On April 3, we carried a story copied from www.newzimbabwe.com. We have now
removed this story at the request of Annabel Hughes, and print her statement
about it.
Statement from Annabel Hughes, President of Annabel Hughes
Communications,
Inc.
On Monday, April 3, 2006 www.newzimbabwe.com carried a story under
the
heading "E. Guinea tyrant buys Mugabe critic" claiming that Annabel
Hughes
of Annabel Hughes Communications Inc. (AHC) is "now doing public
relations
for Equatorial Guinea dictator, Obiang Nguema Masogo." This story
is not
only false, but slanderous.
These are the
facts:
Annabel Hughes, president of AHC, was hired in December
2004 by Ambassador
Rick Burt (former U.S. ambassador to Germany), an
affiliate of leading
Washington lobby firm Barbour, Griffith & Rogers,
on behalf of Milestone
International Partners LLC (Milestone), an investment
firm with offices in
New York City and Washington,
D.C.
Milestone was exploring the possibility of setting up a
"Fund for the
Future" out of Equatoguinean oil revenue, similar to those
funds set up in
Kuwait and Norway-where a percentage of the revenue from oil
investments is
returned to the citizens of the country through social
development projects.
Milestone set up this project under the name Farragut
Advisors EG.
As an Africa specialist with extensive contacts in
Washington, D.C., Annabel
Hughes was asked by Ambassador Burt on behalf of
Milestone [Farragut
Advisors] to undertake a risk assessment and perception
analysis about
Equatorial Guinea among the United States Government,
international
institutions, human rights organizations, and private
companies.
From January to March 2005 Annabel Hughes conducted
research on behalf of
Milestone [Farragut Advisors]. Perceptions were not
favorable, and by May
2005 it became clear that the feasibility of setting
up a "Fund for the
Future" was unlikely. Annabel Hughes terminated her
contract with Milestone
[Farragut Advisors] in August 2005, after returning
from an extended trip to
Africa. At the same time Annabel Hughes
deregistered with the Foreign
Agents' Registration Act (FARA), stating:
"Activities ceased on 01/21/05,
the date registered. The agreement never
materialized and the activities
performed were only information gathering
activities." This statement is on
record at the U.S. Department of
Justice.
Note: Since September 11, 2001 strict anti-terrorism
laws in the United
States demand that any affiliation with a foreign
entity-no matter how
ambiguous-has to be registered with FARA. Because
Milestone [Farragut
Advisors] was intending to negotiate with the
Equatoguinean government to
set up a "Fund for the Future" on its behalf,
Annabel Hughes was advised to
register with FARA. Contracted alongside
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, both
companies were advised by Milestone's
legal counsel on how to fill out the
FARA form. At no time has Annabel
Hughes ever been directly contracted by
the Equatoguinean
government.
Zim Daily
Tuesday, April 11 2006 @ 12:05 AM BST
Contributed by:
correspondent
The introduction of the $10 000 note planned for
June could be
jeorpadised following revelations that government is failing
to raise six
million Euros to pay the German printing firm that will produce
the notes.
According to government sources, the German firm Giesecke &
Devrient has
asked for the six million Euro as down-payment to print the
notes. The total
printing cost is estimated to cost about 30 million
Euros.
Zimdaily heard the Zimbabwean government last month
engaged
Giesecke & Devrient to print the new $10 000 note, the highest
denomination,
as a measure to deal with the current crisis. The government
says it also
intends to phase out of circulation the current $500 note,
which is too
expensive to print, and replace it with a new one. The Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) has already introduced bearer cheques as it battles
to deal
with the crisis that has crippled operations in commerce and
industry.
Official sources told Zimdaily that commercial
banks enlisted by
the RBZ to hunt for the foreign currency in United States
dollars to pay
the German firm had only so far raised US$4
million. "They have
failed to raise that money. They have only raised US$4
million against US$6
million," said a source. Giesecke & Devrient are a
respected money printer
and also a leading supplier of banknote paper and
banknote ink.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa referred Zimdaily
to his
permanent secretary and the Reserve Bank governor when reached for
comment.
Analysts said the government continued to face
difficulties to
raise hard currency. The foreign currency market has
remained tight, with
inflows for March amounting to a meagre US$25,3 million
compared to outflows
of US$27,7 million. The analysts said most of the
foreign currency proceeds
were going towards meeting Zimbabwe's huge import
bill that includes fuel,
electricity, salaries for embassy staff and food
imports to mitigate
starvation affecting up to six million people. "Energy
needs have not been
satisfied yet and this continues to have a bearing on
the limited currency
circulating in the official market," said one analyst.
Money market sources
said government's raid on the parallel market for the
American greenback to
pay the German firm was behind the firming of the US
dollar against the
local currency.
Zim Daily
Tuesday, April 11 2006 @ 12:04 AM BST
Contributed by: correspondent
President Robert Mugabe is secretly
negotiating immunity from
prosecution for crimes committed during his
26-year rule. According to
sources close to both his Zanu-PF party and the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), he has been forced to
manoeuvre for a peaceful exit
from power by the country's deteriorating
economic and humanitarian
conditions and intensifying international
pressure.
Mugabe,82, cannot come up with solutions to he
hunger and
poverty gripping Zimbabwe, and his regime's network of repression
is
stretched to breaking point - as even his militia cannot get adequate
food
for their families. Mugabe is looking for an exit plan that will allow
him
to step down with dignity and keep him from standing trial for a variety
of
charges, including the Matabeleland massacres of the mid-1980s and the
more
recent torture and killings of MDC supporters.
Mugabe is now talking to church leaders and other intermediaries
about
constitutional reform that would grant him immunity and allow a
transition
to free and fair elections. If talks make progress in the coming
months,
Mugabe would retire as chairman of Zanu-PF at the party's annual
conference
in December. Zanu-PF and the MDC would then negotiate a new
constitution,
which would be ratified by parliament and pave the way for
parliamentary and
presidential elections.
The deadline for elections emerged
after US President George W.
Bush met South African President Thabo Mbeki in
Pretoria recently. Bush put
Mbeki in charge of finding a resolution to the
Zimbabwean crisis, and it is
understood that he gave the South African
leader a year to achieve positive
results. Zimbabwean civic leaders believe
Mugabe's efforts to extricate
himself from responsibility are so advanced
that they issued an call for all
perpetrators of human rights abuses to be
held accountable.
The leaders of Zimbabwean women's groups,
churches, teachers'
unions, lawyers' and doctors' organ isations and other
professional bodies
demanded that the Mugabe government put 'an immediate
end to political
violence and intimidation' when they met in South Africa.
The UN was urged
to send a special rapporteur to Zimbabwe to assess the
human rights
environment. The African Commission on Human and People's
Rights was asked
to release the report on its mission to Zimbabwe last
year.
A co-ordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe coalition,
said the
pressure for change came externally 'from South Africa and Nigeria
because
they must prove there is concrete progress. But the most potent
pressure is
the growing poverty, hunger and starvation on the ground in
Zimbabwe.' The
pressure on Mugabe from continuing hunger was highlighted by
new estimates
from the UN World Food Programme that 3.3 million Zimbabweans
are currently
in urgent need of food aid. WFP expects the number to increase
to 5.5
million by June.
"People are so desperate for food
that, at some distribution
sites, beneficiaries have been seen opening and
eating uncooked rations on
the spot,' said a WFP official. "Some reportedly
lack the strength to even
carry their food home."
Zim Daily
Tuesday, April 11 2006 @ 12:03 AM BST
Contributed by:
correspondent
President Robert Mugabe has pegged his pension
benefits to
almost the same level as the salary of a sitting president,
Zimdaily heard
yesterday. But the main opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC), said it would scrap the decision that Mugabe is set
to sign into law
as soon as it gained power. The MDC said considering the
damage Mugabe's
policies had done to the Zimbabwean economy, he should have
volunteered to
forfeit his pension and rely on the wealth that he and his
cronies had
looted from Zimbabwe and stashed abroad.
In a
move to guarantee his comfort when he leaves office, Mugabe
is set to sign
into law legislation that pegs his pension benefits to at
least 75% of the
salary and benefits of any sitting president. Officials in
the justice
ministry confirmed the pension plan. One said: "The decision ...
is
naturally meant to cushion Mugabe from any fluctuations in the inflation
rate." The wording of the new law is such that only Mugabe and his family
qualify for the generous pension benefits. It disqualifies his predecessor,
the late Canaan Banana, who served as president until 1987 before Mugabe
ousted him and combined the offices of president and prime
minister.
The move comes after Mugabe awarded himself a
series of pay
hikes amounting to more than 1 000% in the past year. The move
has reignited
speculation that Mugabe intends to step down soon, but the MDC
and civic
groups said it rather showed that he, like other African tyrants,
only cared
for his own comfort. Mugabe's wife Grace and their children will
also get
generous payments as part of the pension plan.
The Herald (Harare)
April
10, 2006
Posted to the web April 10, 2006
Harare
CASH-STRAPPED
Air Zimbabwe is now being bailed out by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe amid
reports that the airline is generating only 35 percent of its
required
revenue as it continues to lose billions of dollars through the
transit visa
system and other operation-related problems.
The visa system requires the
airline to foot accommodation and other related
costs for foreign passengers
in the event of a cancellation of scheduled
flights. This was revealed last
week by Air Zimbabwe acting chief executive
Captain Oscar Madombwe when he
presented oral evidence before the
parliamentary portfolio committee on
Mines, Environment and Tourism on the
challenges facing the
airline.
Capt Madombwe told the committee that foreign travellers were
required to
pay US$100 for the transit visa and in the event of cancellation
or delay in
the flight the airline would be responsible for looking after
the passengers
and this was costing Air Zimbabwe billions of dollars. "The
transit visa
system is something that is killing us, especially in relation
to the
cancellation of flights," he said.
The acting Air Zimbabwe
boss said flights could be disrupted due to various
reasons, among them
go-slows by engineers and pilots. However, chief
immigration officer Mr
Elasto Mugwadi, wh o also presented oral evidence
before the committee, said
the transit visa system was not applied to all
foreigners who pass through
Zimbabwe.
He said the system was applied on a reciprocal basis, meaning
that it
applied to those foreign travellers from countries where Zimbabwean
travellers were required to apply for transit visas. "There are some country
nationals who don't pay transit visas. The British make us buy transit visas
when passing through their country en route to another country so they
(also) have to buy transit visas here," he said.
Turning to some of
the challenges facing Air Zimbabwe, Capt Madombwe said
the airline was
operating at a loss as it was generating 35 percent revenue
of its total
costs. "We are operating in a very difficult environment as we
are suffering
from revenue reduction. We are being supported by the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe," he said.
Capt Madombwe said only a very few routes that were
being plied by the
national airline were generating significant revenue with
the
Harare-Johannesburg route having become the cash cow. The airline's woes
had
been worsened by the fact that it was procuring Jet A1 fuel at a much
higher
price than its competitors that included South African Airways, he
said.
Air Zimbabwe was buying Jet A1 fuel at US$0,86 a litre while South
African
Airways was buying the same litre at US$0,55. Capt Madombwe
attributed the
poor passenger care and attention by some of the national
airline's staff to
adverse working conditions. "At the airport we used to be
the best, but
things have slowed down. That friendly hospitality is no
longer there. Yes,
we have done some training, but the results are not
yielding what we want,"
he said. "In the case of Air Zimbabwe, it is not a
case of not being
innovative, but going back to the basics.
We can
get the newest and best aeroplanes, but we can still lose business to
our
competitors if there is no hospitality." Negative perceptions about the
safety of flying A ir Zimbabwe coupled with problems the airline is facing,
have led to a drastic decrease in the number of passengers from one million
annually in 1999 to 230 000 last year. The parastatal plans to buy five
additional cargo and passenger planes with a view of replacing some of its
ageing fleet. Currently, the airline has a fleet of eight cargo and
passenger planes, three of which are MA60 planes acquired from China last
year.
UK Invests £22 Million to Improve the Lives of
Zimbabwe's Orphans and
Vulnerable Children
NEW YORK / LONDON / HARARE, 11
April 2006 - The UK's Department for
International Development (DFID) has
given £22 million to the UN Children's
Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe in a bid to
improve the plight of orphans and
vulnerable children across the
country.
"Almost one in three children in Zimbabwe, 1.6 million, are now
orphaned,
having lost at least one parent, and this number is growing,"
UNICEF
Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said. "HIV and AIDS have
dramatically
increased children's vulnerability in recent years."
The
funding from DFID - the largest ever to UNICEF in Zimbabwe - will help
deliver a national plan of action for orphans and vulnerable
children.
"This generous contribution will help us achieve one of the
four main goals
of the "Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS" global
campaign - to protect
and support children affected by HIV/AIDS," Veneman
said.
UNICEF convened "Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS" to
highlight and
address the effects of HIV/AIDS pandemic on children and to
work towards
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 - to halt and begin to
reverse the
spread of the disease by 2015. In addition to protecting and
supporting
children who have lost parents to the disease, the campaign aims
to prevent
mother-to-child HIV transmission, provide paediatric treatment
and prevent
infection among adolescents and young people.
As part of
Zimbabwe's National Plan of Action (NPA) for orphans and
vulnerable
children, UNICEF is embarking on a massive programme to improve
the health,
education, protection and nutrition of the country's orphans and
vulnerable
children. The National Plan has the support of the highest levels
of
government, as well as the United Nations and civil society in
Zimbabwe.
The funds from DFID will go towards:
. Increasing school
enrolment of orphans and vulnerable children
. Family and community
support
. School nutrition programmes
. Increasing the number of children
with birth certificates
. Increasing access to food, health services, water
and sanitation
. Reducing the number of children living outside a family
environment.
. Reducing physical abuse of orphans
UK Secretary of
State for International Development Hilary Benn said, "New
data shows that
the number of orphans in Zimbabwe will rise even after the
number of adults
infected with HIV starts to decline. It's now essential to
put programmes in
place to ensure these children have somewhere to live,
enough to eat,
healthcare and education. Today's funding from the UK
Government will help
UNICEF reach these most vulnerable of children."
"We are grateful to DFID
for their continued support of UNICEF's work," said
Veneman. "These funds
will make possible programmes critical to the health
and well being of a
growing population of children left on their own in
Zimbabwe."
Despite the country's much-publicised economic collapse,
Zimbabweans
continue to lead by example in their care for the country's
orphans and
vulnerable children. More than 90 per cent of the country's
orphans have
been absorbed by the extended family. Two in five households in
the poorest
areas of rural Zimbabwe care for orphans and other vulnerable
children. And
yet until now, less than half of all these rural households
received any
form of free external support in the past year.
The NPA
for orphans and vulnerable children now calls upon the private
sector and
international donors to provide resources; community-based
organizations and
traditional leaders to support Child Protection Committees
at the village,
district and provincial level; and parents, teachers,
children and church
members to work to educate their peers, colleagues and
congregations about
the NPA, and then push for its success.
All money to Zimbabwe from the UK
government goes through UN agencies and
Non-Governmental Organisations. The
funds from DFID, in addition to £2m
given to UNICEF last year, will be
distributed over four years. They come as
Zimbabwean children are faced with
some of the worst hardships confronting
children anywhere in the world.
These include:
. A child is orphaned every 20 minutes in Zimbabwe
.
One in eight children now die before the age of five compared with one in
13
children 15 years ago
. Three infants become infected with HIV every
hour
. Every 20 minutes a child dies of AIDS in Zimbabwe
Hilary Benn
added: "Anyone who has seen the hardships of these orphans and
the resolve
and determination of struggling Zimbabweans to assist them must
be moved to
help. In UNICEF we have a partner who is reaching out to orphans
across the
country. I hope others will now join us."
****
For 60 years UNICEF has
been the world's leader for children, working on the
ground in 155 countries
and territories to help children survive and thrive,
from early childhood
through adolescence. The world's largest provider of
vaccines for
developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and
nutrition, good water
and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys
and girls, and the
protection of children from violence, exploitation, and
AIDS. UNICEF is
funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of
individuals, businesses,
foundations and governments.
For further information, please
contact:
James Elder, UNICEF Zimbabwe, 263 91 276120 jelder@unicef.org
Rhyddid Carter,
DFID Press Office, London 44 (0)20 7023 0849 Fax: +44 (0)20
7023
0523
Susan Lagana, slagana@unicef.org, UNICEF Media, New York
(1) 212 326 7516
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
LAST week we published an article with Chenjerai Hove, one of Zimbabwe's
most prolific writers. He now lives in exile in Norway. In the second of our
stories with some of Zimbabwe's prominent sons and daughters, we talk to
Bill Saidi, the Editor of the banned Daily News on Sunday and former
assistant editor at The Daily News. Since the forced closure of the
newspapers by the government in 2003, Saidi has effectively been out of a
job though he remained holding fort, hoping for that day when the Zimbabwean
authorities will hopefully agree to have the newspapers back on the streets.
Many within Zimbabwe who have no regular access to the worldwide web miss
his critical writing. Mr Saidi, a seasoned journalist, has worked in Zambia
and Zimbabwe. He remains in Zimbabwe facing up to the many challenges being
experienced by the ordinary person on the street. He urges all Zimbabwean
journalists around the world to rise up and fight for freedom of expression
in a country that has some of the most draconian pieces of legislation meant
to stop the journalists from reporting honestly on the situation obtaining
in the country. Mr Saidi, also now a social commentator on issues in
Zimbabwe and the southern African region, spoke with Sandra
Nyaira.
SN: You have remained with the Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe
following the closure of The Daily News and The Daily News on
Sunday. Can
you please tell us what plans you have in the near
future?
BS: My future plans depend on what happens to the
newspapers - The
Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday. If they are not to
reappear, I
suppose I will take my chances with writing novels or short
stories. Or look
for a newspaper which might be willing to employ someone of
my age as a
sub-editor or columnist or something. In short, my plans for the
future
depend, perhaps not on me, but on others.
SN: What
are your aspirations and wishes as an ordinary Zimbabwean at
this moment
when things seem to be getting worse in the country?
BS: My
aspirations are related to freedom of _expression. As a
Zimbabwean I wish to
be able to say my piece on any subject under the sun,
whether it is to
criticize the government or to praise it. My aspirations
also relate to the
prosperity of the country. I wish to be able to
contribute to this
prosperity, in any way I can, but particularly by
advocating for freedom of
_expression, which alone can ensure that all
citizens have an opportunity to
fulfil their aspirations. In freedom,
everything is possible; even the
citizen with the least ambitions has an
opportunity to achieve them. At the
moment, there is an atmosphere which
allows only citizens with certain party
affiliations to advance themselves.
Our society today is based on
bootlicking for success. Many citizens with
grand ambitions cannot fulfil
them because they are not members of Zanu PF.
I think this is absolutely
terrible and anti-democratic. I doubt that the
people who died during the
struggle would subscribe to this exclusivity. The
country is covered in a
blanket of political terror - for anyone who doesn't
support Zanu PF and its
Stalinist ways.
SN: You paint a very bleak picture of the
situation in the country,
what do you think the future holds for the
upcoming Zimbabwean journalist in
light of the oppressive media laws, lack
of teaching materials, the Border
Gezi youth being pushed into journalism
and other higher education classes
without enough qualifications?
BS: I think it's time for a head-on struggle against AIPPA, against
POSA,
against government control of the media - Zimpapers, radio and
television.
At every forum, journalists should speak out against the control
of the
media by the government. It must be condemned, without reservations.
There
should be marches and demonstrations against these laws. All
journalists
must be activists in this fight for freedom of _expression. The
future of
the freedom of _expression in this country will determine the
future of its
political and economic progress.
SN: As a journalist who has
been able to work during the colonial era
and in independent Zimbabwe, how
do you feel about the treatment you have
received from a black
government.
BS: I think it would not be an exaggeration to say most
of us have
been treated, if not as carriers of a deadly virus known as
freedom, then
like enemies of the State right from the beginning of
independence. As I
said, if you were not with Zanu PF, you were against it.
And were treated as
such. During the struggle, I wrote about the struggle,
In fact, in many ways
some of us sacrificed objectivity in the cause of
propagating the doctrine
of independence from colonialism. We were courted
by the nationalists
because we were useful in articulating their
aspirations, which happened to
be our own as well. After independence, the
obsession with the control of
the media led the government to condemn every
journalist who, even remotely,
criticized their policies. In 25 years I
worked for The Herald (Zimpapers),
Modus, Horizon and lastly ANZ. Horizon is
the only publication I left on my
own and without feeling that I was on the
verge of being kicked out, for
political reasons. During colonialism, there
was little freedom of
_expression, but The African Daily News on which I
worked for four years
campaigned vigorously for independence and it was only
under The Rhodesian
Front government that it got into hot water.
The saddest moment for me was the police raid on the ANZ offices in
2003. I
think this sealed the freedom of the media in Zimbabwe.
SN: What do
you think needs to be done to unite Zimbabwean journalists
who remain so
polarised and divided over the crisis in the country?
BS: An effort
must be made, through dialogue and seminars, to make the
government media
journalists aware of what harm they are inflicting on their
country by
reporting ONLY on the sunshine in the country, and not reporting
on the
storms and hurricanes - in a manner of speaking. We must speak to
them
directly.
SN: Besides journalism, what else have you been doing
in the past few
years - have you been blessed with any grandchildren, if so,
how many do you
have now? Do you stay and play around with them or you are a
grandfather who
concentrates on his work more than family?
BS:
I have had three novels published in Zimbabwe. I have also had
short stories
published in two anthologies. I have won a prize in a BBC
short story
contest. I have six children and 11 grandchildren. My children
are scattered
- there are only two still in Zimbabwe; two are in South
Africa and two more
in the UK. The only time I play with the grandchildren
is when they are
brought back to Zimbabwe by their parents. Otherwise we
play by remote
control - on the telephone.
I have written an occasional article for
The Zimbabwe Independent.
Also some Letters to the Editor. My views on the
current situation in the
country are sought, once in a while by South
African and British radio
stations, though not as regularly as when we were
publishing. Most of the
time I am working on my novel.
This Day, Nigeria
04.11.2006
From The
Economist
Thabo Mbeki, South Afr-ica's president, has had a mixed record
during his
seven years in power. But perhaps the best thing he has done for
Africa is
to declare that he will call it a day after his second term in
office, as
the constitution requires, and not seek re-election in 2009. His
predecessor, Nelson Mandela, resigned after just one term, in 1999, and now
lives in saintly retirement.
For many other African leaders,
unfortunately, staying in power becomes an
all-consuming passion, always to
the detriment of their own country and
people. That has been true of Robert
Mugabe in Zimbabwe for some time, of
course. But with the emergence of a new
generation of leaders in the 1990s,
as part of what Mr Mbeki himself dubbed
the "African renaissance", it was
hoped that the introduction of new
constitutions with two-term limits on
power would consign the "big man"
syndrome of African politics to history.
It has worked in South Africa and
Tanzania. But in too many countries term
limits are failing to block the
vaulting egos of leaders determined to cling
on. Yoweri Museveni has just
won a third term as Uganda's president by using
his huge majority in
parliament to push through a constitutional amendment
letting him run again.
More worryingly, it looks as if Olusegun Obasanjo, a
mild success by
Nigeria's kleptocratic standards, may try to do the same in
Africa's most
populous country.
This prospect is already adding to instability. Militants
in the River Niger
delta, seeking more of the money flowing from the oil
wells there, have
stepped up their campaign of kidnapping foreign workers
and attacking oil
installations. Violence between Muslims and Christians is
rising.
Just as Mr Museveni did in Uganda, Mr Obasanjo is beginning to crack
down on
the opposition-in his case, it seems, by using the government's
vaunted
anti-corruption drive to knock opposition leaders out of contention.
Worse,
many now suspect that Mr Obasanjo is fomenting some of the
instability so
that, having got the constitution changed, he can then pose
as a strong man
in next year's presidential election, securing his third
term as the saviour
of a disintegrating country. For would-be dictators,
this is the oldest ruse
in the book.
Term limits certainly place a
restriction on democratic choice, which is one
reason why they are unwelcome
in America's state legislatures.
But even the United States, whose system of
checks and balances on the
executive is considerably more robust than
Nigeria's, has been cautious
about granting too much power to the big man:
presidents have been limited
to two terms since 1951. Several Latin American
countries have swallowed
their previous doubts and allowed incumbent
presidents to seek a second-but
not a third-consecutive term (usually with
poor results). In countries where
institutional restraints on executive
power are often weak, the risk is high
that even leaders who start out well
end up undermining democracy by staying
on too long.
Mr Mbeki likes to
practise what he calls "quiet diplomacy". He has failed
dismally in the case
of Zimbabwe, but did help to talk Frederick Chiluba
into standing down when
he became a liability to Zambia. Now would be a
good time to take Mr
Obasanjo aside for a friendly chat on the virtues of
term limits. For the
good of Nigeria and of Africa, Mr Obasanjo should be
persuaded to honour his
own constitution and go.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Selbin Kabote
AS the political unrest in Zimbabwe is
continuing with no end in
sight, I have no doubt in my mind that the gross
human rights violations
being perpetrated by the government led by Africa's
intellectual dictator,
Robert Mugabe, has led to the mass exodus of
Zimbabweans into neighboring
African countries. As powerless immigrants,
Zimbabweans end up being victims
of xenophobia and hence are used as
political footballs.
As a Zimbabwean who lived and worked as a
journalist in South Africa
for many years, I witnessed how over the years
the opinion that South Africa
and Botswana have become increasingly
xenophobic. During my stay in South
Africa, I observed that the high levels
of societal intolerance towards
non-citizens was largely due to the large of
influx of Zimbabweans seeking
political asylum, and a place of rest after
escaping political persecution
in Zimbabwe.
On arrival in South
Africa, many of the Zimbabwean immigrants resort
to working on farms and do
other low-paid jobs shunned by South Africans in
big cities like
Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. The attacks on
foreigners by
South African citizens deteriorated in the late 1990's to the
extent that
the South African Human Rights Commission had to launch the
famous "Roll
Back Xenophobia Campaign" on the 15th of October 1998 in
Braamfontein,
Johannesburg. The campaign was aimed at finding solutions to
tackle the
growing xenophobia in South Africa, which was targeted at other
African
nationalities. The campaign was also intended to educate members of
the
public and the Press about the importance of immigration in an effort to
curb the deep dislike of non-nationals by South African
citizens.
I remember the challenges that I had to face during the
times that I
had to use public transport like the popular minibuses in
Johannesburg. In
order to avoid victimization, I had to know the basics of
one of the local
languages, Zulu, to communicate with the minibus drivers
especially when
inquiring about the fare and requesting to be dropped at my
destination. I
had to learn basic Zulu because speaking in English in a
minibus in South
Africa would be inviting hostility from the driver and
fellow passengers,
who normally consider a black person speaking in English
to be proud or
snobbish. At times I was at pains to explain to my brothers
in South Africa
that I came from a neighboring African country just across
the Limpopo
River, where other African languages were also
spoken.
However, the truth of the matter is that the cruel system
of apartheid
is to blame for the xenophobic mindset prevalent in certain
sections of the
southern African community. During the pre-independence era,
the architects
of the cruel system of apartheid launched a deliberate
campaign that was
aimed at isolating black South Africans by making them
believe that as South
Africans, they were not part of the global African
community and had nothing
to do with Africans from other countries. It's
very common today, to hear
some South Africans referring to immigrants from
Zimbabwe, Malawi or
Mozambique as "Those people from Africa", as if South
Africa is not part of
the continent.
In a nutshell, I believe
most of my South African brethren are not to
blame for xenophobia. The
architects of apartheid like the late Daniel F.
Malan, who was the prime
minister of South Africa from 1948 until 1954, are
to blame for planting
among South Africans the xenophobic seed, which in my
opinion is the lowest
common denominator of political appeal in Africa
today. I say this because
some politicians in southern Africa capitalize on
xenophobia when
campaigning for votes during elections. They attribute the
economic problems
in their own countries to the influx of immigrants. The
controversial
apartheid policy was introduced by Daniel F. Malan who was a
strong believer
in a strict white supremacy and a very rigid hierarchal
society.
In Botswana, another southern African country,
Zimbabweans and
Mozambicans residing in the capital, Gaborone and other
cities like Lobatse
are being rounded up by the police and deported for no
clear reasons. Many
immigrants are being severely assaulted by some natives
of the country, who
accuse them of taking their jobs, "stealing their wives"
and spreading
HIV/AIDS. Despite the frequency of the xenophobic attacks on
black
foreigners in Botswana, what I established during my frequent visits
to that
country on tours of duty is that the authorities in that country
give a
blind eye to the incidences. The United Nations has since attacked
the
Botswana government for its treatment of Zimbabweans living in that
country.
The Tswana government has gone as far as canceling long-term work
permits
for Zimbabweans saying they now have qualified people to fill their
positions. In Malawi, a country which is popularly referred to as the "Warm
heart of Africa", immigration laws have been tightened in recent months in
an effort to prevent immigrants from neighboring countries from entering the
country.
However, the politics of xenophobia is not only common
in southern
Africa, but also in countries like the Ivory Coast, where the
issue resulted
in an uprising on the 19th of September in 2002. The fierce
uprising
engulfed the former French colony into a state of chaos and panic.
It was
xenophobia that gave birth to the Ivory Coast uprising which was a
clash
between the Muslim northerners, who are mainly immigrants from
neighboring
West African countries like Mali and Burkina Faso and the
indigenous
population of the South. Scores of people died during the
uprising.
The deep hatred among the people divided on ethnic lines
was a result
of the policies of the late former president of Ivory Coast,
Felix
Houphouet-Boigny, who with good intentions introduced a political
phenomenon
that was to become increasingly significant in the multi-party
era. He
encouraged millions of Africans from neighboring countries to
settle,
inevitably handing over to them some of the country's economic
power. These
immigrants are now the victims of xenophobia.
In
my opinion, if the current immigration trends in southern Africa
continue,
we cannot therefore overrule the possibility of an explosion of a
nationality time bomb caused by xenophobia in countries like South Africa
and Botswana. What happened in the Ivory Coast could happen in South Africa
and Botswana, since the citizens of these countries are now competing for
scarce resources and jobs with foreigners. South African farm workers are
currently reported to be very unhappy with the hard working Zimbabwean farm
workers, whom they blame for frustrating their negotiations with farm owners
for higher wages. As a result of desperation, the Zimbabweans are agreeing
to work for very low wages on the farms. If the problem of the deadly
politics of xenophobia is to be solved, I feel regional leaders like South
Africa's Thabo Mbeki have to refrain from quiet diplomacy and make an effort
to put pressure on President Mugabe to stop starving his own people, and to
put his house in order. For if President Thabo Mbeki continues with his
quiet diplomacy stance, he will therefore continue to have problems on his
own doorsteps
It is my belief that if the gross human rights
abuses continue in
Zimbabwe, the mass exodus of Zimbabweans into neighboring
countries will
continue unabated. The strange irony which I am observing is
that in the
early 1980's, Zimbabwe was a haven for asylum seekers from South
Africa and
the Great Lakes region, but now the tables have been turned and
the citizens
of this former great nation have been forced into exile and
reduced to Stone
Age scavengers. President Mugabe, who was frequently
arrested and tortured
at the height of nationalistic politics in Zimbabwe
during the sixties and
seventies, is now the persecutor of journalists and
political opponents. It
appears there will never be an end to paradoxes in
the Zimbabwean politics
of today.
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 5:36 AM
Subject: Gundwane
A Gundwane
in my pocket.
As I sat on the grass with about 12 000 other Zimbabweans
at yesterdays
rally in White City Stadium I thought how do we explain just
what has
happened to these ordinary, hardworking people just what has
happened to
their spending power and standard of living? Then it occurred to
me that
they might understand the example to all of us of a rat
infestation.
Rats operate very largely in the dark. They leave few signs
of their
presence - a bit of dung but mostly you see the evidence of the
damage they
cause. It is like having a rat in your pocket - you receive your
salary, put
it in your pocket and when you take it out it is not worth the
same amount
as when you put it there! The rats of Zanu PF have been at it and
stolen
what you earned with the sweat of your brow.
How do they do
that? It's all a matter of modern economics. A hundred years
ago when we did
not have reserve banks and Ministries of Finance with their
computers and
when trade was paid for in gold or gold equivalents,
manipulation of the
value of wealth was more difficult. We still had wealth
and poverty - but if
you wanted to accumulate wealth or take more than your
fair share, you had to
do so in the full light of day. Now an official in
the Reserve Bank can reach
out in the still of the night and steal what is
yours while you
sleep!
If we take export proceeds for example - hard currency earning
generated by
workers in our mines and factories. Paid into our bank accounts
by foreign
buyers. No sooner has it arrived than the Reserve Bank reaches out
and takes
a bite - and gives you back a tenth of its real value in local
promissory
notes. 90 per cent of the portion's taken real value goes into the
rat's
nest where it is used to keep the rats warm and well fed.
Then a
while later, they reach out and take the rest at half its value - it
too goes
into the rats nest where it is also used to keep the rats warm and
well
fed.
But it does not end there - the bits of paper given back to you by
the rats
as promissory notes have a certain value when they are issued to
you. This
is because when they were issued to you there were only a set
number -
divided to cover the real value of your work. But while we are
sleeping
these rats - being devilishly clever, print more notes, so that when
you
wake up and go to the store to convert your paper back into real things,
you
suddenly find the rats have eaten another 25 per cent or more of what
you
have in your pocket.
So the daddy rat - who else - gets fat and
indolent and arrogant - these
simple peasants he thinks, they all work for my
rats and me. Mommy rat just
loves to shop - does not think for one minute
about where her wealth comes
from just knows that daddy rat keeps it coming.
The rat's uncle - a rat
called Gono the Gundwane does it with a smile and
every now and then he
calls all the suckers in to a meeting where he tells
them what he is going
to do next to keep the flow of resources to the rats
going.
You get a rat infestation when the conditions are right and the
predators of
rats are few. When that happens you need an eradication team to
clean house
and destroy the rats themselves. That is where we are today and
nothing else
will stop the erosion of our living standards and economy.
VOA
By Netsai Mlilo & Chinedu Offor
Bulawayo &
Washington
10 April 2006
The founding president of
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan
Tsvangirai, has urged
President Robert Mugabe to step down and hand over
power to a transitional
government to overhaul the constitution and hold new
elections.
Addressing about 7,000 people in Bulawayo on Sunday,
Tsvangirai said that
despite official threats to crush any wave of mass
protests, he is prepared
to die if necessary to free Zimbabwe from what he
termed "misrule" by Mr.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
Correspondent Netsai
Mlilo of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe reported that
others who spoke at the
rally warned the crowd to brace for confrontation
with the
government.
Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for Tsvangirai's faction of the
divided MDC,
told VOA reporter Ashenafi Abedje that his call for the
president's
resignation "captures the thinking and the attitudes in the
country." He
says most Zimbabweans feel "we need a new government, we need a
new
democratic dispensation, but for us to be able to achieve that, we need
to
have a de-construction of the dictatorship."
Some skeptics have
questioned whether Tsvangirai can rouse the population to
take on the Mugabe
government, pointing to his party's so-called "final
push" in 2003 that
proposed to unseat Mr. Mugabe but was quickly put down
by the
government.
But National Constitutional Assembly Chairman Lovemore
Madhuku, long an
advocate of direct popular action, told Studio 7 reporter
Chinedu Offor that
the odds are better this time around because most
Zimbabweans have nothing
left to lose.
Zim Daily
Tuesday,
April 11 2006 @ 12:03 AM BST
Contributed by:
correspondent
By Govan Makwerekwere
This
is an open letter directed to Thabo Mbeki, the South
African state
President. Mr Mbeki, in local Shona parlance, we say: (Kandiro
kanopfumba
kunobva kamwe.) This translates to a good turn deserves another.
Listen
carefully, Mr President:
In your dark years under the yoke of
apartheid, Zimbabwe gave
support to your party, the ANC, and the oppressed
people of South Africa. We
sheltered your guerrillas, refugees and the
asylum seekers. This irked your
oppressors. Look at what they did to us.
They bombed Angwa House in Harare.
They trapped and killed Tsitsi Chiliza at
Earls' Court. Why are we still
holding Phillip Conjwayo in our prisons?
Again, in Shona we say: (Dindingwe
rinonaka richakweva, kana rokwevehwa roti
mavara angu ozara ivhu.)
Paraphrased, it would mean that
what's good for the goose, is
good for the gander. Despite all this, you
restrict movement of our people
to your now free country. You have even come
up with a name for us,
"makwerekwere". Most probably you know what this
means -I don't. Our people
are groaning under a similar yoke, but under our
liberators. We look up to
you, Mr President, for relief. But what do you do?
You choose the "quiet
diplomacy." This is a very wrong and ineffectual
strategy.
We have been denied the right to decide who to lead
us now. We
do not have the means to reclaim our stolen presidency. But you,
Mr
President, can
flex a little bit of muscle, can you not?
Are you a man or a
mouse? We read and hear with regret that you, our
southern neighbour always
insist that all is well in Zimbabwe. This Mr
president is as dangerous as it
is unfair on us who are suffering. We urge
you to emulate Festus Mogae of
Botswana, at least, he has guts to speak the
truth.
Mr President, its time to show the geriatriac
president that the
longer he hangs on as the President of Zimbabwe, the
worse it will become,
not only for us Zimbabweans, but also for the Southern
African region.
Everybody will suffer.
Remember what
Samson did in the biblical story.
In our rich Shona, we say,
(Ndambakuudzwa akaonekwa nembonje
pahuma.) He who ignores good advise will
one day face the music. Mark my
words, Mr President.