Send
ON To Zimbabweans and friends world-wide ! Special News for the
Aussie's , Auzim's !
Following our belated April newsletter, please find
attached the latest Very up to date news on the pension trust from Zimbabwe
! It seems the Zimbabwe fund's network of beneficiaries continues to grow
and this coupled with inflation makes the demand on their resources more and
more onerous !
Continued local fund raising hopes to keep ahead of
the increasing demand but this is ever more difficult as more people leave
the country or they themselves find they cannot keep pace with spiralling
costs of living.
Our international fund is as important as ever, to
back up the Zim Resources and as a much needed foreign currency resource
available on application, for imported needs, i.e. medicines.
The
Botswana fund has continued to grow, albeit slowly of late. Deloitte And
Touche have invested the funds and very kindly continue to manage the
account. Its time for the second chova !
We ourselves are back on the
trail again and intend to be on line for punctual communication
henceforth.
Fantastic news
for AUSTRALIAN donors is that thanks to some persistence From Jon
Swire-Thompson and friends there is now an AUSSIE account for direct
deposits:
"Jon Swire-Thompson, Danny Gruenthal, and Frank Hodder, have
opened up an account at the National Bank in Perth in the personal names of
Gruenthal, Hodder and Swire-Thompson
The name of the account is a bit
tortuous and the bank says it can be shortened to the surnames i.e.
Gruenthal, Hodder and Swire-Thompson.
The Full details are as
follows:-
Account Name : DJ Gruenthal, FW Hodder and J
Swire-Thompson Bank : National Australia
Bank Branch : West Perth Account Number :
56827 9227 BSB Code : 086 492 SWIFT Code :
NATAAU3306P
As a reminder, the account was set up to allow those
sympathetic to the cause to send cash to the account in Australia.
International banking transactions cannot be carried out from Australia
using internet banking, but internal transactions are no problem.
Obviously, T/Ts into the account are no problem either."
We hope that
this allows Aussie folk to make a "local" deposit, bulking up the Aussie
account to allow them to make one off "bulk" transfers to the international
account on a regular basis, this saves on TT costs and makes smaller and
most important donations viable.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FUND BY making your
contributions directly and either let Jon or ourselves know what you have
deposited/sent in. Anyone wishing to discuss the account may contact Jon
at
Jon Swire Thompson [Swire@snowdenau.com]
Jon has already made
the first TT transactions to the international account in Botswana.
Thank-you Jon, Danny and Frank for your persistence and support.
Any
Kiwi's in a position to follow this lead, would be much appreciated.
The
newsletter has all the contact and most importantly all the respective
donation points/bank details on board.
A reminder to those of you who can
TT contributions the Botswana fund account details are :
"DELOITTE
& TOUCHE ZIMBABWE FUND"
C/O FIRST NATIONAL BANK, MAIN MALL BRANCH,
CAPITAL BUILDING, PLOT 1108, MAIL MALL, PVT BAG B052, BONTLENG, GABORONE,
BOTSWANA, TEL: +267 3959422, FAX: +267 3912596
ACCOUNT NUMBER:
62055647344
BRANCH CODE: 282867, SWIFT CODE FIRNBWGX
Please send
Debs a mail to let her know what you have sent so we can make sure it
arrives safe.
ABANDONED CHILDREN
We are in the process of
investigating and setting up a NEW fund for ABANDONED CHILDREN
As
horrific as it is to believe, a number of children have been found abandoned
by desperate parents as they have left the country. There is a Christian
family in Harare who have taken the children in and provided Them with
shelter.The Zimbabwe trustees have so far been helping these wonderful
folk.
As our Fund raising cause was specifically for Old age pensioners
we appreciate that this is a separate desperate cause.
I have asked
Harare (the same folk as involved with the Pensioners fund) To give us more
details of the children and I enclose a paragraph from the earliest
reply.
"As you know, the (Zimbabwe) fund was referred to as Pensioners,
but it Also supported a local child refuge called Bezer, who take in
disadvantaged kids, and orphans. Tales of these kids (being left behind
by parents who skip the country etc) were all part of our original
appeal to donors.
"I have visited Bezer. It is a well run home. The
people who run it are Lay preachers, the ****. They have about 18 kids (it
varies as kids come in And as kids are taken out, either by family or into
foster homes. Ages are a Few months to 20 years. They are home schooled and
well looked after. We have also had them around to our house for a braai -
it is a vital home for These kids who would otherwise be abandoned to the
state system which is flooded with "aids" orphans anyway, besides the
cultural problems that ensue."
If you communicate with friends and
family in Zim they can probably tell You more about this nightmare story !
It is unbelievable.
We will get more details, and we will most likely
approach the same kind folk about setting up a seperate fund for this
!
I am satisfied that the same trustess as for the pension fund will
ensure the resources are put to best advantage for those poor poor
kids.
MORE POSITIVE NEWS TO FOLLOW ON THIS IN THE NEAR FUTURE WE HOPE
!
Thanks again for your support, well done you all
Best wishes
and regards Chris and Debs CJ & Debs Tel : + 27 31 562 9343 Fax
: + 27 31 562 9450 Mobile: + 27 721082892 e mail: cjbrad@telkomsa.net Debs: +27
825358235
Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, has hit-out at some church
leaders who he says are turning to the country's opponents instead of talking
to the government.
Mugabe made the comments on state television at a
ceremony to mark the installation of the new Roman Catholic archbishop of
Harare. The Zimbabwean president slammed Pius Ncube, the well-known
government critic and archbishop of Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, for
failing to interact with his government.
Ncube has in the past accused
the government of concealing the true level of food shortages in Zimbabwe. -
Sapa
Misihairabwi: 'It feels like his enemies have won'
By
Mduduzi Mathuthu Last updated: 08/23/2004 11:32:26 ZIMBABWE'S opposition
Movement for Democratic Change legislator Priscilla Misihairabwi is one of
the few politicians to work with the late Eddison Zvobgo in his official
capacity shortly before he fell into a coma and stepped out of the public
spotlight.
Misihairabwi attended a workshop in Washington DC with the
firebrand politician late last year and spent five days with the man
who affectionately referred to her as "my daughter".
"I really
believed Zvobgo would never die, he just looked gloriously unstoppable and
too good to die," said Misihairabwi, speaking Sunday as news came through of
Zvobgo's death. "He always looked like he could beat death, I just can't
believe that whole intelligence...that resilience is gone."
Zvobgo, a
Harvard-trained lawyer and veteran politician, died at St. Anne's Roman
Catholic hospital in Harare aged 69. He had increasingly become frail after
falling into coma, and losing his wife in February this year. They had three
children.
A longtime ally of Mugabe, Zvobgo in recent years started
criticizing the president's autocratic rule.
Zvobgo opposed sweeping
media and security laws passed in 2002 that led to the closure of Zimbabwe's
only privately owned daily newspaper and the arrests of at least 31
independent journalists.
He became the subject of an internal party
disciplinary inquiry last year after describing the laws as a weapon to
stifle opposition to the government, but allegations of disloyalty were
eventually dropped.
"It feels like his enemies have won," Misihairabwi
said Sunday. "During his last days, it became increasingly difficult for me
to visit him, I couldn't watch him break down....I just went into denial and
preferred to keep the memories of the Zvobgo that I know."
Zvobgo had
become increasingly isolated after supporting a parliamentary motion for
President Mugabe to leave power. Zvobgo, a former Justice Minister for almost
two decades after independence in 1980 was critical of tough new legislation
aimed at silencing dissent in the opposition.
As chairman of the
parliamentary legal committee, Zvobgo famously attacked the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which eventually made it through
parliament and has been used to ban THREE independent newspapers.
He
said before Parliament: "Upholding the constitution is a duty which I have to
pursue, regardless of the consequences. Any person who brings a Bill that is
bristling with arrows that are pointed at the heart of freedom to
my committee, I will have no hesitation in setting that legislation
aside."
Inevitably, Zvobgo made himself several enemies within the Zanu
PF circles, led by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa who surreptitiously lobbied a renegade group of party
supporters in Zvobgo's Masvingo province to petition the Zanu PF hierarchy
to "discipline Zvobgo".
Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo REFUSED
to sit at any hearing where Zvobgo was going to be "disciplined", leading to
the charges that he was working with the opposition being dropped. But that
was not before he had made his response in a letter to Nkomo.
He
wrote: "This allegation is another example of ill-founded rumours peddled by
ciphers struggling hard to become digits.This kind of allegation is made by
people who have nothing to stand on but lies, lies and lies. All they have is
the ferocity with which they shout "Pamberi ne ZANU, Pamberi na Comrade
Mugabe" (forward with Zanu, forward with President Mugabe) and nothing more.
They were not in the war, they contributed nothing to the struggle but merely
eat by claiming to be more loyal to President Mugabe than true vintage
revolutionaries. If your Committee will allow visitors and strangers who came
into the party yesterday to divide us, we are doomed!!"
This candid side
of Zvobgo was his downfall, Misihairabwi believes.
"Zvobgo was a victim
of his openness. He told me during the five days I spent with him in the
States that you have to manage your intelligence and opinions in politics
otherwise they can be your downfall.
"Zvobgo's career is testimony to
that. If he had kept his opinions to himself, he would have been one of the
closest people to Mugabe up to his death," said Misihairabwi.
"I
believe he died a bitter and disappointed man - all his aspirations betrayed.
What pains me is that I know the kind of funeral Zvobgo would have wanted, I
know the people that he would have wanted by his graveside -- but he is dead,
he can't speak."
President Mugabe has often used the burial of national
heroes to dabble in his preferred quarrelsome brand of politics, mainly
attacking his perceived opponents in the West and
opposition.
Misihairabwi also spoke of how Zvobgo had once skillfully
tried to convince her and the former opposition leader Margaret Dongo to join
Zanu PF in the mid 90s.
"He was a very convincing man," she recalls.
"If you didn't know where you stood, he could easily sway you. He was one man
who never used the language of 'puppets' and 'sell-outs' to refer to the
opposition, he disagreed on principle and saw everyone as Zimbabwean first
and foremost."
LACK of capital has hindered Zimbabwean white farmers
from investing in commercial agriculture in Uganda.
Dr. Margaret
Kigozi (below), the executive director of Uganda Investment Authority (UIA)
said recently, the farmers who were offered land in Uganda failed to raise
capital even after approaching some local commercial banks.
The
farmers had identified Uganda as one of the friendly countries they could
invest in after the Zimbabwean government nationalised all farmland formerly
owned by white farmers.
Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe
justified the nationalisation of the white-owned farms, saying the move was
necessary to restore land to the majority of Zimbabweans who were
dispossessed when Britain colonised the country more than a century
ago.
The Zimbabwean government does not allow evicted farmers to
take any agricultural machinery with them.
Kigozi said, "Those
farmers needed capital in form of machinery like tractors for large-scale
farming which they failed to secure."
She said some of the farmers
had been employed by some companies in Uganda as farm managers.
Kigozi said she did not have details of the exact number of Zimbabweans
employed here as farm managers and the companies employing them.
"What I know is that some of them came back as individuals and got employed,"
Kigozi said in an interview.
"BURY THE PUPPET MDC" - INFORMATION MINISTER LAYS DOWN THE
LINE TO EDITORS Mon 23 August 2004
HARARE - Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo has ordered editors of the government's vast media empire to
intensify propaganda against the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party ahead of next year's general election.
Some
of the editors, who did not want to be named, said Moyo last Friday met
editors and senior journalists working for state-controlled newspapers and
the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holding (ZBH)'s radio and television services. The
meeting took place at Harare's Sheraton hotel from about 9 o'clock in the
morning to about 2 p.m.
According to the editors Moyo criticised
the journalists for being too soft in their coverage of the MDC and
instructed them to use their papers, television and radio stations to "bury
the puppet MDC."
Moyo, who is known to have held such briefing
meetings with journalists working for state-owned media companies in the
past, switched off his cell phone when ZimOnline called him from
Johannesburg.
A journalist who attended the meeting with Moyo said:
"He said he was disappointed that our stories were not reflecting the fact
that the MDC was no longer in existence as it had died a natural death.The
Minister said he did not want to see a story that gave the MDC any measure of
legitimacy. He said our job should now be to write obituaries on the
opposition."
"Moyo said our stories should reflect that we are in a
one party state because ZANU PF cannot compete with a dead party (MDC). He
told us he wanted a big funeral for the MDC to show the whole world that the
opposition party was indeed dead," reported another editor.
Stories suggesting that there were any talks going on between the MDC and
ZANU PF had to be spiked, Moyo is said to have told the
state journalists.
Once one of President Robert Mugabe's
fiercest critics, Moyo crossed the lines four years ago to emerge as the most
zealous of Mugabe's defenders.
As Information Minister, Moyo has
used the government's vast media empire to demonise the MDC and its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai. He also crafted the draconian Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which requires journalists and newspaper
companies to obtain licenses from the government in order to
operate.
The country's largest and only independent daily paper,
the Daily News, was shut down last year because it had not registered in
accordance with AIPPA.
Moyo's instruction to editors of state
media to deny positive coverage to the MDC comes barely a week after a
Southern African Development Community summit in Mauritius last week. SADC
leaders, including Mugabe, agreed to allow all political parties in their
countries equal access to the public media as one of the conditions meant to
ensure free and fair elections in the region. ZimOnline
Donors branded "threat to national security" Mon 23 August
2004
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's government yesterday
branded foreign donors a threat to national security and strongly defended
its plan to ban all foreign funded human rights groups operating in
Zimbabwe.
The government has already approved the Non-Governmental
Organizations Bill which is to become law in October. The proposed law will
ban all groups involved in governance and human rights work from operating in
the country and prohibit foreign funding for Zimbabwean NGOs.
The bill provides for a council to register and regulate all NGOs operating
in Zimbabwe. Organisations not granted registration licenses will be shut
down. Defiant officials who continue with their activities illegally face up
to six months in prison.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare
in a statement yesterday defended the bill saying it was necessary in the
interests of national security.
"The mischief the government
wants to be rid of is that of foreign donors employing local puppets to
champion foreign values much to the detriment of national
security."
"This legislation should not come as a surprise ... to
patent adversaries of government. It was long overdue. Foreign-funded
organizations and foreign organizations have demonstrated to be a threat to
national security when it comes to governance issues."
Civic
society groups including churches have warned that the ban would deprive
millions of hungry Zimbabweans of aid as the nation suffers its worst ever
economic crisis.
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the
Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum,
the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ), the Crisis Coalition of
Zimbabwe and Amani Trust are among groups threatened by the proposed law.
ZimOnline
Government ignores Parliament's recommendation on state
broadcaster Mon 23 August 2004
HARARE - The government has still
not implemented recommendations made by Parliament more than six months ago
to free the state broadcaster, the former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) now known as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) from interference
by powerful politicians, ZimOnline has established.
Chairman of
Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communication, Silas
Mangono, said his committee asked Information Minister Jonathan Moyo to end
the meddling by politicians in the organisation's affairs and to re-organise
the debt-ridden ZBH into a professional business operation that would be
able to generate income to fund its activities.
The committee
investigated ZBH between October and November last year and tabled its
recommendations before the House earlier this year. Mangono said they had
established that Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings was heavily indebted and was
operating along political lines.
"We discovered that the national
broadcaster was not attracting enough advertisers, particularly because of
the political polarisation in the country. Just when the ZBH was failing to
meet most of its financial obligations, we discovered that they discouraged
some companies from sponsoring some programmes or barred them from showing
advertisements during some programmes."
Mangono, who is
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party Member of Parliament
for Masvingo Central, said his committee had recommended that laws governing
the ZBH and its editorial charter be reviewed to ensure that it became a
truly national broadcaster.
All the recommendations by his
committee, Mangono said, were now gathering dust, with the state broadcaster
still run the same way it had always been.
Neither ZBH executive
chairman Rino Zhuwarara nor Minister Moyo could be reached for comment. His
permanent secretary, George Charamba, refused to take questions on the matter
when contacted by ZimOnline.
The Information Ministry is in charge
of ZBH and government owned newspapers. It lays down policy and appoints
boards of directors to run the various state-owned media
organisations.
ZBH is the only radio and television broadcasting
company in Zimbabwe. Stringent licensing laws have so far kept would-be
investors out of the broadcasting field. Two shortwave radio stations,
Shortwave Radio Africa and Studio 7 broadcast into Zimbabwe from outside the
country.
The ZBH has constantly come under criticism from civic
society and opposition political parties for denying them coverage and
concentrating on promoting Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party. ZBH denies
the charge.
Mangono said his committee would maintain pressure on
Moyo through Parliament to act on the recommendations. ZimOnline
PROBABLY
the most notable thing about the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) is that it is generally ineffective.
In light of that fact, the
adoption last week of an electoral charter that specifies how free and fair
elections should be conducted was a big step forward.
However, the
move prompts the question why did it take so long to draw up a document that
was just as urgently needed a decade ago as it is now?
Questions have
been raised over the years about the process or outcomes of elections in many
of those SADC countries that actually have elections at all Zambia, Malawi,
Zimbabwe, Namibia and so on and there has been no mechanism in place to
adjudicate.
Whenever a thorny issue arises, the organisation retreats
into one of two options silence or fierce antiwestern rhetoric. A change may
be on the cards as the organisation moves into a new term led by a country
often seen as a rank outsider in terms of African politics:
Mauritius.
This is a country which is often not seen as really being part
of the SADC, despite its membership of the organisation, and whose politics
seem more aligned with the east than its neighbours.
Prime Minister
Paul Berenger, who has taken over as SADC chairman from Tanzania's Ben Mkapa,
is a relatively unknown political player outside his country. Formerly a
radical socialist, he is now a dedicated free marketer who is not likely to
take kindly to errant leaders who threaten investment in the
region.
Berenger has a lot riding on the new electoral charter which now
falls into his leadership.
The SADC parliamentary forum, established
in 1996 to fulfil a range of noble objectives in promoting democracy in the
region, has played an important role in fostering democratic practices but
has not been effective in resolving electoral problems.
The forum
declared the 2002 Zimbabwe elections fundamentally flawed. It was put under
pressure by some member states to change its verdict and although it stood
its ground, the SADC accepted the election result.
It is not clear
whether the new charter will fare any better in swaying events in SADC
country elections as it has no punitive powers. Nevertheless, it opens space
for debate and is a vehicle for putting greater pressure on countries seen to
be violating it.
The timing is crucial given the spate of elections to be
held in the rest of the year and next year in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Yet more significant to regional developments,
notably unblocking the Zimbabwe logjam, is the new SADC leadership
itself.
Two of the three countries making up the new SADC leadership
troika Mauritius and Botswana have taken a nononsense approach to the
Zimbabwe government's wilful destruction of the economy and political
freedoms. The third member, Mozambique, has, publicly at least, allowed
Mugabe to drive his country into the ground.
Tensions between Zimbabwe
and Botswana are well documented. And although Mauritius has not suffered the
same direct problems from the Zimbabwe saga, its focus on economic growth and
political stability is likely to make it impatient of problems that may
affect success.
The country has one of the most dynamic economies in
Africa, boosted significantly by its reformation into an offshore financial
centre which has attracted more than 9000 companies. It therefore has a lot
to lose from international disaffection.
Berenger's address to the
summit, which emphasised the importance of normalising relations with the
international community, particularly the European Union and US, was out of
step with a group that is more used to spending time lambasting western
countries.
Mauritius is well placed to lead the charge to improve
regional democratic behaviour, as it has a fairly clean record on this issue.
The 2000 election, in which Berenger was elected, got a resounding clean bill
of health from observers, including the SADC parliamentary forum, in a poll
that drew above 80% of voters.
Berenger, who has kept aloof from the
SADC old boys' club, could find his reputation at stake over the Zimbabwe
election. The enforcement of the charter is a major test of his SADC
leadership. He is up against powerful forces backing Mugabe. However, the
winds of change may be blowing in from the Indian Ocean.
Games is
director of Africa@Work, a research, publishing
and events company.
Aug 23 2004 07:49:18:000AM Business Day 1st
Edition
THE Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
and other non-governmental organisations met and briefed the new chairman of
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Paul Berenger on the
real situation obtaining in Zimbabwe at the conclusion of the two-day meeting
of the SADC heads of states in Mauritius last week.
According to
Reginald Matchaba-Hove, the chairman of ZESN, a non-partisan network of 38
civic organisations in Zimbabwe promoting democratic elections, they held
several meetings with other civic groups and later met the new SADC chairman,
Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger, who appreciated their
concerns.
Matchaba-Hove said together with other civic
organisations from Zimbabwe, under the banner of the National Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO, and the Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe
(CCZ), they addressed a public meeting at the Port Louis Municipal
Hall.
"After the close of the summit on Tuesday August 17, ZESN,
along with other civic society representatives from Zimbabwe, secured a
meeting with the new SADC chairperson," Matchaba Hove said in a statement
released to the media on Friday.
The ZESN trip to Mauritius was
facilitated by the Movement Pour le Progress de Roche Bols (MPRB), a member
of the Southern African Human Rights NGO Network (SAHRINGON).
The SADC heads of State met in Mauritius and unanimously agreed and adopted
the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections in the
region.
The principles were formally introduced to the summit by
the outgoing chairman of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security.
However, ZESN said they were still studying the final
text of the principles.
"Our concern so far is that the text
refers principally to SADC Electoral Observation Missions (SEOM) and is
somewhat silent on the need for other international observer missions,"
Matchaba-Hove said.
"As civil society we will be following up the
question of implementation of the principles and guidelines into domestic
legislation and practice."
Zimbabweans vote in parliamentary
elections scheduled for next March amid concerns that the ruling party would
again use the advantage of incumbency to bar the opposition from campaigning
through the selective use of the Public Order and Security Act and the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
He said despite
the few setbacks regarding clarity on the SADC Principles and Guidelines on
elections, ZESN commended the SADC governments for agreeing to implement the
recommendations.
Matchaba-Hove said the final text of the
principles and guidelines include several principles from the various SADC
and African Union election documents.
The SADC leadership has
been under pressure to rein in dictatorships by coming up with standard
electoral guidelines.
Last month SADC heads of electoral
commissions gathered in Victoria Falls to discuss ways of handling
elections.
Civic groups gathered at the same venue a fortnight
later and resolved to make their presentations to the SADC heads of States in
Mauritius, a process Matchaba-Hove said led to the adoption of the principles
and guidelines on electoral conduct.
Meanwhile, the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday urged Zimbabweans, the SADC
region, the African Union (AU) and other international economic and political
blocs to continue to exert pressure on the Zimbabwe government regarding the
conduct of free and fair elections.
Paul Themba-Nyathi, the MDC
spokesman and also Member of Parliament for Gwanda, cautioned Zimbabweans and
the international community in an interview with the Daily News Online that
they must trust the government of President Robert Mugabe at their "own
peril" because the history of the Zanu PF government was strewn with broken
promises.
"They are the masters of deceit," Themba-Nyathi
said.
"The Zimbabwe government relies on people's short memories.
Looking back, one is faced with the Abuja Agreement where President Mugabe
lied to the whole world that he would abide by the rule of law, distribute
land in a manner devoid of violence, where the land would be distributed
within the legal framework. Everyone knows that people have continued to be
beaten up on the farms, white commercial farmers continue to be evicted
willy-nilly and helpless farm workers are being displaced."
The
MDC spokesman said although the SADC heads of state adopted a protocol on
electoral conduct in the region, the process would be painful in Zimbabwe
where repressive and colonial legislation remains in place.
Themba-Nyathi said: "We are aware, and Zimbabweans know that they are dealing
with rogues. As the MDC, we have braced ourselves for another form of
struggle. Zanu PF thugs and militants are already setting up bases throughout
the country where they are intimidating, beating up and threatening people
with death or evictions from their villages if they lost the parliamentary
election next year."
ZESN and other civic groups in Zimbabwe, in
partnership with the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) have been
lobbying for democratic, transparent and inclusive electoral laws and
practices in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF national secretary for
information and publicity Nathan Shamuyarira was yesterday not available to
comment on the SADC electoral guidelines and principles as well as on the
allegations of spreading violence against the opposition.