By Violet
Gonda
12 April 2007
Zimbabwe 's church leaders have said they will go
ahead with a prayer
meeting in Bulawayo 's Makokoba Township on Saturday.
The state Herald
newspaper quotes police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
saying investigations
had revealed that the Save Zimbabwe Campaign was a
political gathering and
not a prayer meeting. Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara where scheduled
to speak at the gathering. Police have said the
prayer meeting can only go
ahead if they do not include the politicians in
the program. Pastor Ray
Motsi, spokesperson of the Christian Alliance said
they agreed to this after
being called into a meeting with security
forces.
The Herald newspaper had also accused Christopher Dell, the
United States
ambassador to Zimbabwe , of organising the prayer gathering to
intensify
pressure on the Mugabe regime. The Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo
, Pius
Ncube, said this is an 'offside' comment. He said the Mugabe regime
becomes
paranoid about the international community to the extent that they
see
anyone who doesn't agree with them being used by the Americans or by the
British. "The thing is that Zimbabweans can think on their own. We have
brains, surely? The trouble is they claim that other people are being used
by the Americans. It is they who are being used by the devil unfortunately,
as they don't even care about the suffering of the people."
On
Thursday two Christian Alliance leaders were questioned by police in
connection with the prayer meeting and the priest in charge of St Patrick's
Catholic Church, the venue of the meeting, was told to call off the meeting.
In a clear sign which shows that the police are working under the
instructions of the government, Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba is
reported as saying: "This is a double dressing. At one level the Archbishop
is projecting this political gathering as a convocation under the Catholic
Church, the whole effort is to dress the MDC with a collar."
But the
outspoken Bulawayo cleric said Mugabe is 'so full of himself' and
has
refused to listen to anyone including religious leaders in Zimbabwe who
have
appealed for dialogue and peace. "Who does he listen to?" He listens
only to
the devil and at least we, who listen to God, have a right to pray."
The
Catholic Bishops' Conference recently issued a strongly worded pastoral
letter on the crisis in Zimbabwe . It's reported that copies of the letter,
which were posted on bulletin boards in Catholic churches across the
country, were widely received and applauded by parishioners. Archbishop
Ncube said: "The people have been extremely pleased that we are standing
with them finally, not just standing with the oppressors."
The
Pastoral letter said the crisis in the country was as a crisis of
governance
and a crisis of leadership. Archbishop Ncube said they realised
they needed
to 'name' this situation as opposed to the National Vision
Document, which
is merely a discussion document. The Zimbabwe We Want:
Towards a National
Vision was a document that was launched by the three main
Christian groups
in Zimbabwe late last year; the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe, the
Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Zimbabwe Council
of
Churches
But Archbishop Ncube said the discussion document is meant to
keep people
occupied with talking while the regime feathers its nest. He
asked: "But
with whom do we discuss? We discuss with those who are
oppressed. We know
exactly what they are saying. We can't discuss with a
government which is so
dog-headed, which is so pig-headed and so stubborn.
We can't."
The Bishop said this is the reason that South African
President Thabo Mbeki
will not succeed with peace talks in Zimbabwe . Mbeki
has tried for several
years to bring Robert Mugabe to the negotiating table
to no avail. The
cleric said: "As long as it is a mere sweet-talk and there
is no kind of
pressure on him to say - come and talk or else - that won't
succeed. We know
the character of this man. This man has been with us for 27
years. We know
what type of man we are dealing with here."
Critics
have also lambasted regional leaders, especially Mbeki, for not
publicly
censuring Mugabe on the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe where
hundreds of
opposition supporters have been and continue to be brutalized.
Mbeki and
others say they criticised the Zimbabwean leaders in private but
observers
say since this is failing to stop Mugabe, they should now
criticise him in
public. Archbishop Pius Ncube believes its very difficult
for some of these
African leaders to face Mugabe as many of them have
corrupt governments
themselves, making it very difficult to criticise their
neighbour.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
International Herald Tribune
By Michael Wines
Published: April 13,
2007
JOHANNESBURG: Human rights groups in Zimbabwe have begun
to document with
numbers and names an extraordinary government campaign of
abductions and
beatings aimed at critics of President Robert
Mugabe.
Increasingly, some say, the attacks appear directed largely at
crippling the
only opposition party of note in Zimbabwe, the Movement for
Democratic
Change, before a presidential election scheduled for next
March.
The head of that party's main faction, Morgan Tsvangirai, charged
during a
news conference Thursday in Harare, the capital, that government
agents had
arrested or beaten at least 600 party members since Feb. 18, and
that 150
had suffered life-threatening injuries.
There is no way to
verify those claims. But separately, a spreadsheet
provided in the past week
by a Zimbabwe human rights advocate documents
attacks on 150 residents of
low-income neighborhoods in Harare in the five
weeks from Feb. 18 to March
26. Ninety-nine were identified as members of
the Movement for Democratic
Change, and some were high-ranking officials.
Nearly 100 other beatings
since Feb. 18 in the Harare area were listed. Most
of them occurred as the
police broke up opposition-party rallies.
The human-rights advocate, who
is not an opposition-party member, estimated
that the documented attacks
could represent as little as one-fifth of all
beatings, because many victims
were afraid to report them.
"It's very structured," said the advocate, who
declined to be named for fear
of retaliation. "They know exactly what
they're doing and who they're going
after. People are told not to seek
medical treatment. They don't come to us
and tell what happened, because
they're simply terrified."
On Friday the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors
for Human Rights issued its
own statement on the attacks, saying it had
documented 48 hospitalizations
and more than 175 lesser medical treatments
for assaults in the past month
alone. The association is nonpartisan and
does not attempt to identify the
political affiliations of the
victims.
The chairman, of the group Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo, said in an
interview Friday
that the attacks seemed to have peaked in late March, but
that they had
continued steadily, albeit at a lesser rate, since
then.
"It's a continuous level of attacks, without an increase or
decrease," he
said. "We see maybe three or four a day coming into hospital.
But that's not
a reflection of what's happening on the ground."
Zim Online
Saturday 14 April 2007
By Nigel
Hangarume
HARARE - Zimbabwe's leading mobile phone network operator has
suspended a
popular news service reportedly fearing a backlash from
President Robert
Mugabe's increasingly paranoid regime that has in the past
accused the
company of disseminating anti-government
propaganda.
Econet Wireless has discontinued the Execbrief and News on
Demand service -
launched in 2000 - which daily provided subscribers with
sport, business,
markets and political news updates from different
sources.
Some of the news sources included the BBC World Service, CNN,
Voice of
America's Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa - all Harare says are
hostile and
spreading anti-Mugabe propaganda.
According to highly
placed insiders, management at Econet took the decision
as a precautionary
measure after they were warned by Mugabe's secret
intelligence
agency.
Econet spokesman in Harare, Dakarai Matanga, did not return calls
to his
mobile number as he was said to be locked up in a meeting
yesterday.
A customer care officer at Econet, however, confirmed the
development.
"We are sorry we have suspended that service for the
meantime until further
notice," she said without giving reasons.
In
the past the cellular company has been accused of circulating
anti-government news in the run-up to the 2002 presidential election which
Mugabe almost lost to the opposition.
Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa
lives in South Africa after the government
accused him of funding the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Masiyiwa, who had to
fight the government in courts until Econet was
licensed in 1998, incensed
Mugabe's regime when he bailed out The Daily
News, seen as an opposition
mouthpiece, and eventually became the major
shareholder of the independent
paper.
The government responded by shutting down The Daily News under the
draconian
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which has
also been
used to shut down three other newspapers.
In November 2006,
Zimbabwe's military said the country's mobile phone
operators were
threatening national security by using independent
connections to the
outside world.
The government had sought to enact a 'Big Brother' law
enabling the state to
monitor all calls.
Econet's decision to put on
hold its news service comes at a time the
government has intensified a
crackdown on opposition and all media perceived
to be
anti-government.
A former cameraman with the state broadcaster was last
week found dead after
he had been abducted by suspected state security
agents. The cameraman was
accused of supplying video footage to Western news
networks banned in
Zimbabwe.
Journalists working for the independent
and foreign media have also been
targeted. Last month an opposition activist
was shot dead by police while
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of his
followers were brutally
assaulted in police custody. - ZimOnline
Yahoo News
Fri Apr 13, 6:45 AM ET
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AFP) - Senior
South African Catholic clerics visiting
Zimbabwe have condemned regional
leaders for failing to curb President
Robert Mugabe's violent crackdown on
political opposition.
Archbishop Buti Tlagale of Johannesburg and Bishop
Kevin Dowling of
Rustenburg, said leaders of the 14-nation Southern African
Development
Community (SADC) were lending tacit approval to Mugabe's
tactics.
"The church is challenging SADC leaders because they are silent and
letting
this oppression go on," Bishop Dowling said during a prayer service
in
Bulawayo, second city in the country, late Thursday.
"Our
political leaders by their silence are cooperating in the oppression of
Zimbabweans and we are going to tell this," he said.
The two bishops,
who were hosted by Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube -- an
outspoken critic of
Mugabe -- compared the current situation in Zimbabwe to
that of South Africa
under apartheid.
"Apartheid did what the current regime is doing to
Zimbabweans. Listening to
your stories has helped us remember and realise
that the oppression here and
the oppression we endured is very similar,"
Dowling said.
Archbishop Tlagale said churches in Zimbabwe and the region
had a duty to
work for social change by mounting visible and sustained
campaigns "until
evil dissipates."
The service was marked by police
interference, with some Zimbabwean pastors
scheduled to address the service
prevented from talking.
Pastor Raymond Motsi of the Christian Alliance, a
group of clerics
coordinating the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, was picked up by
police and
questioned before being released an hour later.
While
Western nations have sharply condemned Mugabe since opposition leaders
were
arrested and assaulted ahead of a planned anti-government rally earlier
last
month, SADC countries have been noticeably more muted in their
response.
SADC chief Tomaz Salomao, who is currently in Harare to
assess the economic
situation, was quoted by the state-controlled Herald
newspaper on Friday
urging Zimbabwe's neighbours to focus on practical
solutions to the
country's problems.
"I think it's time to talk less
and do the work," Salomao said.
"What's good for Zimbabwe is good for the
region. What's bad for Zimbabwe is
bad for the region", he
added.
Salomao met President Robert Mugabe and was expected to hold
further
meetings with Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi and central bank
chief
Gideon Gono.
His visit follows an extraordinary summit in
Tanzania last month where South
African President Thabo Mbeki was appointed
to facilitate talks between
Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the main
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
SADC has blamed Zimbabwe's
economic woes on targetted sanctions imposed on
Mugabe and members of his
inner circle by the United States and the European
Union
The Namibian
(Windhoek)
OPINION
April 13, 2007
Posted to the web April 13,
2007
Alexactus T. Kaure
IT is a theme that runs through some
of the great literary works of our
time.
It is particularly a
dominant theme in Shakespeare's works, especially
Macbeth.
That
is: once one goes deep into crime, then it becomes difficult for such a
person to get out of it.
In such a situation, there is usually one
option left for the perpetrator:
keep on committing the crimes.
The
past becomes the present.
This is how Mugabe ended up where he is
today.
It is, therefore, pure daydreaming or wishful thinking on the part
of SADC
leaders and others to think that somehow Mugabe would one day
voluntarily
relinquish, or retire from, power.
There is simply too
much at stake.
Forget about such naïve comments by President Thabo Mbeki
and others that
Mugabe will retire peacefully.
Mugabe is not totally
oblivious to the fact that he might face a Saddam
Hussein-type trial should
he step down.
He thus cannot envision a peaceful retirement life even if
his ruling
Zanu-PF is still in power.
Otherwise there is no
explanation why the 83-year-old Mugabe, who has been
President for 27 years,
is precariously clinging onto power at all cost and
in the face of a country
which is in a political social and economic coma.
Also forget about the
much-touted fast-track land reform as being at the
centre of the current
malaise and stagnation.
The point is that Mugabe has a long history of
silencing his opponents -
sometimes in the most brutal
fashion.
Because for him, politics is a matter of life or death and he
does not
regard it as a means of running the affairs of a nation with
periodic
changes among those at the helm of state structures.
Almost
30 years on and there is still no answer about the mysterious death
of the
former liberation struggle military commander and hero, Josiah
Tongongara,
in a car accident just before Zimbabwe's independence in
1980.
Journalists who in the past have implied that Mugabe had a hand in
Tongongara's death have been swiftly punished.
And that should tell
the story.
Some of us knew that there were different opinions on how to
conclude the
Chimurenga War.
The commanders were convinced that their
forces could, within few months,
over-run the Rhodesian forces and take the
country, but the political
leadership instead opted for a sell-out strategy
- the Lancaster House
Agreement - which was a face-saving strategy for
Britain.
And Mugabe and others instead agreed to be co-opted into this
scheme because
it fitted into their own grand strategy to succeed the
Rhodesian ruling
elite.
But it was the Matabeleland massacre in the
early and mid 1980s that
highlighted Mugabe's disdain of any challenge to
his rule.
He brooks no opposition.
Operation Gukurahundi was
launched as an effort to stem an uprising in part
of the Midlands and in
Matabeleland immediately after independence.
One could legitimately argue
that any sovereign state has a right to ensure
that law and order is
maintained.
But this operation was internationally condemned for the
excessive violence
it unleashed for over a period of five years - from 1981
to 1987 only ending
with the signing of the Unity Accord between PF-Zapu and
Zanu-PF.
Even one of Zimbabwe's foremost nationalists, Joshua Nkomo, was
on the run
during this reign of terror by Mugabe's North Korean-trained
Fifth Brigade.
Figures are always elusive in a war situation but it is
estimated that close
to 20 000 people, mainly innocent civilians, perished
at the hands of the
Fifth Brigade.
The respected Catholic Commission
for Justice and Peace compiled a report
about these atrocities.
It is
a document worth reading, especially for those interested not only in
Zimbabwean history and politics but Africa's as well.
The genocides
in Rwanda and now in Darfur perhaps are clear reminders that
these are
problems of our time and not events relegated to the dustbin of
history.
For this writer, the scars of this operation were visible
all over
Matabeleland, especially in Bulawayo - which was my first entry
into
independent Zimbabwe in September 1980 when I was still in a refugee in
neighbouring Botswana.
So the current clampdown on the opposition
parties and politicians, their
supporters and the independent press must not
be seen in isolation.
It is part of long-running political culture based
on violence and total
disregard for the opposing views.
You are
either with them or against and in the latter case, you must
perish.
Joshua Nkomo understood this and that's why his party was
literally
incorporated within the Zanu-PF structure and he allowed himself
to be made
one of the two vice-presidents to Mugabe - a strategy that was
meant to
water-down his power and silence him completely.
So, the
opposition in Zimbabwe has an uphill battle.
They are fighting a well
organised state machinery and not just another
political party - backed by
some of the most draconian laws, the police, the
military, the intelligence
network and organised thugs sponsored by the
ruling party.
Remember
'operation clean up trash' - Murambatsvina? It had its political
contents
and functions - to break up opposition strongholds in urban areas.
One
often hears some self-serving comments like: Mugabe is a liberation
hero,
Pan-Africanist, or he is fighting the West and therefore needs
support.
To me, Mugabe is not a Samora Machel or an Amilcar
Cabral.
He is just another capitalist worshipper and he therefore can't
be a
liberator or a Pan-Africanist.
He has effectively joined the
other capitalist thugs in the rest of Southern
Africa and beyond.
Let
me be on record.
No one is calling for a regime change in Zimbabwe -
though there is nothing
wrong with this if it comes through a democratic
process - but for a
different set of leadership at the helm of the ruling
Zanu-PF party.
But with the recent endorsement of Mugabe as the next
presidential candidate
for Zanu-PF, hopes are dashed again and Zimbabweans
might have to endure
another extended period of back-breaking hardship and
suffering.
New Zimbabwe
By Joram Nyathi
Last
updated: 04/14/2007 02:49:55
SURVEYING the raft of problems in Zimbabwe
today, one can safely claim that
no nation in the region is riper for a
change of leadership.
Yet that has not happened, despite seven years of
economic upheaval since
the launch of President Robert Mugabe's chaotic,
politically motivated land
reform programme in 2000.
Daily life is
blighted by crippling shortages of power, fuel, drugs and
basic commodities.
The reasons for the prolonged suffering lie not only in
the failures of the
ruling Zanu-PF party, but also the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC) led by the redoubtable trade
unionist-turned-politician Morgan
Tsvangirai.
There is no question that Mugabe is an astute political
schemer in his own
right, never more so than when confronted with the
current challenges to his
hold on power. He is a veritable
Machiavelli.
For Zimbabwe's opposition, confronted by this monolithic and
almost moribund
party machine, one might expect Zanu-PF to represent a soft
and slow-moving
target. The MDC has the people and the world on its side,
yet its advance on
State House has been perpetually frustrated.
There
is no longer much question about its credibility, despite Mugabe's
frequent
characterisation of his opponents as agents of imperialist forces.
The MDC
has won the moral high ground. Its real trouble is a lack of
experienced
leadership to match Mugabe's cunning.
Among the most striking examples of
this political naivety was the
presidential election in 2002. Tsvangirai
lost under questionable
circumstances. People were shocked by the outcome.
Tsvangirai called it
"daylight robbery". But, when asked what action he
would take, the MDC
leader merely responded that the people would
decide.
Despite a show of military might by government, there was
evidence of
nervousness about what the opposition might do. Mugabe played
his cards
well, pretending that he was interested in holding talks with the
opposition
to address the deepening economic crisis and the issue of his own
legitimacy.
Lacking any call by the MDC's leadership to protest, the
people got
accustomed to the "stolen" result while Tsvangirai went to court.
South
African observers endorsed the ballot, after President Thabo Mbeki
accepted
assurances from both sides that they would meet to find common
ground.
Once the temperature had cooled, Mugabe felt secure enough to
abandon the
charade of negotiations.
Another missed opportunity for
the opposition was Operation Murambatsvina,
the widely condemned clearance
of "unofficial" settlements in the Harare
suburbs in May 2005. Critics have
speculated that the people were ready to
be mobilised into action. With
their homes and livelihoods destroyed, they
were already in the streets. In
Marxian terms, they had nothing to lose but
their chains. Once again,
leadership failed.
Soon after, in October the same year, opposition
leaders divided over
whether to participate in elections for the Senate.
There is a telling
comparison here with the party's response to the current
controversy over
Mugabe's proposal to delay the next electoral season until
2010. Indecision
has reduced the MDC to its weakest point since the party
was launched in
September 1999.
It was again part of their leadership
problem to go into denial about the
impact of the split, and they failed to
take decisive action to regain the
confidence of voters nationwide. Instead,
there was an attempt to play the
ethnic card, just as Mugabe plays the race
card when it suits him.
There is no doubt that Tsvangirai enjoys wide
support in urban areas from
all sections of the social strata. The poor have
turned to him because
Mugabe's land reforms have left them hungry. The rich
look on him favourably
because government policies have hurt or destroyed
their businesses. Much of
this support is a default reaction against
Zanu-PF's hopeless ineptitude.
The problem is that precious little is
known about the MDC's own policies.
The last we heard about its "Restart"
programme was during the 2005 election
campaign, in which the party fared
badly. Since then, both the political and
economic situations have
deteriorated even more. Time has rendered the old
prescriptions of "Restart"
almost anachronistic.
The MDC remains vulnerable in the countryside,
where it has failed to
penetrate rural constituencies -- a territory that
the media wrongly
describes as a stronghold for Zanu-PF. With the sole
exception of
Matabeleland in 2000, the MDC has never won a seat in rural
areas, where the
majority of constituencies are located.
New
boundaries will increase the number of constituencies in 2008 from the
current 150 to 210. Mugabe has thereby increased the opportunities for
gerrymandering, so that Zanu-PF may emerge with more seats next year. Unless
the MDC can accept fair criticism of its leadership shortcomings, it looks
set to remain in opposition for as long as Mugabe remains in power.
A
further tension derives from the MDC's role in the broader coalition of
the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a mass protest movement rather than an organised
political party with a coherent platform of alternative policies.
At
the Zanu-PF conference last December, party members rejected President
Mugabe's plan to extend his term to 2010. Since then, the MDC has adopted a
more conciliatory tone, even talking of "accommodating" reformist elements
who support democratic rule. For a party that seeks to speak to the future,
the MDC finds itself in the invidious position of courting breakaway
elements in Zanu-PF to buttress its cause.
One possible outcome,
strongly favoured by South Africa, is the emergence of
a government of
national unity in the event that elements within the ruling
party -- led
either by retired army general Solomon Mujuru or Rural Housing
Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa -- succeed in blocking Mugabe's re-election.
Yet
again, this scenario entails the MDC reacting to an initiative from
Zanu-PF
-- in this instance, with encouragement from the SADC. Mbeki has
been tasked
with brokering talks between the two parties, but there is no
doubt that
Zanu-PF would still occupy a commanding position.
It is early yet to tell
whether Mbeki can forge an alliance of convenience
between the MDC and the
factions within Zanu-PF that are opposed to Mugabe
and want him out.
Meanwhile, the MDC appears to be vacillating between
whether or not to
participate in the 2008 election.
The alternative -- to extend its
boycott of previous years -- offers no hope
of defining a new political
agenda for Zimbabwe. A better strategy for the
MDC would be to exert
pressure on all sides for reforms of electoral law,
while launching its own
programme of voter education so that its supporters
are ready to
vote.
Short of that, the MDC's best chance of reaching power is likely to
rest not
on its own abilities but on the ability of Zanu-PF to navigate a
new path
through the as yet unknown territory of Zimbabwe after
Mugabe.
Joram Nyathi is deputy editor of the Zimbabwe Independent.
This article was
first published in the Mail & Guardian
IOL
April 13 2007 at 12:26PM
Harare - Senior SADC official Tomaz
Salamao has warned it is time to
do more to rescue Zimbabwe from its
worsening economic crisis, the
state-owned Herald newspaper reported in
Harare on Friday.
Salamao, the executive secretary of the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC), arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday to
study the country's
deteriorating economic situation.
His
mission followed an extraordinary SADC summit held in Dar es
Salaam two
weeks ago, which was attended by President Robert Mugabe. Salomao
held talks
with Mugabe at his official State House residence on Thursday.
Zimbabwe's economic crisis took a turn for the worse last month,
following a
clampdown on senior opposition officials.
Prices
for fuel, basic foodstuffs and scarce foreign currency shot up
suddenly,
bringing misery to thousands of already-struggling Zimbabweans.
The
annual inflation rate may have shot up by 470 percentage points to
2 200,2
percent, according to a report in the Zimbabwe Independent on
Friday, which
claimed to have seen a press release prepared by the head of
the Central
Statistical Office (CSO) earlier in the week.
Salamao acknowledged
that Zimbabwe's crisis was having a ripple effect
on neighbouring
states.
"What's bad for Zimbabwe is bad for the region. I think
it's time to
talk less and do the work," the official was quoted as
saying.
Zimbabwe authorities hope the SADC will pressure the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume financial aid to
Zimbabwe.
During his visit, Salamao is due to meet Zimbabwe's
Finance Minister
Samuel Mumbengegwi, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and
EU officials. -
Sapa-DPA
IOL
April 13 2007 at 06:02PM
Stockholm - A Zimbabwean woman fighting to
protect girls from forced
marriage, sexual abuse and child labour on Friday
won the World Children's
Prize for the Rights of the Child, the organisers
said.
More than five million children across the world voted for
Betty
Makoni, the founder of the Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe, the Swedish
organisation with the same name as the prize announced.
"Tens
of thousands of girls have known a better life thanks to Betty's
work," it
said in a statement.
Honorary prizes have also been given to
Burma's Cynthia Maung and
India's Inderjit Khurana for their work with
children in their respective
countries.
The one
million-kronor (100 000-euro) prize, sponsored by Swedish
companies, will be
handed over on Tuesday in the presence of Queen Silvia of
Sweden. -
Sapa-AFP
By Tichaona
Sibanda
13 April 2007
Outspoken Zapu leader Paul Siwela on Friday said
it would be useless for the
MDC to engage Zanu (PF) in any talks if they go
to the negotiating table as
underdogs.
Siwela added that it would be
pointless also to agree to talks where terms
will be dictated to the
opposition, as this will guarantee certain victory
for Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu (PF) in negotiations. He called for open
dialogue as this would be in
the interest of every Zimbabwean.
'But before the talks, Zimbabweans
should be made aware of the agenda so
that people will be able to evaluate
whether they are meaningful or not
because its likely it would be used to
buy time for Mugabe,' Siwela said.
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa
said he has already started the
dialogue process by inviting senior
opposition figures from the MDC for
talks with his ministers in Pretoria. He
has also written letters to Mugabe
and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai
and Arthur Mutambara.
But Siwela said if people of Zimbabwe are to be
taken serious by leaders of
the Southern African Development Community and
Thabo Mbeki specifically,
they had to use this window of
opportunity.
Asked to elaborate, Siwela said; 'If people want to unlock
that door to give
us freedom, independence, democracy and good governance,
then they should
abandon the normal way.' Pressed further to explain what he
meant, the fiery
Zapu leader said other people have sacrificed their lives
to fight for their
rights, and 'it is high time other people did the
same.'
'What I am saying basically is there is a word called revolution.
It's
difficult to comprehend the word but it's unfortunate that Zimbabweans
are
being pushed towards that direction,' he said.
He said the SADC
initiative has started off badly because SADC executive
secretary Tomaz
Salomao has hopped into bed with the regime by pledging the
regional bloc's
support in calling for an end to targeted sanctions against
Robert Mugabe
and his top officials in government.
'Instead of censuring Mugabe openly
about the brutal continuation of the
suppression of opposition activists,
the regional bloc wants the west to
lift sanctions against Mugabe, but has
he changed his ways?' Asked Siwela.
Siwela said if he gets the
opportunity to speak to MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in Bulawayo this
weekend he will brief him of what he thinks
about the proposed
talks.
'Never should they be afraid of Mugabe. And never should they
trust Mbeki
because if they do so, it would be the end game for the
opposition in the
country,' he said.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
Reclaiming the Legacy of the Liberation War
We are the ZIPRA and
ZANLA fighters
The Case for State
Crafters
18th April 2007; Harare,
Zimbabwe
Introduction
Fellow Zimbabweans,
18th April 1980 is an important day that marked the end
of colonial and
imperialist rule in our country. As we observe this great
day in our
national calendar, let us take this as an opportunity to reflect
on the
state of our nation and the challenges we face. It is important that
as
Zimbabweans we come together and find solutions that can build our
country
into a peaceful, democratic and prosperous nation. We must proffer
redemptive political and economic solutions in order to improve the quality
of life for all Zimbabweans on a sustained and sustainable basis. At twenty
seven years of age our country could do with some innovative and robust
state crafting.
Setting the Record
Straight
The starting point of any effective reflective process
is clarity about the
past. A page of history is worth ten volumes of logic.
The people of
Zimbabwe freed themselves from the yoke of colonialism.
Zimbabwean sons and
daughters constituted the gallant ZIPRA and ZANLA
fighters who, together
with ordinary citizens, ushered in our independence.
It was a revolution
that bound worker and peasant, young and old, guerilla
and collaborator, and
urban and rural folks in the fight for national
self-determination.
No single individual delivered us from
bondage. It was a collective effort.
Across the length and breath of this
country and in neighbouring countries
such as Zambia, Mozambique and
Tanzania, our sons and daughters came
together, with a single purpose- to
free Zimbabwe. For the record; Yes,
Robert Mugabe was part of the liberation
war effort. He was involved in the
nationalist struggle. However, in that
war he was a spineless coward who
could not even fire a pistol. To this day
he does not even know how to
return a soldier's salute. Those who fought in
that war can attest to this
characterization. He was the lucky coward of the
liberation war. As a matter
of principle we have no problem with spineless
wimps, neither do we fault
lucky cowards. What becomes problematic is when
such shameless morons then
appropriate the entire liberation war legacy as
theirs, to the exclusion of
those who actually fought in that struggle. That
is what offends us as
Zimbabweans. We take strong exception to that. We
fought for our country as
a people and freed ourselves as a united
collective. We want to put it on
record today, on our Independence Day, that
the people of Zimbabwe do not
owe Robert Mugabe anything. We owe ourselves
as a people. We were masters of
our own destiny.
Furthermore,
let us reflect on the basis and foundation of the liberation
struggle. The
war of liberation was an all-inclusive, anti-imperialist and
anti-colonialist protracted armed struggle. The principles and values of
that struggle included democracy, freedom, liberty, equality, universal
suffrage, justice, equity, socio-economic justice, and prosperity. When we
look at the state of our nation today, the question is: Have we achieved
these aspirations? The unequivocal response is NO.
Twenty
seven years after independence, the people of Zimbabwe are not
experiencing
freedom, liberation or independence. Instead, starvation,
unemployment,
deplorable working conditions, unmitigated suffering, and
unprecedented
hopelessness now define our national psyche. We live in an
undeclared state
of emergency where our basic freedoms and liberties of
assembly, speech,
movement, and association are heavily curtailed by
repressive legislation.
Political rallies, marches and demonstrations are
banned. Political
activists and even ordinary citizens are abducted,
tortured and killed with
impunity. As we reflect on the meaning of our
Independence Day, Gift
Tandare, Itai Manyeruke and Edmore Chikomba join the
list of courageous
freedom fighters murdered by this evil Mugabe regime. The
transformation of
the police into a criminal sadistic brutal force is worse
than anything we
ever saw under the Smith regime. Zimbabweans live in a
state of collective
fear of violence, hunger, destitution, diseases and
arrest. Basic and
essential commodities are either unavailable or
unaffordable. School fees,
property rates, rentals and agricultural inputs
are beyond reach. The
crippling fuel crisis, erratic and inadequate power
supply, destruction of
commercial agriculture, food shortages, and lack of
housing are devastating
the population. Inflation has soared to record
levels of over 2000%,
unemployment is above 85%, while poverty levels are
above 90%. Life
expectancy is 34 years for women and 37 years for men. This
cannot be the
liberation, freedom or independence that Zimbabweans fought
and died
for.
We are the ZIPRA and ZANLA Fighters
The
conclusion is pure and simple. Robert Mugabe and ZANU(PF) have failed
the
people of Zimbabwe. They have become a negation of the principles and
values
of the liberation war. Consequently, not only was Mugabe a mindless
but
lucky coward, he has become a despot running out of luck. The people of
Zimbabwe are fed up. They cannot take it any more. On our Independence Day
we refuse to be patronized by a sick old man who has become a negation of
the liberation struggle. This man has become a sellout. He has soiled and
desecrated his claim to liberation hero and land revolutionary
status.
Mugabe is now neither a freedom fighter nor a champion of African
rights. He
is now just an unimaginative dictator who brutalizes Africans and
denies
them basic human rights and economic opportunities. He now stands
against
everything that Herbert Chitepo, Jason Moyo, Josiah Tongogara,
Nikita
Mangena, Sheiba Tavarwisa and Jane Lungile Ngwenya ever stood for.
Our true
heroes have been betrayed. They must be turning in their graves.
However,
their spirits are with us in our opposition to this dictatorship.
We are
with them as we fight against tyranny, political oppression and
economic
subjugation. We are following in the tradition of the great freedom
fighters
of our liberation war.
We are the ZIPRA and ZANLA
fighters!
A new vision and a redemptive strategy are required for
our country. These
are revolutionary times that demand soldiers and cadres.
Zimbabwe must
become the leading democracy in Africa characterized by
people-centered
social development and economic growth. Our GDP and per
capita income should
be in the top three in Africa. We want a society where
human rights,
individual freedoms, property rights, women's rights, workers'
rights and
economic rights are cherished and respected. We want a nation of
prosperity,
economic opportunities, affordable high quality public services,
social
justice, equity, and gender justice. We want a country of business
growth,
productive commercial agriculture, innovative entrepreneurship,
creative
managers, and productive workers who are well
paid.
The Case for State Crafters
Zimbabwe is at
the crossroads where to advance forward requires nation
builders,
visionaries, statesmen and stateswomen; those skilled in the art
of crafting
states. Statecraft speaks to the expertise and wisdom in the
effective
management of public affairs. We refer here to leaders in the
genre of Lee
Quan Yew of Singapore, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, Nelson
Mandela of South
Africa, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of
Liberia, Indira
Gandhi of India, Angela Merkel of Germany, Ernesto Che
Guevara in Cuba,
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and
Franklin Roosevelt.
These were (are) men and women of immense talent,
resolve, vision, and
strategy. More importantly they were (are) masters of
the art of execution
and implementation.
Nation builders are able to unite and
mobilize people for a national cause.
They channel national energy and
synergy towards the growth and development
of a country. Unfortunately,
Robert Mugabe does not belong to this group of
nation builders. Great and
significant leaders go beyond the limited scope
of Maslow's hierarchy of
needs that ends with self-actualization. They
thrive to self-transcend, go
beyond self and leave a legacy. Presumably,
Mugabe's favorite political text
is that classic by Machiavelli, The Prince,
where it is argued that the
prince (leader) must pursue, obtain, and
maintain power at any cost.
However, Machiavelli also wrote a second book;
The Discourses, where it is
explained that the prince (leader) must also
care about his legacy and
judgment by history. This means the prince
(leader) must be a state crafter.
I guess our learned President has not read
this insightful text, or if he
did come across it, he never understood its
import. What a
shame.
The skills required for nation building are very different
from those
required to fight colonialism and imperialism. A new generation
of leaders
is required to take our country to the next level. The time has
come to pass
the baton from liberation struggle leaders to globalization
savvy nation
builders. The issues of technocratic capacity and technical
solutions have
never been more critical. Zimbabwe needs accomplished
business
practitioners, business thought leaders, management and economic
thinkers,
financial engineers, public policy thinkers, master entrepreneurs,
technologists and scientists to drive our economy. Zimbabwe must become a
globally competitive economy that rivals such nations like Singapore,
Malaysia and Japan. We need creative dreamers and parallel thinkers who do
not fear globalization, but rather thrive on chaos and uncertainty. Only
freedom can allow our citizens to attain their full potential and take our
nation forward.
Conclusion
When all is said
and done, Zimbabwe's future will be determined by
Zimbabweans. External
players can assist and facilitate, but the buck stops
with us. We cannot
outsource our emancipation to foreigners. We shall be our
own liberators. We
shall be masters of our own destiny and complete the
unfinished business of
the liberation struggle.
All the progressive and democratic
forces in the country must close ranks in
pursuit of the collective national
interest. Let us spurn ZANU(PF)'s divide
and rule tactics. A united front
inspired by a single candidate principle is
a categorical imperative in
every election (Presidential, Parliament,
Senate, Council). Every vote must
count against ZANU(PF). While this
framework will energize the generality of
our people, it will also have
strategic national appeal to multitudes of
progressive ZANU(PF) members and
supporters. Let us continue with the spirit
of cooperation in pursuit of a
new constitutional and electoral law
framework to ensure that our next
elections are measurably free and fair.
With a legitimate government (whose
election victory is not disputed) in
place we can then embark on an economic
journey to a peaceful, democratic
and prosperous Zimbabwe.
Together we shall achieve the second
coming of our independence, liberation
and
freedom.
There will be no Compromise, Retreat or
Surrender
We Shall Overcome
The Struggle Continues
Unabated
Arthur G.O. Mutambara
MDC
President
Zim Online
Saturday 14 April 2007
By
Hendricks Chizhanje
HARARE - An international conservation watchdog on
Thursday said illegal
poaching activities are on the rise in Zimbabwe and
are threatening to wipe
out the small wildlife population remaining in the
southern African country.
In a statement released to the media on
Wednesday, the World Wide Fund for
Nature Southern African Regional Office
said there has been a worrying
increase in the killing of wildlife in
national parks in Zimbabwe over the
past three years.
The
anti-poaching organisation said endangered species such as the black
rhinocerous were under serious threat in parks managed by the Parks and
Wildlife Management Authority with at least 40 black rhinos having been
killed over the past three years.
"Despite the ongoing collaboration,
WWF decried the increasing levels of
poaching in conservancies and in some
state parks. This continues to
endanger the highly endangered species such
as black rhinos, and risk
undoing over 15 years of unequalled population
recovery.
"Over the past three years approximately 35-40 black rhinos
have been
deliberately shot for their horns in conservancies, yet not a
single rhino
poacher has been arrested and convicted, despite available
information.
"In fact, such losses have not generated the sort of
deterrent action that
one would expect from the courts," the WWF said in the
statement.
The conservation watchdog said wildlife was under serious
threat from
poachers and organized crime gangs who supply lucrative
international ivory
and rhino horn markets.
Poaching has been rife in
Zimbabwe since landless villagers, with tacit
approval from President Robert
Mugabe's government, invaded white-owned
farms seven years ago.
There
have also been widespread reports of illegal and uncontrolled trophy
hunting
on the former white-owned conservancies that are controlled by
powerful
government and ruling ZANU PF officials.
The Harare authorities deny that
politicians and ruling party officials are
behind the rampant poaching
activities insisting that it still has poaching
under control. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
13
April 2007
The Zimbabwean government's announcement that it will take
control of all
clinics and hospitals run by city councils has drawn fire
from critics who
say it can't run the health facilities it now operates and
merely wants to
capture a stream of public revenue.
The
state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Local Government Minister
Ignatious
Chombo as saying Harare has approved the takeover to "improve
service
delivery" and let local officials "concentrate on key service
delivery
issues."
Executive Director Itai Rusike of the Community Working Group on
Health told
reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
the central
government has trouble enough providing staff, medicine and
equipment to its
own health institutions.
The Combined Harare
Residents Association said the government move to take
over municipal
clinics is also continuing to strip urban councils of power
so as to narrow
the political base of the opposition. Harare has some 17
council clinics and
two infectious disease hospitals, while Bulawayo, the
second-largest city,
has 19 council clinics.
The Raw Story
dpa German Press
Agency
Published: Friday April 13,
2007
Harare- A court appearance by British mercenary Simon
Mann
will take place next week at the maximum security prison outside
the
Zimbabwean capital where he has spent the last three years
behind
bars, his lawyer said.
Mann had been expected to give evidence
Friday in the Harare
magistrates court, but proceedings were delayed after
the state
failed to bring him from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, about
20
kilometres from the city centre, lawyer Jonathan Samkange said.
The
court hearing, in which Equatorial Guinea is applying to have
the former SAS
officer extradited to Malabo to face charges of
plotting to topple the
government, will instead take place at
Chikurubi next Thursday, Samkange told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in
a telephone interview.
Mann was
arrested in Harare in March 2004 along with dozens of
other suspected
soldiers of fortune. The Zimbabwe government accused
them of being en route
to topple the government of President Teodoro
Obiang Nguema, but the men
denied this.
Most of Mann's alleged accomplices were released two years
ago
after serving year-long jail terms for minor immigration offences,
the
only ones the Zimbabwean authorities could pin on them.
Mann, who was
convicted of more serious security and firearms
offences, is due to be
released next month after having served two-
thirds of a four-year jail
term.
The government of Equatorial Guinea began its application to
have
the former British SAS commando extradited in February.
Next
week's court hearing at the prison is not unusual. Prison
authorities three
years ago refused to take Mann and his accomplices
to a conventional court
building in the city centre, saying they were
a high-security
risk.
Instead, they turned a hall inside the prison into a
makeshift
courtroom attended by journalists and family members of the
detained
men.
"What the defence will be concentrating on [on Thursday]
is that
if he [Mann] is sent to Equatorial Guinea he will be tortured
and
won't get a fair trial," his defence lawyer Samkange said.
In
February Equatorial Guinea's attorney general claimed in court
that Mann
would receive an open and fair trial in his country and
that Malabo's courts
would not impose the death penalty in the case
of a conviction.
Under
the central African country's laws, plotting to overthrow
the government is
punishable by the death penalty or a 30-year jail
term.
© 2006 - dpa
German Press Agency
News24
13/04/2007 17:33 -
(SA)
Pretoria - Zimbabwe's political unrest will not lead to the
country being
excluded in the Africa-European summit to be held in Portugal
in December,
said Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on
Friday.
"The African position doesn't insist on anything except that the
African
Union (AU) cannot be dismembered.
"The African Union is the
African Union. We can't say we want to co-operate
with the EU but not with
Portugal. Just as the EU cannot say we want to
co-operate with the AU but
not with Zimbabwe," she said.
Zimbabwe is one of the 53 African countries
that form the AU.
Dlamini-Zuma was hosting her Portuguese counterpart
Luis Amado for bilateral
and economic discussions in Pretoria.
Both
parties verbally agreed on more co-operations in business and cultural
matters.
Angola Press
Harare,
Zimbabwe 04/13 - Zimbabwe Thursday took delivery of 424 tractors it
imported
from China at the cost of US$25 million, to reinforce its land
reform
programme.
President Robert Mugabe, who has stridently driven the
controversial
agrarian reforms, personally received the tractors, which were
imported with
a Chinese grant, officials said.
They said another
batch of about 1,000 tractors and combine harvesters,
would be imported
under the programme.
Zimbabwe`s controversial land reforms have involved
government`s seizure of
thousands of commercial farms from white farmers to
resettle landless black
peasants.
But the programme has led to
reduced production, widely blamed by the
authorities on lack of equipment,
especially tractors, and persistent
drought.
News24
13/04/2007 12:16 -
(SA)
Harare - Cash-strapped Zimbabwe will need to find scarce foreign
currency to
import food from "anywhere we can", following poor harvests in
all of the
country's agricultural provinces, a cabinet minister was quoted
as saying on
Friday.
The deficit is quite large but we are going to
import maize to supplement
what we have, Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo
told the state-controlled
Herald newspaper.
"We will get maize from
anywhere we can and this means that we will have to
look for foreign
currency to meet the food requirements," he added.
President Robert
Mugabe's government has declared 2007 a drought year.
Initial projections
are that the southern African country will struggle to
harvest 600 000 tons
of maize, or a third of its annual requirement.
Zambia, usually a
reliable maize supplier to Zimbabwe, indicated last month
it may not be able
to continue exporting because part of its crop was a
write-off after
floods.
Reports this week said Malawi may step in to fill the
breach.
Mugabe's government blames the country's crop failures squarely
on drought,
but critics also blame a controversial policy of government land
seizures
from white land owners seven years ago that slashed agricultural
output. -
Sapa-dpa
Newsweek
The Victoria Falls is one of
Africa's greatest natural wonders. But as
tourism and political instability
change the face of the region, the
thundering waters are becoming a
treacherous spot for the local pachyderms.
By Rod Nordland
By Web
Exclusive
Newsweek
Updated: 12:00 p.m. ET April 13, 2007
April 13, 2007
- They say an elephant never forgets. But the one who tried
to cross the
Zambezi on Good Friday would have had to be very old to
remember the last
time he saw the river running this high. And as he picked
his way across
from Zimbabwe, swimming from island to island along an
ancient elephant
corridor, a changed world was waiting on the Zambia side of
the border as
well: a sprawling five-star hotel along the banks in the
national park.
With poachers and hunters at his back, and tourists sipping
sundowners
ahead, the elephant foundered and was washed downstream, plunging
over the
130-meter-high (about 430 feet) Victoria Falls, Africa's mightiest
cataract. He wouldn't have had a chance of survival.
Word soon
spread around this town downstream, named for David Livingstone,
the white
Scottish missionary who discovered the falls during his
exploration of
Africa. And the talk soon took on a political dimension. In
recent years, as
tourists with social consciences have spurned Zimbabwe
under Robert Mugabe's
harsh authoritarian rule, visitors have headed for the
Zambian side of the
falls instead. That's been a blessing for the tourist
industry in this
southern African nation, prompting a boom in small hotels
and game lodges
along the Zambezi. But not all the locals appreciate the
visitors. The Royal
Livingstone, a Sun International property built six
years ago in the
Victoria Falls National Park at the top of the falls, is
the only five-star
establishment here, and "it would be fair to say, widely
resented," said a
tour guide. When the story of the elephant became known,
residents said
they'd heard that the doomed creature had been shooed from
the grounds by
guards firing in the air--and pointed out that a single drink
on the hotel's
riverside sundeck could feed a family of five for a week.
They also heard,
they said, that tourists were laughing as the pachyderm was
swept over the
falls.
The reality was different, to a point. "None of the rangers are
armed," says
the hotel's public relations officer, Jackye Nsovo. "Nobody's
allowed to
carry firearms. Basically with elephants, they will come toward
the hotel
but they don't harm anyone." Nor did anyone shoo the animal
away," said
Nsovo. "Elephants never come on the hotel
grounds."
Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) Ranger Kenneth Nyambe, who is
stationed on
the grounds of the Royal Livingstone to keep guests from
wandering into the
hindquarters of zebras and to protect them from mugging
by troops of
baboons, said he heard a commotion from the hotel's riverfront
sundeck about
4.20 p.m. last Friday. A crowd had gathered to watch what
witnesses
described as a 6-ton bull elephant (medium large, as they go)
leading two
smaller elephants, a male and a female, across the river.
Elephants are
good swimmers, but as the river cascades toward the falls, the
current goes
at almost 25 miles per hour. The elephant got as far as the
last islet in
front of the hotel and then swam the channel, making it almost
to the hotel
side, according to accounts from several eyewitnesses. "He
almost made it
and we were all cheering," said senior waiter Kelvin Ng'andu,
who was on
duty that evening. The site is a popular place to watch the
sunset, and the
falls are close enough to see mist forming above the
precipice, rising
directly into cloud formations. But in front of the
elephant was a bank of
sharp rocks, topped by the hotel's electrified fence;
the elephant turned
back and tried to swim the channel a second time, but
was swept downstream,
constantly trying to swim back against the
current.
As Nyambe and Ng'andu described it, a hush descended over the
scores of
spectators. "It was a very sad struggle, we could all put
ourselves in the
boots of that animal," Ng'andu said. "Some people were
crying, no one was
laughing." Occasionally the animal would get a grip on
the rocks or a spit
of island, then lose it. The struggle went on for half
an hour, with the
elephant screaming piteously whenever it could blow the
water from its
throat, through the trunk. Its companions returned the calls,
but remained
on the island on the other side. "Tons and tons of flesh and
bones, and
exhaustion just occurs," said Isaac Kanguya of the Zambian
National Heritage
Conservation Commission. "We just watched helplessly as it
went over," Nsovu
said.
At 4:55pm, ranger Nyambe said, the elephant
disappeared over the main part
of the falls, tumbling more than 400 feet
into the Boiling Pot, as it's
called, at the bottom. "I swear we could see
the splash a moment later,"
Ng'andu said. "It's an endangered animal and if
we lose one we never get it
back."
The Good Friday elephant wasn't
the first to perish that way this year.
Officials at the local warden's
office of ZAWA, who asked not to be named
because they were not authorized
to speak to the press, said they had three
confirmed cases of live elephants
being washed over Victoria Falls this
year, all since the recent rainy
season ended. Their carcasses were found by
ZAWA rangers and stripped of
their valuable ivory, in one of the gorges many
miles below the falls.
"This has never happened before this year that
anyone can remember," one
said. The ZAWA officials say the presence of the
Royal Livingstone on an
established elephant corridor, plus the high water,
and increased movement
from Zimbabwe, were all to blame. The Livingstone
hotel spokesman disputed
that the hotel was on a corridor, saying the main
elephant crossing in the
area is more than three miles farther upstream. But
elephants are often seen
in the dry season crossing even at the lip of the
falls in front of the
hotel. Many more elephants are making the
Zimbabwe-to-Zambia crossing now,
as well, as Zimbabwe's economic collapse
has led to widespread poaching on
that side, and Mugabe's government has
thrown open the doors to big-game
hunters in a desperate search for hard
currency from those prepared to pay
as much as $50,000 for an elephant
trophy. Such hunting is banned in
Zambia. "In the dry season we'll have 300
elephants now, where we used to
have five or six," said Doug Evans, who runs
the Chundukwa River Lodge about
15 miles upstream from the falls, and last
week had his gardens and ponds
trampled by elephants. His lodge is also on
an elephant corridor. "We just
put up with it. But over the long term, we
can't handle 300 animals, it's
just too many. But five kilometers [three
miles] inland, there's a big human
population, so where can they go? It's a
problem. As always, the wildlife
seems to get the short end of the stick."
Evans is often called on to run
capture and cull teams for elephants when
locals complain that they're
ravaging farms, or endangering populated areas.
"Every time we go out on the
river, we hear gunshots from the Zimbabwe side.
I call friends who work with
wildlife over there, and they say, there's
nothing we can do, it's
political."
Kanguya of the Heritage Commission acknowledged that hotels like
the Royal
Livingstone were built on elephant corridors, but says that
measures such as
fold-down fences have managed to alter their routes so they
could safely
cross. But with the river as high as it is now, the
electrified fences of
the hotel grounds are right at river's edge. Some
wildlife officials have
called for expanding the national parkland along the
river to protect them
better, while at the same time major hotel operators
have proposed building
golf courses and sprawling complexes in existing
parkland. "It's something
we can manage by striking a balance," he said. "No
overdevelopment at the
expense of conservation, and no overconservation at
the expense of tourism."
Finding that balance won't be easy, especially
if more and more elephants
vote against Mugabe with their feet. The Easter
drama didn't end with the
bull's plunge. His companions turned back, but
one was stuck on another
island until Easter Day. "That same day that our
Lord Jesus died for us,"
said Ng'andu, "that elephant sacrificed for his
friends to live." Elephants
never forget. I'm sure when they come back this
way another year, they'll
have a moment of silence for him." Elephant lovers
might add a prayer.
zimbabwejournalists.com
13th Apr 2007 21:19 GMT
By a Correspondent
BIRMINGHAM -
The National Union of Journalists has unanimously adopted a
motion to help
the long-suffering Zimbabwean journalists who continue to be
persecuted for
doing their jobs.
The NUJ adopted the motion which was moved today at its
ADM which was moved
by the Association of Zimbabwe Journalists in the UK
(AZJ-UK), Forward
Maisokwadzo.
The motion comes as the crackdown on
the independent media and the
independent media intensifies in Zimbabwe. It
was agreed in the ADM that
there was an urgent need to find ways through
which to assist Zimbabwean
journalists who were being persecuted by the
government for their work.
Zimbabwe is one of the worst countries in
which one can practice as a
journalist.
Maisokwadzo said the AZJUK
was shocked by the most recent assaults on media
freedom in Zimbabwe, which
saw independent journalists such as Gift Phiri,
Luke Tamborinyoka and
William Bango, the former News Editor at the banned
Daily News being
assaulted severely by the police while in custody.
Top award-winning
photojournalist, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi and an AP colleague
were beaten up
badly by the police as they covered the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign rally which
was thwarted by the police.
They were put in custody with the opposition
and pro-democracy leaders they
were arrested with and were released after a
couple days.
Bango is reportedly fighting for his life in South Africa
while Tamborinyoka
is in police custody after briefly staying at the Avenues
Clinic. He was
re-arrested with MDC members who were rounded up from their
hospital beds.
A former ZBC Edward Chikombo, who was found murdered
recently, is thought to
have died as a result of his journalism work which
linked him to the
smuggling of film footage of a badly-beaten Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Time magazine
correspondent Alexander Perry was recently convicted in
Zimbabwe for
reporting without accreditation.
All these arrests continue to worry the
Zimbabwean journalists scattered
around the world with the AZJUK recently
calling on the Zimbabwean
government to stop intimidating and harrassing
journalists for doing their
work.
The AZJUK said it was worried by
the new trend of assaults on media freedoms
in the country.
"We
welcome the adoption of the motion by the NUJ to help the Zimbabwean
journalists, especially when you look at all the things that have been
happening in the country," said Maisokwadzo.
"It is heartening to
note that we have many friends as Zimbabwean
journalists who are willing to
go all the way and support us so we can
continue to have some independent
reporting on the situation in the
country."
The conference got off
to a rousing start with a standing ovation for
General Secretary Jeremy
Dear.
Dear pledged the NUJ will fight low pay and raise respect for
journalists
and journalism. He also announced a union-wide Day of Action to
make a
strong stand for the profession. Some Zimbabwean journalists are
members of
the NUJ.
Dear stressed the importance of continuing to
oppose the ever-present threat
of job losses, casualisation, increased
hours, short-staffing and the
dumping down of journalism.
He said:
"The impact isn't just on journalists but perhaps more importantly
on
journalism. We must continue to expose the threats to journalism and the
democratic process by commercialism and cost-cutting. We must continue to
build alliances with the public and opinion formers and insist on investment
in quality journalism."
Outgoing President Chris Morley called on the
union to embrace the next 100
years by insisting that journalists and
journalism are valued, and that we
recruit more and more members to the
union in order to ensure that it
remains a strong fighting force far into
the future.
As debate got underway, the burning issue of integration
immediately became
the subject of discussion. Conference was strongly
committed to fighting the
widespread loss of staff that has come under the
guise of serving the
multi-media agenda.
Delegates welcomed the
exciting new opportunity for the profession but
insisted that staff terms
and conditions and quality of work must be
maintained.
The Zimbabwean
(13-04-07)
BY TONY LEON - LEADER OF
THE OPPOSITION
South Africa 's flirtation with rights-delinquent
third-world regimes
crystallised around our new Security Council seat. Our
first act in council
was to join China and Russia in vetoing a
Western-instigated resolution
condemning human-rights violations in Myanmar,
formerly Burma - one of the
world's most repressive countries.
This
schizophrenic approach - courtship with the West on one hand, succour
to the
West's adversaries on the other - undermines our international
credibility,
all but obliterating the moral high ground we attained through
our
transition to democracy.
In our obsession with ensuring the unity of the
developing world, we have in
many senses lost our moral compass.
The
most glaring instance of this loss is our record on Zimbabwe - a
foreign-policy disaster which will, I predict, compromise President Mbeki's
reputation to posterity.
Last month, Mugabe's savage crackdown on
opposition was received with nary a
word of protest from South Africa, who
has long practised what a so-called
policy of "silent diplomacy" towards
Zimbabwe. In practice, this has meant
unstinting support of the incumbent
government.
South Africa and Zimbabwe have together perpetrated the
astounding fiction
that we remain an honest broker in this conflict. SADC
colluded with the
fiction too last month, by delegating Mbeki to arbitrate
between Mugabe and
Zimbabwean opposition parties, with a view to resolving
the crisis.
For it is worth remembering that President Mbeki's government
has
consistently succoured Mugabe, intervening at several key junctures to
defend his regime.
I obviously wish President Mbeki well in his new
role as an "honest broker"
in Zimbabwe. But in order for him to even enjoy
the remotest prospect of
success in this hazardous undertaking, he will have
to abandon his attitude
hitherto of straining to hear and excuse every
egregious outrage committed
as Mugabe has placed his tyrant's heel on the
throat of his people.
This not only needs to change, but there needs to
be a recognition in South
Africa and the wider world that in Zimbabwe we are
not dealing with two
equal or simply quarrelling parties: one in government,
one in opposition.
We are dealing here with a ruthless despot who has
rent his country asunder
with massive doses of state sponsored terror,
pillage and starvation. If
Mbeki's appointment as honest broker is to
succeed and the crisis is to be
meaningfully resolved, then nothing short of
a change of attitude and
approach is now required. Otherwise, the false
dawns, missed deadlines and
failed outcomes of the past will continue to be
the hallmark of this new
initiative.
The ANC government has argued
for non-interference, yet the ANC protested
loudly when the apartheid
government used the selfsame hands-off argument
regarding white-ruled South
Africa.
The historic ironies abound: In the early 1980s, it was newly
independent
Zimbabwe, occupying one of the non-permanent seats in the
Security Council,
who voted to condemn racism in South Africa. Myanmar, then
known as Burma,
joined in denouncing apartheid from its seat in the General
Assembly. [2]
Why does the Mbeki government persist in a foreign policy
so riven with
contradictions? I believe certain elements within the ANC,
Mugabe's ZANU-PF
and SWAPO in Namibia think that national liberation
movements have an almost
divine right to rule in perpetuity, because they do
not see themselves as
political parties in an ordinary sense.
Yet, in
the words of no less an authority than President Mbeki's younger
brother Mr
Moeletsi Mbeki, a post-liberation reality is taking shape in
Southern Africa
- a growing inequality between the poor and new
government-aligned elites,
which has sparked a wave of militancy which the
ANC-led government refuses
to acknowledge.
A victory for the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) in
Zimbabwe would be a victory for this newly assertive bloc,
and an
encouragement for South Africa's trade union movement to create its
own
party in opposition to the ANC.
Indeed, Cosatu has pointedly
broken ranks with the ANC on Zimbabwe and
joined my party in unequivocally
condemning the catastrophe in that country.
This may herald a significant
issue realignment in our politics, between
parties with vastly different
constituencies and ideologies.
It is vital, then, that our ruling party
do some hard self-examination and
jettison the postures once relevant,
perhaps, to a liberation movement in
exile, but hardly appropriate to the
government of a sophisticated democracy
in the twenty-first
century.
If we are to regain our moral compass, we need to be firm with
our peers in
NEPAD when they do not meet the exacting standards of best
practice. We
must show the door to erring members whose houses are not in
order.
Many in our government are realists; we in opposition actively
seek
partnerships with those in the ruling party and its allies who prize
democratic process, good governance and the widening wellbeing of all our
people in the sub-continent. After all, under President Mbeki's leadership
the ANC has undergone a sea-change from the socialist rhetoric in which it
once couched social and economic planning.
This being a watershed
year in our politics, it behoves President Mbeki to
put the record straight
on our foreign policy. At stake is our influence,
which if properly used in
today's world is a powerful example of one the
world's few recent instances
of a negotiated and enduring democratic
settlement.
New Zimbabwe
By Mthulisi
Mathtuhu
Last updated: 04/14/2007 07:13:00
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is
an outlandish amalgam: One in whom is trapped two
stark different beings who
are forever involved in a fierce tussle for
recognition; a character with a
fundamental crack cutting across his entire
being.
There is this
tiny well meaning, homely, cultured, astute charming man, a
cordial and
jocose tea-serving gentleman who is a meticulous dresser. This
is a fake
Mugabe, a product of strict and religious teachings of an
over-loving
mother.
There is something forced about this character, epitomised by the
irony of a
rural herd-boy with love for a largely urban and aristocratic
game of
cricket. But this is the character which the Zimbabwean ruler is
striving to
promote and project always although he long ago lost ground to
the real man.
The genuine Mugabe comes out naturally -- a volcanic,
sabre-rattling and
quarrelsome loner with a frosty inner weather ever more
ready to fight and
'crush' than to chatter a discourse.
The latest
round of state instigated violence add another link to a clear
pattern of
thuggish belligerence in the face of popular will; the kind that
has been
built carefully and nursed skilfully over a quarter of a
century.
Essentially he is more of a terrorist than a liberator. A
terrorist is a
person who seeks to control a people through fear. Constantly
he issues out
a diet of threats which he occasionally commutes into reality
in a
calculated manner aimed at achieving devotion.
When a whole
machinery of state apparatus (public media and the security
services
included) is complicit in violent action under the cover of a
panoply of
discredited rules, it is called state terrorism.
So a terrorist is a
terrorist; it doesn't matter whether they are a black
African revolutionary
or an Arab or a president.
In this regard President Mugabe scores
excellently on the qualities of a
terrorist.
Listen to
him.
"We are Zanu PF, and please check our record when we are
challenged," he
thundered in the aftermath of the universal condemnation of
the round of
terror which saw brazen beatings of peaceful protestors and
opposition
politicians.
To see this "record" which he is proud of,
and in order that we may
establish a pattern, let's rewind to an earlier
era.
"ZAPU and its leader (Joshua Nkomo) are like a cobra in the house.
The only
way to deal with a snake is to strike a crush its head," he once
said.
That was at independence when Mugabe sounded the tone of what was
to befall
the opposition. His troops soon raped, killed and maimed their way
across
Matabeleland.
More was to come twenty years later during the
violent land invasions.
"We must strike fear into the heart of the white
man, our really enemy. Make
him tremble!"
There it is in a nutshell.
So nothing is done with a view to serve a
particular constituency or
delivering justice but everything is carried out
with a cold, selfish
determination to subdue and render somebody pathetic
with a lingering
feeling that they are in the jaws of danger.
For example, land is not
redistributed in order that an imbalance may be
corrected, but so that the
white people may feel the reverse pain of loss;
in order for them to feel
and know that not only black people can bleed.
Just listen to the
language: "strike fear", "crush", "tremble", and "enemy".
The consistency in
Mugabe's terminology over a stretch of three decades
establishes a pattern
of heavy inclination towards violent action.
Not only is there a
connection in the language, but also in the action taken
against selected
recipients of varying dosages of violence. Dealing with
Nkomo entailed a
ghastly project in brazen defiance of modern conscience.
Death camps were
erected across the Matabeleland and the Midlands regions
where thousands
were hacked into pieces before being thrown into the
mineshafts. Countless
others fled into exile.
As they say, what goes around comes around. This
violence is meted against
powerless unarmed civilians and against
politicians seeking to exercise
their basic rights enshrined in the national
constitution, as well the
farmers and their workers.
All these
activities are not supposed to be seen as terror tactics. And even
today,
when one labels them as such, they are frowned upon as the term lost
its
real meaning when it was used by the colonial regime describing the
freedom
fighters.
We are supposed to believe that the victims of terror are
"dissidents",
"puppets" and "sell-outs" fronting colonial interests in
Zimbabwe.
In all this, the supine public media is deployed to deny the
carnage as it
helps to promote the fake Mugabe -- a democratic gentleman and
liberator who
is tolerant of the opposition. Even people like Thabo Mbeki,
Kenneth Kaunda
and Frederick Chiluba have become victims of this propaganda
drive.
To them, the mayhem in Zimbabwe is essentially of a racial nature
with its
roots in the colonial era finding currency in neo-imperialist
interests. It
doesn't occur to them that Mugabe is an exponent of Zanu PF's
sabre-rattling
politics largely characterised by terror, selfishness,
tribalism,
bloodletting, vindictiveness and paranoia.
For the African
leaders to say they "regret" the Zimbabwean situation is to
suggest that
there is war yet there isn't anything like that. They should
condemn state
terrorism which is different from a war.
It is apparently clear that the
educationist and liberator who opens school
gates to all will proceed to
ambush the graduates and "crush" them as they
walk out of the classroom
expressing their thoughts.
The gentleman who serves tea in his office
will soon send his shock troops
and thugs to bash his guests as they walk
out. He will go on to bomb the
newspapers and hurl petrol bombs at houses
and claim that the opposition is
responsible in order to justify
repression.
This pride in the "record" of savagery stems from the fact
that in its
entire 44 years of existence, Zanu PF has been about violence,
propaganda
and less about liberation. Think of Gukurahundi, land invasions,
Murambatsvina and the current wave of repression.
So when Mugabe
boasts about his record, we should shudder and begin to gird
our loins. He
is today the only existing founder member of Zanu PF still in
the thick of
the things. Others have either died or have been pushed,
leaving him to
virtually seize control to become the memory and sole
custodian and engineer
of the pulverising machinery.
Nobody can dare oppose Mugabe openly or
dare resign without the master's
agreement. Even ex-minister Nkosana Moyo
had to skip the country and fax his
resignation letter from South Africa
because he understood what might have
befallen him if he had resigned from
within the borders: total humiliation,
public denunciations and painful
isolation such as befell Senator Dzikamai
Mavhaire and ex-finance minister
Simba Makoni.
There is ubiquitous fear spread all over from judiciary
circles, cabinet,
public sphere and the Church. The signs of a schism within
Zanu PF should
not delude anybody into imagining that fear has suddenly
evaporated.
Kidnappings, disappearances and bashings in open space are
commonplace.
Mthulisi Mathuthu is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist. He can be
contacted at:
thuthuma@yahoo.com