Zimbabweans marked the 32nd
anniversary of the country’s independence from colonial rule on Wednesday,
with many expressing a sense of betrayal by ZANU PF, of the values so many
died for in the liberation struggle.
Robert Mugabe meanwhile spoke of
peace and tolerance of different political views at a packed stadium in
Harare on Wednesday, during celebrations attended by top leaders of the
coalition government.
The ZANU PF leader, who usually rants against his
enemies at public occasions, is said to have departed from his planned theme
of Indigenisation during the address, choosing instead to focus on
non-violence during elections. The MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora, who
attended the festivities, said the theme had been decided by hardliners
within ZANU PF.
“We are happy that President Mugabe focused more on
non-violence and tolerance. This is what we were insisting on as the MDC.
Zimbabweans are tired of fighting one another,” Mwonzora explained. He added
that the youth were also tired of being abused by politicians for self
political gain.
ZANU PF’s Indiginisation policy, fronted by Minister
Saviour Kasukuwere, requires foreign and white owned businesses to give up
51% of their shares to locals. Mwonzora said the MDC-T did not agree with
the way this was being implemented, calling it “nationalisation and
expropriation” of private property.
“However we do agree with the day
because it is important to celebrate the ideals of those who brought about
independence, who stood for democracy, good governance and the equitable
sharing of resources,” Mwonzora said.
Meanwhile, most sectors of
Zimbabwean society, from political parties to civic society, churches and
student movements, talked about the values that so many lost their lives
for, and how they have all been betrayed by Robert Mugabe and ZANU
PF.
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), who have campaigned for a
new constitution, strongly denounced what they called “the culture of ZANU
PF”. The NCA said it is ironic that the army and the police, who are meant
to “protect the people and foster an environment of peace”, have become the
“chief perpetrators of violence and chief violators of human
rights”.
The group also criticised the “skewed” judiciary system, saying
those opposed to ZANU PF are being treated unfairly under the law. “We
deplore in the strongest terms the abuse of state machinery by ZANU PF for
political gains,” the NCA said.
This sense of betrayal was echoed by
the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), who focused
more on the abuse of basic rights related to freedom of expression,
association, assembly and access to information. ZACRAS said this is “a
clear violation and betrayal of the values that underpinned Zimbabwe’s
struggle for independence”.
Addressing journalists and other guests on
Tuesday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai celebrated the many Zimbabweans
who lost their lives or lost limbs during the liberation struggle, and how
people “gave the new leadership the benefit of the doubt”.
“Contrary
to expectations, the new leadership did not take long to betray the very
values central to the liberation struggle. Repression, violence and looting
became the order of the day,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Harare on
Tuesday.
It is unfortunate that 32 years after independence, so many
Zimbabweans feel that their ideals were betrayed by the same leaders who
fought hard against colonial rule, and were once the heroes of the
liberation struggle.
Robert Mugabe’s
broken promises have been laid bare this week as Zimbabwe marks 32 years of
Independence.
Zimbabweans across
the world on Wednesday commemorated the historic day when the country gained
independence from white minority rule.
But no one could
have predicted that 32 years later the country would still be craving
independence from a murderous regime that has broken its promises to a nation
hungry for change.
In 1980 Robert
Mugabe delivered a moving speech on the eve of Zimbabwe’s independence, in which
he promised a new, hopeful era. This speech has been re-released this week in
time for the 32 year anniversary of the day and clearly shows how the ZANU PF
regime has failed to fulfil its promises.
Back in April
1980, the then 56 year old Mugabe spoke about the “long, arduous and hazardous”
march to Independence, making an unintentional prediction about the “death and
suffering” Zimbabweans had and would still have to face for
freedom.
“Our new nation
requires of every one of us to be a new man, with a new mind, a new heart and a
new spirit. Our new mind must have a new vision and our new hearts a new love
that spurns hate, and a new spirit that must unite and not divide,” Mugabe
said.
The future
dictator went on to urge that all Zimbabweans embrace this new ethos towards a
peaceful and successful nation, cemented in love and forgiveness. He held such
forgiveness as a high priority, stating: “If yesterday I fought as an enemy,
today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest,
loyalty, rights and duties as myself.”
“The wrongs of the
past must now stand forgiven and forgotten,” Mugabe said, adding that
“oppression and racism are inequities that must never again find scope in our
political and social system.”
He continued: “Our
majority rule could easily turn into inhuman rule if we oppressed, persecuted or
harassed those who do not look or think like the majority of
us.”
Mugabe must have
forgotten his commitments to eradicate all forms of persecution, with ZANU PF
unleashing years of oppression against its opposition. This persecution
continues 32 years on, with opposition members and activists remaining the
victims of partisan policing. The regime would also proceed to take revenge on
Zimbabwe’s white farming community, in a campaign of violence hidden behind a
claim of agricultural ‘reform’.
In 1980, Mugabe
also pledged that the new democracy would be defined by the rule of law, another
promise that has been broken with years of ZANU PF law proving more powerful
than national law.
“Democracy is
never mob-rule. It is and should remain disciplined rule requiring compliance
with the law and social rules,” Mugabe said in 1980. He also added that
Zimbabwe’s independence “is not the right to negate the freedom of others to
think and act as they desire.”
Political analyst
Clifford Mashiri told SW Radio Africa that Mugabe’s broken promises have laid
the foundation for an anniversary not worth celebrating, explaining that
“Zimbabwe is in a deeper crisis than it has been.”
“All the rhetoric
in his speech in 1980 gave way to looting, lying and revenge. The Gukurahundi
massacre was soon executed. We had Murambatsvina, the revenge against white
farmers, ongoing persecution. He broke all his promises,” Mashiri
said.
THE MDC formations have blasted what they see as an
attempt by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party to “privatise” the
Independence Day commemorations adding the current economic and social
strife is a betrayal of the liberation struggle.
Zimbabwe celebrates
32 years of independence from colonial rule on Wednesday amid deepening
policy and other divisions in a coalition government which has made little
progress in addressing the country’s economic and social problems since
assuming office in 2009.
Unemployment remains high as the major economic
sectors struggle to recover from the crisis of the last decade while
education, health and other social services – the major milestones of the
immediate post-independence era – also remain in the mire.
President
Robert Mugabe, one of the key figures in the fight against settler colonial
rule, blames sanctions imposed by former ruler Britain and her Western
allies for Zimbabwe’s problems. He claims he is being punished for
redressing historic imbalances in the distribution of land – one of the
major reasons for the independence struggle. Sanctions
The Zanu PF
leader has however, vowed to complete the independence project by ensuring
that the country's economy is in the hands of the black majority through his
party’s economic empowerment policy under which foreign companies must
transfer control of at least 51 percent of their Zimbabwe assets to
locals.
“We are living in the afternoon, if not in the evening of our
lives and those who are still in the morning of their lives will have the
benefits we are fighting for. They do not have to toil as we have done. It
would be much easier for them to proceed into the future,” Mugabe said
Tuesday.
But political rivals who now partner Mugabe in the fractious
coalition government accuse the Zanu PF leader and his party of betraying
the values of the country’s liberation struggle.
Said MDC leader and
Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube: “We are aware that as a
nation we never fought for poverty, we never spent all that time in the
struggle fighting for corruption which we selflessly condemned even during
our struggle.
“We therefore condemn it today even from those that seek to
apportion themselves the credit of the liberation struggle yet on daily
basis betray it.”
Corruption
Prime Minister and MDC-T leader
Morgan Tsvangirai said hopes for economic growth and prosperity after the
attainment of independence were soon dashed as “repression, violence and
looting” became the order of the day.
“We all expected our leaders to
return our dignity by crafting policies that benefit the ordinary citizen
and poise the country for economic growth and development,” Tsvangirai said
in a statement Tuesday.
“Contrary to expectations, the new leadership did
not take long to betray the very values central to the liberation struggle.
Repression, violence and looting became the order of the day.”
The
MDC-T leader – who has previously boycotted the event -- vowed to attend
Wednesday’s celebrations at Harare’s National Sports Stadium insisting Zanu
PF should not be allowed to “privatise” the occasion.
“We will attend
because we will not allow Zanu PF to privatise this day,” Tsvangirai
said.
"We refuse to be chucked out of a national day which has nothing to
do with Zanu PF but has everything to do with the collective history of all
Zimbabweans in their diversity. So we will be there to pay tribute to the
gallant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe who sacrificed everything to free
this country."
Tsvangirai and Ncube joined government after
Zimbabwe’s neighbours intervened to prevent the country’s political and
economic crisis engulfing the whole region following violent but
inconclusive elections in 2008. Coalition
But the coalition
administration has made little progress in implementing political reforms
and shepherding economic recovery, riven as it is by deep policy differences
that have not been helped by the fact that its vey tenancy at Munhumutapa
Building – the seat of government – was meant to be
temporary.
“Today, even in the wake of an inclusive government,
policy and ideological discord at the instigation of some elements in this
government have meant a further betrayal of the people’s aspirations,”
Tsvangirai said.
“We have disagreed in this government because there are
others who want to perpetuate the old culture of expropriation, looting and
self-aggrandizement clad in new and misleading nomenclature such as
“indigenisation.”
Both Zanu PF and the MDC formations concede that they
have failed to work together and that fresh polls are needed to choose a
substantive government; but that is where the agreement ends.
While
Zanu PF insists new elections must be held this year and that a free and
fair poll is possible under the current constitution, the MDCs want the
Independence charter replaced and more extensive political reforms completed
first.
Implementation of reforms, the MDC’s argue, would help ensure
that the violence of 2008 is not repeated and that the outcome of the ballot
is not contested.
“The MDC is aware that we fought for a country
where all Zimbabweans will exercise their rights without fear. As a party we
believe that the political violence and intimidation together with unfree
and unfair elections are a mockery to a just and fair Zimbabwe that we
fought for,” Ncube said.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe looks on
during a rally marking Zimbabwe's 32nd independence anniversary celebrations
in Harare, Zimbabwe, April 18, 2012. Photo: Reuters Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe looks on during a rally marking Zimbabwe's 32nd
independence anniversary celebrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, April 18,
2012.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe marked the country's 32 years of
independence Wednesday by calling on a committee that is drafting a new
constitution to speed up the process so polls can be held to choose a new
leader and end the country’s coalition government.
Cheers met Mugabe
as he arrived at Harare's largest stadium to celebrate Zimbabwe’s
independence from Great Britain.
In his speech, he urged Zimbabweans to
be peaceful and have elections this year to end the coalition government he
formed with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after the disputed and violent
2008 elections.
"We are now demanding that the draft constitution be
delivered to us, so that we can decide that in due course we put people in a
referendum which should mark the beginning definite process towards a
general election we would want to see held this year," he
said.
Earlier this year Mugabe had said elections would be held even
without a new constitution, contrary to the demands of regional leaders and
Tsvangirai, who wants the polls conducted under a new
constitution.
Throughout his speech on Wednesday, Mugabe was
conciliatory. He called on the West to lift sanctions imposed on him and
allies with his ZANU-PF party in 2002, following reports of election rigging
and human rights abuses.
This was Mugabe's first public appearance since
returning from Singapore, where there were reports he was being treated for
health problems. Mugabe has not acknowledged having any serious medical
issues.
Tsvangirai attended the independence celebrations, which
highlighted the country's "indigenization policy."
Tsvangirai told
journalists Tuesday that ZANU-PF had imposed the indigenization theme
without getting a consensus. The policy, spearheaded by ZANU-PF, orders
foreign companies to hand over 51 percent of their shares to Zimbabweans,
and is strongly opposed by Tsvangirai's party.
Zimbabwe’s mining sector, which is already facing pressure to submit
to the ZANU PF led indigenisation drive, has come under even more pressure
this week, with mining firms told to resubmit their applications for
exploration rights.
469 local and foreign miners have been told to
resubmit the applications that detail their shareholding, proposed work,
proof of funding and technical capacity. The companies have also been told
to provide full details of directors and shareholders in their so-called
exclusive prospective order.
The Mines Ministry gave these orders in
a statement published this week in the state mouthpiece Herald newspaper.
Mines affected include operations owned by Metallon Corp. and Essar Group of
India.
The indigenisation drive has already seen major players in the
mining sector submitting to the 51% share handover, with South African based
Impala platinum last month agreeing to sell 31% of its Zimplats unit to a
state agency and 20% to employees and communities.
Economic analyst
John Robertson said the new orders from government are part of increased
pressure on the sector, but he said it will lead to decreased production
overall. He said that Zimbabwe’s government does not have the money to put
into the companies they insist on taking over through indigenisation, saying
“the government’s ideas are clearly in conflict.”
Meanwhile, a
parliamentary committee on mining has said that new fee increases imposed on
mining firms could be illegal. The increase of up to 5000% was announced by
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu in February, through a decree that requires
miners to pay up to US$5 million for a mining application.
“There was
no regard to whether the application to mine would succeed or not,” the
Legal Parliamentary Committee said in a report obtained by the Bloomberg
News group this week. The fees “impose a hefty financial burden on citizens
and non-citizens alike who opt to invest in the mining sector.”
Robertson
said it would be good news if the parliamentary committee can make an
argument for the fees to be reviewed, saying it is the local, indigenous
mining firms who have been worst hit by this decree.
“The pressure
for a fee review is not from the foreign firms. It is from local firms who
quite simply to not have the money to comply,” Robertson said.
The government has reportedly moved to
acquire five more farms in the Harare and Chegutu districts, using the
controversial land reform legislation. A notice in the Government Gazette by
the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Herbert Murerwa, announced the
acquisition, which includes a sports club in Beatrice.
According to
NewsDay newspaper, the land identified is to be used for the purpose of
“settlement for agriculture”, but this chaotic land reform has been largely
blamed for destroying Zimbabwe’s once lucrative commercial farms, which
produced enough to feed the nation and export to the rest of
Africa.
The notice said the acquired land legally belongs to “the
State” as of the date of the publication, which was April 6th, 2012.
Properties listed for acquisition include farms registered to Melvin Douglas
Wasterfall and Sheena Catherine Wasterfall in Chegutu, Daniel Alexandra,
Antony John Pettifor and Charles Bruce in Harare.
Also listed for
acquision by government is the Beatrice Showgrounds in Harare district,
which according to NewsDay measures nearly 51 000 acres and belongs to “the
Trustees of Beatrice Sports Club”.
Most of the country’s white commercial
farmers were violently evicted by ZANU PF thugs and war vets, doing the
bidding for top military and ZANU PF officials, who also evicted the farm
workers and their families. This has contributed to food shortages which
ZANU PF uses as political weapon against the MDC formations.
Roy Chikara Masvingo, April
18, 2012 - Over 30 families have been left homeless after Zanu (PF)
politburo member, Dzikamai Mavhaire, invaded the 5 000 hectares Sheba Ranch
farm and conservancy and kicked out everyone.
But Mavhaire declined
grabbing the farm Tuesday, saying it had been allocated to his son who
shares the same name with him.
“My son was allocated that farm under the
land reform but it took him years to occupy because the whites who were
there had taken the matter to the courts,” said Mavhaire.
The farm
workers, working for Lennar Collins, who owned the Mwenezi farm are now
squatting on the side of the Masvingo- Beitbridge road. Collins is believed
to have fled to South Africa.
Workers said Mavhaire had also grabbed the
farm's machinery which included tractors, harrows, ploughs, herds of cattle
believed to be over 100 and a conservancy with wild life but Mavhaire
dismissed the looting allegations.
Workers who spoke to Radio VOP said
they had nowhere to go since they had worked at the farm for over 50 years.
Most were originally from Zambia and Malawi and were too old to go
back.
“We were not allowed to take anything except some few blankets and
pots," said Taurai Ngidi, a former supervisor at the farm.
Recently
three white famers,Terry Andres, John Taylor and Grant Hudson lost their
Savuli Conservancy to Zanu (PF)'s former Gutu south legislator Shuvai
Mahofa.
Written by Xolisani Ncube and Ivan Zhakata Wednesday, 18
April 2012 14:44
HARARE - While others are busy celebrating 32 years
of independence from minority white rule, businessman Christopher Goromonzi
has very little to celebrate after his farm was grabbed by a Zanu PF-aligned
chief.
Chief Mashayamombe of Mhondoro has camped at Marsden Farm bought
by Goromonzi and such rogue actions expose how the controversial land
redistribution programme only benefitted a few politically-connected
individuals.
When the programme was haphazardly initiated in 2000,
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF said the programme was aimed at
empowering indigenous black people.
More than 4 000 white commercial
farmers lost their land during that period. The land was redistributed to
black farmers mostly Zanu PF officials and war vets and most of them have
failed to fully utilise the land.
The traditional leader who is supposed
to safeguard the morals and traditions of the land, left his village in
Mhondoro and took over Marsden Farm from a fellow black
man.
Goromonzi who is the rightful owner of the farm having bought it
from a white farmer as a joint venture with Zanu PF legislator for Mhondoro
constituency Sylvester Nguni in 2003.
In 2009, Nguni ceded his shares
to Goromonzi, making him the sole owner of the tobacco farm.
The
Daily News established that sometime last year Mashayamombe approached
Goromonzi and appraised him on his intention to take over the
farm.
Last week, Mashayamombe broke into the farm-house where Goromonzi’s
farm manager resides.
When the Daily News crew arrived at the farm
situated in Selous yesterday, Mashayamombe who has since had taken up
residence at Marsden farm, ran away when the crew arrived.
The
hostile takeover has since landed the chief’s son Tendai Chiketa in the dock
after he illegally entered into the house while the current occupant was
away.
Tomorrow, Chiketa will appear before a Norton magistrate to answer
charges of malicious damage to property.
The farm that falls under
the jurisdiction of Chief Chivero has a state- of-the-art farm house which
was built by the white farmer who sold the property to Goromonzi and
Nguni.
Yesterday, over 100 workers were roaming around the compound with
no clue about their future.
The miserable workers said they now
feared losing their jobs and their homes after Mashayamombe took over the 1
462 hectares of land from their boss.
At the farm house, an aloof Mrs
Mashayamombe, a kettle and two cups of tea welcomed the news crew but the
chief went into hiding although he had confirmed the meeting with the Daily
News.
The wife said he had gone to Chegutu provincial office to prepare
for the independence celebrations that are being held country-wide but
disgruntled workers at the farm said the chief had driven his vehicle away
from the farm-house after seeing the news crew arriving.
“The woman
is lying that the chief is away, he is here, we are actually waiting to hear
from him on the way forward. We want to know if our jobs are secure,” a
confused farm worker said.
It also emerged that two other people; Kudzai
Gwenhere and one Shonei were in possession of offer letters for the same
piece of land further exposing the discrepancies in the land redistribution
programme which is yet to undergo an audit.
It is not clear how land
officers at Chegutu district offices allocated the same piece of land to
three different people when Gomoronzi had already bought the
farm.
Efforts to obtain a comment from Goromonzi were fruitless as his
mobile phone was continuously unavailable.
Mashayamombe said: “As we
speak, I am at the farm and I am ready to take it over, this is my
place,” Documents in possession of the Daily News indicate that in 2009
provincial lands officer Farai Chikomba told the director of lands that the
farm belonged to Goromonzi.
“The district erred by not gathering
enough evidence before allocating a controversial farm. With all
information, if the ministry feels Goromonzi indeed bought the farm, then
the offer letters generated in error must be withdrawn and the beneficiaries
relocated elsewhere,” reads Chikomba’s recommendation to the
director.
Goromonzi becomes the second high-ranking banker to have his
farm grabbed after Washington Matsaire, the former Standard Chartered Bank
boss.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made has
made an unusual outburst accusing his fellow Zanu (PF) comrades, who grabbed
the land during the controversial land “reform” programme, of
laziness. 17.04.1205:01pm by Nhamo Murefu
Addressing the Buy
Zimbabwe Market Campaign this week, Made shocked delegates when he said
focus should be shifted from the debate on genetically modified crops to the
central question of underutilization of land.
“The GMO debate is a
closed chapter. Rather we should ask why the land distributed is being
underutilized”.
“The country should come up with answers to the deadly
laziness,” he said. Zanu (PF) has hitherto stubbornly denied reports of
underutilization of nationalised arable farmland, which saw the country
slumping from being the “Bread Basket of Africa” to the “Begging Bowl of
Africa.”
Since the bloody fast track land invasions begun in 2000, the
country has been forced to import most of its maize and other cereal
products.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said that five out of the
country’s ten provinces are in dire need of food aid following the failure
of the 2011/2012 farming season.
Heal Zimbabwe wants principals of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) to intervene and investigate the
Presidential inputs and grain loan schemes, which are being are being abused
by mostly Zanu (PF) politicians. 18.04.1209:01am by Heal
Zimbabwe
“Corruption and theft of the inputs has also weighed in
heavily in the already politicised scheme,” said the organisation in a press
release last week. “A proper investigation should be done to ensure that
those who abused the schemes are brought before the courts.”
The
organisation said government officials and political activists were using
the schemes to pursue their political agendas instead of benefitting the
needy families mainly in rural areas.
Heal Zimbabwe had received reports
of unfair distribution of farm inputs and seed in Muzarabani, Guruve,
Buhera, Zaka, Mount Darwin, Mutoko and Chiweshe. Thousands of villagers in
Buhera, Chipinge, Nyanga, Makoni north and east and Mutare district had been
denied assistance because they were Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
supporters.
In peri-urban centres, beneficiaries mainly from Harare South
benefited because they were mainly Zanu (PF) supporters.
Heal
Zimbabwe observed that beneficiaries clearly had to be loyal members of Zanu
(PF) who possessed Zanu (PF) membership cards.
This was happening at a
time when the 2011 -2012 agricultural season had already been declared a
poor one in terms of rainfall distribution, with food shortages
expected.
Heal Zimbabwe said there was need to address the anomalies in
food distribution before reports of starvation emerge, especially in areas
that had received little sporadic rains.
The war of attrition between two factions within ZANU PF rumbled on
in Mutare on Wednesday when officials from both sides failed to attend
Independence Day celebrations because of threats to their lives.
Only
the governor, Chris Mushowe and ZANU PF deputy minister Monica Mutsvangwa
attended the 32nd Independence Day celebrations at Sakubva stadium. The
MDC-T was represented by Mutare Senator, Keresensia Chabuka.
But the
entire leadership of ZANU PF in the province felt too unsafe to attend after
being issued with threats that they would be ‘humiliated’ in front of a
capacity crowd.
A journalist who asked not to be identified told SW Radio
Africa that only chairman, Mike Madiro showed up, but only during the
closing stages of the celebrations.
“He came just as guests were
preparing to leave the stadium but if what we saw at Sakubva today
(Wednesday) is anything to go by, the former ruling party is in trouble
indeed,” the journalist said.
The party has since the weekend been
divided into two distinct factions following the controversial District
Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections this past weekend. It is understood
that the party is clearly split between the Joice Mujuru brigade and the
Emmerson Mnangagwa cabal.
To prove how fractured the party is now, every
slogan chanted since Sunday during demonstrations outside the party
headquarters in Mutare is laced either with a Mujuru or Mnangagwa
signature.
ZANU PF officials who lost the DCC elections thronged the
party HQ challenging results that they say were rigged by the provincial
leadership in Manicaland. According to sources in ZANU PF, the elections
were heavily skewed in favour of candidates backing Mnangagwa for the top
leadership of the party, after the eventual departure of Robert
Mugabe.
The crisis was reaching boiling point when ZANU PF was forced to
dispatch Webster Shamu, the political commissar to cool down
tempers.
Shamu was in the eastern border city on Tuesday night were he
addressed the disgruntled party supporters. Where DCC elections are yet to
be held, he immediately ordered that they be put on hold, while they look
into complaints of irregularities in polls held last Saturday and
Sunday.
There were DCC elections in Mutare, Chipinge, Nyanga, Makoni and
Buhera, but all these were overshadowed by reports of widespread
intimidation and vote-rigging.
The provincial chairman has now been
the target of criticism from party supporters with over 400 of them camping
outside the ZANU PF headquarters in Mutare demanding a re-run. This sit-in
lasted until Tuesday night.
During Shamu’s address to the supporters he
promised them the party would not leave a stoned unturned to find out what
happened. With that, the demonstrators dispersed but promised to return if
their demands are not addressed soon.
By Professor Matodzi Harare,
April 18, 2012- The National Constitutional Assembly insists it will oppose
the new constitution draft and campaign for people to reject it at a
referendum planned for later this year.
The spokesman of the NCA, Madock
Chivasa, warned the parliamentary constitution select committee (COPAC) that
spearheaded the constitution making process was in for a rude
awakening.
“Our campaign will be intensified in our villages, townships
and farm meetings……We urge you all to be resolute and steady fast in this
front line walk of advancement towards egalitarianism. Let us join hands,
take charge and complete this change which is imminent,” said Chivasa in a
message to mark the country’s 32 independence anniversary on
Wednesday.
“As the NCA, we passed a vote of NO confidence in COPAC,
since the day it was incepted, after a careful analysis that the model as
articulated by Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), was far
from what the people of Zimbabwe envisaged as a process that can yield a
truly democratic constitution for Zimbabwe," he said.
Chivasa said
the constitution making process should have been driven by an independent
commission rather than politicians.
The NCA is a coalition of individual
Zimbabwean citizens and civic organisations including, labour movements,
human rights organisations, student, church and women groups and
churches.
The drafting of a new constitution is one of the key
reforms that President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
agreed to implement under a power sharing agreement including a raft of
electoral and security law reforms to level the political field before
holding new elections.
All Zimbabweans agree that
their country is well and truly messed up - politically, economically and
socially. Although even school children understand the causes of our
problems, Zanu (PF) leaders continue to stick their heads in the sand and
vociferously blame ‘illegal sanctions imposed upon the country by the West’.
Whether they actually believe this to be true or not is an interesting
subject for discussion. 17.04.1204:05pm by Pius
Wakatama
President Mugabe has several times said that he is going to
call for elections this year with or without a new constitution. In response
the other political parties in the coalition government have sworn that they
will not participate in any election before the full implementation of the
Global Political Agreement, which includes a new
constitution.
According to civil society organizations, the level of
politically inspired violence across the country has heightened
significantly because of this election talk. All this has brought the
country to a dangerous crossroads with the inclusive government in danger of
falling apart and the country descending into chaos. It is, therefore, now
imperative that all people of goodwill in Zanu (PF) listen to their
consciences, cast off their cowardice and fear and stand up to say, “Enough
is enough!” Mugabe is well aware that many leaders in his party no longer
support him. Recently he challenged MPs who do not want elections this year
to go and join the MDC. He forgot to say,”... and see what will happen to
you.”
If these men and women of goodwill are not able to reclaim and
reform their once illustrious party then they should take his advice and
leave that party to join the majority for the sake of
Zimbabwe.
Sitting on the fence can no longer do because very soon there
will be no fence to sit on.
Recently Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
has been criticised for calling upon the United States and the European
Union to lift the targeted measures against Zimbabwe -even though the GPA is
not fulfilled and the road to free and fair elections is not yet cleared.
Those criticising Tsvangirai are right in a way but fail to see the valid
point he is making. Zanu (PF) is hiding behind a finger.
They are
linking the sanctions to the reform agenda and saying they can’t agree to
reforms when the country is under illegal sanctions. The European Union and
the United States should, therefore, call their bluff. This will leave Zanu
(PF) exposed and in a quandary because their key propaganda hymn would have
been taken away from them. Also, lifting the sanctions won’t hurt the
country any more than it has already been hurt. After all there are no
sanctions against Zimbabwe. In fact, trade between the EU and Zimbabwe is
booming and doubled during the last year.
What Zanu (PF) calls
sanctions are not sanctions at all but restrictive measures imposed on
Mugabe and about 50 Zanu (PF) leaders and 20 entities. The restrictions
include bans on travelling and an asset freeze.
If the restrictive
measures are lifted some of the individuals concerned may not even be keen
to leave Zimbabwe for fear of being arrested for their involvement in the
Gukurahundi genocide and gross human rights abuses. If, indeed, they choose
to go and enjoy their ill-gotten loot hidden elsewhere, we can only say
good-riddance. The lifting of these ineffective restrictive measures cannot
stop the true liberation of the people, which those with keen nostrils can
already smell.
An average of 100
children under the age of five are dying every day in Zimbabwe, with most of
the fatalities due to preventable conditions.
The results of the
government's 2010 Global Systematic Analysis of National Causes of Child
Mortality Report revealed that 10,758 newborns die in the country annually,
with pre-term delivery (37 per cent) asphyxia (27 per cent) and infection
(19 per cent) all accounting for a significant proportion of the
deaths.
Senior Health Ministry Official Dr Gibson Mhlanga believes most
of these fatalities could be avoided if basic maternal and newborn health
procedures were improved.
"The birth of a child is supposed to be a
cause for celebration, but when we hear the news that the same child has
passed on a few hours after birth it becomes miserable," said Dr
Mhlanga.
Unicef Country Representative Peter Salamao said that most of
the changes needed would be very simple to implement - even for a
basically-trained health worker.
Officials hope a new scheme - part
funded by Unicef – entitled Absolute Return for Kids will be enough to raise
standards and lower the newborn death rate in Zimbabwe.
A local non-governmental organisation
has just completed a pilot project in Chiredzi which has seen 350 children
removed from places of work to attend school. 18.04.1208:55am by
Tapiwa Zivira
The Coalition Against Child Labour in Zimbabwe
(CACLAZ), spearheading the project hopes to have returned 1 000 children in
Chiredzi back to school in the next three years.
CACLAZ National
Co-ordinator Pascal Masocha said his organisation was promoting what they
called child labour free zones. These were like ‘bridge schools’ or
‘incubation centres’ where children were housed temporarily while they
received psycho social support and screening tests to determine their
academic capabilities before they are released from work and placed into
schools.
The concept is a replication of the Indian model which is now
two years old and has successfully returned one million children to
school.
“In the next three years, we hope to ride on the success of the
pilot project and send 1 000 children back to school in two wards in
Chiredzi,” said Masocha.”Hopefully with the help of other stakeholders we
will continue expanding our project to many more parts of the
country.”
Five other African countries- Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco
and Ghana- are also implementing this concept. This followed a 2010 exchange
visit to India by African agencies.
Grace Chirenje (29), a
passionate feminist has vowed to fight for women’s rights so that women do
not continue to be viewed as second class citizens. 17.04.1203:53pm by
Wendy Muperi
“I want a Zimbabwe where I’m free to say what I want,”
she told The Zimbabwean recently. “I want a Zimbabwe that guarantees safety
before and after expressing yourself, where we share resources
equitably.”
“I want a country where I can decide what I want to do with
my life and do it with all the passion, energy and strength that I possibly
can harness,” she added.
During her university days, Chirenje
realised that fighting women’s oppression “was a career for some people. I
quickly realised that it was a lived reality and a calling.”
“I will
not get tired to push this agenda for as long oppression of women exists,
and for as long as women are treated as second class citizens in the country
of their birth,” she declared.
Chirenje is a former Midlands State
University graduate and holder of a Master of Arts degree in Leadership. Her
passion for success has seen her leading the Zimbabwe Young Women Network
for Peace Building Project, an organisation that focuses on issues of
women’s participation in politics, democracy, literacy and skills training
and concentrates mainly on rural communities in Zimbabwe.
Her
activism has opened several doors. Not only is she a former Vice Chairperson
for the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe but had been part of the prestigious
International Visitors Leadership Programme sponsored by the US State
Department in Zimbabwe.
In addition, last year she had an opportunity to
meet American First Lady, Michelle Obama, at the Young African Women’s
Leaders Forum in South Africa.
She is also one of the few African young
women to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York
City in February this year.
Chirenje is married to Brian Nachipo and they
have two children. Her ability to balance family life and work is proof of
how much women can achieve in society when they are determined.
My home is a 30 minute drive
to Harare and this dual highway stretches for at least 30 km. It is not an
enjoyable ride, especially in the morning when one is headed for work or on
the way home when one is tired and eager to hit the pillow.
Either
way it’s a daily routine that I and hundreds of thousands of commuters have
endured for so many years. We have, with zeal and exuberance, commuted to
work to eke out an honest living, boarding overcrowded and speeding kombis –
a reality which no longer frightens us.
But now that “normal abnormality”
is under even more stress, with law enforcement agents haunting kombis and
the innocent passengers. My 30 minute journey now takes more than an
hour.
The police have at least five roadblocks en-route to town and
kombis are being milked dry, with police demanding bribes under the threat
of fines and court appearances. One driver was even fined for his vehicle
being dirty!
Recently finance minister Tendai Biti poignantly stated
roadblocks are cash points for the law enforcements agents. Kombi’s are now
regularly stopped up to five times daily and fined. The next day the same
cycle occurs. The road is a feeding trough for the police.
The
commuter now has to wake up even earlier so as to make it to work on time.
Many kombi drivers are now forced to take alternative routes to avoid the
police and all too often we are vomited out of the kombis far from our
destination, on the entry points of the CBD.
The police roadblocks
prove to me this is a government that is not for the people, but is doing
everything possible to corner its citizens. Maybe its punishment for living
in the urban areas, which are said to be in the hands of forces that oppose
Mugabe.
This entry was posted by Simon Moyo on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
at 8:30 am
Written by Tendai Kamhungira, Court
Writer Wednesday, 18 April 2012 14:42
HARARE - The trial of 12
vendors who clashed with police officers in January this year commenced at
the Harare Magistrates’ Courts yesterday with all of them claiming they were
brutally assaulted by police while in custody.
Taurai Nherera, 17,
Simbarashe Keith Makaha, 35, Jefias Moyo, 39, Leonard Dendera, 29,
Muchineripi Muzengeza, 34, Patson Murimoga, 32, Samson Nerwande, 40,
Murambiwa Dzwenge, 38, Kudakwashe Usai, 20, Mclean Barnabas Mapipi
Mwakanaka, 27, Simbarashe Chinodya and Paul Majarira, are facing charges of
public violence.
The vendors who were remanded out of custody on $100
bail save for Moyo who is custody in connection with the case of 29 Glen
View activists accused of murdering police inspector Petros Mutedza last
year, deny the charges.
They told Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe that
police had pounced on them while they were selling their wares in Harare’s
city centre.
A newspaper vendor, Nherera, told the court he was “a victim
of police brutality”, while Mwakanaka a textbook salesperson who yesterday
was walking with the assistance of crutches said the police broke his leg
during the assaults.
In making submissions on behalf of Mwakanaka,
defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama said: “The same police officer who had hit
him at or near Ximex Mall with a brick or stone hit the injured leg breaking
it. The same police officer was saying he wanted the accused person dead.
The accused was bleeding profusely from the broken and bruised
leg.”
The majority of the vendors who sell belts complained they had been
arrested without committing any offence.
They claim they were rounded
up by police while on their way to drink some water.
According to
prosecutor, Gift Zumbika, police officers from Harare Central Police Station
were carrying out an operation which was aimed at arresting illegal vendors
on January 11, 2012 when they clashed with the suspects.
The court heard
that at around 1:30pm on the same day, the 12 connived to assault uniformed
police officers, in a bid to stop them from executing their constitutional
duty.
According to state papers, the group was armed with stones and iron
bars.
They allegedly assaulted sergeant Chitima, Constable Mutanda,
Tatenda Zhou, Aaron Mutsengi and Shadreck Matare who sustained injuries and
were hospitalised at Parirenyatwa hospital.
It is alleged the group
went further to attack a police van with stones, before proceeding to First
Street, where they proceeded to attack the Zimbabwe Republic Police base
breaking 12 window panes in the process.
After being arrested on
different dates, the state claims the vendors were positively identified by
the witnesses, a fact which they deny.
Like
Mugabe, the respected columnist and broadcaster Matthew Parris is said to be a
charming man. But he has raised some hackles with superficial articles on his
recent holiday in Zimbabwe. His first piece was in the Times on 29th
March:
Amazing how
fast everything comes back after 44 years. It was Salisbury airport then and
it’s Harare airport now, but, hire car collected, I at once remembered the way
back into town and never needed a map even though the street names – Stanley
Avenue, Jameson Avenue – had mostly changed. Returning to what was then Rhodesia
and is now Zimbabwe has given me a new sympathy with John Major’s much-mocked
exclamation in a party
political video in which he
returned to his boyhood home in Brixton. “It’s still there!”
“Of course it is, you ninny,” we
all cried. But time and again in the past week, and to the exasperation of my
companion, I’ve been whooping spontaneously at the amazed discovery that an
entire country does not vaporise simply as a result of one’s ceasing to favour
it with one’s presence. “My old school — it’s still there!” “Our old house, it’s
still there!” “The Chimanimani mountains – still there!”
Washing
lane
The potholes, though, are new.
Actually Zimbabwe has a better road network now than when the white government
fell at the end of the 1970s, but there does seem to be a problem with
maintenance. Potholes are a major topic of conversation among Zimbabweans black
and white, each contributor outbidding the last, like anglers, in their claims
as to the size and frequency of the shockers they’ve most recently encountered.
Nobody, however, has yet outbid
one motorist I met who had heard from a friend just over the border in
Mozambique: “. . . and on this lonely road he rounds this bend, and there in the
middle of the road was this almighty pothole so he jams on the brakes and to his
astonishment a woman’s head appears above the surface of the road, then her
body, then a towel which she wraps herself in and scuttles towards the ditch
clutching all her clothes and a bar of soap.
She had been bathing in the
pothole.”
A working
country
So potholes, yes; and power
cuts, yes; and the grass verges aren’t as well mown as they were in the days of
white Rhodesia. But if you’re expecting ambushes, armed robberies and empty
shelves in the supermarkets, you’ve been misinformed. Huge political problems
abound, but Zimbabwe is not devastated and its people are not destitute. Now
that they’ve abandoned their own currency in favour of the US dollar and the
South African rand, the country more or less works.
As a tourist — and I do
emphasise “tourist”, for who knows what a tourist never sees? — you will
encounter a gentle, friendly and safe place; a muzzled press but fairly open
conversation; a viable mobile phone network, fuel in all the petrol stations,
clean rooms in a range of lovely hotels, nice people, good English, spectacular
landscapes — and almost no other tourists at all.
We appeared to have the
Chimanimani mountains almost to ourselves. No, not “almost”: entirely. The
visitors’ book at the national park entrance recorded the last visit as being
three days before. I had always wanted to climb these mountains as a boy, and
now here we were, on a cool day of sunshine and cloud, clambering up steep
footpaths across tumbling streams towards a magnificent wall of pale quartzite
peaks, their summits some 8,000ft above sea level.
We picnicked on a wide, flat
valley beneath them — thick with yellow elephant grass, small antelope
scampering away. We clambered down before a glorious sunset, bade the warden
goodbye and good luck in getting another visitor or two, perhaps, in a few days;
and made our weary but exultant way back to our bungalow — the Bradt guide
quoting a description of the proprietor as “probably the nicest person in the
world”. She was.
The darker
side
Tourists, as I said, don’t see
everything; and our happy picture was sometimes challenged by darker stories.
Once he trusted us, one young African in Matabeleland told us that his parents,
who had become too “political”, had been wired into their hut while the children
were away and incinerated when the hut was set aflame. Terrified and still a
youth, he had walked south, alone, and crossed the Limpopo River illegally to
South Africa to make his way in the world.
Now he had returned, because
“the storm has abated ... for the immediate”. He had an outstanding command of
English but as if learnt from a 19th-century Methodist school textbook. “Let me
now put the flesh of detail”, he said gravely, “on the skeletal outline with
which I have already furnished you.”
Then he explained how the park
that we were in had been protected as national patrimony “for the benefit of
babies and sucklings”. I thought of this clever, orphaned boy picking his way
alone in the dark across the Limpopo, possessing literally nothing, towards a
future completely unknown.
The
article drew a sharp response from Tom Benyon of Zane:
Zim ruled by fear Published at
12:01AM, April 3 2012
The shops may
be full of goods but people right across the community in Zimbabwe cannot afford
to buy anything on offer
Sir, Matthew Parris (Mar 29) claims that “Zimbabwe is not devastated
and the people are not destitute”. Although Zimbabwe may look peaceful, it is
still a vicious police state, its people ruled by fear. The government is
proceeding with its “indigenisation policy” which means the confiscation of half
of all the businesses in the country. Although the old, debauched currency has
given way to the SA rand and the US dollar, and the shops are full of goods, the
people served by Zane (Zimbabwe A National Emergency) right across the community
have long since been rendered destitute and cannot afford to buy anything on
offer.
The
troubling truth about Matthew Parris is not that he is challenging received
opinions but that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. The Vigil has no
qualms with his historical commonplaces about the Smith regime etc. But he shows
only a superficial understanding of what is going on today. There is no sign
that he has read any of the dozens of books published on Zimbabwe in recent
years or any of the stories about Zimbabwe easily available on the internet. Has
he ever, for instance, looked at the Zimbabwe Situation website, a daily
compendium of news about Zimbabwe, often containing as many as 20 or 30 stories?
He could usefully have looked at the Sokwanele summary of abuses, which he could
have found in Zimbabwe Situation (https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/apr6_2012.html#Z16
– Zimbabwe
Inclusive Government Watch – Issue 37).
We at
the Vigil – 95% black – are in constant contact through our families with what
is going on at home. Our relatives there do not share his rosy picture, redolent
of patronizing white colonialists: ‘Don’t shout at Mugabe. We can’t expect to
understand these charming black people or their culture of killing each other.’
Mr
Parris may, for all we know, be visiting rural Iran and have a similar piece in
the Times this Saturday when we will be protesting as
usual outside The Zimbabwe Embassy in London. We will also be demonstrating
outside the South African High Commission at their failure to get Mugabe to
honour the global political agreement he signed. And we will also be visiting
Downing Street to present a petition calling for UN supervision of the coming
elections.
Sorry for the
shouting Mr Parris. But you are paying for your holiday with our
blood.
Vigil
co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Published Apr 18, 2012 at 8:12 am (Updated Apr 18, 2012
at 8:12 am)
Video
Please go to the website to watch the video
5pm Saturday at BUEI
The title of this disturbing documentary says it all.
How did Zimbabwean liberation hero Robert Mugabe turn into one of the world’s
most oppressive and hated leaders, an internationally-reviled
autocrat?
While director Simon Bright may not have all the
answers, his fascinating film does a brilliant job of tracing Mugabe’s journey
from inspirational young politician to isolated dictator.
It’s a story that will be familiar to anyone who has
ever read George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. Mugabe starts out with all the right
ideals, about democracy and self-determination, only to end up violent and
power-crazed.
What’s truly shocking and depressing about this
narrative, though, is that it’s non-fiction and that Mugabe remains president of
the southern African nation, albeit now old and reportedly very
ill.
The film tells both his story and the story of
Rhodesia’s transition to become Zimbabwe. Both are of interest to anyone who
cares about history, politics and human behaviour.
Zimbabwe came into being, officially, in 1980, when its
independence was internationally recognised after colonial and white-minority
rule.
Mugabe was an African nationalist, who led the Zimbabwe
African National Union from 1975, and was elected as prime minister of the
renamed independent country.
The footage of Mugabe’s early years in the public eye is
quite something to watch.
Can this determined and charismatic young African,
espousing the importance of democracy, really be the same man who will go on to
order massacres, rig elections, cause his people to starve and declare: “The gun
is mightier than the pen”?
Depressingly, it is. But Bright doesn’t attempt to
attribute the monstrous transformation to any single event in Mugabe’s
past.
Instead, he simply and clearly tells the complicated
life story of a man born in a country where he had no rights who became an
almost omnipotent figure.
We learn, for example, that during the struggle for
independence, Mugabe was jailed for 11 years by his white supremacist enemies
and wasn’t allowed out to bury his dead son.
Once in power, he created a government of unity, giving
positions in his cabinet to an opposition leader and a white former
Minister.
But it wasn’t long before allegations of horrendous
brutality by the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwean Army emerged.
A human rights report later determined that thousands of
civilians were slaughtered after independence to stem
insurrection.
Bright’s interviews with survivors are upsetting. One
man recalls dogs walking around carrying pieces of human
flesh.
And there is more horror to come as the documentary
details Mugabe’s violent intimidation of the media and the treatment meted out,
including gang rape, to those who dare to vote for his political
enemies.
As one Zimbabwean commentator puts it, the 88-year-old
will leave behind a “legacy of genocide and despair” when he finally
dies.
As such, don’t expect this film to uplift you but do
expect to come away better informed.
