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Soldiers
go on rampage again, loot shops
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8087
December 1, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Dozens of soldiers in uniform, frustrated after
they failed to
withdraw cash, ran amok at a bank in central Harare on Monday
in the latest
incident of its nature over the past four days.
Riot
police rushed to the scene and used tear gas to disperse the 40 or so
soldiers who went on the rampage, breaking shop windows and looting.
Civilians in the area joined in the rampage and looting before the
authorities finally restored order.
The Zimbabwe Times broke the
first story of uniformed soldiers running amok
in harare on Thursday after
they failed to withdraw desperately needed cash
from a bank on Samora Machel
Avenue.
Bank tellers had been unable to pay them the full amounts they
wanted to
withdraw, after they had spent a full day in the queue. These long
queues
outside banks have become a common feature because of the serious
shortage
of currency, as well as the restrictive limit on cash withdrawals.
An eye
witness told the Zimbabwe Times on the phone as the drama unfolded on
Thursday that the group had run amok and vented their anger on the staff of
Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group along the capital's Samora Machel Avenue,
after the bank ran out of cash by the end of the day.
On Thursday the
soldiers assaulted bank staff and broke windows before they
poured onto the
streets, blocking traffic and intimidating passersby. The
sudden arrival of
the military brought the chaos to an end. But the
rampaging troops fled down
Julius Nyerere Way and converged at the Ximex
Mall behind the capital city's
main post office, where they disrupted
business and caused people to
flee.
The following day on Friday Harare's streets were the site of total
chaos as
angry uniformed soldiers vented their frustration and anger on
traders,
forex dealers and passersby, on the city streets.
Forex
traders were the targeted initial targets of the soldiers but there
was a
melee when they turned on members of the public.
On Monday the soldiers
vented their frustration again and went on the
rampage in downtown Harare
again after they waited in vain all day in a long
queue at a
bank.
The BBC quoted a journalist as saying the riot police stood by and
smiled as
the soldiers ran amok. The Associated Press news agency reported
meanwhile
that gunfire had broken out in central Harare and that hundreds of
people
had gathered and cheered.
AP reported that some people threw
stones as the police tackled the unarmed
troops, who had attacked
money-changers.
In the initial incident on Thursday a group of soldiers
estimated between 60
to 70 men had queued to make cash withdrawals until
closing time on Thursday
afternoon. Banks in Harare are now required to
serve all customers already
in the banking hall at closing time. But roughly
an hour after the doors
were shut, bank officials announced there was no
more money to pay out, thus
sparking the outcry that is developing into the
confrontation between the
military and the state that many have feared in
Zimbabwe's deteriorating
political and economic crises.
On Saturday
the Government-controlled Herald newspaper reported that six
soldiers had
been arrested on allegations of beating up people, including
riot police at
Fourth Street Bus Terminus in Harare on Thursday night.
The six were
reported to have been part of a group of about 15 soldiers that
went on the
rampage, destroying goods and beating up people, including
vendors, at the
bus terminus.
Chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena
confirmed the arrests.
"About six soldiers have been
arrested for assault and are still in police
custody while investigations
are in progress," he said.
Bvudzijena told The Herald that the police
would not hesitate to arrest
anyone found on the wrong side of the
law.
"What they are doing is illegal and they will be arrested. If anyone
commits
a crime, he will be arrested," he said.
The Herald reported,
however, that riot police deployed to restore order had
been beaten up by
the soldiers.
Zimbabwe's
police and army clash in Harare
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Police shot at rioting soldiers on the
streets of Harare on Monday as unpaid
uniformed personnel sided with the
country's impoverished people for the
first time in protest against
Zimbabwe's collapsing economy.
By Sebastien Berger and Peta Thornycroft
in Harare
Last Updated: 7:06PM GMT 01 Dec 2008
Tensions boiled over
when around 50 troops were denied money from banks,
after queuing all
day.
The soldiers, from Cranborne Barracks and wearing camouflage dress,
staged
an impromptu protest, shouting at the banks, and were joined by
hundreds of
civilians at the corner of Robert Mugabe and Fourth Streets, in
the heart of
the capital.
When heavily armed riot police, in full
combat dress, arrived to break up
the demonstration, violence broke out -
and the soldiers fought back.
"The pot is now boiling," said an
eyewitness. "We have never seen anything
like this before, soldiers and
ordinary people standing side by side and
fighting the police."
As a
wounded soldier was being loaded in a police lorry, two generals from
defence headquarters, near Robert Mugabe's official residence, arrived, and
their presence appeared to intimidate the rioters, who began to
disperse.
But the clash - which came after several soldiers were arrested
last week
following an attack on money changers - is a graphic illustration
of the
risk the dysfunctional economy poses to the regime.
If Mr
Mugabe is unable to maintain loyalty even within his own armed
services, his
position will come under serious threat.
As the country's economic crisis
spiralled out of control, a government
decision to cut the water supply to
large swathes of Harare threatened to
spread the cholera
epidemic.
The official newspaper claimed that the water was cut off
because of a
shortage of an essential chemical used during the purification
process, but
the move raised concerns that it would spread the deadly
epidemic that has
seen more than 11,000 cases nationwide. As the water was
shut off, families
were forced into the streets, carrying containers and
searching for water
from wells or cisterns.
The worsening situation
has seen Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF make key concessions in
its negotiations over a
constitutional amendment with the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change.
According to a copy of the text agreed by negotiators and seen by
the
Telegraph, it contains a definition of the phrase "in consultation",
which
appears several times in the power-sharing agreement between the
parties,
that will give the Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai a
veto over
key government decisions, including the appointment of senior
personnel,
among them the country's service chiefs.
"These provisions
and the definitions attached to them make a dramatic
reduction in Mugabe's
power," said David Coltart, a lawyer and senator for
the MDC faction led by
Arthur Mutambara.
"It's a huge change. It gives Morgan substantial power
and certainly
sufficient power to go ahead with this
agreement.
"What's driving all of this now is just complete economic
collapse and the
growing humanitarian crisis which Zanu realise they have no
answer to. There's
an air of desperation now."
Stone-throwers attack soldiers in Zimbabwe capital
Reuters
Mon 1 Dec
2008, 16:33 GMT
HARARE, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean riot police fired
teargas on Monday to
disperse hundreds of stone-throwers who chased a group
of soldiers they
accused of a violent crackdown on illegal foreign currency
dealers.
A Reuters correspondent saw hundreds of mostly young men chasing
dozens of
uniformed but unarmed soldiers in the capital, where tensions are
high due
to a deepening political and economic crisis. The crowd was
chanting: "Beat
up the soldiers."
"They (the soldiers) just came here
taking money from people and beating and
harassing them," a woman who gave
her name as Anna said.
One youth, among the group chasing the soldiers,
said "Someone has to say
enough is enough."
Police said they were
unaware of the incident, and there were no reports of
injuries. Most shops
closed down due to the clash.
The once-prosperous African nation suffers
chronic food and fuel shortages
and an official inflation rate of over 230
million percent. The Zimbabwean
dollar has collapsed, spawning a black
market for foreign currency,
primarily U.S. dollars. (Reporting by MacDonald
Dzirutwe, Editing by Paul
Simao and Matthew Tostevin)
Harare
runs dry for the first time ever amid water crisis
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Health News
Dec 1,
2008, 14:11 GMT
Harare - Water supplies to Zimbabwe's capital
city dried up entirely Monday
for the first time ever, forcing hundreds of
businesses to close early when
toilets became unusable.
Workers
crowded bus stops in the city centre by lunchtime to return home
after less
than half a day's work. Office workers from private sector and
government
buildings were seen streaming out.
'I've had calls from businesses all
over, the commercial centre in town, the
industrial areas, people are
closing,' said economist John Robertson.
'Especially in the tall buildings,
the toilets have blocked and people can't
work like that.'
No
official comment was available from the state-run Zimbabwe National Water
Authority.
But the Herald, the official newspaper of President Robert
Mugabe's regime,
quoted workers at the capital's main water works as saying
that since Sunday
there had been 'no pumping' of water into the water
reticulation system for
a city of about two million.
The paper said
that pumping had had to be halted because ZINWA had run out
of chemicals to
treat the water, which is drawn from a large dam just west
of the capital,
into which sewage is regularly pumped.
Most of the city's poor townships
and its middle class suburbs have been
stricken for months without water,
leading to an epidemic of cholera that
followed burst sewerage drains
spewing raw effluent into streets.
The government has admitted that 425
people are known to have died since the
epidemic began in early October and
has since spread almost throughout the
country.
This weekend,
however, is the first time that the entire city has run dry.
Several hotels
were forced to close, although others managed to keep
supplied with water
from large storage tanks.
'When we came to work this morning there was
absolutely nothing,' said
restaurant manager Anil Chowdary. 'We are keeping
going with buckets of
water in the toilet for flushing. But if this goes on,
we are in real
trouble.'
Critical water shortages are part of the
dramatic collapse of the Zimbabwean
economy and its infrastructure, after a
nearly decade of oppressive rule and
reckless policies by the 84-year-old
Mugabe that have led to world record
inflation of several quadrillion (15
digits) per cent - a currency of so
little value that it is being overtaken
by the US dollar - and the shut-down
of hospitals, schools and most other
services.
Mugabe is in negotiation with his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai
and his
Movement for Democratic Change, to share power in a transitional
government,
after the MDC and its leader won elections in March, but Mugabe
refused to
hand over power.
However, talks have been stalled since
the power-sharing agreement was
signed in September 15.
Zimbabwe capital running out of clean water as
people are told to stop shaking hands amid cholera outbreak
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 4:51 PM on 01st December 2008
The capital of Zimbabwe is rapidly running out of
clean water as a cholera epidemic sweeps the nation, state media reported
today.
The news came as a minister in President Robert
Mugabe's government urged people to stop shaking hands because the traditional
greeting was helping to spread the disease.
The Herald newspaper quoted water authority officials
as saying that much of Harare is now without water because of a shortage of
purification chemicals to treat it.
Outbreak: Women and children wait
to get water from an underground source, following today's water cut in
Harare
At least 425 people, according to official government
figures, have died in recent months from cholera - a disease spread by
contaminated water - and more than 10,000 have been affected.
But a doctors' group in the country claimed at the
weekend the true death toll is more than 1,000, with tens of thousands
affected.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said people should
stop shaking hands to prevent the disease spreading.
"I want to stress the issue of shaking hands.
Although it's part of our tradition to shake hands, it's high time people
stopped shaking hands," he told The Herald.
Cholera is endemic in Zimbabwe but this is the worst
outbreak since 2000.
The spread of cholera has been fuelled by the collapse
of Zimbabwe's health and sanitation systems.
The government has blamed this on Western sanctions
it says are aimed at trying to bring down President Mugabe.
Cholera patients rest on their
beds inside the male ward of Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare today amid fears of
the outbreak spreading
But the sanctions imposed after allegations of
electoral fraud and political violence are aimed at Mr Mugabe and his close
associates and consist of travel bans and a freeze on their foreign assets.
Zimbabwe is struggling with an economic crisis - the
latest annual inflation rate was 231 million percent, and just one adult in
five is estimated to have a regular job.
It was also revealed today that
Zimbabwe's government will defy a southern Africa tribunal ruling to stop the
seizure of white-owned farms and will continue its land reforms, a state-run
newspaper on Monday quoted a minister as saying.
A South African Development Community tribunal ruled
on Friday that Zimbabwe's planned seizure of dozens of white-owned farms
violated international law and should be halted immediately.
It said Zimbabwe, which is struggling with economic
meltdown, should take all measures to protect the possessions and property of 75
white farmers who challenged the legality of a contested land reform programme,
and also ordered other farmers be compensated for land taken.
But Didymus Mutasa, minister of state for national
security, lands, land reform and resettlement, was quoted in the Herald
newspaper as saying President Robert Mugabe's government would ignore the
judgement.
"They (the tribunal) are day-dreaming because we are
not going to reverse the land reform exercise," he said.
"There is nothing special about the 75 farmers and we
will take more farms. It's not discrimination against farmers, but correcting
land imbalances."
Help us,
Tsvangirai pleads
http://www.iol.co.za
December 01 2008 at 04:36PM
By
Nelson Banya
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai urged the
world on Monday to help end a "man-made" humanitarian
crisis which has left
hundreds of people dead in a cholera
epidemic.
The spreading disease has underlined the collapse of the
once
relatively prosperous country, where deadlock between veteran President
Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai over a power sharing deal has delayed any hope
of rescuing the ruined state.
"As I speak our country is
consumed by a man-made humanitarian crisis
with a recent outbreak of cholera
so far having claimed more than 500
lives," Tsvangirai said in a statement
after winning a Moroccan
pro-democracy award.
"The food situation in our country is deplorable... may I use this
platform
to appeal to the rest of the world to move with speed to assist us
address
the humanitarian situation in the country as it has reached
catastrophic
levels," he added.
The World Health Organisation has put the
cholera death toll at around
400, but Zimbabwean rights groups estimate that
up to 1 000 people have died
from a disease that is preventable and
treatable under normal conditions.
The health minister said on
Monday that cholera now affected nine of
Zimbabwe's 10
provinces.
Mugabe's government says the health system and economy
are collapsing
because of sanctions imposed by Western powers it says are
trying to oust
him for seizing white-owned farms for redistribution to
blacks.
His critics say Mugabe, 84 and in power since independence
from
Britain in 1980, has ruined one of Africa's most promising economies
through
reckless policies and gross mismanagement.
Unemployment
is over 90 percent, inflation is officially at 230
million percent but
widely believed to be higher.
The power-sharing deal between Mugabe
and Tsvangirai in September has
offered the best hope for ending the crisis,
but implementing it has been
held up by disputes over ministerial
posts.
Political solution needed
Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa said a quick resolution of the
political and economic crisis
was needed.
"As long as we don't have that, we will struggle and
struggle,"
Parirenyatwa told Voice of America radio.
The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change accuses Mugabe and his
ZANU-PF
party of trying to marginalise it in the shared administration.
Tsvangirai
said the MDC would continue "peaceful democratic resistance".
"Our
vision as a party is to set a precedent on our continent. A
precedent of
fighting dictatorships through democratic means," Tsvangirai
said.
Mugabe was re-elected this year in a one-man poll that
was boycotted
by Tsvangirai, citing attacks on his followers. Mugabe accuses
his foes of
planning to reverse his land reform programme of taking over
white-owned
farms.
The government said it would defy the ruling
of a Southern African
Development Community tribunal that the land seizures
were illegal under
international law and should be stopped.
"They are day-dreaming because we are not going to reverse the land
reform
exercise," Didymus Mutasa, minister of state for national security,
lands,
land reform and resettlement, was quoted as saying in the state-run
Herald
newspaper. - Reuters
Aid
agency: Worst anthrax outbreak looming
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Health News
Dec 1, 2008, 8:18
GMT
Harare - An outbreak of the deadly cattle-born disease
anthrax is
threatening to turn into Zimbabwe's worst yet, compounding a
seven-week
national epidemic of cholera, an international aid agency warned
Monday.
The British-based Save the Children Fund said health workers had
reported 32
cases of human infection and three deaths of people who had
probably been
eating meat from the carcasses of cattle infected with the
disease in remote
north-west Zimbabwe.
The disease had already killed
150 livestock, two elephants, 70 hippo and 50
buffalo.
It threatened
to wipe out 60,000 cattle in the region, it said.
Spokeswoman Rachel
Pounds said the outbreak could be the worst since the
country's civil war
for black majority rule that preceded independence in
1980, when hundreds of
people were reported to have died.
There was a risk that the disease,
which is usually fatal if not treated
with heavy antibiotic doses, could
spread out of the Binga district in the
Zambezi river valley, into the
tourist town of Victoria Falls and across the
border into neighbouring
Zambia, she said.
Traders had been seen trucking potentially infected
meat from Binga to
Victoria Falls.
A seven-week epidemic of cholera,
the highly infectious diarrhoeal disease,
has spread rapidly through the
country, killing 425 people by Friday and
almost doubling the number of
infected people to 11,000 in a week, according
to official
figures.
'Many families in the Zambezi Valley are so hungry they are
taking meat from
the carcasses of their animals, even if they know it's
diseased, and feeding
it to their children,' Pounds said. 'Families no
longer have choice here.
Even if they know they shouldn't sell their
livestock, it's often the only
way of making money to feed
themselves.'
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a deadly complex of crises, with
a collapsing
economy, famine with nearly 4 million people facing starvation,
the
shut-down of infrastructure including hospitals and schools and the
failure
of services like water, electricity, sewerage disposal and refuse
collection.
'Quarantines (against the movement of potentially
infected meat) may be in
place, but Zimbabwe's systems have collapsed,'
Pounds said.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe's government declared
Monday it would
ignore a ruling by a Southern African regional court on
Friday that the
regime's seizure of white owned farms was 'racially
discriminatory' and
violated constitutional protections of property. It
ordered an end to the
usually violent invasions of the land of 78 white
farmers who had appealed
to the court.
The tribunal of the Southern
African Development Community, based in
Windhoek, Namibia, was established
in 2005 as a court to which citizens of
countries in the region could turn
when the judiciary in their own countries
had failed them.
Zimbabwe
is one of the signatories to the treaty establishing the court, and
has
guaranteed it will abide by the court's ruling.
'They (the court) are
day-dreaming because we are not going to reverse the
land-reform exercise,'
Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa was quoted in the
government-controlled daily
Herald as saying.
Since 2000, the government has forced over 4,000 white
farmers off their
land in the name of a 'revolutionary land reform
programme,' although human
rights groups say the main benefactors were
members of the 84-year-old
Mugabe's ruling clique and family, and that most
of the land invaded has
fallen into disuse.
'There is nothing special
about the 75 farmers, and we shall take more
farms,' Mutasa said.
MDC
and ZANU PF talks expected to resume next week
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
1
December 2008
There are reports that talks to establish the elusive
power-sharing
government might be entering their final stage, when
negotiators from ZANU
PF and the two MDC's meet again early next
week.
The negotiators broke off talks in South Africa last week to fly
back to
Zimbabwe to consult their respective party organs on the way
forward, after
they agreed on the content of constitutional amendment no 19.
The amendment
will create the new post of prime minister, bringing the
country one step
closer toward forming a unity government.
The three
parties, in theory, reached a landmark agreement in September on
sharing
power, but have been haggling over the implementation process. An
analyst
privy to the negotiations said there is 'cautious' optimism the
final
details on a power-sharing deal could be worked out in the coming
weeks. But
this depends on the sincerity of Robert Mugabe who has, so far,
clearly
shown that he has absolutely no interest in sharing power with
anybody.
The distribution of key ministries still remains the most
contentious issue
in the negotiations talks. Whether Mugabe yields to the
MDC demands for a
fair and equitable distribution still remains to be
seen.
An analyst told us the South African government is exerting a lot
of
pressure on all parties to wrap up the talks because the political and
economic crisis in the country has reached a critical level. South African
President Kgalema Monthlante is said to have played an instrumental role in
forcing the negotiators to agree on the text of amendment no 19 and asked
all parties to conclude the talks as quickly as possible.
ZANU PF are
believed to have made concessions at the talks, dropping all the
fraudulently inserted clauses that gave Mugabe sole power to appoint and
dismiss key government officials. But ZANU PF negotiators said they needed
time to consult Mugabe on issues ranging from the appointment of provincial
governors, permanent secretaries and ambassadors, to the composition of the
National Security Council.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa confirmed the
parties are using a small window
of opportunity to refer to their various
decision making bodies and get
fresh mandates to tackle the outstanding
issues.
'As the MDC we already have the mandate to discuss the outstanding
issues.
It's ZANU PF who asked for time-out, so we are hoping the talks will
resume
soon to deal with the matrix and entitlement of who gets what from
the deal,'
Chamisa said.
It's expected the talks will move into high
gear next week, after making
steady progress last week. The growing
involvement of the regional
powerhouse of South Africa indicates that the
talks are moving from detailed
technical matters to core political
issues.
Clashes between soldiers and police officers, and the recent death of
at
least 400 people from cholera, has meant the situation in the country has
entered a new phase where a solution is needed fast before the crisis
implodes.
Eddie Cross, policy co-ordinator for the MDC, said the next
step should be
for the two parties to agree on an official version of
Amendment number 19
and to then publish this in the Government Gazette,
possibly next week
Friday.
'The people of Zimbabwe have a month to
study this and to analyse its
implications and content. In the second week
of January, Parliament might
convene to debate the amendment and agree on
its contents and pass it into
law,' Cross said.
He added; 'On paper
then, at least, the Global Political Agreement, signed
by the parties on the
11th September, will be law. This will mean that we
can form a new
government - Mugabe can be sworn in as President, Tsvangirai
as Prime
Minister.'
Army chefs
abuse RBZ withdrawal facility at army barracks
http://www.zimdaily.com
By NOZIPHO
MASEKO
Published: Monday 01 December 2008
ZIMBABWE - HARARE -
There is mutiny in the Zimbabwe army over abuse of a
cash withdrawal
facility set up by government to help army service officials
from queuing
with everyone else in the long and winding queues for cash at
banking halls
in the city.
Soldiers, who have been allowed to withdraw ZD10 million
from army barracks
and police camps, say they are unable to do so because
top officials in the
army are abusing the system and withdrawing all the
money for their personal
use.
This has left soldiers with no cash to
carry out their day to day
transactions.
They have, as a result, been
forced to join civilian queues in town for
cash.
But authorities
do not want this. They do not want soldiers in queues with
civilians,
listening to the lampooning of government that has become
synonymous at
these queues.
However, defiant soldiers, unable to access their cash
from army barracks
have swarmed banks demanding their
cash.
This has not gone down well with authorities, who have now
tried to fish out
all soldiers from town, sparking the latest
clashes.
At least fourteen soldiers have been arrested in a joint
operation between
military police, resplendent in red berets; and riot
police.
There have been deadly clashes in the city centre, with
soldiers running
amok and attacking forex dealers after going to banks and
being turned away
ostensibly because forex dealers were responsible for the
crisis.
They have in turn vented their anger on the hapless forex
dealers. There
have also been sporadic outbursts of violence in Breaside
involving
soldiers.
The soldiers and riot police have thrown a
security cordon around the city
centre, in a bid to flush out the rebellious
soldiers.
The soldiers are complaining that they cannot bear the
hardships anymore.
And they blame Mugabe for the crisis.
With
weakening income for soldiers, so is the loyalty to the aged dictator.
It's a
situation becoming rapidly explosive, said one analyst.
Body
of MDC activist found
http://www.swradioafrica.com
1 December 2008
By Violet Gonda
A body of an
MDC activist abducted several weeks ago was found in a mortuary
in
Mashonaland West last week, with multiple stab wounds. SW Radio Africa
received this information on Monday from a very reliable source, but we are
not revealing the identity at the request of the family who fear
retribution. People are now extremely worried about reporting cases of
atrocities, because they have no one to turn to for protection.
A
distraught relative said: "I last saw my nephew when he was a little boy
but
he's now killed for being a suspected opposition youth. Another dead one
with multiple stab wounds, missing for many weeks and now found in a
mortuary. Murdered by suspects who will never be found. This is how far we
have gone and Mugabe thinks the country is in good shape. We hope one day we
will wipe away our tears and dress them with love again."
While the
MDC continues to talk with ZANU PF its members are still under
attack. Only
last week two other MDC activists were adducted from their
homes including
Kisimisi, aka Chris Dlamini, the MDC Director for Security.
15 other
activists abducted on 27th October, including a two year old baby,
are still
missing.
SW Radio Africa spoke with Zweli, one of Dlamini's sons who said
the family
was extremely worried about their father's whereabouts. He
confirmed that
his father was picked up from their house last Tuesday by a
group of about
10 men. Zweli said the men, believed to be plain clothes
police officers,
searched the house and then took their father away. "He
hugged our three
year old brother before being taken away," Zweli
said.
The other 15 missing activists have been named as Concillia
Chinanzvavana,
the MDC Mashonaland West provincial chairperson of the
Women's Assembly, a
former parliamentary candidate for Zvimba South and a
member of the MDC
National Council.
Others are her husband, Emmanuel
Chinanzvavana, who is a councillor for Ward
25 in Zvimba South, Fidelis
Chiramba, the Zvimba South district chairperson.
Chiramba stood as an MDC
senatorial candidate for Zvimba in the March 29
elections. Also missing is
Ernest Mudimu the MDC parliamentary candidate for
Zvimba North in the March
elections.
Fanwell Tembo is a youth organizer in Zvimba South; Terry Musona
is the
deputy provincial secretary. Lloyd Tarumbwa is an activist, while
Violet
Mupfuranhehwe is the wife of the MDC Zvimba South youth chairperson,
Collen
Mutemagawo, who is also being held. Their two year old child is also
abduced
as are, Pieat Kaseke, Gwenzi Kahiya, Tawanda Bvumo, Agrippa Kakonda
and
Larry Gaka.
Khupe
breaks down at clinic
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8096
December 1, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) Vice-President
Thokozani Khupe on
Monday broke down after coming face to face with victims
of the deadly
cholera disease, which has claimed the lives of many in
troubled Zimbabwe.
Khupe broke down at Budiriro Polyclinic after she saw
hundreds of patients
battling for their lives during a tour of the affected
high density suburbs
in Harare.
The MDC Vice-President called for the
immediate intervention of the
international community to assist Zimbabwe as
the cholera outbreak in the
country has reached catastrophic
levels.
"My appeal to the international community as a matter of urgency
is for food
and medicine as the country is failing to cope with the
humanitarian crisis
that has hit Zimbabwe," Khupe said.
Khupe, the
second in command after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the
Zanu-PF regime
should stop politicking about the crisis as the people of
Zimbabwe had been
seriously affected by the cholera outbreak.
"People should stop
politicking about this situation as it has reached
unprecedented levels,"
said Khupe. "Zanu-PF should get out of its denial
mode and admit that they
have no capacity so that those that can help can
come in as a matter of
urgency."
During the tour, which included a stop-over at the Beatrice
Infectious
Diseases Hospital in Mbare, Khupe was accompanied by MDC
spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa, the party's deputy national treasurer Elton
Mangoma, Henry
Madzorera, the MDC secretary for health and several and other
MDC
legislators.
Khupe's tour of the cities came at a time when
virtually the whole city of
Harare clocked three consecutive days without
running water supplies since
Friday due to mismanagement by the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority
(Zinwa).
Critics warn that the drying up of
Harare, which is currently grappling to
contain a deadly cholera outbreak,
poses a serious health hazard that could
compound the cholera outbreak which
has hit the capital city and several
other areas in the country.
Botswana
closing embassy in Harare
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8078
December 1, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The government of Botswana has decided to close
its embassy in
Harare after calling on Zimbabwe's neighbours to close their
borders to
force regime change in Zimbabwe.
The Botswana government
last week assigned an auctioneer to place all
furniture and equipment at its
embassy at 22 Phillips Avenue in Belgravia
under the hammer. Information
reaching The Zimbabwe Times was that the
embassy planned to close before
Christmas.
It remained unclear if Botswana was closing its chancery amid
reports it
could remain open.
A senior diplomatic source said the
closure was a result of mounting
exasperation in Botswana over President
Robert Mugabe's intransigence in
sharing power with the opposition despite
his party's loss of elections in
March.
Last week Botswana Foreign
Minister, Phandu Skelemani said mediation has
failed to remove President
Mugabe and called on all African nations to
impose sanctions to force that
removal.
Botswana was steadfastly moving to cut diplomatic ties with the
embattled
Mugabe regime, said the diplomat.
"They have indicated they
are exasperated with Zimbabwe's constant
violations of human rights and
democratic rule," he said.
Botswana is calling on countries with leverage
over Zimbabwe to freeze most
of its aid to Zimbabwe and also phase out
development aid as quickly as
possible to cause regime change and allow the
MDC which won elections in
March to take over power.
Though initially
friendly towards Zimbabwe, several disputes between the two
countries have
soured relations in recent years.
Botswana has experienced an influx of
refugees from Zimbabwe; the building
of a fence along the border, and has
complained on several occasions of a
campaign by Zimbabwe's state-run media
against the government of Botswana,
where it cites claims of human rights
abuses against Zimbabwean's government
and the claim that Botswana, along
with the UK and other countries were
supporting the opposition in
Zimbabwe.
Recently, relations have further been strained after the
government of
Botswana lodged a protest against the political violence that
occurred in
Zimbabwe in the run up to the June run-off election, and the
detention of
opposition members in the country, saying it was uncalled
for.
Protesting the outcome of the June presidential run off elections
and the
"illegitimate regime in Zimbabwe", Botswana President Ian Khama
boycotted
the SADC summit on August 16-17. Botswana's blustery Foreign
Minister
attended instead.
Relations have further deteriorated
between Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia
after the latter two countries
withdrew from a Memorandum of Understanding,
excluding Zimbabwe and signed a
new one to undertake the construction of the
Kazungula Bridge Project on a
bilateral basis.
This was done despite a caution from the New Partnership
for Africa's
Development (NEPAD), mooted by former South Africa President
Thabo Mbeki, to
not let politics interfere with the development
project.
Recently Zimbabwe has accused Botswana of training Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) insurgents to destabilise the country and overthrow
President
Mugabe. Botswana has rubbished the allegations and invited a
fact-finding
mission to investigate the claims. A delegation led by Deputy
Foreign
minister Joey Bimha proved that the claims were
false.
Skelemani's remarks last week that all countries bordering
Zimbabwe should
close their borders with the country, to "bring down Robert
Mugabe's
government" have caused a stir.
The flighting on television
of an advertisement to announce the auctioning
of furniture by the Botswana
embassy suggested that relations between the
two countries have hit a new
low.
Skelemani last week cast aspersions on former South African
President Thabo
Mbeki's Sadc-mandated mediation saying the group should "own
up" and admit
it had failed, and that it was "time for strong
action".
Skelemani said on the BBC's HardTalk programme last week that
his country
was willing to offer asylum to the MDC leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
He also said his country would allow the MDC leader, who was
poised to
become Prime Minister in a unity government that Mugabe was now
refusing to
implement, to launch a "democratic resistance movement" in
Botswana, but not
military action.
Bank
cash withdrawals increased again as protests gather momentum
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex
Bell
01 December 2008
Zimbabwe's central bank will yet again raise
daily cash withdrawal limits
this week, amid mounting tension and threats of
serious protest action by
civil society.
Zimbabwe's official
inflation rate stands at a record breaking 231 million
percent, but experts
say the rate has reached far beyond the quintillion
mark. In an attempt to
harness the country's runaway inflation, the Reserve
Bank capped daily cash
withdrawal limits - a move that promptly backfired.
This week's limit
increase will be the third in as many months, and each
change has brought
with it immediate price hikes. The current limit of
Z$500,000 a day does not
cover even the most basic of living costs and
Zimbabweans spend days in
queues just to buy food.
At the same time, amid a national cholera crisis
that has claimed hundreds
of lives, Zimbabweans cannot withdraw enough money
to pay for critically
needed medication or the transport to get the sick to
hospitals and clinics.
The situation has led to last week's call by the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) for Zimbabweans to converge on
banks this Wednesday and stage
demonstrations if they fail to withdraw their
funds from the banks. The
action is set to go ahead in spite of it being a
day before the withdrawal
limits increase.
As of Thursday the daily
limit of Z$500 000 will be increased to Z$100
million a week - which has
been averaged at an estimated Z$14 million a day.
It is still unclear how
the banks will determine the public's daily
withdrawal limits, but there are
doubts this drastic increase will make any
difference on the
ground.
Madock Chivasa from pressure group the National Constitutional
Assembly
(NCA) said these measures taken by the Reserve Bank are 'not
addressing the
problem', arguing the root of the economic crisis is a crisis
of 'governance'.
"The central bank can raise the withdrawal limits time
and time again, but
it has been proved it makes no difference," Chivasa
argued. "Until the
governance crisis is addressed there will be no change
for average
Zimbabweans."
Chivasa made the comments while explaining
the NCA's decision to postpone
its weekly protest to Thursday, in solidarity
with the ZCTU action on
Wednesday. He explained the move would allow members
of the NCA to join the
ZCTU action and urged the public to add more pressure
by taking part in both
demonstrations.
"There is great need for civil
society and the public at large to continue
to facilitate numerous and
diverse protest actions until democracy is
established in Zimbabwe," Chivasa
said.
Meanwhile, Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe said in a
statement
on Monday that it calls upon all Zimbabweans and other civic
organisations
to join in protests to "register anger for the unresolved
political,
socio-economic multi-layered crises in Zimbabwe."
More
than 350 members of the group in Bindura, as well as residents, took to
the
streets on Monday as part of ROHR's "multilayered campaign for Democracy
and
Justice." The protests are calling for a quick resolution to the
political
impasse and the creation of a transitional government that should
be able to
quickly deal with the worsening humanitarian crisis caused by a
total
breakdown of the socio-economic fabric of the country. The protesters
marched from the CBD of Bindura along the main street and ended at Chipadze,
where a strong police presence forced people to disperse.
Bill Watch 47 of 29th November 08 [Draft Constitution Amendment No. 19 agreed]
BILL WATCH
47/2008
[Saturday 29th November
2008]
Both Houses of
Parliament are adjourned until 16th December
Statutory Instruments -
see end of bulletin
Constitution Amendment No. 19:
Draft Agreed
A draft Constitution Amendment No. 19 was agreed
by the negotiators of the three parties on 27th
November after three days of discussions in South Africa. The draft now has to
be approved by the three principals and this means waiting until all three are
back in the country. As the Bill cannot be
introduced into Parliament until at least 30 days after gazetting, it is now
impossible for it to be introduced into Parliament this year.
The negotiation of the draft was fraught with
difficulties. ZANU-PF provided their draft, which they had drawn up without
consultation with the other parties. MDC-T had their own preparatory draft. It
would have been more sensible to have had all three parties working on producing
one consolidated draft starting immediately after the conclusion of the
Power-Sharing Agreement. Nonetheless, after marathon sessions the parties
managed to come to some agreement and all initialled a combined
draft.
Key Points of
Agreed Constitutional Amendment
We will distribute a
summary/commentary on the draft
[the "draft" refers to the draft Constitutional Amendment] as soon as possible. In the meantime we note
the following:
Recognition of Mugabe as
President: the draft provides for the post of President to "continue to be
occupied" by Mr. Mugabe, and for Mr. Tsvangirai to occupy the post of Prime
Minister [see section below on
Motlanthe comment on recognition]
Unilateral cancellation of
inclusive government: unlike the ZANU-PF draft, the draft does not authorize
Mr Mugabe [as President] to terminate the inter party agreement
unilaterally
Recognition of original agreement
of 11th September: the draft includes a schedule which sets out the text of
the Power-Sharing Agreement and reflects the text signed on 11th September,
including wording not present in, or differing from, the text signed at the
formal signing ceremony on 15th September: [Note: The draft Constitution uses the term "Inter-party Political Agreement". >From now on we will use that term
[abbreviation IPA] instead of the terms "Power Sharing Agreement" and "Global
Political Agreement" used in previous bulletins.]
The provision on appointments to
senior government positions [e.g. Permanent Secretaries,
Ambassadors] having to be agreed by the President, Vice-Presidents, Prime
Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers, was in the original IPA and is now in the
draft constitution.
Some provisions in the draft
still left open to agreement: the draft leaves it to the Principals whether
to confirm the original wording [11 Sept] or the use the altered version [15
Sept] of the IPA in certain provisions - these provisions are annotated in the
draft as being subject to rectification or confirmation by the Principals.
These provisions deal with:
· the
number and sharing between parties of additional appointed Senate
seats
·
appointment of Vice-Presidents, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers from
outside the ranks of members of Parliament
·
appointment of Ministers from outside the ranks of members of
Parliament
Recognition of what "de facto"
but not legally installed Ministers have done: unlike the ZANU-PF draft, the
draft does not seek to validate measures taken after the 26th August by persons
functioning as Ministers but doing so in breach of the Constitution because they
do not hold seats in Parliament.
No provision for existing
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission [ZEC] members: unlike the ZANU-PF draft,
there is no express provision retaining existing ZEC members in their positions
until the expiry of their terms of office
By-Elections: the draft does
not contain a clause stopping by-elections for 12 months,
notwithstanding that the IPA requires such a ban
National Security Council:
the draft does not go into detail on the composition and functions of the
National Security Council
The Kariba Draft Constitution's
provisions on Citizenship, Independent Commissions [Electoral Commission,
Human Rights Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and Media Commission] and
the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders are incorporated into
the draft as required by the IPA
Outstanding
Issues Before Formation of Inclusive Government
Although there was no open apology
for producing an "altered" version of the IPA at the signing ceremony, most of
MDC-T's outstanding issues arising from these alterations have been dealt with
within the provisions of the draft Constitution Amendment [see above].
But, the MDC-T has issued a
statement saying that several other issues, which had been left unresolved by
the facilitator and the SADC Summit of 9th November, had not been dealt with in
the draft Constitutional Amendment, and still need to be resolved:
· the
equitable allocation of Ministries
· sharing
of provincial governorships
· functions
and constitution of the National Security Council
MDC-T
dissatisfaction with SADC/Mbeki
The negotiations on the Constitution
Amendment were facilitated by Mr Mbeki's team but not by Mr Mbeki personally.
On 19th November MDC-T Secretary-General Biti wrote to Mr Mbeki criticising the
SADC Summit's decision of 9th November. In response Mr Mbeki sent a 10-page
letter dated 22nd November to Mr Tsvangirai strongly criticising the MDC-T's
attitude. Mr Tsvangirai released a statement dealing mainly with
the humanitarian crisis in the country but also stating the MDC-T'S position on
Mr. Mbeki, He said "Šwe have written to the Chairman of SADC, South African
President Kgalema Motlanthe, detailing the irretrievable state of our
relationship with Mr Mbeki and asking that he recuse himself."
Recognition of
Mugabe presidency
After meeting President Khama of
Botswana on 23rd November, SA President Motlanthe told the South African public
broadcaster that: "We agreed that, with regards to Zimbabwe, the next step
really is to ensure that we unblock the impasse for them to take Amendment 19
through the senate and the assembly, so that Tsvangirai could be sworn in as
prime minister and Mutambara as the vice prime minister and Mugabe as the
president, so that once the three of them have been sworn in they can then form
an inclusive government." Commentators have pointed to the statement as a
departure from the policy followed by the Mbeki presidency. It underlines the
fact that for at least some of our neighbours the legitimacy of Mr. Mugabe's
presidency depends on compliance with the IPA.
Reappointment of
Dr Gono as Reserve Bank Governor
Mr Mugabe's reappointment of Dr Gono
as Governor of the Reserve Bank for a second full 5-year term of office expiring
in 2013 was surprising coming as it did just before the talks on the
constitutional amendment. The IPA envisaged the President making such key
appointments in consultation [meaning in agreement] with the Prime Minister. Dr
Gono's policies and actions have been consistently condemned by the MDC-T. A
short-term extension or an acting appointment - or an appointment acceptable to
the MDC-T - would have been more appropriate. The appointment can also be
questioned on legal grounds. Under the Reserve Bank Act the appointment should
have been made after consulting the Minister of Finance, but consultation cannot
have taken place because the present incumbent is functioning as Minister in
contravention of the Constitution as he does not hold a seat in Parliament
[Constitution, section 31E(2)].
Court
Cases
Land acquisition - Zimbabwe
Supreme Court dismisses application under Bilateral Investment Protection
Agreement: A five-judge Supreme Court bench has
dismissed an application by a Danish citizen in which he claimed the compulsory
acquisition of his farm was contrary to the Bilateral Investment Protection
Agreement between Zimbabwe and Denmark. Announcing the decision, Deputy Chief
Justice Malaba said the court's reasons would be provided later.
Land Acquisition - SADC Tribunal
decision against Zimbabwe Government: Judgment was given in
favour of the landowners in the Campbell case. The basis of the decision is
that the constitutional provision under which the Government acquired
agricultural land in 2005 is in breach of provisions of the SADC Treaty
requiring member States to observe the rule of law and not to discriminate on
racial grounds. [The breach of the rule of law is the denial of access to the
courts for landowners aggrieved by compulsory acquisition.] The Tribunal has
accordingly ordered the Government:
· to ensure
that the applicants enjoy undisturbed possession and ownership of their land
[this refers to the 75 applicants still on the land]
· to pay
compensation to the three applicants who have already been evicted from their
land.
Enforcement of the Tribunal's
decisions against member States is a matter for the SADC Summit. So, if the
Government does not comply with the Tribunal's order, the applicants will have
to go back to the Tribunal with proof of non-compliance, and ask the Tribunal to
refer the matter to the Summit. [Note: The Government's failure to comply
with the Tribunal's earlier interim protection orders in the Campbell case was
referred to the August SADC Summit. The Summit referred the matter to the
Committee of Ministers of Justice for advice. Further developments are
awaited.]
Election Cases: None of the pending election petition appeals to the Supreme Court has
been set down for hearing. The Supreme Court is now on vacation until
mid-January, so hearings before then are unlikely, The same
applies to Mr Chiota's application for the setting aside of the Presidential
election result on the basis of nomination court irregularities.
Update on
Statutory Instruments
SI 168/2008 - Roads (Fuel Levy)
Notice - this sets out the details of a levy on petrol and diesel to be paid
to the National Road Administration [ZINARA] by licensed fuel importers. The
levy is for the benefit of the Road Fund established by the Roads Act [section
22]. The Fund must be used primarily for road maintenance.
SI 105C/2008 - this notice,
gazetted on 29th October under the Customs and Excise Act, fixes rents for State
warehouses.
Veritas makes every effort to
ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for
information supplied.
Amendment Number 19
The actual events of this past week are still
shrouded in secrecy. The
negotiation teams are sworn to silence and the press
has had to subsist on
rumor and the odd leaks, none of which are that
accurate. If you are
watching the media as we are skimming the daily press
from across the
globe for anything on Zimbabwe, you can however get a picture
of what
possibly transpired last week.
It started of course with the
visit of the Elders, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan
and Graca Machel. They had
planned their visit some weeks before and
although the American Embassy tried
to keep a low profile on the visit, when
a American Secret Service detail
arrived in Harare to prepare for the visit
(Carter gets protection for life)
the game was on. They were coming to
assess the humanitarian crisis, they
stated did not have anything to do
with the talks on the future or the
political crisis.
Terrified of their own shadows, Zanu PF reacted in a
panic by denying them
entry visas and what would otherwise have been a low
profile visit by three
elder statesmen turned into a political circus. It was
the best thing that
could have happened as far as Zimbabwe was concerned. The
media gathered and
the human rights fraternity in Zimbabwe traveled south. In
South Africa the
powerful human rights movement honed by years of
opposition to apartheid,
swung into action.
As a consequence the visit
not only achieved all they had set out to do but
also focused attention on
the tyrannical regime in Harare and the linkages
between the political crisis
and the humanitarian crisis, the very fact that
the one has created the
other. Another aspect that I only appreciated later,
was that having three
such experienced leaders on tap, meant that they very
quickly grasped the
core issues and were able to elucidate these in later
interviews and opinion
pieces. Jimmy Carter in particular, was very clear.
It helped of course
that the credentials of the trio could not be
challenged. Zanu PF would have
been better advised to have welcomed the team
and afforded them every
facility except the presence of the pesky media
who then get into the dark
corners where an official delegation cannot go on
their guided
tours.
Then the US slapped further personal sanctions on four individuals
who have
had extensive dealings with the Mugabe regime. Two were local and
two were
Asian. The most important aspect of this action was the message it
sent to
all those who are doing deals with the regime I can think of a few,
who
must have shivered in their shoes at the thought that they might be next!
I
especially appreciated Carters clear statement on this issue on television
Zimbabwe faced no sanctions of any kind, he stated, the sanctions were
all
personal and aimed at those responsible for the economic and
political
crisis.
The impact of this flood of media attention and the
new information gathered
and released on the South African mediated talks are
not known, but it must
have been significant. Perhaps this explains why the
South Africans threw
such a blanket of silence and secrecy around the
talks.
The two teams arrived on Monday evening and exchanged documents. On
Tuesday
they made no progress and on Wednesday, Morgan Tsvangirai issued a
statement
that the talks were going nowhere and he felt that the MDC should
leave the
process until a new mediator was appointed.
This threat
seems to have brought in the South African government who up to
then had been
preoccupied with the ongoing political struggles taking place
in South Africa
ahead of the 2009 elections. There was a brief flurry of
statements from the
leadership on the talks and Miranda Strydom often a
spokesperson for the
ANC on SABC 3, made several disclosures. What annoys me
about her
interventions are her persistent remarks to the effect that MDC is
holding up
progress by ³squabbling² over power. As if that is what this is
all
about.
Then came the astonishing news not made public by the
participants or the
mediator that agreement had been reached on the wording
of Amendment number
19. The news just slipped out, first a whisper and then
more open
disclosure. Nothing more. MDC had clearly stated in advance that
this was
not the whole subject of these discussions we wanted to settle the
many
other issues still outstanding.
But it was not to be Zanu PF
was not mandated to talk about such matters,
was the argument behind closed
doors the mediator simply gave in and
closed the session and the teams
returned home. What next?
Mugabe in the meantime went off to the Middle
East where he attended a UN
sponsored meeting on development finance The UN
trying to maintain focus
on the Millennium Development Goals that have been
much neglected of late in
the middle of the global financial meltdown and the
American elections.
There he trundled out his old mantra the melt down in
my country is due to
the fact that I can no longer shop at Harrods or send my
children to fancy
schools and Universities in the West. That explains 10
years of negative
growth and the total collapse of the country¹s social
system.
He did not say it quite like that but what he did say meant
just that.
In the struggle to establish a transitional government that
might just work,
under near impossible conditions, the next step should be
for the two
parties to agree on an official version of Amendment number 19
and to then
publish this in the Government Gazette possibly next Friday.
Then the
people of Zimbabwe have a month to study this and to analyse
its
implications and content.
In the second week of January,
Parliament will convene to debate the
amendment and agree on its contents and
pass it into law. On paper then, at
least, the Global Political Agreement
signed by the parties on the 11th
September will be law. In Zimbabwe that may
not be very much as the law is
seldom observed or upheld where politics is
concerned. But still, it will
become the law of the land.
On paper
this will mean that now we can form a new government Mr. Mugabe
can be
sworn in as President, Mr Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. But
most
significantly, the Junta that has run Zimbabwe into the ground in the
past
decade, will be replaced by a democratically elected Council of
Ministers,
who will have responsibility for government. This new government
will run
the country until a new constitution is agreed and adopted and
fresh
elections held under free and fair conditions perhaps in mid 2011.
That is
what is possible on paper. Turning it into reality is another
thing
altogether!
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 1st December
2008
Mawere:
Gono, Mugabe and the change agenda
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Zimbabwe 2008 - Gono/Mugabe and
the change agenda
By: Mutumwa Mawere
Date: 30 November
2008
President Mugabe remains the head of state and government of the
state of
Zimbabwe notwithstanding what the majority of the citizens of
Zimbabwe may
have wished to see when they voted on 29 March
2008.
Those who voted for change will accept that a precedent starting
with Kenya
has been set in Africa that it is not sufficient for voters to
vote but the
incumbent has the ultimate say in what kind of change should
obtain.
What kind of change does Zimbabwe deserve? Who should lead
Zimbabwe? What
rights, if any, should be conferred on citizens to shape
their future? Does
the continued service of Mugabe and Gono at the top
represent the change
that people of Zimbabwe and the world can believe
in?
The President was in Doha at Zimbabwean taxpayer's expense where the
theme
of his address was that the suffering; the people of Zimbabwe have and
continue to be subjected to; stem solely from what he described as illegal
sanctions imposed by some Western countries in a purported bid to effect
illegal regime change and prevent Zimbabwe from benefiting from its own
resources.
The President was speaking at the conference on Financing
for Development
hosted by the UN to review the Monterrey Consensus. At no
moment in his
speech did he accept any responsibility for causing or helping
to cause the
crisis. Prior to his departure to Doha leaving the country with
a health
nightmare and yet finding the resources and time to repeat the old
song that
sanctions must be lifted as a dividend for making concessions for
the MDC
formations to be part of an inclusive government, Zimbabweans learnt
that
Gono's term had been extended for another 5 years.
Judging from
Gono's actions both prior to the elections and after the
controversial
Presidential elections, his reappointment was never in doubt
as was the
continued tenor of President Mugabe.
If any change was to be expected, it
was never in the mind of President
Mugabe and Gono that such change will
amount to their change of employment
addresses.
Zimbabwe's future
ought to be the responsibility of all who have interests
in the country. The
interests may originate from natural and corporate
citizenship as well as
artificial interests emanating from economic and
other interests including
people who have chosen Zimbabwe as a place of
permanent
residency.
The enterprise of building Zimbabwe lies on the shoulders of
all these
multiple stakeholders. Mugabe and Gono are after all human and God
has given
them no more than 24 hours in a day and yet a situation has been
allowed to
exist in which the voices of change have been and continue to be
marginalized.
The kind of change that Zimbabwe deserves must and
should be a consequence
of some shared vision but regrettably even at this
eleventh hour President
Mugabe has no problem, for example, squandering a
unique opportunity
presented by the UN in Doha to correctly and accurately
express the desire
by all concerned about the future of the country that it
is not acceptable
for any Zimbabwean to mistakenly and mischievously attempt
to mislead the
world into believing that the removal of targeted sanctions
is a panacea to
the problems and challenges confronting the
country.
President Mugabe will be aware of the futility of denouncing the
very
countries that on his own version are critical in moving the country's
agenda for progress and yet he misses no opportunity to concede that he has
no alternative plan to lift the country out of its abyss.
The country
needs leadership and regrettably SADC has accepted that no
change in
Zimbabwe's top leadership is the kind of change that people of
Zimbabwe want
to see.
Having benefited from the endorsement by SADC, it would be naïve
to blame
President Mugabe for making the unilateral decision to reappoint
Gono and
continue to invest in the propaganda that says the state of the
Zimbabwean
economy is causally and directly attributable to the purported
impact of the
sanctions regime.
The recent public exchange between
former President Mbeki and the MDC-T has
exposed a widely held view of the
contempt with which many African leaders
hold the leader of the now majority
party in parliament who still is to get
his passport and who is presumed to
be a surrogate of the West who are
blamed for putting the country's
resources at the centre of their strategy
and tactics.
It is evident
from Mbeki's recent famous letter that he holds the view that
MDC-T is
responsible for the delay in implementing the Global Political
Agreement
even in the face of President Mugabe's unrepentant, unapologetic
and
antagonistic attitude to the change agenda.
President Mugabe has not and
will never accept that the 29 March election
results genuinely reflect the
verdict of the people.
Equally, he believes that every rational African
should accept without
question a version that says Zimbabwe's brighter day
will come from the
actions of external parties who have imposed sanctions on
the country.
It is apparent that Mbeki is convinced that the
implementation of the GPA as
framed and signed will advance the interests of
Zimbabwe and that an
inclusive government will positively encourage
President Mugabe to change
his ways and worldview.
His speeches and
actions since the signing of the GPA exposes the widely
held view that the
world Mugabe lives in is foreign to the daily realities
that Zimbabweans
face.
In this, we must all accept some responsibility in creating a
situation
where the Emperor has gotten out of touch with reality and yet no
one can
tell him that he is naked and the more he continues to make noises
while we
surrender to laugh in disbelief we are in a sense also culpable for
creating
the mess.
We should and must not expect Mugabe to change if
we do nothing about it.
The future of Zimbabwe is just too important for us
to allow the buffoonery
of Zimbabwe's current political actors to take root.
After reading Mbeki's
letter, I am convinced that a new conversation is
required beyond the
confines of the GPA. I have often observed that the only
power people who do
not have power is the power to organize.
Having
recently obtained a judgment in England that on the face of it
suggests that
the contention that Mugabe wants to remain in power to protect
black
economic rights is just but a sham and yet the lessons from my
experience
goes unnoticed by the political actors who potentially stand to
benefit by
presenting a new argument why Mugabe cannot and should not be
trusted to
remain as the custodian of the country's sovereignty.
If Mugabe knew what
time it is in Zimbabwe and the extent of suffering, he
would behave and act
differently.
Equally, if Mbeki, who was sufficiently detached from the
machinations in
his own party to the extent that regime change was effected
without any GPA,
knew that the problem of the ANC cannot be traced to his
successors but
squarely on him for failing to appreciate the mood and the
climate of
confusion in the party that he had helped create.
An
inclusive government will not and should not be expected to solve the
problems of Zimbabwe in as much as any expectation of a unity of purpose in
the post-Mbeki era between the losers at Polokwane conference and the
victors was misplaced. Is it realistic then to expect Tsvangirai and
Mugabe/Gono to forge an alliance for Zimbabwean progress?
Mugabe/Gono
by continuing to hold the view that Tsvangirai's power is not a
product of
the genuine expression of the people of Zimbabwe for change have
already
provided enough evidence of the nullity of the GPA and the lack of
sincerity
on the part of SADC to help resolve the crisis.
The ANC came to the
inescapable conclusion that Mbeki had to go for the
country to move forward
and for the divisions he had invested in to come to
the fore.
It has
generally been accepted that it was in the interests of the ANC for
Mbeki to
exit and at some stage Mbeki has to accept that it may be time for
Mugabe
and his ideas to exit.
What was evident to all who listened to Mugabe in
Doha is that Zimbabwe
needs a new face to encourage the world to identify
with its cause.
Cuba, for example, has been under sanctions for a longer
period and yet has
seen wisdom in internalizing its pain and investing in
alternative business
models.
Both President Mugabe and Gono have run
out of ideas and yet refuse to exit.
Why would Gono and Mugabe want to
remain in the driver's seat, fully
cognizant of the fact that the people
needed to support the renewal of the
country have no confidence in their
stewardship?
SADC is fully aware; as it should that it is not sufficient
for the regional
body to urge Zimbabweans to rush to implement an unworkable
agreement when
the actors themselves do not trust each other and their
actions clearly
demonstrate that they are not serious and time is of the
essence. The burden
of showing good faith must be placed on Mugabe/Gono but
it now appears that
such a burden has now mischievously placed on MDC-T
through the crafty
facilitation of Mbeki.
The nullity of the SADC
brokered deal is self-evident and many who know
Mugabe's inflexibility
generally share the sentiments expressed by Biti.
After 28 years of
political manipulation, Zimbabwe needs a new beginning.
There are only two
principal political actors on the stage and it is evident
that they cannot
co-exist in as much as Zuma and Mbeki could not.
Mbeki was smart enough
to know what time it was and yet he appears not to be
smart enough or
courageous enough to tell Mugabe what time it is.
Even Mbeki cannot be
satisfied that the GPA will deliver the kind of
Zimbabwe that people can
believe in.
Mugabe and Gono are confidently rewriting the history of the
country in a
manner that suggests that a conspiracy exists to undermine the
future of the
country and the country's future can only be secured if power
remains in
their hands.
Mbeki was a genius in framing the
post-election negotiations so as to divert
attention from critical economic
questions that needed to be addressed for
Zimbabwe to move forward. Both
Mugabe and Gono are acutely aware that they
can run but they cannot
hide.
Zimbabweans need an opportunity to start believing in the country
again.
Many have voted with their feet and it is unlikely that implementing
the GPA
will change the hearts and minds of the people Zimbabwe needs most
to move
forward.
Zimbabwe is ripe for a
revolution
http://www.zimaction.com
Letter
from America
December 1, 2008
Judging by the pathetic and appalling conditions in the
country and the
fact that talks between MDC and ZANUPF have now
irretrievably broken down,
these must surely be ominous signs that
something resembling a revolution
might be lurking in the murky shadows of
the failed Zimbabwean state.
Reducing people to a nation of
unprecedented poverty are indicators of a
mass uprising that are now
firmly in place in Zimbabwe.
Major hospitals have closed and
clinics can hardly cope especially with
the outbreak of cholera that has
killed hundreds, if not thousands of
people.
Doctors,
medical staff, teachers are on strike. Now magistrates have
joined the
queue for strikes. Courts are now closed.
About 70 soldiers who
did not receive their pay when they went to the bank
are reported to have
gone on a violent protest beating people and smashing
windows in an
uncontrollable rage.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions has
reportedly called for a major
mass action on the limited bank
withdrawals.
The ball is now squarely and firmly in the
Zimbabweans' court. Either
Zimbabweans allow the situation to deteriorate
and the repression by Mugabe
to continue, or launch a systematic and well
coordinated civil
disobedience campaign.
If they allow the
situation to continue unchallenged Zimbabweans will
bear the brunt of all
the economic decline and terror unleashed by the
Mugabe
regime.
Zimbabweans will leave a legacy of a dilapidated
country for their future
generations.
The current waves of
strikes are a hopeful sign that they will, hopefully,
generate more
participation by members of the public.
Zimbabweans now not
only have the motive, the justification but also the
means to confront
Mugabe more forcefully through protests. With these
rampant strikes and
demonstrations it's almost like Zimbabweans are now
poised to take this
decisive action to rid themselves of Mugabe by all
means
necessary.
Yet there is one disconcerting
factor.
We have seen this before. There have been in the past
similar situations
of politically charged atmosphere lending itself to
mass protests.
But at the minute, and when all seemed ready
to pounce, Zimbabweans
merely withdrew withuot even a whimper into their
enslaved conditions.
The most disturbing aspect of this
withdrawal in face of Mugabe's
barbarism was that only a few people braved
the politically stormy weather
and protested.
They were met with
heavy reprisals from Mugabe's militarized forces. Yet
even as the protesters
were being beaten and dragged like dead animals to
jails, other Zimbabweans
just stood by like spectators, as if they were
watching some football game,
and did absolutely nothing.
Some analysts say conditions in
Zimbabwe are not ripe for mass protests
because people are too hungry to
think of anything other than look for food.
Others will say
conditions in Zimbabwe are too oppressive for people to
go on mass
action.
But the key questions are, what are the ideal
conditions for mass action?
What exactly must happen in
Zimbabwe for people to go on mass action?
Others have said
Zimbabweans are not a fighting people and that they do
not have a tradition
of mass conflicts.
One analyst said Zimbabweans are ordained
cowards, and like sheep being
led to slaughter, will simply endure the
pain, misery and suffering
inflicted on them by Mugabe and his
regime.
The analyst gave as an example several situations where
fully grown-up
Zimbabweans have been intimidated by teenage youth militia
thugs even in
situations where these thugs were overwhelmingly outnumbered
!
Conditions for mass protest have existed in Zimbabwe for many
years now.
However, the situation has deteriorated to such an extent
that new
conditions of escalating poverty and repression in the country are
reinforcing old ones.
Many Zimbabweans continue to ask. But
what can we do? Do we all have to go
to the streets?
Ideally, it would be great if ALL Zimbabweans could form a human wave of
protests. But, realistically, a more down to earth number would be in
thousands. However, it is difficult to mobilize thousands of Zimbabweans at
the same time.
The irony here is thousands of people can
attend an MDC rally. MDC
rallies typically have on average about 10 thousand
people. Now imagine if
those 10 000 had taken to the streets! They would
make a significant impact
in any steps towards removing Mugabe from power,
especially if such number
were to be repeated over a period of
time.
But all big things have small
beginnings.
Fifty three years ago on December 1, 1955, an
African American woman,
Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in a bus to
make room for a white
passenger as was the law those days.
She was arrested, tried and found guilty of disorderly conduct. That event
enraged the city's 50 000 African American residents. They immediately
organized a boycott of the city bus service. The boycott lasted for 381
days. Segregation in public buses was lifted the following
year.
In another form of civil rights protest, four African
Americans on
February 1, 1960, sat down at the segregated lunch counter to
protest
Woolworth's policy of barring African Americans.
Soon after this incident, the students were joined by hundreds of others
in
different parts of country. Demonstrators staged sit-ins at lunch
counters and on parks, beaches, libraries, theaters, museums, and other
public places.
In apartheid South Africa, members of the
African National Congress
launched a defiance campaign in 1952. This
campaign did not immediately end
apartheid, but it brought world attention
to the evils of apartheid.
Zimbabweans are in a situation where
they are expected to launch a
resistance campaign against Mugabe's rule .
The campaign must be unique to
Zimbabweans' circumstances and history. But
experiences from other countries
are a textbook case that should serve as a
learning tool and inspiration
for Zimbabweans.
In all the
previous case studies the protests were spontaneous. No one
waited for
someone else to start a demonstration.
And if each Zimbabwean
waits for another to start a civil disobedience
campaign they are likely to
wait for ever and nothing will be achieved in
dislodging Mugabe from
power.
ZESN
receives the 2008 French Repulic's human rights award
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
HARARE- 1 December
2008 - The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a
network of30
non-governmental organisations was on Friday 28 November 2008
conferred the
2008 French Republic's Human Rights Award in recognition of
the
organisation's work in 2008. The French award distinguishes field work
and
projects connected with the practical defence and promotion of human
rights,
in the furtherance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
His
Excellency Mr Laurent Contini Ambassador of France to Zimbabwe presented
the
award to ZESN. Mr Contini commended and gave special remarks to the work
that ZESN accomplished in 2008. "..this is the achievement of the civil
society in Zimbabwe which must be saluted as a whole in promoting the
defense of basic freedoms, freedom of association, freedom of expression,
freedom of press..", said Mr Contini. He also informed the gathering that in
2008, the five main awards have been attributed to NGOs from Liban, Maroc,
Ouzbekista, Somalia and Tunisia. ZESN was among the "special distinctions"
rewards which also went to other NGOs from Mexico, Peru and Togo.
Mr
Contini also paid particular tribute to the Director of ZESN, Mrs Rindai
Chifunde- Vava for the sterling work done in 2008.
In her acceptance
speech, Mrs Vava, thanked the French Embassy for the
recognition. She
reminded colleagues from CSOs that were present as well as
members of the
Diplomatic Corps that the award was for the brave ZESN
members and
observers. She also gave particular accolade to all ZESN
observers who were
harassed, tortured, assaulted and the ZESN long time
serving observer Elliot
Machipisa who was brutally murdered just before the
run-off for observing
the 29 March harmonized elections.
She also alluded to the political
situation currently distressing the
country emphasizing on the urgent need
for a solution on the political
impasse. "ZESN believes in democratically
elected leaders, but the current
political environment is not conducive for
the holding of free and fair
elections", she reiterated. She added that ZESN
currently is in the process
of advocating for electoral reforms before any
election takes place in
Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe needs an independent electoral
management body, a level
electoral playing field, freedoms of association,
expression and movement to
be recognized and enjoyed by all citizens", said
Mrs Vava.
In her concluding remarks, she said, the award was going to
give ZESN more
strength and encouragement to endeavor in promoting a
Zimbabwe where
democratic rights and fundamental freedoms are upheld and
enjoyed.
ZESN - Promoting democratic elections in Zimbabwe
For
comments and further details contact Zimbabwe Election Support Network
(ZESN)
zesn@africaonline.co.zw or info@zesn.org.zw
Plot
to assassinate Dabengwa alleged
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8067
November 30, 2008
By
Mxolisi Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - A former high-ranking PF-Zapu official has
accused President
Robert Mugabe of allegedly seeking to have Dumiso Dabengwa
assassinated,
after the former Home Affairs minister defected to join
Zanu-PF defector,
Simba Makoni, in March.
Makoni was an independent
presidential candidate in the ill-fated
presidential election held on March
29. Dabengwa was the only high-ranking
Zanu-PF official to join him. Our
sources says the plot to have him
eliminated was hatched just before the
election.
The politician told The Zimbabwe Times, in an interview that
this incident
and other grievances among former PF-Zapu members led to their
decision to
pull out of the unity accord signed with Zanu-PF in
1987.
Dabengwa, who was a Zanu-PF politburo member until February 2008,
is a
former intelligence chief of Zapu's military wing, ZIPRA. He is
currently
arguably the most respected politician in Matabeleland.
The
Bulawayo-based former senior PF-Zapu politician who spoke to The
Zimbabwe
Times said that after Dabengwa's defection from Zanu-PF to join
Makoni's
Mavambo/Kusile state security agents had been deployed to trail him
everywhere.
He said the agents had kept Dabengwa under observation at
his office and at
his home. They had deliberately blocked his car on the
outskirts of the city
on a number of occasions. He said all this was part of
an assassination
attempt.
"After this planned assassination attempt,
we realized that the safety of
our members was not guaranteed under the
unity accord," said the politician.
The politician says that he himself
fell out of favour with Mugabe for his
outspokenness in complaining over
government's continued neglect of the
Matabeleland region.
"Dabengwa
pulled out of Zanu-PF because he felt that the unity accord had
failed to
bring development to the region and instead of addressing those
glaring
issues, Mugabe showed disrespect for the unity accord by trying to
take the
life of Dabengwa," alleged the politician, who is a former senior
government
official.
"This caused us to seriously consider some security issues
around former
members of PF-Zapu. Two people defected from Zanu-PF in
February, but only
one of them was targeted just because he came from
Matabeleland and is a
former PF-Zapu member.
"The attempt on his life
showed us that the unity was dead and buried," he
said.
He said that
after learning about the assassination attempt, he and other
former PF-Zapu
members, including Vice President Joseph Msika and former
information
minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, had held meetings at the Bulawayo
provincial
Zanu-PF headquarters, where they mooted the plan to break away
from the
ruling party.
"Every former PF-Zapu member who was there agreed that
Mugabe had shown
contempt for the unity," he said "that if we allowed this
to happen to one
our senior members, the whole former ZAPU membership would
remain in danger.
"We finally arrived at a decision to divorce ourselves
from the unity accord
in order to protect our own lives. Someone from within
the leadership must
have told Mugabe before we made this announcement to
him, and he invited us
to a meeting in Harare."
He said that the
assassination attempt, coupled with Mugabe's alleged
continued show of
disrespect for the unity agreement through overlooking
Matabeleland in terms
of development and the continued relegation of former
PF-Zapu members to
deputy ministerial posts, added to the rising tension.
A source within
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) confirmed that
some security
agents and police officers had been deployed to trail
Dabengwa. Dabengwa is
a former Minister of Home Affairs.
"They were told to make it clear to
him that he was being followed, so that
those that were linked to him would
panic and react in a way likely to
expose them," said the source.
He
said Dabengwa and other politicians in Matebeleland told Mugabe he was
"playing a dangerous game", which would spark a civil war that would be
joined in by several other parties.
"They told him that the whole
world was interested and would jump in and
remove him from power," said the
CIO officer.
Efforts were made but in vain to get Dabengwa to comment on
these
allegations.
Jenni Williams and Magodonga face trial in Bulawayo on 2
Dec
Press statement - Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Monday 1st
December
Jenni Williams and Magodonga face trial in Bulawayo tomorrow - 2
Dec
LEADERS of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) will appear on trial
tomorrow, 2nd
December, at 8.30am in Court 7 at Bulawayo Magistrate's Court.
The duo are
charged with C/S 37 (1) (a) (i) of the Criminal Law Codification
and Reform
Act Chapter 9:23: "any person who acts together with one or more
other
persons present with him or her in any place or at any meeting with
the
intention or realising that there is a real risk or possibility of
forcibly
disturbing the peace, security or order of the public
..."
Williams and Mahlangu were arrested on 16th October at Mhlahlandlela
Government Complex. They were part of a group of 200 demanding that the
humanitarian crisis in the country be de-politicised and declared a national
disaster. They were denied bail by Magistrate Charity Maphosa and detained
in Mlondolozi Prison for three weeks before being granted bail through an
appeal to the High Court. They are on strict bail conditions, which include
reporting to police twice a week and not being allowed to travel outside a
40 kilometer radius of Bulawayo without written permission from a
magistrate. They will apply for a variation of these conditions which are a
restriction of their civil liberty and reminiscent of persecution of
nationalists by the former colonial government.
Williams and Mahlangu
will appear before Magistrate Sithembile Ncube
tomorrow. They will be
represented by Kossam Ncube, who has been briefed by
Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights. The state will be represented by
Prosecutor Lovemore
Chifamba.
On Friday 28th, the State summonsed Magodonga Mahlangu for a
arrest in 2004
under c/s 7(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act chapter 9:15
- "acting in a
manner which is likely to lead to a breach of the peace or to
create a
nuisance or obstruction". It is unclear at this time if this charge
will be
tried separately or will be added and incorporated into the current
case.
Jennifer Williams has not as yet received the summons although her
name is
reflected in the summons given to Mahlangu.
Any solidarity
from friends and civic partners at the trial would be
appreciated.
Ends
1 December 2008
for more information, please
contact Jenni Williams on +263 912 898 110 or
Magodonga Mahlangu on +263 912
362 668.
COURT DOCUMENTATION
Bulawayo Province CHARGE SHEET - Bulawayo
Central 311/10/08 1. JENNIFER
WILLIAMS 46 YEARS 2. MAGODONGA MAHLANGU 36
YEARS
C/S 37 (1) (a) (i) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act
Chapter
9:23 "Acting together with one or more other persons with him/her in
any
place realizing that there is a real risk or possibility of disturbing
peace, security or order of the public"
In that on the 16th day of
October, 2008, the accused persons MAGODONGA
MAHLANGU and JENNIFER WILLIAMS
one or more of them unlawfully and acting
together with one or more other
persons with them gathered at Mhlanhlandlela
government complex singing,
chanting slogans and carrying placards realizing
that there is a real risk
or possibility of disturbing peace, security and
order of the
public.
STATE OUTLINE
Bulawayo Central 311/10/08
C/S 37 (I) (a) (i)
of the Criminal Law Codifaction and Reform Act Chapter
9:23
16/10/06
- 1115HRS - MHLANHLANDLELA COMPLEX, BYO
JENNIFER WILLIAMS 46 years and
MAGODONGA MAHLANGU 36 years
THE STATE
The accused persons in this
matter is Jennifer Williams and Magodonga
Mahlangu who belong to a certain
organization called "Women of Zimbabwe
Arise" (WOZA).
The complainant
in this matter is the state.
On the 16th day of October, 2008 and at around
1115hrs, the two aforesaid
accused persons led a group of about 300 women
and proceeded to
Mhlanhlandlela complex singing, chanting slogans and
carrying placards with
various messages. Some of the placards were written
'ideal lenu selibulele
ilizwe, umangoye uselala eziko; sifuna amatisha
esikolo". (Translation: Your
deal has destroyed the country/ the cat is
using the stove as its bed
(implying there is no cooking)/ We want teachers
in the school)
When this group arrived at Mhlanhlandlela, they were
addressed by Jennifer
Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu. The group was then
ordered to disperse by
police but the two above accused persons refused to
comply to the orders
leading to their arrest.
The accused persons had
no right whatsoever to act in the manner they did.
Open
Letter to Thabo Mbeki
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Amsterdam, December 1 2008
Thabo
Mvuyelwa Mbeki:
Facilitator in the Zimbabwe Crisis Talks
Former
President of the Republic of South Africa
Pretoria, South
Africa
Your Excellency,
I am writing this letter because I am
convinced your efforts and mediation
in the Zimbabwe crisis have failed and
your services as mediator have
outlived their usefulness and purpose. I
write this letter, which I believe,
any ordinary Zimbabwean would have
written to you.
From the time you were relieved of your duties as
president of the republic
of South Africa, you have been writing a lot.
First it was to the president
of your party, the African National Congress
(ANC), Jacob Zuma and then to
the president of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), Morgan
Tsvangirai. Your letter to MDC President Morgan
Tsvangirai specifically
prompted this response.
Your Excellency I
took the following quotes from your letter to MDC
President Morgan
Tsvangirai as appearing in The Sunday Mail of 30 November
2008.
".no
longer treat themselves as opposition parties or protest
movements..."
".Such manner of proceeding might earn you prominent media
headlines.
However, I assure you that it will do nothing to solve the
problems of
Zimbabwe."
The harsh exchange of words, a shift from your
previous stance of quiet
diplomacy, has made me come to the conclusion that
you can no longer
effectively play the role of mediator between the feuding
parties ZANU-PF
and the MDC. Recent remarks by MDC Vice President, Honorable
Thokozani Khupe
and the letter written to you by the chief negotiator and
Secretary General
of the MDC, Tendai Biti typify the relationship that
exists between you and
the MDC. It is under this background that I am
calling on you to, in the
same manner you stepped down from presidency of
the Republic of South
Africa, recuse yourself gracefully. I personally
admire the glorious exit
you had from the office of the president of your
republic after you were
recalled by your party.
In the same manner, I
expect you to have a dignified exit because I feel
that you are no longer
fit for purpose as you have become part of the crisis
in Zimbabwe instead of
providing good counsel on how to address the
monumental crisis in my
country.
Let me take this opportunity to remind you of some important
political
developments we can never pretend to be oblivious of, not because
you are
not aware, but to emphasize the importance of the particular events
to us
the people of Zimbabwe. It is now more than a dozen and half months
from the
time you were appointed mediator at a summit in Tanzania and
exactly nine
months after the last credible election which Mugabe
lost.
On 29 March 2008 Zimbabweans went to the poll to choose a new
leadership for
their country. 1,195,562 votes were cast in favour of Morgan
Richard
Tsvangirai of the MDC and 1,079,730 votes were cast in favour of
Robert
Gabriel Mugabe of ZANU -PF. Simba Hebert Stanley Makoni and Langton
Toungana
shared the remainder of the votes. The results of the parliamentary
and
other elections were not as disputable as the presidential
election.
Not withstanding the delay in the announcement of the results,
and other
practices inconsistent with holding of democratic elections,
local, regional
and international observers concluded the poll to have been
fairly credible
and reflecting the will of the people of Zimbabwe. Jose
Marcos Barrica, the
head of the Southern African Development Community
observer mission,
described the election as "a peaceful and credible
expression of the will of
the people of Zimbabwe."
Controversial as
the result of the presidential election was expected, the
poll did not
produce an outright winner and there was need for a second
round of polls
which was scheduled for June 27 2008 by the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
(ZEC).Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party unleashed a trail
of violence
characterised by threats, abductions, torture, murder targeted
at the
supporters of the MDC. Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from
the
"violent sham" to save lives since the environment was no longer
conducive
for the holding of free and fair elections. ZEC and Robert Mugabe
proceeded
with the election despite having been discouraged to do so by
leaders of the
region (accept yourself), the continent and the United
Nations.
What
boggles the mind is the manner you responded to the MDC's view of your
role.
While you were quick to attack the MDC leader in manner akin to ZANU
PF's
political cousins, you have never publicly condemned Mugabe's murderous
and
ruinous policies in Zimbabwe.
These two events form the basis of your
continued mediation, post election
for the establishment of a unity
government based on the last credible
election of March 29 which had failed
to produce a result that would have
possibly solved the political crisis
then, an issue you seem to have
relegated to the periphery of the whole
mediation process. The manner in
which you wrote to Morgan Tsvangirai show a
tendency towards an attitude
opposite to that you have for Robert Mugabe who
you marveled as one of your
greatest leaders in your letter to ANC president
Jacob Zuma.
The alteration of the Global Political Agreement which you
again relegated
to the periphery saves as a clear testimony that there is
insincerity which
will forever make it difficult for the MDC to go into a
government of
national unity in which they do not have guarantees and
"power". In his own
words MDC Spokesperson, Honorable Nelson Chamisa said
"It's difficult to be
hopeful when you are dealing with an insincere,
deceitful and dishonest
party like ZANU-PF" I strongly believe these are
among the facilitator must
be solving rather that force march negotiators
into a hotel to agree on a
constitutional amendment. We have seen documents
being authored,thempred
with and thrown into the dustbins while the masses
are scrambling for wild
fruits with wild aniumals.Your insistence that a
unity government be
established at all costs leaves more questions than
answers.
Things are not well and people have been placing their hopes on
these talks
which you seem to be taking lightly and are far from delivering
the change
we can believe in. Your Excellency I strongly believe your
continued
mediation in the Zimbabwean crisis is thrusting yourself on people
who no
longer want you as mediator, which is unlike what you did when the
issue of
your presidency, charity begins at home but should not end
there.
I want to put to you that Zimbabweans are no lesser human beings
than South
Africans or any other people. If the people of South Africa
through the ANC
asked you to leave office why should you insist to remain
mediating in the
Zimbabwe crisis? If you are not serving Mugabe's interest,
whose interests
are you advancing by refusing to relinquish that
role?
Your Excellency let me also highlight the humanitarian crisis that
led to
the refusal to cooperate by the government of Zimbabwe with the
"Elders"
when they wanted to asses the crisis. I strongly believe you either
failed
to convince Mugabe to accept the elders, or deliberately blocked
fearing
they wanted to usurp the role of the mediator. The current Cholera
outbreak
is only symptom of an even graver situation and a total collapse of
the
running of the country due to mismanagement and greed.People are
desperate
for food and unfortunately we failed to prepare for this
season,with
disasterous consequencies,which could not have been avoidable
even with the
support your country had pledged, under the current corrupt
government of
Robert Mugabe.
Let me also inform you that all the
universities,some polytechnics and
primary and secondary schools have closed
signaling the total collapse of
the education sector,which will result in a
generational intellectual
deprivement of intellect in the demographic
prognosis,if not adressed.
Literally everything has stopped working. There
is no fuel in the country,
no electricity, no water, no currency, no
president and the list goes on.
I hope you will soon realize the
importance of this matter and recuse
yourself from the role of facilitator
and pave way for a neutral facilitator
before we decide to free ourselves
through means which may not be confined
to conventional means, since a
conventional fight is proving difficult under
your mediation.
Yours
Truly,
Beloved Chiweshe
Zimbabwe's
Cholera Epidemic Hits Home
http://voanews.com
By Peta Thornycroft
01 December
2008
In Zimbabwe more than 400 people have died from an
outbreak of cholera and
the number of people infected is now believed to be
more than 10,000
according to the United Nations. The Zimbabwean government
has appealed for
aid and blamed the country's problem on western sanctions.
Peta Thornycroft
has this report on one of the epidemic's victims, a civil
rights activist
who had survived many arrests on the streets of
Harare.
Julia Chapeyama, 44, a single mother, did not tell her family she
was ill,
because she was so worried about her 13-year-old daughter, Cynthia,
who was
in the hospital with cholera.
When Chapeyama collapsed last
week from the same disease, a friend took her
in a wheel barrow to the
nearest clinic where she died a few hours later.
Chapeyama was a street
vendor and member of the pro-democracy group "Women
of Zimbabwe Arise",
known as WOZA. She had been arrested many times during
peaceful
demonstrations by the country's notoriously brutal security
forces.
Chapeyama's friends are now caring for her two youngest
daughters.
They believe she caught cholera by drinking water from a
shallow well in the
garden. The well was dug five weeks earlier because her
house had been
without city water for four months.
Chapeyama's
17-year-old daughter, Sandra, said sometimes the city water
would come but
only briefly and in the middle of the night.
"When we fetch water from
the tap it will be green with some bacteria and if
you put it in the bucket
you can see there is dirt in the water," she said.
Cholera is a highly
contagious form of diarrhea but is easily prevented with
the provision of
clean water and sanitation facilities and easily treated
with rehydration
medicines.
Humanitarian organizations say Zimbabwe is experiencing a
major cholera
epidemic because of crumbling infrastructure and
services.
The United Nations Children's Fund,UNICEF, says the current
death rate from
the epidemic is four percent -- far higher than the normal
death rate of one
percent.
The epidemic has also spread to
neighboring South Africa, Botswana and
Mozambique.
UNICEF has
provided hundreds of thousands of water purification tablets to
residents of
Harare. It is also drilling boreholes and distributing clean
water in many
of Harare's highly populated suburbs.
But experts worry that the summer
rains, which are imminent, will worsen the
cholera
situation.
Community leaders say aid and education to combat the cholera
epidemic have
come primarily from western humanitarian agencies, private
organizations
such as WOZA and the Movement for Democratic Change party
which opposes the
ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe. They say the
government health
ministry has done little.
WOZA activist Salina
Madukani, said the government's efforts to fight the
epidemic have been
restricted to making statements.
"Just words and hearing them talking on
television but nothing, they are
offering nothing," Madukani
said.
Public services in most Zimbabwean towns have been deteriorating
for more
than a decade because of a lack of maintenance by the cash-strapped
government.
The first democratically elected mayor of Harare, Elias
Mudzure of the MDC,
warned six years ago that the city's water distribution
and sewage systems
were in on the verge of collapse.
He was sacked by
ZANU-PF one year after he was elected and the party took
over the city's
affairs.
ZANU-PF blames western "sanctions' for the cholera
epidemic.
The European Union and United States have imposed targeted
sanctions on
senior Zimbabwean officials because of authoritarianism and
human rights
abuses.
However, international donors are feeding nearly
one-half of the population
and in recent years have provided most of the
drugs used in government
health services.
My
lessons in post-colonial injustice
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Mutumwa Mawere
30 November
2008
In November 1995 against a backdrop of a promising professional
career, I
resigned from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and
chose South
Africa as my new home.
I arrived in South Africa on 21
November 1995 determined to make a
difference in the continent where the
majority of the inhabitants look like
me. Little did I know then what I now
know about the complications and
challenges of doing business in
Africa?
With no family ties in South Africa, I was always aware that it
was not
going to be easy to start a new life in a foreign state without a
formal job
and a developed support system.
I did not have a job but
had a loose arrangement with a South African
investment bank that had agreed
to support an initiative that a colleague
and I had put together to mobilize
funds for emerging African mining
entrepreneurs.
The initiative was
informed at the time by a realization that the knowledge,
capital and
execution gaps that characterized the African mining sector
could only be
meaningfully bridged by introducing new financing instruments
and investing
in financial literacy.
The South African mining industry was dominated by
"old money" and
significant entry barriers existed that precluded the
participation of
historically disadvantaged persons. Equally, capital and
knowledge gaps
presented a new set of challenges for non-traditional
entrepreneurs.
The face of big business was and still continues to be
viewed in race terms
in Africa. I was aware then as I am today that if
Africa had any prospect of
changing such change had to start with me. When I
joined the World Bank,
eight years earlier, my intention was to see my
career through retirement.
I knew that my personal circumstances would
never allow me to venture into
big business. All I had was a resume that had
sufficiently prepared me to
assist other people's dreams and ambitions
through financial intermediation.
In my mind, I had accepted that my fate
was sealed and my future could not
be anything different from that of
colleagues who had joined the World Bank
before me. They lived a comfortable
life and looked at the challenges facing
Africa from a third party
perspective expecting the continent to be changed
by its political leaders
and third parties including foreign investors with
the support of
institutions like development finance institutions.
My understanding of
business was also from a third party perspective. I
often got angry when at
one conference after another that I had the
privilege of attending stories
were told about the risks and rewards of
doing business in Africa from a
perspective of a foreign investor.
At these conferences, the face of
Africa's mining investor was exclusively
white and principally foreign.
Although they intended to make money out of
Africa's abundant resources,
such investors never planned to be part of
Africa's political and economic
thinking. The interests of foreign investors
were defined and clear while
African governments in the post Cold War era
were keen to attract investment
notwithstanding the generally held concerns
about neocolonialism.
The
African participants at such conferences were black like me and
represented
the elites of our generation. At IFC, we were concerned about
the lack of
African entrepreneurs in Africa and the lack of any coherent
strategy by
African governments to encourage black entrepreneurship.
Many of my
professional black colleagues chose to be cynical about Africa's
future. A
view was generally held that Africa was inherently corrupt and its
future
was doomed. While black Africans chose to ignore Africa, many major
and
junior Canadian, Australian, American and European companies were
optimistic
about Africa's future mining prospects.
So when I decided to relocate to
South Africa, I knew that my decision was
going against the grain of what
was generally expected of an African who
already was privileged to work for
a multilateral organization like the
World Bank.
It was after all 18
months into Mandela's reign and the language of black
economic empowerment
was already taking root. I was not intimidated by the
attitude of both black
and white South Africans on black empowerment.
Although I am black, I knew
that I could never fit into the category of the
intended beneficiaries of
economic empowerment. You simply had to be a
victim of apartheid for you to
jump on the empowerment train.
As a committed pan-Africanist, I was
concerned about the implications of the
BEE project on the African union
project that seeks to create a continent
without borders. By enacting laws
that defined blacks in historical terms a
danger always existed that other
black Africans would be excluded from
participating in the economic
transformation of South Africa.
Notwithstanding, I chose South Africa
instead of my country of birth as a
place to play may part in Africa's
renaissance.
My entry into big business was as much an accident of
history as it was pure
luck. When I approached T & N Plc in September
with an audacious proposal to
acquire the company's entire remaining
Zimbabwean and Zambian mining and
industrial assets, I knew then as the
court proceedings have confirmed for
many who may have wondered how I
acquired Shabanie and Mashaba Mines (SMM)
in 1996 that I had no one to rely
upon to raise the acquisition price.
I took the risk to use my pension
payout to invest in the project. The
structure of the acquisition and its
financing reflected the goodwill that I
had generated with the
representatives of T & N who also were anxious to
find a buyer who would
add value to the businesses.
It was much easier to negotiate with T &
N than to convince my own
colleagues that the deal was a commercial and arms
length one. T & N never
imposed on me the need to be broad-based or to
seek the support of the
government. I knew then that any form of government
support would be poison
chalice. The passage of time has proved me
right.
Through the SMM deal, my name became famous and in some quarters
infamous.
From the outset, I encountered more problems from the decisions of
my fellow
black brothers in government.
Even the people I recruited
to assist me in making the SMM acquisition a
model of what is possible
without any government interference in terms of
constructing a new Africa
with the support of whites.
For the eight years that I had the privilege
of controlling ARL, the company
that was the ultimate owner of the SMM group
and related companies, I
delivered on my promise to transform the
inheritance into a serious player
in the Zimbabwean economy.
I also
took the decision not to participate in executive management in any
of the
Zimbabwean companies. I also took the decision in line with the
agreement
entered into with T & N not to declare any dividends choosing to
plough
the funds back into the company for growth.
The concept of African
citizenship was always an issue that had occupied my
mind. I knew that in as
much as we all want to be African, I could never
escape from being labeled
Zimbabwean. Even though I chose to reside in South
Africa, I am still
described in Zimbabwe as being in exile. I resigned from
the board of SMM in
1997 and yet it is impossible to convince many people
that this is the
factual position.
The attitude of the government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) to my
entry into the
corporate scene in Zimbabwe is just but an extension of the
views held by
many non-state actors that a Zimbabwean must always remain a
Zimbabwean and
when you decide to take another citizenship even though it
may be of another
African country, then one must accept the risks associated
with such a
decision.
I have learned many things about Company and
Insolvency law over the last 13
years to the extent that many now regard me
as an informed businessman on
corporate law. I now know what nationalization
means in practical terms. I
now also know what it means when people place
importance on the rule of law.
In September 2004, the GOZ decided to
nationalize my assets and the journey
I have travelled over the last 13
years has taught me how lonely it is to
seek to clear your name and fight
against injustice. The injustice that
takes the form of physical violence is
easier to explain than the violence
on property and other forms of human
rights.
People who have followed my ordeal will never know the real human
dimension
of the saga. In the quietness of my time, I often reflect on my
experiences.
I have been enriched by such experiences and believe that
sharing such
lessons is vital in helping to shape our common and shared
future.
The future of Africa is a contested one and is ultimately shaped
by each
generation. I feel privileged to share the same time with some of
Africa's
founding fathers who got into power in the belief that Africa's
promise can
best be realized through state action. Africa's corporate sector
is small as
is the place of blacks in it but it is patently wrong to take
the view that
one can strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. One
cannot hope to made
progress by looking in the real view mirror. I have
learned that the
challenges of today will not be addressed by looking
backwards.
Without a capitalist system, I am acutely conscious that
everything that I
am credited of doing would not have been possible. I am
also aware that if
SMM was owned by the state, there was no possibility for
me to acquire SMM
on similar terms and conditions from any black government
that believes that
capitalism is toxic to progress.
For Africa to
advance its cause, change must come from us. I took the first
step to come
to Africa and I am extremely grateful that God has chosen me as
one of his
instruments to expose the fragility and weakness of post-colonial
Africa.
As a first generation Zimbabwean born to adopt another
African country's
citizenship while not diminishing my enduring interest in
my mother country,
I believe that my journey and lessons there from can
assist in shaping
conversations on what kind of African we want to
see.
I have learned that you do not have to live in Zimbabwe to be
Zimbabwean in
as much as you do not have to be black or white to be a
citizen. If this is
the case, then the face of an African has to be better
defined and
articulated. Yes I have substantial interests in Zimbabwe but it
is not
necessary for me to be physically attached to such assets.
Playing games whilst tyrants
rule…
Posted on December 1st, 2008
Read 109 times.
Cholera is rife. Urban residences are without water. There is a total lack
of effective government. Inflation is at 231,000,000%. A tyrant holds on grimly
to power. Famine is widespread. Life in Zimbabwe is cheap.
The West does not stand idly by and many individuals and agencies are doing
what they can to try and alleviate the suffering of the Zimbabwe people. But
their hands are tied because Mugabe and his henchmen do little to help
humanitarian movements and charities make progress.
What as observers of the chaos and the disaster can we do? We are not
powerless and there are both practical and symbolic actions that we can take
both to help Zimbabwe’s stricken population and to demonstrate to the military
backed Mugabe regime that nothing can be normal in our relations with his
benighted country. Which brings me to cricket…
Can you believe that over the past two weeks properly sanctioned and
approved international cricket has been taking place in Harare? The
full international Sri Lankan cricket team has played five One Day
Internationals against Zimbabwe in the country’s capital. There is no secret
about this grotesque and offensive parody of the so-called “Spirit of Cricket”.
Under the auspices of cricket’s governing body the International Cricket Council
“Sri Lanka Cricket” has seen fit to play sport in Zimbabwe at a time when the
country is in total turmoil.
Behind tightly guarded gates cricket was played whilst in the city and beyond
there was starvation, death and destruction. This grotesque charade brings the
good name of sport and of cricket in particular into disrepute. The Sri Lankan
Government and cricket authorities have done themselves no favours in the wider
world. And the International Cricket Council (ICC) have not only seen fit to
authorise this charade but have even sent a
delegation to Harare to watch the cricket and to
“…establish the current state of cricket in Zimbabwe as it relates to the
management and development of the game and also to conduct an assessment of the
policies and programmes executed with the view to restoring the senior team to
Test cricket.”
What planet do the apparatchiks of the ICC come from? Can they seriously
believe that there is any case for playing international cricket with and in
Zimbabwe at this time?
“What do they know of cricket
who only cricket know?”