VOA
By
Patience
Rusere
Washington
19 April
2006
Harare has cancelled a joint crop and food assessment with
the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. A spokesman for the
Rome-based
FAO said it received a letter from Zimbabwe's Ministry of
Agriculture
cancelling the upcoming project.
Zimbabwe said it will
conduct the survey on its own. Harare is reportedly
unhappy with a recent
World Health Organization report on life expectancy
that put the average for
Zimbabwean women at 34 years, the lowest of any
country in the world. Harare
also complains that agencies have issued food
projections without its
approval, this apparently a reference to the
U.S.-based Famine Early Warning
System.
FAO food food emergency officer Kisan Gujal told reporter
Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe said Harare's decision could
hamper efforts to
secure funding from donor nations to supplement
insufficient supplies of
maize and other staples.
News24
19/04/2006 21:16 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe, which is reeling under record inflation, on
Wednesday
launched a nine-month programme to revive its moribund
economy.
Economic planning minister Rugare Gumbo told a news conference
the new
economic blueprint, called the National Economic Development
Priority
Programme (NEDPP), was expected to see the country emerge from its
economic
troubles within the next six to nine months.
Gumbo said:
"The specific objectives revolve around the reduction of
inflation,
stabilisation of the currency, ensuring food security, generation
of foreign
currency, increasing output and productivity and effective policy
co-ordination."
Zimbabwe is in the seventh year of an economic
recession characterised by an
inflation racing towards 1 000%, chronic
shortages of foreign currency and
an unemployment rate hovering over
70%.
At least 80% of the country's 13 million population live below the
poverty
threshhold.
The government blames the situation on targeted
sanctions imposed by western
country while critics say the country's
troubles are the result of economic
mismanagement.
Gumbo acknowledged
the country "is currently facing critical economic
challenges that require
urgent attention and resolution."
Central bank governor Gideon Gono said
the new programme would see the
country raising $2.5bn in cash or
investment.
The programme, a collaboration of government and business,
will be overseen
by a national security council chaired by President Robert
Mugabe.
Mugabe told thousands gathered to celebrate the country's 26th
independence
anniversary in Harare on Tuesday the economic blueprint would
produce one to
two percent economic growth this year.
Gumbo said the
council had established task forces to cover such areas as
agricultural
recovery and mobilising foreign currency.
The policy was modelled along
the lines of similar economic recovery
programmes in Malaysia and
India.
April 20,
2006
By Oscar Nkala www.andnetwork.com
The
Zimbabwe Conservation and Development Taskforce (ZCDTF) has warned
of a
possible replay of last year's disastrous water shortages at Hwange
National
Park, the country's premier game park in the north-west.
Hundreds of animals died when the water pans went dry amid a grinding
regional drought, although the situation was also compounded by the
government's failure to look after general animal welfare in the country
since 2000.
In a statement released to the media from Harare
Tuesday, ZCDTF
chairman Johnny Rodriguez said water levels were dropping
rapidly in some
parts of the park, prompting an urgent need for the revival
and
rehabilitation of boreholes and pumps.
He said the ZCDTF
and the government's department of national parks
were also working to set
up some windmills to reduce the cost of fuel, which
is all but scarce in the
country. It is also prohibitively expensive when it
becomes available, often
at the illegal black market.
"Water levels are dropping rapidly
(around Hwange) now that the rainy
season has ended. We have to work hard to
ensure that all artificial water
pumps are functioning if we are to avoid a
repetition of the crisis we saw
last year," Rodriguez said.
The
crisis was compounded by the crippled state of the statutory
Department of
National Parks and Wildlife (DPNW), the body charged with
looking after the
animals and the parks habitats.
Like all government departments,
the DPNW has been incapacitated by
the nationwide shortage of foreign
currency, a situation that has rendered
it unable to procure new spares,
fuel and many of the imports the department
needs to function daily. Many
vehicles are broken down or without tyres, the
few functioning ones rarely
move because fuel remains scarce while
understaffing, poor pay and working
conditions have destroyed staff
enthusiasm for work.
As a
result the country is unable to treat and protect the animals
from disease.
The frequent outbreak of disease has since become a regional
problem,
affecting the neighbours each time there is an outbreak.
Because of
its inability to control diseases, Zimbabwe has been seen
as the source of
recurrence of foot and mouth, anthrax other animal diseases
in Botswana,
South Africa, Namibia and Zambia.
Apart from the regular
cross-border animal migrations, stock dealers
from Zambia, Botswana,
Mozambique and Zimbabwe have also taken advantage of
the porous and long
borders between states to smuggle live animals, bush
meat other un-inspected
animal products from quarantine areas.
Veterinary authorities in
Zambia and Zimbabwe have also expressed
concern about the porous nature of
the maritime border across the Zambezi,
which enables rustlers to steal
livestock from Zimbabwe and paddle them
across the Zambezi and into Zambia
in home-made ferries.
On the west, the veterinary service in
Botswana has also complained
about the booming cross-border trade in which
poverty-stricken Zimbabweans
are selling stock to Botswana villagers at
rock-bottom prices.
The ZCDTF took a lead in raising alarm about
the tragedy in Hwange,
receiving donations ranging from cash to vehicles
from across the world to
save the animals.
The latest delivery was
a load of second hand truck tyres donated by
Tyax Trading of Johannesburg
and Independent 4x4 of Pretoria.
Other corporate donors who have
contributed include Hwange Society UK,
Getaway Magazine, Dunlop, Flame Lily,
Safari Centre, Mitsubishi and Caltex.
Among the latest individual donors was
Columbus McKinnon who have away nine
10 m chains, which ZCDTF said would be
useful in saving distressed animals.
However the local indigenous
safari operators, who took a lead in
carving themselves up hunting
concessions in the aftermath of the February
2000 farm invasions, have never
helped since the water crisis gripped Hwange
National Park in October last
year.
AND Africa
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
AN estimated 10 000
Zimbabweans are winding-up business in Botswana
and are planning to relocate
elsewhere following the withdrawal of their
work and residents permit by
authorities in that country.
Among those affected by this decision are
doctors, nurses, teachers
and engineers who have been based in Botswana for
a number of years. The
immigration department in Botswana started
withdrawing permits from
Zimbabweans last year, claiming that most of its
citizens had acquired the
skills needed to take over the jobs.
Most
Zimbabweans claim the action by the Botswana government was
political and
that there is a new wave of xenophobia sweeping through the
country.
Don Mafingenyi, our correspondent in Gaborone, said most
companies
owned by Zimbabweans have closed shop and relocated mainly to
South Africa.
'Others are relocating to Europe, while a few have
managed to find
their way to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Not
surprisingly not even
one person is considering going back to Zimbabwe,'
said Mafingenyi.
A lot of Zimbabweans have been struggling in the last
couple of
months, many of them living from hand to mouth. As a way of
survival, many
have resorted to selling their household furniture including
their vehicles.
'Many of us have been selling furniture that we
acquired over the
years and it's very hard to part ways with things that had
become of
sentimental value to us,' he said.
Mafingenyi said the
Botswana government had virtually shut the door on
Zimbabweans and that
there were no longer any opportunities for anyone to
secure a job as long as
that person was a holder of a Zimbabwe passport.
'There is going to
be a mass exodus of Zimbabweans moving out of
Botswana and almost everyone
is not happy with the way they have been
treated,' he said.
SW
RadioAfrica
The Zimbabwean
BY A
CORRESPONDENT
HARARE - Everything is getting worse, from record high
inflation to record
low tobacco production, but as far as the state-run
media is concerned, no
one knows why or would even think to ask.
Recent
gems include The Herald, the main daily of the Mugabe regime, burying
deep
on an inside page the news that Zimbabwe has set another world record
(the
other being the lowest life expectancy) with inflation up from 782% in
February to 913.6% in March. ZTV relegated this appalling statistic, which
erodes what quality of life is left for ordinary Zimbabweans, to item 15 out
of 17 items on its newsreel.
"Even then, both media carried the matter as
a mere announcement without
interpreting it as a reflection of government's
failure to turn around the
country's economic fortunes," the media watchdog,
Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe (MMPZ), said in its report covering April
3-9.
This technique of reporting piecemeal the now-avalanche of bad news,
without
the slightest hint that it is due to corruption and economic
mismanagement
by those who cling to power, was also used extensively in
reporting of the
chaos in agriculture. The agricultural coverage was larded
with hailing
announcements, such a higher maize price and empty exhortations
by
officials, as some kind of panacea.
"The national broadcaster's
determination to subordinate the farming
community's concerns to government
plans was demonstrated by the way ZTV
(April 6) failed to link Vice
President Joyce Mujuru's demands for farmers
to revise upwards their winter
wheat target of 400 000 tonnes to the inputs
shortages riddling the sector,"
noted MMPZ.
Again, none of the state media asked Security and Land Minister
Didymus
Mutasa why at least 220 A2 farms in Manicaland are still lying idle
if the
seizure of white-owned properties has been such a success. Instead,
coverage
of meaningless statements by Mujuru while touring various so-called
"development projects" amounted to an itinerary being presented as
news.
The Herald even reported Tobacco Auction Floors representative Wilson
Nyabonde as telling a parliamentary committee that if tobacco production
continued to plummet (50 million kg from more than 200 million kg before the
land seizures) it could lead to the closure of the auction floors. But the
newspaper studiously avoided linking this - or anything else - to the
regime's
failed policies.
However, MMPZ noted that the private media -
apart from the Mirror stable,
which now apes the state mouthpieces -
categorically blamed the decline in
agricultural output on failed official
policies.
The Financial Gazette said bluntly that the crisis was due to "lack
of
forward planning, upside-down priorities and certain government policies
that have no basis in realities whatsoever." The weekly added that the food
shortages have more to do with "poor preparations than with intermittent
droughts," and added that the projected low yields in "one of the best
seasons in terms of rainfall, confirms this."
Zimbabwe Independent
columnist Eric Bloch argued that land reform could have
been a great success
if the regime had adopted a non-confrontational
approach, and co-operated
with white farmers and the international community
instead of behaving
"domineeringly, arrogantly and despotically."
Another state press special was
supinely reporting Information Minister
Tichaona Jokonya as claiming that
Zimbabwe has a better human rights record
than the United States. "Unlike
the US," said Jokonya, Zimbabwe has "no
ambitions of invading other
countries."
Given the economic situation, perhaps that is just as
well.
The Zimbabwean
BLANTYRE - Western diplomats in Malawi have threatened to boycott
the
European Union-funded road opening ceremony to be conducted in that
country
next month by President Robert Mugabe.
Political observers
described as 'suicidal' the Malawian government's
decision to name the road
after the Zimbabwean dictator and warned of
serious problems in Brussels,
headquarters of the body that funded the
construction of the Midima road
connecting Blantyre and Mulanje.
Malawi's Information Minister Patricia
Kaliati said his government
would proceed to host Mugabe and name the road
after him, despite EU
objections, because "Malawi is a sovereign state and
some civil society
organisations are being used by some members of the donor
community".
"If some countries have problems with Zimbabwe, that should
not
concern us. Malawi is a sovereign state, fully entitled to choose its
friends," Kaliati told the local press.
"Zimbabwe has been a friend
of Malawi for a long time, and it is
playing host to over five million
Malawians. If we quarrel with Mugabe,
where will these Malawians go? Will
some of these Western countries host
them?" she questioned.
Rafiq
Hajat, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy
Interaction (IPI), a
Blantyre-based think tank, said Mugabe's visit was
"highly irresponsible and
counterproductive on the part of the Malawi
Government and President Bingu
wa Mutharika."
He said by honouring Mugabe in this way, Malawi was
"slapping the EU
in the face".
Referring to Mugabe's well-known use
of public platforms to lash out
at the West, Hajat warned: "We are just
recovering from donor fatigue, we do
not have the luxury of being
self-sufficient to be doing this."
Meanwhile, Mutharika's Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) and Zimbabwe's
ruling Zanu (PF) will sign a
cooperation agreement during the visit, aimed
at "formalising the working
relationship between the two parties".
Malawi's leading daily newspaper
gave voice to public concern about
the visit, saying: "What is indeed
surprising is why the Malawi government
thinks Mugabe, whose policies have
created pot-holes on the once great roads
and the economy of Zimbabwe,
should open our newly-tarmacked road? Why not
name the road after African
leaders like former South African President
Nelson Mandela, former
Mozambican President Joacchim Chissano or former
President of Botswana
Ketumile Matsire who have nurtured democracy, civil
rights and followed
policies that have built, and not destroyed, the
economies of the countries
they were privileged to lead?"
The editorial said that by impoverishing
Zimbabwe "Mugabe has also
messed us up".
"Are we naive enough to
think that the EU, and indeed our other major
donors, will be indifferent to
the honour our government is according
Mugabe? Malawi has so many other
roads and other developmental projects
requiring help from EU, let the
government act in the best interest of all
Malawians," said the editorial. -
Own correspondent
The Zimbabwean
It is generally believed in
Africa that a political office is a sure way of
becoming rich quick, and
rising to a high position in the army, police, the
judiciary or civil
service opens the way to acquiring wealth.
Politicians, high civil servants,
top army and police officers are among the
main beneficiaries of the recent
"land redistribution". They are now running
their newly acquired farms from
a distance by cell phone.
That politicians are given lucrative non-executive
directorships and seats
on company boards is not unknown even elsewhere in
the world. In some
countries members of parliament and ministers of
government are obliged to
reveal their business interests and the industrial
shares they own.
But despite much abuse today, originally we had a
different concept of what
public service should be, an ethos and a moral
vision, which we badly need
now.
In this view civil servants are
respected for the service they render to the
state and the general public.
It is considered an honour to be an honest and
reliable servant working for
the common good and not just in one's own
self-interest.
The civil
servant does not aim at maximizing profit and acquiring great
wealth. In
turn he/she is given security of tenure and a guaranteed
life-long income,
including a good pension.
The idea that civil servants run businesses or
engage in farming in their
spare time (or even their working hours) is
foreign to the described ethos
of public service. In our country it is
traditionally and culturally assumed
that everyone is a farmer, regardless
of what other occupation a person may
have.
This may be practically
possible as far as subsistence farming is concerned.
It is no longer true
for modern commercial farming which needs specialist
training, much
technical and managerial experience and a total commitment to
farming 24
hours a day. Farming is not a way to get rich quick. Land without
a class of
professional farmers yields nothing.
We need public servants who give
themselves entirely to the service of the
state and its people, and we need
farmers who sink roots in their land and
are watching over their crops and
life stock, and taking care of their
workers, all round the
clock.
Zimbabwe needs a second liberation, freeing us from greed and
hunger for
power, from violence and fear. Part of this second liberation
will be the
rebuilding of the public service, giving civil servants pride in
serving
their country and fellow citizens.
A civil servant is not
someone who greedily grabs part of the state's
resources for himself. A true
civil servant is happy to be able to serve the
people whom he respects as
his employers, even if they are poor and not so
well educated. A complete
transformation of our minds is needed. - Oskar
Wermter, In Touch Jesuit
Communications
The Zimbabwean
'It's so lovely to be
free at last'
BY LUKA PHIRI
LONDON - Today I want to share my
detention experience with my fellow
Zimbabweans across the globe. I am back
and it's so lovely to be free at
last. I thank all those who prayed for me
to be released and most of all I
will like to thank Zimbabwe Association for
their wonderful work in blocking
my imminent removal.
As most Zimbabweans
I claimed asylum with a profound fear of persecution in
Zimbabwe. Back home
I was a close aide of MP Thokozani Khupe who has been
recently elected vice
President of MDC led by Morgan Tswangirai.
Congratulations to her, I know
she is a hard worker.
Back home I suffered physical torture and when I was
detained by the British
immigration I suffered psychological torture. You
are treated like a
criminal and worse if you are a failed asylum seeker. I
lost weight and had
sleepless nights. My first stop was Dover Removal Centre
(DRC). Dover was
once a prison and the regulations of the prison still apply
to every
detainee. I was locked up in cell with a Nigerian guy who had just
completed
five years imprisonment for fraud. He was waiting for his flight
back home.
Inside the cell there is a television, sink, bunk bed, two plugs
to charge
your mobile, if you have one, and a toilet. The cells are opened
at 8 am and
11am we are locked in again. At 12.45 pm the cells are opened
for lunch.
After taking our plates we are required to have our lunches in
the cells. At
5pm the cells are opened for dinner till 8.30pm and then
locked again for
the night.
I was moved to another detention centre after
my first removal was foiled
with the help of Zimbabwe Association and my
solicitor. This time I was
taken to Campsfield in Oxford. The rooms are
nicer and bigger and there is
free movement the whole day. I even had the
privilege of watching sky sports
and sky movies on big screen. There is a
library where I had my first
encounter with The Zimbabwean
newspaper.
Later I was moved to Tinsley. At this centre you get the "Harare
Sheraton
hotel" treatment. This is a five star detention centre. Every thing
is done
for you. What is needed from you is to sleep and eat and wait for
your next
flight. Giving the stars Dover will be one star, Campsfield, two
stars and
Tinsley, five stars. During the day I used to go to the library in
the
morning to read a paper while my room is been cleaned. Later I will go
to
the gym for two hours. Have lunch and later play pool. Now I have pool
skills and I am contemplating of running for world snooker
champions.
After 12 weeks I was released - but the struggle for Zimbabwe's
freedom will
continue until we are all free. This atrocious government of
Mugabe will
soon collapse. For those who are still in detention, I say do
not give up.
You will be out sooner than you think. Phambili ngokubambana
The Zimbabwean
By a staff member of
VOP radio
On December 15 last year, police raided Voice of the People (VOP)
radio
offices in Harare. I was out of town on private business but the news
was
relayed to me on my mobile.
Relatives and friends advised me to go
into hiding immediately for they knew
what would inevitably happen -
detention and torture at the hands of the
police. I would be detained
together with other board members and station
managers, even though the
charges would be pathetically insufficient to
warrant it.
Court officials
are unavailable during holidays, so detainees cannot be
brought to trial in
the 48 hours stipulated by our increasingly fragile and
often ignored
laws.
The "crime" for which I was sought was being a journalist and board
member
in one of Zimbabwe's few remaining independent news outlets,
VOP.
In fact, independent broadcasting had become so impossible in our own
country that we had been reduced to beaming our taped reports, made inside
the country, via a Radio Netherlands shortwave transmitter on the Indian
Ocean island of Madagascar back into Zimbabwe.
The Zanu (PF) government
was upset that villagers could pick up our signals
more clearly than those
of state radio and television, which broadcast a
steady stream of ruling
party propaganda.
I heeded my friends' and relatives' advice and went into
hiding immediately.
I threw a few clothes and personal belongings into my
bags and rushed to a
friend's house. I left my kids with my spouse and asked
relatives to check
on them the following day. But later on, during the
night, I worried about
my children and went back for them and sent them off
to my parents' rural
home.
I became a wandering refugee in my own
country. The enormity of living in a
country that does not value human
rights hit me like a tonne of bricks.
Not only did I have to abandon my
house, but my car too, in case they
spotted me driving around town. I
sneaked into town now and again, but I
felt very insecure and I had to rely
on the country's increasingly decrepit
and inefficient public transport. It
was the rainy season and I caught a
heavy cold which kept me bed-ridden for
days.
After the festive period, the kids came back from my parents' home so
they
could go to school. It was another headache, because my spouse was also
now
on the run. A long-time friend took the kids in. It was traumatic for
them
because they did not know what had happened to their mum and dad.
I
got word that the police were now searching vigorously for me and other
VOP
Radio executives. Ten policemen were permanently stationed outside the
house
of one of my colleagues. At another board member's place, they
harassed and
arrested a gardener and a driver, and broke a picture frame
containing my
colleague's photograph, which they took away with them.
Finally, our lawyer
intervened and took me and other senior colleagues to
the police station,
where six of us were charged with broadcasting without a
license under the
country's draconian media laws, which heavily constrain
press freedom.
Strictly speaking, we were not actively broadcasting, but
merely sending
taped reports to the Netherlands for subsequent transmission
from
Madagascar.
We were fingerprinted and photographed before appearing in court,
where we
were remanded on bail, each with orders to report regularly to
Harare
Central Police Station.
It was a relief to return to my own home
after two months on the run. The
grass was overgrown and water and
electricity had been cut off because of
unpaid bills. We had little money
because our income dried up with the
collapse of VOP.
Police found no
broadcasting equipment, only computers, during the most
recent raid on our
offices, although we are charged among other things with
transmitting
broadcasts illegally. Our counsel, the distinguished human
rights lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa, brought an expert witness, Amon Matambo, an
engineer, who -
in his testimony - defined broadcasting as the transmission
of an audio or
television signal via a transmitter.
We, the accused, did not possess the
necessary equipment and gadgets to
transmit programmes. Matambo further
argued that broadcasting via the
Netherlands and Madagascar did not
constitute broadcasting "in" Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean radio listeners were
merely recipients of products transmitted
from Madagascar.
Our case has
been adjourned and we return to court on April 27. Long ago we
applied for a
broadcasting license, but all applicants other than state
radio have had
their applications turned down. The government obviously
considers us
dangerous.
Defending freedom of thought and speech in Africa, and
particularly in
Zimbabwe, is not for the faint-hearted. But we take comfort
from the fact
that someone like former Liberian president Charles Taylor has
been arrested
and will be put on trial for crimes against humanity.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - Zimbabwe's ruling
elite's cavalcade now comprises 19 luxury
armour-plated vehicles bought
recently at a cost of £5,2 million (ZD1,5
trillion).
Mugabe's latest
indulgence, a custom-built Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullmann,
arrived in Zimbabwe
from Germany via South Africa. The other vehicles are
S320 models.
A
German company, Cloer, armour-plated the vehicle to the highest possible
specifications, a B7 Dragunov standard. The floor, roof, windows and petrol
tank
have been specially reinforced, as they are the most vulnerable
parts of the
vehicle.
It weights 3.850kg - more than double the weight of
an ordinary car.
The Mugabemobile's consumption is an un-eco-friendly 200km
to the tank,
which means he will have to take along a petrol tanker if he
wants to travel
further than Kwe Kwe. At between 35 and 40 litre/100km, the
car's fuel
consumption is twice that of a loaded, large 4x4
vehicle.
Depending on Mugabe's specifications, his car may have anything from
a DVD
and CD player, Internet access and telephone to special, heated (or
ventilated) leather seats and walnut finishes.
The tyres on the vehicle
can travel a further 50km after being punctured by
bullets. The driver can
address people outside the vehicle without opening a
window.
Apparently
the vehicles were ordered before the European Union instituted
sanctions,
prohibiting this sort of trade, against Mugabe and his cabinet
earlier this
year.
When Mugabe's car was delivered last week, it was reportedly taken
immediately to the nearest garage to check for listening devices.
The Zimbabwean
BY GABRIEL
SHUMBA
JOHANNESBURG - The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) is greatly alarmed
by recent
press reports that President Robert Mugabe is secretly negotiating
for
immunity from prosecution as a condition for leaving office. The
organisation, which documents and litigates on human rights abuses that have
occurred to Zimbabweans is gravely concerned that national, regional and
international bodies are not taking action to prosecute Mugabe and his
supporters for atrocities committed during his 26-year rule.
The reports
about secret discussions to grant Mugabe immunity are not only
disturbing
and shocking, but if true, a callous insult to those who have
been killed,
raped and tortured under Mugabe's brutal regime. ZEF is
especially concerned
that if Mugabe is allowed to escape prosecution in the
manner of other
dictators like Obote, Amin, Mengistu and others, this will
undermine the
positive precedent on the African Continent set by the recent
arrest of
Charles Taylor who is awaiting trial for crimes against humanity,
war
crimes, torture and other serious international crimes.
Instead of discussing
granting this tyranny immunity, ZEF is calling for
either the establishment
of a Special Court to prosecute Robert Gabriel
Mugabe and his lieutenants,
or that the United Nations Security Council
takes an initiative that will
see Mugabe prosecuted at the International
Criminal Court.
More than 20
000 people killed in Midlands and Matebeleland during Mugabe's
onslaught
against an ethnic minority will be turning in their mass graves if
Mugabe is
given immunity upon leaving office. I know hundreds of supporters
of the
opposition and white commercial farmers who were killed between 1999
and
2006 whose souls are crying out for justice. Close to a million have
also
been tortured and several other millions displaced under operation
clean out
filth.
To allow Mugabe to escape with such atrocities violates the principle
of
accountability and would allow impunity and future repetition that will
encourage a vicious cycle of dictatorship on the African continent. Such a
scenario will ensure that Africans remain third class citizens in the
context of global development and should not be encouraged.
Your vote is your answer
EDITOR - Thank you very much for allowing us to air
our views concerning our
beloved country. I would like to blow my trumpet on
the once-respected
Professor Welshman Ncube - who we thought was the true
professor for the
true MDC. But he failed to keep his deserved position
given by us - the true
supporters of the opposition.
I would like to ask
him please to stop misguiding people, saying that he is
the true MDC when we
are well aware of all that is happening. It would be
better from him to
continue associating with his Mugabe and looks for
another name for his
puppet party.
I appeal to Zimbabweans to leave the money-monger professor
alone with his
dirty game of putting national politics on a tribal basis.
Your vote is your
answer.
TINO MAMBEU, RSA
Confrontation -
NOW!
EDITOR - I would like to commend the leader of the MDC, Morgan
Tsvangirai,
for taking an unrelenting and defiant stand against the
political
machinations of Robert Mugabe's regime. His re-election to retain
the
presidency of his party shows that people have come to realise that
presently he poses the most genuine challenge to the evil despotism. This
marvellous development has certainly shaken pessimists and proponents of
factionalism.
Debate over which bloc is stronger (the pro-senate or
anti-senate) is a
sheer waste of our time. Those who have chosen a mistaken
mindset to partake
in fuelling tension and confusion among MDC supporters
are absolutely
disgusting.
I have a strong conviction that those with
sane minds will applaud
Tsvangirai's call for peaceful mass action. It is
common knowledge that Zanu
(PF) oppressors are adamantly refusing to yield
to an environment of
flawless elections.
Arrogance has become their
cherished norm and violence their hallmark. We
have all seen that African
leaders do not have the spine to effectively
encourage the aged dictator to
step down. To make matters worse, Thabo
Mbeki's self-styled concealed
diplomacy seems to have borne no fruit.
Against this backdrop we cannot fold
our hands and expect change to come by
itself on a silver platter. Let us
confront the regime now. No amount of
their intimidation should stop us in
our quest for free will. We definitely
need a new constitution to ensure our
protection from bad governance as well
as keep us in the same footing with
the rest of the democratic global
village. I have no doubt that the recently
assembled MDC team has the
capacity to lead us.
Although on the flip side
the brutal regime is making every effort to
prevent any renewed action of
civil disobedience, there is every reason to
believe that their atrocious
empire is nearing its end. It is gratifying
that despite the government's
militarisation of the state many of those in
the army and police now
recognise the need to seek political change as they
also begin to feel the
grinding effects of economic collapse. For that
reason the political
landscape appears poised for change. Mugabe's
self-imposed rule has
increasingly become of no relevance to us, hence his
departure is long
overdue.
JAY ZAT, Johannesburg
Tired of waiting
EDITOR - Now look,
wasting our time talking about some people's misfortunes
does not get us
anywhere. The point is that we Zimbabweans need freedom,
full stop. I lived
in SA myself and I have seen guys with a spine.
Zimbabweans say they have
experienced a liberation war before, that is why
they can't remove Mugabe
force. But that is no excuse. People die
everywhere - it is only a question
of time. If the MDC wants people to
fight Zanu we are plenty and really
tired of waiting to be contacted.
So when a war vet is complaining about
shortcomings that really gets me
annoyed coz they are the beneficiaries of
Zanu.
FIGHTER, Jozi