Imprisoned Abductees Appear in Court

http://www.voanews.com


By Peta Thornycroft
29 December 2008

Nine Zimbabwean political detainees were taken from jail to the Harare
Magistrate's Court Monday, accused of terrorism and plotting to overthrow
the government of President Robert Mugabe.  The Harare magistrate's court is
expected to transfer the case to the High Court for trial.

A prominent human rights activist, Jestina Mukoko and eight others have
denied the allegations that they were involved in a plot to overthrow
President Robert Mugabe.

Eight of the detainees were wearing green prison uniforms and leg irons as
they were brought into the court.  Two of the suspects carried their two
year old child with them.

Opposition activists and others have dismissed the allegations that they
tried to recruit people for military training in Botswana as a fabrication.

Mukoko had been missing for three weeks before appearing in court last week.
Some of the others had been taken from their homes and held incommunicado
since October.

Harare High Court judge Yunus Omerjee ruled earlier that the activists be
sent to hospital so torture allegations could be investigated.

Police have refused to comply and said the group will remain in custody
while the government appeals the decision.

A further 20 or so other activists, including a photojournalist are also
still in custody, despite a court ruling that their detention is not legal.

A lawyers group has said it will continue working to get the activists
freed.

Court delays ruling on Zimbabwe activists

http://africa.reuters.com

Mon 29 Dec 2008, 19:09 GMT

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean magistrate put off a ruling on Monday on
whether a human rights campaigner and other activists charged with plotting
to overthrow the government should be freed pending trial.

Jestina Mukoko, head of a local rights group, and two other rights
campaigners and six opposition activists were charged last week with
recruiting or trying to recruit people to undergo military training to
topple President Robert Mugabe's government.

The case has deepened doubts about whether power-sharing between Mugabe and
the main opposition is possible in a country now suffering economic meltdown
and a cholera outbreak.

A High Court judge last week declaring the detention of Mukoko and her eight
co-accused unlawful and ordered their immediate release, but the government
appealed.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe reserved judgement until Wednesday on whether
the accused, who appeared in court, should be freed pending trial.

He said the accused -- some of whom have accused police of torture -- should
be allowed to see a doctor of their choice while in a prison hospital.

Mukoko and her co-accused appeared in court in green uniforms with their
hands and feet shackled. They included a woman carrying her 2-year-old
child.

A further nine opposition activists were charged on Monday: seven with
banditry and bombing police stations and two on lesser charges.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition MDC, has threatened to suspend
negotiations with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party over the case.

14 OTHER DETAINEES

The High Court last week also ordered 14 other activists, mainly opposition
supporters who did not appear in court, to be freed from police custody
because their detention was illegal.

The activists' lawyers said police were using delaying tactics to keep them
in custody, and filed a contempt of court charge on Monday against the
police for refusing to free them.

South Africa, the country with the greatest influence on Zimbabwe, said on
Monday that the arrests should not delay the formation of a government.

"We think the most important step is to form a unity government,"
presidential spokesman Thabo Masebe said. "There are many issues that need
to be addressed by a unity government. This is one of them."

He also said South Africa had reversed an earlier decision to hold back $30
million (21 million pounds) in agricultural aid to Zimbabwe until a unity
government was formed.

He said the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, made worse by a cholera
epidemic that has killed over 1,500 people, had become too serious and
farming and other supplies were badly needed.

SADC mediation has failed to push Zimbabwe's rival parties into implementing
the power-sharing deal and trying to stem a crisis marked by rampant
unemployment, hyperinflation and severe shortages of basic goods.

Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in March elections, but fell short
of the majority needed to become president, triggering a run-off which
Mugabe won after the MDC leader pulled out, citing violent attacks on his
supporters.

Zimbabwe activists press contempt charge against state: lawyers

http://uk.news.yahoo.com

1 hour 42 mins ago

AFP

Lawyers for detained rights activists called Monday for President Robert
Mugabe's government to be charged with contempt, on the day Zimbabwe's
cholera death toll rose above 1,500.

The defence team for 18 political figures and activists were in court either
to press for their transfer to hospital in line with a Zimbabwe high court
order, or to fight charges that they plotted to overthrow Mugabe.
"The state is approaching this court with dirty hands. The state did not
comply with the order of justice Yunus Omerjee. No measures have been taken
to purge the contempt," one of the leading defence lawyers, Charles
Kwaramba, told the magistrates' court.

"On that basis alone, the state should be held in contempt of the high
court," he said.

Jestina Mukoko, head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, and eight others -- 
including a two-year-old boy also detained in a prison cell, but not
charged -- were in the court to counter the charges that they recruited or
incited people to undergo military training to fight Mugabe's government.

Nine others, some of who are opposition members, were also brought to court
from police custody -- with seven of them charged with bombing and acts of
banditary while the other two were accused of complicity.

Leading prosecution lawyer Tawanda Zvekare said "we are ready to put the
(second batch of nine) accused on remand."

In his preliminary argument, Kwaramba made the case for his clients' release
to the hospital as ordered last Wednesday by the High Court judge.

The government has appealed against the ruling.

"We are contesting the accused being formally remanded. The actual criminals
are their abductors. The accused are actually the complainants," Kwaramba
said.

The hearing was delayed for several hours as the prosecutor did not
immediately turn up.

Defence lawyers had earlier said the activists may have been tortured in
custody.

Mukoko's group recorded cases of alleged violence against supporters of
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in this year's contested elections.

Mukoko was seized from her home on December 3 by armed men who identified
themselves as police.

Two members of her staff were taken away from their office days later. They
have been accused together with 28 members of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party of recruiting anti-government plotters.

Before it went on a break, the court was yet to take arguments on the
charges that activists plotted against Mugabe's regime.

The MDC has insisted that the abductions and detention of its supporters
would further hamper stalled talks with the ruling party on forming a unity
government.

"There is also the issue of abductions, which are taking place against the
spirit of the memorandum of understanding and the global political
agreement, and the use of hate language in the state media," MDC spokesman
Nelson Chamisa told AFP.

"This persecution on trumped-up charges is simply going to jeopardise the
process and spirit of a negotiated settlement which is already
destabilised," he said.

Mugabe and his rivals from the MDC signed a power-sharing deal in September
in Harare but negotiations to form a unity government have stalled as both
sides squabble over key cabinet posts.

Zimbabwe's political crisis has added to the woes of the country suffering
from the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million
percent in July.

South Africa says Zimbabwe arrests should not delay unity

http://www.reuters.com

Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:39am EST

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - South Africa said on Monday that the arrest of a leading
human rights campaigner should not delay the formation of a unity
government, despite opposition threats to pull out of a power-sharing deal
over the issue.

Jestina Mukoko, head of a local rights group, and eight other activists were
last week charged with recruiting or attempting to recruit Zimbabweans to
undergo military training to topple the government.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will ask his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party to suspend negotiations with President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF if abductions of MDC members continue and if the arrested
activists are not brought to court by Thursday.

"We think the most important step is to form a unity government," South
African Presidential spokesman Thabo Masebe told Reuters. "There are many
issues that need to be addressed by a unity government. This is one of
them."

Influential South Africa is the continent's biggest economy and current
chair of regional group of nations SADC.

Zimbabwe has appealed to its highest court against a High Court ruling
ordering the release of Mukoko and her co-accused to a local hospital. The
court also ordered 23 other mainly opposition activists to be freed from
police custody because their detention was illegal.

The activists' lawyers said police were using delaying tactics to keep them
in custody.

They appeared in court on Monday in green uniforms with their hands and feet
shackled. The session was expected to start shortly.

South Africa has reversed an earlier decision to hold back $30 million in
agricultural aid to Zimbabwe until a unity government is formed, said
Masebe.

He said a humanitarian crisis made worse by a cholera epidemic that has
killed over 1,500 people had become too serious and agricultural and other
supplies were badly needed.

SADC has failed in mediation to pressure Zimbabwe's rival parties to
implement the power-sharing deal seen as the best chance for easing an
economic crisis marked by hyper-inflation and severe shortages of basic
goods.

Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in March but fell short of the
majority needed to become president, triggering a run-off which Mugabe won
after the MDC leader pulled out citing violent attacks on his supporters.

Deadlock on unity gov't formation delays Zimbabwe's 2009 budget

http://www.apanews.net/

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) The absence of a substantive government in Zimbabwe
has delayed the announcement of the 2009 national budget amid a deepening
economic crisis, APA learnS here Monday.

With just two days to go before 2009, there is no roadmap on how the
government intends to steer the troubled southern African economy from
further decline.

Ministry of Finance sources said the absence of a substantive finance
minister has resulted in a leadership vacuum at the treasury.

The incumbent minister of finance, Samuel Mumbengegwi, is not an elected
member of parliament and has been in that position in an acting capacity
since March when the last parliamentary elections were held.

"That (situation) has presented challenges because it means that, even if he
were to draft a budget today, he cannot present it before the National
Assembly because he is not an elected member," a source told APA on Monday.

Another challenge for the Zimbabwean authorities was that they are aware
that a viable budget would be one produced under a unity government
involving the ruling ZANU PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).

Talks to form the unity government have stalled in the past two months over
disagreements between the political parties over control of key ministries.

The international community has pledged to inject more than £1.5 billion in
economic aid once a coalition government was in place in Zimbabwe.

The aid is, however, dependent on the formation of a unity government where
ZANU PF and the MDC are equal partners.

The MDC has refused to join the unity government in its current format,
insisting it does not want to become a junior partner in the new regime.

Formation of the new government and the subsequent international aid are
seen as key to ending Zimbabwe's eight-year economic crisis which is
highlighted by world-record inflation last estimated at more than 230
million percent in July, rampant hunger and shortages of essential
commodities, in addition to the ravaging cholera outbreak.

  JN/daj/APA 2008-12-29

Sadc insists on Zim deal

http://news.iafrica.com

Article By:
Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:53
Southern African regional bloc Sadc on Monday insisted to Zimbabwean feuding
parties to implement the power-sharing deal inked in Harare in September
"without any further delay".

"Again, the Sadc's position is that the Zimbabwean parties, without any
further delay, implement the agreement that they signed in September," said
Thabo Masebe, spokesperson of South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who
is chairperson of the 15-nation bloc.

A recent Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit in
Johannesburg called for the immediate formation of a unity government and
the sharing of the home affairs ministry, which oversees the police, between
the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

"And the first step towards implementing that agreement is the appointment
of the prime minister and vice prime minister," he said in an interview on
public broadcaster SAfm.

A power-sharing agreement, brokered by former South African president Thabo
Mbeki, has been undermined by squabbling over the sharing of key posts.

President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai have yet to form a unity government,
despite several attempts by regional leaders to implement the agreement
aimed at ending the country's political turmoil and economic meltdown.

"The humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is something that has to be attended
to," said Masebe.

Zimbabwe's main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Sunday that an
"equitable" sharing of powerful ministries and the resolution of other
outstanding political issues were key to the formation of a unity
government.

"The biggest passport to the formation of an inclusive government is the
resolution of outstanding political issues, that is, issues to do with the
allocation of governors' posts and the equitable allocation of key
ministries," MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told AFP.

"We have identified several key ministries which we want shared equitably.
It is not about home affairs only, as Zanu-PF falsely claims, and it is not
going to be resolved by sharing one ministry as Sadc suggested," he said.

A cholera epidemic has claimed over 1500 lives in Zimbabwe since August, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

Some 1564 people have died from the disease, while another 29 131 suspected
cases have been reported, a spokesperson from the WHO told AFP. The last
United Nations figures showed 1174 deaths and 23 712 suspected cases - which
means that nearly 400 more people have died in the past six days since then.

Besides the epidemic and chronic political instability, Zimbabwe is also
desperately fighting hyper-inflation and severe food shortages.

AFP

Cholera Death Toll Rises To 1564, Says UN Agency

http://www.nasdaq.com

(RTTNews) - The death toll in the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has crossed
1,500 since it began in August, said the World Health Organization (WHO) on
Monday.

The WHO said that the cholera epidemic has claimed 1,564 lives out of the
29,131 suspected cases reported in Zimbabwe since August, adding that 50
people had died from the disease in the last three days.

"The overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR) has risen to 5.7% - far above the 1%
which is normal in large outbreaks - and in some rural areas it has reached
as high as 50%," WHO said in a statement.

The UN agency said that cholera cases were reported in all of Zimbabwe's 10
provinces, and warned that the disease could spread alarmingly if the
epidemic is not checked immediately.

In its report, the WHO also warned that it might take at least 6 months to
bring the outbreak under control, as the health, sanitation and water
services in the impoverished African country is on the verge of collapsing
under the strain caused by the massive outbreak.

The latest UN report indicates a steep rise in the number of cholera deaths
in Zimbabwe in a week as a UNICEF report released last Tuesday had placed
the cholera death toll in the country since August at 1,174.

Zimbabwe, which is currently reeling under a severe economic crisis, is
struggling to control the massive cholera outbreak because of a shortage of
water purification chemicals, drugs, medical supplies and health
professionals in the country.

SAfrica ends block on aid to Zimbabwe: official

PRETORIA (AFP) - South Africa has reversed a block on aid to Zimbabwe
because of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the neighbouring country, a
presidential spokesman said Monday.

South Africa had halted aid in a bid to add pressure on President Robert
Mugabe and the opposition over the formation of a national unity government.

"We have now reviewed our earlier decision in view of the deteriorating
humanitarian crisis in that country. We have now started sending the aid to
Zimbabwe" through the Southern African Development Community (SADC),
presidential spokesman Thabo Masebe told AFP.

South Africa last month witheld 300 million rand (31 million dollars/23
million euros) of agricultural aid to Zimbabwe until an inclusive government
was in place.

"When we assessed the situation recently in Zimbabwe, we found out that the
humanitarian situation there was dire and we now decided to start sending
the agricultural aid to Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Humanitarian
Development Assistance Framework, set up by the SADC," Masebe said.

He said all the other 13 members of the group were urged to send
humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe. "I am aware that Zambia and Namibia have
already done so," Masebe said.

Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper The Herald has commended Namibia, China,
South Africa, Tanzania and United Nations agencies for helping to fight a
cholera epidemic which has killed about 1,200 people in Zimbabwe.

South Africa has also made available to Zimbabwe agricultural inputs worth
300 million rand, said the newspaper.

"The package will translate into 12,700 tonnes of maize seed, 2,404 tonnes
of small grain seeds, 2,800 tonnes of top dressing fertiliser, 8,500 tonnes
of Compound D fertiliser and 10 million litres of fuel," it said.

Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have yet to form a unity
government, despite several attempts by regional leaders to implement an
agreement aimed at ending the country's political turmoil and economic
meltdown.

A power-sharing agreement, brokered by former South African president Thabo
Mbeki and signed in Harare on September 15, has been undermined by
squabbling over the sharing of key posts.

Anger at Zim bailout - SA aid props up Mugabe

From The Sunday Tribune (SA), 28 December

Fiona Forde

South Africa's decision to channel aid to Zimbabwe despite assurances that
taxpayers' money would not be handed over before an inclusive government was
in place has been condemned as "grossly irresponsible". Zimbabwe's main
opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, said yesterday that Pretoria
had not consulted it. The MDC said the move legitimised President Robert
Mugabe's "illegal" government. The aid disbursement takes place in the week
in which Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu criticised South Africa, accusing
it of failing to stand up to Mugabe and betraying its apartheid legacy.
Earlier this year, South Africa's government earmarked R300 million in
agricultural assistance for the ailing nation, but said the money would be
released only if a unity government was formed in accordance with the
power-sharing agreement brokered on September 15. In view of the worsening
situation, however, a decision was reached in Harare last Monday to begin to
roll out the aid through the Zimbabwe Humanitarian and Development
Assistance Framework. The ZHDAF was established by the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) to ensure all aid falls into the right hands.
Short season grains and fertilisers were dispatched from Pretoria this week.

The move "legitimises the illegal regime that is in de facto control of
Zimbabwe", according to the MDC's secretary general, Tendai Biti, "and
violates the global agreement" of September signed by all parties.
Presidency spokesman Thabo Masebe said yesterday, "We are using the money to
buy the things they need .. . administered through ZHDAF mechanisms".
However, Biti said the ZHDAF existed "only on paper and not in practice" and
that his party had not been consulted about aid to Zimbabwe or ensuring it
reached the intended beneficiaries. Although SADC executive secretary Tomas
Salomao insisted otherwise, George Tadonki, the Zimbabwe country director
for the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
said he too had been kept in the dark about the ZHDAF structure. "Several
South African teams visited Zimbabwe in the past few months," Tadonki said
yesterday. A short while later there was a call "for an independent SADC
body to monitor humanitarian assistance, but we are not yet fully informed
about it. We are not aware of any SADC staff administering assistance right
now," he said. Although Biti recognised aid was badly needed as his country
limped from poor to pathetic, he said it could only be extended in line with
the September agreement brokered by former president Thabo Mbeki "which
South Africa has now decided to violate".

An estimated five million people now need food aid, according to Tadonki's
office, while the World Health Organisation has put the cholera death toll
at more than 1 500. In the run-up to March's elections, there were
widespread reports of food aid being withheld from non-Mugabe supporters.
"In the past, this kind of aid might have been used for political
patronage," Biti said. "But now they wouldn't even do that. Patronage is no
longer part of their lexicon. Now they just abduct people." Masebe was
confident the assistance would reach the intended beneficiaries. He could
not confirm how much of the R300 million earmarked had been allocated. The
Department of Agriculture, which dispatched the seeds to Harare, was not
available for comment. The South African government said the decision to
dispatch aid did not affect its commitment to the formation of a unity
government. Tutu told BBC radio on Wednesday he was "ashamed" of South
Africa, which had surrendered the "moral high ground" gained in the
post-apartheid era. He also said that violence could be used to remove
Mugabe, who should be indicted by the International Criminal Court.

MDC must put an end to this farce

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9288

December 29, 2008

By Tendai Dumbutshena

ROBERT Mugabe's regime has sunk to new low levels of cynicism and depravity.
Over the past few weeks its secret police has abducted over 40 people
including a two-year old child.

This happens at a time when the regime professes commitment to sharing power
with its political opponents.

If evidence was ever needed to prove the utter insincerity of Mugabe this is
it. The abductions began after the March 29 election and continued, despite
the signing of the September 15 agreement. It is as if nothing had
transpired.

The police initially denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of over 40
people, included Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project. Mugabe's
friends in the region including South Africa were embarrassed by such
fascist behaviour. They must have pleaded with him to release these people
because all of a sudden 10 of them including Mukoko were at various police
stations in Harare.

Her prominence raised concern among colleagues in civil society and some
diplomats hence the need to produce her if only to prove that they had not
murdered her. To justify their abductions and detentions the regime had to
charge them with something. Laughably, the kidnap victims are to be charged
with recruiting people for training in Botswana to overthrow the Mugabe
regime.

This of course is not the first time Mugabe has resorted to a total abuse of
the criminal justice system to deal with real or imagined political
adversaries. Just after independence the leader of the newly reconstituted
ZAPU, Dumiso Dabengwa, spent years in jail despite an acquittal by the High
Court on a charge of attempting to overthrow Mugabe's government. A lot of
Dabengwa's evident anger and bitterness stem from this experience.

Now that he is no longer a member of Zanu-PF or government Dabengwa owes it
to Zimbabweans to reveal exactly what happened to him and others when they
were guests of the CIO. He was not the only victim during this early period
of independence. Emergency powers inherited from Ian Smith were routinely
abused to deal with political opponents. It is during this time that the
Gukurahundi massacres in Matebeleland and Midlands were carried out.

Years later the CIO, which is only answerable to Mugabe, concocted a story
implicating MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in yet another plot to topple the
government. They had to go outside the country to make the story seem
credible. A dubious character, Ben Manashe, a paid agent of the government
based in Canada, was recruited to incriminate Tsvangirai. The
Attorney-General's office, police and CIO were all joined hands in a venture
to send the MDC leader to the gallows.  Fortunately sanity prevailed and the
High Court threw the case out. Now it is the turn of the MDC's
secretary-general Tendai Biti to face treason charges for God knows what.
This is the same Biti who is supposed to be a negotiating partner.

Recent abductions, ongoing violence and illegal detentions all raise a
serious question. Are those responsible to be entrusted with the
responsibility of ushering in a new Zimbabwe based on universally accepted
principles of good governance and human rights? The behaviour of the regime
is a clear violation of undertakings made in the Memorandum of Understanding
and Global Political Agreement. What more evidence is required to prove that
Mugabe has absolutely no interest in the power-sharing agreement? He is
cynically using it for selfish ends - to get legitimacy for his presidency
and hopefully some economic relief from the international community.

It is now clear that even if the inclusive government is formed it will be
of a limited duration. Mugabe intends to call an early election run by him.
He is confident that through a mixture of violence and electoral fraud he
can reverse the defeat of March 29 and govern without the MDC on his back.
In preparation for that the job of destroying the MDC and civil society
which he regards as an integral part of the opposition must continue. The
abductions and show trials that will follow must be seen in this context.

The allegation that MDC bandits are being trained in Botswana is central to
this sinister agenda. It creates the legal basis to justify what will be a
massive crackdown on the MDC. This will sound alarmist to those who do not
grasp the true character of Mugabe's regime. People currently in prisons and
other unknown places are not the targets of this campaign. The intention is
to use their testimony obtained through torture to nail the MDC leadership
and justify draconian measures against the party. It is a campaign in which
even children are not spared.

This is why it will be an act of gross stupidity for the MDC to go into an
inclusive government in which it will have neither power nor influence. It
will only serve the agendas and purposes of other people with no interest in
finding a genuine solution for the Zimbabwe crisis. Leaders of SADC want the
Zimbabwe issue to go away without addressing it squarely. They see in the
power-sharing agreement a quick fix solution ignoring all evidence that
their friend Mugabe only seeks power for himself.

They turn a blind eye to his brutal excesses because they have no stomach or
moral backbone to confront him. They also want to save his regime from more
anticipated sanctions from the West in the New Year. It is an open secret
that the matter will be taken again to the Security Council in January. To
pre-empt this SADC leaders are anxious for Tsvangirai to discard all his
party's concerns and commit political suicide for the sake of prolonging
Mugabe's rule. Another SADC summit is to be held in the second week of
January. Its main purpose is to put pressure on Tsvangirai to become Mugabe's
sidekick.

Whatever happens, Mugabe will pursue his obsessive desire to destroy the MDC
and everything associated with it. Tsvangirai must not think for a moment
that in these circumstances the best form of defence and self-preservation
lies in surrender. Appeasement will not save him and his party from the
beast. Joining hands with Mugabe will only strengthen his position without
diminishing his intent to crush the MDC.

Last week the High Court ordered that Mukoko and nine others be taken to
hospital for examination. After weeks of torture in unbearable living
conditions that is the minimum attention they needed. This order was ignored
with contempt. Over 30 people are still unaccounted for. Tsvangirai
threatened to discontinue negotiations with Zanu-PF if all these people were
not either freed or charged in court by January 1. In addition the MDC's
National Council laid down conditions for joining the proposed government.

There are no signs that any of these conditions will be met. As stated in
this column last week the MDC must demonstrate principled and strong
leadership by putting an end to this farce. At the SADC summit they must
formally table a transitional government along the lines proposed by
Botswana as the only viable solution. They will meet stiff opposition but
the majority in Zimbabwe and wider international community will support what
is obviously the only route that can bring to an end a long dark chapter in
Zimbabwe's history.

'It's surviving, not living'

http://www.news24.com

29/12/2008 08:16  - (SA)

Musina - In the blazing midday sun, Fungai Lindlela watches as her baby
pushes a sticky ball of maize meal into her mouth in a makeshift refugee
camp near South Africa's border with Zimbabwe.

"I need asylum - it's too hard," Lindlela said about how hunger forced her
to flee across the border with her 14-month-old daughter Tandiwa strapped to
her back.

Waiting in listless resignation, Lindlela is surrounded by a sea of people
seated on thin pieces of cardboard which have become a precious commodity in
Musina as a buffer with the dirt ground.

All here have the same goal: applying for political asylum at the mobile
refugee office set up by the South African government in July to cope with
the thousands of Zimbabweans pouring into the border town.

The unofficial camp sprung up at the doorstep of the office, with clothes
stretched over barbed wire fences and scant belongings mark where people
will bed down in the open.

By evening, long rows of smokey fires line the street where food is cooked
in blackened coffee tins by those who can afford it. But the biggest
activity is waiting.

Since July, the office has handled nearly 28 000 applications, mostly from
Zimbabweans, a South African official said on condition of anonymity, giving
the figures up to December 10.

The final triggers

"You can no longer call this a political crisis, it's far much more. It has
become a humanitarian crisis," he said, pointing to the scores of people
waiting outside the office.

In the asylum queue was a woman who was forced to leave her seven-year-old
son behind when she left her home for the border and paid smugglers R50 to
get into South Africa.

"I couldn't take him with me - at least I could carry this one with me,"
said the 32-year-old woman who asked her name not be used, pointing to her
one-year-old daughter Mercy crawling about the floor. "It took me almost six
months to make up my mind."

The final triggers were starvation, political harassment from the Robert
Mugabe regime, and Zimbabwe's mind-boggling inflation which has made it
impossible to withdraw enough money to buy a loaf of bread.

The long asylum queues move to an empty livestock handling area which people
enter in batches, moving slowly through the narrow corrals to be handed a
polystyrene container of hot stew and thick maize meal porridge.

For many, it is the only meal of the day, donated by a local church and
international aid groups who assist with basic needs like organising
sanitary towels for the women.

After eating, the asylum seekers sleep in the dirt field or on the street.
Blessing and Garikai Ngumdu and their two-year-old daughter Shalom - named
in the hope of peace in their country - sleep metres from the gate to the
refugee office.

"It's surviving, not living," Blessing said about life in Zimbabwe.

A crackdown by Mugabe's security forces and supporters was cited by many
Zimbabweans in Musina as reasons for leaving the country.

Soldiers were acting as if "there was a war", beating people on the streets,
Kenneth Sibanda from Chinhoyi near Harare said.

"I don't have hope for my country," said the 23-year-old. "At first people
had hope, they thought maybe things were going to change but now the
situation is getting worse."

'They destroy everything'

"In Zimbabwe, if you survive for one day, you thank God because you don't
have hope for tomorrow."

Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate, last put in July at 231
million percent, and faces chronic food shortages that have left nearly half
the population in need of aid.

A recent cholera outbreak has also claimed about 1 200 lives.

"Mr Mugabe and his thugs, the youth of Zanu-PF, they just destroy everything
everywhere," said Challenge Ncube, who left Gokwe fearing for his life,
after he was targeted as an opposition supporter.

"Today's sleeping in cardboard boxes is better than living with Mugabe in
Zimbabwe because in Zimbabwe you can't live freely," said the 20-year-old.

- AFP

Tough challenges for an aid agency

Photo: WHO/Paul Garwood

Cholera cases continue to climb

JOHANNESBURG, 29 December 2008 (IRIN) - "There is no food, we have malnutrition, there is cholera, now we are expecting a malaria outbreak,” said an exasperated Amanda Weisbaum, the emergency manager for Save the Children, UK, in Zimbabwe.

As the cholera death toll climbed to 1,564, and its caseload to near the 30,000 mark, Save the Children has found that acute malnutrition in children aged six months to five years has doubled since 2007 in one of the two districts in which it has been working in Zimbabwe.

With the onset of rain, there are mounting concerns of a possible malaria outbreak ravaging immune systems weakened by cholera and malnutrition, “especially among those aged under five”, said Weisbaum.

In terms of access, Zimbabwe, comparatively, is one of the worst areas I have worked in...At least in Darfur, when we ran out of stock we could fly in supplies to the areas we worked in - here we cannot

But reaching out to those who need help in a country where most of the infrastructure has collapsed, and the inflation rate is unofficially in the trillions of percent, is a huge challenge and “extremely frustrating”, she said.

“In terms of access, Zimbabwe, comparatively, is one of the worst areas I have worked in,” said Weisbaum, who has worked in some of the world’s crisis hotspots - Darfur, Chad and Niger. “At least in Darfur, when we ran out of stock we could fly in supplies to the areas we worked in - here we cannot,” she said.

Challenges

Weisbaum listed the challenges an aid agency such as Save the Children, which works in two districts in the Zambezi valley in northeastern Zimbabwe, faces:

1. Communications: “Our day begins with us [the head office in the capital, Harare] trying to get in touch with our offices in the two districts Binga and Nyaminyami. It can at times take us an entire day - the phone lines don’t work. Radio communication is also relatively poor,” said Weisbaum.

2. Foreign exchange: When the office in Harare does get through to district offices, raising foreign exchange to buy and deliver the supplies is a “huge” problem.

Since last month, aid agencies have been allowed to pay their national staff in foreign exchange. The economy unofficially runs on the US dollar. “But we don’t know who decides the exchange rate - the banks don’t function very well and accessing US dollars can be quite problematic,” explained Weisbaum. Petrol costs about 75 US cents per litre, and diesel about $1.20 a litre. “It [the costs] is huge for us, especially when you calculate the distances in trying to reach out to rural communities.”

The aid agency can also spend an entire day trying to find foreign exchange to buy fuel and pay the driver.

3. Food shortages: Feeding staff and beneficiaries in the Cholera Treatment Centres (CTC) set up across the country in response to the cholera outbreak remains a huge challenge. “We provide food packs to our staff going to the field because often they cannot access food.”

The charity even had to raid its own stocks to send food for 22 new cholera admissions and care givers in a CTC over the past few days in Nyaminyami District. “It is the World Food Programme’s job to provide food for those admitted in the centre, but they don’t have food either,” explained Weisbaum. WFP is already rationing food aid in Zimbabwe.

4. Writing reports to raise money, which might not come: “And I think we seem to spend many days just writing reports, attending meetings, trying to compile data to raise money from donors, when we should actually be out there trying to help beneficiaries,” said a frustrated Weisbaum.

The level of donor confidence in Zimbabwe is very low partly because of the uncertain political situation, so funds do not always follow reports and appeals. But the response to the cholera outbreak has been good, according to Weisbaum, so the aid agency hopes to raise money for its operations for the next few months on the back of the cholera outbreak.

All Zimbabwe needs is a bit of money, training “as doctors and teachers have all fled the country”, and some political initiative, and the country would be back on its feet soon, added an optimistic Weisbaum.

Zimbabwe Network Stops Accepting Local Currency - Switches to US Dollars

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/35316.php

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) ­Zimbabwe's largest mobile telephone network is
phasing out Zimbabwe dollar tariffs and introducing United States
denominated recharge cards from Tuesday, APA learns here.

Econet Wireless announced that the move to charge in foreign currency was
meant to improve services by enabling the company to invest in new equipment
and settle its foreign currency obligations.

"Econet is introducing US dollar recharge cards from 30 December 2008.
Please use your Zimbabwe dollar cards by midnight 29 December 2008 as they
will expire thereafter," it said in a notice to subscribers.

Local calls would cost around US$0.30 per minute while text messages would
cost US$0.15.

The move by Econet to charge in foreign currency highlights the lack of
confidence in the local currency by the business sector and individuals in
the wake of Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary environment.

With inflation pegged at a world-record 231 million percent as of July,
prices in Zimbabwe are doubling daily, forcing most service providers to
refuse payment in Zimdollars.

Econet is Zimbabwe's largest cellular phone network, with a subscriber base
of about one million.

The two other networks are the state-run NetOne and Telecel Zimbabwe.

Posted to the site on 29th December 2008

What will happen to Zim when Bob dies?

http://www.iol.co.za/

    December 29 2008 at 07:17AM

Accra, Ghana - The top US envoy for Africa has warned that Zimbabwe
could face the same fate as Guinea when Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
dies.

Guinea has been in political turmoil since its longtime dictator died
nearly a week ago. A military-led group declared a coup hours later and
named an interim leader.

Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African
affairs said on Sunday that if the 84-year-old Mugabe dies while still in
power, the same fate awaits Zimbabwe.

Frazer has been a vocal critic of Mugabe, who has been in power since
the country's 1980 independence.

Earlier this month, she said the US could no longer support a proposed
power-sharing deal that would leave Mugabe as president. - Sapa-AP

Plague Of Misrule

http://exilestreet.com/?p=602

by Ralph Peters [author, novelist]

It's a tough holiday season in America. Thousands of families face eviction,
while others just have to delay buying that 52-inch plasma TV. Thanks to
Bernie Madoff, even caviar sales are down.

Count your blessings. In Zimbabwe, once a wealthy country that exported
food, millions struggle daily against starvation, and inflation is counted
in millions of percent. Nothing works - except the ruling regime's network
of thugs. For the holiday season, cholera, the plague of the poorest poor,
has killed 1,200 people and infected 25,000. President-for-life Robert
Mugabe, the man who destroyed his country, first claimed that the disease
didn't exist. Now he blames Britain and the CIA for the outbreak.

Cholera spreads through infected water and food supplies; Zimbabwe's
sanitation has broken down utterly, while its medical system is in complete
collapse. The disease is readily treatable with cheap saline solutions, but
Zimbabweans don't even rate that much.

Ambulatory victims struggle across the border into South Africa, hoping to
survive. More than a million Zimbabweans have abandoned their country,
preferring life in foreign slums and the risk of anti-foreigner violence.

No country in our time has plummeted so far so fast with so little
engagement by the rest of the world. Why? Dictator Robert Mugabe was a hero
of the global left for decades, so today's leftists avoid discussing his
crimes. Better to let Africans die than admit that "We were wrong."

When I visited Zimbabwe in early 2003, the once lovely country was already
gripped by political violence, inflation, hunger and general breakdown. Some
of us tried to write the truth, but nobody cared.

Six years on, the UN wrings its grubby paws but bows to oppressor regimes
that condemn all interference in a country's domestic affairs. Folks, the
neocons may have gotten a great deal wrong, but they were morally sound when
they stressed the inhumanity of allowing a butcher to seize power then hide
behind claims of sovereignty.

The Bush administration - which genuinely sought to help Africa - has lately
wagged a finger, withdrawing support for a con-job "power-sharing" deal
Mugabe pretended to offer his opposition (while stringing the world along
month after month). But the Bush years are effectively over, while Team
Obama can't find Zimbabwe on a map.

The worst villain, though, has been South Africa, an increasingly
authoritarian state whose leaders behave with a selfishness humbling to
run-of-the-mill African kleptocrats.

When I entered Zimbabwe through the capital's somnolent airport almost six
years ago, I shared the common assumption that South Africa must mean well
by its neighbor - human solidarity among the liberated and all that crap.
But I soon witnessed South Africa's deadly greed.

The global media's stock explanation of South Africa's failure to act to
save Zimbabwe's people remains the old saw that veterans of the liberation
struggle can't bring themselves to publicly criticize an old comrade - they
don't want to give the former colonial powers the satisfaction.

That excuse may have applied 20 years ago, but not now. There are two main
reasons - both ugly - why the region's great power, South Africa, won't help
the people of Zimbabwe.

First, politically connected South African businessmen have been buying up
Zimbabwe at fire-sale prices. There's little left of any worth that the
fat-cat profiteers from Jo'burg don't already own - but they're determined
to grab that, too.

When Mugabe falls or dies, South Africans will hold the deed to an entire
country. South Africa's buying a colony.

Another reason for South African prevarication emerged in the last year.
Since its celebrated victory over apartheid, the new South Africa has
developed into a one-party state with democratic trappings (disappointingly
similar to Putin's Russia). The ruling African National Congress was all for
free elections - as long as it remained an all-powerful monolith.

But as its impeccably tailored, incompetent former president, Thabo Mbeki,
was shoved to the sidelines during a struggle within the ANC's politburo, a
new specter loomed: real democracy. A splinter group broke from the ANC to
contest upcoming elections.

Simultaneously, Mugabe's determination to rig Zimbabwe's elections at any
cost could no longer disguise the people's overwhelming revulsion toward
him. Attempting to stave off a loss of power, he entered cat-and-mouse
"negotiations" with the opposition.

Amazingly, the world bought it. Colluding with Mugabe, South Africa
disingenuously pledged to be an honest broker.

There was as much chance of spotting polar bears along the Limpopo River as
of Zimbabweans getting a square deal. The ANC's ruling faction dreads the
notion that honest democracy could come to Zimbabwe. Next thing you know,
South Africans might demand clean elections, too.

If the world wants to alleviate the misery of millions in Zimbabwe, we must
sideline South Africa and act directly to remove Mugabe and his ruling
clique.

We won't, and the world won't. Black Africans serve wonderfully for charity
appeals, but no competent state will lift a finger to save their lives.

Merry Christmas

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 at 10:52 pm