Zim Online
by Cuthbert
Nzou Monday 11 February 2008
HARARE – Some of
President Robert Mugabe’s most senior allies
including his first deputy
Joseph Msika are the brains behind former finance
minister Simba Makoni’s
dramatic rebellion last week, sources close to the
mutiny told ZimOnline at
the weekend.
They said Makoni, who shook Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF
party to the
core when he announced last Tuesday that he would challenge
Mugabe in next
month’s presidential poll, was also working with party
politburo members
John Nkomo, Solomon Mujuru, Vitalis Zvinavashe and Dumiso
Dabengwa among
other heavyweights.
Nkomo is ZANU PF chairman,
while Mujuru, Zvinavashe and Dabengwa are
former commanders of the ZANLA and
ZIPRA guerrilla armies that fought for
Zimbabwe’s independence under the
leadership of Mugabe and the late Joshua
Nkomo.
Mujuru and
Zvinavashe are former commanders of Zimbabwe’s army and
together with
Dabengwa are believed to wield substantial influence within
the country’s
security forces that still comprise significant numbers of
former guerillas
especially in higher echelons.
Makoni, who commands considerable
respect across the political divide
and in business circles, enjoys the
support of eight out of ZANU PF’s 10
provincial executives, according to our
sources, who are all active members
of ZANU PF and spoke on condition they
were not named.
Mugabe’s home province of Mashonaland West and
Midlands province,
which is controlled by presidential aspirant Emmerson
Mnangagwa, are the two
provinces that do not support Makoni.
ZimOnline was unable to get immediate comment from Nkomo and the other
top
ZANU PF leaders, who were all said to be busy with the party’s internal
exercise to select candidates for the March 29 elections that is expected to
be completed today.
When contacted for comment, Makoni declined
to deny or confirm whether
he had the support of the top ZANU PF leaders
insisting, as he has done all
of last week that, he is “working with other
progressive Zimbabweans.”
ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira
dismissed as mere speculation
suggestions that some top leaders of the party
were backing Makoni,
insisting the ruling party remained solidly behind
Mugabe – its leader since
the 70s.
Shamuyarira said: "The party
is only aware of Makoni's decision to
leave the party and contest the March
presidential election as an
independent candidate.
President
Mugabe has the support of the whole presidium and other
members of the
politburo are solidly behind him.
"As far as the party is
concerned, there is speculation that some
members of the politburo were
behind Makoni and we cannot waste time on
speculation when elections are
around the corner."
However, our sources said the ZANU PF bigwigs
led by Mujuru began
plotting in earnest the move to oust Mugabe since a
party conference in
December 2006 when it became clear that the octogenarian
leader would not
quit power voluntarily.
The Mujuru group -
that adopted Makoni as its front man - successfully
blocked Mugabe’s bid at
the December conference to extend his rule to 2010
without going to the
ballot but the cunning President made an about turn and
offered himself to
stand as ZANU PF’s candidate in next month’s election.
The sources
said the ZANU PF heavyweights have since last year held
several meetings in
Harare, Bulawayo and South Africa to perfect their plan
as well as weigh the
risks of taking on Mugabe, a wily and combative
politician even as he turns
84 this month.
When the ZANU PF central committee met in March 2007
to adopt the
resolutions passed at the Goromonzi conference, Msika openly
challenged a
resolution proposed by the party’s women’s league to declare
Mugabe
president for life.
"Msika was backed by Dabengwa and
Makoni. This did not go down well
with Mugabe who voiced his concern," one
of the sources said. The resolution
was promptly dropped.
According to sources, subsequent meetings of the central committee or
politburo saw Dabengwa, Mujuru and Zvinavashe taking turns to question and
challenge Mugabe’s decisions both in the party and in the
government.
During a politburo meeting last October, the four
openly confronted
Mugabe after he unilaterally re-admitted expelled war
veterans leader
Jabulani Sibanda into ZANU PF.
"The four men
reminded Mugabe that Sibanda was expelled from the party
and should not be
involved in party affairs but he apparently ignored them,"
another source
said.
Sibanda has since his readmission helped mobilised support
for Mugabe
and last November organised a “million-man” march which saw
several tens of
thousands of party supporters march across Harare in
solidarity with the
veteran leader and his candidature in the presidential
poll.
During another politburo meeting on November 25 last year,
Dabengwa
questioned Mnangagwa – who according to sources is fighting in
Mugabe’s
corner –why he wanted last December’s extra-ordinary congress to
confirm and
endorse Mugabe when it should elect a new
leadership.
Makoni and Mujuru backed Dabengwa, but Mugabe with the
support of
Mnangagwa prevailed and the congress was convened to endorse the
ageing
leader as ZANU PF’s candidate for president.
"From then
on, Mujuru and his group began moving to block what they
saw as Mugabe’s
imposition of himself as party candidate,” the source said.
Various
options were considered including trying to use a politburo
meeting that was
held last month to reverse Mugabe’s endorsement as
candidate while another
option was to simply form a new party with Makoni as
leader.
"Various options were looked at, but none were viable except for
Makoni to
make a public pronouncement and hope there will be a rebellion in
the
party,” said pour source.
While ZANU PF and nearly every Zimbabwean
have been stunned by Makoni’s
dramatic announcement last week, there has
been no popular revolt within the
ruling party against Mugabe.
It remains to be seen how Makoni and company will proceed, while all
eyes
are watching Mugabe to see how he will react to the biggest ever
rebellion
against his rule. - ZimOnline
Yahoo News
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai confirmed
Sunday he would stand for president at elections next
month, quashing
speculation he would give a former minister a clear run
against Robert
Mugabe.
"I confirm myself, together with the
comrades behind me, that we are going
to contest the presidential,
parliamentary, senatorial and local government
elections," the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader told reporters.
"I want to confirm that I
am going to be the presidential candidate and what
you see behind me is the
team that I am going to work with in the
forthcoming campaigns," he added in
a briefing attended by lawmakers and top
officials.
Former finance
minister Simba Makoni announced last week that he planned to
challenge
Mugabe at the March 29 elections in a move welcomed by the MDC,
leading some
commentators to predict Tsvangirai would not contest the polls.
His
decision to carry on is seen as likely to split the anti-Mugabe vote and
increase the re-election prospects of the octogenarian president who is
seeking a sixth term in office.
Tsvangirai praised Makoni as a
patriot but said he bore some responsibility
for the state of the country as
a long-time member of Mugabe's ruling
Zimbabwe African National Union -
Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).
Inflation is the highest in the world at over
26,000 percent, unemployment
is running at around 80 percent and even basis
foodstuffs are in scarce
supply.
"Dr Makoni has been part of the
establishment for the last 30 years and has
witnessed our country
deteriorate to this unprecedented level. He is equally
accountable as Robert
Mugabe for the omissions of ZANU-PF," Tsvangirai said.
"I believe that
what Dr Makoni is trying is to reform an institutionalised
dictatorship.
That is not my agenda.
"I am the leader of the MDC.... Dr Makoni is
nothing more than old wine in a
new bottle."
Tsvangirai lost to
Mugabe in the last elections in 2002 in a poll Western
observers said was
rigged. His party has since been riven by divisions and
he has been unable
to persuade a splinter faction to unite behind his
candidacy.
The MDC
leader was confident his party would be the rightful winners but
sceptical
that Mugabe would allow a level playing field at the election.
"Mugabe
may rig it, may steal it, but we would have won it... I have no
doubt in my
mind, we will win it," he said to the applause of party
supporters.
Reuters
Sun 10 Feb
2008, 16:10 GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on
Sunday his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) is confident of winning
general elections next month
but fears President Robert Mugabe's government
will rig the
vote.
Tsvangirai, head of the main faction of the MDC, told a news
conference that
Zimbabweans, many of whom blame the government for ruining
the
once-prosperous southern African state's economy, were desperate for
change.
"We believe the election ... however uneven the playing field may
be,
presents Zimbabweans with a fighting chance to remove this
dictatorship," he
said, repeating charges that Mugabe had rigged three
previous elections to
stay in power.
"The people will win in the
election of 2008, and should Robert Mugabe
choose to steal their victory, he
would have consumed that last shred of
legitimacy left for his dictatorship
in the region and in the world,"
Tsvangirai added.
But he declined to
say what the MDC would do if it felt cheated in the
polls. "We will cross
that bridge when we get to it," Tsvangirai said,
adding: "Experience is the
best teacher, and we will not go to court."
Tsvangirai, 55, said former
Mugabe ally and ex-finance minister Simba Makoni
had a crucial role to play
in Zimbabwe's political future, but that the MDC
could not work with him
while Makoni retained strong ties with the ruling
ZANU-PF
party.
Makoni announced last week he would run against Mugabe for the
presidency,
and said he had support from ZANU-PF rebels.
"Dr. Makoni
is a player looking for a team, and I already have a team here,"
Tsvangirai
said when asked about a possible coalition.
The MDC leader said the
crumbling economy -- Zimbabwe has the world's
highest inflation rate, at
over 25,000 percent, rising unemployment and
acute shortages of food, fuel
and transport -- had left Zimbabweans
desperate.
"The people of
Zimbabwe are looking to us to deliver them a new Zimbabwe,"
he
said.
But despite the economic shambles, analysts say Mugabe may be able
to hang
onto power against a divided opposition.
The MDC is split
into two factions, led by Tsvangirai and academic Arthur
Mutambara, that
will field rival candidates in next month's presidential,
parliamentary and
council elections after failing to agree on a unified
ticket.
The MDC
had earlier said it might boycott the March 29 polls if Mugabe's
government
refused to adopt a new draft constitution agreed between the two
sides. The
charter has not been adopted.
Tsvangirai has said a new constitution is
his party's main hope of achieving
a fair election and, without one, the
result was bound to be disputed as had
happened in the past.
Mugabe,
83, who has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain
in
1980, says the MDC is sponsored by Western powers opposed to his seizure
and
redistribution of white-owned farms to landless blacks.
The Telegraph
By Stephen
Bevan and special correspondents in Harare
Last Updated: 1:15am GMT
10/02/2008
Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has been
warned that he faces
possible humiliation in next month's general election
after Simba Makoni, a
member of his own ruling politburo, threw his hat into
the ring on Tuesday.
The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that
Zimbabwe's intelligence services
have advised Mr Mugabe to postpone the
presidential election, scheduled for
March 29, because of a groundswell of
support for Mr Makoni. The former
finance minister has the backing of top
regime figures, including the two
vice-presidents.
Mr Mugabe
abruptly cancelled a politburo meeting on Wednesday after
the briefing by
the Central Intelligence Organisation, whose director,
Happyton Bonyongwe,
is understood to sympathise with Mr Makoni, according to
a source close to
the government.
Presenting the strongest challenge to Mr Mugabe
from within the ranks
of the Zanu-PF in 20 years, Mr Makoni, 57, is a
businessman who studied at
Leeds University and Leicester
Polytechnic.
Mr Mugabe appeared on course for almost certain
victory after factions
in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
failed to unite behind its
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. But Mr Makoni's
announcement has thrown that into
doubt.
Now Mugabe
loyalists are issuing chilling warnings that Mr Makoni's
candidature, and
his criticism of the president, may imperil his safety.
"Traitors should
know Zanu-PF has a history of dealing harshly with their
kind," said Joseph
Chinotimba, deputy leader of the War Veterans'
Association, a pro-Mugabe
militia which spearheaded land invasions against
white farmers eight years
ago and which Mr Mugabe has used to intimidate and
attack
opponents.
Mr Makoni says he will not be deterred from running.
"The threats have
been there but I do not feel threatened," he said. "I will
continue walking
in the streets. My security is in my people."
Although many were surprised that a Zanu-PF insider would publicly
challenge
such a ruthless and oppressive leader, Mr Makoni may have good
reason for
bravado. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that his support extends
much
further than previously supposed. According to a senior official, his
backers in the Zanu-PF politburo include Joseph Msika the vice-president,
John Nkomo, the party chairman, and Dumiso Dabengwa, the former defence
minister. He also has backing from Solomon Mujuru, a retired army general,
and his wife, Joyce Mujuru, also a vice-president.
More
worrying for Mr Mugabe is the support for Mr Makoni from within
his own
security establishment. Zimbabwe's air force chief, police chief and
army
commander are said to back him privately.
Mr Makoni has felt
confident enough to attack Mr Mugabe's intolerance
of different views and
ideas. "He [Mugabe] is a diffident leader who thinks
the people have no
capacity to act on their own," he said. "The people of
Zimbabwe have for a
long time been stifled by this hostile political
culture. I will bring a new
dawn of democracy, accountability and
integrity."
Although he
did not mention Mr Mugabe by name, Mr Makoni blamed the
country's economic
collapse firmly on his government. According to the
central bank, inflation
is 26,471 per cent - the world's highest - and the
country has 80 per cent
unemployment, severe shortages of basic foods and
frequent interruptions to
power and water supplies.
Mr Makoni said: "The problems that this
country has been facing are
the direct result of the lack of leadership.
There must be change and, as I
have said, that change must start at the top.
They cannot handle the
differences in views and different ideas are regarded
as antagonistic and
foreign."
Zanu-PF headquarters also
received warning bells last week when eight
of Mr Mugabe's ministers lost to
challengers in the party's primary
elections. Several of the challengers are
believed to be Makoni
sympathisers.
Mr Makoni denied claims in
the state-controlled media that he was a
stooge of Britain and America,
which Mr Mugabe blames for the country's
economic collapse.
"I
am acting on my own," Mr Makoni said. "I put the interest of
Zimbabweans
first rather than the interest of the few as we have seen in
this political
environment.
"We are offering the people of Zimbabwe their freedom
and [have] come
up with programmes to revive the economy."
Mail and Guardian
Fanuel Jongwe | Harare, Zimbabwe
10
February 2008 11:18
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who
only days ago looked
assured of re-election next month as a result of splits
in the opposition,
now has to contend with a growing mutiny within his own
ranks.
Analysts who had regarded Mugabe as a shoo-in at
national polls
on March 29 are revising their forecasts after he was
confronted this week
by a challenge from within his party and some of his
top allies were
defeated in primaries.
"The divisions
within Zanu-PF are now coming out in the open,"
said Harare-based political
commentator Takura Zhangazha.
"Makoni's challenge has shown
Mugabe is facing opposition from
the Zanu-PF for the first time in
years."
Simba Makoni, who sits on the Zanu-PF politburo, was
declared
persona non-grata by party elders after he announced last Tuesday
he would
challenge Mugabe as an independent.
The former
finance minister claimed he had decided to run after
widespread
consultations with Zanu-PF colleagues and remained a loyal party
member.
So far, no other senior members have publicly
endorsed him, but
a further sign that Mugabe's grip on the party was
weakening came with news
on Friday that several top lieutenants, including
his agriculture and
education ministers, had been dumped as parliamentary
candidates in
electoral primaries.
Bornwell Chakaodza, a
former government spokesperson who is now
a columnist, said the elections
could no longer be seen as a foregone
conclusion.
"It's
going to be a landmark election, not as easily predictable
as past
elections. For the first time Mugabe is facing a challenge from
within," he
said.
"I don't see him winning in a free and fair election
and the
million-dollar question is: 'Will Mugabe bow out
gracefully?'"
Mugabe won the last presidential elections in
2002 after
defeating Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC claimed the
result was rigged but few commentators had
given Tsvangirai much hope this
time after talks with a rival party faction
designed to agree on a single
candidate collapsed last Sunday.
Newspaper proprietor Trevor
Ncube, a long-time Mugabe foe, said
Makoni had breathed new life into the
contest after the MDC had snuffed out
its chances.
"Coming so soon after the failure of the two MDC factions to
unite, Makoni's
initiative provides a credible home and leadership for all
those in
opposition who desire genuine change and not self-aggrandisement,"
Ncube
wrote in an article in his weekly Zimbabwe Independent.
"The
MDC's weakness has always been its pedestrian leadership,
which should now
join hands with Makoni to form a formidable coalition of
forces opposed to
all that Mugabe represents."
Neither faction of the MDC has
yet announced whether they will
step aside in favour of Makoni and some
commentators believe his candidacy
will further split the opposition
vote.
"What this also means is that the opposition vote will
be
diluted by the Makoni vote," said Zhangazha.
But
leading sociologist Gordon Chavhunduka said Mugabe had the
most to lose as
Makoni would mostly appeal to Zanu-PF members who are
disillusioned by
Zimbabwe's economic crisis but have little time for the
MDC.
"Simba Makoni's support will be drawn mainly from
Zanu-PF and it
will weaken Mugabe," Chavhunduka said.
The
former British colony, ruled by Mugabe since independence in
1980, has been
in meltdown since Makoni left office in 2003 and is currently
beset by an
inflation rate of more than 26 000%, the highest in the world.
Unemployment
also stands at about 80% -- AFP
IOL
February 10 2008 at 05:34PM
By Peta Thornycroft
Two
questions are on everyone's lips in Zimbabwe this week after Simba
Makoni
announced he will stand against Robert Mugabe in the presidential
elections
on March 29.
First, can he command enough support from both the
ruling Zanu-PF and
opposition Movement for Democratic Change to
win?
And second, if he can, how far will Mugabe go to try to stop
him?
When the news broke that Makoni was running, it was "like a
breath of
fresh air", as one jaded Zimbabwean said in Harare this
week.
Many Zimbabweans, long disillusioned by rigged elections, had
intended
to ignore the next one on March 29. But now they are suddenly
invigorated
and are rushing off to the inefficient Registrar-general's
office to see if
their names are still on the voters'
roll.
It has been taken for granted that
former army commander Solomon
Mujuru is the "king maker" behind Makoni's
initiative.
This was true a year ago, but is no longer true in the
same way, said
Wilfred Mhanda, a former top commander of the liberation
forces.
Mhanda is one of a handful of people associated with the
Makoni bid
for power, along with academic Ibbo Mandaza.
"Mujuru
is sympathetic, but it is not a Mujuru initiative," Mhanda
said. "Nor is it
a foreign initiative, for example, the South Africans are
not involved in
any way, and nor is the West. This is entirely Zimbabwean,
and Makoni had to
make up his own mind and that only happened just after
Christmas."
Mhanda expects Mujuru's wife, Joice, who is a
vice-president, to stand
for re-election to parliament on behalf of Zanu-PF
in her normal seat. Her
wealth has come via Zanu-PF and she is not likely to
turn her back on that,
he said.
But another strategist, who did
not want to be named, suggested that
Mhanda was putting out a smokescreen to
protect the Mujurus from the wrath
of Mugabe. He said that distancing Makoni
from the Mujurus "is the
impression the Makoni people want to create. But,
believe me, Mujuru is in
there, so are some from Mugabe's closest inner
circle.
"They believed they were staying close to Mugabe to stop
the Mujurus.
But now they see Makoni is the candidate, which changes
everything for them.
"The difficulty will be that some of the
Zanu-PF candidates in the
campaigns for the parliamentary elections will
have to go out and canvas for
themselves and, of course, for Mugabe in
public, but privately they will be
trying to get the message across that
people should vote for Makoni, not
Mugabe, on the presidential ballot
paper."
Mugabe must have been completely confident of victory until
Makoni's
announcement, because he knew he would face little opposition from
a divided
and dispirited opposition MDC.
But Makoni changes
that, perhaps decisively.
The 57-year old has been a member of
Zanu-PF all his adult life and
was a minister in the independence cabinet
when he was 28. He could win
enough votes from moderates, both in ZanuPF
supporters and the MDC to beat
Mugabe.
"The old man wants to be
in charge for the rest of his life,
regardless of how much further the
country falls, he does not care how much
anyone suffers. That's the reality"
said Mhanda.
The governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon
Gono, who
controls the money, the exchange rate and even how much cash
people can draw
from their own accounts, is essential to Mugabe's armoury.
Gono wants to be
his successor and so will be key to Mugabe's plans to
defeat Makoni.
Mugabe has, so far, also counted heavily on full
support from the
military, to manipulate the elections and to intimidate
opposition voters
not least by threatening a coup against the MDC if it
wins, as it did
before.
But with Makoni in the field, there are
going to be some officials, in
the army and elsewhere, who are going to say
one thing to Mugabe and do
another.
That must worry
him.
If Mugabe rigs this poll in the election control centre -
which is
closed to the press and observers - by manipulating the votes, as
he did,
for example, in the presidential poll of 2002, he will not be sure
that all
the people there are his supporters. Some of those ordered to rig
will be
Makoni supporters, Mhanda said.
"Mugabe can't trust
anyone now, that's why the politburo meeting this
week was
cancelled."
It has also become convenient for Mugabe to agree to
requests from the
MDC to delay nomination court from this past Friday to
February 15. This
gives him time to purge some of the Zanu-PF parliamentary
candidates he
suspects of being Makoni supporters.
What about
the MDC? The faction led by Arthur Mutambara, which has its
core support and
parliamentarians in the second city of Bulawayo and other
parts of
Matabeleland, is going to do whatever it takes to get Mugabe out
and Makoni
in.
And founding MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai's faction, which
would be
able to win most seats in Harare and a few in other towns, will
certainly
lose support to Makoni. Tsvangirai just can't win in the rural
areas where
most people live, not least because his canvassing efforts have
been met
with violence from the security forces.
Mhanda and
others believe many of Tsvangirai's disappointed supporters
will vote for
Makoni because they think he has the greatest chance of
achieving what the
embattled MDC tried to do in the first place - get rid of
Mugabe.
A deal could be struck between Tsvangirai's
parliamentary candidates
and Makoni. There is still time for that but, so
far, there are no
indications if a deal would even be considered by
Tsvangirai and his inner
circle.
Tsvangirai's faction rejected
a merger with the Mutambara faction last
weekend and many of his ordinary
supporters were fed up by that failure.
So Tsvangirai and his group
of brave men and women who have taken
Mugabe's vicious heat since 1999 and
have written their names into the
history books through their efforts to
bring democracy to Zimbabwe, might
fade out of the political scenery
altogether at these elections.
"This is going to be very, very
complicated. Mugabe might choose the
[Mwai] Kibaki way, and just install
himself.
Makoni, now with an extra week before nomination court,
might put
forward some candidates himself for some of the 210 parliamentary
seats,"
Mhanda said.
With a week to go before the nomination
court settles the shape of the
contestants, the political situation is very,
very fluid, and uncertain.
Level-headed Simba Makoni has a long way
to go with many hard
compromises to make if he is to get within striking
distance of the only
goal that now counts in the minds of most Zimbabweans:
getting rid of
Mugabe. - Foreign Service
This article was
originally published on page 5 of Sunday Independent
on February 10,
2008
Zim Online
by Thenjiwe Mabhena Monday 11 February
2008
HARARE – Zimbabwe main opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai on Sunday
dismissed former finance minister Simba Makoni as “old
wine in a new bottle”
whose agenda was to reform the governing ZANU PF and
ensure that the same
ruling elite retained power.
Makoni, a member of
ZANU PF’s inner politburo cabinet, last week
dramatically rebelled against
President Robert Mugabe, announcing he will
challenge the veteran leader in
next months’ presidential election.
Commanding considerable respect
across the political divide, Makoni has said
he will stand as an independent
but there have been calls by some prominent
intellectuals and one or two
civic groups that the two factions of the main
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party should form a
coalition with
him.
Tsvangirai, who heads the larger faction of the MDC, said Makoni or
his
representatives had not approached him over an alliance. Nevertheless,
he
appeared to talk down the idea, saying there were “fundamental
differences”
between him and the former finance minister.
Tsvangirai
told journalists in Harare: “The differences are fundamental. He
(Makoni)
says he is still ZANU PF . . . we have nothing in common with ZANU
PF. Dr
Makoni is nothing more than old wine in a new bottle.”
Makoni was not
immediately available for comment. He has however said he is
working with
like-minded people in ZANU PF and called on all Zimbabweans
“yearning for
change” to join him in his project to unseat Mugabe.
Analysts say Makoni
lacks grassroots support of his own but are quick to
point out that the fact
that he is said to be working with key ZANU PF
leaders and former military
leaders makes him a more formidable challenger
to Mugabe than a divided
MDC.
Makoni is seen as an important asset to any plan to resuscitate
Zimbabwe’s
comatose economy because he is acceptable to the business sector
and the
international community.
His considerable experience – he is
a former secretary general of the
regional Southern African Development
Co-ordinating Conference, forerunner
to the Southern African Development
Community – is also an added advantage.
But Tsvangirai cautioned against
embracing a reform agenda that appeared
authored by ZANU PF and intended to
enable the same political figures to
continue to plunder the
economy.
"(Such) a reform agenda will not deliver us as a people, it will
simply
perpetuate the status quo where the elite in ZANU PF continue to
plunder the
country's meager resources while we the people suffer," he
said.
However, Tsvangirai acknowledged that Makoni is a patriotic
Zimbabwean who
“will play a critical role in the future of this
country.”
Tsvangirai, who was flanked by his deputy Thokozani Khupe,
national
organising secretary Elias Mudzuri and deputy treasurer Elton
Mangoma, said
his MDC formation would launch its campaign for the combined
presidential,
parliamentary and council elections on February 23.
The
MDC had wanted the March 29 polls postponed to allow implementation of a
draft constitution that it said would ensure a free and fair contest, a
demand rejected by Mugabe.
Tsvangirai said his party is contesting
the polls because it believed they
offered Zimbabweans a fighting chance to
end Mugabe’s rule.
Critics accuse Mugabe of plunging Zimbabwe into its
worst economic crisis
seen in the world’s highest inflation rate of more
than 26 000 percent, 80
percent unemployment and shortages of food, fuel and
foreign currency. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Brendon Tulani Monday 11 February
2008
BULAWAYO – A regional farmers’ group has accused
Zimbabwe government
officials of “pure greed” after Harare listed 11 small
properties in
Umzingwane district in Matabeleland province for
acquisition.
Mark Crawford, who is the president of the Southern Africa
Commercial
Alliance (SACFA) said the acquisition raised doubts about the
government’s
motives because the listed properties were too small to warrant
government
take over.
The Zimbabwe government announced in a
government gazette last Friday that
it was taking over 11 properties in
Umzingwane.
Crawford said from the list of properties earmarked for
seizure, it was
clear that the government officials wanted the properties
for personal
enrichment rather that for commercial agriculture.
“The
intention is organised looting of property such as houses and equipment
judging by the size of land that they intend to acquire,” said
Crawford.
Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is in charge of the
government’s land
reform programme could not be reached for comment on the
matter.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has since 2000 embarked on a
controversial campaign to seize land from white farmers for distribution to
landless blacks.
Most of the plum farms previously owned by white
farmers have however fallen
into the hands of senior ruling ZANU PF
officials and military officers
leaving thousands of black villagers still
clamouring for land.
Crawford said among the 11 properties listed for
acquisition was a less than
12-hectare plot belonging to Paul Hewart Canter
while the biggest property
was Lot 48A of Essexvale (Esigodini) Estate,
measuring 145.2 hectares.
The Esigodini area, about 40km south of
Bulawayo, is renowned for market
gardening and fruit farming and provides
the bulk of Bulawayo’s fruit and
vegetable needs.
Just about 600
white farmers are still on their properties following Mugabe’s
controversial
land reforms.
The chaotic and often violent land reforms plunged once
food sufficient
Zimbabwe into severe food shortages after the newly
resettled black farmers
failed to maintain production on the former white
farms.
Zimbabwe, which is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, has
virtually
survived on food handouts from international food relief
organisations. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Simplicious Chirinda Monday 11 February 2008
HARARE – The
Zimbabwe government forked out US$23 000 for a two-hour
performance to
visiting United States (US) singer Joe Thomas who was in
Harare last weekend
on a mission to spruce up the country’s battered image.
“We paid him
US$23 000 after lengthy negotiations with his representatives,”
said
Karikoga Kaseke, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) boss who was
instrumental in bringing the US rhythm and blues artist to
Harare.
The ZTA also paid US$50 000 in airfares for Thomas and his crew
of six
musicians and bodyguards.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe
eight-year economic crisis that has
manifested itself in shortages of
foreign currency. The foreign currency
crisis has seen the southern African
country fail to import essential
commodities such as fuel and
food.
The ZTA has over the past two years embarked on vigorous campaigns
to lure
high-profile musicians to Zimbabwe in an attempt to spruce up the
country’s
battered image as a tourist destination.
Meanwhile, the
American artist put up a five star performance on Saturday
night in Harare
singing songs from his most famous album, All that I am.
“We are grateful
to the American singer, he has been a good ambassador and
we hope he will
carry the good words about Zimbabwe all over the world,”
said Kaseke at the
show. - ZimOnline
10th February 2008
The Zimbabwe
Vigil says that the leader of its partner organisation,
Restoration of Human
Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR Zimbabwe), has again been
detained by police in
Harare. The Vigil said it had received a text message
from ROHR leader
Stendrick Zvorwadza today. It read "I have been brutalized
by soldiers and
arrested for saying Zanu PF is causing the suffering of
Zimbabweans. I am in
police custody and am in pain. Have been denied
treatment. Despite all this,
my spirit for fighting for our rights is
getting stronger by day." Sten was
held for several days last month after
speaking at a gathering of some 200
supporters.
Vigil co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00
to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
IOL
February
10 2008 at 11:29AM
By Patrick Laurence
The aphorism
coined by Harold Wilson, the former British premier who
held office in the
1960s and 1970s, "a week is a long time in politics",
needs to be revised in
light of recent events in Zimbabwe.
The announcement by Simba
Makoni, a stalwart of the ruling Zanu-PF and
a former minister of finance,
of his intention to stand in the presidential
election next month, is a
reminder that a day can be long enough to signal a
major change is in the
offing.
Until Makoni's February 5 announcement, Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's
octogenarian president, looked certain to be re-elected in the
pending
election; thereafter Mugabe's chances of re-election were
questionable,
particularly as Makoni's declaration appeared to portend the
start of a
revolt against Mugabe in his own
party.
To appreciate the full significance of
Makoni's decision to stand
against Mugabe, contemplate a hypothetical
situation in South Africa in
which:
..... The national
president is elected in a separate presidential poll
instead of by members
of the National Assembly, which effectively means by
the majority
party.
..... Jacob Zuma, the ANC president, is nominated by the
ANC as its
presidential candidate in a pending presidential election that
will occur in
tandem with the actual scheduled parliamentary election next
year.
..... Cyril Ramaphosa, a former secretary-general of the
ANC and a
long-standing member of the ANC national executive committee, is
persuaded
to stand for election as president in the national interest by
representatives of the business community and civil society, including the
South African Council of Churches.
The probabilities are high
that the theoretical Ramaphosa foray into
the political arena, like the
actual Makoni initiative in Zimbabwe, would
attract votes across a wide
socio-political spectrum.
It should be borne in mind that nearly 40
percent of the delegates at
the ANC's national conference last December
voted against Zuma and that
various opinion polls have identified Ramaphosa
as the person favoured by a
large proportion of the citizenry to succeed
President Thabo Mbeki.
Another factor should be taken into account
in the hypothetical
scenario: unlike the ANC members of the national
assembly, the voters in the
direct, popular presidential election will not
find themselves under the
scrutiny of Baleka Mbete, the speaker and the
national chairwoman of the
Zuma-led ANC.
To quote Frederik van
Zyl Slabbert, who headed a government-appointed
commission on electoral
reform in 2002, public representatives who are
"locked into caucus politics"
are inclined to docile obedience to the party
line.
A last
point on the South African analogy: while Zuma undoubtedly had
the support
of the majority of delegates at the ANC's national conference at
Polokwane,
it does not follow that he would win a national presidential
election.
There is a simple reason for that. The ANC's national
membership is
600 000, whereas the electorate for a presidential election
would be between
15-million and 20-million, depending on the proportion of
the 28-million to
30-million South Africans of voting age who registered to
vote.
To offer a hypothetical South African equivalent of Makoni's
bold
gamut is not, of course, to equate the situations in the two
countries.
Zimbabwe is on the brink of an abyss; South Africa,
though not free of
problems, is not.
Zimbabwe's desperate
plight is encapsulated in its astronomical
inflation rate of 2 500 percent,
its status as the world's fasting shrinking
economy and its all but
valueless currency, as well as its huge and mounting
international
debt.
Those who have benefited from Mugabe's policy of
indigenisation of the
economy are beginning to fear that unless he is
prevented from extending his
presidential tenure for another seven years,
they will become paupers or
suffer an even worse fate at the hands of
Mugabe's ubiquitous enemies.
Though important in its own right, the
significance of Makoni's
decision to stand against Mugabe in next month's
election is magnified by a
number of factors.
One is that he is
unlikely to have taken the decision without
consulting the barons at
Mugabe's court and receiving pledges of support.
It is a fair bet
that he talked to Solomon Mujuru, the former
commander of Zanu-PF's
guerrilla army and of Zimbabwe's post-liberation
national defence
force.
His military credentials aside, Mujuru - whose wife, Joyce,
is one of
Zimbabwe's two vice presidents - is a fabulously rich businessmen;
if Mugabe
is allowed to prolong his disastrous rule at the age of 83, Mujuru
is a
candidate for impoverishment and even retribution.
As
Martin Meredith notes in the expanded and updated edition of his
acclaimed
book Mugabe, Power, Plunder and the Struggle for Zimbabwe
(Jonathan Ball,
2007), Mujuru was instrumental in blocking Mugabe's bid last
year to defer
the 2008 presidential election until 2010 in order to secure
his tenure as
president for another two years.
It would be consistent for Mujuru
to follow that up by backing
Makoni's attempt to defeat Mugabe in next
month's presidential election and
thereby deny him occupancy of the
presidency for another seven years, or
until he is 90.
At the
very least, Makoni will split the Zanu-PF vote and thereby
negate the
advantage that Mugabe gained when the feuding factions of the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) failed to resolve their
differences or
even to forge an election pact to prevent dividing the MDC
vote.
If Makoni fails to win the pending presidential election
himself, he
may have opened the door to Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the
dominant
MDC faction.
Given the centrality of the presidential
elections to the analysis so
far, it is relevant to note that research
conducted by the commission headed
by Slabbert showed that a majority of
South Africans of all races are in
favour of the introduction of direct
presidential elections.
Their preference has since been endorsed by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
he wants the government to give South Africans a
direct role in the election
of the national president instead of having the
choice made for them by the
majority party in the National
Assembly.
If Zimbabweans were not afforded the opportunity of
directly electing
the president, Makoni would not have been able to raise
his standard against
Mugabe and Mugabe's election by a Zanu-PF-dominated
parliament would, in all
probability, have been destined to become a
disastrous fait accompli next
month.
...Independent political
analyst Patrick Laurence is a contributing
editor to The
Star
This article was originally published on page 9 of Sunday
Independent
on February 10, 2008
IOL
February
10 2008 at 03:59PM
Zimbabwe's national elections, due in seven
weeks' time, have been
hastily organized, are already ridden with confusion
and illegality and are
unlikely to be free and fair, the Catholic Church
warned Sunday.
President Robert Mugabe has set March 29 as the date
for presidential,
parliamentary and local government elections.
The statement by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP)
in
Zimbabwe, the country's longest serving human rights body, is the latest
by
several organizations to question the government's readiness to go the
polls.
The statement said that the "prevailing electoral
climate is not
conducive to free and fair elections." It cited voter
registration
procedures that were "cumbersome" and that had meant that many
people had
not been able to register.
For the first time, elections for all three fora are being held
simultaneously, but preparation and voter education to explain the changes
to the electorate had been "inadequate" with the result that "confusion
continues to exist" as to how they are to be conducted.
Mugabe's announcement of the election date was just over two weeks
ago, and
there was "not enough time" for political parties to carry out
their
campaigns.
The delimitation report, setting out the different sets
of
constituencies for the parliamentary and local government elections, was
published only last week, and voters were unclear about where they were to
vote.
Private election watchdogs said that copies of the report
had not been
made available to the public, and those that had been obtained,
did not have
maps to show voters where their constituency or local
government wards were
situated.
Last week Mugabe was forced to
postpone the day for nominations of
candidates by a week until February 15
as a result of severe infighting in
his party over who would stand as
candidates.
The independent Standard reported Sunday that violence
had broken out
at ruling party primary elections, including one incident
when Finance
Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi had to fire a pistol against angry
opponents who
had stoned his car.
Sapa-dpa
Mail and Guardian
Johannesburg, South Africa
10 February 2008
02:42
In his State of the Nation address on Friday, President
Thabo
Mbeki repeated an all too familiar pattern of legitimising Zimbabwean
elections before they have even taken place, said the Democratic Alliance's
(DA) spokesperson for foreign affairs Tony Leon.
In a
statement on Sunday, Leon said: "On no fewer than three
previous occasions,
the president has gone out of his way to ensure that
elections in Zimbabwe,
which were an affront to even the most basic of
democratic norms and
standards, were declared free and fair.
"Thus, far from
practising quiet diplomacy, he has been actively
complicit in the imposition
of a tyranny and a willing accomplice in the
destruction of democracy in our
northern neighbour."
Leon said that in his address, President
Mbeki claimed that his
mediation efforts on behalf of the Southern African
Development Community
were successful.
"This is simply
pure fiction and helps build the myth that Mbeki
has propagated in the past
that all parties can compete for votes on an
equal footing," said
Leon.
President Mbeki was ignoring the fact that President
Mugabe had
refused to implement any new constitutional amendments before the
March 29
poll, thereby rendering any agreement reached on these issues
irrelevant.
Leon said a free and fair election in Zimbabwe
was impossible
because the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission was staffed by
senior military
personnel who were unwilling to carry out vigorous
voter-education
programmes and were likely to invite only "friendly"
observer missions to
rubber-stamp the elections.
Furthermore, said Leon, the registrar's office, responsible for
compiling
the voters roll, was staffed by Zanu-PF loyalists who undermined
efforts to
register opposition voters and who resisted attempts to verify
the veracity
of the voters' roll.
Leon added that the Delineation
Commission had "gerrymandered
constituency boundaries" to give Zanu-PF an
unfair advantage by increasing
the number of constituencies in Mugabe's
Zanu-PF rural heartland without
Parliamentary input.
He
said that the state retained a broadcast monopoly and was
jamming any
independent radio signals into Zimbabwe.
Also, the judiciary
had been purged of independent voices and
was therefore clearly biased in
favour in the ruling party -- making any
electoral challenge an essentially
fruitless exercise, Leon said.
"Millions of Zimbabweans
living outside their homeland, in South
Africa and elsewhere, have been
disenfranchised. Knowing full well that this
bloc of voters are more likely
to vote for the opposition, no agreement has
yet been reached that will
allow for overseas voting," Leon noted.
Unless President
Mbeki took urgent action, "then his legacy will
be further undermined by his
willingness to stand by while one of our most
important neighbours moves
even closer to the point of political and
economic no-return." --
Sapa
Moneyweb
Simba Makoni is accepting the call of the
people and offering himself as a
candidate for President of
Zimbabwe.
Cathy Buckle
10 Feb 2008 01:05
It's been a long and
dramatic week in politics in Zimbabwe. Things are
changing very fast and
some of the news I relate here may well be out of
date or have altered
completely by the time you read this letter.
The first major development
took place last weekend when the two factions of
the opposition MDC met to
decide if they were going to reunite and stand as
one party in the coming
elections. Despite everything that has happened to
the MDC and their
supporters in the last 8 years including murder, rape,
torture, abduction
and arson, the two factions were not able to agree to
stand together to
fight Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF. As I write it is still not
clear if both
factions will be fielding a Presidential candidate or how many
individuals
they be putting forward for parliament, senate, rural and local
council
seats. I suppose the inability of the two factions to unite has not
come as
a surprise to most Zimbabweans but, regardless of the detail or the
inevitable finger pointing, it is a sad event for Zimbabwe. So many people,
so many sacrifices, such pain - what a shame that in the end, at this most
crucial time, the desperate state of the country could not come
first.
The news of the MDC division had hardly got around when it was
completely
overtaken by the dramatic news of a serious challenge within the
ruling Zanu
PF party. A Presidential challenge no less! Simba Makoni, the ex
Minister of
Finance, long time Zanu PF member and presently sitting on the
Politburo,
addressed a news conference on Tuesday. Saying that he had
consulted widely
and across the board, Mr Makoni said he was accepting the
call of the people
and offering himself as a candidate for President of
Zimbabwe. His short
speech was realistic and down to earth. Simba Makoni
said: " Let me confirm
that I share the agony and anguish of all citizens
over the extreme
hardships that we all have endured for nearly 10 years now.
I also share the
widely held view that these hardships are a result of
failure of national
leadership and that change at that level is a
pre-requisite for change at
other levels of national
endeavour."
Almost as one Zimbabwe drew breath. Naturally the rumours and
speculation
that have followed this historic announcement have almost
overwhelmed us. Is
Simba Makoni expelled from Zanu PF? Is he standing as an
Independent. Has he
got a political party waiting in the wings? Is he a
threat to Mr Mugabe?
Will other senior Zanu PF members now come out in the
open and support Mr
Makoni? Is this the end of Zanu PF as we know it? Is
this going to split the
Zanu PF vote? Will it have an impact on the MDC
vote?
The most pressing question on everyone's lips has been: Is Simba
Makoni
genuine? As each day has passed and the attacks on Simba Makoni by
the State
propaganda have increased to greater heights, they have perhaps
even
answered the question with their own vitriol. In one classic editorial
in
The Herald came the predictable and groaningly familiar blaming of the
West - so insulting to the intelligence of Zimbabweans. The editorial said:
"one does not have to be a seer to see that Simba has just subscribed to
megaphone politics by giving a black face to the voices from the White House
and Whitehall."
In the middle of all of the upheaval came the
announcement that the date for
nominating candidates had been moved back
another week and so, again, we
wait and we watch. Certainly whoever Simba
Makoni represents and whatever
positions the two branches of the MDC take,
the events of this past week may
well have broken the apathy that is
suffocating Zimbabwean voters. I join
the call of others and urge
Zimbabweans, wherever you are and if you are
still on the voters roll to
please come home and vote on the 29th March.
Copyright cathy buckle 9
February 2008 www.cathybuckle.com
zimbabwejournalists.com
10th Feb 2008 18:39 GMT
By Chenjerai Chitsaru
MOST of the
world, it would now seem, spurned the appeal by the youth of the
1960s: make
love, not war. The war in Vietnam and other conflicts around the
world, but
particularly in Asia , were targets.
The United States was involved in
most of them and the slogan - make love,
not war – became the rallying cry
of most young Americans in their protest
against any wars in which their
country was involved.
But, from all the calculations, most of the world
ignored that advice. The
US, now mired in the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars,
decided making love, not
war, was its primary purpose on earth.
Other
countries, including Zimbabwe, decided they would rather make war,
than
love. Like a good number of countries around the world, Zimbabwe is
preparing to celebrate St Valentine’s Day, dedicated to love, not
war.
Yet, with the 29 March elections looming, there is already violence
– war,
albeit on a small scale – before we get to that date. Our elections
have
always featured violence and it doesn’t seem as if this one will be
different.
Incidentally, the one most plausible theory on why people
prefer to make
war, rather than love, is that it requires little
motivation.
The emotional requirement to wage war is far more pedestrian than
that
required to make love. You need anger, even senseless, irrational
anger, to
wage war.
Above all, you need irrational hatred: to kill a
fellow human being, not
necessarily for profit or out of greed, but for the
insane reason that they
may kill you instead.
That, ultimately
doesn’t require much soul-searching. To make love or to be
in love or to
love someone – instead of hating them - involves a tenderness
that is almost
heavenly…just examining it deeply can bring tears to your
eyes and your
heart.
If the world outlawed politics, there would probably be less
conflict in the
world than…love-making. The cynics will argue that love,
particularly
so-called ‘free love’ or ‘deviant love’ introduced HIV/Aids to
the world.
That scourge has killed many people around the world since it
first occurred
in the early 1980s, but there is nowhere the numbers could be
higher than
those of people killed in the two world wars and the other wars
since then.
In Zimbabwe, most of the people killed in
politically-motivated conflicts
may be less proportionately than those
killed by the disease, but the cause
could be related to the lack of
political commitment among politicians.
So, in the end, the politicians
are responsible for more deaths, even if
they are not people killed in
political conflicts.
Yet the truth, which can be gleaned from the pages of
history, beginning
with the murder of Abel by Cain, is that love is a far
more potent tool for
love than war. All this will sound wishy-washy to the
dedicated politician.
It is childish in the context of achieving
political results, even if the
practice of politicians kissing babies is
alleged to improve their image as
‘lovable’ human beings.
In our own
brand of politics, it is the truth which is treated as if it was
something
sinful. Even the voters seem to believe that expecting their
politicians to
stick to their promises is sinful: these people are as
fallible as we are
and lying must come naturally to them, as it does to us,
ordinary, but
God-fearing people who place so much faith in politicians that
we are
prepared to vote for them time and again, although there is scant
evidence
of their ever honouring these promises – since 1980, in our
case.
Zimbabwe needs a new voter, a voter whose vision of a new
politician is
fresh. There are some who believe such a person should not
have been a
member of Zanu PF or a war veteran, during their lifetime. This
is strictly
on the basis that in the last 28 years we have placed our faith,
absolutely,
in such people. Some of our faith in them was misplaced because
they helped
us subdue colonialism, and therefore must be ‘good people’
motivated only
by their mission to make this country a paradise on earth for
ordinary
people, the alleged beneficiaries of their sacrifices during the
war
Unfortunately, the evidence of this is scant, to say the least. Those
supposedly gallant men and women who fought for our independence were each
paid so much money they almost bankrupted this country.
If we thought we
had settled that debt, imagine how wrong we were?
Every year, they demand
an increase in their gratuities and allowances and
are invariably granted
them without too much trouble.
We are permanently indebted to these
people. If it is true that their
sacrifices are incalculable in terms of
their lives, then they must be asked
to calculate what would be a fair,
permanent settlement to pay them off –
so that we can start running our
country without this threat of the war
veterans hanging over our
heads
A new Zimbabwe must belong to the people, not to a few individuals
who treat
every citizen as if their taxes were legitimately the war
veterans’
allowances.
All this must revolve around Zimbabwe’s future
under Zanu PF. Under the
benevolent dictatorship of Robert |Mugabe, Zimbabwe
has little opportunity
of ever unshackling itself from the dominance of a
party which believes,
rightly or wrongly, that it owns the country because
it freed it from
colonialism.
In the 29 March elections, Zimbabweans
must make up their minds, once and
for all: is this country’s future
permanently mortgaged to a party which
preaches hatred against every citizen
who disagrees with it and rules
through fear?
The electoral playing
field is an example of how only hatred, not love,
determines every political
decision of the ruling party. The impediments
placed in the path of the
opposition parties to achieve even a modicum of
success are so enormous they
will be lucky not to lose their candidates’
deposits, in most
cases.
Even Simba Makoni’s amorphous group of ex-Zanu PF adherents may
find the
going so tough they might wish they had not defected.
In the
end, it is only the people who can deliver an unequivocal statement
of
rejection to Zanu PF: it is the love of their country which must drive
them.
They, and not Mugabe and Zanu PF, harbour genuine love for
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and Zanu PF, in hating anybody who disagrees with them,
hate
everything good and noble about this country - its political diversity,
its
ethnic and religious diversity.
They would rather everyone
believed in Mugabe and Zanu PF, only on the basis
that they delivered the
country from colonialism.
This is not a recipe for love among the people, but
only of hatred and war.
IOL
February 10 2008 at 05:42PM
By Jeremy Gordin and Bonile
Ngqiyaza
All but 15 of the 520 alleged illegal immigrants, mainly
from
Zimbabwe, who were detained two weeks ago in a midnight police raid on
Johannesburg's Central Methodist Church, have been released.
The 15 will appear in court on Monday and Tuesday to face charges
related to
the immigration act.
About 141 of the people arrested in the raid
were released from
Johannesburg's central police station after they produced
documents allowing
them to be in South Africa. Another 380 were freed
because they were not
charged within 48 hours. Another group of 15 tried to
get bail last Friday
but had their cases postponed and were sent back to
jail until this week.
Lawyers representing the
Legal Resources Centre (LRC) - headed by
George Bizos SC and including Judge
Johann Kriegler, a former constitutional
court judge - returned in a team to
the magistrate's court this week after
Friday's events, which some advocates
and attorneys described as a "circus".
The presiding magistrate had
said she wanted to move things along so
she could go home to her family; she
had refused to allow the people
applying for bail to waive their right to an
interpreter; and, in some
cases, according to a report received by Janet
Love, the national director
of the LRC, "the magistrate ordered a
postponement [of cases] before the
prosecutor had even asked for one" and
sent people back to jail.
However, Bishop Paul Verryn - whose
church allows refugees with
nowhere to go to sleep on its premises - has
remained extremely angry and
distressed about the police raid.
"The raid was allegedly in response to complaints that robbers were
living
in the church," said Verryn.
"But there was no warning beforehand,
there was no search warrant
produced - it was the like the worst days of
pass raids during the apartheid
era."
Verryn is due to meet
Charles Nqakula, the minister of safety and
security, on Monday and Firoz
Cachalia, the Gauteng MEC for safety and
security, has condemned the alleged
misbehaviour of the police during the
raid, including theft and physical
abuse.
A dreadlocked Zimbabwean musician, who did not want to be
named, woke
up from a deep sleep on the night of the raid and looked
straight into the
blinding torchlight of a policeman.
He said
people were not given a chance to fetch their asylum papers or
documents. He
said the whole group was carted off in trucks to the
Johannesburg central
police station, where it took the whole day for them to
be booked into
cells.
A woman who did not want to be named said some of the
policemen had
demanded bribes and made passes at some of the
women.
This article was originally published on page 2 of
Sunday Independent
on February 10, 2008
Mmegi, Botswana
JOHN
CHURU
CORRESPONDENT
The mere thought of going to have one's days
extended at the Department of
Immigration offices in Botswana sours the day
for most Zimbabweans visiting
the country.
Ask any Zimbabwean
on the Gaborone or Francistown streets. The visit to the
immigration offices
is as irksome as a visit to the dentist. I Friday, the
immigrants say, is
the busiest. Most of the Zimbabweans' days expire either
on that particular
Friday, or that weekend.
At the Gaborone district immigration offices
near the main bus rank the
atmosphere is hectic. Just as you get up the
flyover bridge, you are
confronted by a group of 'consultants' eager to make
a quick buck from the
desperate immigrants.
"Bona, eh, eh you don't
need an application letter," they all hum in a
cacophony with deliberately
confusing voices. "Brother, eh baba, tora tsamba
iyi," one Motswana woman
says in Shona.
Most of the consultants at these immigration offices now
speak a bit of
either Shona or Ndebele. They conjure up all the tricks in
the book to get
as many Zimbabweans to buy their application letters, which
the immigration
officials insist are a prerequisite for one to be attended
to.
The contents of these application letters are very similar. On the
form, the
applicants would claim that a relative had left them because he
had to go
for a job outside the city and so he can only go back to Zimbabwe
when the
uncle returns.
The applicants arrange themselves in two
queues, one for women and the other
for men. Whether it is an immigration
requirement no one knows, but the
order has to be strictly adhered to. Even
the security guard controlling the
queues has a measure of respect for this
unwritten law. Here and there, the
Zimbabweans speak in muffled tones about
events back home, but they
constantly cast glances at the man in charge in
case he is allowing a group
to go in.
Most of the applicants wait
with baited breath. "These immigration officers
are just hard to please. We
are given the number of days that we don't need
at all," says Fanuel
Toro.
The general feeling, is that in most cases applicants who need a few
days,
can end up getting more. "So you go to the counter at your own peril,"
Toro
adds sorrowfully.
As the queue snails towards the "dreaded"
counter, more tales waft in the
air as those who had been there before
recount their grand ordeals. One
gentleman, Simon Kamudiza recalls
dejectedly: "One day I came here with
Lina, my wife of 17 years. My wife
cuts a slender figure. When we got to the
counter, the immigration officer
said the passport was not hers and she
should take it back to her older
sister, the rightful owner. "She tried to
explain to the officers that she
was even a mother to a daughter who was
doing Form Three. They wouldn't buy
her defence and ended up giving her only
two days to leave the country. It
was the worst day for me because we had
actually planned to do a lot and we
wanted more days. These officers are
giving us hell," he lamented. Many also
leave the offices weeping because
they would have been told that their
reasons for remaining in Botswana
"don't hold much water". There are others
who flock to the offices with
their Batswana "bosses" under the pretext that
they are in-laws on a visit.
The most affected are those whose days are over
the maximum 90 days who
still want to be in the country all the
same.
These will then seek the intervention of the consultants who plead
on their
behalf.
To do so the consultant have to be palm-greased with
not less than P150. It
is the general myth that these so-called consultants
share part of the
spoils with the immigration officers. An attempt to verify
this was quashed
by the officers. And the consultants are many; at least
25.
Others, like "Shortie", are from Zimbabwe. Most of these consultants
look
like the type who pelted their teachers with stones using catapults
during
school days. "You see," retorts another Zimbabwean, "we have now
created
employment for these local people. We want them to also have a
percentage of
our countrymen in the trade just like they demand of us when
we work in this
country for Batswana. They insist that there must be a
local," he says amid
laughter from those in the queue. As I wander up and
down the railway line
near the offices, an old man approaches me.
He
pleads with me to buy his letter. I ask him what he charges for the
letter
and he tells me that it is only P2 for a completed form and only P1
for a
blank one. Most of those who come to the immigration offices do not
have an
idea of the unwritten requirement to complete the application
letters
first.
So they have no choice but to buy the papers or letters.
Ironically, as most
complain, the immigration officers do not have the time
to read the letters,
so whatever you write on the letter does not protect
one from the officers'
whims or wrath.
The criterion they use to
reject or accept an application is a matter of
conjecture. In an article
called 'Colour at the crossing', Garry Younge says
"Politics once kept
people in, now economics keeps them out".
For the wealthy, however, it is
a different matter, he says. Officers have
learnt to no longer ask a
well-travelled American businessman how much money
he has brought with him
or for details of his bank balance.
"So the man most likely to steal your
pension walks through without a word,
while the one likely to flip your
bugger or clean your house hugs the bottom
of trains because legitimate
means of entry are barred". So much for global
citizenship.
(Sila Press
Agency)