Statement By MDC President
Morgan Tsvangirai on allegations that he plotted to eliminate President
Mugabe.
I would like to reiterate that neither myself nor the MDC
has ever taken part in any conspiracy to assassinate President Mugabe nor do we
have any desire to do so. We believe in the democratic electoral process and
that a change of government is delivered peacefully through people exercising
their democratic rights via the ballot box.With regards to the allegations being
leveled against myself and the MDC, in addition to the statement released
yesterday, I would like to clarify the following:
1. The MDC was approached by Dickens and Madson, a Montreal
based political consultancy, which said that it wanted to help build the MDC’s
image abroad, in particular in North America where Mugabe was said to be winning
the propaganda war through the work of Cohen and Woods, a political consultancy
which according to Dickens and Madson was paid the sum of US$5m for the purpose
of repairing Zanu PF’s image.
2. Dickens and Madson approached the MDC through a gentleman
called Rupert Johnson who came through Renson Gasela, MDC Shadow minister for
Agriculture. The two had known each other during the days when Renson Gasela was
the general manager of the Zimbabwe’s Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and Rupert
Johnson was a commercial trader based in South Africa.
3. The initiative to engage this political consultancy was
not an MDC initiative. The MDC was approached by Dickens and Madson.
4.Pursuant to Dickens and Madson’s approach to the MDC, a
total of four meetings were held with the consultancy. At the very first meeting
Mr. Ari Ben-Menashe introduced himself and went on to say that the group wanted
to help MDC on the communications front. He went on to explain that two years
ago the group had been hired by the Clinton administration to negotiate an exit
package for President Mugabe who initially accepted the package but susequenly
reneged on the agreement before the parliamentary elections.
5. There were three subsequent meetings held after the first
meeting. A total of four meetings were held. During the first three meetings,
there was no mention of elimination or assassination of President Mugabe by
Dickens and Madson. The meetings centred on the need to bridge the
communications gap abroad, mainly in North
America, in
order to counter Zanu PF’s propaganda war. At no stage, during the first
three meetings was the issue of elimination or assassination ever
discussed.
6. The allegation by Dickens and Madson that the MDC had
conceded that it had no confidence in winning the forthcoming presidential
election in Zimbabwe because of the land issue is blatantly false.
It was in fact Dickens and Madson who produced a series of
poll surveys suggesting that the MDC was going to win the forthcoming
presidential election by a landslide majority.
7. At the fourth meeting, Mr Menashe kept on deviating from
the issues discussed previously. He and his team raised the issue of elimination
and kept on asking strange questions. It was this stage that I became suspicious
of the motives of the Dickens and Madson representatives and walked out of the
meeting. Dickens and Madson do not dispute the fact that I walked out of their
meeting when I became disturbed by the approach they were taking in this
meeting.
8. After the fourth meeting I briefed my colleagues about
the suspicious conduct of Dickens and Madson at the last meeting. We then
carried out research to ascertain the background and possible motive of the Mr
Ben-Menashe and his company in initiating dialogue with us.
9. We established that Mr Menashe had actually written a
book on dirty political tricks and that he had been hired by the Zanu government
to set up the MDC under the guise that they wanted to be engaged as MDC
political consultants. It was also established that from day one, the group had
been working with Mr Nicholas Goche, Zimbabwe’s Minister of National Security
and Mr George Charamba, the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Information
and Publicity in the President’s Office.
10. When these facts became known to the party, the MDC cut
off all communication in December 2001.
The MDC remains committed to peaceful and constitutional
change of government as evidenced by the fact that the party will contest the
forthcoming presidential election, which it is confident of winning. We
therefore remain focused on our campaign programme and will not be diverted by
side issues.
Morgan Tsvangirai
Harare, 14 February 2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Further
Information Please Contact:
Learnmore Jongwe (Head
of Information): 00 263 91 240029
Nkanyiso Maqueda: 00
263 91 248 570
James Littleton: 00 44
7771 501 401
Daily News - Leader Page
Search for a President of the new
millennium
2/14/02 6:19:37 AM (GMT +2)
THE job of an
African president is not a picnic. There is virtually no
honeymoon, for the
urgency of tackling the pervasive poverty leaves very
little time for golf or
shopping on the Internet.
This is assuming the president has
noble principles and is determined to
fulfil his promises to the people to
improve their lives the moment he takes
office. If he is nonchalant about
keeping those promises, he could end up
with a bullet in his head, the victim
of a military coup. Or he could lose
his job in a free and fair election
forced upon him by the people.
Or he could flee to a foreign country,
tail between his legs, after
discovering that his people intend to string him
up from the nearest tree
unless he explains what happened to the billions of
dollars they expected to
be used to build hospitals, schools and
roads.
Or why so many unarmed people were killed as he struggled to
maintain his
grip on power against the will of the people. In Africa, many
presidents
have ended their careers that way. This has resulted in a serious
slowdown
of development of the countries.
There are many examples -
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Rwanda,
Burundi, Algeria, the
Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, to name a
few.
In
Zimbabwe, as we draw nearer to the presidential election, one candidate
has
insisted he is not clinging to power, but is determined to finish what
he
started.
Another candidate says he will only serve a single term in
office. President
Mugabe has been at the helm for 22 years. What he says he
wants to complete
is his much-vaunted and much-criticised land reform
programme.
A report by the United Nations Development Programme on how
the programme
has fared so far makes very depressing reading: the government
has not kept
its promises.
At the launch of the programme, many people
were killed, most of them
needlessly. Women were raped and many people left
homeless. This is an
unforgettable legacy. Many who were victims or whose
loved ones were
victims of the invasions are unlikely to vote for the party
which condoned
the terrorism.
What Mugabe says about remaining in
office until the land reform is
completed suggests he has no confidence in
any of his colleagues to bring
the programme to its logical
conclusion.
So he, at the age of 78, is determined to hang on until he is
rewarded with
success. If he wins the election, he will theoretically hang on
until he is
84 years old.
For Zanu PF, led by Mugabe since the
ouster of Ndabaningi Sithole in 1975,
there may be nothing painful about
this. But for the country and for the
tens of thousands of young people who
hope for real change, this will be a
bitter disappointment.
Instead of
a leader imbued with the go-getting spirit of the new millennium,
they will
be lumbered for six more years with this old man who has been at
the helm
since independence.
Tsvangirai, at 50 years old, says he would happily
serve just one term. If
he won the election, that apparently would be victory
enough for him. He
will have succeeded in achieving the change that his party
has been
promising the people since its inception in 1999.
With Mugabe
at the helm once more, there can be no realistic hope for a
change of
direction. We may expect to see feverish attempts to justify the
bloodshed
which heralded the land reform programme.
Ironically, all this could
translate into more violence. After all, Mugabe
began the programme with
violence. He might have to finish it off with more
violence. Could he be the
ideal man for the new millennium?
Daily News
Mugabe vows to take more land
2/14/02 6:18:48 AM (GMT
+2)
From Zerubabel Mudzingwa in Zvishavane
President Mugabe
yesterday said he will continue taking over land despite
threats of sanctions
by the European Union, led by Britain.
He was addressing a crowd
of about 25 000 at Maglas Stadium. Most of the
people who came for the rally
were bussed from Chirumanzi, Masvingo and
Shurugwi. Mugabe donated $30 000 to
Mapanzure School in Zvishavane, where he
taught in 1944.
“I am black
and my way shall always be linked to the armed struggle,
therefore I will not
change,” he said, hitting back at the MDC slogan. Grace
Mugabe, the First
Lady, donated six sewing machines to women’s
co-operatives.
Mugabe was
accompanied by senior Zanu PF officials, Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Cephas Msipa,
Elliot Manyika, Josaya Hungwe, Olivia Muchena and Saviour
Kasukuwere.
Earlier, Mugabe addressed a rally at Mataga, Mberengwa, where he
pledged food
to the starving villagers
Daily News
MDC denies plotting coup
2/14/02 5:51:56 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff Reporter/Reuter
THE MDC yesterday strongly denied
allegations made in a documentary, that
its leader discussed a plot to kill
President Mugabe.
An Australian network yesterday broadcast a
video it said showed Zimbabwe’s
main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
discussing a plot allegedly to
assassinate Mugabe.
The Dateline
programme on Australia’s government-funded Special Broadcasting
Service (SBS)
broadcast a surveillance videotape of what it said was a
meeting in Montreal
on 4 December.
The identity of those at the meeting is not clear from the
tape, but one
speaker addresses a black man across the table as Tsvangirai,
the president
of the MDC.
Dateline said a political consultancy firm
had confirmed two of its partners
were at the meeting, along with Tsvangirai.
In the video, one of the
consultancy partners says: “The MDC represented by
the top man who’s sitting
here right now commits to let’s call it
whatever
you want to call it, the coup d’etat or the elimination of the
President.
“Okay, Mr Mugabe is eliminated. Now what? Are you in a
position basically to
ensure a smooth transition of power?” The man across
the table, said to be
Tsvangirai, replies: “Yes, I’ve no
doubt about
it.”
In a separate interview with Dateline in Harare in January,
Tsvangirai is
asked: “Has there been discussion to assassinate Mugabe?” “Why
should we?”
he says. “He is a 78-year-old man. Crazy as he is, but we have no
reason
whatsoever to make any harm to him. That is why we are
committed to
the election process.”
Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC secretary for
information and publicity, said in a
statement last night: “Tsvangirai has
never taken part in any assassination
conspiracy. Tsvangirai believes that
the video programme is part of a dirty
smear campaign by the ruling Zanu PF
government against him. It is revealed
during the course of the programme
that Dickens and Madison, a
Montreal-based political consultancy, now work
for the Mugabe regime.
“The false allegations that Tsvangirai discussed
assassination seem to arise
from Dickens and Madison.” He also questioned how
the Australian TV company,
SBS, was allowed into the country and interviewed
Mugabe when Zimbabwe
banned Australian election observers.
“The
documentary in question has not yet been made available to us and we
have not
seen its exact contents. This assassination story is similar to
other stories
that have been run both inside and outside the country at the
instigation,
involvement and political machinations of the ruling party.
“Some of the
stories in this category include allegations that the MDC is
planning war in
Zimbabwe, the party has assured the British government that
David Coltart, an
MP, will be appointed the country’s Vice-President if the
MDC wins the
election and that the MDC was behind South Africa’s biggest
robbery
recently.”
He said while Tsvangirai finds it objectionable to dignify
these unwarranted
allegations by commenting on them, the point has to be made
that he has no
plan, desire or motive to eliminate Mugabe.
“Tsvangirai
believes in a peaceful and constitutional transfer of power
through the
ballot box. It was for this reason that the MDC nominated him to
stand as the
party candidate in the forthcoming presidential election,”
Jongwe said in a
statement.
Tsvangirai was held briefly at Harare International Airport on
Tuesday after
being accused of using false travel documents, Jongwe said
yesterday. “Mr
Tsvangirai was held for 20 minutes at the airport by State
agents. They said
he had lost his passport and was using a false travel
document, but they
found that he did have his passport and let him go,”
Jongwe said.
(Dickens and Madson are the Canadian political consultants who provided
the
"evidence" to SBS.)
........... copied off a
message board.............
"The Canadian company, Dickens & Madson, are paid by
Zanu PF to lobby for them overseas. The company is headed by a sleazy
Iranian, implicated in all sorts of dodgy things, including arms dealing. He
has links with SBS (the Aus Government subsidised "voice of multicultural
Australia").
When SBS came to Zim last year, they were given red carpet
treatment by the government, and fully acreddited (when all other foreign
journalists were being chased out of here) I think it is a disgrace that this
hogwash can be shown on Aus TV, and it is sad that there are people out there
gullible enough to believe it!"
News24
Rand should rise if Mugabe falls
Johan du
Toit
Related Articles
'Zim could influence Nepad'
Cape Town -
If the election in Zimbabwe is peaceful and President Robert
Mugabe is
removed from office, the rand could strengthen to R10 to the
dollar by the
end of the year, Zurich Re's chief economist David Hale said
on
Thursday.
Hale was presenting an overview of prospects for Africa and the
world
economy at the annual Indaba 2002 Africa mining investment
conference.
According to Hale, Morgan Stanley's latest forecast is that
the rand could
stabilise at R14 to the dollar this year.
But Hale said
if the election in Zimbabwe is not free and fair and Mugabe
remains in power
unfairly, the G8 countries will definitely implement
sanctions against the
country.
"He (Mugabe) will not be welcome in any of these countries, and
he and
senior members of his Zanu-PF party will not even be able to fly there
to do
their shopping," Hale said.
What happens in Zimbabwe during and
after the election will definitely have
an effect on the economy of the
Southern African region, and if things go
wrong there it will have a further
negative impact on investor sentiment,
Hale said.
He said the central
question is of course what South Africa is going to do
and how determined
President Thabo Mbeki will be to take a stand on Mugabe.
"Mugabe's
presence is throwing a shadow over the whole Southern African
region," he
said.
According to Hale, foreign direct investment in Africa has
gradually fallen
over the past two decades. In 1980 Africa's share was about
13%, in 1990 it
was 14%, and in 1999 it was down to 7.6%.
"Capital
flow to developing countries also fell, as did expenditure on
mining and
exploration. The most important reason for this is the lack of
political
stability. Mining nevertheless remains the backbone of a large
number of
African countries."
The good news is that the US economy may lift its
head this year after the
downturn in the past year. Hale says there are
already encouraging signs of
a recovery, and he predicts a growth rate of
between 2% and 3%.
Further encouraging news for Africa is that South
Africa and the US may soon
sign the free trade agreement which will boost the
economy of the Southern
African region.
"The events in Zimbabwe will
play an important role in the short term in the
level of confidence investors
have in the region," Hale concluded.
Catholic News
Zimbabwe's Jesuits offer sanctuary to those trying to
escape violence
Jesuits working in Zimbabwe promised to turn their
churches into safe havens
to offer sanctuary to anyone trying to escape the
mounting political
violence in the country.
The 194 members of the
Zimbabwean Jesuit province, which includes 35
Britons, unanimously agreed on
two statements to condemn the state-sponsored
violence in the run-up to
Zimbabwe's presidential elections in March,
reported the London-based
newspaper The Catholic Herald.
The first statement makes the sanctuary
offer, while the second attacks the
government's political indoctrination and
manipulation of Zimbabwe's youth
and warns of civil war.
In the 9-10
March election, Robert Mugabe, a Jesuit-educated Catholic who
has ruled
Zimbabwe since it won independence from Britain in 1980, is
running for
re-election.
The Independent (UK)
'Independent' reporter forced to flee Zimbabwe after
smear campaign
By Leonard Doyle, Foreign Editor
15 February
2002
The Independent's Zimbabwe correspondent Basildon Peta fled the country
last
night fearing for his life, after a unprecedented campaign of
vilification
in the state-controlled media. The attacks reached a peak when
Zimbabwe's
national television news led its evening bulletin with a smear
based on an
erroneous front-page article in The Times in London on
Tuesday.
That inaccurate allegation, dropped in subsequent editions,
claimed Mr Peta
admitted to the paper that he fabricated a report about his
arrest and
incarceration last week. The Times' account – seized on by
Zimbabwe's state
print media – led to extraordinary claims on TV that Mr
Peta's article
caused a drop in the value of the South African rand and was
responsible for
a collapse in tourism bookings into Zimbabwe. The credibility
of the Harare
newspaper for which he worked as an award-winning journalist,
was also
attacked. As a result, Mr Peta left the Financial Gazette, an
independent
newspaper critical of President Robert Mugabe, taking an evening
flight out
of the country to join his wife and young child already in
exile.
Mr Peta, who is secretary general of Zimbabwe's Union of
Journalists has
been threatened with death. Last year his name appeared at
the top of a
security service hit list of enemies of the state to be
eliminated or put
out of the way before the national elections in three
weeks.
The editor-in-chief of the Financial Gazette, Francis Mdlongwa
last night
described Mr Peta "an outstanding journalist". He said he had
every
confidence in him, [and] 'I will welcome [him] back when the dust
has
settled. He added: "I advised [Mr Peta] to take the first flight out.
There
are too many forces that want to hurt him. The important thing is that
he
was arrested, but now our detractors are seizing on small aspects of
the
story to make mischief." Mr Mdlongwa said the erroneous account in The
Times
made the situation far worse.
In The Independent Mr Peta left
out the fact that detectives accompanied him
home in the middle of the night
to pick up medication for his ulcers. He
returned to the police station at
3am and later that day all charges against
him were dropped. He promised not
to reveal this act of kindness to protect
the detectives who had been ordered
to ill-treat him.
Mr Peta's troubles began when reporters in Johannesburg
and London picked up
on a whispering campaign by the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (Misa).
They accepted Misa's statement that he spent less
than five hours in
custody, rather than the 15 hours he actually spent in the
foul-smelling
police cell.
Although reports in the British press
changed when MISA substantially
corrected its original allegations, Harare
clung to the Times first-edition
account, written from Johannesburg and in
London.
Mr Peta said: "There has been a big attempt to try to destroy me
completely.
I will go back as soon as I feel it is safe, possibly before the
election."
The Times
Zimbabwe hints at compromise over EU observers
From Jan
Raath in Harare
SOUTH Africa attempted to mediate yesterday in
the three-day deadlock
between the Zimbabwean Government and the European
Union over official
status for all of the EU’s observers to next month’s
presidential elections.
“Our country and other countries in the Southern
African Development
Community (the 14-nation regional economic bloc) are
addressing that issue
at the highest level,” Sam Motsoenyane, a former
diplomat and the head of
the South African observer mission, said when he
arrived in Zimbabwe
yesterday.
He did not give any details of the
initiative, but said that he believed
that “a credible election in Zimbabwe
is still possible”.
There is growing anxiety among the opposition and
human rights organisations
that with 24 days left before voting starts,
state-driven violence is
continuing and not one international observer has
been deployed.
Also yesterday, Zimbabwe’s state-controlled press hinted
at a concession by
President Mugabe’s Government when it said that observers
who were refused
official status would not be hindered in their duties,
except to be excluded
from polling stations on the voting days on March 9 and
10.
Zimbabwe has refused to regard observers from Britain, Denmark,
Finland,
Germany and Sweden as anything more than tourists. This includes
Pierre
Schori, the Swedish diplomat chosen by the EU to head its 150-strong
team of
officials. However, nearly all of the 30 observers to have arrived in
the
country so far are from the other nine EU countries, which have
received
official invitations.
“Those tourists who have a passion for
watching elections are just as
welcome as those who want to look at
elephants,” said an editorial in the
state-controlled Herald newspaper, which
is a sure guide to state thinking.
“So any tourist who wants to see what goes
on in Zimbabwe at election time
can do so. The only place they cannot enter
are the actual polling stations
and counting halls, but if they want to stand
outside a polling station,
they can, just as they can stand at a game
platform and watch elephants.”
The EU mission is taking the suggestion
seriously. Stefan Amer, the EU
spokesman, said that the mission’s intention
was still to have all its final
tally of 160 observers accredited, although
the newspaper’s statement was “a
postive line”. “But we need to have official
clarification,” Mr Amer added.
“The main question is their security,”
Francesca Mosca, the EU’s
representative in Harare, said. “Certainly, if we
are able to deploy them
under reasonable security conditions we are going to
do so.”
The EU observers are undergoing training and the mission wants to
deploy
them on Friday.
EU diplomats said privately that the mission
would be prepared to compromise
on the status of a proportion of its
officials “however flawed the election
may be”.
Heads of observer
missions in Harare had agreed “that our presence would
give people confidence
to vote according to their wishes, and deter people
who want to rig the
results”, one said.
Booksellers Industry Faces Collapse
The Herald (Harare)
February
14, 2002
Posted to the web February 14, 2002
Stewart
Muchapera
The booksellers' industry faces collapse following the
closure of shop by
most booksellers owing largely to the tough economic
environment.
A series of closures and streamlining of operations has hit
the once vibrant
sector.
The downtrend in the industry began to
manifest itself in 1999 when 59
booksellers closed shop in a space of six
months following escalating
operational costs and a stalemate between
publishers and booksellers over
discount percentages.
The booksellers
later successfully negotiated for a review of the discount
that was being
offered by the publishers, which was pegged at 25 percent.
In an
interview, the chairman of National Booksellers Association, Mr
Alex
Mashamhanda confirmed that the industry was going through a lean spell
and
close to 48 booksellers have closed shop in the past three
months.
"The industry has been hit like anyone else and this has been
worsened by
the sky-rocketing distribution costs," said Mr
Mashamhanda
The association has a membership of 160 predominantly
indigenous
entrepreneurs, employing over 5 000 people.
Spiralling
production costs of textbooks has pushed the retail price of the
books beyond
the cost of most schools whose funding has been strained
because of other
costs incurred in running the schools.
Already publishers are mooting
ideas to print the textbooks on newsprint and
not on bond paper to cut
costs.
"We are looking at the idea of printing textbooks on newsprint and
not bond
paper as had been the norm but we are worried by the fast wear and
tear of
the material," said one official with a leading book
publisher.
The sector has been exposed to exorbitant foreign exchanges on
the parallel
market to source the bond paper, which is mainly imported from
South Africa.
One reel of bond paper cost between $1500 and
$2500.
A reel has 500 sheets, which use to cost between $250 and
$500.
Films used to make the plates and ink for printing are now five
times higher
than February last year.
Despite newsprint being cheaper
than bond paper it has also increased fast
than inflation in the past
year.
A tonne of newsprint was pegged at $49 640 at the beginning of last
year and
the same tonnage closed at $131 354 in December
2001.
Exercise book manufacturers have struggled to contain the
production costs
eventually passing it on to retailers who in turn passed it
on to the
schools whose budgets are already strained.
This has seen a
substantial decrease in the revenue of the booksellers, as
they are heavily
dependent on the sale of exercise books to recoup on the
minimum earnings
from textbook sales.
The wholesale price of exercise books is pegged at
$22 and $16 for an A4 and
A5 respectively.
"Our lifeblood was the sale
of the exercise books which has been under
severe strain from ever increasing
prices of newsprint and considering that
most schools budgets are already
overstretched most operators are going to
close shop," said Mr
Mashamhanda.
He added that his association had to bear the brunt of the
high distribution
costs, as 75 percent of its market was predominantly
rural.
"Because our market is mainly rural we have to incur extreme costs
because
of the distribution considering that we have to purchase fuel and
expensive
parts," he said.
He however called on the Government to set
up incentives so as to save the
industry from collapse.
Daily News - Leader Page
What will happen if Zanu PF wins
presidential poll?
2/14/02 6:22:56 AM (GMT +2)
Dumisani O.
Nkomo
JUST the other day, a thought, which filled me with fear and
trepidation,
crossed my mind: What if Zanu PF wins the presidential
election?
Under normal circumstances such an analysis would
require one to give the
contesting parties a fair chance of winning. If the
situation were normal in
Zimbabwe pundits of democracy would be saying
regardless of who wins the
election, democracy would have
won.
Tragically the country has slid into some form of “theatre for the
absurd”
and it has become extremely tragic to surrender the destiny of this
country
to any party, especially Zanu PF who seem to be obsessed with the
past and
want the rest of us to share their nostalgia.
I am
prompted to make these strong sentiments by the ruling party’s
consistent
commitment to terrorising of its own people through repressive
State
apparatus such as law enforcement agencies - or is it lawlessness
enforcement
agencies - and a plethora of repressive laws which reduce people
to
“trespassers” in their own land.
Zanu PF has had two decades to prove
itself and for many Zimbabweans these
20 years have turned from euphoria to
utter despondency. Ten years ago it
was difficult to find relish for our
sadza, but now it is difficult to find
sadza for no relish.
Many young
people will never own houses. The dream of housing for all has
become an
endless nightmare.This nightmare has been perpetuated by a
shockingly
underperforming economy. If the truth be told, Zanu PF will be
judged by
history - a history that acknowledges their role in liberating the
country,
but which condemns them for reducing the country to a nation
of
paupers.
Whether the Zanu PF government has been solely to blame
for these problems
is a totally different question and possibly the subject
of an entirely
different discourse. The bare, naked truth is that Zanu PF has
presided over
this orgy of economic genocide and political
haemorrhage.
This being the case, I will then proceed with a diagnosis of
the current
situation and after (hopefully) a prognosis of the situation, or
the
situation that will obtain if Zanu PF wins the election.
Firstly,
I will elaborate on the political implications of a Zanu PF-Mugabe
victory.
Even if Zanu PF won, they would have won through a fraudulent
electoral
process that gives the ruling party an unfair advantage.
Laws such as the
Public Order and Security Act and the General Laws
Amendment Act discredit
the entire electoral process because of their
undemocratic and unjust
content.
These laws violate fundamental rights such as freedom of
association,
assembly, expression and movement. They are a brutal affront and
assault to
and on the fundamental human rights enshrined in the
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
In March the Zanu PF government will have to
answer to the Commonwealth
about these legalised violations of human rights.
The question which emerges
from this analysis is whether the European Union
(EU) and the rest of the
international community will recognise a Zanu PF
victory attained through a
fraudulent electoral process.
Already the
EU has expressed the desirability of smart sanctions against
Zimbabwe as a
result of the government’s failure to meet the basic
requirements of the
Brussels talks. If Zanu PF wins it will face a
multi-dimensional
crisis.
This will be in the form of political legitimacy, credibility and
morality
of a Zanu PF government which has ostracised itself from the rest of
the
world.
In terms of political legitimacy, Zanu PF is likely to get
most of its votes
from the rural areas, hence reference to it as a “rural
party” as opposed to
the ruling party. This means that though on paper they
will be running the
whole country, they would have no political legitimacy in
the urban areas
which are largely the seats of decision-making.
If
Zanu PF wins, it will also face another political crisis - that of
moral
authority. I am convinced that the current government does not have a
grain
of moral authority to govern the nation effectively for another
term.
A government with no moral authority is unlikely to receive
support, let
alone sympathy, from vital national institutions such as the
Church and
civic groups.
Any government which alienates itself from
these institutions will not
survive for long because these constitute the
moral voice of the nation.
Without their active, positive voice and
collaboration, things will fall
apart.
Most importantly, a Zanu PF
victory will have serious economic consequences.
Already inflation is at a
record of 112 percent and unemployment at almost
50 percent, while the
economy registered a negative growth of about minus 8
percent.
These
are sure indicators that the government is unable to initiate and
sustain
economic recovery. Part of the problem is lack of confidence in
the
government from the business community who have been affected by
arbitrary
decision-making, lack of respect of property rights, and
lawlessness.
No investor would consider investing in Zimbabwe under the
current political
environment. The government has shown that it is neither
able nor willing to
create an atmosphere conducive to investment which will
result in economic
growth, which will translate into employment
creation.
As long as the same faces are back in government after March,
prospects of
Zimbabwe attracting both direct foreign and domestic investment
range from
“slim to none”.
The international community will continue
to isolate Zimbabwe economically
since the government will retain its
“impressive” collection of repressive
laws which affect good governance and
fundamental human rights.
The government might then respond with populist
interventionist policies
such as price controls and subsidies. These will
result in companies closing
down because of increasing production costs.
Unemployment will increase
further, resulting in more people having less
disposable income.
This will inevitably affect the commercial sector
which might be forced to
cut down on production and, subsequently, labour.
The end result will be an
economic crisis of unimaginable proportions. If
this situation obtains,
there are likely to be a couple of
scenarios.
Firstly, Zimbabweans will leave the country en masse as economic
refugees.
Secondly, thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans who at this time will
have
nothing to lose, will take to the streets out of frustration and
anger.
They will not ever require to be organised by any political party,
because
the people themselves would have decided to take the destiny of the
country
into their own hands.
Maybe Zanu PF will reform after the
election. All the violence and mayhem
might be part of their Machiavellian
election strategy. They could turn
around and offer to engage Britain and
other “evil imperialistic powers” in
dialogue.
Sadly, this scenario is
neither realistic nor possible because the Zanu PF
has made too many enemies
on its path to retaining political power. I do not
think the people of
Zimbabwe will forget the trauma of 22 years of Zanu PF
rule. One day they
will say “enough is enough”.
Daily News - Feature
Mining town of Hwange enjoying peace amid the
violence
2/14/02 5:47:22 AM (GMT +2)
From Chris Gande in
Hwange
POLITICAL maturity and tolerance which pervades the coal-mining
town of
Hwange, about 300 kilometres north of Bulawayo, is in sharp contrast
to the
volatile situation elsewhere in the country.
Just walk
into Jabulani Tavern, which is a favourite watering hole for the
mine
labourers and other workers, and see how a group of MDC supporters can
drink
opaque beer while their party’s flag is hoisted near them.
Just a few
metres from the men, a few women with T-shirts emblazoned with
the words
Hondo Yeminda sing Zanu PF songs and clap their hands,
interspersing the
raucous singing with sips of the traditional brew.
Occasionally, the MDC
youths point at the women, ridiculing them and
bursting into boisterous
laughter.
The scene resembles two rival groups of supporters of opposing
football
teams, not two political parties whose rivalry has led to bloodshed.
About
100 people throughout the country have died since the 2000
parliamentary
election last June. How many more lives will the presidential
election due
next month claim?
None of those who have been killed in
the name of politics are from Hwange,
nor do any of the thousands of others
who have been flogged, bludgeoned or
brutally assaulted by marauding ruling
party youths, stay in the mining
town.
Hundred kilometres from Hwange,
the town of Victoria Falls, is caught up in
a different political scenario.
The tension and mayhem that has gripped
Victoria Falls, a premier tourist
destination, epitomises what has become
the order of the day in most parts of
the country.
Hwange has an estimated population of 80 000 people, of whom
about 35 000
are registered voters. cThe people in this town are united,”
says Jairos
Sibanda, a resident. “We are surprised when we hear reports of
people
beating each other up or killing each other, all because they belong
to
different political parties.”
He said at the end of the day it was
unwise for people to fight for
political leaders who forget about them in the
comfort of their palatial
homes.
As in other parts of Matabeleland,
the opposition MDC rules the roost here.
The people have been united by the
devastating drought in this semi-arid
region which has low rainfall and
infertile sandy soils.
The people of Hwange are blaming Zanu PF for the
hunger they are facing
because they believe that the marginalisation of the
area has much to do
with the grinding poverty.
Apart from the coal
mine, most people in Hwange rely on tourism to raise
money for their
livelihood. However, tourism in the area is in the throes of
its worst
decline since independence because of the country’s negative image
abroad.
Tourists have stopped coming. “Where is the maize-meal?” has become
the
slogan, rather than Zanu PF’s Hondo Yeminda because people in Hwange
town
have not benefited from the land reform programme.
The Hwange National
Game Park takes up a large chunk of land in the area. A
few lucky Zanu PF
supporters have been resettled on infertile land suitable
only for
establishing expensive safari ventures.
Shadreck Sibanda, a resident,
said people in the Matabeleland province had
matured politically since the
days of the Gukurahundi disturbances of the
early 1980s.
Thousands
were killed by the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade. Sibanda said:
“We would
rather talk about where to get food from than worry about
politics. Yes, we
can talk about who is going to win the presidential
election but we don’t
need to fight and kill each other because of our
divergent political
convictions.”
He said the community in Hwange was so closely knit that
they knew that
fighting each other would be as good as fighting their
neighbours or
relatives. The population of Hwange, which is predominantly
Nambya, has a
mixture of Shona, Ndebele and people of Malawian and Zambian
descent.
Peter Nyoni, the Member of Parliament for Hwange East, which
encompasses
Victoria Falls and surrounding areas, said Zanu PF was trying to
make
campaigning difficult for the MDC in the constituency.
He said
the level of intolerance in Victoria Falls was higher than that of
nearby
Hwange town. The people in Hwange town said they have made up their
minds who
to vote for in the presidential election.
Said Joseph Phiri: “There is
nothing that will change the people from voting
for the party which they
want. Zanu PF knows that no matter how much they
beat the people, they will
never vote for the ruling party.
“That is why political hooligans have
failed to shatter the peace in this
town.”
Daily News
Poet banned from schools
2/14/02 7:20:11 PM (GMT
+2)
Staff Reporter
THE Ministry of Education, Sports and
Culture has banned a popular
Australian poet, Michael Darby, from performing
in local schools.
On 5 February, soon after arriving in Harare,
Darby contacted the deputy
headmaster of Mount Pleasant High School and
offered to perform traditional
Australian poetry for the students.
He
was advised that he should seek permission from the Regional Director
of
Education, Bessie Nhandara. Darby was asked to put the request in
writing,
and told that a decision would be made by Thompson Tsodzo, the
ministry’s
Permanent Secretary.
On 6 February, Darby said he was
surprised to receive a letter turning down
his request and the planned
performance at Mount Pleasant was cancelled.
“The official attitude is very
different from the warm and friendly welcome
which I have received from
Zimbabweans of all walks of life, from the first
visa officer whom I met at
the airport to the staff at Internet cafes and
the taxi drivers of
Harare.”
Darby is a professional performer who specialises in presenting
the works of
Australia’s best known traditional poets AB “Banjo” Paterson, CJ
Dennis and
Henry Lawson. The works of these poets were most popular in the
early years
of the 20th Century, but are presently enjoying a strong
revival.
Darby has left Zimbabwe for Ghana where he will perform in
schools.
Daily News
EU observer team vows to stay
2/14/02 7:20:57 AM (GMT
+2)
Political Editor/Reuter
THE European Union (EU) team that
is here to observe the 9 and 10 March
presidential election, on Tuesday said
it was not moving out of the country
because the government had refused to
accredit Pierre Schori, the delegation
head, but had sought “clarification”
from the State on its views on the
mission.
Speaking to The
Daily News after the delegation’s meeting with resident EU
heads of mission,
spokesman Stephan Amer said: “All the statements we have
heard about the
mission from the government of Zimbabwe have been through
the media and they
have not communicated with us so we are now seeking a
clarification from
them.”
He said it would only be after the government has made the
clarifications to
them that the mission would be able to make a substantive
statement. The
government had by the time of going to press not responded to
queries from
the team.
Human rights groups have warned of a “climate
of fear and terror” in the
run-up to the polls.
Mugabe is seeking a
further six-year term after 22 years in power since
independence from Britain
in 1980.
Daily News
SA refutes Herald story
2/14/02 5:52:44 AM (GMT
+2)
Political Editor
THE South African election observer team
yesterday dealt the government’s
propaganda a blow when it dismissed reports
they had hailed government
preparations for the presidential election due on
9-10 March.
The State-controlled Herald newspaper yesterday
declared that South Africa
was “happy with the progress” Zimbabwe was making
in preparation for the
presidential poll. A former ambassador, Sam
Motsuenyane, head of the
50-strong South African team, told a Press
conference in Harare yesterday:
“We couldn’t have said that. We haven’t said
anything in that regard.
“Whatever the information in that story is, it
is a distortion.” He said it
was too soon for them to have commented that
everything was fine and would
lead to a free and fair election.
The
government mouthpiece quoted a member of the team as saying South Africa
was
happy with the election preparations.
Motsuenyane is leading a
multi-sectoral observer mission of business people,
trade unions, religious,
women’s and youth groups, non-governmental
organisations and government
departments.
Daily News
Zanu PF youths bar MDC from recruiting polling agents in Mt
Darwin,
Chitungwiza
2/14/02 7:19:30 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
OFFICIALS of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been
barred by
Zanu PF youths from recruiting polling agents in Mt Darwin and
Chitungwiza.
At Dema shopping centre, about 20km outside
Chitungwiza, the MDC has been
banned from displaying its campaign material.
But MDC party leaders in the
area have vowed to defy all threats, saying they
had a democratic right to
campaign for a leader of their
choice.
Chrispen Mutamba, an MDC official in Chitungwiza said on Tuesday:
“We will
go ahead and display Tsvangirai’s posters in Dema. “The time has
come for
all men of goodwill to stand up against Zanu PF and we are
determined to do
just that,” Mutamba said. “We can never allow Zanu PF to
abuse our parents
and the whole nation.”
MDC officials in Mt Darwin,
who included Gift Sambama, Lloyd Benhura,
Cleopas Mavhunga, Tendai Sambama,
Tonderai Shanya and Pedzisai Muzawazi were
captured and taken hostage for two
days.
They were assaulted and tortured at various Zanu PF bases before they
were
released after the intervention of a CIO officer based in Mt
Darwin.
The intelligence officer is said to have told the Zanu PF
supporters to stop
harassing the MDC officials as they risked imprisonment.
The MDC chairman
for Mt Darwin, Raphael Shanya said scores of innocent MDC
supporters killed
in politically-motivated violence did not die in
vain.
He said several MDC supporters in Mt Darwin had their homes burnt to
ashes
in the past few weeks.
Daily News
Woods’ application for treatment outside country
deferred
2/14/02 7:18:47 AM (GMT +2)
Court Reporter
THE
Supreme Court, sitting as a constitutional court, on Tuesday
postponed
indefinitely an application by Kevin Woods, one of the South
Africans
serving life imprisonment for murder and sabotage, to seek medical
treatment
outside the country for heart problems.
Chief
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, Justices Wilson Sandura, Vernanda
Ziyambi,
Misheck Cheda and Luke Malaba made the decision after Woods’
lawyer, Julia
Wood, said she needed time to study the supplementary heads of
arguments by
the State and to get the results of the tests if the State
facilitated
them.
For the State, Michael Majuru said he would make arrangements for
Woods to
be examined locally, but was opposed to any medical examinations
outside the
country.
Chidyausiku said if the two parties were ready
they could approach the
registrar of the court so that the case could be
heard. But he indicated
there was little time before the first term of the
court ends some time next
month.
In his affidavit, Woods, 48,
complained of poor treatment at Chikurubi
Maximum Security Prison. He alleged
he has been kept in solitary confinement
since his arrest and conviction in
1988. A report released in January last
year by a medical doctor, identified
only as Freemantle who examined Woods,
recommended a brain scan and an
assessment of Woods’ neck vessels to confirm
arterial blood supply to his
brain
ZIMBABWE: Media standards falling says watchdog
JOHANNESBURG, 14 February
(IRIN) - Journalism standards appear to be the latest victim of Zimbabwe's hotly
contested presidential election, according to an independent media
watchdog.
In its latest report released on Thursday, the Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said: "Public media organisations are clearly the
worst offenders in the manufacture of unsubstantiated stories, but recent
developments suggest the contagion may have started to affect the privately
owned press too."
It noted: "The widespread use of unidentified 'sources'
to provide credibility for unsubstantiated, inaccurate and often inflammatory
stories about individuals and organisations, even in circumstances where such
anonymity is unwarranted, amounts to a clear abuse of practice."
MMPZ
said examples abound in the public media, clearly aimed at tarnishing the image
of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The unsubstantiated
reports include "the ongoing 'MDC anthrax terror' stories, MDC 'killer houses'
and more recently (in the week under review) the claim that the 'MDC plans war'
after the election.
"In none of these stories has there ever been any
substantiation of the central 'facts' upon which these stories are based, and in
the anthrax stories anthrax has never been identified as ever being present,"
the media group said, in reference to fraudulent reports that an anthrax
contaminated letter had been addressed to the minister of state for
information.
"While it is expected that the public media will remain
slaves to government propaganda, at least for the duration of the presidential
election campaign, MMPZ calls on all media organisations to desist from the
practise of publishing or broadcasting unsubstantiated allegations and to
restore to their newsrooms the internationally accepted standards of ethical
journalistic practice," the organisation said.
In politically polarised
Zimbabwe, there is only one independent daily, the Daily News, but it is the
biggest selling newspaper. However, the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation enjoys an effective monopoly of radio and television news
production.
From the Financial Gazette, 14
February
Zanu PF unleashes militia on
Byo
Bulawayo – Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF has stationed its militia
at most Bulawayo municipal halls and community clubs to conduct door-to-door
campaigns on behalf of President Robert Mugabe, it was established this week.
Week-long investigations by the Financial Gazette have shown that so-called
re-education camps have been set up at Nketa Hall, Sizinda Hall, Entumbane Hall,
Nkulumane Hall and Venture Camp, an abandoned municipal youth centre a few
kilometres away from the Khami Ruins, about 20 kms southwest of here. A huge
residential council property in Nkulumane 12, known as The Yellow House and
earmarked for a pre-school, has also been taken over. Between 4 000 and 5 000
youths from around the country have been stationed inside and outside the
property to put up Zanu PF posters in the city and to campaign for Mugabe, who
is fighting for his political life in a landmark presidential ballot on March 9
and 10.
Mugabe, his political support sapped by a deepening economic
crisis, faces opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in the ballot which, according to opinion surveys and most analysts,
will be won by the MDC chief. The ruling party has also set up a camp at
Ezalukazini, an abandoned council beer hall in the high-density suburb of Njube.
Tents housing about 3 000 youths have also been pitched up at Rangemore, a
smallholder farming area a few kilometres from the city centre. The Zanu PF
militia at Venture Camp is said to be the most notorious, with about 1 000
youths camped there. The youths are understood to be paid $500 a day to conduct
the ruling party’s presidential campaign in a city which overwhelmingly voted
for the MDC in the June 2000 parliamentary elections as well as in the September
2001 mayoral elections.
At the weekend, the youths from Venture Camp toyi-toyed in and
around the western suburbs of Old Pumula, Magwegwe, Luveve, Gwabalanda and
Pelandaba and distributed Zanu PF campaign materials. Other camps have been
established in municipal community halls and government schools in the
low-density suburbs such as in Sauerstown, where the militia recently staged a
demonstration outside the house of Moses Mzila Ndlovu, the MDC legislator for
Bulilimamangwe South. The noisy camps have angered city residents, some of whom
have accused the Zanu PF militia of orchestrating an orgy of violence in and
around the city, especially after 8 pm. Several residents this week alleged that
they had been systematically whipped and assaulted by the youths, mostly clad in
white Zanu PF T-shirts, for not chanting the party’s slogans.
Charles Mpofu, the outspoken councillor for Bulawayo’s Nketa
suburb, said he had also been inundated by angry calls from residents over the
presence of the militia in their usually quiet surroundings. "It is a shame that
a desperate government has sunk so low as to set up terrorist camps such as
those in my ward," said Mpofu, who quit the ruling party in 1999 to be an
independent before joining the MDC. "The militia have invaded our council
facilities in the same manner the war veterans have invaded farms. Residents are
complaining and are very angry. We have launched a strong complaint with the
executive mayor about these terrorist camps. We have also notified the police
but nothing is being done about these thugs." Sainet Dube, Zanu PF’s political
commissar for Bulawayo province, said there was nothing sinister about the
camps. "We are campaigning. The boys are not terrorising anyone. People should
not be afraid when they see them in our campaign T-shirts. People are not being
truthful if they say they have been assaulted by the boys," Dube said. Zanu PF
youths have already been accused of waging violence against opponents nationwide
and of illegally setting up roadblocks on some roads, where they force motorists
and bus passengers to buy costly membership cards of the party. Two senior Zanu
PF officials recently ordered the youths to end the roadblocks.
From AFP, 14
February
Fair Zimbabwe vote key to Africa's
recovery plan: South Africa
Cape Town - A free and fair presidential election in Zimbabwe
in the eyes of Europe and North America will be important to the success of
Africa's recovery plan, a South African cabinet minister said Wednesday, less
than a month before the polls. "It is not sufficient for South Africa to satisfy
itself (that elections are free and fair)," Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota
said, a day after a first election monitoring team left Johannesburg for
Zimbabwe, pledging neutrality. "You want to hold an election that objective,
non-participatory people – people that are not party to the election process -
must feel was ... a credible process," the minister told a parliamentary
briefing on behalf of South Africa's government. "To the extent that we are seen
to be sincere and firm about deepening democracy, respect for democratic
institutions and a determination to eliminate conflict, that that will
strengthen the resolve of the developed North to contribute to NEPAD
programmes," Lekota added.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD),
spearheaded by President Thabo Mbeki and four other African heads of state, sets
out targets for democracy and good governance, including sustainable economic
development in exchange for aid from the developed world. Lekota acknowledged
that the crisis in Zimbabwe - along with other conflicts on the continent - was
impeding Africa's efforts to attract support for NEPAD. "To the extent that we
are seen not to be serious, we will not be able to inspire countries of the
North or our friends to contribute to what we are trying to do," Lekota
said.
South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, however,
questioned the idea that NEPAD's success or failure depended on the outcome in
Zimbabwe. Repeating a statement by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma over
the weekend, Pahad told the briefing that a notion of "collective punishment" by
countries to withhold aid for the continent because of one "problem area" was
unacceptable. "There has been some suggestion by analysts that NEPAD will stand
or fall on the basis of how we respond to the situation in certain countries,
and in this case Zimbabwe," he said. "We have made it clear that events in
Zimbabwe or in any other country cannot be the basis on which people support the
NEPAD process," he said. "Either we agree the NEPAD programme is an African
programme and we support it on that basis or we don't support it. We cannot have
this constant threat of collective punishment," he said.