Zim Standard
BY our
staff
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says his party endorsed the
18th
Amendment after SADC leaders guaranteed Zanu PF would not renege on the
ongoing dialogue on a new constitution before the 2008
elections.
Tsvangirai told The Standard in an exclusive interview
on Friday he
was aware sections of Zimbabwean society were unsettled by the
move.
He said he knew some felt it was a surrender to Zanu PF
machinations.
But Tsvangirai said history would prove that the two
MDC factions had
taken a "necessary political risk" to solve the Zimbabwe
crisis.
Representatives of the MDC in Parliament shocked civic
allies, the
diplomatic community,and even some of their own rank and file
members when
they did not oppose the amendment.
Analysts see
the controversial amendment as the latest strategy by
President Robert
Mugabe to cling to power and ensure a smooth Zanu PF
succession after the
election.
Civic groups, who have rallied behind the MDC in the
past, last week
suggested they might dump the party for supporting the
controversial
amendment.
But a supremely upbeat Tsvangirai said
he was convinced they had taken
the right course, with the blessing of Sadc
leaders.
He said they resolved to support the amended version of
the 18th
amendment after SADC said Zanu PF, which is seeking a rescue
package from
the regional group, would be bound by the negotiating process,
brokered by
South African President Thabo Mbeki.
He said the
dialogue would culminate in a signed agreement between
Zanu PF and MDC which
would result in a new constitution before the 2008
elections.
This would render the 18th amendment "academic", he said.
Beside
the constitution, Tsvangirai said he was confident the
agreement would see
restrictive and harsh laws being scrapped in time for
the elections. The
negotiators would also work on transitional matters, he
said.
Asked why they trusted Zanu PF so much that they believed it would
allow for
a new constitution, ruled as a non-starter by President Mugabe
early this
year, Tsvangirai said: "I fully understand the history and
duplicity of Zanu
PF ... This is not just a South African initiative, but a
SADC initiative.
Both MDC and Zanu PF recognise that."
He added: "SADC will
guarantee that no-one is going to walk away from
negotiations. Why should we
doubt SADC when we are committed to the
negotiations taking place?" said
Tsvangirai, adding the MDC supported the
amended 18th Amendment as a
confidence-building measure.
He said if Zanu PF abandoned the
process, they would not take part in
the elections.
"We want to
go in an election which we have full confidence in, not
anything else. We
can't get into an election whose outcome is
predetermined," he
said.
The opposition leader confirmed the two MDC factions were
negotiating
with Zanu PF as a united front but said this did not mean they
would contest
the 2008 elections as one.
"It's MDC as one team
but as far as elections are concerned, that is a
political decision that
will be decided down the road," he said.
Arthur Mutambara, the
leader of the other faction of the MDC could not
be reached for comment. He
was said to be out of the country.
Zim Standard
By Walter
Marwizi
TO many Zimbabweans the name Bronislawa Kwinjo might
not immediately
ring a bell.
The unheralded pro-democracy
activist was buried quietly in Harare
last week.
The
64-year-old grandmother was in a group of ordinary, elderly people
taking an
active interest in the fight for change.
Despite her advanced age,
Kwinjo had apparently decided she would not
stand idly by while her beloved
country sank deeper and deeper into an
economic and political
quagmire.
She decided to act, venturing regularly out of her
three-roomed house
in New Mabvukuvuku to engage in street protests with
other activists of the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA).
They have been clubbed, tear-gassed and thrown into police cells as
they
marched to accentuate their demand for a new "people-driven"
constitution.
But on one such mission on 25 July this year,
Kwinjo was among 243 NCA
activists who, after staging a demonstration in
town, went to the
organisation's offices unaware the police intended to raid
them.
When the police arrived, forcing open the gate at 348 Herbert
Chitepo
Avenue, Kwinjo could not scale the pre-cast wall with the agility of
the
many other protesters, younger and stronger than herself, to escape the
terror of the baton-wielding police.
She was picked up by
heavily armed police, who started beating her,
and many others, before
taking them to Harare's Central police station, now
notorious as one of the
centres around the capital of police excesses
against civilians asserting
their right to demonstrate.
The other is said to be the police
station at Matapi near the Mukuvisi
River.
At Central police
station Kwinjo endured six hours of beatings and
torture by the police, who
allegedly forced her to the floor, as they
flailed her
continuously.
It is alleged they kicked her aging back, alleging
she was a witch.
At around 1130AM the police are said to have
ordered her out of Harare
Central. No-one seems to know how she managed to
reach New Mabvuku in the
dead of the night, considering her
injuries.
When her daughter, Taidadirwa (34) woke up the following
morning, she
was shocked to discover the serious injuries on her mother's
body.
But Kwinjo would not go to the clinic, fearing her injuries
would
raise suspicion of where she had sustained them.
Normally, the clinics require police reports in such cases.
When
her condition deteriorated, Kwinjo was eventually persuaded to
seek medical
treatment.
A doctor advised them she needed urgent medical
attention if her life
were to be saved.
A specialist conducted
a comprehensive examination of her condition,
concluding Kwinjo might have
suffered brain damage and had to be admitted at
a private clinic for
treatment.
On 21 August, Kwinjo fell into a coma, from which she
did not recover
until her death on 7 September.
Kwinjo was not
the only grandmother in the trenches, as she campaigned
for a new
constitution for the country. Veronica Chinembiri (60) was her
soul-mate.
She told The Standard at Kwinjo's home where mourners were
gathered on
Wednesday that she held Kwinjo's hand as they were force-marched
by the
police into a truck that took them to Harare Central police
station.
"The police were ruthless. It was clear they wanted to
beat us in such
a way that we would never venture into the streets again
demanding a new
constitution. Batons rained all over our bodies: from the
head, back,
everywhere. They would step on our backs with their heavy boots.
They didn't
care that we were grandmothers," she said.
"Female
police officers were very abusive. One said we were witches,
old women
without shame, old women who thought they could take over the
country."
Chinembiri said she did not think they would survive
the beatings.
Upon their release late in the night, most of them
could hardly walk,
she said.
Chinembiri said she could not
persuade her injured friend (Kwinjo) to
go to waiting ambulances at
Boomerang. The ambulances had been arranged by
the NCA for the victims of
police brutality to receive urgent medical
assistance.
"If she
had come with us," she said, "she probably would have received
the urgent
medical assistance. She would have been with us today. God would
have helped
her. She is our heroine."
Chinembiri suffers from nagging
backaches. She says her departed
friend had a vision of a new Zimbabwe: a
country with a constitution that
allowed Zimbabweans to
prosper.
"We are too old," she said. "We are not engaging in these
battles for
our own sake but for you young people. You deserve a better
Zimbabwe. We
want to be remembered as heroes of this struggle."
Chinembiri says she is struggling to look after five orphaned
children. She
says she is too poor to afford anything in Zimbabwe these
days.
Another survivor of the ordeal, Patricia Hosoro (36) was at Fife
Avenue
Shopping centre when we called her on Wednesday. She intended to walk
to the
NCA offices but her brutalised body could not endure the walk.
She
told her story: "They would shout:
'She has big buttocks and she
can't feel any pain. Let's beat her
hard.' They kept on beating and beating
me. I fainted three times."
Hosoro's left hand was
bandaged.
The beatings were so severe that doctors were left with
no option but
to operate on her buttocks, removing flesh. Doctors
contemplated performing
a skin graft, but changed their mind, convinced that
she would eventually
recover without it.
"It has been a
difficult time for us," her husband, Simbarashe Ngoshi,
said. "We have been
up and down, going to see the doctors. We just hope
things will be
fine."
Another married victim who preferred not be named had
rotting flesh on
her buttocks surgically removed. She underwent a skin graft
but her buttocks
would never regain their original shape, doctors said. They
said if she had
not been operated on, she would have died of her
injuries.
We met her in Mbare, still in bandages, almost two months
after the
beatings. She can hardly sit and cannot do any domestic chores.
Her
supportive husband was by her side in their four-roomed
house.
"When they beat us they forced us to sing: KuState House
kure,
hakusvikike. (State House is very far. You can't reach it.) They were
determined to send a strong message to us, to abandon the struggle for a new
constitution. But this will not stop us, the struggle continues," she
said.
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - A controversial restructuring exercise has bled
the
Zimbabwe Electricity Authority (Zesa) of key senior executives, snapped
up
by similar enterprises in the United Kingdom, Botswana and South
Africa.
Moreover, the beleaguered power authority has or still has
to pay
hefty severance packages running into billions of dollars to the
departing
staff, some of them having served 20 years.
Zesa is
already weighed down with sub-economic tariffs imposed by an
electioneering
governing party.
Insiders said the power utility is already
struggling to buy enough
power for the country due to a nationwide foreign
currency crunch.
Among the key staff are Caxton Mzangaza, a
Zimbabwe Electricity
Transmission Company (ZETC) director, now in the UK and
ZETC managing
director, Edward Rugoyi, now with Botswana Power
Corporation.
Others are Hudson Bangalore, general manager small
thermal power
stations, Peter Simony, director of operations, Zimbabwe
Electricity
Distribution Compnay, Misheck Visakhapatnam's, director of
operations, Zesa,
and Godknows Hofisi, finance director of the Zimbabwe
Power Company.
A source said the absence of the key staff has been
indicated
graphically by the frequent power interruptions, unrelated to the
scheduled
load shedding.
"What happened is that the company
said it was restructuring its
subsidiaries because they felt that it was
top-heavy," said the source. "But
in the end they frustrated the top
guys.
"Almost all of them have been snapped up by power utilities
in South
Africa and Botswana and there is no one to pass on their skills to
the
engineers, fresh from university, even on a consultancy
basis."
Zesa spokesperson, Fullard Gwasira, confirmed the exodus
but denied it
had affected operations as "it had given others the chance to
shine".
He said Zesa recently concluded the restructuring exercise
to rid the
market of perceptions that it was top-heavy and most of the
executives who
left "did so amicably".
"That they were snapped
up by such reputable power utilities shows
that Zesa employs skilled and
experienced personnel," he said. "We have a
very large resource base and we
never run short of replacements."
He admitted the packages paid out
to the executives had had an impact
on the finances of the perennially broke
company. But he said the payments
could not be avoided as most of the staff
opted for voluntary retrenchment.
Zesa is failing to pay for
electricity imports from Mozambique, South
Africa and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
The three countries have reduced supplies as
a result of the delays in
payment.
To make matters worse, three
thermal power stations in Bulawayo,
Harare and Munyati are not generating
power due to an acute shortage of
coal.
Zim Standard
By our staff
BULAWAYO - The city council's new town clerk was arrested on Friday
for
allegedly defying a directive ordering local authorities to freeze
tariff
increases as part of the government's price controls.
The council
was accused of violating the recent decree by President
Robert Mugabe
banning the indexing of salaries, rents and fees to the
Consumer Price
Index, an exchange rate or Value Added Tax.
The arrest came after
the government appeared to be revising its
unpopular decree after it allowed
retailers and service providers to
increase prices
significantly.
Stanley Donga was arrested early in the morning
after a "crack" price
monitoring team failed to locate the mayor, Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube.
Donga was released after the lunch
hour.
Sources said Donga was released following the intervention of
officials from the Ministry of Local Government, in Harare.
In
June, the council approved a $3.6 trillion supplementary budget
which raised
rates and supplementary charges by 2 000%.
The budget, effective
last month, is still to be approved by the
Minister of Local Government,
Ignatious Chombo.
But the council is still permitted to increase
some tariffs, excluding
those affecting residents in high-density suburbs,
without the minister's
approval. Donga confirmed he was briefly detained and
interrogated by the
police but he could only say "a solution is being worked
out".
"There was a misunderstanding because council tariffs are
reviewed
retrospectively, which means that they were not affected by the
price freeze
that came into effect in July when the budget had already been
passed," he
said.
But a source said he was released after the
council made a commitment
to freeze the new charges.
"This
means that the town clerk will have to take the issue back to
the council
which is not likely to take the matter lying down," said a
source.
Last month, Ndabeni-Ncube and the then acting town
clerk, Joel
Madubeko, were arrested on similar charges but were released
without charge.
Police confirmed the arrest but their spokesman for
Bulawayo,
Mandlenkosi Moyo, could not be reached for official comment as he
was said
to be attending the commissioner's fun fare in Harare.
Zim Standard
By Leslie
Nunu
BULAWAYO - Rowdy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
agents
harassed teachers and threatened Nkayi legislator, Abednico Bhebhe as
they
unsuccessfully tried to block the official opening of classroom blocks
at
two schools by the British embassy.
After the harassment,
teachers at Sembeule and Gababi primary schools
failed to attend the events,
where a senior British embassy official,
Gillian Dare officiated a fortnight
ago.
The organisers were only allowed to go ahead with the first
ceremony
at Sembeule after Bhebhe, the deputy spokesman for the pro-Senate
faction of
the Movement for Democratic Change, threatened to telephone the
operatives'
bosses.
Addressing parents, Bhebhe criticised the
government and Zanu PF for
allegedly frustrating development efforts in the
impoverished district.
"There are some people among us today who
are not happy with the
developments that are taking place in Nkayi because
of the fact that I am
the Member of Parliament," Bhebhe said.
"This is why they tried to prevent this ceremony from taking place but
they
will not succeed because the government is aware of these
projects."
The official opening of the two classroom blocks was to
have taken
place two months ago but the Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture
blocked the opening, saying it had not been properly
informed.
Dare said Britain would continue to provide humanitarian
support for
Zimbabwe's poor despite the diplomatic standoff between two
governments.
Britain slapped travel sanctions on members of
Mugabe's inner circle
and halted development grants after Zimbabwe embarked
on a violent land
reform programme in 2000.
But Dare said her
government, through the Department of International
Development (DFID), was
spending £38 million on Zimbabwe's poor annually.
"This support is
aimed specifically at the poor and most disadvantaged
members of society,"
she said. "The main priority is to support the
international response to the
HIV/Aids crisis."
Other areas of intervention were in ensuring food
security and
supporting orphans as well as vulnerable children.
Zim Standard
By Davison
Maruziva
WESTERN nations that President Robert Mugabe accuses
of promoting his
ouster last week responded in a way they say demonstrates
their wish to
"relieve the suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans".
Mugabe blames Western powers, especially Britain, for the economic
crisis
and accuses them of plotting with the opposition to oust him.
But
Britain, the US and Australia last week announced packages they
say prove
their commitment to improving the lot of millions of ordinary
Zimbabweans
smarting from a deterioration in humanitarian conditions.
"There is
no easy solution to end this suffering," Britain's new Prime
Minister Gordon
Brown said last week. "But I am determined that Britain
continues to do
everything it can to help the Zimbabwean people.
"We are currently
the second largest donor in Zimbabwe, providing up
to £40 million a year in
humanitarian assistance and for HIV and AIDS care
in support of the most
vulnerable. In addition, the British Government is
announcing today
(Thursday) an additional £8 million for Zimbabwe this year,
to be delivered
through the World Food Programme (WFP)."
The WFP estimates that 4.1
million Zimbabweans are in need of food
assistance
While Brown
announced measures designed to alleviate suffering, he
made a distinction on
those the West holds responsible for Zimbabwe's
unprecedented
decline.
He said: ". . .And working with our international partners
we must do
more to press the Zimbabwean Government to change. We will ensure
that the
EU maintains sanctions against the 131 individuals in the ruling
elite,
including President Mugabe, who have committed human rights abuses -
and
extend sanctions to other individuals where necessary.
"We
will suggest to EU partners the appointment of an EU envoy to help
support
the transition to democracy. We will press the UN Security Council
to review
more regularly the situation on the ground, and to despatch a
humanitarian
mission to Zimbabwe."
Brown said Britain and the EU would support
the important efforts of
Presidents (Jakaya) Kikwete of Tanzania and (Thabo)
Mbeki of South Africa to
negotiate a return to democracy.
"We
need to be ready," said the British premier, "for the day
democracy returns
to Zimbabwe. We are working with African and international
partners to
prepare a long-term recovery package for when conditions exist
to allow
economic reconstruction to begin."
This would include measures to
help Zimbabwe restart and stabilise its
economy, restructure and reduce its
debt, help skilled people who have left
the country return home, renovate
schools and hospitals, and very
importantly support fair land
reform.
"It is also right," Brown said, "that I make clear my
position on the
forthcoming EU-Africa Summit. I want this Summit - under the
leadership of
Prime Minister Socrates (of Portugal) - to be a real success.
It is a
serious opportunity to forge a stronger partnership between the EU
and
Africa in order to fight poverty, tackle climate change, and agree new
initiatives on education, health and peacekeeping.
"President
Mugabe is the only African leader to face an EU travel ban.
There is a
reason for this - the abuse of his own people. There is no
freedom in
Zimbabwe: no freedom of association; no freedom of the press. And
there is
widespread torture and mass intimidation of the political
opposition."
President Mugabe's attendance, Brown said, would
mean lifting the EU
visa ban that "we have collectively
imposed".
He said if Mugabe attended, he would undermine the
Summit, diverting
attention from the important issues that need to be
resolved. "In those
circumstances, my attendance would not be appropriate.
Britain will not
shirk our responsibilities to the people of Zimbabwe and I
am determined
that we do all we can to help them forge a better future for
themselves and
their children."
In responding to allegations
that it was bankrolling the opposition
MDC, Australia last week said it had
made a contribution of A$3.5 million to
the WFP, to help feed Zimbabweans
facing severe food shortages.
"Assistance through the Australian
Fund for Zimbabwe in the 2006-2007
financial year was approximately $6
million, and Australia is prepared to
provide potentially double this level
of assistance in 2007-2008," said Jon
Sheppard, Australia's Ambassador to
Zimbabwe. "These are humanitarian, not
political, funds."
Australia, Sheppard said, had not and does not provide any material
support
or funding for political parties anywhere in Africa.
"That," he
said, "does not mean, however, we do not give moral support
to parties, such
as the MDC, that espouse democratic ideals while suffering
from continuing
brutal repression."
The incoming US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James D
McGee, who has served
in Swaziland, Madagascar and the Comoros, told the
Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations on Wednesday America is helping to
feed nearly one in
every five Zimbabweans.
"We must also
continue our humanitarian assistance to the Zimbabwean
people and ensure
that it reaches the people in need," he said. "In fiscal
year 2007, United
States food aid amounted to over $170 million . . ."
Non-food aid
humanitarian assistance is approximately $5.1 million,
and HIV/AIDS
programmes were increased to $31 million in fiscal year 2007.
"This
funding is helping to deliver anti-retroviral treatment to 40
000
Zimbabweans. These actions," he said, "demonstrate the generosity and
compassion of the American people."
Two weeks ago the Canadian
embassy in Zimbabwe donated CA$350 000 to
help "mobile and vulnerable
populations of Zimbabwe" to be channelled
through the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Unveiling the donation, the
Canadian ambassador to Zimbabwe, Roxanne
Dubé, said the project would assist
vulnerable Zimbabweans who are victims
of the economic meltdown and help
struggling urban families rendered
destitute by the crisis.
"These funds," Dubé said, "will help alleviate some of the stress felt
by
those most in need living in urban communities by providing support to
meet
basic human needs, including health care."
Zim Standard
By our
staff
BULAWAYO - A senior police officer who fatally shot a
Bulawayo man as
he dispersed a crowd celebrating the New Year has been
charged with culpable
homicide.
Milos Moyo, the officer
commanding police camps in Bulawayo allegedly
shot Artwell Magagada as he
tried to make his way home after work.
The trial opens on Wednesday
and it is one of the many that have been
set for hearing during the third
term of the High Court in Bulawayo.
Already, Magagada's family, with the
help of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights has sued Home Affairs
Minister, Kembo Mohadi, and the Police
Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri over
the death.
The family is demanding $20 billion in
damages.
Magagada was shot in the head and died at Mater Dei
Hospital a few
days after the shooting, the bullet still lodged in his
head.
The trial opens amid a sudden upsurge in the number of
innocent
civilians shot dead by police officers throughout the
country.
In Bulawayo, the police have fatally shot two unarmed
residents this
month alone. A fortnight ago, police shot Misheck Gumbo (31)
of Pumula North
after accusing him of drinking at a shebeen. On Sunday,
Collin Siziba (23)
died from injuries sustained after police shot him on 6
September during a
high-speed car chase.
Siziba was fleeing
from the police, believing they were carjackers as
they had not produced
identity papers and were using a car with South
African number
plates.
Early this month, a teenager, Bekithemba Ndlovu from Nketa
suburb,
sustained serious injuries after being shot by the police for
allegedly
making noise at night while coming from a birthday party in
neighbouring
Nkulumane suburb.
In March, police shot and killed
opposition activist Gift Tandare as
they broke up a prayer meeting organised
by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign at
Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield,
Harare.
The government, relying increasingly on the police and army
to contain
public discontent, denies the uniformed forces have violated
human rights.
Zim Standard
By Our
Staff
WHILE local products are still scarce, Harare's
enterprising retailers
are gradually restocking - with pricey luxury
imports.
A snap survey by The Standard yesterday showed the shops
had about 80%
South African on their shelves Zimbabwean, Zambian and
Mozambican items made
up the remaining 20%.
Prominant were
Kellogg's, cereal, Appollo Shrimp Noodles, OMO washing
powder, Refresh soft
drink and an assortment of imported biscuits.
At Bon Marche, Mount
Pleasant, a 75g tube of South African toothpaste
sold for $552 000 while
125g of Cremora powdered cream was $1 736 100.
At Travel Plaza
Supermarket, a 1kg box of OMO and a small box of Manna
Super Soya Mince were
going for $2 346 000 and $621 000 respectively, while
790g Mayonnaise cost
$1 994 000 and 750g was $1 656 000.
Kellogg's cornflakes were going
for $573 000 for 200g while 300g and
500g boxes of the same product cost
$973 840 and $1 323 000 respectively. A
400g box of Kellogg's Rice Crispies
cost $1 474 630
A shop attendant at Spar explained that the goods
were expensive
because they were imports.
"Seven hundred
thousand dollars! No, we are not that thirsty", a woman
exclaimed on seeing
the price tag of a two-litre bottle of Refresh Soft
Drink, another South
African import.
There is a severe shortage of basic commodities
following the
government's price blitz. But regional suppliers are taking
over. Recent
incentives to resuscitate business, among them approval of a 20
% price
mark-up for some commodities has not worked.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
A 34-year-old Harare woman spent six days with a dead
foetus in her
womb, risking infection from the decomposing remains, after
staff at Harare
hospital told her that they had no general
anaesthetic.
The Standard was told by Judith Mutokozi-Tivabirire
she was attended
to at Harare hospital on 3 September after she lost her
baby on 31 August.
Tivabirire was then told to return the next day
(4 September) by
doctors who told her and husband there were no drugs to
enable them to
operate and retrieve the dead foetus.
She was
asked to return on 11 September "to check" if the drugs would
be available
then.
But because of the health implications this delay would have
had on
Tivabirire's health, she eventually did not wait that
long.
With the help of relatives, Judith and her husband, Taurai
ended up in
the private sector where they paid more than $20 million in
general expenses
and the actual
prodecure.
The foetus
was finally removed on 6 September.
An emotional Judith of Mbare
suburb told Standardhealth at her sister's
house in Highfield she was
seriously traumatised by the incident and that
"it would take her a long
time to forget".
She is being nursed back to good mental and
physical health by her
sister.
"The pain of having lost my
child was serious enough to give me
sleepless nights for sometime," she
said. But the pain of carrying that dead
child for six days is certainly
going to drive me insane. "I was deeply hurt
and really felt betrayed by
this system. I never thought a day would come
that I would walk into a
government hospital and be denied treatment. If we
poor people cannot get
treatment at a government hospital where else are we
expected to get it
from?"
Contacted for comment, the Minister of Health and Child
Welfare, David
Parirenyatwa, said he had not received a report on the
incident and would
investigate.
Asked about the drug supply
situation at Harare hospital, Parirenyatwa
said he had not received a report
that there was no general anaesthetic to
operate "on this
woman".
Harare hospital superintendent Jealous Nderere, could not
be reached
for comment as he was constantly said to be in
meetings.
Judith said she had always thought the stories about
Zimbabwe's
problems in the health sector were exaggerated, until she went
through this
ordeal. She said: "Things have really gone out of control and
unfortunately,
I had a personal experience of it. It's one thing to hear it
on the radio or
to read it in the newspaper. But going through it as I did
is something
else. I am really bitter."
Judith's husband said
after being turned away from Harare hospital he
and his wife realised they
did not have enough money to go to a private
hospital. As a result she spent
six days with the dead foetus in
her womb.
Taurai said: "I
was really deeply pained, watching my wife go through
all this. Sometimes we
men take for granted how much our women go through,
but I tell you I had a
very good idea of what Judith was going through.
"Imagine carrying
a child to the full term and just when you think you
are almost there, you
lose that child. Then, even worse, you spend six days
carrying that lifeless
foetus. It is painful. I really felt inadequate as a
man, being unable to
shield my family from the harsh realities of this
world."
Harare central hospital is one of the country's largest government-run
referral health centres and is supposed to offer specialist services and
quality health care to those who cannot afford to go to the
private
sector.
But due to poor budget allocations by the Ministry of
Finance over the
years, health service delivery in most government-run
institutions has
deteriorated and the Tivabirires' had a first-hand
experience of the tragic
consequences.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
ZIMBABWE has posted a "significant success" in child
survival with new
findings released by the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) and its
partners showing a 20% decline in child
mortality.
According to Unicef, Zimbabwe is one of the countries
that has made a
particularly "dramatic progress" since the previous surveys
of 1999-2000 on
child mortality rates were done.
This progress
is in spite of the harsh economic environment obtaining
in the country and
the ravaging HIV and Aids pandemic. The National Aids
Council estimates that
there are at least 158 798 children infected with HIV
while 39 808 children
die each year from Aids-related illnesses. It also
says that only 6 200 of
the 10 000 children who need Antiretrovirals have
access to
them.
Other countries who are said to have made "dramatic progress
include
Morocco, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic who reduced their
under-five
mortality rates by more than one-third. Madagascar has cut its
rate by 41%,
while Sao Tome and Principe has seen its rate fall by
48%.
Of the 9.7 million children who perish each year, 3.1 million
are from
South Asia, and 4.8 million are from Sub-Saharan Africa. In the
developing
world, child mortality is considerably higher among children
living in rural
areas and in the poorest households, according to
Unicef.
These child survival rates have not just been recorded in
Zimbabwe and
the developing world countries mentioned earlier who have been
singled out
for having made "dramatic progress" in reducing child mortality
but they
have also been recorded at a global level.
According
to Unicef, Global child deaths (under fives) have reached a
record low
falling below 10 million per year to 9.7 million, down from
almost 13
million in 1990. Unicef Executive Director Ann Veneman believes
this is "a
historic moment".
"More children are surviving today than ever
before. Now we must build
on this public health success to push for the
achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals," she said. Among these
goals is a commitment to a
two-thirds reduction in child mortality between
1990 and 2015, a result
which would save an additional 5.4 million children
by 2015. Veneman pointed
out that there was no room for
complacency.
"The loss of 9.7 million young lives each year is
unacceptable. Most
of these deaths are preventable and, as recent progress
shows, the solutions
are tried and tested. We know that lives can be saved
when children have
access to integrated, community-based health services,
backed by a strong
referral system."
There has also been
significant progress in parts of Sub-Saharan
Africa. Under-five mortality
has declined 29% between 2000 and 2004 in
Malawi. In Ethiopia, Mozambique,
Namibia, Niger, Rwanda and Tanzania child
mortality rates have declined by
more than 20%.
The highest rates of child mortality are still found
in West and
Central African countries. In southern Africa hard-won gains in
child
survival have been undermined by the spread of HIV and Aids, says
Unicef.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE construction industry faces imminent collapse due
to a critical
shortage of inputs and skilled personnel, the Zimbabwe
Building Contractors'
Association (ZBCA) has said.
The chairman
of the ZBCA's national executive materials committee,
Christopher Mawere,
said most building projects were at a "standstill"
because cement, diesel,
manpower and foreign currency were in perennial
short supply.
"The situation is very bad," he said. "The industry is on its knees
now. I
can safely say it's operating at about 10% of capacity."
One such
project is Joina Centre, a towering building in Harare, which
has been under
construction for the past decade.
Over the past seven years, the
industry has shed thousands of jobs as
part of desperate survival measures.
At the same time, the industry has lost
experts to the brain
drain.
Builders, carpenters, quantity surveyors, architects,
engineers and
artisans - have joined the great trek to South
Africa.
South African construction companies have embarked on a
massive drive
to recruit skilled personnel to meet their deadlines for World
Cup
2010-related projects.
South Africa is looking at R17
billion in new investments, expected to
create 123 000 new jobs in the
construction sector.
"Right now we don't have engineers, builders,
electricians and
carpenters," said Mawere. "They have all gone and most of
our polytechnics
have stopped training such people."
Tendayi
Chimuriwo, president of the Zimbabwe Construction Industry
Council said soon
there would be no construction industry to talk about
because of the massive
brain drain.
"Companies will collapse because there will be no
manpower," Chimuriwo
told SABC news recently.
The shortage of
cement is a major stumbling block, the ZBCA said. It
claimed cement
producers were only selling the commodity to dealers, who
resell it at the
black market at inflated prices.
The retail price of cement is $500
for a 50 kg but the few dealers who
have the commodity sell it at $2.5
million.
The ZBCA, which represents mostly black-owned construction
companies,
accused the government of neglecting the industry.
Like the new farmers, said Mawere, the indigenous building contractors
must
be included in the government's mechanisation programme, as well as
being
given preference in foreign currency allocation to buy new
machinery.
"Farmers are being given fertilizers, seeds and tractors
by the
government," he said. "Why are they leaving us out?"
Analysts have blamed the economic recession on President Robert Mugabe's
controversial policies. But the 83-year-old leader has denied ruining
Zimbabwe's once thriving economy, blaming it all on targeted sanctions
slapped on his government.
Zim Standard
By Our Staff
HIGH Court judge Justice Ben Hlatshwayo on Friday dismissed with costs
a
matter in which President Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba was suing The
Zimbabwe Independent and its distributors for defamation.
Charamba, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and
Publicity,
and his lawyers, failed to attend the pre-trial conference or
make an
appearance on the matter, in Harare.
Justice Hlatshwayo then issued
a default judgement.
In March last year, Charamba, filed a $15
billion lawsuit at the High
Court after the weekly published four
articles.
The first was published on the front page on 3 March,
with the
headline "Charamba in hot soup over Tsholotsho".
Other
articles were published on 10 March, headlined "Charamba
threatens Zimind"
and "Tsholotsho ghost haunts Charamba", and on 17 March,
with the headline
"Tsholotsho saga: evidence of Charamba's role exposed".
But in
issuing the judgement on Friday, Justice Hlatshwayo dismissed
Charamba's
application with costs.
Zim Standard
By
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Zanu PF might be
mobilising the much-feared Green Bombers
to seize basic commodities from
ordinary people's homes as part of the
government's discredited price
control policy.
This is likely to send shivers down the spines of
many Zimbabweans as
the graduates of the youth service are notorious for
employing violence in
their implementation of Zanu PF
directives.
The youths were involved in the looting of shops during
the government's
price clampdown.
So far the controversial
price blitz operation has been limited to the
shops and supermarkets most of
which are now bare.
But Obert Mpofu, the Minister of Industry and
International Trade,
denied that it was the government policy to raid
people's homes in search of
scarce basic commodities.
"Zimbabwe
respects the rule of law," he said. "This operation has been
done under the
required legal instruments and is regulated".
The Zanu PF secretary
for youth, Absolom Sikhosana, last week urged
the youths to target homes and
companies that have stopped production in
protest against the price
blitz.
Sikhosana said the youths should "target people hoarding
basic
commodities" at their homes and "bring the goods to the formal
market".
"It is your duty to make right what is wrong," Sikhosana
told the
youths at Davies Hall, the party headquarters last
week.
"We have houses that have become shops; you have a duty to
identify
those and confiscate all the goods and bring them to the formal
market."
Sikhosana said there was a place that had been nicknamed
"the World
Bank" in Bulawayo, where the illegal exchange of foreign currency
is
rampant. He said it was the duty of the youths to "wipe it
out".
"We have factories that are no longer producing," he said.
"You have
got a duty to identify these and bring them to book."
Zim Standard
by Our staff
THE Grain Marketing Board is exploring ways of importing flour from
South
Africa to alleviate the countrywide bread shortage, sources said last
week
The intention comes in spite of the GMB's failure to pay
for 36 000
tonnes of wheat from South Africa and Mozambique stuck in Beira
for about
five months.
Two weeks ago, the GMB would not respond
to questions on the snag, but
reliable sources said the parastatal had
repeatedly failed to secure Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe funding for the
consignment.
If brought into the country, the wheat would last for
only four weeks
as Zimbabwe requires 9 000 tonnes of wheat a week to satisfy
local demand.
Sources said the baking industry proposed that
government import flour
rather than buy wheat from both local and foreign
millers until October when
the country reaps winter wheat.
But
it is estimated foreign supplies will push the price of bread from
the
official $22 000 a loaf to anything between $150 000 and $200 000, the
current black market price.
National Bakers' Association
chairman Vincent Mangoma last week
confirmed negotiating with government for
flour imports.
"Yes, we did make such a suggestion and the
government said they were
looking at it. I have also been to South Africa to
assess the viability of
such a move and yes, it will increase the input
costs, hence inevitably
necessitate a mark-up on the current bread price,"
Mangoma said.
The baking industry has in the past said the flour
shortage was
threatening its survival. The industry said its woes were
exacerbated by
unviable prices enforced by the government. The recent price
blitz has
hastened the industry's imminent downfall.
In the
past two weeks alone, the industry suffered several casualties,
among them
the closure of the two major bakeries, Lobels and Superbake and
the
Chinese-owned Mart Bakery in Chitungwiza.
Zim Standard
Jennifer
Dube
THE recent inflation figures released by the Central
Statistical
Office merely reflect suppressed inflation, not an improvement
in the
economy, economists said last week.
In separate
interviews, they said the decline in the annual inflation
rate announced by
the CSO last week was not worth celebrating as it was
merely a result of the
unrealistic prices imposed by the government through
its price
controls.
The CSO last week reported that monthly inflation figures
for August
dropped by 19.8 percentage points to a "two-year low" of 11.8%
while annual
inflation slowed from a July peak of 7 634.8% to 6 592.
8%.
"I do not believe that," an independent economist John
Robertson said.
"Their calculations were based on assumptions and not the
real prices
prevailing on the black market.
"We cannot take the
figures seriously, considering there were very few
goods on the official
market at the time of their compilation. People relied
heavily on the black
market where prices of goods are much higher than the
assumed prices they
(CSO) used."
Others said the slowdown was artificial as the CSO
merely used
government gazetted prices, ignoring the fact that the month was
characterised by a chronic shortage of goods, most of them components of the
list used in calculating inflation figures.
The CSO list
consists of such commodities as sugar, cooking oil, soap
and beef. Recently,
most supermarkets and retail shops have had a severe
shortage of these
items.
On the black market, where they are readily available, such
goods
normally fetch a price two or three times higher than the official
one.
The economists said price controls merely suppressed
inflation.
It was hopeless, they said, to try and alleviate
inflation through the
imposition of price controls in an economy hit by
shortages. Such drastic
measures tended to push people out of the formal
market, pushing up prices
and raising the inflation rate.
"Suppressed inflation is not genuine inflation," said Kingdom's
Witness
Chinyama. "If there were no shortages, we would see inflation coming
down.
"If supermarkets were well-stocked and goods were
available, we would
see it coming down."
For a long time now,
CSO figures have been dogged by controversy, with
some independent analysts
placing their inflation figures invariably higher
than those of the
government agency.
Zim Standard
THERE is
something seriously defective when the leadership of the country's
largest
workers' representative organisation calls for a nationwide strike
but
workers ignore the call.
It is tempting to suggest the
leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions is in danger of being
divorced from the reality that every
ordinary worker confronts.
What is also probably true is that the ordinary worker has lost
confidence
in the leadership of the ZCTU and does not want to be used as
cannon fodder.
The last successful strike staged by the labour movement was
in 1997. But
soon after that the leadership changed. There hasn't been a
strike of the
magnitude of the one in 1997 yet the current conditions are
far worse than
those of 10 years ago.
The failed two-day ZCTU nation-wide stayaway
on Wednesday and Thursday
last week exposed a serious flaw in how the ZCTU
engages its membership.
Most workers on Wednesday were surprised to hear
there was a stayaway. Yet
the whole of last weekend and the days before
Wednesday, the single most
important discussion in commuter buses should
have been around the merits
and demerits of a stayaway, with leaflets being
widely distributed at bus
stops and advisory sms text messages in
overdrive.
The ZCTU will cite the arrest of its officials and
intimidation by
security agents in the period leading up to the stayaway.
But such is the
nature of any given struggle, and the response by the State
and its agents
should have been anticipated.
It is an insult
for the ZCTU leadership to suggest that the stayaway
was a success - a
successful failure? - when the overwhelming majority of
workers did not heed
the call for a stayaway. It is not as if every single
district, provincial
and national leader of the labour movement was arrested
on the eve of the
stayaway.
The entire workforce in the country is far greater than
the total
security personnel in the country and clearly if a majority of the
workers
had stayed away from work, in all the urban areas countrywide, the
law-enforcement agencies would not have coped. They just do not have that
many officers to go around.
But it is precisely because of the
dearth of strategies on how to
negotiate the treacherous terrain we operate
in that workers have become
apathetic to any calls to join strikes. This is
not the first time there has
been such a failure, but this one was
spectacular and raises serious doubts
about the labour movement's leadership
and its strategists. The ZCTU also
needs to consult those before them who
were successful in calling for mass
action.
In the 60s and 70s
the nationalist leadership was able to outwit the
Rhodesians because they
anticipated the State's response. They were always
one step ahead. If the
ZCTU leadership intends to confront the regime, they
will need people
capable of going beyond mere announcements. Pronouncements
are one component
in the arsenal of the struggle to get the regime to begin
to respect workers
and their rights.
While the State may have won the battle last
week, they have not won
the war. In fact, they were pretty shaken. That is
why the State media
carried statements recanting the government's wage
freeze as well as
announcing an upward review of prices of commodities that
had vanished from
the shop shelves because manufacturers found it uneconomic
to produce goods
they were required to sell at below production
costs.
For the ZCTU this was an opportunity squandered and its
leadership may
have illustrated its irrelevance to the cause of Zimbabwean
workers
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by Bill
Saidi
ONLY a handful of people could swear that, in its present,
God-awful
state of decay - both economic and political - this ramshackle of
a country
is the real Zimbabwe that thousands died for.
Or that
they themselves would die for it today. Four to five million
citizens - give
or take a few hundreds of thousands - decided, according to
the statistics,
that they wouldn't even live in the country, not for the
moment,
anyway.
The government can deny the existence of a large Zimbabwean
population
in The Diaspora, until the Victoria Falls dries up. That will not
erase the
truth.
By some calculations, half the population in
the country can no longer
afford three square meals a day, half the country
goes without water and
power for days on end. Half the people go without
transport: even when they
do find it, half the time it probably costs them a
leg, an arm and other
parts of the anatomy it would not be decent to mention
here.
At the same time, you have to marvel at the contradictions.
The
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange claims it is performing so well it is rated
among
the best in the world.
Which world? The same one whose
citizens won't visit Zimbabwe as
tourists in the same numbers they used to
before 2000, when the five-star
hotels had all the soap and soup they
needed?
Today, some have to make do with the cheaper variety of
both, or warn
guests with a Not Available sign.
This same
world warns its citizens not to visit Zimbabwe as tourists,
because they
might starve to death. The country is so short of food most
supermarket
shelves are empty. And so on and so forth . . .
If there are people
raking in money in the midst of this whirlpool of
agony, then they must be
profiting from the misery of others, which must be
a sin of some sort in any
religion. But people have committed such sins with
breath-taking impunity
since that fantastic story of the apple.
If all God-fearing people
insist that this Zimbabwe - with its world
record-breaking inflation rate,
its world-shattering life expectancy of a
pathetic 34 years or less, its
stultifying lack of respect for freedom of
expression and assembly, and the
impunity with which the ordinary citizen is
subjected to violence by the
State - is the one they would lay down their
lives for, then no wonder we
could all be on the point of drowning in this
cesspit.
There
must be so many people with their screws loose upstairs the
racket must be
worse than Bedlam, whenever they shake their heads.
Such criticism
of the country, naturally, angers the government and
the ruling elite. To
them, it is tantamount to disloyalty, betrayal and the
most shameless
display of lack of patriotism.
Why? Not because it is the truth,
but because such truths are expected
to be uttered only by the enemies of
the State - the British, the Americans,
some Europeans, some Asians and some
Africans, including Zimbabwean
opposition members and the independent
media.
This is the Zimbabwe all citizens should fight against - a
Zimbabwe
full of lies and bullies.
Someone Out There is
punishing us for trying to stand the Truth on its
head. How can this
country, with its bare, cracked feet trudging painfully
into the intense
care unit, be a success story?
That success story can happen only
if last week's amazing political
developments in Parliament turn out not to
be a mirage, or another lie.
If Zanu PF and the MDC, after serious
horse-trading, agreed to let
Constitutional Amendment No.18 go all the way,
with a few alterations, we
could be entering a new era of political
sanity.
Initially, the amendments Zanu PF proposed could not be
cloaked in
good, old-fashioned patriotic altruism, such as the US Marshall
Plan after
World War II.
Zanu PF's intentions were to
safeguard its political hegemony, to
ensure, once again, that it would
remain in power after any election, now or
in the foreseeable
future.
By giving in to some of the opposition demands, the party
is
signalling its willingness to compromise, to be human again, to consider
the
opinions of ordinary people in all political equations - a rarity for
this
party yeropa (a party born out of blood or a party bathed in blood -
take
your pick).
In truth, this is a litmus test for Zanu PF,
more than for the MDC or
other critics who have previously labelled the
party as one impervious to
change.
For the first time in many
years, Zanu PF may be campaigning for the
same Zimbabwe that most of us have
always wished for - a Zimbabwe without
lies and bullies.
saidib@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
sundayview by
Judith Todd
I couldn't get the thought of the drugs sitting at the
airport waiting
to be cleared by Customs out of my mind, so on Friday I
phoned Bryant Elliot
and told him about the situation.
I also
phoned Dr Galen and asked if he could possibly speak to
Professor Thomas,
who was a colleague of his and in charge of Lookout's
treatment, to see what
could be done. I was constantly torn between the fear
of interfering and the
fear of being irresponsible . . . I also thought it
might upset Lookout if
he thought I was interferring.
I tried to telephone Professor
Thomas myself, although I didn't know
him and thought he might hate my
intervention. He was out, so I spoke to his
secretary, who was very
reasonable. I said I was anxious not to be
interferring, but was worried
about the medicine at the airport awaiting
clearance. The weekend would
start the next day and Customs wouldn't do
anything on a Saturday or Sunday.
She said she was sure Professor Thomas
would know, as he saw Lookout every
day, but she would make a note to tell
him when he came back.
Later I talked to Jeremy Brickhill. He thought of the excellent idea
of
ringing a top official in the ministry of Health, S K Moyo, who would
certainly, if needs be, go to the airport and clear the consignment himself
immediately, if he knew of the problem. So that was a relief.
I
went to see Lookout that evening. Still no drip, but he said he had
been
told that the medicine had been cleared and was now available. They
were
going to give him different medicine meanwhile and put him back on the
drip
the next day. He showed me the needle in his arm, preparatory for the
drip.
Lookout said that after I left him the previous night, his temperature
had
shot up. Earlier in the day, he said, it had been 39 degrees Celsius. I
noticed he was shaking slightly. He had been the previous day too. Maybe he
had been all the time and I had noticed it only recently.
Lookout said a lot of blood samples had been taken from him. Both he
and I
used highly non-technical and unsuitable language, as we didn't know
anything about medicine. He said they told him they were taking samples from
different places in his arms and legs in case the blood was clear in one
place, but there was a "germ" in another. That morning he had been taken for
X-rays because his chest was hurting, he said "just as though I had been
lifting weights".
I felt we were nearing the end of a frightful
tragedy of which neither
he, nor Gift, nor I, nor the lawyer, nor lots of
other people, knew the
truth. Lookout referring to the past years and to the
authorities, said:
"They have mishandled me."
At some point
the week before, he said to me: "I have learned not to
trust
people."
He also said: "I always prefer to know the truth. If have
an hour to
live, I want to be told, 'Masuku, you have an hour to
live.'"
There were rumours around town. The previous week, Godwin
Matatu had
rung me. Somehow the name Lookout cropped up, and Godwin said:
"Ah, yes, he
is in his dying days."
I said: "What do you
mean?"
He said Eddison Zvobgo had told him that Lookout's condition
was
incurable.
The night before, someone else had said to me:
"Do you think our
friend has any chance of survival?" I said I didn't know,
but on that
Thursday, Lookout gave me an application to join the American
Marketing
Association.
"I am glad to let you know that I have
been released from detention."
I had to post it for him the next
day.
On Saturday 22 March, I took him a small tray with four
slices of
roast fillet and a very small roasted sweet potato. He had said
recently
that he could live on meat alone, but it must still smell of being
meat.
Meat in prisons and hospitals was always overcooked. Lookout was back
on the
drip. For a few seconds I didn't realise how horribly sick he was
feeling.
Visiting hours started at 3.30PM, but he had asked me to be there
at two
while it was still quiet . . .
I was expected at Molli's
at 3.30 and it was now only 2.20. I drove
slowly past the house of Noel and
Doris Galen. I wanted to talk to Noel. It
was he who had first alerted me to
how serious the whole situation was. But
there was no car in the garage,
which meant they must be out. So I drove
slowly on, wondering where to go,
what to do so that I was sure I'd be in
control of myself when I got to
Molli.
I ended up at Landscape Nurseries and found a secluded wall
near the
roses, where I sat quietly. A group looked at me curiously but then
wandered
on, leaving me alone. I looked up at the sky like any
fundamentalist who
believes that God is shaped like a man and sits on a
throne up there, and
flung my heart heavenwards. I don't understand even
computers and microchips
and how electricity works so how can I begin to
understand You?
I don't know how to pray and I don't know how to
ask for help for
Lookout. I don't know what kind of help to ask for. But if
it were possible
for me to communicate with you in an acceptable way,
please, please enfold
Lookout with whatever would be the best thing for me
to be able to pray for
him.
On Sunday 23 March I had lunch
with Noel and Doris Galen. An American
microbiologist, David Katzenstein,
who was doing research in Zimbabwe, was
present. He confirmed what Noel had
warned me of. Lookout had AIDS and could
not be expected to recover from his
Cryptococcal meningitis.
David told me that in a case like his it
would probably be best to
stop medication. I confronted him with the age-old
problem. Lookout didn't
know of his situation. His family didn't know. But
he kept asking questions.
In fact, he had ordered me to go and find out what
was wrong with him,
because he felt something was being concealed from him.
Now that I had found
out, I didn't know what to do with the
knowledge.
David asked if he could possibly have had a blood
transfusion in
Zambia. I explained how Lookout and his family had been shot
up in a
Rhodesian attack in Lusaka, and how he had lost part of his hand. I
said
almost certainly he could have had a blood transfusion that
night.
"There you are," David said. He went on to explain that
research
indicated that Zambia for some years had been a high-risk country
for AIDS.
So this meant that all those ex-combatants who had been wounded
and received
blood transfusions were a group at risk.
Excerpt from Judith Todd's latest book, Through the Darkness; A Life
in
Zimbabwe, available from www.zebrapress.co.za.
Zim Standard
sundayview by Tamuka Charles
Chirimambowa
THE recent political developments regarding
Constitutional Amendment
18 compel me to contribute to the debates that have
arisen within civil
society and the country in general. Key to my
contribution is to implore
ourselves to ponder on the role of civil society
and the political parties
in finding a solution to the Zimbabwe
crisis.
There seems to be some misinformed and fundamentalist
innuendos
particularly within civil society in Zimbabwe. The accession by
the MDC
formations to Amendment 18 is seen as a betrayal, and some have even
further
vowed to server ties with the opposition.
Let me hasten
to say such actions are unfortunate and cocoon ourselves
in grand delusions
of self piousness. There seems to be a tendency of
increasing culture of
political Pharisees, who preach right and walk left in
the evening. Such
behaviour reminds me of an old fable of the grasshopper
which my grandmother
used to tell me about, which I termed the grasshopper
syndrome. It would
react vigorously whenever you touch it and in the process
break its hind
legs yet it would need them for take off to fly and the
result has always
been it gets stuck and becomes vulnerable to prey.
There seems to
be lack of appreciation of the SADC initiative within
our civil society
movement. There is a great distinction between civil
society and political
parties. Whilst political parties can enter into
alliances with civil
society organisations, the two entities will never be
the same and always
pursue the same agendas. One thing that has to be
acknowledged by civil
society as so far done by all political parties is
that we have a major
crisis and as such we can't have the
burn-the-house-to-kill-the-snake
mentality. The accession by the MDC in
tandem with promoting the SADC led
dialogue is to create conducive and
confidence building measures to the
inroads made so far.
It should be noted that even Zanu PF has
agreed to discuss and
possibly reform contentious issues such as the Public
Order Security Act,
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and
governance issues.
In this case most of the people who have become
critics of this
process have failed to appreciate that any process that
tries to unlock our
deadlock and encourage negotiations, has to be promoted.
This does not mean
that this route has no political risks, and at the same
time is sacrosanct
to the MDC and can therefore not be abandoned if it fails
to deliver. More
so, there is a deliberate mischief of the reductionism
syndrome that because
there is still violence then agreeing to the amendment
is betrayal.
What people are failing to note is that these talks
are actually meant
to deal with that violence and there is nowhere the MDC
has claimed that
Zimbabwe's problems are over. Therefore there is need for
us to begin to
engage within the framework of the SADC initiative as finally
agreed to by
Zanu PF and the MDC. It seems we are also failing to recognize
that Zanu PF
all along has been saying there was no crisis in Zimbabwe. The
positive step
in this case is that there is that recognition and they have
agreed to play
ball. Reducing everything to Robert Mugabe or Zanu PF misses
the essence of
the talks.
Besides, there is a failure to
recognize that Zanu PF has a two thirds
majority in both houses that can
allow it to change the Constitution. Thus
the argument of going to bed with
Zanu PF is rather more than grandstanding
populism.
There is a
need within civil society to begin to forward substantive
issues to be
considered for debate within these talks. However, it seems
civil society is
ignorant of its responsibility and assumes that Rome was
built in a day. I
firmly believe what the MDC has done is part of the many
steps that various
Zimbabweans may take on the journey to our liberation
from dictatorship.
Henceforth, the debate should focus more on the agenda of
these talks,
rather than labelling each other as sell- outs.
Just as food for
thought both the National Constitutional Assembly and
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition recently changed constitutions to keep certain
dynasties. This
reminds us of Jesus' words to the Pharisees that let he who
has not sinned
pick the first stone to strike the woman adulterer. Not
saying that the MDC
has sinned, but the point being that let us stop this
self
vindictiveness.
If civil society organisations feel that the MDC
and Zanu PF should
not negotiate then they should not try to impose their
will on these
parties. I think my colleagues in these movements fail to
understand
rudimentary processes of conflict resolution. There is no way we
can say we
won't negotiate with Zanu PF, when they are occupying organs of
the State.
That is not realistic at all even in a utopian world, and as such
our
energies need to be synergized getting the best out of all opportunities
present to liberate us from serfdom.
What is fundamental for us
as Zimbabweans is to make sure that we do
not sleep on our laurels as we did
in 1987. There is strong conscious need
to guard against a deal that would
lead to the two parties agreeing to form
another gravy train as happened
between Zanu PF and PF Zapu.
The role of the SADC mediation is not
to install any leader or
political party, but to create an environment that
is free and fair. It is
my humble opinion that within the framework of
parliament there is hope to
achieve what we have been searching for. The
argument that Mugabe is cunning
can't stop negotiations but serve as a call
to be alert in our dealings with
the regime.
Participation or
giving a chance to the SADC initiative should not be
an end but one of the
means to an end. It is my contention that attempts to
demonise the MDC
leadership by some civic leaders are unfortunate and self
serving. They are
not at all representative of the people, and it would be
foolhardy for them
to assume that their interests are the people. There is a
danger of some
civic organizations and leaders becoming irrelevant and out
of touch with
reality.
Let us explore all alternatives before us and if it fails
we leave it,
and move on. The ahistoric interpretation of the 1987 Unity
Accord will note
take us anywhere.
Price blitz: The chickens coming home to roost
NOW that the chickens
are coming home to roost, what's next for this
clueless and blundering
regime?
The results are there for all to see. All supermarkets are
empty. They
have no commodities to sell. We were told that business people
were pushing
for a regime change because they were "recklessly" increasing
prices.
Obert Mpofu and Elliot Manyika of the Cabinet Taskforce on
Price
Monitoring, announced after launching the price blitz that those who
wanted
to sabotage the government by not producing and selling goods at the
extensively slashed prices, would be arrested and business taken over by the
government.
It is unfortunate and regrettable that Zimbabweans
are made to suffer
at the expense of a few power-hungry individuals, who
show no mercy or
remorse for their evil deeds. It is no longer an opinion or
perception, but
a fact that President Robert Mugabe on the advice of his
hangers-on launched
Operation Slash Prices against advice from well-informed
professionals on
the consequences of such an initiative. Sadly, Mugabe's
arrogance means that
he will never take sound advice from
anyone.
It is also imperative to note that the world over, the
practice of
price cuts has never worked. When Zanu PF supporters were
celebrating the
price cuts, they were oblivious of the fact that it was a
short honeymoon
with deadly long-term effects. You do not reduce inflation
by "slashing"
prices, that is suppression of inflation and the most painful
thing is when
you relax these controls prices "balloon", causing inflation
to increase
significantly.
In our situation, the regime is now
cornered because it has no
strategy in place. The shortage of all
commodities is so severe and
compounding the problem, it has no capacity to
produce. The regime's
insecurity has been shown because when it launched the
Operation that was a
reactionary move to former US Ambassador Christopher
Dell's remarks that "no
government in the world has survived six-digit
figure inflation".
The chilling statement that sent Mugabe running
around was Dell's
remark that "the Mugabe regime would be gone by
December".
If Mugabe and his regime had a strategy, we would not be
facing these
shortages at the moment. People have lost confidence in Mugabe.
This is a
sign of rejection.
Mugabe cries a lot about sanctions
and blames these on Morgan
Tsvangirai. If this is true then it means
Tsvangirai is more powerful and
should be ruling.
The regime
does not comment about the widespread shortages it has
created. It goes on
pretending as if things are normal. Yet, people are
suffering and are going
for days without a decent meal. Mugabe and his
ministers have become so
detached from reality and the plight of the
ordinary people it is
frighteningly sickening.
Andy Mangoma
Bulawayo
---------
TZ desperate for sponsorship, but not
broke
I was perturbed by the article which appeared in The Standard on
Tennis Zimbabwe (TZ).
The article states that TZ is broke and
is looking to host the Davis
Cup as a way of improving its financial
position. When I spoke to your
reporter I tried to educate him on what was
happening in tennis, but I guess
he already had a pre-meditated angle he
wanted to hammer home.
Firstly, hosting the Davis Cup will not
provide TZ with any monetary
benefits. The hosting of the Davis Cup is
purely developmental. We hope that
by hosting the Davis Cup, tennis players
and the tennis loving public will
benefit a lot from the event as seven
countries will be taking part. It is
our mandate to ensure that local tennis
players get as much exposure as
possible.
With the construction
of the Tennis Centre at Harare Sports Club, TZ
now has a facility that will
meet the ITF standard for hosting events like
the Davis Cup (Group 3). Like
any of the other countries in the Euro-Africa
Zone Group 3, TZ has to apply
to the International Tennis Federation for the
right to host the Davis Cup.
We are not aware of which other countries have
applied for the right to host
the event.
Secondly, TZ is not broke. Like most organisations, TZ
may not have
funds to perform certain tasks or undertake some projects due
to financial
limitations. This, however, does not in any way imply that the
association
is broke.
We do have funds in our coffers and have
been able to maintain a
modest office. We have been able to undertake most
of our desired projects
without the assistance of local
sponsors.
This does not in any way imply that we do not need
sponsorship. We are
desperate for sponsorship, but as an organisation we
have had to learn to
survive with minimum internal
resources.
T P Chinamo
Vice-President
Tennis Zimbabwe
-----------------
Warped priorities
IT
has been decided by the Zanu PF government that MPs and Senators
are going
to be increased soon. Surely this will be extra financial burden
on the
ficus at a time when government claims it has no money!
The money
for the proposed increase in the number of MPs and Senators
should instead
be used for increases in student loans, stocking up drugs in
hospitals and
clinics and increasing pensions for retired civil servants, as
well as
repairing rural roads.
Students in colleges and universities are
attending lectures on empty
stomachs. That government officials' children
are being sent back home is
only fair because Zimbabwean students are
suffering here while the black
oppressors' children never go hungry at the
overseas colleges and
universities.
D R
Mutungagore
Mutare
---------------
A Ndebele for
president HOW about a Ndebele for President? If Tanzanians
are managing to
give each minority group the chance to become president why
should we not
try it as well?
I believe the next President should come from the
minority groups -
Ndau, Tonga, Shangaani, Ndebeles, Korekore, Manyika and
others. The
presidency should be held on a rotational basis. How about
that?
Tonderai
Harare