi withdrew from the
race.
Tsvangirai cited, among other things, widespread violence against
his
supporters as the reason for his withdrawal; he said the situation
prevailing then was not conducive for a free and fair election.
A
spokesman for the victims Charles Muzenda, whose house was set on fire in
Mwenezi during the run-up to the presidential election, said the victims
were demanding nothing but justice.
"We are here at the police
station to make fresh reports because we want the
perpetrators of violence
to be brought to book," said Muzenda, who is the
MDC organising secretary in
Mwenezi district.
"What makes us angry is that some of the perpetrators
of violence are still
moving around freely while we know that they killed
innocent people in broad
daylight."
"We are calling upon all the
authorities, despite the power-sharing
agreement between the country's two
main political parties, to ensure that
the perpetrators of violence during
the run- up to the polls are prosecuted.
"The police told us that we must
wait until the power-sharing deal has been
implemented in full; they say
that is when our cases will be entertained".
Police in Masvingo yesterday
confirmed that victims of the political
violence were besieging the central
police station in numbers to make fresh
reports.
"We are telling the
victims to wait until the power-sharing deal has been
implemented as we do
not know whether to arrest the perpetrators or not,"
said a policeman at
Masvingo central who requested anonymity.
Zimbabwe's presidential
election runoff was marred by state-sponsored
political violence which
resulted in the death of over 200, while thousands
were maimed or displaced
while their property was destroyed.
In Masvingo province alone, about 15
people were killed, most of them from
Mwenezi district, where Zanu-PF
supporters, including soldiers, were
brutalising civilians with
impunity.
Human rights groups have called for the prosecution of
perpetrators of
violence arguing that the country would remain disunited if
the offenders
were allowed to go scot-free.
The power-sharing
agreement, engineered by ousted South African president
Thabo Mbeki under
the auspices of SADC, is silent on criminal or restorative
justice.
http://www.voanews.com
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
24
September 2008
A group of Zimbabwean doctors are urging the
country's forthcoming
power-sharing government to initiate an "urgent,
coordinated and
comprehensive response" to provide safe water and address
deterioration of
sanitation systems to prevent disease.
The Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for Human Rights said access to safe
drinking water
and adequate sanitation are not privileges but basic human
rights.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa told the
state-controlled Herald
newspaper last week that 11 people have died of
cholera, most of them in
Harare satellite town Chitungwiza.
Dr.
Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment on the call from the
doctors.
The Doctors for Human rights statement said it is not enough
for the
Ministry of Health to respond to outbreaks of disease only after
they have
occurred, saying it must work closely with other ministries
including those
responsible for water resources to ensure conditions are
maintained to
prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases.
The
Zimbabwe National Water Authority has come under fire for failing to
provide
safe drinking water to cities across the nation. ZINWA reportedly
has been
unable to import sufficient supplies of water-treatment chemicals
due to a
lack of foreign exchange.
Chairman Douglas Gwatidzo of the Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for Human
Rights told reporter Carole Gombakomba of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
hospitals are seeing many more people with
diarrheal diseases than officials
acknowledge.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Nokuthula
Sibanda Thursday 25 September 2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe will
next month start delivering 150MW of electricity to
Namibia following the
refurbishment of its Hwange thermal power plant that
was funded by
Windhoek.
Namibia, a close ally of Prersident Robert Mugabe's government,
agreed in
2007 to provide US$40 million for the refurbishment of four
generation units
at the coal-fired Hwange in northern Zimbabwe in return for
power supplies.
Namibia, which imports close to 60 percent of its
electricity requirements,
is currently receiving 120MW under the deal and
which will be increased to
150MW once refurbishment of Hwange is completed
in mid-October.
The power-supply deal will run for five years, according
to Paulinus
Shilamba managing director of Namibain's power utilty,
NamPower.
"The deal is still on track. We will be receiving 150MW when
the final
(fourth) unit is completed mid-October," Shilamba is quoted as
saying by
Namibia's official news agency, African Press Agency.
The
four units at Hwange each generate 120MW at full capacity.
Shilamba said
that the power supply situation in Namibia had become stable
because of
imports from Hwange.
Ironically, Zimbabwe has itself to rely on imports
from Mozambique and other
neighbouring countries who supply about 35 percent
of its requirements.
Zimbabwe makes use of about 2 200MW, but power
plants in the country can
only generate about 1 500MW. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Nqobizitha Khumalo
Thursday 25 September 2008
BULAWAYO
- Zimbabwe has been rated one of the most corrupt countries
in the world,
according to the latest Transparency International corruption
perceptions
index (CPI) ratings.
The 2008 CPI polled 180 countries, the same
number as the 2007 CPI, on
a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly
clean).
Zimbabwe was this year ranked number 166 with a CPI score
of 1.8, a
significant slide from last year when the crisis-sapped nation was
ranked
number 150 with a score of 2.1 points.
Transparency
International, which released its latest CPI ratings on
Tuesday, ranked
Botswana the least corrupt country in Africa at position 36
with a score of
5.8, while continental economic giant South Africa was
ranked number
54.
The CPI measures perceived levels of public-sector corruption
in a
given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and
business surveys.
Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden share the
highest score at 9.3 this
year, followed immediately by Singapore at
9.2.
Zimbabwe is at the bottom of the scale together with
strife-torn
countries like Somalia, Iraq, Myanmar, Chad, Democratic Republic
of the
Congo (DRC) and Haiti.
Countries that have improved
significantly in their corruption level
status over the last year are
Albania, Cyprus, Georgia, Mauritius, Nigeria,
Oman, Qatar, South Korea,
Tonga and Turkey.
Zimbabwe's economic collapse has fuelled
corruption at all levels of
society as many people are forced to resort to
unorthodox means to survive
in a country grappling with world's highest
inflation of more than 11
million percent, shortages of foreign currency,
food, fuel, water and
electricity.
The report, by the global
anti-corruption body, says rampant
corruption in low-income countries
jeopardises global efforts to fight
poverty and threatens to derail the UN
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It also says unchecked levels
of corruption would add US$50 billion or
nearly half of annual global aid
outlays to the cost of achieving the MDG on
water and
sanitation.
Transparency International chairwoman Huguette Labelle
said: "In the
poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference
between life
and death, when money for hospitals or clean water is in
play.
"Stemming corruption requires strong oversight through
parliaments,
law enforcement, independent media and a vibrant civil society.
When these
institutions are weak, corruption spirals out of control with
horrendous
consequences for ordinary people and for justice and equality in
societies
more broadly." - ZimOnline
With a power-sharing deal finally in place, Matthew Hampton asks: Is
it time to go back to Zimbabwe? "That's it. We're finished now," said the person sitting next to me. It is exactly the kind of thing I expected to hear in Zimbabwe. Fortunately,
the Guinea free kick, from just a few yards outside the box, fails to penetrate
the home team's defence. The crowd are elated. Rufaro Stadium, in one of Harare's poorest neighbourhoods, feels far removed
from Zimbabwe's problems. The national side - the appropriately nicknamed
Warriors - is playing a World Cup qualifying match. Their flamboyant attacking
style, so typical of African teams, certainly bodes well for the 2010
competition. We cheer and buy handfuls of peanuts and everything seems normal, although,
of course, it is not. Outside, prices change every other day, food is scarce and
power cuts are common. There are plenty of cars on the road, indicative of a
thriving black market in petrol. In fact, the black market is thriving
everywhere. It's often the only way to survive. It seems odd then, to be on a state-sponsored visit to promote tourism. Is
it even safe? The Foreign Office has given tacit approval: it changed
its travel advice for Zimbabwe at the beginning of the month, warning only
against travel to poor, high-density suburbs and certain rural areas. Whether or
not it is 'right' to do so is less clear. But the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority is
in no doubt. At a press conference in Harare, ZTA chief executive Karikoga Kaseke blasted
the world's media for an unfair portrayal of his country. "If you find blood on the streets of Harare, if you see people shooting,
killing each other, please write that. But we have nothing to hide." Astonishingly, Kaseke claims there was no violence in this year's disputed
presidential election that TV footage was doctored. He also lays the blame for
Zimbabwe's economic problems at the foot of the British government, for using
its influence in the European Union and United Nations to impose sanctions. His rhetoric is every bit as audacious as the Warriors' all- or-nothing
style. Two comments, however, ring true. First, that refusing to visit hurts not
Mugabe or his cronies, but the half a million people who used to be employed by
the country's tourism industry. Secondly, that the real attraction of Zimbabwe is not Victoria Falls or its
national parks, but its people. Wherever we visit on our six-day tour, we
receive a welcome and hospitality that far outstrips what one could expect of
such a beleaguered country. So should you visit? There is no easy answer. Karyn Beattie - a Zimbabwean
living in London - is a disaster management officer at development agency
Tearfund. She pointed out people are already dying of malnutrition and that
famine is a real possibility should the situation worsen. "Obviously, it's hard
to consider going on holiday to somewhere this is going on." But the collapse of the tourism industry, she added, has been a disaster for
ordinary Zimbabweans. "Anyone working in tourism is likely to be supporting four or five other
families with their pay, so visiting provides a real opportunity to help." Travellers may worry their money also helps prop up a corrupt government, but
last week's power-sharing deal at least signals a possibility of change and
gradual loosening of Mugabe's grip on power. For those who decide to go, there are obvious hurdles to overcome, not least
financial. The currency situation is bewilderingly complex, with the exchange
rate fluctuating daily. People queue for hours to get into a bank, and while the
black market is an option for those with foreign currency, it is easy to be
ripped off. In any case, many hotels demand bills are settled in US dollars or South
African rand - credit cards are no use at all. It's an opportunity, at least,
for well connected tour operators to sell fully inclusive packages, reducing the
need for clients to carry around fists full of dollars. Back at Rufaro the final score is 0-0. After a brief respite from their
problems, the crowd filters back into reality, and a group of boys scratches
around the peanut shells, looking for anything edible. For now at least, it's
stalemate for Zimbabwe. For Against
(25 September 2008)
This Day, Nigeria
By C. Don Adinuba,
09.25.2008
African leaders have been over the moon since Monday,
September 15, when the
two antagonistic Zimbabwean rivals, President Robert
Mugabe of the
Zimbabwean African Union, and Morgan Tsvangari of the
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, signed a power sharing deal in
which the former
retains his position as president and commander in chief of
the armed forces
and the latter becomes prime minister with a supervisory
role over the
police. "The political crisis in Zimbabwe has been an African
challenge, and
Africans themselves have resolved it", enthused South African
President
Thambo Mbeki, who brokered the deal and who apparently was making
a veiled
reference to criticisms that he in particular should have
intervened much
earlier so as to nip the crisis in the bud. Not wanting to
be left out in
the credit for the diplomacy leading to the agreement in
Harare, Nigeria's
Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe caused Thisday newspaper to
carry a front page
lead story on Saturday, September 14, 2008, to the effect
that the British
foreign Secretary, David Milliband, had just called him on
the phone to
congratulate him on Nigeria's role in resolving the Zimbabwean
problem.
There are, of course, grounds to heave a sigh of relief over
Zimbabwe . With
the new deal, the impoverished African nation which has the
world's highest
inflation rate may no longer be on the cusp of implosion, at
least for now.
Secondly, with an inclusive or unity government in place, a
"win-win"
situation could even be argued to have emerged. What is more, the
United
States and the European Union would not only lift sanctions against
the
landlocked nation, but also resume development assistance to it. All is
well
that ends well. True?
Not quite. The power sharing deal in Zimbabwe
represents Africa 's greatest
political malaise: sanctification of
brigandage and buccaneering and the
acceptance of brinkmanship as the basis
of governance and leadership. If
there is any winner vis a vis the power
sharing deal, it is not the people
of Zimbabwe , nor is it Tsvangari. There
is only one winner, and that is
Mugabe. He has been provided a legal, but
not legitimate, platform to remain
in office as president and commander of
the military on the basis of an
election he did not win, and had no reason
to win. When the parliamentary
vote was held in March, it took a whole three
months for the electoral
commission to announce the result simply because
the ruling ZANU asked it
not to release it. The reason? Mugabe's party, in
power since 1980, did not
do well. When eventually the result was published,
ZANU was gracious enough
to concede that the opposition won a majority of
the seats, still the kind
of grace difficult to find among government
parties in other African
nations.
Apprehensive he was going to be beaten
square and fair in the presidential
election, Mugabe resorted to every
conceivable trick. Violence was unleashed
against ZANU members and
supporters, including Tsvangari's deputy who was
arrested and charged with
treason. The army, which is led by liberation war
veterans rather than
trained and professional soldiers, announced that the
military would NEVER
take orders from opposition MDC members. Mugabe himself
stated categorically
he would never bring himself to hand over power to
Tsvangari, no matter the
outcome of the presidential vote, accusing him of
being a Western surrogate.
It was at this point clear to the opposition that
further participation in
the electoral process was useless, so it pulled
out. Mugabe hence conducted
a presidential vote in which he was the sole
candidate, a situation
reminiscent of the charade in the days of the
one-party system in Africa
during which sitting presidents always won at
least 95% of the vote. The
wave of democratization in the late 1980s and the
early 1990s following the
collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration
of the Soviet Union
compelled African rulers to open up the political space
a little. Mugabe was
one of the rulers forced to embrace the new order.
Though he inherited a
multi-party system at independence in 1980, he turned
Zimbabwe into a
one-party system in the name of socialism.
Socialism or Marxism or communism
or whatever name it acquired in Africa
during the cold war was one of the
causes of the region's underdevelopment.
Whether in Benin Republic under
Mattew Kerekou or in Ethiopia under Mengistu
Haile Mariam or in Tanzania
under Julius Nyerere or Zimbabwe under Mugabe,
the story is the same:
failure all the way. Nyerere was to confess that his
nationalization of
farms following the Ujama Declaration of 1968 and the
adoption of his own
African brand of socialism helped ruin his economy.
Socialism did not create
prosperity in Tanzania but rather equality of
poverty, a tragic brand of
egalitarianism. Mugabe's ruination of the
Zimbabwean economy in the name of
Marxism is particularly painful because he
inherited a healthy economy, with
its agriculture more developed than that
of any other African country. It is
a supreme irony that Zimbabwean citizens
today form long queues to obtain
essential foodstuffs and depend on handouts
from foreign donors, a long way
from the period when their country used to
be the food basket of the
Southern African sub-region. Not surprising. After
all, some of the most
successful Zimbabwean commercial farmers are today
economic refugees in
Nigeria and other places.
It wasn't just socialism which messed up Zimbabwe
. Mugabe's manipulation
of differences to remain in power at all costs is
another critical factor.
He played on the people's anxieties and fears and
hopes. To retain the vote
of the majority black Africans in a country with a
white population which
has for decades been in command of the economy, he
deftly played up elements
of raw nationalism, ethnocentricism and
xenophobia. Anytime an election was
around the corner, he would embark on a
campaign of land distribution, using
the liberation war veterans as cannon
fodder. It worked for him. But
Zimbabwe suffered. Zimbabwe is not the only
country where a settler
community is in absolute control of the economy.
Neighbouring South Africa
is another. But thoughtful leaders like Nelson
Mandela and Thabo Mbeki know
the grave implications of not going about the
question of redistribution of
wealth and resources in a rather violent
manner. International capital is a
bloody coward. It goes to only places
with the least threat.
In such Southeast Asian nations as the Philippines ,
Malaysia , Indonesia
and Thailand , the settler Chinese communities which
form not more than 4%
of the population are in control of the economies
overwhelmingly. The
political leaders there do not mouth revolutionary
rhetoric or violence to
address the situation. Mahathir Mohammed adopted the
pro-Malay policy of
bumiputran to empower the indigenous people and address
the imbalance for
the long period he was the Malaysian premier. When will
most African rulers
learn from history?
African rulers have no reason to
beat their chests in triumph over the
Zimbabwean power sharing agreement.
Mugabe should not remain in office. He
should have been eased out long ago.
The presidency is a sacred office and
should never be a reward for gangster
politics, as it has just happened in
Kenya where Mwai Kibaki who lost the
presidential election late last year is
still in office and the true winner,
Raila Odinga, made to be the premier in
the name of compromise and a
negotiated settlement. If Africa continues with
this immoral kind of
governance, the continent will long remain the poster
boy of global tragedy.
There is a strong correlation between public ethics
and development. In the
1970s, the eminent American sociologist, Edward
Banfield, published a
seminal work entitled "The Moral Basis of the Backward
Society" which
demonstrates convincingly that societies with low ethical
standards are
mired in old sorrows of history while those with high moral
standards for
their leaders make fantastic progress. A more recent book in
this area is
Francis Fukuyama's "Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation
of
Prosperity". You can now begin to see why Nigeria , among other African
nations, is making little progress.
Christopher Okigbo, Africa 's most
verbally exciting poet writing in
English, would mock the Zimbabwean power
sharing deal as "hurrah for
thunder". The deal may have been informed by
pragmatism, but it is, at
bottom, a low point for public ethics and
governance in Africa .
.Adinuba wrote from Lagos
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/
Icarbord Tshabangu*
25 September
2008
Icarbord Tshabangu on African presidential solidarity and the
flawed deal in
Zimbabwe
Tolstoy once remarked that patriotism is
the cruel tradition of an outlived
period, which exists not merely by its
inertia, but because the governments
and ruling classes, aware that not
their power only, but their very
existence, depends upon it, persistently
excite and maintain it among the
people, both by cunning and
violence.
For those of us who cherish the true ideals of Pan-Africanism
we watch with
great misgiving an emerging paradigm within the African
political discourse
recently affecting Zimbabwe and other parts of the
continent, which seems to
promote a culture of 'speak no evil, hear no evil
and see no evil' even when
a son of the soil is caught red-handed with hands
dripping blood of fellow
Africans.
The embarrassing and laughable
declaration by president Mbeki in April 2008
that there was 'no crisis' in
Zimbabwe, despite glaring evidence from a
political, humanitarian and
economic perspective, adds to the view of an
egoistic, elitist pan
Africanism amongst our leaders and a culture of 'speak
no evil, hear no evil
and see no evil' against your black brother.
It was not surprising
therefore to hear Robert Mugabe diplomatically scold
Botswana president
Masire at the signing ceremony for having publicly
criticised the Zimbabwe's
brutal regime over the violent June 27 election.
Mugabe vowed like a
principled pan African that he would never criticise a
sitting African
president.
Maybe that's a good rulebook in the presidents' club or for
those leaders
who subsist on their people's misery. It is quite clear that
most African
citizens who have suffered abuse under such archaic forms of
leadership
would prefer to sing from a different hymn that promotes
accountability and
transparency.
Some commentators have observed as
we noted at this year's African Union
summit in Egypt that some African
leaders are paralysed by the 'skeletons in
their cardboards' arguing that
'let him who has no sin cast the first
stone'. Maybe that is the challenge
we face as Africans, which is to rid
ourselves of what former president of
South Africa, Nelson Mandela referred
to as 'tragic failure of leadership',
in this case, African Leadership.
Despite our solemn allegiance to
Pan-African patriotism and African
solidarity we have to ask as to whether
the spirit of safeguarding human
rights and a sustainable democracy is still
sacrosanct in our interaction or
it only matters where a white person has
brutalised a black brother.
It is important that we ask these questions
because Pan Africanism is rooted
in human rights - the fight against
brutality and exploitative forces of
slavery and colonialism. Are we now as
Africans, under this patriotism of a
queer nature, re-entering and happily
inhabiting a house of horror, which we
once liberated ourselves from, simple
because our new host is now a black
slave master?
Pan Africanism is a
philosophical and a socio-political movement whose quest
is to unify
Africans and those in the Diaspora against forms of
exploitation,
particularly arising from servitude and racism emanating from
the slavery
holocaust and colonialism.
In setting aside African cultural differences
and asserting the principality
of our shared values as Africans, Pan
Africanism abhors neo-colonialism,
modern forms of slavery, and numerous
other injustices perpetuated even by
our black 'slave masters' masquerading
as our liberators from the white
'slave masters'.
For most Africans,
our experience from colonialism to the present has been
the changing of the
driver and not the direction of the vehicle. Enunciating
some ideals of Pan
Africanism and African solidarity or patriotism, our
leaders have caged us
in a state of impotence and fear of the multicultural
worldview, which may
threaten their stranglehold on state power.
As Africans we have to ask
and judge for ourselves whether the ideology of
Pan Africanism, as presented
by some of our leaders, is still useful, or has
outlived its usefulness. If
useful, to what extent can it be channelled
effectively to espouse and
express the general will of the African people
and not serve the interests
of a few despots and those in service of the
former slave
master?
While upholding African-ness and sacred principles of humanity,
as Africans,
we should not be blinded by hollow and obsolete forms of
patriotism, peddled
by some of our elitist leaders in their
self-preservationist strategies to
harness political power and their
deodorised legacies. Criticising them and
demanding a higher standard of
moral leadership and accountability, should
not be equated to attacking our
African-ness or the downtrodden African
populace.
One African proverb
states that 'a king is only a king because of his
people'. Maybe the tragedy
we have as Africans is the high number of
'illegitimate' leaders amongst us.
Such Leaders do not owe their allegiance
to the people but to the grit of
force and other constitutional flaws and
processes that keep them in power.
Despite a damning report by the African
Union and SADC observer missions on
the 27th of June 2008 presidential
elections in Zimbabwe, the African
presidents looked the other way and
exposed their lack of political
integrity even on the electoral protocols
set by their institutions - just
to shield their own under the guise of pan
African patriotism. In the
process, the people of Zimbabwe continued to pay
dearly for exercising their
primordial democratic right - voting for a party
and candidates of their own
choice.
Buoyed by other Africans and the international community, most
Zimbabweans
made their voice known on 29 March 2008, that they wanted a
change of
government, despite risk to their lives. Some African leaders save
for
Zambia and Botswana in the region, have since been complicit through
their
anointed mediator, president Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, in reversing
through stealth, cunning and violence, the will of the people and rescue
Mugabe and not the downtrodden people of Zimbabwe and per chance salvage a
so called legacy for president Mbeki and Mugabe.
The political deal
has now been sealed, and as desired from a pan African
perspective, puts
Mugabe in the driving seat, since Morgan Tsvangirai is
perceived to be pro
Western. It's quite clear from many observers that the
will of the people
has been subverted - once again and that Tsvangirai was
in some ways under
pressure to act 'patriotic' to his other African brothers
and put pen to
paper.
It is also noted that there are still other key unresolved issues
of power
such as Ministries allocation to be negotiated between the
principals that
is Zanu PF and MDC. The vagueness of the power-sharing
document especially
in areas of power and authority, suggests that much is
yet to unravel and
that some of the proponents to the deal may find
themselves defending the
indefensible.
Like in every other flawed
process many Zimbabweans did not know whether to
cry or celebrate when the
deal was announced. Some of those who decided to
celebrate at the Harare
venue on Monday later found themselves battered or
thrown into prison cells
as shown in some media.
The international community who are supposedly
expected to rush in and help
resuscitate the economy are said to be highly
cautious. Not a good start, is
it? The jury is still out. Like a family
housed in a structure built on
sand, Zimbabweans may have to wait longer
before they can celebrate this
political deal thanks to elitist forms of pan
Africanism that find the
tenets of democracy a tough proposition in Africa
as stated by Mugabe in his
signing ceremony speech.
Centuries ago,
citizens were largely uneducated. Rulers often had a monopoly
of information
and thus it is recorded that rulers often demanded or
enforced obedience
without question. In the 21st century where the media and
technology has
revolutionised modern democracy, such forms of leadership at
every level
have become obsolete and a greater demand for shared leadership
has taken
root among the people. It is now unthinkable that the role of a
citizen,
that is, African citizens can only be limited to mere deference
towards the
'Strongman' or 'Bigman' of Africa.
Maybe as observed by Tolstoy,
patriotism even in Pan Africanism is like a
scaffolding, which was needful
once, to raise the walls of the building,
that is, to free ourselves from
slavery and colonialism, but which, now
represents the only obstacle to the
house being inhabited, but is
nonetheless retained, because its existence is
of profit to certain persons
of power.
*Icarbord Tshabangu is a
researcher on Education and Citizenship
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Phil
Dear JAG,
Does any one know a reliable person travelling back
to Zimbabwe from
Britain, who would willingly take two small bottles of pills
for a dear
mother who is losing her sight with Macular
degeneration?
She has a wonderful son, who has been left badly paralysed
for many years
and he is solely reliant on his mother and his two nurse
aids.
Please contact Phil
Tel (44) (0) 1728 452094 OR email jbreroh@aol.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POEM
FOR THE DAY
(Due to erratic communications please note that this poem was
supposed to
have been sent out over the Heroes' Holiday - our
apologies)
By muJakaranda
"R & F... H& A...Kutakura kwe
dhongi[i]..." 080808
I dreamt I saw a donkey walking by,
A sack
upon it's back....
The weight split evenly each
way...
"Hafu-hafu", the people say.
Or was it?
I can't say,
the side beyond is past my view,
What's in it anyway?
A mixed bag
that's for sure...
It's not always clear what baggage people pack for a
journey,
and my oh my, this has been a long one!!!
"Are we there
yet?"
"Why this?"
"Why that?"
"No leave that
there!"
"No way I say... that stays, this comes, I'll need it on the
way!"
" But man, that sack is full...'pum, pum', it's
bursting, that
must stay behind!"
And all the while the donkey waits...
While
they add weights!!(The Heavy weights)
A crowd is watching from a distance
as they fight this of tug of war...
Some for, some against!!
Will
there be "Win/Win" or "Lose /Win" or
"Lose /lose" or "Win/Lose"?
Who
knows, there's a news black-out, only rumours...
A `broken telephone'
from the closest witnesses!
And there are those behind the scenes, some
threaten, some cajole...
And still the donkey waits...
Will the
boy lead, heading forth in hope?
Or will the old man drive it from
behind,
a stick ever in his hand whilst he looks back over his
shoulder!!
Baggage...
Rhodes and Founders...Heroes and
Ancestors...
"Will we ever get there?"
We are always looking
back...focused on the rear view mirror of our past,
Loading up with the
baggage of our history,
never sure what to take and what to leave
behind,
our necks cricked or threatened whilst we try to look
ahead!
And all the while the donkey waits...
Will it bring food
for the starving family at home?
Will it bring the old man's loot or the
stuff his men have
mustered?
The boy, can he be trusted... is he tough
enough to insist on
what's inside?
Will we yet find a round house on
the way?[ii]
where we can place our pot upon three equal stones,
"phiwa",
positioned just enough apart to balance and support our basic
needs?
And so this over burdened donkey brays,
and prays....and
prays...and prays...
"His name?".... "Zimbabwe"... "Who
else!!!"
[1]Kutakura kwe dhongi `hafu hafu' = the way a load is split
on
a donkey's back
[1][1]Reference to a traditional Shona kitchen
where `pfiwa',
or three round stones are used for supporting a pot over the
fire, an
allusion to the balance and separation of powers needed in a
new
constitution
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mugabe, The United Nations and GNU
I cannot understand why it is
so important for Mr. Mugabe to go attend a
United Nations meeting prior to
resolving the political problems back home.
What is so important about
attending this meeting that he would rather have
the man in the street
suffer a few more weeks? I guess for Mr Mugabe, what
is one more week, or
even two more when he has brutalized the people for so
many years? Who, in
their right mind, would believe this man when he says he
is committed to the
agreement he signed with the MDC? This is sad to say the
least.
I am
glad Mbeki resigned from his position. I applaud him for taking that
step. I
believe that was the right thing for him to do. You must leave
office if you
loose credibility with the majority of the people. I also
applaud the ANC
for standing up to Mbeki. I do not feel sorry for him. What
happenned to
him comes with public office. In any event, his quiet diplomacy
destroyed
Zimbabwe.
This is a lession for Zimbabweans. Whilst I applaud the MDC for
working with
the people by giving them some hope, my focus is on ZANU PF. I
wish we had
strong voices within ZANU PF with enough courage to stand up to
Mugabe. All
these years, they have been singing him praises whilst the
economic
situation deteriorated. They are as much to blame for the mess the
country
is in as Mugabe is, if not worse. So sad indeed. None of them even
had the
courage to quit! Essentially all the ministers, and their deputies
cannot
claim that they are clean with all that has hapenned the past ten
years. By
not speaking out against brutality, they failed the people. They
should have
had the decency to quit.
We have heard that many
ministers in Mbeki's cabinet quit. Now, that is a
healthy situation. They
quit either as a sign of sympathy with Mbeki, wanted
to give the new leader
room to pick his new team and some indicated they
would be ready to serve
the new leadership if asked. Now that is a sign of
patriotism.
Contrast that with our situation in Zimbabwe where no
minister, except
Nyagumbo and Nkosana Moyo, have had the guts to quit. I
might have missed
one other..but the fact remains that its not a large
number to talk about
over a 28 year period. There have been reports of some
wailing on learning
that they have not been chosen for office by Mr. Mugabe.
What a shame! Some
have been given high positions, then kicked out and
reappointed again after
regaining favours with Mugabe. That's pathetic to
say the least.
Ah, takoniwa chokwadi!!!