• Zimbabwe's food production under pressure
• Fertiliser prices go up
• Angolan minister hails land reform
• African leaders urged to control HR violations in Zimbabwe, Swaziland
• Africans' willingness to forgive needs to extend to their homegrown sinners
• ‘Let’s talk or else’
• ZCTU to weigh mass protest over cash crisis
• AIDS prevalence not down – experts
• Aspiring ZANU PF MP faces civil imprisonment
• Zimbabwe’s clergy speak out
• Zimbabweans betrayed again
• Time-out for T and I virus
• Travellers’ cheques not worth the paper they are written on
• Let’s throw out this tired but most brutal party
• MDC road map leads to people-centred government
• Mugabe Given Talks Deadline
• Who will be Bob's proxy president?
• Africans Back Mugabe, Ask West to Lift Sanctions
• WFP retains control of food distributions
• Cash crunch may hamper access to govt relief funds
• Mugabe Recieves Resounding Welcome from Some at Southern African Summit
• JAG Legal Communique
• JAG Open Letters Forum No. 135

      African leaders urged to control HR violations in Zimbabwe, Swaziland

      DAR ES SALAAM: Southern African leaders gathering in Tanzania on
Sunday for an annual summit faced calls from pressure groups for them to
tackle human rights violations in Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

      London-based Amnesty International and regional rights group CIVICUS
said they wanted leaders from the 14-member Southern African Development
Community (SADC) to express their concern publicly on Zimbabwe’s crisis.

      Swazi trade unions and human rights groups said they wanted the
deteriorating political situation in the kingdom, where opposition parties
are banned and the rule of law has virtually vanished, to be key agenda
items.

      Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe and Swaziland’s King Mswati, Africa
’s last absolute monarch, were due in Tanzania late on Sunday for the
two-day summit opening on Monday (today).

      Amnesty urged SADC leaders to include Zimbabwe as a specific point on
the agenda of their summit and to bring all possible pressure to bear on
Mugabe’s government to respect and protect the fundamental human rights of
its citizens.

      "State-sponsored harassment, attacks and torture directed at the
opposition, civil society and independent media workers continue unabated,"
Amnesty said in a statement circulated as heads of state began arriving in
Dar es Salaam for the summit.

      SADC urged the European Union and other Western governments on
Saturday to lift sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe over Mugabe’s controversial
re-election last year.

      Zimbabwean officials have dismissed criticism by rights groups and
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo last week accused international media of
creating a distorted image of the country.

      Swazi officials in Tanzania offered no comment. Tanzanian officials
said no demonstrations would be allowed as the country mounted a massive
security operation.

      At the summit on Monday (today), leaders will commit to fighting AIDS
and sign a Mutual Defence Pact aimed at curbing civil wars through strong
regional peace enforcement.

      "AIDS is on top of the summit agenda because it is a waste of time to
talk about development if the disease, which has infected 14 million people,
is not urgently dealt with," said Prega Ramsamy, SADC’s executive secretary
and CEO.

      South Africa has 4.7 million people infected with HIV or AIDS — the
world’s highest caseload.

      The disease affects around 40 percent of adults in Swaziland and 35
percent in Botswana. One in five adults in Zimbabwe and Zambia are infected
with HIV or have full-blown AIDS.

      SADC comprises South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia,
Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Seychelles, Mauritius, Tanzania, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Malawi.

      President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, lauded
regionally for agreeing to a comprehensive peace pact, was the first leader
to arrive.

      The 13 leaders from the Southern Africa Development Community hope to
adopt a common stand on reducing trade barriers before heading to the World
Trade Organisation meeting next month in Mexico. Meanwhile, Officials said
some seven million people in southern Africa, most in Zimbabwe, face famine
without international food handouts.

Now that Idi Amin has died, it would be easy to write a sensational,
risk-free column on his misdeeds. After all, nobody would doubt that he was
a brutal tyrant who unleashed the African version of the holocaust upon the
people of Uganda.

However, dwelling on Amin's negative attributes is banal and
counter-productive. There was more to him than buffoonery and ruthlessness.
It has been argued, for example, that his foreign policy was ultimately
sound.

A case can also be made that Amin's encouragement of the use of Kishwahili
in Uganda was constructive for the aspirations of an East African community.
Even in death, Amin continues to pose challenges. Firstly, how does the
continent handle its fallen villains? Are former African despots entitled to
a dignified burial in their motherlands, even if they once brutalised them ?
Secondly, do Africans apply double standards in handling "native" villains,
as opposed to "non-native" pariahs?

Six years ago, Laurent Kabila decreed that Mobutu Sese Seko was not entitled
to die or be buried in the Congo. Presumably, the exclusion was a form of
punishment for Mobutu's misrule for over 30 years. He died a refugee in
Morocco, and was buried there. The question must be raised: who was truly
humiliated, Mobutu or his loved ones? Will the inherited humiliation haunt
the Congo in future?

The same question cropped up in connection with Amin. Uganda's President
Yoweri Museveni conceded that Amin could be buried in Uganda, but warned
that if Amin returned to the country alive, he would be prosecuted for his
crimes of 25 years ago.

Perhaps Amin and Mobutu made their cases worse by "jumping" their countries
when the going got too rough. By so doing, they joined other self-imposed
African exiles, like Uganda's Milton Obote, now living in Zambia. But why
did these African leaders "jump" their countries?

The experience of Samuel Doe, the former President of Liberia, tells the
story. He publicly humiliated his predecessors before killing them. But in
1990, Doe the dictator himself became Doe the vanquished. His detractors cut
off his ears while he was still alive and left him to bleed to death.

Is this a case where the saviours of Liberia allowed Doe's lack of humanity
to rob them of their own humanity? Alternatively, was it a situation where
the demonstration-effect backfired on the perpetrators? Who, in the final
analysis, became the savage?

In his final days as president of the Congo, Mobutu was no doubt aware of
his choices: the Doe-destiny, or self-imposed exile. Facing a debilitating
medical condition and advancing rebels, Mobutu chose the latter.

Robert Mugabe is equally aware of his choices. So was Charles Taylor.
Indeed, he is said to have demanded that the war crime charges against him
be dropped before he left for exile. Could the people of Zimbabwe and
Liberia have suffered so much because their leaders chose to fight to the
end rather than face Mobutu's horrible alternatives? Does Africa bear
"collective guilt" for how Doe, Mobutu, Amin and others were treated?

Curiously, Africans are less vindictive to their deposed, "non-native"
political rivals. Indeed, it can be argued that we are spectacularly
forgiving.

In colonial Kenya, the British imprisoned Jomo Kenyatta for seven years for
masterminding the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. Kenyatta survived to
become Kenya's founding-father. He not only forgave the British; he wrote a
book, Suffering without Bitterness. But he was not so soft-hearted towards
his "native" detractors. Intellectuals and political critics found
themselves either permanently sidelined or in detention without trial.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in apartheid jails. Yet, upon
his release, he crusaded for national reconciliation. To his detractors,
Mandela went too far to accommodate his former tormentors.

It is said that for Mandela, accommodation and forgiveness are second
nature; he could not help it. However, this is not the same Mandela who went
after Bantu Holomisa with gusto for insubordination within the ANC - while P
W Botha and other apartheid tyrants remain unmolested. Benevolence has its
limits, especially when the beneficiary is black.

There is a debate over whether apartheid victims should seek reparations
from corporations that exploited them during apartheid. The victims are
discouraged by the political leadership on the grounds that such lawsuits
would be disruptive to society.

Unfortunately, this has been the trend historically. The white settlers of
Kenya and Zimbabwe demanded, and got, compensation for land they did not pay
for in the first place. In the 17th and 18th centuries, whites benefited
from slavery, yet, when it was abolished, the same whites were compensated
for loss of property. The slaves were set free to fend for themselves in
alien and hostile lands.

We tolerate these "foreign" abuses, yet we fail to extend similar tolerance
to our native sinners. Africa needs to acknowledge that homegrown political
opponents are not necessarily enemies. For future peace, would it not make
more sense to forgive fellow Africans first? If this could be the legacy
from the Amin experience, his victims shall not have died in vain.

.. Karioki is a professor of international relations and head of the
African Renaissance Agency

      Tsvangirai, speaking at a rally to garner support for MDC candidates
in local government elections here next week, said if dialogue did not
resume by October the MDC would refocus its attention on its court challenge
of President Robert Mugabe’s re-election last year.

      The MDC would also revisit mass action to force ZANU PF back to the
negotiating table, Tsvangirai told 8 000 party supporters at Mkoba Stadium
here.

      He said: “If there are no formal talks by 1 October, then the window
of opportunity which we had opened will be closed and we will shift our
focus to the presidential election court challenge whose date of hearing is
3 November.

      “We have not abandoned mass action as an option. We will revisit it if
there are no formal talks by the beginning of October and use it to force
ZANU PF to the negotiating table.”

      Tsvangirai, who has demanded that ZANU PF reciprocates peace overtures
by his party, added: “We cannot be held to ransom for too long. If they are
not prepared to take advantage of this opportunity, then we may have to
close the window and move ahead with other options.”

      ZANU PF national chairman John Nkomo and the party’s spokesman, Nathan
Shamuyarira, could not be reached for comment on Tsvangirai’s talks deadline
yesterday.

      But Nkomo and ZANU PF’s hawkish legal secretary, Patrick Chinamasa,
have in the past few weeks indicated the ruling party was not in a hurry to
participate in dialogue being brokered by church leaders in the country.

      The leaders of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference met
Mugabe and Tsvangirai separately in a bid to revive dialogue between
Zimbabwe’s biggest political parties.

      Dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC collapsed last August after ZANU
PF pulled out of the talks protesting against Tsvangirai’s decision to
challenge Mugabe’s re-election in the courts.

      Although both Mugabe and Tsvangirai told the church leaders they were
committed to resumption of dialogue between their parties, ZANU PF has
appeared to drag its feet on the negotiations.

      The ruling party has not yet submitted its position paper on dialogue
to the church leaders as promised while the MDC submitted its position paper
several weeks ago.

      ZANU PF insiders say the ruling party has failed to submit a position
paper on dialogue because of sharp differences within the party over whether
to embrace the church-led initiative.

      Bitter factional fighting over who should succeed Mugabe has also
combined to hold ZANU PF from the negotiating table, according to the
insiders.

      Tsvangirai said his party would only resort to mass action as a last
resort to put pressure on ZANU PF to agree to talks.

      The opposition leader ruled out the possibility of his party merging
with ZANU PF to form a government of national unity.

      Tsvangirai also addressed two other rallies in Shurugwi and Redcliff
mining towns to drum up support for his party’s candidates ahead of the 30
and 31 August council elections.

      Meanwhile MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and the party’s
secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, also told the party’s supporters at
Bulawayo’s White City Stadium that the MDC was not seeking to set up a unity
government with ZANU PF.

      “We are not saying we want a stake in Mugabe’s government – no. We
want fresh elections,” Sibanda said.

      From Zerubabel Mudzingwa Bureau Chief

      Matombo said ZCTU leaders would finish consulting workers this week
before a final decision on what action to take is made on 30 September.

      The union leader, however, said workers were agitating for mass action
to push the government to address the cash crisis that has seen workers
unable to get their salaries because there is no cash at the banks.

      Matombo said: “The workers have shown overwhelming support for a
confrontation with the government which they accuse of being insensitive.
They are tired of being taken for granted and they are saying it is time to
force the government to act on their problems. They are actually pressuring
us to take action and, of course, we are going to act.”

      He said the ZCTU had initially wanted to meet last Saturday to decide
what action to take about the cash crisis but the meeting had been postponed
to next Saturday due to what he said were logistical problems.

      Matombo said ZCTU leaders had already consulted workers in Harare,
Bulawayo and other major centres about the cash shortages.

      The four-month cash shortage is the latest in a series of other
shortages gripping Zimbabwe. Food, essential medical drugs, electricity,
fuel and foreign currency are in short supply in the country.

      The shortage of bank notes, which the government says is because of a
shortage of foreign currency to import special ink and paper used to print
money, has seen banks rationing cash with withdrawals limited to only $5
000, a paltry sum given Zimbabwe’s high inflation of 399.5 percent.

      Workers and their families have had to queue at banks almost on a
daily basis to secure money to meet their daily expenses.

      In a bid to ease the bank note shortage, the government recently
introduced local travellers’ cheques (TCs), which the central Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe said could be used as a substitute for cash.

      However, there has been market resistance to the TCs with most
retailers reluctant to accept the cheques as payment.

      Staff Reporter

      The drop to 24.6 percent from an estimated 33 percent of Zimbabweans
believed to be living with HIV/AIDS was just a technical adjustment of the
disease’s prevalence, according to the experts.

      Population Services International’s deputy director in the country
Chuck Szymanski told the Daily News that HIV/AIDS prevalence among
Zimbabweans had not in real terms declined.

      He said: “My understanding is that the new figures do not necessarily
reflect a decline in HIV prevalence, but rather a downward adjustment in
measurement of prevalence from previously flawed estimates,” said Szymanski.

      An official of the Southern Africa Aids Information Dissemination
Services, Sara Page, urged caution on the government’s figures saying they
were still too many people infected by the disease in the country.

      She said: “We have to be cautious with estimates.There is still a high
number of people infected with HIV/AIDS, a growing number of orphans and new
infections have been recorded over the past year.”

      Page called on the government not to relent on its efforts against the
pandemic that is said to be killing about 2 000 Zimbabweans every week.

      Speaking at the launch of the Zimbabwe National HIV/AIDS Estimates
2003 report last week, Parirenyatwa said out of an estimated 1.82 million
people living with HIV/AIDS countrywide, 1.54 million are adults in the
15-49 age group, 870 000 are women and 165 000 are children.

      Page said the new figures were not conclusive and the government
needed to carry out tremendous research to explain the huge gap from 33
percent to 24.6 percent.

      Parirenyatwa also conceded that more research and work needed to be
carried out to verify the new HIV/AIDS figures.

      “To say HIV/AIDS infections have declined would be like putting on a
face-saver. A lot of people are experiencing HIV/AIDS in families and
workplaces,” Page said.

      But Mary Sandasi, the acting director of Women and Aids Support
Network (WASN), said Parirenyatwa’s figures gave a more realistic account of
the AIDS situation.

      “According to the explanations given by the government on how they
arrived at those figures, it actually brings the statistics more
realistically home,” she said.

      According to the report released by the government last week, an
estimated 135 000 people have died of HIV/AIDS this year alone. Out of that
total, 77 000 are women and 36 000 are children.

      Staff Reporter

      Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni (MMM) law firm, which is representing
car hire company Large Mussel Enterprises, said it had unsuccessfully tried
since December last year to get hold of Nhara.

      “We have been looking for Nhara and his organisation since December
2002,” a lawyer at MMM told the Daily News yesterday.

      He added: “We have sent several tracers who have failed to locate
where Nhara resides or where his organisation operates from. We have been
instructed by our client to institute civil

      imprisonment proceedings against him.”

      According to the law firm, Nhara and his Southern Africa Institute for
Democracy and Good Governance (SAIDGG) hired a fleet of cars from Large
Mussel Enterprises for use by a team of observers from the Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) during last March’s presidential election in Zimbabwe.

      But SAIDGG, for which Nhara is executive director, allegedly failed to
pay $1.8 million for

      the vehicles.

      Nhara, however, denied that he had failed to pay the debt and invited
Large Mussel to “come to me any time and get their money”.

      He said: “Those guys are my friends, that’s why we gave them the
contract. They have my phone number which I have not changed for the past
three years and even my physical address and I wonder why they should
suddenly go to a newspaper with those claims. There is no issue with those
guys.”

      The ZANU PF politician said SAIDGG had paid the deposit for the
vehicles it hired for the OAU observer team and still has to pay for the
mileage.

      “They know I am a candidate in the elections this week,” Nhara said.
“Perhaps that’s why they are playing games. The issue is our clients delayed
in paying us because of the transition from the OAU to the African Union.

      “They (Large Mussel) know that there was a time when we almost failed
to pay our rentals and that I even went to Addis Ababa in order to
fast-track the payments. There is no story here. In any event, they should
have come to me if there was any issue.”

      According to an agreement between SAIDGG and Large Mussel, the
political think-tank paid a deposit for the vehicles on or before 25
February 2002 and was supposed to pay the rentals on presentation of an
invoice after the expiry of the lease.

      The lease expired after the presidential election and Large Mussel
raised an invoice for $2 078 295.

      Nhara allegedly disputed the figures on the invoice and a meeting was
called on 8 May at which Nhara agreed that SAIDGG would pay Large Mussel
$1.8 million.

      In a letter dated 9 May 2002 confirming the agreement, Nhara wrote:
“SAIDGG will be ready to pay an amount of Z$1 800 000.00, being the balance
for the services provided by Large Mussel Enterprises Pvt Ltd.

      “SAIDGG will pay the amount once it has received the payment from its
client and at any rate within 30 days, being 6 June.”

      On 6 June, however, Nhara failed to pay up the debt and wrote another
letter asking for an extension of the agreement.

      “I had anticipated that by today the OAU would have sent us the monies
they owe us, but they have indicated that they will not be able to pay us in
the anticipated period but by 30th June 2002,” he explained in the letter.

      Large Mussel refused Nhara’s plea for an extension and filed an
application in the High Court for an order to compel SAIDGG to pay the debt.

      On 21 August 2002, High Court judge Charles Hungwe ordered SAIDGG to
pay the $1.8 million debt plus interest at 30 percent per annum from 6 June
2002. The political institute was also ordered to pay the legal costs
incurred by Large Mussel Enterprises. When SAIDGG failed to pay the money,
the lawyers for Large Mussel Enterprises issued a writ of execution on 13
December last year directing the Sheriff of Zimbabwe to attach and take
movable goods equivalent to $1.8 million from SAIDGG’s offices. The lawyer
for the Harare car hire firm said: “As it stands we have still not recovered
the money. We can’t positively locate where Nhara resides or where his
institute operates from.” Staff Reporters

      Suddenly there is a hushed silence as the men walk down the aisle to
take seats at strategic places inside the church building.

      Even the “Amens” from the cheerful women at the corner and the raucous
old man closer to one of the intruders cease and you suddenly find yourself
having to change your sermon.

      Just before the men in black walked in, you were talking about the
political mayhem in your country and how everybody must love their
neighbours and enemies.

      Now you have to change your sermon and talk about angels and how they
spoke to Mary and the other women in the Bible.

      And everyone understands. And you know doing otherwise would mean a
stint behind bars or worse still, torture and death.

      This is the situation that the Church in Zimbabwe finds itself in.

      According to a delegation of Zimbabwean pastors who are in Botswana
“to seek solidarity” with their brothers and sisters, President Robert
Mugabe’s government has become so paranoid that church ministers are
monitored on a 24-hour basis by security intelligence.

      Members of the Central Intelligence Organisation who are identifiable
by their smart black suits and dark sunglasses have been intimidating the
pastors after they started talking about political issues.

      Things became worse after a multi-denominational organisation of
church ministers, the Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference's (ZNPC) decided
to start advocating for political change.

      “As the church, we have realised that unless we stand up and speak
about the situation in our country, we will only get worse.

      “We therefore need to join hands with the rest of the civil society
and call for order. The church is the last available space,” a member of the
delegation, Rev Noah Madzikatire, told Batswana clergymen at the Botswana
Christian Council’s Tshwaragano House on Wednesday. “As the Church we long
for a time when there will be political and tribal tolerance in Zimbabwe; we
long for the respect of the rule of law.

      “We long for good governance and leadership and annulment of
repressive laws, and we want to see government working with the church,”
said Madzikatire.

      It is especially Mugabe’s government's refusal to appreciate the role
of the church that is worrisome, he said. The government’s lack of
appreciation is shown by the arrest and torture of the clergy.

      “Twenty-three pastors from different denominations were arrested in
February while we were on our way to present a petition to the Police
Commissioner.

      “As the Church, we felt the police have become partisan and needed to
be reminded that they are there to serve the nation without regard for party
affiliation,” he said.

      The torture and intimidation would however not deter the Church in its
mission of condemning wickedness, commending goodness, and offering help to
those who have been traumatised.

      “For a long time the Church has watched silently as things went the
wrong way. But we would not like our country to plunge further into violence
which will then be followed by a peace accord some fifteen years later, when
many people would have died, so we have decided to take our place as
mediators,” another Pastor Angelimo Mugayi said.

      Already the ZNPC have met with Zimbabwe’s main political parties, the
ruling Zanu PF and the MDC to lay some groundwork for talks.

      “The MDC have already submitted their position paper, but the
government seems to be buying time,” he said.

      He added that the government needs to be pressurised to act and that
is why they are seeking support from Botswana. “We believe if you people
could join hands with us and speak to the Zimbabwean government, there would
be a change for the better,” said Mugayi. He said the Church in Botswana and
the SADC region needed to realise that quiet diplomacy has failed Zimbabwe
and its people. All who watched in silent diplomacy would also become liable
before God, he said. “We expect his fellow presidents to clearly articulate
on issues, to be able to denounce repressive laws. We expect SADC
governments to communicate their displeasure to Robert Mugabe, privately and
publicly,” he said. The ZNPC have already visited other SADC countries
including Zambia, Malawi, and South Africa. By Gregory Kelebonye Staff
Writer – Mmegi, Botswana

      Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers meeting in
Tanzania last Saturday called for the lifting of travel and financial
sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his officials – and on them
alone – by the European Union (EU), Australia, Switzerland and the United
States of America (USA).

      The punitive sanctions, meant to force the government to uphold
democracy, the rule of law and to abandon its chaotic land reforms, must be
removed because, according to SADC executive secretary Prega Ramsamy:
“Sanctions on Zimbabwe are hurting the people of Zimbabwe.”

      What hypocrisy!

      What is hurting the people of Zimbabwe, if Ramsamy and other fat cats
at SADC care to know, are not sanctions but man-made hunger because
political thugs were allowed and encouraged by the government to drive
productive farmers off the land.

      Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of the region, will need 700 000 tonnes
of food aid this year. The country shall require even more food relief next
year not because of sanctions or even drought, but because the government
dumped villagers on modern commercial farms without giving them skills
training or farm inputs.

      Inflation, which at 399.5 percent has pushed the cost of living beyond
the reach of 75 percent of Zimbabweans, continues on the upward spiral
because the government refuses to leave within its means.

      Zimbabwe’s health sector is collapsing not because of EU and USA
sanctions against Mugabe and his lieutenants, but because Zimbabwe’s rulers
would rather invest money not in the public health sector, but on
self-serving projects such as the government’s national youth training
programme.

      Ramsamy should know that it had nothing to do with sanctions that at
least 30 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered in the last three years in
mindless political violence which the government could and should have
stopped.

      But then the hypocrisy shown by Ramsamy and his colleagues in Tanzania
is just an example of the real tragedy of Africa: that is Africa’s leaders
would rather have solidarity with each other than with the suffering
citizens of this continent.

      Exactly the same reason why the late dictator, Idi Amin, or that other
rogue, Charles Taylor, were able to brutalise and murder hundreds of
thousands of Ugandans and Liberians respectively while the Organisation of
African Unity and its equally useless successor, the African Union, looked
sideways.

      Clearly it is more important for SADC that Mugabe, his officials and
their families are able to travel across the globe as they wish than that
the misery they have caused in Zimbabwe is ended.

      Claims by the SADC leaders that there is progress in Zimbabwe, that
there is a thawing of relations between Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change are mere lies that should be
dismissed with the contempt they deserve.

      Could Ramsamy and his SADC be unaware of ZANU PF’s attempts to delay
or even derail efforts by Zimbabwe’s church leaders to revive dialogue
between the ruling party and the MDC? Or could it be that they just do not
care?

      Whatever the case, SADC has a choice to either be on the same side
with tormented Zimbabweans or it will become irrelevant.

      The airborne virus was scattered into the winds across Zimbabwe in
2000. It has drifted into businesses, shops, factories and private homes.

      Widely known as the T and I virus, the symptoms are very frightening
and exhibit characteristics similar to numerous well known mental disorders.

      Infected people are easy to spot. They are convinced that they are
being followed, listened to and watched. T and I sufferers show symptoms of
extreme fear and paranoia. They will tolerate levels of unbelievable
personal deprivation and humiliation and will not stand up for themselves.

      They are unable to accept any responsibility whatsoever and will
always blame someone else for their problems. They talk of a monster which
they call “The Government”, but have forgotten that it was in fact them that
created the monster in the first place.

      They will stand patiently and uncomplainingly in lines for hours at a
time in order to get their own money out of the banks. They will allow
people half their age to kick and beat them.

      They wear tattered clothes and will walk miles even though they own
cars. T and I sufferers talk dreamily of some hero called Morgan who will
soon come to their rescue.

      In back alleys, they whisper their secret word “chinja.” People
infected with the T and I virus are completely unable to help themselves and
will not accept that their superhero Morgan cannot come to their rescue
unless and until they call him.

      They are engrossed in their daily problems and unable to think further
than one day at a time.

      One T and I sufferer recently visited me. He exclaimed at the copious
amounts of avocados hanging from a tree in my garden.

      Together, we filled two bags with avocado fruits and I advised my
friend that when he had finished eating the avocados, he should impale the
pip with three matchsticks and hang it over a jar of water.

      I told my friend that within a few days, a root would appear and drop
down into the water. If he kept topping up the water, in a few weeks the
roots would become stronger and longer and then leaves would begin to sprout
from the top of the pip.

      I told my friend he could then carefully lift the naked pip, with its
roots and leaves, into a little hole in his garden, cover it with soil,
water it once a week and then he too would have an avocado tree.

      It was at that point that I discovered my friend had T and I disease.
He told me he wouldn’t plant the avocado pip because he didn’t know how long
he would be living in his present home.

      He said he saw no reason to go to all the trouble of nurturing the
seed if he would not be around to reap the fruits in the years ahead.

      When I suggested that if everyone did the same thing and we all
planted a fruit tree in our gardens, then it wouldn’t matter where we went,
we would always find bountiful produce outside the door.

      Sadly, my friend is so engulfed by T and I disease that he was unable
to see that far into the future.

      He left holding his four-year-old son’s hand and with his pregnant
wife at his side.

      The virus reached terrifying new proportions in the last week when T
and I sufferers accepted with a masochistic type of resignation the latest
and most foul of human rights abuse. T and I victims did nothing as men in
uniforms stopped them in the streets, ran their hands over their bodies,
removed items of their clothing and opened their private handbags,
briefcases and shopping bags.

      T and I sufferers watched pathetically as they were accused of being
criminals for carrying their own money. They did nothing as their own
carefully saved bank notes were confiscated from them, in broad daylight, in
public streets and shopping malls.

      The good news is that there is a free, simple, painless and immediate
cure to the Terrified and Intimidated Virus and it will be available in
towns and cities across Zimbabwe this coming weekend. All polling stations
for municipal, mayoral and local council elections are the venues where the
cure can be obtained. The question everyone wants answered is whether T and
I sufferers will be able to find the courage within themselves to take the
cure being offered on ballot papers. The power to end this disease is in our
hands. It will give us clean and odourless water, repaired roads, working
street lights, visible road signs, mown verges, regular refuse collection,
hospitals with medicines, people who do what we pay them to do. No one can
change the horrors of daily life in Zimbabwe except us. We must start at the
bottom, at the local levels, stamp out corruption and power-hungry
individuals and slowly work our way up. Each and every single one of us must
be involved in eradicating terror and intimidation, and we must do it now.

      By Cathy Buckle
Cathy Buckle writes on social issues.

      What a mission to try and spend them!

      On my first trip to Bon Marche, I was told that they would accept the
cheques, but would only give me 10 percent of the value of my purchase in
change. So if I wanted to purchase $70 000 worth of goods and I gave them a
$100 000 cheque, they would only give me back $7 000 in change. They lost
the sale.

      When I went back to Bon Marche a few days later, I was given the same
story. This time I asked to see the manager and it was only after I asked
him for his name that he finally decided to give me the correct change.

      Last Friday I went to Lucullus in Fife Avenue. They refused
point-blank to accept travellers’ cheques.

      On Wednesday, I phoned Spar and was told they they would accept
travellers’ cheques but would not give change.

      I also phoned Belvedere Trading Co and was told that under no
circumstances will they accept travellers’ cheques.

      The Reserve Bank issued the following statement: “For convenience and
safety, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is introducing local Zimbabwe
travellers’ cheques for use in Zimbabwe only. These local travellers’
cheques are legal tender and will be accepted for all payments.” What a
joke. They are not worth the paper they are printed on!

      If the Reserve Bank is serious about our “convenience and safety”,
they must have a help line that the public can phone immediately we are
treated in such a manner as I was by the above-mentioned stores.

      Plenty Money But No Food

      Harare

      Terrified women and children pulled what belongings they could out of
the burning building. Soon, the whole place looked like a scene from a
war-zone as people from the opposition candidate’s home, terrified, headed
out to an uncertain and unsure future.

      A group of youths lingered to watch them go, smoking joints rolled in
bits of khaki paper. One held a hoe handle. Another a long butcher’s knife.

      “They said the opposition candidate was a sellout and should go to
Britain to Tony Blair,” explained a neighbour who witnessed the incident.

      But this is not war. It’s politics. ZANU PF, the tired but brutal
political party, is fighting for its survival in the urban elections
scheduled for the end of this week.

      The politics of Zimbabwe is growing uglier by the day in all the urban
areas that fielded opposition candidates.

      Even before the campaign for these elections had officially begun in
earnest, the open skirmishes in places like Marondera, Chegutu, Bindura, and
Masvingo suggest that ZANU PF’s tactics will include violence.

      And the above described scene has happened or will happen in all the
towns that are holding elections this month.

      And local security forces have mostly looked the other way. And to us
in the opposition, that is evidence that the country’s most unpopular but
very brutal party is bent on keeping power through intimidation and wants to
continue controlling people in the coming elections, just as they have for
the past 23 years.

      And the brutality nonetheless serves the political interests of the
incumbents.

      Many in the opposition know and worry that the scenes of local thugs
launching brutal witchhunts will dominate the campaigns to frighten voters
to think twice about crossing those thugs on election day.

      But we know that only people connected to ZANU PF can operate, maim,
destroy property and even kill with such impunity. If these ZANU PF youths
aim to create fear, they may succeed for a short period for we know this has
been happening since the year 2000.

      But the people of Zimbabwe are more determined than ever to get rid of
this uncaring political party that has brought untold suffering and poverty
to this nation.

      But what drove ZANU PF to be like this? A correct analysis of ZANU PF
needs time for some home truths.

      With all due respect, the ZANU PF leadership is the least concerned
with inspiring development. To them, the innovative people usually come from
the “wrong ethnic group”. The brutal party has not only been morally corrupt
from the start, but also trained to belittle the people; thus they see
themselves as lords instead of servants.

      Again, the people in ZANU PF believed from 1980 that national
resources were personal property and as if that was not enough, they were
also determined to use the same resources to suffocate the people.

      Committing resources in suppressing matters that are better ignored
has been the bane of ZANU PF.

      After the Rhodesian Front, Zimbabwe needed serious visionary
leadership. But all we have is a horde of cruel men and women whose vision
of leadership hardly extends beyond their families.

      With the horrifying effects of colonialism, this nation needed to
regain its confidence, pride and identity but in reality, we have a single
person leading this country into destruction and still claiming to be the
best “leader”.

      Corruption in high places has become the order of the day and while
people in government are shamelessly amassing wealth, the country and the
majority of people are suffering.

      And this social evil has been allowed to grow out of control. Do we
have to blame Tony Blair and George W Bush for this? To those in ZANU PF, it
’s high time they stopped fooling themselves and faced reality. People with
questionable characters are promoted to high positions in government as long
as they sing the praises of the dear leader. And with this behaviour, no
well meaning solutions by the Southern African Development Community and the
international community can help us. After years of drunken political rage,
Zimbabwe needs time to recover from a terrible ZANU PF hangover. But mass
graves and normality make a bad mix. The many living victims of atrocities
especially before, during and after every election time, and upholders of
local and international law will demand a reckoning. And the question of
collective responsibility can be assuaged only when Zimbabweans take their
hardest step yet – a thorough, painful look at the past, especially of
election periods. And only through that can the past be repudiated.

      By Frank Matandirotya

      Frank Matandirotya is the Movement for Democratic Change shadow MP for
Chikomba and provincial elections co-ordinator for Mashonaland East Province

      MDC road map leads to people-centred government

        Concerned church leaders in this country have made their pressure
felt as good officers, although under difficult circumstances, by persuading
the current major political parties to gear themselves up for talks.

      This is an open challenge to traditional chiefs who seem to have
forgotten that they are rallying points and custodians of our cultural
heritage.

      The MDC has taken a bold and mature step to redefine and rejuvenate
the political landscape as well as renovate the political architecture of
independent Zimbabwe. Their smart three-step road map seeks to give all
stakeholders both internal and external opportunities and space to
articulate their views.

      An interim government must culminate in the birth of a new
constitution. Thereafter, the people will use their votes under new
electoral laws to choose those they consider as best candidates to govern
this country. Such craftiness on the part of the only four years old MDC is
a marvel fully demonstrating the fact that this party has a major role to
play in shaping future developments in this country. To this end, this party
deserves respect and encouragement.

      On the other hand, the stance taken by the ruling party regarding the
church-led initiative is a sad reflection of the level of insensitivity and
arrogance despite the governance challenges it faces. The dehumanising
queues for cash, ever-rising inflation, worsening quality of lifestyles in
both rural and urban sectors and lack of a relevant constitution are but
some of the issues which a people-centred party should prioritise.

      What we now have in this country is referred to as democracy without
citizens due to the assault on political plurality and civic movements by
the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act. What people refer to as participatory democracy
is when they contribute meaningfully to developmental endeavours culturally,
politically and economically in the land of their birth.

      Zimbabweans, given a chance, have the capacity to solve their
political differences peacefully. Thus, in the fullness of time, this
generation may proclaim with pride that “behold the heritage that we
bequeath to our posterity”.

      Liberty H B Malinganisa

      Bulawayo

      Zimbabwe’s opposition has given the government one month to return to
talks on the country’s spiralling political and economic crisis, and
threatened mass demonstrations if the discussions do not resume.

      Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday that he and his
party’s leadership were losing patience.

      “We cannot be held to ransom for too long. If (the ruling party) are
not prepared to take advantage of this opportunity, we may have to close the
window and move ahead with other options,” he said.

      Zimbabwe’s battered economy has led to intensified demands for
President Robert Mugabe to retire and increased pressure on the two parties
to resolve their differences.

      The country is suffering record inflation of 400% and soaring
unemployment. There are acute shortages of local currency, hard currency,
food, petrol, medicine and other imports.

      Tensions have been running high between the government and the
opposition especially since last year’s presidential elections.

      The opposition has refused to recognise Mugabe’s victory in the vote,
saying the elections were rigged and swayed by political violence.

      By Basildon Peta

Zimbabwean Deputy President Simon Muzenda is critically ill and is fighting
for his life in a hospital in Harare.

The news of Muzenda's ill health was disclosed in the state media by
President Robert Mugabe's cabinet secretary, Misheck Sibanda.

His probable death will shake Zimbabwe's political landscape as it will
force Mugabe - finally - to make known his choice of successor.

Whoever is appointed deputy president to replace 82-year-old Muzenda, is
likely to be the person who will run the country when, or if, 79-year-old
Mugabe retires.

      'Muzenda will be remembered for standing by Mugabe'
Muzenda's expected death is plunging the ruling Zanu-PF party into more
chaos as factions are preparing the groundwork for the appointment of their
candidates to the second most powerful position in Zimbabwean politics.

Muzenda is rumoured to be on a life support system. Efforts to confirm his
condition were fruitless as hospital officials refused to be interviewed or
to put calls through to his ward.

But in a sign of Muzenda's serious ill-health, one Sunday newspaper seemed
to have ruled out his chances of returning to political life, saying in what
read like an obituary: "Muzenda will be remembered for standing by Mugabe
even at his darkest hour."

Muzenda had wanted to retire on health grounds but Mugabe persuaded him to
stay in office, even though he had not been performing his duties regularly.

Mugabe may have kept Muzenda on to buy time for the man who is apparently
his preferred choice of successor, speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mugabe allegedly sought to improve Mnangagwa's standing in the party before
his almost certain appointment to replace Muzenda.

  .. This article was originally published on page 3 of The Star on August
25, 2003

The annual summit of the leaders of the 14-member Southern Africa
Development Community is under way in Dar es Salaam. Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe received a resounding welcome from hundreds of regional
officials at the opening ceremony. They also applauded when Tanzanian
President Benjamin Mkapa urged western countries to end sanctions against
the Zimbabwean leader and senior officials in his government.

Many Africans support Mr. Mugabe's controversial land-reform program in
which he has stripped white farmers of their land and handed it to black
Zimbabweans. They also support his defiant attitude toward countries such as
the United Kingdom and the United States, which have castigated him for what
they say are violations of basic human rights and political oppression.

It is this support for Mr. Mugabe on the African continent that makes it
difficult for countries such as South Africa and Nigeria to win backing for
their efforts to persuade the Zimbabwe leader to enter negotiations with his
political opponents.

Zimbabwe is not officially on the agenda of the summit, but the leaders of
South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique are likely to make use of the
opportunity to seek support in the region for their efforts to end the
political crises in Zimbabwe.

The leaders are also expected to adopt a development plan for the region.
Known as the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, it proposes the
use of key indicators as a method of both setting and evaluating progress
toward development targets.

The plan foresees a 15-year development period during which member states
will be expected to legislate and implement plans to reduce poverty, combat
HIV/AIDS and other serious diseases, and improve health, education, and
gender equity.