I have attached a document - it is an interesting review of Fay Chung's
book Reliving
the Second Chimurenga by retired history teacher Katherine Withers.
Click here to read it
http://www.latimes.com
Millions are hungry, and the number is expected to
grow. A collapsed
economy, bad harvest and politics are cited.
By Robyn
Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:04 PM PDT, September 26,
2008
MASVINGO PROVINCE, ZIMBABWE -- They look like birds pecking, grain by
grain,
along the nation's roadsides. Tattered women and children bend to
pick up
the smattering of corn blown from passing trucks. The precious
grains are
about all there is to eat.
Millions across Zimbabwe are on
the brink of starvation, largely because of
the failure of this year's
harvest and the nation's collapsed economy, along
with President Robert
Mugabe's ban on humanitarian aid during the recent
election
campaign.
On the road from Harare, the capital, south to Masvingo
province, a
3-year-old boy, Slupeth, collects grain with his mother, Esnat,
36, and her
sister, Chipo, 26. It takes them half a day to gather a pound of
ground
corn, or maize, which will make a small dinner.
Half of the
boy's hair has fallen out; his skin is scaly and his eyes runny.
The two
women are gaunt, their cheekbones sharp, their wrists like sticks.
The
family ran out of corn in April.
"We were told a truck spilled grain
today. Without it we would have nothing
to eat," said Esnat, who was afraid
of being beaten by government supporters
if she gave her
surname.
Mugabe recently rescinded his ban on outside aid, but
Richard Lee, spokesman
for the U.N. World Food Program, said it would take
months to get
humanitarian distributions back to full speed.
Of the
1.7 million people who needed emergency food this month, only a
minority
have gotten help, he said. By November, the WFP hopes to be fully
operational. About 5 million people, almost half the population, will need
food aid by early next year, the time when food shortages usually are worst,
Lee predicted.
The head man in one village in the southern province
of Masvingo says he has
never seen hunger so bad in his 76 years. Most
people in rural areas have
run out of ground corn, the staple, along with
cooking oil, sugar and even
salt.
They eat nothing but boiled rape, a
leafy vegetable like spinach, and a wild
fruit called hacha.
Esnat
and Chipo used to do odd jobs for a bucket of maize, but now no one
has any
to spare. Their neighbors are so short of food that there is nobody
left to
beg from. In between gleanings from the passing trucks, the family
lives on
hacha.
Hunger in Zimbabwe also has a political element, many here
believe. At times
of food shortages, the ZANU-PF party, which has ruled for
28 years, has used
the Grain Marketing Board, the state-owned monopoly grain
distributor, to
punish opposition activists at the village level and reward
loyalists.
A senior board official, speaking on condition of anonymity
for fear of
repercussions, said that right down to the district level, food
distributions, the only source of maize, had been run by the army, the
Central Intelligence Organization, the police and the district
administrator.
"It was more like a campaign tool. Those who were
actually supporting the
opposition were getting nothing because the CIO
wanted to give the grain
directly to their supporters," he said.
One
diplomat who saw a distribution of food several months ago described a
Grain
Marketing truck surrounded by ZANU-PF youths wearing party T-shirts
and
bandannas.
"It was clearly a ZANU-PF food distribution, not a GMB
distribution. The two
are merged into one," the diplomat said.
With
the election over and the food handed out to supporters, the silos are
empty, the board official said. And the harvest was 5% of the expected level
in some areas.
South of Harare, the countryside gets drier. The
landscape is dusty, with
red earth and dried yellow grass. Huge oval rocks
protrude majestically,
balanced one upon another like some geological magic
trick.
In the villages, the hunger is so severe that few talk of anything
else. In
one, the head man -- the traditional elder and ZANU-PF official --
who
identified himself only as Isaac, 76, said that in past droughts there
were
shops to fall back on. But with no harvest, empty shops and no
transportation to go and buy elsewhere, people are forced to eat raw wild
fruit. He requested anonymity, fearing repercussions.
"In my life I
have never known a situation as serious as we are having now,"
he
said.
An 80-year-old woman, Tsungirirai, caring for nine grandchildren,
feeds them
nothing but green vegetables. She has run out of salt and cannot
sell her
last few cattle because she needs them for plowing. She recently
sold her
last goat to buy food.
"There's nothing I can do. I feel as
if we are on the road to death. We
can't survive eating only vegetables,"
said the woman, who disclosed only
her first name. "Sometimes I cry when I'm
on my own in my little hut.
Sometimes the children see me crying. The young
ones cry with me. The older
ones say, 'How will crying help?'
"
Isaac, the head man, says villagers come to him for help, but all he
can do
is send them to the Grain Marketing Board depot, even though he knows
there
is nothing there.
"I feel so much embarrassed. It's very, very
hard," he said. "If you see the
sorry state of the people, sometimes you
want to cry."
But critics say the head men and chiefs -- eyes and ears of
ZANU-PF in the
rural areas -- have benefited from the system for years. The
government
handed out cars and tractors to chiefs before the elections in
March and
June.
"It was fine when it worked in their favor," the
diplomat said. "The council
of chiefs could have stood up at any time and
opposed the system but they
didn't."
Mugabe's international food
aid ban was also politically motivated, some
villagers think. During the
presidential campaign before the first round of
voting in late March, Mugabe
wanted to put pressure on areas that favored
the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, said a 52-year-old villager
named Edward.
Most
people in his village, traditionally a strong ZANU-PF area, voted for
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but switched back in the runoff
election June 27 after the ruling party conducted a violent campaign for
votes.
"We suspect that he [Mugabe] wanted people to feel the pinch
so that they
would vote for ZANU-PF," Edward said.
He and his four
children live on boiled greens.
"I feel bad. I feel that I should be able
to do more for my family," he
said. "I should be able to feed them, because
I can't let my family die."
Zimbabwe used to export grain, but after
Mugabe's forced eviction of white
farmers, which began in 2000, agriculture
collapsed, leaving the country
reliant on imported food and humanitarian
aid.
The grain board official blamed corruption and poor farm production.
Even
with Mugabe now forced to share power with the MDC, hungry Zimbabweans
face
a long wait, he said.
"The coffers are empty," the official
said. Tsvangirai, now the prime
minister-designate, "is starting from
nothing."
robyn.dixon@latimes.com
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com
Opinion
September 26, 2008 | By Reginald
Thabani Gola
The Movement for Democratic Change -Tsvangirai faces a daunting
task of
sealing its fragile fences against Mugabe's unholy manouvres, or
else it
slides into political oblivion.
It is no secret that since
the eve of Zimbabwe's 2000 elections, the then,
united MDC became top
priority assignment for the ruling ZANU PF which
eventually led to its
Mugabe inflicted split into two formations. The
immediate cause of the split
was conflict over the decision on whether to
contest the newly introduced
senatorial elections, which were considered to
be unnecessary within the
MDC. A reason too flimsy to justify a permanent
and bitter split.
The
split was due to its the MDC loose fencing. Mugabe wolves skipped over
the
fragile fences and within a very short space of time, the entire
organization was over-crowded with top leadership affiliated to the to the
notorious Mugabe Central Intelligence Organisation infiltrated for the
purposes of weakening the mass movement which had, already, by then, beaten
Mugabe's ruling party twice in the national elections, and, almost swept the
entire urban areas in local government elections to its fold. Fevered by
visible public resentment and agitation daily gaining momentum against ZANU
PF, the trials of former Zambian president, Frederick Chiluba under his
hand-picked successor, the late Zambian president, Levy Mwanawasa, and later
an election coming hot on the heels of the Kenyan electoral fraud and its
unpleasant out-comes, Mugabe had to hatch new approaches to legitimize the
illegitimate for the third time as a matter of urgency.
The "weaken
it {the MDC} from within" strategy was hurriedly adopted and
part of the
then, united MDC top leadership found itself handsomely bribed
into
compliance. This development made the split inevitable. It had to occur
very
urgently in time for the elections that ZANU PF was sure of losing
again,
this time with an a more alarming margin. The idea was to split the
victorious but fragile party into two equal parts to ensure that ZANU PF's
visibly terribly dwindled support base came up top at the polls.
One
Mugabe wolf called Christopher Mutsvangwa, specifically re-called from
diplomatic service in China, handled this special assignment within the
majority opposition party whose third time victory was imminent. Mutsvangwa
did a thorough and perfect job. The greatest challenge for ZANU PF was, at
the time, the SADC protocol on the conduct of elections in the
region.
The usual election rigging tactic would have been too transparent
to the
SADC, and would, therefore, cause lots of regional and international
condemnation of ZANU PF. The MDC {Tsvangirai} survived by divine
intervention in an assignment well calculated. The unceremonial split of the
united MDC played a great shocker to the public! Angered the man on the
street at a time when the masses had mobilized all their resources to
democratically break-away from the ZANU PF unholy yolk of 28 years through
the MDC. Got so angry with the levels of ZANU PF instilled confusion within
the MDC stable. Angry with the visible advancement of self-interest within
the MDC as against public.
Mugabe's bribery politics had prevailed.
He was lawfully owed, and was,
therefore, entitled to some
return-on-investment {ROI} within the MDC
leadership. At this stage
multitudes of MDC supporters and sympathizers
made-up their minds in dire
disappointment, not to go to the polls in
protest against the disabling
split. The masses of Zimbabwe viewed it as a
would-be futile exercise in the
face of a seasoned two-time election rigging
tyrant. This was a Mugabe
manufactured strategic political apathy designed
to propel ZANU PF into fake
but legitimate victory.
Today, a single formation MDC, a one nation, one
country and one leader
movement is long over-due. It would be a prudent move
for the MDC
{Mutambara} ZANU PF sponsored break-away faction, to urgently
rid itself of
its deceitful Central Intelligence Organization sponsored top
leadership
that seeks to surrender the suffering masses back to
Mugabe'slaughter house
to live with disease, hunger, poverty, and death. The
faction Members of
Parliament could catalyse the situation by crossing the
floor in favour of
the Tsvangirai faction. The Mutambara faction is one of
Mugabe's many jokes
and would have no capacity at all to breathe beyond the
March 29 elections.
The united MDC had been destined for victory resounding
enough to send
Mugabe into either, voluntary hiding or, staging an instant
military coup.
And he knew it, and strategised against it.
Then
emerged yet another suspect formation! That of Zimbabwe's former
minister of
finance in Mugabe's cabinet, Dr Simba Makoni. This was a
blessing in
disguise for the MDC {Tsvangirai} formation. The emergence of
Makoni shook a
substantial amount of the resigned would be voters into an
urgent voter
registration stampede in sympathy with Morgan Tsvangirai,
though multitudes
still stayed away in anger. It was suspected that Mugabe
was on yet another
joke with Makoni. This includes the writer of this
article. The sudden
stampede to voter registration centres gave Makoni false
security, and, yet
a devastating disappointment at the end of the race.
It must, however, be
acknowledged that Makoni's Mavambo Movement
accidentally catalysed the
electoral process in favour of Tsvangirai as
there was, already, sufficient
apathy to romp Mugabe back to power. The
people of Zimbabwe identified with
Morgan Tsvangirai, a man made of the
stuff that great man's fathers are.
Highly purposeful and consistent in all
weather. A man who suffered a little
worse than the biblical Daniel who was
cast into the midst of a pride of
lions as prey, but divine intervention
tamed the hungry lions into domestic
cats. And Daniel came out unharmed.
Morgan Tsvangirai was equally cast by
Mugabe thugs into a swum of hungry
mosquitoes at Zimbabwe's notorious Mbare
police station cells.
The following morning the entire swum could not fly
as it had over-preyed on
Morgan and entourage blood. Tsvangirai had been
eaten alive at Mbare police
station amongst other countless and consistent
inhuman, ungodly,
humiliating, brutish, nasty and very primitive trials and
tribulations for
inflicting Mugabe's perennial political running stomach in
favour of good
governance.
Mugabe engaged all sorts of treachery! His
head went more grey such that the
then illegitimate first lady, Grace {aka.
Amai Teaspoon ye Sugar, turned
political stalwart in the period post Mugabe
defeat. A name she derogatorily
pasted on Morgan Tsvangirai meaning
traitor/sellout of the country's gains
in exchange for a teaspoon full of
sugar in ridicule of his {Tsvangirai's}
non hate, non-racial, conciliatory
attitude. That is undisputed political
idiocy on her part} had to purchase
more of the Innecto Super Black hair dye
in her over-seas grocery shopping
trips to keep the old man's head black.
Amai Teaspoon ye Sugar is a very
unmotherly personality who went on the
rampage in the pretext of alleviating
the situation of victims of ZANU PF
stage-managed arson in Headlands and
beyond, against its own supporters to
justify its post-election defeat
attacks on against the civilian, and
therefore, fragile MDC. Amai Teaspoon
ye Sugar went on to give out ZANU PF
election campaign regalia and food
packages to the victims in a non-election
campaign period and the SADC opted
for a "splendid" silence. Mugabe went
very desparate! Tried to touch all the
nerve centres backed by the
self-styled notorious leader of Zimbabwe's War
Veterans Association, war
rascal, Jabulani Sibanda. Emerson Mnangagwa
equally desperately tried to go
Dr Mzee poetic style in a Chikomba rally to
no avail.
The notorious and cheap . Zimbabwe shall never be a colony
again. 100%
Empowerment [at election time] .We will defend our land at all
cost .Victory
Against Tony Blair, Gearge Bush and Gordon Brown. Tsvangirai
Atengesa Nyika
ne Teaspoon ye Sugar .Tsvangirai wants to give the country
back to the white
former colonial masters that we fought against and shed
lots of blood of our
heroes.Tsvangison ndi Tea Boy wa Tony Blair.Morgan "Mr
Boycot/stay-away"
Tsvangirai.Tsvangirai destroys the economy. This country
was liberated with
blood , we therefore cant let it go back to the colonial
masters. Whoever
wants to rule this country will do so through the barrel of
the gun. If you
vote Tsvangirai and the MDC we will go back to the war and
it is your
children who will nourish the war.The white farmers are back on
the farms
and are already serving eviction notices to the ZANU PF resettled
farmers
due to the envisaged Morgan Tsvangirai victory in the March 29
elections.We
are going back to the bush if you don't vote wisely. etc
failed!
Devastatingly failed! Many thanks to the MDC 's professor Elphas
Mukonoweshuro for off-loading Shuvai Mahofa in the Gutu South constituency
of Masvingo. That, inevitably, means that there would be less of the ZANU PF
political nausea-inflicting Zimbabwe ndeye ropa lyrics, and kongonya in the
parliament of the new Zimbabwe.
The "ropa" rhetoric has also failed.
Zimbabweans want food, gainful
employment through industrialization and good
health, not "ropa". "Ropa" and
"kongonya" enthusiasts will now have to
follow Shuvai Mahofa to Mupandawana
growth point, 3 kilometres left, off the
Gutu-Chiredzi high-way in Masvingo.
The people demanded good governance
unambiguously, with or without "ropa".
The time for people engagement and
organizational renewal had come. It had
come and is not yet
gone.
Mugabe is a most unpredictable animal who lives by the sword. It
remains of
grave importance to remember that Mugabe's ZANU PF Headquarters
conferred
multi-honourary degrees in violence have not yet been, and are
unlikely to
be, withdrawn as has happened with several reputable
international
institutions which had made similar awards in other
disciplines in good
faith. Of all the honourary degrees conferred on Mugabe,
he has loudly and
perennially bragged about the local ZANU PF Politburo
conferred one on
"Violence" which he effectively put to use. Mugabe is not
the kind of man to
accept anything that trims down his hegemony to
size.
The MDC has to sleep with one eye open at all times. Mugabe is so
well
equipped and very determined to dismantle the MDC despite all the
set-backs
he (Mugabe) has experienced before. Mugabe's ability to
manufacture the
MDC-Mutambara with the aim of thawing the entire MDC into
thin air is
political sophistication of the best order. He is undisputably,
very
cerebral. The Mugabe MDC-Mutambarafaction had its over-zealous faction
spokesman, Gabriel Chaibva, as an important guest at Mugabe's
self-anointment following the fraudulent June 27 lone-man electoral race,
into the illegitimate presidency of Zimbabwe.
The other time,
Chaibva, was shuttling across the Botswana border to
allegedly, meet
Botswana government officials to negotiate the welfare of
Zimbabweans in
that country. It would be a matter of great interest to
follow-up and
find-out on whose behalf this political lunatic was acting. On
getting to
Gaborone the over-zealous Chaibva was "honoured" with a
government security
escort to the border town of Plumtree alongside a
"prohibited immigrant"
status. That is what Mugabe does to political idiots/
opportunists of
professor Jonathan Moyo and Gabriel Chaibva's kind.
Professor Jonathan
Moyo has, in the past twelve years, been an excessively
very busy political
idiotic bee that gathered little hand-to-mouth nectar. A
shameless rolling
stone political lunatic destined to gather no moss for a
life-time. A
politically reckless activist who never bothered whom he
injured in the
process of winning the better part of Mugabe's heart, and
yet, ended up in a
ZANU PF "paupers grave-yard". He injured multitudes and
yet a
"jelly-cry-baby" who lives by the courts door-step ever ready to seek
legal
relief when hit back. Jonathan Moyo is currently struggling to
catalyse his
resurrection from the Mugabe paupers grave-yard by hook or
crook. This is
the man who played most of the dirty tricks in the rigging of
the previous
MDC victories, and the suppression of the media, civil society
and
opposition political activism on behalf of Mugabe.
Mugabe created MDC
{Mutambara} faction leadership had long prioritized
jostling for hand-outs
in a Mugabe led illegitimate government as against
the will of the
brutalized people of Zimbabwe who daily aspired to be
governed well. That
was part of the Mutsvangwa brokered deal. Ironically,
this Central
Intelligence Organisation driven formation top leadership
wields no
representation at all as it lost all the targeted parliamentary
seats to
either the MDC Tsvangirai, or ZANU PF. Submitting to Mugabe had
became a
very strategic move for it {the Mutambara faction leadership} in
order to
qualify for such hand-outs and partner Mugabe when such need arose.
It is
ZANU PF culture to go into government to make money. Government is no
"money-maker" zone, but a public service. Money-makers go to industry. It is
the looting spirit that makes Zimbabwean elections brutal within and without
ZANU PF, as opportunists/fortune hunters stampede for the looting grounds,
and a "holy life-style" above the law.
The MDC break-away faction was
a sell-out ZANU PF formation in all respects.
Mugabe created a fake critical
negotiating partner to safe-guard his
primitive and self-serving rule as
evidenced by his {Mugabe} attempt to
exclude Morgan Tsvangirai and seal the
deal with that very small tribalistic
faction led by political rejects of
his kind in the March 29 elections. It
is, however, political good news that
the Mutambara faction rank and file
have begun to question the faction's
excessive loyalty to Mugabe and
rejected the respective faction's candidate
for the parliamentary speaker's
position in favour of the Tsvangirai faction
candidate, Lovemore Moyo.
The entire ZANU PF voted for MDC {Mutambara}
faction's losing candidate,
Paul Themba Nyathi, to boost-up the ZANU PF
created break-away party's
chances.
In grave moments dictators are
known to manufacture false political
pluralism by forming "partisan" lame
opposition and making them key
negotiating and governing partners. That is
the "party-within-a party"
scenario. It would be gross miscalculation for
Tsvangirai to assume that
Mugabe has exhausted all the dirty tricks in the
book with this very one.
For those familiar with ZANU PF, it would not be
outrageous thinking to
expect Stalin-type purges of top leadership of vocal
civil society groups
and the majority opposition party top leadership in a
government of national
unity through the army, the police and the Central
Intelligence Organisation
stage-managed accidents, food poisoning, and other
bizaire methods. Army and
war veterans electorate intimidation and bribery
in preparation for the next
election have not ended in rural
areas.
The Southern African Development Community {SADC}, enshrining of
Mugabe in a
highly favoured position has left him {Mugabe} with all the
means to unleash
his ever-ready angels of death against humanity as
evidenced in ZANU PF
daily hate speeches which symbolize bad faith in a big
way. The recent Thabo
Mbeki brokered power-sharing deal between Mugabe's
ZANU PF and the two
factions of the MDC subordinates the winning majority
party to the
electorally humiliated Mugabe. South African president, Thabo
Mbeki, prides
himself of what he terms "an African victory", yet in most
proper terms,
this is pure "African Electoral Fraud {AEF}" in
Zimbabwe.
This is the setting of a new grave legacy, dust-bin legacy that
trivializes
the entire electoral process in favour of political rejects. An
unholy
legacy that empowers electoral losers to prevail over the
democratically
elected institutions. Shame on the SADC, the African Union
and the United
Nations, which have now sunk to to the status of dictators
hide-outs.
Dismantling the Movement of Democratic Change {Tsvangirai}
remains Mugabe
and Mutambara's fondest wish today and tomorrow. Lots of
resources would be,
inevitably, mobilized accordingly.
Reginald
Thabani Gola is a Zimbabwean political analyst, civil society and
human
rights activist.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=4830
September 26, 2008
By Mxolisi
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - ZIMBABWEAN political analyst Professor John Makumbe,
has
described former South African President, Thabo Mbeki as a "half-naked
man"
in the ongoing power-sharing negotiations between President Robert
Mugabe
and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mbeki was in
April 2007, mandated by the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) to
mediate in talks that would clinch a power-sharing deal
and end political
and economic turmoil, which had ravaged Zimbabwe for the
past eight years
and left it virtually on the brink of a civil war.
On September 15, he
brought the parties to an agreement and Mugabe signed
the historic deal with
MDC leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
Mbeki was last week
forced to resign by South Africa's ruling African
National Congress (ANC)
party, which recalled him from the pre3sidency for
his alleged interference
in the ongoing trial of ANC President, Jacob Zuma.
Despite the fact that
both the ANC and SADC still want Mbeki to continue
with his role in the
Zimbabwean deal, Makumbe, an outspoken political
science lecturer at the
University of Zimbabwe, argued Friday that the
former President would not be
respected by the Zimbabwean leaders.
"He is now like a man who has lost
some of his clothes and cannot stand in
front of other people and say
something meaningful to them. When he was
given this mandate, he was a head
of State here (in South Africa), that is
why the Zimbabwean leaders could
listen to him. Now they will say, 'how can
he negotiate for something that
he no longer has?' and not listen to him,"
said Makumbe, during a policy
dialogue seminar, hosted by the Zimbabwe
Solidarity Forum in
Johannesburg.
He added that it would be better for a new negotiator to
take over from
Mbeki and speak with a voice that carries authority, and not
to allow Mugabe
to continue to dictate terms to the MDC, as he is doing at
the moment, for
the deal to sail through.
Makumbe also questioned the
ANC's sincerity in saying that it would allow
Mbeki to continue to mediate
in Zimbabwe.
"They are just doing it to keep him out of their shoes. It
would appear like
Zimbabwe is like a little toy that they are willing to let
him continue to
play with because they do not want to leave him with nothing
but,
unfortunately, we are the ones that are suffering out of this," said
Makumbe.
He also criticised the signed deal, which he said still
leaves Mugabe, who
lost the March 29 elections to Tsvangirai, in charge of
Zimbabwe,
particularly deriding the fact that the 84-year-old leader
appoints the
Prime Minister (Tsvangirai) and Deputy Prime Ministers. This,
said Makumbe,
meant that Mugabe could fire the three as and when he
wishes.
"However, there is nothing that Tsvangirai would have done in the
circumstances, because he was between a rock and a hard place. I would have
done the same thing if I had been in his shoes," he said.
He,
however, said that the MDC, as the compromised party, should turn things
around and correct the compromise during the sharing of cabinet posts,
expected to resume next week, or risk being "compromised indeed" and used as
a "glove to clean up" Zanu-PF which is "full of filth" and which
"contaminates everything that it touches".
Other speakers also echoed
Makumbe's skepticism on the deal's likelihood to
change Zimbabwe's economic
crisis, saying that it was very fragile and with
Mugabe still in charge and
carrying forward his hate against the west,
international donors and
investors might be scared away.
"Zimbabweans are now being held hostage
under the banner of their suffering
and they are being sacrificed on
political settlements that does not benefit
them in any way. The issue of
the constitution is also a major one here. We
cannot base our lives on the
Kariba draft, which is similar to the one that
was rejected by the people in
a 2000 referendum on the basis that it was
done by politicians without the
input of the people. We are against that,"
said Tapera Kapuya of the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA).
The speakers also called for
Zimbabweans to be custodians of those
requirements of the deal which might
lead to economic recovery, saying that
it should not be left to the
"power-hungry politicians" alone.
Other speakers at the seminar were
Thamsanqa Mahlangu, mainstream MDC Member
of Parliament for Nkulumane, David
Monyae, a lecturer at Wits University,
Clever Bere, president of the
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), who
chronicled the struggle of
the Zimbabwean student movement and Randall
Howard, the General Secretary
of the South Africa Transport Workers Union
(SATAWU).
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Saturday, 27 September 2008
05:39
This week on Hot Seat, Violet's guest is Takavafira Zhou, the
President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. Zhou gives an
in-depth look at the 'tragedy' that has become the education sector, the
effects of the continuing teachers' strike and why the Union is calling for
this year's exams to be postponed. Find out why the outspoken leader
believes the MDC is as much to blame as ZANU PF.
Every
weekday in our Appeal for Peace we feature an individual who
addresses those
who are guilty of perpetrating the ongoing acts of violence,
intimidation
and torture against the people of Zimbabwe. We desperately need
peace in our
country in order for democracy to take seed and grow. Friday's
appeal comes
from Munhumutema in Northern England.
On Friday's Callback Chiro
says that despite the deal signing people
are still starving; Limbo feels
Mbeki's departure was inevitable because of
his constant 'meddling', and Vee
says people are slowly losing hope in the
deal, and MDC needs to approach
the West for assistance.
Cathy Buckle's Letter from Zimbabwe
focuses on the national collapse
that has come to be called the "Zimbabwe
Situation" and the painful
compromises of the power sharing agreement signed
by Morgan Tsvangirai. She
says, "Power sharing isn't what we
wanted."
On saturday we have HEALTHbeat, which takes a holistic
view of issues
of health and well-being. Kudzai Shava is a disability
activist and student
based at the University of Leeds, he is also blind and
he discusses the
issue of living with a disability in Zimbabwe. Is enough
being done for
those like him, e.g. with regards to HIV issues?
Then it's time for Reporter's Forum where Lance Guma is joined by
correspondents Lionel Saungweme and Simon Muchemwa. As the dust settles on
the signing of the power-sharing accord between ZANU PF and the MDC the
panel looks at a section of the agreement that talks about external radio
stations. What is the attitude of this 'new government' towards the
media?
Then it's The Heart of the Matter where well-known
journalist and
broadcaster Tanonoka Whande shares his unique thoughts and
insights on
current events. On today's programme Tanonoka focuses on the
way the MDC
has been handling the aftermath of the signing ceremony. Whande
explains why
he believes this is a "sell-out" agreement" and also why he
does not "mourn"
Thabo Mbeki's departure.
On Callback Mtawa
reports that initial excitement has faded and now
people are anxious and
very sceptical about the deal; playwright Gillian
Plowman talks about her
new production 'Yours Abundantly, From Zimbabwe,'
which will be playing in
London later this month, and Themba says food
shortages are the order of the
day and hopes that the deal will restore
hope.
This Sunday on
Through the Valley, Richard talks to The General
Secretary of the Council of
the Lutheran World Federation and Zimbabwean
theologian, Rev Ishmael Noko,
about the need for immediate humanitarian aid
in Zimbabwe and the role of
the church in rebuilding the country.
Tichaona presents the
programme Rebuilding Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans
living and working in the
diaspora send almost £60 million back home to
their families each month.
These huge remittances are vital to the country.
Jonathan Chawaora, chairman
of the MDC in the UK, says that when the rule of
law returns this will help
promote a free market and a stable financial
environment. People in the
diaspora can then play a leading role in
rebuilding the shattered
economy.
Democracy 101 is the programme that gives a beginners
guide to
democracy and the democratic process. Willy and Dominic continue
their
discussion on the tripartite agreement, its implications and whether
it
creates problems as far as the democratic process is concerned. They
discuss
the likely positive effects, such as restoration of the
haemorrhaging
economy.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
26
September 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
declaration this week before the United
Nations General Assembly that he and
his ZANU-PF party are committed to the
power-sharing pact they signed Sept.
15 with the Movement for Democratic
Change has not relieved concerns that
the proposed unity government could
fail to become a reality.
Mr.
Mugabe told the General Assembly on Thursday that ZANU-PF will abide by
the
letter and the spirit of the agreement, while urging that sanctions on
senior officials in his government and party be lifted, contending that they
have caused suffering in Zimbabwe.
Mr. Mugabe praised agreement
mediator Thabo Mbeki, who stepped down this
week as South African president,
and thanked the Southern African
Development Community and the African Union
for supporting negotiations that
led Zimbabwe out of post-election
turmoil.
Despite Mr. Mugabe's assurances that ZANU-PF is acting in good
faith with
respect to the accord, some international observers have
concluded that the
compact is in trouble and could be on the verge of
collapse.
The Times of London quoted one unnamed Western diplomat as
saying that "we
are looking at the possibility of this thing failing," while
another envoy
estimated there was a 25% chance that power-sharing in
Zimbabwe would end in
tears.
Opposition sources said the Movement for
Democratic Change formation led by
Morgan Tsvangirai is preparing to appeal
to the Southern African Development
Community and African Union, who stood
as guarantors of the power-sharing
pact, should President Mugabe fails to
deliver on naming a balanced cabinet
once back from New
York.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the Tsvangirai MDC formation told VOA
that Mr.
Mugabe and his lieutenants seem reluctant to cede real power to the
MDC,
adding that state media has been vituperating against the party
contrary to
the terms of the accord.
The former opposition party says
violence has been rising in Manicaland and
other provinces, and doubts as to
the durability of the accord have arisen
following Thabo Mbeki's resignation
as South African president, given his
key role in achieving the
agreement.
Political analyst Charles Mangongera told Blessing Zulu of
VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that the MDC strategy of turning to the deal's
African
guarantors is the right move.
Examining Mr. Mugabe's speech
more broadly, political analyst Glen Mpani of
Cape Town said that in
attacking the nations that sought Security Council
sanctions over the
conduct of the June 27 presidential runoff, Mr. Mugabe
was engaging in
self-justification.
Midlands correspondent Taurai Shava reported from
Gweru that a senior
official in Tsvangirai's MDC formation told a meeting
there that despite the
current deadlock over cabinet positions, Mr. Mugabe
and ZANU-PF ultimately
will be obliged to give ground to the MDC because the
country cannot
continue much longer under current economic conditions.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Lizwe Sebatha Saturday
27 September 2008
BULAWAYO - A coalition of Zimbabwean
churches has called for the setting up
of a truth and reconciliation
commission to lead national healing once an
all-inclusive government has
been created.
The Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA) said such a
commission could help
cement the power-sharing deal signed by President
Robert Mugabe, opposition
leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara two
weeks ago but warned
ordinary citizens and not powerful politicians should
drive the process of
reconciliation.
ZCA spokesman Raymond Motsi told
ZimOnline on Friday that there was need to
heal the nation of the division
and injustices of the past but said this
could only be possible if there was
full disclosure by perpetrators of human
rights violations and other wrongs
as well as some form of justice for
victims.
"Churches are saying the
truth, justice and reconciliation process should
start once a new inclusive
government is put in place. That should mark the
beginning of the
transitional justice system," Motsi said.
He added: "This process should
not be left to the political parties alone.
It should not be elitist and
should not be a political decision between ZANU
PF and the
MDC."
Motsi said ordinary citizens should be consulted on whether a truth
and
reconciliation commission should probe crimes dating back to the 1980s
or
whether it should be confined to political violence that occurred in
Zimbabwe since 1999.
Although Zimbabwe has seen some of the worst
violence in the past nine
years, the country's darkest period in terms of
violence remains the early
80s when Mugabe deployed the army in the southern
Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces to quell an armed insurrection against
his rule.
The army's notorious 5th Brigade ended up killing more than 20
000 innocent
civilians belonging to the Ndebele ethnic group that largely
supported
Mugabe's political rival, Joshua Nkomo.
The agreement
signed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara calls for process
of national
healing in Zimbabwe but does not say how this should be carried
out or
whether senior members of ZANU PF and the military who are accused of
masterminding political violence including the massacres in the 80s should
face justice.
Tsvangirai, who is prime minister-designate in the new
power-sharing
government, recently said that some senior members of ZANU PF
could face
trial over political violence although he said Mugabe himself
should not be
tried.
However, in a quick reminder of how fragile the
unity agreement between
Zimbabwe's three political parties, a senior
official of Mugabe's ZANU PF
party and Mutambara's faction reacted to
Tsvangirai's comment by reminding
him that the power-sharing agreement did
not stipulate what should be done
to perpetrators of human rights
abuses.
They also said that whatever course of action the three parties
may
eventually decide to take, it should be aimed at "achieving national
healing
rather than punishment and retribution" - clearly insinuating
Tsvangirai may
have jumped the gun when he spoke of bringing Mugabe's
lieutenants to
justice. - ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Wayne
Mafaro Saturday 27 September 2008
HARARE - Four Zimbabwean
workers have asked the High Court to bar the
country's central bank from
limiting cash withdrawals, saying the daily
limits were too little and also
degrading given the number of trips one has
to make to the bank to get
enough cash.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which is struggling to
import special
paper required to print banknotes, limits the amount of cash
individuals and
firms can withdraw from their banks per day as part of
desperate measures to
curb a shortage of cash.
The central bank on
Thursday increased withdrawal limits for companies and
individuals from ZW$1
000 to $20 000 and $10 000 respectively. But the new
limits remain too low
in a country hit hard by inflation and where people
have to pay several
thousands of dollars for simple purchases such as
household
groceries.
The four workers Roger Chagwededza, Tinashe Gotora, Jackson
Mabota and
Precious Mwateyeni said in papers submitted to court that the
wanted the
limitation of cash withdrawals declared unlawful.
They
said: "We are making an urgent application seeking certain acts of the
Respondents to wit, limitation of withdrawals, to be declared unlawful,
inhuman and degrading and a violation of the right to life and other rights
as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and other international
conventions."
Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi who does not run
the RBZ but exercises
some oversight on the central bank is named as first
respondent in the
matter. The RBZ is second respondent while CABS building
society,
Metropolitan bank, and POSB bank are cited as third, fourth and
fifth
respondent.
To drive their point home the four workers -- who
are being represented by
Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni law firm - submitted
to court a breakdown of
their daily cash requirements.
They said each
of them required about $10 000 cash for transport, $1 000 for
a loaf of
bread, $3500 for meat, $500 for vegetables, $2 500 for fresh milk
and $2 500
to buy lunch while at work - which works out to $20 000 per day
or double
the maximum cash individuals can withdraw from their accounts per
day.
The workers say in addition to the daily expenses they also
needed cash for
monthly expenses such as school fees, clothing, rent, water
and electricity
bills as well as other incidentals, all which require cash
in excess of $2
million.
They said to get the hard earned cash from
the bank they had to endure
standing in long queues out in the streets
exposed to the blistering sun as
summer approaches, adding that RBZ's policy
of limiting cash withdrawals
could easily cause one to suffer mental
breakdown.
"Respondents' policies if continued unabated will in no time
make us
suitable candidates for admission into mental institutions, for
psychological pressure brought upon by living under respondents' policies
which is no longer bearable," they said in the case that the is the first
time the RBZ is being taken to court over its controversial and mainly
arbitrary policies.
Both RBZ governor Gideon Gono and his spokesman
Kumbirai Nhongo were not
immediately available for comment on the
matter.
With its value eroded daily by the world's highest inflation of
more than 11
million percent, the Zimbabwe dollar is nearly worthless, a
point made clear
by the country's central bank when it announced this week
that it was
licensing shops and garages to sell basic commodities and fuel
in foreign
currency.
A collapsed currency is the most visible sign of
Zimbabwe's devastating
economic recession that is also seen in rising
unemployment, deepening
poverty, shortages of food and every basic
commodity.
A power sharing deal signed by President Robert Mugabe and
opposition
leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara is seen as the
first real
opportunity in nearly 10 years for Zimbabwe to begin work to end
the crisis.
But the three leaders have so far failed to appoint a new
Cabinet to run the
country because they cannot agree on how to share key
posts in the new
government, a development that has caused many to wonder
whether the
power-sharing deal can stand the strain given deep seated
mistrust among the
parties involved. - ZimOnline.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Friday,
26 September 2008 12:22
Press Statement
25 SEPTEMBER
2008
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is saddened to learn
of the
unnecessary deaths of sixteen (16) people who have recently succumbed
to the
devastating effects of cholera.
According to two
reports published by the state-controlled Herald
newspaper this week and
confirmed by Health and Child Welfare Minister David
Parirenyatwa, 16 people
have so far fallen victim to the cholera outbreak in
Chitungwiza while 88
people have to date been hospitalized both in the
dormitory town and in the
capital Harare in just less than a month.
The ongoing deaths, which
are a result of official and criminal
negligence, have brought despair to
the affected families and communities
and the nation at large.
It is alarming and quite unusual for such a preventable disease to
continue
to claim such valuable lives in this day and age. If more than a
dozen
people have died from cholera in just less than a month, we can only
imagine
how many more are currently affected by, or at risk of contracting,
this
avoidable disease.
Human health and quality of life are at the
centre of international
efforts to develop sustainable communities and
countries. Good health
throughout the life-span of every man, woman and
child are fundamental to
ensuring that people of all ages are able to
participate fully in the
social, economic and political processes of their
communities and country.
ZLHR reminds the government that human
rights relating to health are
set out in many international and regional
human rights instruments and, as
a State Party to these, the government of
Zimbabwe is obliged to ensure the
realization of the fundamental right to
health.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
states that:
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for
the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including food,
clothing, housing
and medical care and necessary social services, and the
right to security in
the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other
lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his
control. Motherhood and
childhood are entitled to special care and
assistance".
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and
Cultural Rights also states that: "States Parties to the present
Covenant
recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable
standard of physical and mental health. The steps to be taken .
to achieve
the full realization of this right shall include those necessary
for the
provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant
mortality
and for the healthy development of the child; the improvement of
all aspects
of environmental and industrial hygiene; the prevention,
treatment and
control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases
and the
creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and
medical
attention in the event of sickness".
The
responsibilities of the State are further set out in the African
Charter on
Human and Peoples' Rights, amongst others.
Failure by the
government to guarantee and respect citizens' right to
health thus amounts
to a serious violation of both local and international
law.
ZLHR holds the government, and through it the local authorities and
the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), accountable for the deaths of
these people as they have failed to provide basic health services, medical
treatment and services, clean running water and sanitary surrounds to people
in these constituencies (and others) so as to adequately respond to and
contain the spread of the waterborne disease. The failure by the government
to swiftly respond to the cholera epidemic is an unacceptable failure of
leadership.
These wanton deaths are intolerable and shameful,
and the State's
failure is merely a replication of other high level
failures, where the
citizenry has now been disenfranchised of almost all
their basic human
rights.
Measures to prevent ill-health and
disease are as important as the
availability of appropriate medical
treatment, care and support services. It
is therefore essential to take a
holistic approach to the realization of the
right to health whereby both
prevention and care are placed at the centre of
the health delivery system
in the country.
In the circumstances, ZLHR calls upon the
government (including local
authorities) as well as ZINWA
to:
* Immediately take swift and visible corrective measures to
prevent further deaths from cholera, contain the epidemic, and prevent
further outbreaks.
* Take urgent action to ensure that all
affected people obtain
urgent medical assistance and treatment.
* Provide clean running water and sanitary environs to affected
communities
and others at risk to halt the spread of the deadly disease.
I have attached a document - it is an interesting review of Fay Chung's
book Reliving
the Second Chimurenga by retired history teacher Katherine Withers.
Click here to read it
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