Comment from The Times (UK), 3 April
Jan Raath, The Times correspondent in Harare, says there are few
signs of
today's planned general strike, but that is hard to tell in a
country where
the factories run three days a week and four in five people
are unemployed.
"It's nearly a normal day here, but not quite. I would say
the message to go
to work has taken hold. There are a lot of people about
and most businesses
and shops are open that I have seen in Harare today. But
it's not just fear
that has prevented people from taking part in the two-day
strike though.
There have been reports of genuine intimidation, with members
of Zanu PF and
the Government's militias going into people's homes and
saying: 'If you
don't go to work, we will beat you up.' You have to remember
that 80 per
cent of Zimbabweans are unemployed, so there's often very little
to do
anyway, and the state of the economy is such that many factories are
only
operating for three days a week. All of which makes it hard to judge
the
effect of the strike. There is also the important point that in such
conditions, with inflation above 1,700 per cent, to ask a Zimbabwean to
forgo the chance of a day's work is a very serious thing to do. So it's not
quite normal, in terms of the activity of the city and businesses being
open, but what is very abnormal is the heavy security presence. There are
police everywhere, with trucks packed full of soldiers and police officers
making their way around the streets. Helicopters have been on patrol over
Harare all day and Israeli-made water cannons are in position in case of
trouble."
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: April
4, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe - A national strike lost momentum on
its second day
Wednesday, with many Zimbabweans too poor to afford staying
away from work
for long in a country in economic meltdown.
Commuter
buses ran normally, and a heavy presence of police and troops
deployed on
the first day of the strike Tuesday was mostly withdrawn. But a
military
surveillance helicopter flew over the capital after Information
Minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu warned that a national reaction force was still
on alert
and ready to move at a moment's notice.
The main labor federation called
the 48-hour strike to protest Zimbabwe's
economic crisis, the worst since
independence in 1980, accusing the
government of corruption and
mismanagement that has fueled official
inflation of nearly 1,700 percent -
the highest rate in the world - acute
shortages of food, hard currency and
gasoline.
Managers at a commercial firm in Harare reported that staff
said they came
to work Tuesday afraid of losing their jobs with little
prospect of finding
other work. Record unemployment is estimated at about 80
percent. On Monday,
Labor Minister Nicholas Goche said employers were free
to fire strikers
without going through often lengthy arbitration provisions
under labor laws.
Staff also admitted they didn't want to miss lunch at
the firm's canteen,
the only regular daily meal they could rely on. Some who
were supporters of
the strike stopped work after lunch, the managers said.
Others could not
afford to have their pay docked by two days.
While
the strike was reported to be successful on the first day, employers
reported a lower level of absenteeism on Wednesday and said businesses were
able to open.
"It's got nuisance value today, " said one factory owner
who asked not to be
identified. His production lines were disrupted Tuesday
when 40 percent of
the work force stayed away.
Officials of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, describing the strike as
quite
successful, accused ruling party loyalists at businesses of listing
the
names of workers who didn't show up as part of government intimidation
tactics. Workers feared being targeted later in a state-orchestrated
campaign of violent reprisals.
Independent Harare economist John
Robertson said deepening economic
hardships changed the traditional
animosity between workers and employers.
"Resentment in the workplace is
against the government rather than employers
who are trying against all odds
to keep their businesses running and workers
in their jobs. The business
sector is no longer seen as the enemy, the one
exploiting you," he
said.
That created loyalty to embattled employers, he said.
State
radio reported Wednesday that the strike had been "generally
peaceful."
Police arrested four people after youths stoned buses in
impoverished Harare
townships and attempted to erect makeshift barricades on
the streets. The
radio said there were no reports of violence or arrests in
other towns or
cities.
President Robert Mugabe was on a trip to Asia, the state Herald
reported
Wednesday. He was expected back at the weekend. No reason was given
for the
trip, which came after a month of escalating violence blamed mainly
on
police.
Mugabe has acknowledged Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the
main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, and least 40 opposition
activists were
beaten up while in custody last month after police crushed a
March 11 prayer
meeting they said was a banned political
protest.
Mugabe warned protesters they would be "bashed" again if they
continued to
incite violence, a reference to government accusations that the
opposition
is to blame for a wave of unrest and petrol bomb attacks,
allegations the
opposition has repeatedly denied.
On Tuesday, the
Herald, the main government newspaper, printed an apparent
death threat
against British Embassy political officer Gillian Dare,
accusing her of
financing what it called a terror campaign by government
opponents.
It called Dare "the purse holder and financier" of an
alleged terror
campaign.
"It will be a pity for her family to welcome
her home at Heathrow Airport in
a body bag just like some of her colleagues
from Iraq and Afghanistan,"
wrote David Samuriwo in an article on the
newspaper's leader page. "It is a
foregone conclusion Zimbabwe security
forces will definitely get an upper
hand sooner rather than
later."
Ringleaders of alleged violent resistance were already under
arrest and more
opposition officials were likely to be caught as
investigations continued,
the article said.
Staff and agencies
Wednesday
April 4, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The second day of a general
strike called by Zimbabwe's main trade union
body again had minimal impact
today as most workers, wary of a heavy police
presence and the risk of
losing their jobs, went to work as normal.
The first day of the 48-hour
strike, called by the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) to demand pay
increases for workers hit by
hyperinflation, saw some shops and factories
close in Harare and other
cities, but most were open as
usual.
According to local reports, more businesses were open
today. In central
Harare, full bus services were running, while post
offices, banks,
government offices and shops were all open, the AFP news
agency reported.
According to Reuters, even more squads of riot police were
visible in the
traditionally restive working-class townships around Harare
today than were
present yesterday.
Some workers who did stay at home
yesterday said they saw no point in
observing the second day of the strike
when so few others were joining them.
"We stayed away [yesterday] because
we thought that is the right thing to do
to express our grievances. But we
are here today because we realise it's not
going to make much of a
difference if only a few of us are going to heed
this strike," a worker at a
brick factory in Harare told Reuters.
The government of President Robert
Mugabe says the ZCTU has called the
strike as part of a plot by the main
opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), to oust the
current regime.
The country's state-run media gloated today over the
relative lack of
support for the stoppage, saying workers had defied the
unions because they
did not support their "western and imperialistic
agenda".
Mr Mugabe has repeatedly claimed that Britain and other western
nations are
backing the MDC as part of an attempt to unseat
him.
While the strike was officially called over pay, it was also viewed
as part
of the wider campaign to force Mr Mugabe from office after 27 years.
The
ambivalent support for the action appeared to reflect a widely held loss
of
confidence in the opposition's ability to challenge Mr Mugabe's
rule.
Last month, the leader of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, was badly
beaten in
police custody, prompting international protests. Mr Mugabe was
unrepentant,
however, saying the opposition leader had deserved to get
"bashed".
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, who has been appointed
by regional
leaders as a mediator in Zimbabwe, said yesterday he believed Mr
Mugabe
would step down.
Mr Mugabe, however, has said he has no plans
to do so. Last Friday, the
central committee of his Zanu-PF party endorsed
him to be the party's
candidate in next year's elections.
But the
economic crisis continues to put pressure on his government.
Inflation,
officially running close to 2,000%, could double by the end of
the year,
according to the International Monetary Fund.
Zimbabwe's economy has
fallen on the back of a sharp drop in agricultural
production since
white-owned farms were seized and redistributed to war
veterans, subsistence
farmers and the ruling elite.
Production of tobacco, once the largest
hard-currency earner, and food crops
is less than half what it was prior to
the repossessions.
Fin24
04/04/2007 11:23 Johannesburg -
Inflation in
crisis-riddled Zimbabwe is projected to reach at least 2 500%
this month,
the official Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The
paper said prices had risen between 200% and 500% since March 1, the
date a
price freeze was supposed to come into effect.
The annual inflation rate
in once-prosperous Zimbabwe is already at 1
729.9% - the highest rate in the
world.
But a new crisis, prompted by the detention and beating of
opposition
officials including Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai, has seen prices spiral out of control.
"It may
reflect profiteering intentions on the part of industry or it may
mean
genuine replacement pricing. It's a free-for-all and nobody knows
what's
really taking place in the market," economic analyst Midway Bhunu
said.
The Herald said consumer spending in Zimbabwe had reached rock
bottom
because disposable incomes had shrunk so
significantly.
Meanwhile, a two-day strike call to press for higher wages
appears to have
gone largely unheeded in the country. Analysts say this is
because
Zimbabwe's mostly self-employed workforce cannot afford to take time
off
work.
"It's a futile exercise to call people to stay away,"
political commentator
John Makumbe of the University of Zimbabwe
said.
Military helicopters hovered over central Harare suburbs on
Wednesday, the
second day of the strike. - Sapa-dpa
The Raw Story
dpa German Press
Agency
Published: Wednesday April 4,
2007
Johannesburg/Harare- State
agents allegedly
assaulted a
trade union
official in the eastern Zimbabwean
city of Mutare on
the
first day of a two-day strike, it was
claimed
Wednesday.
Takesure Muri, president
of the textile
workers union, was
assaulted
Tuesday after he and other workers
at Karina
Textiles
supported the strike called by the
350,000-strong Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions, an official in the union's
information
department
claimed.
"They beat him up," said
Khumbulani Ndlovu.
She said he was not
seriously hurt. The state agents had also
forced the general
manager
of the company to travel to the homes
of
workers to order them back
to work, the
official added.
Tuesday's strike was called
to push for higher
wages, better
conditions
and free access to anti-AIDS drugs.
The strike has
not
been widely followed and state media
Wednesday
declared it a flop.
However,
a few factories have been affected.
A large
cigarette-manufacturing company in
Harare has been
closed
for the past two days after its 200 or
so
permanent workforce heeded
the call to
stay away from work, a company
official said
Wednesday.
"We aren't making any
cigarettes," he said.
The workers at his
factory decided to stay away despite being
told that their leave
days
would be docked if they supported the
strike.
Conditions for the country's
workforce have
deteriorated rapidly
in
recent months, with prices of commodities
spiralling upwards on
a
near daily
basis.
Even the state-controlled Herald
newspaper
admitted Wednesday that
inflation
- already the world's highest at
over 1,700 per cent -
was
this month expected to surge to 2,500 per
cent.
© 2006 - dpa German Press
Agency
IOL
April 04
2007 at 02:22PM
Harare - Zimbabwe's state-run power company, which
earlier this year
declared itself broke, has hiked tariffs by 350 percent,
reports said on
Wednesday.
Mavis Chidzonga, commissioner of the
price-setting Zimbabwe
Electricity Regulatory Commission said there would be
further electricity
price hikes of 120 percent in June and 50 percent in
October in a bid to
make the loss-making ZESA Holdings viable, the Herald
newspaper said.
News of the hikes came as Industry and
International Trade Minister
Obert Mpofu warned the government would take
stern action against businesses
upping their prices.
"There was
no justification on price increases, some of which were
being done on an
hourly basis," Mpofu was quoted as saying.
Power and
transport costs are major push-factors on production. But
ZESA officials
maintained the 350 percent tariff hike would not have a major
impact on
prices already spiralling upwards amid the world's highest rate of
inflation.
The Herald claimed the new tariffs, which come into
effect this month,
would only increase the price of the staple maize meal by
1.5 percent, bread
by 0.04 percent and flour by 3.7 percent.
In
January ZESA Holdings said it had incurred a loss of 34-billion
Zimbabwe
dollars (about R970-million) last year by charging sub-economic
tariffs. The
company warned Zimbabweans to brace themselves for worse power
cuts.
This southern African country has been hit by perennial
power
shortages due to a shortage of hard currency needed to import excess
power,
and to refurbish broken down generators at its coal-fired power
stations.
Zimbabweans have been warned to expect a dark Easter, as
officials are
due to shut down the country's main domestic source of power
the Kariba
hydropower station for maintenance checks. - Sapa-dpa
Sydney Morning Herald
Miranda
Devine
April 5, 2007
For thousands of Zimbabwean exiles in
Australia - black and white - it is
excruciating to watch the tragedy
unfolding in their homeland. The former
Zimbabwean soldier Irvine Ndou, 30,
whose nine-year-old daughter still lives
there, can only watch in dismay
from his new home in Perth, and write
impassioned articles on his website
ZimbabweDemocracy.org.
"I fear Zimbabwe will become like Rwanda, where
everyone knew what was
happening but turned a blind eye," he said on the
phone yesterday.
"[Atrocities] are still happening in Zimbabwe right
now."
The former Rhodesia, once Africa's breadbasket, is a basket case.
But the
man responsible, the 83-year-old dictator Robert Mugabe, was last
week
endorsed by his party to stand again in "elections" next year, even
while
the world protested, albeit feebly, at his regime's escalating human
rights
abuses, such as the violent crackdown last month on the opposition
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
The New York Times reports hyper-inflation
in Zimbabwe at 1700 per cent and
tipped to rise to 5000 per cent this year,
unemployment at 80 per cent, life
expectancy at 36, the lowest in the world,
and malnutrition and starvation
as orphaned children scavenge in rubbish
heaps for food.
Ndou was detained and tortured by Mugabe's henchmen after
the rigged
elections of 2000, when he refused to help drum up support for
the
Government and was accused of working for the opposition. He and a
friend
escaped by foot into Botswana - walking all night in dark bush,
frightened
half to death by the "sounds of the lions and elephants" - and
then came to
Australia in 2003.
He grew up at a time when the
one-time militant Marxist Mugabe was being
feted by the West, loaded up with
honorary degrees from international
universities, and called a good friend
by the then Australian prime minister
Malcolm Fraser, who helped propel him
to power, but is now
uncharacteristically quiet on the subject. Meanwhile,
back in reality,
Mugabe's North Korean-trained soldiers were murdering as
many as 25,000
people in the southern province of Matabeleland in 1984 and
1985.
As the Rhodesian-born journalist Peter Godwin wrote this week in
The New
York Times, the massacres rated "barely a peep out of the
international
community. Somehow, to attack Mr Mugabe was to appear to be
giving succour
to white South Africa, and Zimbabwe's strongman was a master
at spinning it
that way."
Growing up in Matabeleland, Ndou remembers
classmates coming to school
having been raped and bashed, relatives
disappearing. Outside his school, he
says, he saw the body of a pregnant
woman whose child had been sliced out of
her.
He remembers a disused
mine into which 2000 people were herded and buried
alive. "African leaders
were complaining but unfortunately Britain and
America looked the other way
and said Mugabe was a good leader."
Ndou says the West really only became
concerned about Mugabe when white
farmers started being murdered. "If the
West wants to help Zimbabwe it must
first acknowledge [the Matabeleland
massacre] . They have never actually
condemned him for that."
Sharing
Ndou's sorrow is the Sydney filmmaker Chloe Traicos, 29, who
documented his
story in A Stranger in My Homeland, which won the best
director award for an
international documentary in the 2005 New York
Independent Film Festival.
When her white Zimbabwean family fled the country
in 1998, "we thought it
couldn't get any worse". At the time, the morning
newspaper was fat with the
names of farmers whose properties were being
confiscated.
Her
mother's family had arrived in Zimbabwe from Russia a century earlier
bringing the first tobacco plants. Her father, John, a lawyer, had played
cricket for Zimbabwe, and leaving their home was a wrench.
Most of
her friends in Zimbabwe were black and they, too, have fled, an
exodus of
educated youth Zimbabwe couldn't afford. She remembers growing up
under
Mugabe's rule, suffering a bit from Stockholm syndrome - a
psychological
defence mechanism in which captives identify with their
captors. "When you
grow up under a dictator and elections are being held
every year and he
always wins, you can't imagine who else could be leader
other than
Mugabe."
She and Ndou form part of an enormous opposition in exile, doing
what they
can to pressure the international community to exert more pressure
on
Mugabe. But the news is not good.
A planned two-day strike in
Zimbabwe organised by trade unions this week was
deemed a flop after police
and soldiers, with helicopters, roadblocks and
water cannon, intimidated
people into business as usual.
A crisis meeting in Tanzania between
Mugabe and southern African leaders
last week achieved little. It publicly
backed Mugabe, who blames Zimbabwe's
economic crisis on so-called "smart"
sanctions imposed by the West; he
claims he is being punished for seizing
white-owned farms.
The meeting also appointed the South African
President, Thabo Mbeki, as a
mediator between Mugabe and the opposition.
Mbeki is regarded as having
influence over his landlocked neighbour, and has
told reporters he believes
Mugabe will step down peacefully before next
year's elections.
But Mbeki's reassurances have been wrong before, his
previous softly-softly
mediations have failed and he shows no indication of
toughening his stance.
Mugabe "is a disaster, his country is just a total
heap of misery", the
Prime Minister, John Howard, said on radio last month.
"It's time that the
neighbouring African countries, particularly South
Africa, exerted political
pressure on Mugabe to go."
If diplomacy has
any value in high-risk situations, now is the time to prove
it. But Traicos
and Ndou remain pessimistic.
devinemiranda@hotmail.com
URGENT MEDIA
RELEASE
Faced with a rapidly escalating, brutal campaign of violence
perpetrated by
the Mugabe regime, Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change
has issued an
urgent appeal for medical supplies as well as funds for
medical costs, food
and legal assistance.
Their appeal comes in the
wake of a vicious crackdown on opposition
activists and supporters that
began with the planned day of prayer on Sunday
11 March and continues to
make headlines worldwide.
Since the start of the bloody crackdown by the
increasingly marginalized
Mugabe regime, up to 300 people are known to have
been beaten up or tortured
and the country's struggling hospitals are
battling to cope.
Injuries include serious eye damage, deep lacerations,
severe blunt-force
trauma to the abdomen, ruptured bowels, fractured limbs
and skulls, broken
ribs, shattered joints, gunshot wounds and extensive
damage from blows to
the back, shoulders, buttocks and
thighs.
Numerous women are among the victims, including a woman in her
late 30s who
was seven months pregnant. She was savagely beaten with a
baton and lost
the baby as a result. Two have been hospitalised in South
Africa.
There are fears of more bloodshed this week during the Zimbabwe
Congress of
Trade Union's stay away to demonstrate against oppression,
hyperinflation,
unemployment, poverty and the government's failure to
provide basic
services.
According to Roy Bennett, treasurer of the
MDC, up to 30 people a day are
being detained as the countrywide purge of
opposition groupings continues.
Bennett warned that the objective is to
destroy the opposition before the
glare of an election refocuses
international attention.
"Campaigning by Zanu-PF has been stepped up
dramatically," he said. "The
regime's strategy is to hammer people on the
ground by beating and torturing
them into submission or to incarcerate
them."
Bennett said Zimbabweans were frequently criticised for a
perceived lack of
courage and for not solving their own
problems.
"However, critics outside the country have to understand that
this regime is
ruthless in its desperation to hold onto power and extreme
violence remains
its most powerful weapon," Bennett explained.
"It
takes supreme courage to face the full might of the Zanu-PF military
machinery and no one is exempt, not even a 64-year old grandmother like
Sekai," he said.
Sekai Holland, the MDC's secretary for international
affairs, was gravely
injured during a two-hour torture session which
included her deputy, Grace
Kwinjeh, also a member of the organisation's
national executive.
Holland suffered multiple fractures including three
broken ribs, a broken
arm and leg as well as deep tissue bruising. After
being denied medical
attention for a dangerously long period, she underwent
surgery to insert
pins in her arm and leg, but her knee - which was also
shattered - required
specialist surgery in South Africa.
Bennett is
appealing for urgent medical supplies or funds to purchase MARS
(Medical Air
Rescue Service) kits. He says that funds are also required
urgently for
medical costs, food and legal assistance.
Government hospitals frequently
refuse to provide medical assistance to
opposition supporters and are
increasingly without medical supplies, so
private hospitalisation and
self-help are the only options.
MARS first aid packs and financial
donations
MARS first aid packs are required for emergency teams, medical
staff,
doctors dealing with torture victims, nursing sisters in high-density
suburbs and trained volunteers operating in vulnerable
areas.
According to a spokesperson, many victims are afraid to move
after violence
and brutality as they face the danger of further
beatings.
Financial donations would enable the organisers to purchase
customised MARS
packs valued at about R1 000. With inflation soaring well
past 1 700%, a
specialised MARS pack in Zimbabwe currently costs an
unaffordable Z$770 000.
For those who are willing to donate urgently
needed medical supplies, the
list includes crepe bandages, burn shield,
first aid dressings, surgical
strips, latex gloves, saline drip delivery
sets, space blankets and zinc
oxide strapping.
Donors who are able
to provide complete packs or items for the packs should
refer to the list
posted on the following websites: The Zimbabwean
www.thezimbabwean.co.uk or Zim Online
www.zimonline.co.za
Alternatively,
contact the organisers to discuss what is needed. Phone
Tracey Le Roux in
Johannesburg on +27 11 799 6100 or e-mail
pleasehelp@mdcregional.co.za
Audited
bank accounts have been set up in South Africa and the United
Kingdom for
this purpose:
South Africa
Account Name: Zimfund
Account
Number 1589406079
Bank: Nedbank
Branch: Brown Street Branch,
Nelspruit,
Mpumalanga, South Africa
Branch Code: 158952
SWIFT Code:
NEDSZAJJ
United Kingdom
Account Name: Zimfund UK
Account No:
80558850
Bank: Barclays
Sort Code: 20-46-60
Email: Zimfund@yahoo.co.uk
Note: Contents
of MARS kits are listed on page 4 of this release
Submitted on behalf
of:
Roy Bennett
Treasurer
Movement for Democratic
Change
Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 799 6101 (direct) or +27 11 799 6100
(shared switchboard,
office hours)
Cell: +27 82 388
4985
Enquiries:
Tracey Le Roux
Movement for Democratic
Change
Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 799 6100 (shared switchboard, office
hours)
E-mail: pleasehelp@mdcregional.co.za
Emergency
list 4 April 2007
ZIMBABWE CRISIS APPEAL
MARS (MEDICAL AIR
RESCUE SERVICE) KITS
CONTENTS OF EACH KIT
Antiseptic solution
2
Burn Shield 10 x 20 4
Burn Shield 20 x 20 1
Cotton
buds2
Crepe bandages 50mm and150 mm 10 each
Eye
ointment 1
First aid dressing size 5
8
Forceps 1
Gauze swabs 100mm 30
Glucose
sweets 10
Eyedrops 2
J-fasts 150
mm 2
Latex gloves
24
Loperamide 10
Malasone
20
Micropore 1
Normal Saline 1000mls5 plus
delivery sets
Paracetamol
30
Plaster 10
Safety
pins 6
Saline drip delivery sets
4
Scissors 1
Space
blanket 1
Stopyne
20
Surgistrip
1
Thermometer 1
Triangular bandages
8
Voltarin ointment 1
Wow bandages 2
Zinc oxide
strapping 1 Approximate cost of kit: R1 000
ALSO: THE
FOLLOWING ITEMS - ANY VOLUMES - WOULD BE MOST WELCOME
Betadine antiseptic
solution x 750ml
Betadine ointment
Crepe bandages 100mm and
150mm
Diclofenac 50mg x 200 tablets
Elastoplast x 10 rolls
Gloves -
sterile, size 7.5 x 20
Gloves - latex size medium
Orthopaedic wool 100mm
and 150mm
Paracetamol 500mg x 200 tablets
Paraffin gauze x 3
tins
Plaster of Paris rolls 100mm and 150mm
Sutures 2.0 nylon and 3.0
nylon
If you are able to provide items for the packs or complete packs,
please
phone
Tracey Le Roux on +27 11 799 6100 or e-mail pleasehelp@mdcregional.co.za
This
information will also be carried on the following websites: The
Zimbabwean
www.thezimbabwean.co.uk or Zim
Online www.zimonline.co.za
Information on bank
accounts to which donations can be sent are listed
overleaf.
/...
ZIMBABWEAN CRISIS APPEAL
FOR MEDICAL SUPPLIES AND
FUNDS
CONTINUED
Audited bank accounts have been set up in
South Africa and the United
Kingdom to receive funds:
South
Africa
Account Name: Zimfund
Account Number 1589406079
Bank:
Nedbank
Branch: Brown Street Branch, Nelspruit,
Mpumalanga, South
Africa
Branch Code: 158952
SWIFT Code: NEDSZAJJ
United
Kingdom
Account Name: Zimfund UK
Account Noumber:
80558850
Bank: Barclays
Sort Code: 20-46-60
Email: Zimfund@yahoo.co.uk
Cape Argus (Cape
Town)
April 4, 2007
Posted to the web April 4, 2007
Dianne
Hawker
Cape Town
A former Zimbabwean soldier living in Cape Town has
told how he and other
operatives would break up rallies and regularly follow
suspected opposition
members, particularly before elections.
And a
Movement for Democratic Change member, also living in the city, has
spoken
out about how he and other MDC members were kidnapped and beaten over
a
two-week period.
In an interview with the Cape Argus, former soldier
Brian Dzingirai told how
his unit often carried out "surveillance
operations" against those believed
to oppose President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF government.
He said he trained as a member of the Intelligence
Corps, and was later
moved to the more skilled Commando Regiment, which
helped "protect the
status quo".
Dzingirai said the unit was often
used to break up peaceful protests similar
to the one in Harare's Highfields
township, where MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai was severely beaten
recently.
He deserted the army in December 2005 after refusing to carry
out an order
to break up a demonstration.
"Now people are concerned
because Tsvangirai has been beaten, but many more
people have even died
before that," said Dzingirai.
According to the soldier, his former
regiment often joined forces with the
police and "went underground to deal
with demonstrations from the
opposition".
"To give you an example,
there are some people who were under surveillance
who have now disappeared,"
he said.
In a separate interview, he added: "They (the government) have
many spies
everywhere, even teachers and nurses.
"They used to deploy
us to watch people.
"We had to gather as much intelligence as possible.
If they could prove that
you were an enemy to the status quo, they would get
rid of you."
Dzingirai said he left the country after being arrested for
defying orders
to break up a peaceful protest at the Chitungwiza
township.
"We reasoned it in our minds and tried to voice our
concerns.
"We saw there was nothing threatening going on
there.
"But our policy is that if you land on the ground we don't leave
anything,
whether they are innocent or not," he said.
"Others were
loading their AK-47 and preparing their stun grenades.
"But we were still
defying the order.
"We refused everything.
"I cannot say if anyone
was killed because I don't have any evidence of
that. But people were
beaten.
"I still have nightmares about what happened."
MDC member
Calvin Tapa, who has fled to Cape Town, said that the government
intelligence groups were a law unto themselves in Zimbabwe.
The
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is a state intelligence wing,
while
the Intelligence Corps forms part of the army.
Tapa, who is MDC-UK
chairman Ephraim Tapa's nephew, now lives in a shelter
in Wellington after
fleeing Zimbabwe earlier this year.
He recalled an incident in 2002 in
which he and several other MDC members,
including his uncle, were "kidnapped
and beaten" for two weeks by members of
the CIO.
According to Tapa,
he, Tsvangirai, Ephraim Tapa and his wife Faith Mukwakwa
were followed while
campaigning in the Mushibo area.
Everyone else but Tsvangirai was
subsequently kidnapped and held for two
weeks by intelligence
operatives.
"They were beating us and threatening to kill us.
"A
message finally got out with one of the intelligence guys who was only
pretending to be Zanu-PF," said Tapa.
The group was finally released
after several high court appeals.
Dzingirai said many army, police and
intelligence members "do not agree with
the Zanu-PF political stance", but
feared losing their jobs.
As a result, he believes "about 5 000" army
members have deserted, leaving
for South Africa, Botswana, the UK and other
countries.
"Definitely, people in Zimbabwe are searching for a messiah,
someone who's
not afraid of being killed.
"If the opposition is
really serious, they can take advantage of the fact
that so many policemen
and army people are leaving.
"They can start a revolution from outside
the country," said Dzingirai.
Both men still have family in Zimbabwe, and
fear for their lives if they are
made to return under the current
regime.
While Dzingirai says he was able to receive the official
documentation
required to stay in South Africa through a university law
clinic, Tapa is
still awaiting an appointment at the Refugee Reception
Centre
News24
04/04/2007 09:33 -
(SA)
Waldimar Pelser, Beeld
Johannesburg - Young women used
iron rods to beat pleading grandmothers and
called them whores, while a
policewoman shouted "Now go for the heads!"
This is how a prayer meeting
in Harare, Zimbabwe, turned into an "orgy of
violence", says William Bango,
53, a senior Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) member and spokesperson
for party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Bango told Beeld from his
Johannesburg hospital bed how he, Tsvangirai and
other MDC members were
beaten with "unheard of cruelty" by Zimbabwean police
on Sunday March
11.
Bango described seeing a grandmother, 64-year-old Sekai Holland,
repeatedly
hammered with a pole by young women who called her "one of
Blair's whores".
He was admitted to Netcare Milpark hospital with
internal injuries on March
25, after flying into South Africa the previous
day to attend a meeting, and
nearly collapsing shortly
afterwards.
Internal injuries
With 27 shiny metal stitches holding
his stomach together, he gave his
account of his brutal assault and how
doctors had to carry out an emergency
operation to examine his internal
injuries.
The assault took place at the Machipisa police station, where
Bango and
other MDC activists were taken after police banned a prayer
meeting in
Highfield township.
"We were ordered to lie on the ground.
Then the orgy of violence began, with
the usual accusations that we were the
puppets of Tony Blair and the whites,
and that we wanted to give our land
back to the colonialists.
He was still wearing a drip attached to his
left arm, despite being moved
from the hospital's high care unit two days
before.
Bango said he phoned Tsvangirai, who arrived 20 minutes later. By
that time,
about 45 MDC members had been assaulted on a plot of land near
the charge
office.
"The beatings lasted for three-quarters of an
hour. They even dragged
Tsvangirai from his idling car, and began hitting
him. The woman in charge
shouted: "Now the ribs! Now the buttocks! Now go
for the heads!"
'There are certain things you don't do in
Africa'
Referring to the assault of Holland and another woman, Grace
Kwinje, both of
whom were being treated at Milpark, Bango said: "There are
certain things
you don't do in Africa. To beat grandmothers like that is
crueller than
anything I've ever seen in the films, or in
fiction."
He and 11 other activists were kept in a single cell with 30
young criminals
in the city's central police station for two days, without
food or water.
His wife was not allowed to visit him.
Bango said
President Robert Mugabe and his nationalists had "served their
purpose, but
it's time to hand over power, not necessarily to the
opposition, but to
their own people".
Ironically, Zimbabwe was sliding back steadily to the
"iron age" just as
South Africa was getting ready for 2010 Soccer World Cup,
he said.
"But South Africa can't exist as a supermarket in the desert.
The entire
tournament will suffer if there's a thug in the
neighbourhood."
By
Lance Guma
04 April 2007
Online website Talk Zimbabwe.com reports that
it has impeccable information
that a special police department has been
given the green light to detain
and beat up people active in organising
protests. The website claims the new
force is named 'Department 5' and is
composed of specially trained hit
squads that are specifically targeting
'civilians.' Members of this unit do
not wear uniforms and stick to civilian
clothing. Opposition officials have
confirmed their members are being
abducted by individuals in civilian
clothing.
Itayi Garande who edits
the website says their sources have fingered Zanu PF
political commissar
Elliot Manyika as the driving force behind the new
department. He said
Manyika has already called on Zanu PF youths and war
veterans to prepare for
a campaign of violence against the opposition and
that the minister was
quoted as saying they had to be "silenced at all
costs." He says it was
Manyika who led the cheerleading when the ruling
party's central committee
met on Friday to endorse Mugabe running for a
further five-year
term.
Unemployed youths within and outside the Zanu PF ranks are being
recruited
and allegedly offered as much as US$1000 per day during special
operations.
Garande says Department 5 has been used to intimidate people
into going to
work despite the 2-day stay away called by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade
Unions. According to Garande its not yet clear whether the
name 'Department
5' is meant to draw traumatic images of the 5th brigade
which murdered close
to 20 000 people in Matabeleland, but the similarity
appears deliberate.
Talk Zimbabwe says this department has been in
training since last year and
is a secret force whose presence some senior
Zanu PF members are not aware
of. 'They are a swift and brutal group. They
are trained in torture and
sniping tactics. This force is the most brutal
force in dealing with
civilians,' a source told the website. 'They operate
in civilian clothes and
will often make friendships with members of the
civilian population to gain
the information they need. Your neighbour could
be a member of Department 5.
They are highly paid and supported,' the source
added.
Garande was keen to emphasize that Department 5 is a developing
story and
more information would become available with time. The unit is
also
allegedly linked to the Special Air Services but Garande says that
angle of
the story is still being fully investigated. There was however a
significant
use of helicopters in their operations, he conceded. The unit is
being used
to create incidents of violence to justify brutal responses by
the security
forces. Already a Zanu PF vigilante group known as Chipangano
is recruiting
bus rank marshals from places like Mbare and has been
identified as leading
some of the abductions of opposition activists.
Whether they also fall under
Department 5 is still
unknown.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance Guma
04 April
2007
Gory details of how Raymond Bake, the coordinator for ward 34 in the
Combined Harare Residents Association, was tortured by police have been
released to the media by his lawyer. Alec Muchadehama said Bake was ordered
to lie prostrate on a railway line and told they wanted him run over by a
train. His dreadlocks were tied to police vehicle rails before the police
started pulling him away and plucking the locks from his bleeding scalp. He
was later beaten using booted feet and baton sticks all the way to Harare
Central police station. Once there officers in the law and order section
took turns assaulting him before they transferred him to Matapi police
station in Mbare. The beatings continued there.
Bake is being accused
of bombing Marimba Police Station and throwing another
petrol bomb into a
passenger train travelling to Bulawayo. Police allege a
piece of cloth was
found at the scene, which matched another one found at
Bake's house.
Muchadehama says his client is still being denied medical
treatment. The
police tortured Bake and forced him to write 5 different
statements
implicating several other activists for the bombings, which many
have
dismissed as a government ploy to impose a state of emergency. Press
reports
say Bake appeared at the magistrate's court with a shaven head and
looked in
extreme pain. He was amongst those denied bail on Monday and
remanded in
custody to the 16th April.
Three bail applications have so far failed to
secure the release of
opposition activists who were arrested last week as
part of the government
sanctioned crack down. Defence lawyers have sought to
get magistrate Gloria
Takundwa to recuse herself from the case citing bias
but she refused to do
so, arguing there was no evidence to that effect. The
High Court will now
hear the bail application Thursday morning according to
Muchadehama. The
state has refused to allow medical treatment for some the
activists who were
abducted from hospital saying a prison nurse had
confirmed that they were
now okay. This is despite the activists themselves
confirming they needed
treatment.
In other related stories the
Zimbabwe National Students Union reports that
suspected state security
agents bombed the University of Zimbabwe new
Complex 4 dining hall on
Tuesday. 'A huge and frightening ball of fire
engulfed the building
destroying property worth trillions of Zimbabwean
dollars,' the union said
in a statement. They say a petrol bomb was thrown
into the building at
around 10pm and students had to vacate the campus
residence fearing for
their safety. 'The vampire regime is carrying out an
evil operation of
petrol bombing police stations, passenger trains and
shops, blaming it on
the opposition,' the students union said.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
04 April, March 2007
The propaganda campaign that began
last week to instil fear in Zimbabwe's
workers continued on Wednesday as the
job stay-away organised by the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) went
into its second and final day.
State controlled media reports warned people
to go to work and patrols in
many areas maintained a fearful
atmosphere.
The daily abductions of opposition officials and supporters
continued with
the kidnapping of Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general of
the Progressive
Teachers Union (PTUZ). Witnesses said he was abducted at
gunpoint on Tuesday
by suspected CIO agents in Milton Park, Harare. It turns
out Majongwe is
also a member of the ZCTU general council and the PTUZ is an
affiliate of
the national labour body.
Our contacts on the ground said
some more shops and businesses that were
closed Tuesday opened on Wednesday
after tight security was deployed in the
industrial areas. They said many
people who went back to work on this second
day did so out of fear of losing
their jobs in a country where unemployment
is above 80%. The few who were
brave enough stayed home. In solidarity with
the ZCTU, protesters
demonstrated in Johannesburg and Pretoria in South
Africa and at the
Zimbabwe Embassy in London.
In South Africa solidarity with the ZCTU
stay-away continued with a second
day of protests organised by the Congress
of South Africa Trade Unions
(Cosatu). One was in Johannesburg at the
Zimbabwean Consulate and the other
in Pretoria at the High Commission. There
were no top union leaders at
either venue as it was on Tuesday when COSATU's
general secretary Zwelinzima
Vavi addressed the crowds. Craven said Vavi
spoke out about the appalling
economic situation in Zimbabwe and the attacks
on opposition leaders. He
also handed a memorandum about these issues to the
Zimbabwe Embassy. Craven
said the memo was accepted by a junior officer who
angered the crowd with
his dismissive attitude.
The ZCTU stay-away
was also supported across the oceans in the U.K. where
the Trade Union
Council (TUC) and Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) held a
protest
demonstration at the Zimbabwe Embassy in London. Alois Mbawara and
his
colleagues from the FreeZim pressure group were there in solidarity with
the
workers back home. Mbawara said although about 50-60 people turned up,
the
event was a success because it was a weekday at lunch time when no-one
would
normally be there. Protesters held placards with clear messages,
including
"Power to the working classes" and "Poverty Datum Line for Zim
working
class".
Analysts have said businesses are the key to the success of mass
action
stay-aways. Employers should assure their workers that they would not
lose
their jobs and should support protests. In the end companies can only
benefit if a democratic society can be created and the
econo
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 04/05/2007 04:55:48
A
ZIMBABWEAN magistrate on Wednesday turned down a FIFTH bail application by
13 opposition activists facing charges of setting off several petrol bombs
across the country, their lawyer said.
Lawyer Alec Muchadehama said
he would now approach the High Court
to secure the release of the activists,
all of them members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Muchadehama said: "The magistrate dismissed our application today
for the
fifth time. We were also seeking that the magistrate recuse herself.
We are
now going to the High Court."
The 13 include two senior aides
of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- his
advisor Ian Makone and Glen View
legislator, Paul Madzore.
The 13 were rounded up in a police swoop on
Tuesday last week which saw the
MDC HQ cordoned off. Several searches were
conducted at several properties
around Harare and police said they had
recovered explosives.
Police also said one of the suspects had burns,
suggesting he had been
injured during one of the petrol bombings. Police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena
AND President Robert Mugabe have both pointed the
finger of blame at the
MDC, accusing the opposition party of getting support
from western countries
to destabilise the country.
The MDC rejects
the accusations, and insists that the government is trying
to justify a
country-wide clampdown on opposition gatherings and arrests of
its
members.
"We are aware of Mugabe's tired tricks of planting arms
on perceived enemies
since the days of the former PF-ZAPU led by Joshua
Nkomo and Ndabaningi
Sithole's ZANU (Ndonga), which was falsely accused of
plotting to kill
Mugabe," said Tendai Biti, an MDC MP.
In all, police
say 10 petrol bombs have exploded in recent weeks. Four
police stations in
Harare, Gweru, Mutare and Chitungwiza have so far been
bombed. Several
police officers have suffered burns during the attacks.
Meanwhile a
mysterious fire gutted a dining hall at the University of
Zimbabwe on
Tuesday night.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said police are still
investigating but
he could not immediately say if it was a petrol
bomb.
"We are still investigating, and we are not ruling out arson,"
Bvudzijena
said.
International Federation of Journalists
(Brussels)
PRESS RELEASE
April 4, 2007
Posted to the web April 4,
2007
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today
condemned recent
attacks by the police and other members of the country's
security forces,
who last week assaulted, arrested and brutalised
journalists and confiscated
and destroyed the journalists'
equipment.
"The IFJ is deeply concerned by the continued brutalisation,
harassment,
intimidation, forceful arrest and detention of journalists in
Zimbabwe,"
said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office. "Such
inhumane
treatment of journalists shows a flagrant disregard for their
fundamental
human rights and respect for the rule of law. The Government of
Zimbabwe
must provide the conducive environment that allows journalists to
perform
their duties without fear or intimidation, as expected of any
democratically
elected government."
A correspondent of the
Zimbabwean newspaper, Gift Phiri, was abducted by
police from his house on
Sunday and detained by police in the capital,
Harare. The police later
returned to his house and confiscated his computer
and collected some
business cards.
Reports from Zimbabwe indicated that Gift Phiri, who is
still in police
custody, has been severely beaten by the police. His wife,
Tevedzerai
Maphosa, was able to visit him on Monday and said Phiri is "in a
bad shape."
Two other journalists, Tawanda Musiyazviriyo and Tsvangirai
Mukwazhi, both
of whom are correspondents for international media, were also
recently
arrested and their equipment confiscated and destroyed by the
police. Tapiwa
Zivira, a student journalist with The Standard, the only
remaining privately
owned Sunday newspaper was attacked by police last week
when he was covering
a planned demonstration by city
residents.
Another trainee journalist, Tapiwa Chininga, who is working
for the
state-owned news agency New Ziana, was said to have been fired for
asking
the "wrong" questions. Chininga was arrested and could face criminal
charges
after he asked police why they did not feel guilty for killing an
opposition
activist, according to reports.
The IFJ urges Zimbabwe's
government to put an immediate end to these
arbitrary arrests of journalists
and to release all imprisoned media
workers, especially those journalists
who are presently in custody due to
bogus accusations and other flimsy
charges. The Mugabe Government should
endeavour to uphold its commitment to
respect human rights and ensure that
those police officers who take the law
into their own hands and wilfully
assault journalists are brought to
justice.
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 100
countries.
IOL
April 04 2007 at
12:39PM
By Dianne Hawker, Zama Feni Siyuvile Mangxamba and Murray
Williams
Cape Town is taking heavy fall-out from the worsening
Zimbabwe crisis,
as thousands of asylum-seekers flood into the
city.
They favour Cape Town, Zimbabweans say, because the threat of
deportation and the level of violence are lower than elsewhere in South
Africa.
Official statistics say that 2 750 Zimbabweans have
arrived in the
city so far this year, compared to 1 083 registered in March
2005 to April
2006 period, according to home affairs
'Would not go back as long as Mugabe was in power'
But the figures do
not account for the thousands of Zimbabweans who
flood across the border
illegally to escape the turmoil under the presidency
of Robert
Mugabe.
The Sunday Times reported this past weekend that as many as
49 000 a
month were entering illegally. Up to 150 a day were being detained
at the
Lindela Repatriation Centre near
Johannesburg.
Sandy Kalyan, the DA spokesperson on home
affairs, said MPs on the
parliamentary portfolio committee were told last
week that there were around
111 000 Zimbabwean refugees in SA last year, but
officials had managed to
process only about 7 000 of them. "But the reality
is that the number is far
higher than that," she said.
"The
department does not have the systems in place to accurately
monitor
numbers.
"And the borders are so porous and not manned properly.
The reality is
that the department has lost control of the
situation."
Chris Maroleng, a senior researcher at the Institute
for Security
Studies, said this morning: "Refugees are coming to South
Africa mainly as a
result of the economic crisis, which has seen
unemployment calculated at 80
percent and inflation at just under 2 000
percent.
"In a situation in which basic commodities are in short
supply - like
fuel and the staple food, maize meal - so many people have
looked for
greener pastures.
"South Africa has proved to be one
of the favourite destinations,
because it is seen as having abundant
economic opportunities.
"South Africa also offers the possibility
for people to integrate,
because of its diverse ethnic and racial
composition."
He said the influx could have a "negative impact on
social and
economic infrastructure of this country and place a burden on the
government's ability to deliver services to its own people".
A
visit to the local Refugee Reception Centre on the Foreshore
revealed that
it is inundated with applicants for asylum, and cannot cope .
Asylum-seekers interviewed this week told the Cape Argus illegal
Zimbabweans
in Gauteng were more likely to be deported than those in Cape
Town.
In Gauteng they often had to pay bribes to get out of
jail.
Yolisa Mkalipi, regional manager for the Home Affairs agency
Refugee
Reception Centre, said a number of asylum-seekers were in the city
for
economic reasons.
"However, this year it is mainly
asylum-seekers seeking refugee status
for political reasons."
A
Zimbabwean business student at UCT, Simbarashe Mutongwizo, said he
was an
"academic refugee" and would not go back as long as Mugabe was in
power.
"That door is closed by the dictatorship. The house is
no longer my
home and I am an academic refugee because I cannot be educated
in my
country," he said.
Julia, a mother of two who crossed
into South Africa illegally on
March 25, said she came to Cape Town to avoid
"violence" in Johannesburg,
but still lived in fear of being arrested for
not having proper
documentation.
"I've been here (at the
refugee centre) almost every day and I still
don't have an
appointment.
"I don't know what a kind of job I can get because I
don't have the
right papers. But I feel safer here," she said.
Julia, who withheld her full name, left her children - aged three and
five -
for a safer life in South Africa.
Her family was left destitute
after the government closed down the
fruit and vegetable stand which was
their main source of income.
She journeyed from Harare to the
Limpopo River in a truck along with
four other people. After being dropped
several kilometres from the river,
the group began their journey across the
border.
She now lives in Khayelitsha.
Former Movement
for Democratic Change activist Lucky once narrowly
escaped being deported in
2004 while living in Hilllbrow. He said it
appeared there was a smaller risk
of deportation living in Cape Town.
This article was originally
published on page 1 of Cape Argus on April
04, 2007
The Raw Story
dpa German Press
Agency
Published: Wednesday April 4,
2007
Stockholm- Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on
Wednesday
criticized developments in Zimbabwe during a meeting with
several
African ambassadors based in Stockholm.
"I want to develop good
ties between the European Union and the
African Union, but currently we have
a situation in Zimbabwe that
risks creating big problems for the larger
dialogue we need," Bildt
told Swedish radio news after the
meeting.
Bildt said that the "political events in Zimbabwe create
enormous
problems for the economic and social development" in the
southern
African state, noting the record-high inflation and drop in
life
expectancy.
The Swedish foreign minister said that he believed
that
neighbouring states were losing patience with Zimbabwe's
President
Robert Mugabe, although they do not express that openly.
"My
impression is that the neighbouring countries are more and
more troubled and
realize that if they don't take their
responsibility this will affect
Africa's chances of for instance
developing cooperation with the European
Union, which they are keen
to do," he said.
Bildt said that the
27-nation EU was also mulling imposing more
travel bans against key
individuals in Zimbabwe who have been
"involved in what we consider to be
violations."
© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency
Zambia News Agency -
Harare,
April 4, 2007, ZANIS------The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students'
dinning
hall was gutted by fire on Tuesday night in what is suspected could
have
been a petrol bombing. Several windowpanes of the New Complex 5 dining
hall
were shattered and the roof of the hall partially curved in. A check by
Zimbabwe's national News Agency, New Ziana visited the dinning hall
yesterday and students who were mingling around the hall and security guards
said the fire started at about midnight. Zimbabwe's Police spokesperson,
Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, confirmed the incident saying that
investigations into the cause of the fire were underway. He said the value
of the property damaged in the fire was still being assessed, adding that
they had not received any reports of injuries. The UZ director of
information and public relations, Taurwi Mabeza, told New Ziana that the
dining hall had been extensively damaged, adding he could not comment
further for fear of interfering with ongoing police investigations. The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change has been terrorising the public
through petrol bombing various government institutions, including a National
Railways of Zimbabwe train, police stations and recently, a supermarket, in
its campaign to discredit the government and cause alarm and despondency
among members of the public. ZANIS/New Ziana/ENDS
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Continued violence may be attempt to bring opposition to heel in
advance of
planned peace negotiations.
By Nkosinathi Ndlovu in
Bulawayo (AR No. 107, 4-Apr-07)
Security force intimidation and
brutality continues unabated, despite
proposed peace negotiations between
the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change,
MDC.
Some believe the violence is an attempt by President Robert Mugabe
to soften
up his rivals prior to the talks, which are to be brokered by
South African
president Thabo Mbeki
The climate of intimidation led
to the failure of the two-day general strike
organised this week by the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, to
garner widespread support, say
observers.
The ZCTU demanded a ten-fold increase in the industrial
minimum wage to at
least one million Zimbabwe dollars a month (about 60 US
dollars). It also
wants Mugabe's government to address the seven-year
economic crisis that has
manifested itself in the highest inflation rate in
the world, massive
joblessness and poverty.
There was a heavy police
presence in most of Harare's densely-populated
suburbs this week and reports
of police brutality in recent weeks
undoubtedly weakened the resolve of
workers to support the strike.
"Images of [Nelson] Chamisa (the MDC
spokesperson), Morgan Tsvangirai, Grace
Kwinjeh, Sekai Holland and other MDC
activists arrested recently are still
fresh in people's minds. Mugabe has
succeeded in intimidating people and
this is why we have a cowed population
unwilling to participate in any mass
action despite the hardships," said
Highfield resident Jonathan Ncube.
Savage beatings by police of MDC
officials abducted from their homes and
party offices last week led a Harare
magistrate to refer them for medical
treatment. Two of the men, MDC national
executive member Ian Makone and an
activist, Shame Wakatama, were apparently
unable to stand on their own.
This followed the widely condemned brutal
attacks on MDC leaders while in
police custody on March 11 for attending
what the government deemed a banned
meeting.
The attacks prompted the
convening of an emergency meeting of the Southern
African Development
Community, SADC, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss
the deteriorating
security situation in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, DRC, and
recent elections in Lesotho.
Commenting on last week's attacks on members
of his party, MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai said, "They were brutalised. They
are in bad shape but in high
spirits."
Police claimed those arrested
were linked to a spate of alleged petrol
bombings, which they blame on MDC
supporters "bent on illegal regime change".
The MDC has denied the
allegations.
One political analyst said the rise in repression was not
the action of an
aimless dictator but a strategy meant to intimidate
opponents and
demonstrate that the security agencies, contrary to opposition
claims that
there have been rumblings of dissent in their ranks, were still
prepared to
take his orders.
"We may yet see more repression in the
weeks or months ahead before the
proposed peace talks that SADC has mandated
South African president Thabo
Mbeki to broker between ZANU-PF and the MDC,"
said the analyst.
"It (negotiate) is something Mugabe hates doing but he
cannot continue to
defy world opinion and regional leaders about the
terrible economic and
worsening political situation in the
country."
The analyst said the attacks on the opposition, and in
particular its
leadership, were meant to break its spirits before the
negotiations.
"They must submit to his will, even to humiliating terms
[for negotiations].
Mugabe cannot endure meeting Tsvangirai on equal terms,"
he said. "What
Mugabe wants is to set the terms of the negotiations and to
do that he must
show that he is still in charge."
The analyst gave
the example of the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo against
whose party, PF-
ZAPU, Mugabe launched a bloody military campaign in the
early 1980s before
swallowing it in the much-derided Unity Accord of
December 22,
1987.
That campaign left 20,000 innocent civilians dead after Mugabe
openly
declared that the army did not distinguish between ordinary people
and
dissidents. Up until now, he has used the same crude language against
those
opposed to his rule, saying recently that they will be
"bashed".
Tsvangirai said the proposed talks between his party and
ZANU-PF offered the
country a "last chance". At the same time, his
secretary-general Tendai Biti
said while the MDC trusted Mbeki as a broker
it had no faith in Mugabe.
"The proposed dialogue might offer Zimbabwe
one last chance, "said
Tsvangirai. "Such dialogue is as necessary as it is
long overdue, but .
cannot take place under conditions of thuggery and
violence against the
opposition."
Tsvangirai said dialogue, a new
constitution, an overhaul of electoral laws
and free and fair elections were
the only solutions to Zimbabwe's problems.
Since 2000, Mbeki has failed
to bring the two warring parties to the
negotiation table because Mugabe has
rejected any preconditions. Analysts,
however, see a better chance now that
Mbeki has been sent by SADC to speak
on its behalf. They also suggest that
Mbeki wants another feather in his cap
to add to those he earned for
brokering peace in the DRC and Rwanda, before
his term ends in
2009.
Mbeki has also warned the West and the MDC against setting
conditions for
the talks, saying this might jeopardise the regional
initiative. He has
said, however, that so far he has received no complaints
from either ZANU-PF
or the MDC about his new role to broker talks between
them.
Zimbabwe has been in the grip of a political crisis since Mugabe's
disputed
re-election in 2002 and the alleged rigging of the parliamentary
polls two
years earlier.
Nkosinathi Ndlovu is the pseudonym of an
IWPR contributor in Zimbabwe.
By Tichaona
Sibanda
4 April 2007
The MDC said on Wednesday the Southern African
Development Community should
ratchet up pressure on Robert Mugabe to allow
free and fair elections in
Zimbabwe next year.
For the first time
ever the SADC bloc was able to convene a special meeting
to discuss the
deteriorating situation in the country, which has been hailed
as significant
by political analysts. Now the MDC wants the SADC leaders to
push for more
to resolve the crisis.
Roy Bennett, the party's spokesman in
Johannesburg, South Africa said
contrary to views held by Zanu (PF), his
party was not being difficult in
demanding the repealing of laws like AIPPA
and POSA before elections can be
held. He said SADC norms on elections
stipulate that free and fair elections
mean not only an independent
electoral commission, but also freedom of
assembly, absence of physical
harassment by the police or any other entity.
'It also calls for freedom
of the press, equal access to national radio and
television and external and
credible observation of the whole electoral
process. But what we have now
are political killings, beatings and violence
against the opposition. Which
country in SADC today can have elections in
this state apart from Zimbabwe?'
asked Bennett.
He said the MDC is not demanding, but asking for a process
that ensures free
and fair elections in Zimbabwe. He said the laws were set
by SADC and, as a
member state, Robert Mugabe should ensure Zimbabwe adheres
to the laid out
principles in the conduct of free and fair
elections.
SADC principles in the conduct of democratic elections call
for the full
participation of the citizens in the political process, freedom
of
association, political tolerance and equal opportunity for all political
parties to access the state media.
'What we are saying is let's go to
an election with a new people driven
constitution that will also allow
Zimbabweans living outside to have a say
in their country's political
process. So these are not MDC but SADC rules,'
said Bennett.
Bennett
said Mbeki who has already acknowledged the need to speed up the
facilitation process in order to ensure free and fair elections next year is
believed to be worried that any signs of electoral fraud will ignite a civil
strife that will have serious repercussions in his country.
'South
Africa is hosting the 2010 World cup and any problems from next year's
elections will spill over to that country and jeopardise the football
tournament. The fact that Mbeki on Monday said the situation in Zimbabwe is
a matter that all people should approach with great seriousness is also a
signal that he doesn't want to fail this time,' said Bennett.
A
two-man delegation from the South African government met with opposition
leaders from Zimbabwe two weeks ago before Mbeki held discussions with
Mugabe on the sidelines of the SADC extra-ordinary meeting in Dar es
Salaam.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Daily News, SA
Editorial
April 04,
2007 Edition 1
Armed with a mandate from the Southern African
Development Community to
mediate in the resolution of Zimbabwe's political
and social problems,
President Thabo Mbeki has taken on a task that could
mark him as the man who
changed the course of Africa's history, or the man
who dither-ed while the
sub-continent started its slide into
decay.
So far, the perception is that Mbeki has failed with his policy of
"quiet
diplomacy" and his previous attempt to talk some sense into the
obdurate
Robert Mugabe was a dismal failure when Mugabe, it seems, reneged
on his
undertaking to hold talks with the opposition MDC with a view to some
sort
of shared power until a free and fair election could be
held.
The MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai, presently in South Africa recovering
from a
severe beating at the hands of Mugabe's police, has appealed to Mbeki
to
urgently help the suffering millions in Zimbabwe, where there are severe
food shortages, a rapidly crumbling infrastructure and the world's fastest
inflation rate.
Mbeki is adamant that Mugabe will peacefully give up
power, possibly before
next year's presidential election, but the rest of
the world is hardly
holding its breath. Mugabe is using all his wiles to
manipulate another
term. Whatever assurances he may give Mbeki, he will do
only what is good
for Mugabe and his corrupt henchmen.
Mbeki has
said that Zimbabwe needs to be brought to a position where
elections are
genuinely free and fair. If he is aiming at next year's
presidential
election, he has not left himself much time.
There needs to be concrete
agreement - with concomitant sanctions - for a
new constitution that will
scrap undemocratic legislation that now
suppresses free political activity;
the media must be allowed to operate
freely; a truly independent electoral
commission must be put in place and
among other things, the security forces
must become impartial instead of
arresting and beating up opposition
leaders.
Unless Mbeki and the SADC have the courage to put a big boot
firmly down,
any hope of a new political dispensation seems to be doomed to
failure.
04 Apr 2007 17:26:37 GMT
Source:
IRIN
HARARE, 4 April 2007 (IRIN) - HARARE, 4 April 2007
(IRIN) - The Zimbabwe's
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has declared its
two-day job stayaway to
protest deteriorating standards of living a "major
success", but by midday
on Wednesday shops and banks had begun to
reopen.
"The workers heeded the call to stayaway while some companies
contributed by
shutting down although we are aware that some of them were
forced to open
their business premises by security officials," said ZCTU
information
officer Last Tarabuka.
Hundreds of mini-bus taxi
operators parked their vehicles on Tuesday, the
first day of the stayaway,
claiming they feared they would be attacked by
union activists, especially
in the townships. Some did so in solidarity with
the protest, called to
register anger over an economic meltdown that has
pushed inflation to 1,700
percent.
But government-owned buses were running on Wednesday, as were
selected
transporters able to access highly-subsidised fuel. Banks in the
Central
Business District (CBD) and department stores also opened for
business.
The president of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe
(EMCOZ), Johnson
Manyakara, told IRIN it was too early to make an accurate
assessment of the
impact of the two-day strike.
"It is difficult to
assess fully because based on where I work, I would say
there was very
little impact because there was 98 percent attendance. You
will appreciate
that I don't have the full information on the entire
business
sector."
Another senior EMCOZ official said employers in the heavy
industrial areas
were the hardest hit. "Yes maybe banks and other businesses
in the CBD were
not that hard hit, but in the industrial areas, we had some
factories
closing because many workers did not turn up for work. Others
simply
legitimately asked for days off, which they were
granted."
Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the two-day
stayaway a
"flop". He accused the ZCTU of declaring a strike for political
interests
rather than out of economic concerns.
"The people of
Zimbabwe have responded by giving the regime-change agenda a
cold shoulder.
The workers ignored the ZCTU-orchestrated stayaway sponsored
by hostile
Western governments led by Britain and the USA and reported for
work. The
police and the army ensured that there was adequate security
around the
country," he told IRIN.