Daily Telegraph
Mugabe declares war
on MDC after mass protest
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed:
12/04/2003)
President Robert Mugabe's security forces have launching
a purge of his
opponents since mass protests against his regime last month,
Zimbabwe's main
opposition party said yesterday.
The Movement for
Democratic Change said two senior opposition leaders were
among more than 500
people arrested.
A further 250 people have been taken to hospital and
scores beaten and
tortured in police custody, it said. Welshman Ncube, the
party's
secretary-general, said: "The attempt is to scare and intimidate the
MDC
leadership.
"The government is labouring under the mistaken belief
that, because each
and every one of us is facing a charge or facing
incarceration, the party
will retreat from its obligation to organise mass
protests against this
dictatorship. Zanu-PF has learned nothing though
history. They may postpone
it, but eventually freedom will come."
The
number two in the MDC, and leader of the opposition in parliament,
Gibson
Sibanda, was arrested in Bulawayo and is facing a 20-year-jail
sentence under
Zimbabwe's notorious Public Order and Security Act.
He has been charged
with undermining the constitution by inciting a two-day
general strike last
month which paralysed commerce and industry.
After eight days in
detention, he was released on record bail of about
£11,000. On the day of his
release, the opposition's chief spokesman Paul
Themba-Nyathi, was arrested as
he attended the court hearing. Mr
Themba-Nyathi was later released without
charges.
While Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party continues its crackdown against
the
opposition, its attacks on white farmers continue.
Alan Parsons,
44, returned to his farm in Karoi, 80 miles north of Harare
earlier this week
to collect possessions left behind when he abandoned his
home last year
during violence last year.
He went with a court order, under police
protection and with a court
official, to force the release of his farm
equipment, although much of it
had already been stolen.
A friend and
fellow farmer, John Coast, also 44, who accompanied him, said
yesterday they
were attacked and beaten by ruling party thugs, and had to
flee. A policeman
who accompanied them, and the court official, were also
beaten.
Mr
Parsons is still in hospital in Harare. His wife, Jenny, was attacked by
the
same mob three months ago, and police have now arrested its leader and
nine
others.
Daily
News
Terror gang
netted
4/12/2003 6:59:47 AM (GMT
+2)
By Precious
Shumba
ARMED riot police on Tuesday
arrested 10 members of Chipangano, the
Zanu PF vigilante group which has been
terrorising Mbare residents for
allegedly supporting the
MDC.
Before their arrest, the 10 had held
hostage 11 tenants at Shawasha
Flats in Mbare for 10 hours during which time
they ordered them to remain
seated until the police arrived on the
scene.
Last month Chipangano members
force-marched commuters, Mbare residents
and commandeered vehicles to ferry
people to demonstrate against Harare
Executive Mayor Elias Mudzuri at Town
House.
Last Saturday, the group harassed
people who were buying from Mbare
Musika and force-marched them to their
party's meeting in the suburb.
When The
Daily News published the activities of the terror gang,
senior Zanu PF
officials denied any knowledge of its
existence.
On Wednesday, the group
appeared before Mbare magistrate Nicodemus
Chivhunga facing assault
charges.
They were denied bail and
remanded in custody to 28 April.
The
accused admitted to being members of a Zanu PF group
code-named
Chipangano.
They are
Zephania Ndhlovu, 43, Lovemore Mafukidze (age not given),
William Mangarai,
48, Charles Mangare, 49, Cleno Takawira, 40, Simbarashe
Mukorera, 38, Runesu
Giwana, 31, Tafadzwa Gwara, 44, Fradreck Kunyarimwe, 40
and Rot Moto,
20.
All reside at Block 9B Shawasha
Flats.
Ngoni Siveregi, for the State, told
the court that on Monday, the
Chipangano members, who confessed to being Zanu
PF activists, went to
Shawasha Flats and ordered the 11 tenants to vacate the
flats because they
were "sell-outs".
She said the tenants defied the orders and the group, acting in
common
purpose, forcibly removed the tenants' property and heaped it outside
the
block.
Simultaneously, the
Chipangano members force-marched the complainants
to an open space outside
the flats where they ordered them to sit next to
their heaped belongings, the
State alleged.
The court was told that the
group then assaulted the tenants using
various weapons which included sticks,
iron bars and stones fired
from
catapults.
Throughout the night,
the vigilantes allegedly held the tenants in
captivity until 6am when the
police were alerted of the situation by one of
the tenants who had
escaped.
While they were being held
hostage, the tenants were prohibited from
standing up or
moving.
All the time, they were being
assaulted, the court heard.
In their
written submissions to the court opposing bail, the police
said they needed
two weeks to complete their investigations because there
were still
outstanding cases that needed
verification.
The police further said they
needed time to check in their records if
the accused had previous
convictions.
"They are facing serious
allegations and they are likely to interfere
with investigations since they
are leaders of Chipangano group of youths,"
the police
said.
"The group is known to have
terrorised residents of Mbare under the
guise of Zanu
PF.
"The same group is known to have been
harassing commuters from
Kuwadzana at Mbare
Musika."
Eyewitnesses said the group
accused them of being MDC supporters.
"They demanded to know why we remained defiant by not submitting to
Zanu PF,"
one of the affected tenants said.
"They
ordered us to remove all our property because, according to
them, we were no
longer entitled to occupy the flats.
"The
youths accused us of continuously refusing to attend Zanu PF
meetings yet
Zanu PF built the flats."
The tenant said
Chipangano targeted residents occupying the B Floor
at
Shawasha.
Among those who were
thrown out was a retired army officer who escaped
and made a report to the
police.
After they evicted the tenants,
the Chipangano members took away the
keys and locked the doors, indicating
their intention to bring in new
tenants.
Daily
News
MPs accuse Zanu PF of
thwarting development
4/12/2003
7:24:54 AM (GMT +2)
By Kelvin Jakachira
and Paidamoyo Chipunza
MDC Members of
Parliament have accused government officials and Zanu
PF activists of
thwarting development projects they would have initiated in
their
constituencies.
The MPs also complained
that influential local leaders such as
councillors, district administrators
and mayors boycott their meetings.
"The
problem has deteriorated to the extent of creating barriers for
MPs," said
Abedinico Bhebhe, the MP for Nkayi.
They
were speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the Public
Affairs and
Parliamentary Support Trust (PAPST) in
Mutare.
"When I was elected into office I
wanted to work with children because
the constituency had one of the highest
failure rates," Bhebhe said, "but
when I approached Aeneas Chigwedere, the
Minister of Education, Sports
Culture he was not
co-operative."
Bhebhe said an attempt to
acquire an ambulance for the district
hospital in the constituency was also
thwarted by Zanu PF activists.
"When I
went to the hospital to get a supporting letter, the hospital
administrator
was chased away from the hospital," Bhebhe
said.
He said soldiers were deployed to
man the hospital thereafter.
Zanu PF
activists and government officials again thwarted another
project, which was
meant to provide clean water, he said.
Bethel Makwembere, the MP (MDC) for Mkoba in Gweru said: "Our
political
counterparts need to be educated that these developmental
workshops are
non-political so that we can get a positive response
from
them."
Sydney Mukwecheni, the MP
for Mutare South (MDC), said: "When we call
for the meetings our political
foes claim that they would want to be
consulted first," Mukwecheni said.
"Normally they respond negatively."
But
Jorum Gumbo, the MP for Mberengwa West and Zanu PF's chief whip,
said he had
not encountered such problems in his
constituency.
"These workshops are not
political. I don't see any difficulties in
calling people for such meetings,"
said Gumbo.
Mike Mataure, PAPST director,
said the workshops were non-partisan.
He
urged MPs to work towards the development of the
country.
"We don't discriminate whether
one is Zanu PF or MDC, we consider one'
s developmental leadership in the
constituency," Mataure said.
PAPST's
objective is to empower and enhance the leadership capacity of
elected and
appointed representatives in their respective
constituencies.
Daily News
Police, GMB impound
maize
4/12/2003 7:25:23 AM (GMT
+2)
By Lawrence
Paganga
THE Grain Marketing Board with the
assistance of the police, has set
up roadblocks along most major highways
leading into cities and major towns
countrywide, impounding maize grain
destined for other markets.
The move is
aimed at forcing producers to sell their grain to the
parastatal. Many
unsuspecting travellers bringing maize grain from the rural
areas this week
had their produce impounded at the
roadblocks.
Heaps of bags of maize that
had been impounded by the police and GMB
inspectors were seen stacked beside
the road at two roadblocks at Mabvuku
and Kuwadzana in
Harare.
A similar situation was observed
in Gweru along the Mvuma-Gweru
highway and in Masvingo at Chartsworth
turn-off and in the Masvingo
commercial farming area. The GMB/police
operations got underway in Masvingo
and Gweru on
Thursday.
A GMB loss control officer, who
refused to be identified said the
parastatal would continue monitoring the
movement of grain in the country.
She said
the GMB would pay for all the grain
impounded.
"Those who have their maize
impounded should give correct details to
the GMB inspectors so that we are
able to make follow-ups and pay them,"
she
said.
Communal farmers have begun
harvesting their crops. According to the
GMB it is an offence for a farmer
not to deliver his maize to the board
within 14 days of
harvesting.
"Movement of maize and
maize-meal from one specified area to another
without a permit is illegal,"
the board warned the public in a statement
last
month.
"The GMB reminds farmers and
members of the public that failure to
comply would lead to
prosecution."
However, police
spokesperson, Inspector Andrew Phiri, refused to
comment saying he does not
give interviews to The Daily News.
Bruce
Mutumba, one of the affected people, said the police impounded
three bags of
maize from him at Mabvuku turn-off on Wednesday as he returned
from his rural
home in Rusape.
"The move by the GMB is
not justified because I did not intend to sell
the maize but had brought it
for my family's consumption," he said.
Daily
News
Relatives of arrested MP
detained
4/12/2003 7:28:53 AM
(GMT +2)
From Chris Gande in
Bulawayo
THE relatives of one of the two
MDC MPs who were arrested on Wednesday
have been detained after they went to
give food to the two legislators at
Bulawayo Central Police
Station.
The police yesterday refused to
send to court MPs Jealous Sansole
(Hwange East) and David Mpala (Lupane) who
continued to be held despite the
expiry of the stipulated maximum 48 hours
within which detained persons must
be brought to
court.
Their lawyers only managed to
locate them late last night. Sansole was
detained at Hillside Police Station
while Mpala was at Entumbane
Police
Station.
One of the lawyers,
Lucas Nkomo, yesterday said police detained Mhazha
Sansole the MP's brother
and Cleopas Chirwa who had gone to give the two MPs
food at Bulawayo Central
Police Station.
Nkomo said the police told
him that he should leave them while they do
their
work.
He said he was making an urgent
application to the High Court to have
them
released.
The arrested pair was in the
company of the MPs when they were
arrested as they drove from Joshua Mqabuko
Nkomo Airport.
Nkomo said the police had
abandoned the previous charges in which they
were saying Sansole had been
found in possession of ballot box-sealing
material and
spikes.
He said the police were now
accusing Sansole of being found in
possession of a booklet with the names of
Zanu PF youths in Hwange.
Nkomo said the
police were also alleging that they had found a
hand-written letter
threatening the Zanu PF youths.
There was
no specific charge levelled against Mpala.
Several MDC MPs have been arrested over the past two weeks in a
crackdown
that followed President Mugabe's order to the State security
agents to
"crush" the MDC.
Daily
News
Suspected Zanu PF youths bomb
Kuwadzana tuckshop
4/12/2003
7:28:10 AM (GMT +2)
By Precious
Shumba
PROPERTY worth $4 million dollars
went up in smoke on Thursday night
when suspected Zanu PF youths
petrol-bombed a tuckshop owned by an MDC
activist in Kuwadzana
Extension.
Munyaradzi Guzha, 32, the owner
of Extension Meats tuckshop, yesterday
said the Zanu PF youths had earlier
threatened unspecified action if he
remained an MDC
supporter.
The tuckshop operates as a
butchery and grocery shop.
Suspected Zanu
PF youths camped at a base about 500m away from the
scene of the incident
towards the 29-30 March parliamentary by-election won
by Nelson Chamisa, the
MDC national youth chairman.
"They visited
my tuckshop on Wednesday and made threats," he said. "I
made a report number
OB1692/03 at Kuwadzana Extension Police Base but no
action was taken against
the known Zanu PF militants."
Yesterday,
the police visited the scene of the arson attack and
recorded statements from
Guzha. A police constable was interviewing Guzha
when this reporter visited
the place.
Guzha was the provincial
president of the Zimbabwe National Students
Union for Manicaland in 1998-99
during his time at Mutare Technical
College.
The police at Kuwadzana Extension
Police Base confirmed receiving a
report about the attack on Guzha's
tuckshop. Inspector Wilbert Mashuro, the
officer-in-charge at Kuwadzana 2
Police Station visited the scene of
the
attack.
Two compressors worth about
$400 000 each were burnt during the attack
including the butchery scale worth
about $1,5 million.
Langton Murwisi, 22,
who usually slept in the tuckshop, yesterday said
the incident occurred
around 10 pm.
He said he was coming from
his house when he saw the tuckshop on fire
"When I drew closer, I realised
that the ridges of the roof had been moved.
We only managed to pull the
refrigerator away from the fire."
Sporadic
cases of violence have broken out in Kuwadzana where
suspected Zanu PF youths
have attacked suspected MDC supporters.
Zanu PF supporters have also accused the MDC of attacking
its
supporters.
Meanwhile, seven MDC
youths who were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly
planning to overthrow
President Mugabe's government, were on Thursday
released from Harare Central
Police Station without charges.
This was
despite accusations by the police that the group was found in
possession of
weapons of war to cause terror and rob
residents.
Their lawyer, Alec Muchadehama,
has alleged that the MDC activists
were severely
tortured.
More than 200 MDC supporters
including MPs have so far been arrested
and others allegedly tortured in
custody following the two-day stayaway
called by the party last month to
press President Mugabe to respect human
rights and restore the rule of law in
the country.
Daily
News
Chinamasa raps foreign
states
4/12/2003 7:29:22 AM (GMT
+2)
From Patience Nyangove in
Mutare
PATRICK Chinamasa, the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, on Wednesday accused foreign
countries of threatening to "derail
Zimbabwe's young
democracy".
"They are sponsoring,
financing and setting up political parties and
civic organisations to
interfere and influence our internal democratic
process," Chinamasa said
referring to unnamed Western powers.
He
was speaking during a two-day workshop organised by the Public
Affairs and
Parliamentary Support Trust held in
Mutare.
"The major threats against our
young democracy are foreign interests,
which are acting from purely selfish
motives," he said.
"World events in recent
months point to the resurgence of imperialism,
colonialism and racism under
the guise of neo-liberal philosophies, good
governance, human rights and so
on," said Chinamasa.
Daily
News
Will Mbeki, Obasanjo ever
wake up to this deception?
4/12/2003 6:58:08 AM (GMT +2)
Following
the continued clampdown on the opposition since the
successful two-day mass
action on 18 and 19 March, there can be no doubt
that the situation in this
country is far from normal.
This has to be
in spite of whatever information South African
President Thabo Mbeki and his
Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo, have
to the
contrary.
These two leaders, both
suspiciously latent or closet dictators, are
trying to make the rest of the
world believe the rule of law is alive and
well in Zimbabwe. They rush to
defend themselves by stating they are
protecting the sovereignty of Zimbabwe
and are hedging against international
interference in the internal affairs of
a so-called democratic country.
The list
of MDC MPs who have been arrested and continue to be arrested
is growing
longer by the day. The latest are Jealous Sansole (Hwange East)
and David
Mpala (Lupane) who were arrested on Wednesday following the
release of that
party's spokesman, Paul Themba-Nyathi (Gwanda
North).
The police were compelled to
release Nyathi after the High Court
declared his detention illegal. He had
spent nearly four days in police
custody without charge. He was being held
under the draconian Public Order
and Security Act (POSA) on allegations of
organising the two-day mass
action.
Nyathi's arrest followed hard on the heels of the incarceration of
Gibson
Sibanda (Nkulumane), the MDC's vice-president and leader of the
opposition in
Parliament.
More than 200 MDC supporters
and legislators have been arrested since
the successful mass action. The MPs
had stiff bail conditions imposed on
their release. Sibanda, for instance,
was released on $1 million bail and
ordered to surrender his passport to the
Clerk of the Criminal Court.
These arrests
appear to have no justification at all and most people
see their prime
purpose as the psychological torture and intimidation of the
opposition
leaders. They are locked up before investigations into the
allegations
against them are completed, which is done only in those
countries where the
strict application of rule of law is selective
or
non-existent.
The seemingly spurious
charges against the MDC leaders and their
supporters always hinge on inciting
the people to participate in mass action
to topple the highly unpopular
Mugabe regime.
Mbeki and Obasanjo need to
be reminded that in a normal democratic
society the police do not arrest and
detain people without first completing
investigations into the allegations
against them.
In a democratic society,
suspects have their rights read to them
before being arrested. They are told
that they have a right to remain
silent, and that anything they may say can
and will be used against them in
a court of law during
trial.
This is never done by the security
agents of a government on whose
behalf Mbeki and Obasanjo are fighting
against the rest of the
world,
virtually.
Things cannot be
normal in a country where elected leaders are
arrested and detained while
their whereabouts remain privy only to
their
captors.
Even serial killers have
rights. They can be arrested and detained,
but they will still have the right
to legal representation. Their
whereabouts will also be common knowledge to
their relatives, friends and
legal representatives. This is not the case
here.
It seems the law enforcement agents
in this country are a law unto
themselves. They ensure whoever they detain on
trumped-up charges under POSA
are incarcerated in places which only State
agents have knowledge of and
access to. This seems more like the State agents
themselves are guilty of
preventing and hindering the course of
justice.
Mbeki and Obasanjo must know such
disregard for the rule of law
occurred in their own countries, respectively,
during the apartheid era and
during the military
regimes.
In Zimbabwe, there is continued
and wanton trampling of human rights
and that the two latest victims of that
repression are being detained
incommunicado speaks volumes of this regime's
lack of willingness to turn
over a new leaf.
Daily
News
Feature
One-hundred
days with Robert Mugabe
4/12/2003
6:56:56 AM (GMT +2)
By Alexander
Kanengoni
Doris Lessing is a towering
literary figure. Her classical novel, The
Grass is Singing, helped me to
understand how whites think and behave in
relation to blacks more than all
the social interaction that I had had
with
them.
She inspires me. That was
why I read her recent contribution to The
Daily News about President Mugabe
with avid interest.
The picture of Robert
Mugabe that she painted in her contribution was
dark and depressing. It is
understandable. It is only an indication of
different people's sometimes
conflicting views of the man.
Perhaps, the
different perceptions of the man have to do with the
position where one is
standing, looking at him.
I lived with
Mugabe for over three months, eating from the same pot,
perched on top of the
same hut to thatch it, slept in the same room at a
remote base called
Saguranca in central Mozambique in 1975, and the man left
such a deep
impression on my mind - nothing will erase
it.
I can already see people like Iden
Wetherell raising their eyebrows
saying, "O-oh o-oh, there goes that Zanu PF
apologist", but for me, the
important thing about what I write is that it is
honest and I believe it.
Mugabe arrived
one night at the secluded Frelimo base accompanied by
Edgar Tekere and three
other people I no longer remember and found the place
in
turmoil.
Earlier that evening, the base
commander, Kanyawu, had read an
instruction from "above" to send the 40 or so
of us back to Rhodesia because
our colleagues in Zambia had killed Herbert
Chitepo.
For a moment, the arrogant
Frelimo commander was confused by the
respect we accorded Mugabe and Mugabe
lost his composure, but he quickly
regained it and threatened to beat him up,
whoever he was, if he tried to
undermine his
authority.
After countless reassurances
and apologies that almost took the whole
night, an uneasy truce was reached
when Mugabe declared we would rather die
at the hands of Frelimo than give
the Rhodesians the immeasurable pleasure
of killing
us.
Thereafter, he quickly organised
political lessons for us that he
personally
conducted.
On the other hand, Tekere was
always the wild and unpredictable fellow
who laughed very easily and stood at
the edge of the class as Mugabe took us
through the lessons: the history of
Zimbabwe, the growth of African
nationalism, the reasons for resorting to an
armed confrontation with Ian
Smith and the painful shortcomings of the
Kenneth Kaunda-John Vorster-driven
detente exercise that had virtually ground
the war to a standstill and we
had all become victims
of.
And throughout all that rather
academic process, there was not a
single book, a single piece of paper, a
single pen.
What I found quite fascinating
about him was how he had his facts at
the tips of his fingers. But that was
before the hunger and the hopelessness
sneaked
in.
Once the horrible twins arrived,
driving us mad, Mugabe moved around
calmly, urging us to keep fixing our eyes
on tomorrow because no one knew
the promises it held. He was an extraordinary
man.
The man was obsessed with the issue
of land.
And, unlike what Lessing said was
foolish on his part to promise land
to everyone, there was no way he could
avoid it because it was the basis
upon which the war was fought. The majority
of Zimbabweans are rural living
directly off the land and their foremost
reason for fighting the war was so
that they could have adequate land to grow
crops and graze their animals.
I remember
one afternoon as our section (the late Gaylord Hlatshwayo
was the commander
and Mugabe was an ordinary member of the section) bathed
down a small stream
outside the base. He told us about the possibility of
nationalising land to
make it more readily available to the people. Even
amidst all the confusion
today, I do not believe by people he meant his
relatives, friends and
cronies.
Perhaps it is pointless to
mention such distant and almost obscure
recollections, but for me, this is
the man behind the monster the world is
made to
see.
Because Frelimo was still a
transitional government and the Portuguese
still in control, very little
supplies trickled to the remote base and there
was hunger. We got virtually
all the food from the villages in exchange of
our personal items. First, it
was the wristwatches, then the jerseys and the
jackets and then the shoes,
but soon there was nothing left to give
away.
Gilbert, I don't know whether he
eventually survived the war because I
have not seen him since, exchanged his
shirt and for two days he walked with
his tummy exposed until someone gave
him his vest.
The teacher, for that was
how we affectionately called Mugabe, had a
beautiful pair of maroon corduroy
trousers and jacket and one day, the
jacket disappeared. Rumour had it that
Gilbert and the late Kirkstone
Mavhera had something to do with the
disappearance.
And strangely, the name of
Edgar Tekere also became linked with the
disappearance because it was argued
such kind of an act could not have
succeeded without "inside"
assistance.
And throughout the bizarre
incident, Mugabe maintained his trademark
detachment, as if it was not his
jacket that had been stolen. And that
evening, Gilbert and Kirkstone brought
a few measly mealie-cobs from the
village, hardly able to stand, plastered
blind with mudzepete, a potent
concoction even the villagers were reluctant
to drink, fermented from the
sap of the roots and fruit of some wild
tree.
And we shared the cobs and Robert
Mugabe politely received his share
as if he did not know it was the prize of
his maroon jacket. Perhaps he no
longer remembers some of these tiny details,
but I do. The man was a myth.
To kill the
boredom and forget a bit about the gnawing hunger and the
stifling
hopelessness, we stayed permanently high on mbanje (marijuana) that
we got
cheaply from the villages and it worried
him.
"I know we are going through a tough
time," he told us one morning,
"but it will be over
soon."
"Once we get to our own camps in
Tanzania, you will forget you have
been through
this."
He smiled, one of the few times he
ever did.
"In Tanzania, there are vast
fields of dagga (marijuana), but of
course the smoking is strictly
controlled."
We looked at him sceptically
through glazed eyes.
The teacher was
advising us to reserve our energy for the huge blow in
Tanzania! Of course,
there was nothing like that there.
He was
afraid we were slowly approaching the
edge.
In fact, Freddy (he is now an
officer in the army) slipped over the
edge and for a month we kept him
chained to a tree.
And every night we sat
around a fire, holding our lice-infested
clothes over the flames to kill the
rampant parasites and I remember that
was the only time he ever mentioned his
stolen jacket when he joked that for
him, it was minus one item to hold over
the fire to burn the lice.
It was an
incredible time, he was an extraordinary
man.
Then one afternoon as we went down
the river to fetch water for our
evening meal, he told us, without anybody
asking him, that he had dedicated
his life to see that no one in Zimbabwe was
disadvantaged on the basis of
their skin colour and that everyone had access
to the resources of the
country.
When I
look at him now - 23 years later - the man has not changed
because what he
told us then is still what he is saying
now.
Perhaps the only difference is,
whereas he was telling the odd 40 or
so of us then, he is telling an entire
nation now.
For me, programmes like land
reform and affirmative action, in spite
of their teething problems and
sometimes glaring weaknesses, are all part of
the focus that he told us
during that time.
Doris Lessing, like so
many other people including the British
government, argue that the problems
facing Zimbabwe are a result of bad
governance on the part of Robert
Mugabe.
I have just a single question to
ask: How come this crisis of bad
governance only surfaced during the last
five years to coincide with the
accelerated land reform programme when in
1994, Queen Elizabeth II had
conferred knighthood on Mugabe on the
recommendation of the same
British
government?
What calamity had
befallen Zimbabwe between 1995 and the formation of
the MDC (to rescue the
country from the calamity we are told) except the
land reform
programme?
It is true that the country is
faced with enormous problems, but to
say, as Lessing does, that it is all
because of Robert Mugabe is not
entirely
correct.
Every one of us must accept the
part we are playing in bringing about
the "disgrace, dishonour and ruin" that
Lessing says the country has become.
For
instance, we must accept that the sanctions that some of us called
for and
are openly supporting are contributing immensely to the mess that we
find
ourselves in.
We must also accept that the
black market and the rampant shortages
were not entirely created by price
controls, but by manufacturers as they
avoided the formal system and those
among us who quickly emptied the shelves
of the few commodities that trickled
there in order to make that
extra
dollar.
Yes, Robert Mugabe is all
sorts of things to all sorts of people, but
I think what is important to
realise is that he is also human
with
weaknesses.
I don't think he is a
frightened man, as Lessing says - no. Taking a
country through such a
difficult and turbulent time like the one we are
going through requires a lot
of courage and decisiveness and certainly
not
fear.
As for Tekere, well, the man
has lived exactly the way we whispered
during the nights as we tried to hurry
sleep, for once to dream eating a
full-bloodied meal, perhaps chicken and
rice, but unfortunately, such dreams
never came: only horrible nightmares of
ambushes by the Rhodesians.
A few weeks
ago I made a small contribution to The Daily News about a
conversation that I
had had with a white commercial farmer and it generated
a lot of
debate.
One lady phoned to say it was
untrue that the blacks that whites
really knew are farm labourers and
domestic workers. The blacks in Doris
Lessing's classical novel, The Grass is
Singing, are all farm labourers!
Dear Family and Friends,
The school holidays have started in Zimbabwe
and there was an almost audible nationwide sigh of relief. It's been a
chaotic three months of school for parents when every day we've struggled
to find bread to put in the lunch box, battled to afford the most basic of
stationery let alone replacement items of uniforms or school shoes.
Talking to other mums on the last day of term it was tragic
to have to say final good-byes to yet more black and white
families who are emigrating because they simply cannot afford to support their
families and educate their children here. Some are going to the UK, others to
Botswana and South Africa and some to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Living with shortages of basic foodstuffs and surviving a 220% inflation rate is
a nightmare. Things that we always took for granted are either not
available or have become luxury items and it gets harder and harder to keep our
children healthy, let alone provide them with occasional treats. The stress of
living like this, day after day wears you down so much that in the end it's
easier to just leave. The skills drain from the country is now very noticeable
and has affected every aspect of our lives - from teachers, doctors, vets and
lawyers to engineers, electricians and plumbers.
For me the biggest relief of the end of the school
term was finding the petrol to actually get Richard there every day. Fuel
shortages throughout the country have bought us almost to a standstill.
Yesterday, with my car running on the smell of an oil rag, I joined a massive
petrol queue in Marondera town. It's the first time there's been a queue for
over two weeks and people are getting pretty desperate. I don't know how far
back I was in the line but I couldn't even see the petrol station and guessed at
about 50 cars ahead of me. Usually I find things to amuse myself with in the
queue but after 4 hours I'd written my newspaper column, read two magazines from
cover to cover and got hotter and hotter until sweat dripped out of every pore.
It wasn't the usual friendly queue either because when people get desperate the
law of the jungle takes over. At least ten vehicles pushed into the queue during
my four and a half hour wait. You feel like a helpless pawn when a car just
pulls up alongside you , blocks your path and then pushes in. It doesn't matter
how close you get to the car in front - these queue jumpers are professionals,
they get a man to stand in front of you and short of physically running him
over you have to sit and watch as a car pushes in front of you. There were a lot
of angry voices and one exchange which almost ended in physical violence but it
seems if you use the name of the ruling political party you can get away
with anything in Zimbabwe. I never did reach the front of the queue, the petrol
ran out and I got home hot, exhausted and extremely depressed just before
dark.
Like the rest of the world we've been watching the
Iraq war and cannot help but compare the situation there with that in
Zimbabwe. When a political party infiltrates every single aspect
of society, ordinary people become completely and utterly helpless.
The government, either directly through their Ministers and officials, or
indirectly through their secret police, war veterans, youth brigades or security
personnel control almost everything in Zimbabwe. They control the telephones and
television, the railways and airport, the food supply and it's distribution, the
electricity and water, the fuel and gas. They now occupy and control almost all
of the land, nature reserves and conservancies. Anyone who gets in their way is
simply stamped on and the Minister of Information just goes on and on peddling
his propaganda. Seeing TV images of underground cells and torture chambers in
Baghdad and hearing people tell of their relatives who were tortured,
disappeared or died in the bowels of these state institutions is chillingly
familiar. Of particular interest to us here is what happened to all those Iraqi
Ministers and state agents and supporters when they finally realised their time
was up. Where did they run to, where are they hiding, will they ever be made to
answer for their crimes against their own brothers and sisters. Or
will they be given sanctuary in other countries like Mengistu is in
Zimbabwe or Idi Amin - wherever he is?
Zimbabwe hasn't got oil or any other vital natural
wealth so we don't expect anyone to come roaring in to help us but still we cry
out for help - what else can we do. Until next week, with love, cathy. Copyright
cathy buckle 12th April 2003. http://africantears.netfirms.com
CFU REPORT FRIDAY 11TH APRIL
2003
FUEL
Power Fuels inform us that the information which we
communicated
in yesterday's CFU Report is incorrect. They don't sell
fuel totally
in Zim Dollars as this would contravene the price
controls.
Our apologies to everyone concerned for this
misinformation.
The following information is
applicable:
DIESEL
PART-PAYMENT IN FOREX -
32 US cents per litre plus
+/-10 US cents per litre
transport to be paid direct to supplier and
transporter.
Local component covering duties, levies, insurance etc - Z$26.74
per litre.
Contact Stubbs Chifodwa, Marketing Director,
Power Fuels on
799407/8 for further information.
Disclaimer:
Unless specifically
stated that this message is a Commercial Farmers' Union
communique, or that
it is being issued or forwarded to you by the sender in
an official CFU
capacity, the opinions contained therein are private.
Private messages also
include those sent on behalf of any organisation not
directly affiliated to
the Union. The CFU does not accept any legal
responsibility for private
messages and opinions held by the sender and
transmitted over its local area
network to other CFU network users and/or to
external
addresses.
news24
Dead Zim soldier a
'mercenary'
12/04/2003 13:44 - (SA)
Harare - A
Zimbabwean soldier in the British army, who died this week
serving in Iraq,
has been condemned as a "mercenary" and a "sell-out" by
President Robert
Mugabe's state media.
The British ministry of defence confirmed this week
that Christopher Muzvuru
(21) of the Irish Guards had been killed on Sunday
in Basra.
He was the first of a small contingent of Zimbabweans serving
in the British
armed forces to be killed in the Iraq war.
The Daily
Mirror, owned by a member of the ruling Zanu-PF party, urged that
authorities
to bar Muzvuru's body from being returned home for burial.
"It should be
buried in Britain, the country that he chose to die for," the
newspaper
said.
"For a Zimbabwean, whose country is virtually at war with Britain
over land
redistribution, to join the armed forces of an 'enemy' who is
literally
besieging your country is the highest level of selling
out."
"Buffalo soldier," read a cartoon of the dead soldier, in a
reference to the
nickname of an American post-civil war cavalry regiment made
up of blacks
that was used to fight Indians as settlers swept to occupy the
west of the
continent.
Muzvuru was among the thousands of young
Zimbabweans who fled Zimbabwe in
the last three years of lawlessness, violent
state repression and economic
collapse to find a future in
Britain.
The defence ministry said he enlisted in the army in February
2001, and
became a member of the Irish Guards' First Battalion bagpipe band
after
training as a piper in the Piping School in Edinburgh.
According
to Zimbabwean education authorities, between 15 and 20 young
Zimbabweans of
all races, mostly from the country's elite private schools,
are accepted into
the British army each year.
The state-controlled media has portrayed the
American and British war on the
Iraqi regime as a "neo-imperialist invasion"
aimed solely at seizing the
country's oil assets.
State television has
suppressed coverage of the Iraq war, and most
Zimbabweans - except for the
tiny minority able to afford satellite
television - were denied the
extraordinary footage of thousands of Iraqis
joyously toppling statues and
taking off their shoes to beat portraits of
their erstwhile leader. -
Sapa-DPA
From The Daily Dispatch (SA), 11
April
New protests as Zim opposition grows
bolder
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition cranked up an
anti-government publicity
campaign yesterday ahead of a new round of planned
protests against the
increasingly authoritarian rule of President Robert
Mugabe. The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change placed advertisements
in two independent
newspapers warning of growing frustration among the people
of the country.
An advertisement in the independent Daily News warned of
public anger and
possible retribution against officials, troops and police
seen to be
"sustaining and oiling the dictatorship" of Mugabe. It also listed
several
ousted African and foreign dictators who fled their countries but
left
behind their functionaries, supporters and beneficiaries. "If you
are
supporting the dictatorship in Zimbabwe today, it is important to know
you
will be left alone to look after yourself and your family,"
the
advertisement said. The opposition has said it is determined to proceed
with
planned protests despite a crackdown on government opponents and the
arrests
of several opposition leaders in the wake of last month's
successful
anti-government strike. Two other bold colour advertisements
appeared
yesterday in the weekly Financial Gazette showing photographs of
victims of
alleged beatings and torture by state agents and soldiers under
the words
"Change demands action". Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri
dismissed the
advertisements as "intimidation" against his officers. "They
want to instil
fear in members of the security forces and their families. It
won't work,"
he said. Opposition spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi, meanwhile, was
released
yesterday on the order of high court judge Mathios Cheda in
Bulawayo. He was
arrested on Monday under the nation's strict security laws
for his
involvement in organising the anti-government strike. The
government
declared the strike illegal. Cheda said the police failed to
justify
Nyathi's continued detention and ordered him released without charge
to be
summoned back to court later if required, Nyathi's lawyer Nicholas
Mathonsi said.
Zim
Standard
Chakaipa against violent
land grab
By Itai
Dzamara
THE late Archbishop Patrick
Chakaipa, reputedly a friend of President
Robert Mugabe, was vehemently
opposed to the Zanu PF leader's violent land
seizures, an investigation by
The Standard has established.
Top
clergymen within the Roman Catholic Church said Chakaipa had been
deeply
concerned at the wanton destruction Mugabe's land reform programme
had
caused.
Chakaipa who died on Tuesday last
week aged 70, "unwaveringly
supported the equal distribution of land", senior
members of the Catholic
church said but, like his colleagues in the church
leadership, was strongly
concerned about the violent manner in which it was
being implemented.
Father Walter
Nyatsanza, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe
Catholic Bishops'
Conference, said at the time of his death Chakaipa was
concerned about the
violence, disunity and social breakdown that Mugabe's
land reforms had
caused.
"He was very strongly concerned
about the situation the country finds
itself in. He had always been committed
to the resolution of the land
distribution imbalance. However, he was
concerned with the manner in which
the programme was being implemented, which
had led to violence," said
Nyatsanza.
In his condolence message, Mugabe claimed that Chakaipa-who solemnised
his
marriage to Grace Marufu in 1996-had supported his chaotic land reforms
and
used the opportunity of the message to launch an attack on clergymen who
have
publicly condemned the exercise.
"Chakaipa's stance on the land question was unambiguous and would
forever
remain a quiet admonition to his peers who chose the side of the
unjust and
the selfish," Mugabe was quoted as saying by the state-controlled
Herald
newspaper.
Within the local Catholic
leadership, Pius Ncube-the Bishop of
Bulawayo-has openly criticised Mugabe's
violent and chaotic land seizures,
thus earning himself the wrath of the
79-year-old Zanu PF leader.
Ncube said
that although Chakaipa-usually a very reserved person-had
not been too keen
on publicly commenting on the chaos resulting from the
government's
destruction of agriculture, he had nevertheless been
against
it.
Said Ncube: "He was against
the violent land seizures although he
never publicly commented on them. He
wished for the day when the black
people in the communal areas would be
relieved from the congestion. He
always regretted that in most communal areas
people plough just by their
huts. He, however, condemned the violence that is
associated with the land
reform."
Bishop Patrick Mutume of the Mutare diocese, said: "He had the
grassroots
people at heart. As a result, he was deeply concerned about the
crisis in the
country because it affects the grassroots people more than
anyone else. He
was saddened by the violence characterising the land reform
programme and its
heavy impact on the grassroots people."
Mugabe's chaotic land reforms, embarked upon abruptly after the
rejection of
his party's constitutional proposals in February 2000, claimed
hundreds of
lives as ragtag armies of so-called war veterans invaded and
violently took
over former white commercial farms.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church says mass will be held for the late
Archbishop
today at the St Mary's Cathedral in Harare and will be followed
by body
viewing. He will be buried at Chishawasha Mission
tomorrow.
Zim
Standard
Mumbengegwi ditches
Hungwe for Zvobgo
By Parker
Graham
MASVINGO: All is not well within
the Josiah Hungwe faction of Zanu PF
with reports that Samuel Mumbengegwi,
the party's provincial chairman, has
defected to the rival faction of former
minister, Eddison Zvobgo.
Hungwe, who has
the backing of Vice President Simon Muzenda, a
relative of his, has fought a
long and bitter turf war over control of Zanu
PF's Masvingo Province, with
Zvobgo, once considered the heir apparent of
President Robert
Mugabe.
Mumbengegwi, the minister of
Industry and International Trade who is
regarded as the protege and "home
boy" of Hungwe-the governor of the
province-led a crusade to weaken Zvobgo's
political influence in Masvingo
two years
ago.
With the assistance of Foreign
Affairs minister Stan Mudenge, deputy
minister of Youth, Gender and
Employment Creation Shuvai Mahofa and Chief
Fortune Charumbira, Mumbengegwi
went around the province setting up party
executive structures loyal to
Hungwe and ensuring that the faction, which
also enjoys the support of
Mugabe, had total control of Masvingo.
The
Standard has, however, learnt that Hungwe is bitter about "home
boy"
Mumbengegwi's apparent move to the Zvobgo
faction.
Hungwe fought tooth and nail to
help Mumbengegwi-then a political
nonentity on the fractious provincial
political landscape-to win the Chivi
North parliamentary seat in the 2000
general elections. Mumbengegwi was
subsequently appointed a minister in
Mugabe's Cabinet.
Hungwe is also credited
with having ensured that Mumbengegwi took over
the Zanu PF Masvingo
provincial chairmanship after he cooked up a plot which
led to the then
chairman Dzikamai Mavhaire, a member of the Zvobgo faction,
being
unceremoniously removed from office by a section of independence war
veterans
under the leadership of the militant Edmore
Hwarari.
Zanu PF's secretary for
information and publicity in the Masvingo
Province, Raymond Takavarasha-a
member of the Hungwe faction-confirmed that
all was not well within the
party.
"I don't understand what is really
going on between Governor Hungwe
and the chairman Mumbengegwi, but what I can
confirm is that chiefs,
headmen, village heads and thousands of followers of
the Hungwe faction are
demanding that Mumbengegwi makes his position clear
before the forthcoming
Zanu PF provincial elections," Takavarasha told The
Standard.
Already, chiefs, headmen,
councillors and village heads in the Chivi
district have petitioned Hungwe to
"deal" with Mumbengwegwi, he added.
Neither Hungwe nor Mumbengegwi could be reached for
comment.
Zim
Standard
ZCTU's May Day under
threat
By Henry
Makiwa
THE police and some Zanu PF-led
town councillors, are allegedly
conniving to bar the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) from holding
its traditional Workers' Day celebrations at
some national stadiums, The
Standard has
learnt.
The ZCTU, the country's largest
labour union, last week complained
that there was evidence of a concerted
effort by the police and Zanu
PF-dominated town councils in Chinhoyi, Kadoma
and Mutare, to stop the union
from staging the customary May Day
commemorations.
The ZCTU alleges that the
venues are being hired out to its rival, the
Zanu PF-aligned Zimbabwe
Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) led by war
veteran and former security
guard, Joseph Chinotimba.
Tapiwa
Chishakwe, the ZCTU vice-chairman for Manicaland province,
accused the Mutare
Town Council of throwing into turmoil their preparations
for the Workers' Day
event.
He said the city's authorities were
plotting to repeat last year's
fiasco when at the very last minute, the go
ahead for celebrations at
Sakubva Stadium was granted to the ZFTU instead of
the ZCTU.
Chishakwe said: "The decision to
frustrate us in this manner is
apparently politically-motivated. The ZCTU has
for long been associated with
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), and it is feared that
everyone affiliated to them is an MDC
supporter.
"We have been applying to the
Mutare City Council for a venue since
February but time and again, the
authorities have come up with some flimsy
excuse to deny us the right to hold
an event which is observed across the
entire
globe."
He said the council had refused to
grant them a venue on the grounds
that the ZCTU should have first sought
police clearance, while the police
for their part, were reluctant to issue
the clearance on the grounds that it
was
"unnecessary".
"Some of our members
actually work for the Mutare City Council and
they are alleging that they are
being victimised, and that there have been
instructions from top council
officials to frustrate our efforts to hire
Sakubva Stadium and to reserve it
for the ZFTU instead," said Chishakwe.
The
ZCTU was again denied an early booking for Chinhoyi Stadium. They
had applied
for the venue in January.
March Makanya,
the ZCTU chairman for Chinhoyi, said on making
enquiries at the town council
early last month, they were told that the
stadium was free but that a booking
had to be made at a later stage.
However, they were exasperated to later
learn that the venue had been
granted to the
ZFTU.
"The town authorities here are
playing hide and seek with us. We were
the first to request the venue and yet
they have discarded us in favour of
the pro-Zanu PF ZFTU," said
Makanya.
"These are all political gimmicks
meant to frustrate the workers. This
situation may now force us to use Cook's
Hall which is too small for our
large membership," added
Makanya.
ZCTU secretary general Wellington
Chibhebhe accused the police of
employing political strategies to bar his
union from celebrating May Day
with the
workers.
"There are people within the
police force who will not clear us to
hold our celebrations in Mutare, Kadoma
and Chinhoyi because they hold a
myopic judgmental position that we (the
ZCTU) are purely MDC.
"It is baffling for
the police in Mutare and Chinhoyi to refuse to
co-operate with us when
everywhere else, the police have been very
forthcoming. We suspect that it is
part of the ZFTU strategy to destroy the
ZCTU as they were loudly instructed
to do by Zanu PF last year," said
Chibhebhe.
Zim
Standard
Villagers dress down
Obert Mpofu
By Tracy
Mpofu
BULAWAYO-Pandemonium broke out at a
field day in Bubi district on
Wednesday when angry Inkosikazi villagers
vehemently disputed claims by
Matabeleland North governor, Obert Mpofu, that
the government was providing
them with cash under the food-for-work relief
programme.
Mpofu, who was the guest of
honour at a field day of the Agricultural
Recovery Programme (ARP), organised
by World Vision-a relief organisation
that is assisting vulnerable
communities with farming inputs-was stunned
when villagers openly challenged
his claims.
In a glowing speech about how
his government was helping the starving
masses, Mpofu said: "We embarked on
the food for work programme in a bid to
assist Zimbabweans throughout the
country in fending for their families. The
money that villagers are getting
in this programme is going a long way in
assisting their
plight..."
Mpofu had hardly finished
delivering his speech when angry villagers
interrupted him, vehemently
dismissing his claims that they were being paid
for the
work.
"We are tired of hearing the same
old song because we have waited
patiently for our payment but to no avail,"
shouted one frustrated villager.
"Ask the
councillor of Ward Seven, she knows what we are talking
about," shouted
another, to a chorus of approval from the
rest.
Yet another unimpressed villager had
this to say: "We engaged in this
programme because we are hungry, but if the
council decides to pocket the
money we have sweated for, that will be very
unfair. How are we going to
feed our
families?"
To save face, Mpofu said he
would raise the matter with the council.
"I didn't know that you were not getting your payments but I will look
into
the matter with the councillors," said the
governor.
Under the food for work
programme, villagers are supposed to do manual
work such as repairing roads
and low level bridges in return for cash which
will enable them to buy
food.
Villagers told The Standard that
they were, however, happy with World
Vision's efforts at empowering
them.
Under the ARF, a body funded by the
Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA), which donated US$615 000
last year, villagers have received
agricultural inputs that were previously
hard to come by.
"Since February 2002, we
have embarked on a number of projects that
will be of assistance to the
community and will empower villagers not to
rely simply on relief food but
also work hard to feed their families," said
Sipho Dube, the national
financial director of World Vision.
At the
function, the Inkosikazi Area Development Programme (ADP)
handed over to the
community, agricultural equipment comprising a tractor, a
plough and a
trailer, all worth more than $43m.
Zim
Standard
Zanu PF land grabbing and
looting to be exposed
By Itai
Dzamara
THE massive and systematic looting
of former white commercial farms,
is the work of senior Zanu PF and
government officials, and the land reform
programme has become chaotic, some
members of the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee-expected to table its report
to the House next month-have
revealed.
Members of the Portfolio Committee told The Standard that their
report
revealed "systematic looting" of commercial land by top government
officials
and well connected people, especially those within the ruling Zanu
PF party.
Said one member of the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee: "The
findings of the committee after it
went around the provinces, were that the
land reform programme was utterly
chaotic. Top government officials and
well-connected people have used their
influence to grab rich farmland at the
expense of the landless people. We are
ready to table the report when the
House resumes sitting next
month."
President Robert Mugabe has tried
to downplay the report whose
findings were leaked to the international media
last month and which created
a lot of controversy when reported in the local
media.
Mugabe did acknowledge that all was
not well with the land reform
exercise but in an apparent bid to protect his
close colleagues and
ministers, said he would instigate another land audit
and have the report
presented to him.
Zimbabwe's land reforms have been blasted by the international
community and
the United Nations for their lack of transparency and for
destroying what was
once a major agribusiness in Africa.
The
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee's audit, which has been largely
shrouded in
secrecy but whose findings have been partially leaked out, has
created much
anxiety among Mugabe's inner circle with many of his closest
aides, including
some of his family, accused of having grabbed more than one
commercial farm
and of looting others.
Daniel Mackenzie
Ncube, the Zanu PF MP for Zhombe, who heads the
portfolio committee, was not
available for comment yesterday.
However,
Innocent Gonese, the chief whip for the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change, said he hoped the report would be tabled in
Parliament to shed light
on the manner in which the land issue has
been
handled.
Said Gonese: "Once the
report has been tabled, we will debate on
matters of principle. We hope that
the Portfolio Committee did its job
properly and will lay the ground for us
to push for practical solutions on
the controversial manner in which the land
reform was implemented."
Gonese scoffed at
Mugabe's decision to have a second audit that would
be handled by his office
and whose participants would report directly
to
him.
"Mugabe's government has never
been serious about its inquiries and
audits. Having another audit whilst
ignoring the first one, is a sheer waste
of time," said
Gonese.
"It is a time-buying gimmick. We
will therefore stand up to our
responsibility and duty of highlighting the
importance of achieving an
urgent solution to the land crisis and of moving
on from there."
Joram Gumbo, the Zanu PF
chief whip said: "I haven't seen the report.
I will only respond when it's
tabled. I am aware that there is a lot of
interest in the land reform
exercise and we hope that the report will answer
a lot of questions and
clarify issues on the land reform."
Zim
Standard
Zimbabwe nationals warned
to stay straight
By Loughty
Dube
BULAWAYO-THE Zimbabwean high
commissioner to Botswana and 70 other
Zimbabweans living in that country were
this week summoned to a local court
and warned against engaging in illegal
activities while in that country.
The
latest incident adds to reports of a diplomatic wrangle between
Zimbabwe and
Botswana and is set to worsen the allegedly frosty relations
already existing
between the nationals of the two
countries.
According to press reports from
Botswana, the Zimbabwean high
commissioner in Gaberone, Phelekezela Mphoko,
was summoned to the Batlokwa
customary court by Chief Moshibisu Gaborone,
where he was forced to address
compatriots accused of having committed
crimes.
The Tswana allege that Zimbabweans
living in that country or visiting,
are engaging in prostitution and other
criminal activities.
During his address,
Mphoko pleaded with Zimbabweans in Botswana to
stop their illegal
activities.
"If you misbehave, you must
know that other people are bound to react
the way they want," warned
Mphoko.
"Why are you practising
prostitution here in Botswana when you know
that in Zimbabwe it is illegal?
Can't you see that you are destroying the
good name of our
country?"
Chief Gaborone warned
Zimbabweans that if found on the wrong side of
the law, they would be
severely punished.
The summoning of the
Zimbabweans came after police in that country had
arrested three locals in
connection with a scam involving the illegal sale
to foreigners of Botswana
national identity cards.
The Botswana
authorities say they are looking for 11 other Zimbabweans
in connection with
the scam.
The Zimbabweans are alleged to
be charging 1 200 Pula for the
fraudulent documents which are highly sought
after by Zimbabweans and other
nationals such as Nigerians and Congolese, who
are in Botswana illegally but
are seeking permanent residence in the
diamond-rich country.
The officer in
charge of national registration in Maha-lapye, Dinah
Matsha-bo, said they
were alreay investigating 16 cases of Zimbabweans
believed to have illegally
obtained Botswana identity cards.
Zim
Standard
Little to cheer as
impoverished Zim turns 23
newsfocus
By Michael Kariati
INDEPENDENCE Day during
the euphoric 1980s and early 1990s was a day
most Zimbabweans looked forward
to.
The young and the old, the rich and
the poor, would gather at stadiums
around the country to watch traditional
dancers and magnificent drum
majorettes strutting their stuff, but above all,
to drink, eat and make
merry.
Before
the merrymaking, there would be the presidential speech which
everyone wanted
to listen to because it normally ushered in a new policy
direction, or
contained an important statement.
"Nyarara
iwe, tinoda kunzwa kuti President vari kuti kudii (Keep
quiet, we want to
hear what the President is saying)," were words commonly
spoken as President
Robert Mugabe either read his speech or someone else
high up in government or
the ruling Zanu PF party echelons did so on his
behalf, in areas outside
Harare.
Eighteenth April was a day which
made Zimbabweans proud to be
Zimbabwean. Mugabe used the occasion to expound
his policies for the
following year.
"Gore rino igore rekugutsa ruzhinji (This is the year to ensure noone
goes
hungry)," he would declare to resounding cheers from the
listeners.
People would even joke about
the tragedies that had occurred at
similar national events such as the man
who died after falling into a beer
container, or those seriously injured in
the rush for the abundant free food
at the stadiums. The people would leave
with their stomachs full and with
Mugabe once again entrenched in their minds
as the real Messiah.
But, as Zanu PF's
economic policies began to hit them hard, the
picture gradually began to
change for many Zimbabweans and Mugabe steadily
lost his Messiah status. The
attitude towards Independence Day and Mugabe
began to
change.
Instead of filling up the stadiums
in their thousands by 8.00am, the
crowds began to arrive only around 3.00pm,
not for the Independence Day
celebrations or Mugabe's speech, but for the
free soccer finals arranged for
the
day.
The situation gradually changed from
bad to worse as the economy
suffered and the standard of living deteriorated.
Even the free football
matches could no longer attract as many people as they
used to do.
"Ndinoenda kunoitei. Unoda
kuti ndinorohwa nemasoja," (Why should I go
there. Do you want me to be
beaten by soldiers), said Marko Gusvusvu, a
Kuwadzana resident still
recovering from injuries sustained after beatings
at the hands of soldiers
during last month's Kuwadzana
parliamentary
by-election.
Zimbabwe is
now a country of queues and many people say they would
rather spend the day
queuing for petrol, diesel or basic commodities than
listen to Mugabe's
speech.
Because of mounting poverty,
Zimbabweans find there is no longer
anything to celebrate as far as
Independence Day is concerned. Supermarket
shelves are empty and basic
commodities like sugar, mealie meal, margarine,
cooking oil and bread have
become scarce.
The government has clearly
failed to solve the fuel crisis and will
not do so in the foreseeable future
as long as it retains its international
pariah
status.
"Ndino celebreta chii, ndisina
chekudya? (Why should I celebrate when
I don't have anything to eat)," asks
Maxwell Gopo, a Mbare resident.
When asked
whether he would contribute some money to the national
celebrations as he
would have done before, Gopo said he would only do so
when the Zanu PF
government was gone.
"They have
impoverished me. How can I give them my hard earned cash?
What
for?"
Gopo is not alone. Many of the
people who spoke to The Standard said
it was now meaningless to celebrate
Independence Day.
Others said they
preferred to spend their time at bottle stores
drinking with friends and
talking football, or discussing the woes of
the
country.
Some said they would take
advantage of the holiday to scout around the
capital for sugar and mealie
meal instead of "wasting time" listening to
Mugabe's
speech.
"Kangani tichinzi tichazokuitirai
izvi neizvi as zvingani
zvakabudirira? (How many times have we been promised
this or that only for
nothing to materialise?)" asked a Harare resident,
Fanuel Banda.
The situation is no better
in the rural areas where thousands are
expected to spend the day in queues,
waiting for relief food supplies that
might never
come.
But it is not just the food
shortages and the petrol queues that worry
many Zimbabweans as the country
turns 23 years of age.
Many in the
townships and the rural areas say they are bound to be at
the mercy of the
ruthless soldiers and policemen, who have been terrorising
them since the
watershed June 2000 election, which saw the emergence of the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as a political force to be
reckoned
with.
Zanu PF, like a raging bull, has
vented its anger at the success of
the MDC, on opposition party supporters
and ordinary Zimbabweans suspected
of being sympathetic towards the new
party.
Zanu PF's notorious militia, known
as Green Bombers, have been
rampaging around the country, killing, raping and
torturing at will, those
they suspect of being members of the
MDC.
So, save for a privileged few and
those close to the ruling Zanu PF
class, there is very little-if anything at
all-to celebrate as Zimbabwe
turns 23.
Zim
Standard
Degradation, deprivation
and decimation
ZIMBABWE is now
all about degradation, deprivation and decimation.
Take it from 40 paintings
by Lovemore Kambudzi, Patrick Makumbe and Misheck
Masamvu which offer an
extra-ordinary testimony to the socio-political and
economic state of the
nation. The paintings comprise Gallery Delta's
contribution to Hifa of the
work of young artists.
"The young painters
explore the way people feel and think by
presenting revealing images of what
it means to live with degradation,
decimation and deprivation-conditions
which, according to a contemporary
Danish sculptor, Jens Christophersen, give
birth to an animal of very low
instincts which he calls the 'inner beast',"
says Chiedza Musengezi,
director of Zimbabwe Women Writers who visited the
exhibition at Gallery
Delta.
Christophersen argues that given the right conditions, the 'inner
beast' can
reside in you and I or any individual anywhere in the world: it
attacks the
foundation of one's ethical and moral values so that
intolerance, xenophobia
and racism take over.
Kambudzi, Makumbe
and Masamvu bring us face to face with our "inner
beast". Their paintings
reflect the themes of poverty, destruction and
moral
degradation.
Kambudzi said he
painted the pictures on exhibition because
"Handingavanze chokwadi (I can't
hide the truth)".
He presents us with the
reality of the poor conditions of the poor in
today's Zimbabwe, conditions
which do not inspire hope but rather, a violent
rejection that has the
potential to generate the physical and emotional
energy for dealing with the
problem.
Makumbe's paintings convey a deep
concern with eroded morals. Female
figures dominate his compositions. Nudes,
with make-up on their faces and
large hoops in their ears, are laid out
before viewers in a variety of
postures, all of which suggest sexual
availability.
The male figures in
Mukumbe's paintings also reinforce debasement. The
man in the picture, Love
Triangle, wears a black suit and a black hat, holds
a briefcase in one hand
and has two women in lacy bikinis draped on either
side of him-proof of his
indulgence in sexual pleasures.
Of the
three painters on show, Masamvu best captures the violence and
destruction
that characterised Zimbabwe's preelection period last year when
the
exhibition was first mounted.
With his
disturbingly powerful images of decapitated heads, severed
limbs, torsos and
blood he condemns the destruction of human life and the
uncompromising
harshness of youth. Some of his images are gruesome-but so
indeed were some
of the politically motivated events that he
commemorates.
Zim
Standard
Zimbabwe at
23
By Chido
Makunike
HERE we are on the eve of the
23rd anniversary of our independence.
This should be a time for taking stock
of things that would have inevitably
gone wrong for a new nation trying to
get used to self determination, and of
celebrating many other
achievements.
Instead, we find ourselves
at our lowest ebb by just about every
objective measure. People are weary and
hungry; they are worried; they are
afraid. Never has our confidence and self
esteem been so low.
The President remains
largely in hiding, coming out only occasionally
to issue threats against one
group or another. He insists the people are
with him, but does so with little
conviction. He continues to maintain a
tight grip over them, but at great
cost to himself. The size of the
veritable army he travels with everywhere,
continues to grow as he becomes
more afraid of the growing clamour against
him. The people have little
confidence in their government. Once again, as
before independence, the
police are becoming more a force for oppression than
for the protection of
the citizens. They display far more enthusiasm and
skill at arresting
perceived opponents of the government than at preventing
crime.
On the major highways from Harare
to Mutare, Kariba or Bulawayo, it
used to be a joy to see all the signs of
agricultural activity as one drove
by. Now, one sees more grass and weeds
than anything else on what used to be
prime productive farmland. It will take
many years to recover this lost
productivity, as we are still more on the
path of destruction
than
reconstruction.
Zimbabwe is now
one of the very few countries in the world in which
you cannot just drive up
to a service station and fill up your vehicle with
fuel. Days spent in long
queues for the basics of a modern economy, petrol
and diesel, have become the
norm. All our towns have become filthy and
unkempt. Grocery shelves are
either largely empty, or are filled with rows
of just two or three products
because of the shortage of so many different
things. Prices go up by large
margins, by the week.
Rape, torture,
arbitrary arrest and beatings are now common place
instruments of humiliation
and control, often committed by agents of the
state. There is no where that
one can go to go to seek reprieve from these
abuses because those who should
be protecting us are the ones we have reason
to be most afraid
of.
A few thrive on the chaos of a
distorted, dysfunctional economy, but
the vast majority lose ground every
day. More people are unemployed as
increasing numbers of companies shut down.
The productivity of the few who
are employed continues to decline because of
time lost searching for fuel,
hours spent in queues for transport to and from
work, and the stress of the
growing number of financial obligations they
cannot meet.
What kind of "independence"
is this? Certainly, we continue to be
happy that we are no longer ruled by
foreigners, but the quality of the
independence we experience under the
vicious, incompetent rule of Mugabe is
far lower than we are entitled to as
sons and daughters of the soil. Why
must I be afraid of telling a cruel
despot he is bloody useless? Mugabe is
just an ordinary person, munhu
zvakewo. Nothing but a man. We did not expect
that so soon after experiencing
racial tyranny we would again be living in
fear for our thoughts and
words.
Twenty three years after
"independence" there are many ways in which
we are not free. We have far more
uncertainty in virtually all aspects of
our lives than ever before. Even
those who are relatively well to do must
now barricade themselves in their
homes, making them virtual prisons,
because of the lawlessness that Mugabe
has spawned in his bid to intimidate
and control us in order to retain power.
At the same time, he and his
cronies nauseatingly talk about "the rule of
law, law and order." That rule
of law is so arbitrarily and cynically
applied, few people respect it. How
can we, when many of the law makers and
implementers are themselves known
criminals; thieves, liars, rapists,
murderers? We know who you are, your day
of reckoning is
coming.
"Independence" not only means
freedom from foreign domination, it also
implies dignity. Yet we are losing
our dignity as a people as we suffer more
deprivation under the regime of
Mugabe. We work harder, but fall further
behind because of a skewed economy.
We try to be honest, but see ourselves
being laughed at and left behind by
the crooks who rule us and their
relatives and associates. There is no
dignity in having to drive all over a
city looking for bread or milk, and
then having to sheepishly queue for it,
only to be told that day's allotment
is finished, or to be scolded like a
child for daring to ask for more than
two units of the item. This is not how
independence is supposed to look like,
23 years later.
So crude and contemptuous
of the people is the independence government
that we are fed a diet of the
most moronic lies, in the state media. The
conspiracy theories and propaganda
are so outlandish, and so at odds with
what we see and experience for
ourselves, that you are shocked and offended
at its insulting stupidity. We
are treated like fools by our government, and
we have become the laughing
stock of the world.
Nor is there relief
from the taint of the indignities we experience by
emigrating. There is the
large extended family left behind whose safety and
holistic well-being must
be a constant source of worry. Then there is the
ever-present stain of being
forced to run away from one's homeland because
you have failed to make it
work for yourself, and as a people. You cannot
divorce yourself from the
shame.
We will mark the 23rd anniversary
of no longer being ruled by the
British, but let us be honest, there is not
much to celebrate this year.
While reconstruction will take the concerted
efforts of all of us after we
eventually hit bottom and begin to rise again,
we will simply not be able to
even begin to look up as long as President
Mugabe rules us because of his
negative legacy and alienation from so much of
the world.
Pity poor Zimbabwe, we hoped
for and deserve a better "independence"
than this.
Zim
Standard
What the people want on
April 18
TheStandardcomment
THERE is no doubt that
the best independence present Zimbabweans
expect on Friday as the country
turns 23 is a statement from President
Robert Mugabe that he has failed and
is finally calling it quits.
Sadly, there
is more likelihood for the sun to rise in the West-or as
Vice President Simon
Muzenda would say "for donkeys to grow horns"-than for
Gushungo to do the
most honourable thing that would for once have him
commended the world
over.
Mugabe still boasts that he is as
fit as a fiddle, "or two at least",
as he says, and is obviously oblivious of
the resentment Zanu PF has
generated among Zimbabweans whose lot has worsened
since he came into power
all those years
ago.
He remains like the ostrich that has
buried its head in the sand and
listens only to the lies peddled to him by
the spy Central Intelligence
Organisation and his close advisers who tell him
Zimbabweans still love him
to bits and expect him to rule
forever.
Does Mugabe ever ask these spooks
why, if he is that popular, they don
't allow him to walk freely along the
streets of Harare, or any other city?
Unlike in 1980, or even 10 years later
in 1990, we now have to queue for
almost everything and that has made people
angry.
We queue for food; we queue for
petrol and diesel, and we even queue
to be buried. That is the state of the
nation under Mugabe, 23 years on.
Of
course, Mugabe and his henchmen will boast that they brought us
independence,
but everyone knows the independence struggle was a collective
effort that
involved almost every Zimbabwean family.
They will also boast that they brought us free education and free
health and
that is why we are so educated that Blair's UK companies can
steal personnel
from Zimbabwe.
These are empty boasts.
Where is the free health system now? Where is
the free education? Why are
young, well-educated Zimbabweans fleeing the
country in their droves to the
UK and South Africa, among other
countries?
It is against this background
of gross mismanagement of the Zimbabwean
economy that the people look to the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) for salvation, at least by
the next independence anniversary.
It is
inevitable that there should be a lot of soul searching within
the MDC on
which action to take against Mugabe, especially after the
successful two-day
stayaway last month.
It is clear that
within the ranks of the opposition party there are
those who yearn for the
most decisive way to deal with Zanu PF, which, for
them, means organising a
major confrontation with the ruling party that
would be led by the
people.
This camp believes that the only
message Zanu PF and Mugabe understand
is a massive showdown of strength: a
people's power protest of the magnitude
that removed despots like Ferdinand
Marcos and Slobodan Milosevic
from
power.
The other camp within the
MDC still feels that there is scope to talk
to Zanu PF and Mugabe and make
them see reason and perhaps agree to some
power sharing arrangement of some
sort.
This group is of the opinion that
enough pressure-exerted both
internally and externally-can drag the Zanu PF
leader screaming and kicking
to the negotiation table that he scorned last
year.
While it is always better to "jaw
jaw than to war war", experience has
shown that Mugabe regards every other
Third World leader-except perhaps
Muammar Gadaffi, Fidel Castro and Mahathir
Muhammad-with disdain; if not
utter
contempt.
Despite what many South African
politicians, and others in the MDC,
might believe about Thabo Mbeki's
perceived influence over Mugabe, the truth
is that the Zanu PF leader has no
respect for any of the current crop of
African
leaders.
He sees them as protégés of
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and
United States President George W Bush
and therefore, easily manipulated by
the Western countries, his bitter
enemies.
So there we are Zimbabweans: at
23 years of age, our country is in a
terrible
mess.
We are being led by a ruthless
regime that will only relinquish power
through excessive force, and nothing
else.
On the other hand, we have an
opposition party that is divided over
whether to confront Mugabe with a
massive show of people power or try to
engage him in reconciliation
talks.
We are, as they, between the devil
and the deep blue sea.
Zim
Standard
Under the
weather
overthetop By Brian
Latham
OVER The Top is under the weather.
Even events in Iraq where another
grotesque dictator met his demise, if not
his maker, has failed to raise
the
spirits.
Further appearances by
that country's delightful, charming and erudite
misinformation minister may
have helped, but that wasn't to be. The
gentleman, who must surely now be the
heartthrob of millions of
dysfunctional women the world over, took to his
heals at the last moment.
(At least two women of OTT's once close
acquaintance are reported to be
jetting off to Syria even as you read this,
hoping the first-class
fabricator has sought refuge in that neighbouring
dictatorship. Good luck to
them.)
Still, you have to give him due praise. He cut it extraordinarily fine
and
the world will have to credit him, not just with being able to lie
with
admirable panaché (a splendid quality in that line of business), but
with
truly heroic bravery.
He is,
without doubt, the winner of OTT's award for Excellence in
Misinformation.
Were OTT a dysfunctional woman, as opposed to a
dysfunctional man, the race
to find him would surely be on.
One could
learn a great deal from someone who denies the Yanks are
coming when they are
clearly visible on the other side of the river. And the
lies.Never in my
entire existence of listening to lies spewing forth from
misinformation
ministers have I heard anything quite so marvelously,
courageously put
forth.
And quite apart from anything else,
he provided welcome relief from
the misinformation minister in a troubled
central African country. That
gentleman's latest wheeze, surely the weirdest
even in the realm of weird
politics, is to accuse the More Drink Coming party
of hiring soldiers to
beat up its own
members.
It's one thing to lie with a
straight face, but it's another to be so
wildly implausible that even your
own government winces with
embarrassment-as happened last week in the
troubled central African regime.
If the
minister of misinformation in the troubled central African
dictatorship
thought he was taking lessons from his Iraqi counterpart, he
was sadly
deluded. That man in Iraq was the master, while his troubled
central African
counterpart is struggling in the remedial class for
misinformation ministers
with learning difficulties.
And if you
doubt such a class exists, just go back to last week's
papers and read those
ridiculous stories.
Still, despite all
this hilarity, Over The Top remains under the
weather. Even witnessing a
failed Zany party riot failed to lift the
spirits. Actually, that's not
exactly true. The failed riot was impossible
to witness because it failed, so
there was nothing to witness.
And while
the sight of Mr Sadly Insane's statues being toppled across
Iraq while
gleeful sons of the sand danced and spat on his likeness lifted
the mood, the
delight was short lived.
True, the
troubled central African country has been gripped of late by
national ennui
and depression, but even that's not it. Sorry. Actually, OTT
finds the
troubled central African nation a splendid place to live. Few
places on the
planet offer the same opportunity to study weird politics,
partisan policing
and free booting as the troubled central African country,
so it has to be
good.
Besides, it has to be studied now,
because while Sadly Insane's
statues may be falling fast in Iraq, the Zany
party, which has no statues
because it can't afford them, seems destined to
follow sooner rather than
later.
No,
we're under the weather because. oh, never mind.