International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished:
February 26, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: The United States has expressed
concern over "ominous
signs" Zimbabwe was unprepared to hold free and fair
elections next month,
U.S. officials said Tuesday.
In an open letter
released by the U.S. Embassy, Ambassador James McGee said
the U.S.
government shared the concerns a wide variety of organizations have
expressed about the political environment surrounding the March 29
presidential, parliamentary and local council elections.
Inadequate
preparation, voter confusion and evidence of registration
irregularities
were evident, McGee said.
Also, "the violence of the past year will
inevitably affect the campaign and
the election," he said.
"Despite
all these ominous signs, however, we urge all Zimbabweans to vote,"
he
said.
The government has not officially responded to McGee, but the state
Herald
newspaper, a government mouthpiece, on Tuesday described his remarks
as "an
unwarranted" and unwanted lecture.
Zimbabweans "do not need Uncle
Sam's supervision. The days of master and
slave are long gone, or hadn't you
noticed," said the paper.
In neighboring South Africa, the Zimbabwean
ambassador accused critics of
his government, especially the U.S. and the
United Kingdom, of funding the
opposition and crippling the country with
sanctions.
"From the West's point of view, the electoral process in
Zimbabwe can only
be free and fair if and as when President Mugabe and his
ZANU-PF have been
removed from office," Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo told
journalists and
diplomats in Pretoria, South Africa. "They cannot be free
and fair unless
London or Washington says so."
In Zimbabwe, the
independent Zimbabwe Media Monitoring Project reported in
its latest
bulletin in the past week the state broadcaster carried 72
positive reports
on the ruling party and seven mostly critical reports on
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.
Zimbabwe's sole broadcaster is state run
and the only independent daily
newspaper and three independent weeklies have
been shut down under sweeping
media laws.
State television news
reports devoted 52 minutes to the ruling party and
less than four minutes to
the main opposition and two minutes to other
political groups, according to
the media monitoring group.
Just over four weeks from the poll,
independent election monitors said
boundaries of new voting districts
remained unclear, official maps were not
widely available for inspection by
candidates and chronic shortages of
money, gasoline, materials and
logistical support hindered election
organizers and opposition
campaigners.
The ruling party was favored in the distribution of gasoline
by the state
fuel procurement monopoly, the National Oil Company, and openly
used
government vehicles, other "public resources" and donations of plows
and
other agricultural equipment paid for by the government in its
campaigning,
said the independent Zimbabwe Election Support
Network.
Monitors reported "chaotic" election preparations in some areas
and
virtually no voter education or other election activities in several
distant
rural districts.
But in the remote area of Honde valley in
eastern Zimbabwe, ruling party
campaigners for Vice President Joyce Mujuru
distributed scarce cooking oil,
salt, sugar and the corn meal staple to
villagers in portions measured in
cups and small containers, witnesses
said.
The ruling party raised 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (about
US$250,000 or
€170,000 at the dominant black market exchange rate) for
President Robert
Mugabe's 84th birthday party in southern Zimbabwe on
Saturday.
___
Associated Press Writer Celean Jacobson contributed
to this report from
Pretoria, South Africa.
Reuters
Tue 26 Feb 2008,
17:06 GMT
By Paul Simao
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government
accused Prime Minister Gordon
Brown on Tuesday of stoking political tensions
ahead of its March 29 general
election to try to force "regime change" in
the southern African country.
In a briefing in Pretoria, Zimbabwe's
ambassador to South Africa presented
what he said was a letter from Brown to
the Law Society in which he is said
to promise to continue funding
Zimbabwean groups working for "democratic
change".
"Clearly such
effort is meant to fuel tensions towards the March 29
plebiscite in
Zimbabwe," Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo told South Africa's
Institute of
Security Studies, an independent think-tank.
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe often accuses Western powers, especially
former colonial ruler
Britain, of working with the opposition to bring him
down. Britain accuses
him of human rights abuses and ruining a once
prosperous
economy.
British Law Society spokesman Steve Rudaini confirmed Brown had
written to
Andrew Holroyd, the group's president, concerning the situation
in Zimbabwe.
Rudaini said the letter was no longer available and had been
previously
published in error.
In London, the Foreign Office said
Britain provided substantial resources to
support Zimbabweans especially in
the areas of human rights and democratic
freedoms.
"We will continue
to support them just as we will continue to make
representations to the
government of Zimbabwe when those who advocate reform
are beaten and
arrested by the state police," a Foreign Office spokeswoman
said.
British officials indicated separately that the letter was
authentic.
Moyo said Britain and the United States were trying to bring
about "regime
change". He said Zimbabweans would not tolerate interference
in their
internal affairs.
The British and U.S. governments have been
sharply critical of Mugabe, who
has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years. They and
other Western nations have imposed
sanctions on Mugabe and his top
officials.
The 84-year-old Zimbabwean leader is running for another
five-year term in
the elections next month. He has vowed to crush his
rivals, including former
finance minister Simba Makoni and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Both Makoni and Tsvangirai have promised to rescue Zimbabwe's
economy, which
has been devastated by annual inflation of over 100,000
percent,
unemployment of more than 80 percent and chronic food and fuel
shortages.
But the failure of the opposition to form a united front has
strengthened
Mugabe's chances.
Moyo said Mugabe's government would
not contest the results of the election
if the MDC won the
polls.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Matthew
Tostevin)
Mail and Guardian
Carol Hills | Pretoria, South Africa
26
February 2008 03:49
There was no dictator in Zimbabwe, just
unwelcome outside
interference, its ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya
Moyo said in
Pretoria on Tuesday.
Britain and the United
States were backing the opposition
financially because they wanted President
Robert Mugabe out of power over
his land reforms, Moyo told an Institute for
Security Studies briefing ahead
of the country's presidential election on
March 29.
He questioned to what extent this "external hand"
was
influencing "unexplained, wayward behaviour" by the
opposition.
"That is primarily the reason why the Zimbabwean
people have for
long been decrying the death of patriotic opposition with
the capacity to
come up with a national agenda and home-grown solutions to
our problems," he
said.
It was only the people of
Zimbabwe who could, through the
ballot, tell the world whom they thought had
their best interests at heart.
"The will of the people must
manifest freely, uncontaminated by
outside money."
From
the outside, the picture being portrayed of Zimbabwe "is
one of a bad
situation which should not be allowed to continue".
Media
campaign
"The idea is to wage a massive media campaign against
Zimbabwe
and with the economic hardships, the people would be expected to
vote out
the president and Zanu-PF."
Moyo said Zimbabwe
had a voter population of 5 612 464 on
December 4 last year. The voter's
roll was still open and was being
inspected by the Zimbabwe Election
Commission.
Four candidates, including Mugabe, are contesting
the elections.
Moyo said security had been tightened ahead of
the poll and that
the carrying of dangerous weapons, including machetes,
knives and guns, had
been banned.
Overall, the situation
was "peaceful" except for minor
skirmishes "usually involving youth from
either side of the political divide
who engage in acts of provocation",
sometimes to attract publicity, he said,
adding that the perpetrators had
been arrested.
Moyo praised President Thabo Mbeki's role in
mediating between
Zanu-PF and its opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change to
bring about free and fair elections.
He dismissed as "some mischief intended to derail the elections"
an MDC
charge that Mbeki had not been an honest broker.
"... We go
along with the words of advice of the South African
government that the
Zimbabwean side needs to talk more now than before."
Sanctions
Blaming the country's economic difficulties in the past
seven
years on drought, a severe shortage of foreign currency and a
hyper-inflationary environment, he said this had created a hostile
environment to business operations with a resultant reduced export
capacity.
Sanctions had cost the country access to "much
needed lines of
credit".
"It is given that the powers
that be with the muscle to do so,
would have wanted economics to be a factor
in the elections, influencing
people to vote against the ruling party and
[Mugabe]," he said.
However he was confident that "the people
will not be hoodwinked
to turn against each other in a lethal
manner".
Outside interference had to be "reduced and
resisted" at all
costs.
Moyo gave the assurance that the
ruling party would accept the
outcome of the elections even if it
lost.
Asked whether the country would erupt into violence
should the
ruling party lose, he said: "If Zimbabwe catches fire, everyone
will burn,"
adding that this included people with United States dollars and
British
pounds in their pockets.
He invited "interested
media houses and organisations" to
observe the elections.
"We want to see a clean election. Observers must come and do a
thorough job,
a professional job," he said. - Sapa
nasdaq
AFP
HARARE (AFP)--Zimbabwe's police chief Augustine Chihuri said
Tuesday his
force was prepared to use firearms to stamp out violence during
joint
presidential and legislative elections next month.
Chihuri said
police could invoke the public order and security act which
allows an
officer to use a firearm "if he finds other methods to be
ineffective or
inappropriate."
Chihuri urged political parties to abide by the law to
avoid clashes with
police in the run-up to joint presidential,
parliamentary, senate and local
council polls March 29.
"In certain
circumstances we are also empowered to use force including use
of firearms,"
he told journalists at police headquarters in the capital
Harare.
In
December, President Robert Mugabe urged his supporters to refrain from
violence in the polls and similar exhortations by opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai at the launch of his party's election campaign
Saturday.
"There has been talk in some opposition circles and civic
organizations of
street protests or Kenya-style riots if the ballot does not
go in favor of
one's political party," police Chihuri
said.
"Machetes, axes, bows and arrows cannot put anybody into office. We
will
never allow that to happen in this country.
"We will nip it in
the bud. We are adequately resourced to cover this
election."
In
Kenya, at least 1,500 people have died and tens of thousands have been
displaced since Dec. 27, when post-election violence erupted after
allegations of vote-rigging.
Zimbabwe's security forces have in
recent years used brute force to break up
protests by Mugabe's
opponents.
The country's last presidential elections in 2002, won by
Mugabe amid claims
of vote rigging, were marred by widespread violence which
left several
people dead and thousands injured.
Earlier this month
police banned the carrying of dangerous weapons in public
to prevent
violence.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 02-26-080759ET
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
27 February, 2008
The Zimbabwe Youth Network (ZYN) and
the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) have announced that there will be
a huge demonstration at the Zimbabwe
Consulate in Jo'burg on Wednesday, one
day before another protest is due at
the same location on Thursday. The
Wednesday protest is being supported by
numerous Zimbabwean groups,
including the Crisis Coalition, Zimbabwe
Political Victims Organisation
(Zipovo), Civil Service Organisations Forum
and both formations of the
MDC.
There have been protests at the Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa
almost
every week this month. They are demanding that Zimbabweans in the
diaspora
be allowed to vote and that the elections on March 29th be
conducted under
conditions that are free and fair. There are also demands
for a new people
driven Constitution and for a resolution of the economic
crisis that has
forced many Zimbabweans to look for better opportunities
outside the
country.
Munjodzi Mutandiri of the Zimbabwe Youth
Network, organisers of the
Wednesday event, said they plan to deliver a
petition with 15 demands that
they want the Zimbabwe authorities to address
in the next two weeks. He said
if the demands were not met their members and
those from other supporting
organisations would carry out an action that
will shut down the embassy.
Mutandiri would not specify what this action
would be. He simply said: "The
action is already drafted on paper and we
have started mobilising the people
because we know how this government has
acted in the past, very dishonestly.
We've had enough. It's time to break
the silence."
This is the same threat and demands that were delivered to
the Zimbabwean
ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, by the Zimbabwe
Revolutionary
Youth Movement, organisers of the Thursday protest.
The
Wednesday protest at the Zimbabwe Embassy will be from 10:00 a.m. until
12:00 noon.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tichaona Sibanda
26
February 2008
There are reports that 'angry' protesters who are against
Zanu-PF's
continued misrule in the country are pulling down Robert Mugabe's
posters
and banners in most urban areas.
The ruling party has accused the
MDC of conspiring with residents to pull
down posters bearing Mugabe's face,
but the opposition party has denied any
involvement.
Our Harare
correspondent Simon Muchemwa said he has witnessed many defaced
ruling party
election posters around the capital. He said angry residents
have told him
it is an insult by Zanu-PF to put up posters and banners when
the city has
no water and electricity.
'They are saying to Zanu-PF bring back water
and electricity before wasting
money on material for their election
campaign. There is growing resentment
against Zanu-PF in most urban areas
and people are saying they get incensed
when they see their posters put up
in trees and on lamp posts,' Muchemwa
said.
He said police have recently
increased their foot patrols to try and prevent
people from pulling down
election posters. Muchemwa also reiterated fears
that next month's
harmonised elections would be marred by serious logistical
problems, amid
reports the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission are completely
failing to perform
their duties.
With a month to go to elections many questions are still
being raised about
the ability of ZEC to prepare and fully inform voters,
because of lack of
resources, especially funding.
'Up to now new
constituency and ward boundaries are still to be made public.
As you are
aware, the ZEC introduced a localised voters' roll, requiring
voters to cast
their votes at prescribed voting stations but the electoral
body has yet to
publish a full list of the polling stations,' Muchemwa said.
'Its now
weeks before the crucial poll, but there isn't anything on the
ground to
suggest Zimbabweans are going to vote on the 29th of next month.
There is no
voter education, no one knows were to go and cast their votes
and worse
still nobody knows how people will use the ballot papers, voting
for four
different candidates at once,' Muchemwa said.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Support Network, the country's largest independent
observer group, has been
highly critical of ZEC. Two weeks ago they released
a report detailing
serious deficiencies in preparations so far. ZESN argued
that weeks after
voter registration ended, the ZEC has yet to provide a
final report on how
many people are registered.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By Dr Alex T.
Magaisa
Last updated: 02/27/2008 05:19:10
A WEEK ago, the MDC Treasurer
General, Roy Bennett, gave an interview to
Violet Gonda on SW Radio Africa's
informative 'Hot Seat Programme'.
One salient aspect of the fascinating
exchange was Bennett's indication of
clear displeasure at what he saw as the
'imposition' of Simba Makoni on the
electorate by what he referred to as
'the diplomatic community'.
Of Tsvangirai, Bennett is quoted as saying,
"he is going to shock the world,
shock the chattering class, shock the
Diplomatic Community that all try to
impose people of their choice rather
than listening to the grassroots of
Zimbabwe and the people of
Zimbabwe".
On being asked who the diplomatic community is trying to
impose, he stated,
"They are trying to impose Simba Makoni".
Whether
or not this is correct, it indicates that there is a perception
within the
MDC leadership that the 'diplomatic community' is interfering in
opposition
politics and trying to impose its will on the people of Zimbabwe.
This
raises many questions: Why would they be trying to impose Makoni? Do
they
have the power or leverage over the MDC to impose Makoni? Have they, in
the
past, played a role in selecting opposition leaders? Why would the
opinion
of the 'diplomatic community' cause any worries to the MDC
leadership which
is confident of its local support base? Or is there a
deeper relationship
here that has taken a wrong turn and if so, why?
There is, plainly, no
easy answer to these questions, but one senses that
there is tension
building up between the MDC and its traditional base of
external
sympathisers. And that makes victory on March 29 even more
imperative given
the diplomatic fallout that seems to be brewing.
It is easy to overlook
the fact that this line of thought now advocated by
the MDC is not new. The
reason Mugabe has been steadfast in his refusal to
allow space to the MDC is
that he perceives them as puppets of the West. The
run-ins between the
government and the US, UK and lately Swedish diplomatic
missions indicate
the public face of this animosity and accusations.
Could these be the
same powers whose diplomats the MDC alleges to be now
favouring Makoni in
place of Tsvangirai? Gonda did not go further to ask
specification on the
identity of these diplomats leaving the audience to
speculate on the
specificities of this amorphous 'diplomatic community'.
There is,
plainly, a sense of betrayal, perhaps frustration within the MDC
leadership
over the intentions and activities of this undefined diplomatic
community.
For a party that has enjoyed visible support from the diplomatic
community,
these latest allegations reveal simmering tensions and mistrust.
But,
importantly, the allegations do raise shades of a Mugabesque approach
to
opponents, except that Bennett does not use the same derogatory language
often employed by Mugabe whose choice of descriptions of adversaries ranges
from puppets to prostitutes and lately frogs.
But Bennett's comments
which effectively characterise Makoni as someone who
is being imposed on the
electorate by the 'diplomatic community', will no
doubt find resonance, in
the state media, which has been carrying similar
attacks in much the same
way that it has treated Tsvangirai over the years.
There is here the
irony of a so-called stooge now turning and calling
another a stooge on
precisely the same basis. That being the case, it seems
to be one of those
rare instances when the MDC and Zanu PF seem to be in
agreement.
But
in the eyes of Zanu PF, this does not exonerate the MDC from the same
charges. It simply provides further ammunition to its arsenal, arguing
perhaps that the MDC is simply acting like the petulant child who cries on
seeing his slice of the cake being given to a new sibling.
But if
there is any substance in these comments, they do raise serious
concerns
about the character of opposition politics in Zimbabwe. The
question that
has dogged every serious opposition leader for the last decade
is whether
one can actually claim to be his own man.
Zanu PF has always suggested
the problem to be the opposition's lack of
independence, it being a tool to
further the interests of the West. Crude
though it might be, it has been an
effective method, especially among the
uninformed sections of society. It
has also been effective in the community
of African leaders who, plainly,
believe that Mugabe is a victim of Western
interference.
It also
explains in part, why Tsvangirai has never quite found the favour he
sought
from the likes of President Thabo Mbeki and fellow African leaders in
Southern Africa. It is interesting therefore, that the MDC would now resort
to the same line of argument in respect of a fellow challenger. That might
well be interpreted to its disadvantage, it being taken by its perennial
detractors to give credence to Mugabe's usual rhetoric.
The MDC may
well be right about its apprehensions. But when it is trying to
manoeuvre in
this treacherous terrain, it seems to make sense to also retain
a measure of
diplomacy in its dealings. Bennett's comments came hardly two
weeks after
another diplomatic faux pas in South Africa, when the MDC
President Morgan
Tsvangirai was reported to have publicly criticised South
African leader
Thabo Mbeki for not being 'a little brave' in handling
Mugabe. He may be
right, but it is not helpful to appear to be humiliating a
host, to whom one
is likely to return in future.
The MDC is right to say that the
decision-makers are the Zimbabwean voters
and that they may well post a
surprise on March 29. But surely, they have
been in the trenches long enough
to know that local support needs to be
augmented by external understanding
and backing. There will be a time when
they will be needed just as their
material largesse has sustained the
organisational needs of the opposition
and civil society groups. A lesson
learnt perhaps, would be that there is
nothing like a free lunch in this
world. If there is indeed some pressure on
the MDC leadership, it is perhaps
the price they are paying - a consequence
of investment in a relationship
that has up to now been appeared safe and
comforting.
It brings to mind the old lesson that there are no permanent
friends in the
world of politics. Rather, it is only the pursuit of
interests that is
permanent. It is easy to forget that although by the time
he went to the
gallows Saddam Hussein was a sworn enemy, it was not always
so. Even America's
most wanted, Osama Bin Laden, he too, was not always a
bad apple.
There is, however, a risk here for the MDC -- one of burning
bridges. Legend
has it that 'burning bridges' is a phrase that goes way back
to the Roman
times. It is said that the generals of the Roman army took the
practice of
burning bridges once their soldiers had crossed on their way to
battle.
This, supposedly, took away any ideas of retreating that the
soldiers might
otherwise have entertained. Today, it is a phrase that means
that those who
burn bridges tend to place themselves in positions from which
there might be
no return. This comes at great cost.
The opposition
now finds itself facing more challenges, not just Mugabe but
also the
simmering doubts within the traditionally friendly 'diplomatic
community'.
Is there something more that the public should know? No doubt
this is only
the tip of the iceberg. Sooner or later, it shall manifest.
Alex Magaisa
is based at Kent Law School, UK and can be contacted at
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
New Zimbabwe
By Fikile Mapala
Last updated: 02/26/2008
20:52:53
ZIMBABWE'S civil servants are up in arms against the government for
selectively awarding hefty pay rises to the military while excluding the
rest of its workers who are earning salaries that are far below the poverty
datum line.
Union leaders threatened industrial action if their
members are not awarded
salary increases similar to those received by
soldiers.
President Robert Mugabe' bankrupt government this month awarded
hefty pay
increases to disgruntled soldiers in an apparent move to buy their
loyalty
ahead of crucial joint elections on March 29.
A survey by New
Zimbabwe.com showed that soldiers got windfalls of between
$1 billion and $3
billion in salaries depending on the rank this month,
while teachers got
$500 million on average, with other government workers
getting much
less.
The government which employees all civil servants is also
responsible for
paying the salaries of soldiers, police officers and Central
Intelligence
Organization (CIO) operatives through its various employment
commissions.
Government sources say CIO agents who did not receive the
windfalls that
were received by soldiers this February are bitter and have
sent a
delegation to approach CIO director general Happiton Bonyongwe with
their
grievances.
Bonyongwe has been linked with Zanu PF factional
fighting, with strong
suggestions he is associated with former finance
minister Simba Makoni who
has launched a bid for the country's presidency.
It is believed that Mugabe
now prefers working with Bonyongwe's deputies and
trusted army brigadiers on
all matters of state security. Bonyongwe, Finance
Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi and Rtd Major Kudzai Mbudzi, one of Makoni's top
advisers, are
all married to sisters.
The leader of the
pro-government Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA)
Tendai Chikowore warned
that teachers will embark on a full-scale industrial
action if the
government does not urgently undertake to review their
salaries in line with
what was awarded to soldiers.
Chikowore said: "Our members are now very
impatient. We are consulting all
provinces this week and I must say we are
under pressure to call for
industrial action.
"Our members now
suspect that the employer is deliberately choosing to
underpay teachers
while other government employees are smiling all the way
to the bank every
month."
ZIMTA which is now threatening to go on strike has in the past
distanced
itself from strike action spearheaded by its rival, the PTUZ,
claiming it
prefers negotiating.
The militant Progressive Teachers
Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) accuses the Zanu
PF government of being
"insensitive and discriminatory" by giving soldiers
hefty salaries while
"impoverished teachers and other civil servants get
peanuts every
month."
PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe said President Robert
Mugabe's
government was using salaries as an electioneering tool to buy the
loyalty
of other employees and punishing others.
Majongwe said: "What
is happening in the public service is very sad. We have
a situation were
Mugabe is giving soldiers a lot of money ahead of everyone
else as a way of
buying their allegiance in the event that the forthcoming
elections are
disputed."
He added: "We are aware that Mugabe is planning to rig the
elections in
March because he must win at all costs. On the other hand he
believes that
teachers do not deserve salaries because they are agents of
regime change.
That is ridiculous."
Majongwe who was hospitalised
last Tuesday after he was brutally assaulted
by Zanu PF youth militias in
Harare said it was "tragic" that teachers were
being viewed and treated like
enemies of the state by the government.
He said he hoped leaders of other
public service workers unions would soon
see the light and join the PTUZ
call for confrontation with the government.
Public Service Association
(PSA) boss Cecilia Alexander-Khowa said members
of her association were
bitter after being sidelined in the pay review.
Khowa said: "Our members
are very bitter because they are saying the
employer is showing favouritism
when dealing with the employees. We under
extreme pressure to reach an
agreement with government and the issue
requires urgent
attention."
She added: "We are members of the same family and for the
past 28 or so
years we have always been treated the same with the uniformed
forces. We can
not rule out anything because government employees are very
angry to say the
least."
The PSA represents the rest of the
government employees outside the
uniformed forces and
teachers.
Teachers are now pushing for a gross salary of $1.7 billion
from $520
million given earlier this month. PTUZ officials have justified
the new
salary demands by teachers saying they believe these demands are
reasonable
in the context of the current hyperinflationary environment and
the
escalating cost of living.
Nurses, doctors and other
professionals are leaving Zimbabwe in large
numbers in search of better
paying jobs in Botswana, South Africa, Britain,
Australia and the United
States among other countries.
afrik.com
Tuesday 26 February
2008, by Bruce Sibanda
Zanu PF, desparate to win the March 29
election at all costs has
resorted to its tried and tested tactic of using
food to buy votes. With the
Southern African nation facing another drought,
despite a good rainfall
season, it is importing tonnes and tonnes of grain
from neigbouring
countries.
Malawi is one of them together
with Zambia and South Africa. But instead of
the grian being distributed to
all needy Zimbabweans, Robert Mugabe's Zanu
PF is using grain as a political
tool to woo voters. Maize from Malawi is
such a tool for Zanu PF.
Withholding food from opponents is nothing new for
the Zanu PF.
About
350 000 tonnes of maize imported from Malawi is been kept at Grain
Marketing
Board (GMB) depots around the country. Six haulage trucks came
through the
Nyamapanda border post at the weekend from Malawi.
Tendai Biti, Secretary
General, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for
Democratic Change faction
says maize from Malawi is being distributed to
Zanu PF supporters only
instead to all Zimbabweans. "Maize sold by the
Malawi government to Zimbabwe
has not helped the people of the country
fairly. It is being abused by
distributing to the electorate countrywide.
"As opposition, if we take
over power, we will have difficulties to pay the
Malawi government because
they have played part in the political aggression
by Mugabe and ZANU-PF.
Malawi, itself is running short of maize and is
rationing the grain
nation-wide, exported 300 000 metric tonnes of maize to
Zimbabwe and is yet
to fulfil a 100,000 metric tonnes export to cover the
required 400,000
Mt.
Senior officials at the GMB depot in Harare confirm that close to
200,000
tonnes of maize is ready to be dispatched for Mugabe's campaign. It
has also
been established that depots in Karoi, Murehwa, Bindura, Chegutu
and
Marondera have been hoarding stocks.
However, defiant Mugabe told
his supporters on Saturday that his party would
win the elections
"resoundingly" and he was ready for a fight with those who
criticised his
presidency.
Malawi leader Bingu Mutharika who has Bineth, a personal farm
in Zimbabwe,
signed the contractual agreement with the Zimbabwe Government
that offered a
US$10 million line of credit. In Karoi, John Mafa, a senior
ruling ZANU PF
party politician has directed GMB to sell maize-meal through
councillors.
All are members of his party.
Mafa, a chairman of ZANU
PF in Mashonaland West province under which Karoi
falls and is also
provincial GMB manager, confirmed ordering the company to
sell the staple
food through ward councillors. He said the move was not
meant to buy support
for ZANU PF but rather to ensure that all hungry people
got a chance to buy
cheaper priced maize-meal from the GMB.
''Councillors have well known
structures so that undeserving elements in the
wards cannot take advantage
of our sincerity. We have many people who are
just cropping up in these
wards but councillors know who is who there and
who deserves what,'' he
said.
Mafa, insists that everyone would get a chance to buy maize-meal
regardless
of which party they supported. MDC officials in Karoi say ZANU PF
councilors
are busy compiling lists of people to receive maize-meal during
campaign
meetings of the ruling party, leaving supporters of the opposition
in the
cold. MDC provincial treasurer Biggie Haurobi said ''Our members are
being
denied maize-meal by ruling party councillors as the lists are drawn
up
during their ward party rallies."
From The Guardian (UK), 26 February
Anglican split deepens after
Mugabe's security forces back renegade
clergyman
Chris McGreal in
Harare
The Rev Christopher Tapera laid his altar on a wooden table
outside the
granite walls of Harare's Anglican cathedral and told the
assembled
worshippers that if they wanted to find the devil they only needed
to look
toward the locked and barred church. "The bishop is the devil in
disguise.
He has been sent by the devil to destroy the church. The devil is
living in
the cathedral," said the priest. The worshippers locked out of the
cathedral
for Sunday's service generally agreed that it was Satan's work.
But the
devil many had in mind was Robert Mugabe, as a politically driven
battle for
control of Zimbabwe's Anglican church mirrors the country's
history with its
own unilateral declaration of independence, land grabs and
a stolen
election. The Anglican church, the second largest denomination in
Zimbabwe,
has split after the bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, declared an
independent diocese, ostensibly in a stand against the tolerance of
homosexuality by Anglicans in Britain and the US. But the clash is more
widely seen as a struggle over the church's efforts to rid itself of
Kunonga, 58, who has called for the killing of Mugabe's opponents, taken
over a white-owned farm and inaugurated unqualified priests and bishops who
had led a campaign of violence against dissenting congregations. Last month,
the Church of the Province of Central Africa dismissed Kunonga as bishop.
But the sacked clergyman refused to relinquish control of the cathedral or
the accounts and has launched flying attacks on services at churches that
refuse to recognise his authority.
The new bishop of Harare,
Sebastian Bakare, was installed at a ceremony in a
sports centre because
access to the cathedral was blocked by heavily built
men who described
themselves as Kunonga's bodyguards. The police refused to
act on a high
court order giving Bakare access to the church. "The same
methods used to
invade the farms is the method used by Kunonga to invade our
cathedral,"
said Bakare. "It's very much politically driven. Political
involvement is
clear in the way that Kunonga promised to deliver the diocese
to Zanu PF
[the ruling party]. His protection from arrest is telling, even
though he is
defying high court orders left and right." In contrast, the
police last week
did arrest the high court's deputy sheriff as he arrived
with bolt-cutters
to enforce a writ permitting Bakare to hold a service in
the cathedral. The
police then baton-charged and detained the congregation.
The Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Right Rev Rowan Williams, waded into the
affair by calling
on Kunonga to "look into his soul" and condemning "the use
of state
machinery to intimidate opponents of the deposed bishop of Harare".
But
Kunonga defended his alignment with Mugabe by saying the Anglican
authorities were a colonial relic defending the interests of whites whose
farms were confiscated. "The west should stop demonising Mr Mugabe. He is a
man who was democratically elected and redistributed land which the white
man had taken away," he said.
Kunonga was appointed bishop of Harare
seven years ago after a disputed
election saw him beat a popular white
critic of Mugabe's human rights
abuses. He promptly used his new position to
eulogise Zimbabwe's president
and purge the church of more than half its
trained priests, some of whom
were driven into exile in England. In their
place he ordained men with
little theological training, including Zanu PF
officials, two cabinet
ministers and students expelled from the Roman
Catholic seminary. As
hostility to Kunonga grew, he became the first
Anglican priest in Africa for
a century to be hauled before a special
ecclesiastical court to answer
accusations, almost all from black
parishioners, of inciting violence
against Mugabe's opponents, intimidating
critics and misusing church funds.
The court adjourned in disarray after
Kunonga's legal team lodged 17 pages
of technical complaints. A Malawian
supreme court judge hearing the case,
James Kalaile, resigned, saying: "I
have not in my years as a judge in
Malawi or elsewhere heard anything like
this dispute. I will contact the
archbishop and ask him to appoint another
judge." The court did not sit
again. Kunonga was rewarded for his loyalty
with a sprawling white-owned
farm near Harare, from which he promptly
evicted 40 black workers and their
families. But realising that a growing
tide of hostility within the church
threatened his position, Kunonga
unilaterally declared the Harare diocese
independent and began laying the
ground for his elevation to archbishop of a
breakaway Anglican
church.
As the two Anglican factions battled for control of church
property, a high
court judge, Rita Makarau, last month ordered Kunonga to
give Bakare and the
majority of Anglicans who support him access to all
churches in Harare. In
her ruling she said the legal fight "gives the
impression that the church
has lost its focus, and instead of fighting the
good fight and seeking the
kingdom of God first, church members are fighting
each other and are seeking
earthly power and control of church assets". But
Harare's chief police
officer, Fortune Zengeni, sent a letter to Anglican
churches ordering that
only priests aligned with Kunonga be permitted to
hold services. He said he
did so on the orders of the country's police
commissioner, Augustine
Chihuri, a close ally of Mugabe. State security
agents and riot police broke
up services by priests opposed to Kunonga. In
December, a group of Kunonga
supporters, including three priests, descended
on St Andrew's parish church,
beat up parishioners holding a meeting, and
told the priest, also a Kunonga
backer, he was no longer wanted and
confiscated the keys to the church
residence and car. The divisions are
starkly illustrated at St Luke's
parish, where the rector and the curate,
who support rival camps, both live
within the church grounds. The
Kunonga-supporting curate, Barnabas
Machingauta, holds Sunday services
attended only by his wife, children and
maid. The rector, Thomas Madeyi,
preaches two hours later to a full house.
Kunonga attempted to take over St
Luke's last month. As the service began he
threw the religious artefacts
from the altar to the floor, sat on a chair in
front of it and harangued the
congregation. Madeyi could not believe what he
saw.
"The police
arrived and Kunonga told them to arrest me for defying him as
bishop for
refusing to hand over the church keys," he said. "The police said
we had to
stop everything. If you are not for Kunonga you cannot pray in the
church.
So we moved to the church hall and started praying there. Kunonga
called the
police back and they arrested me for disturbing the peace because
I wouldn't
cooperate with Kunonga." Kunonga says the confrontations will end
because he
claims total authority over the churches no matter what the high
court says.
"After the several meetings that we had, the skirmishes will be
a thing of
the past," he said. "No unlicensed priest will go and conduct a
church
service at any parish. No parallel services will be allowed in the
parishes." But with almost every congregation in Harare against him, Kunonga
installed a clutch of new bishops at the weekend. They include Morris Brown
Gwedegwe, whom Kunonga sacked several years ago for misusing church funds,
and Alfred Munyani, a lay preacher who became a priest less than two years
ago. Just a week earlier, Munyani had been one of those accused of
assaulting worshippers who had tried to pray at the cathedral.
Mail and Guardian
Johannesburg, South Africa
26 February
2008 08:42
There is a higher recruitment drive in Zimbabwe's
engineering
and related sectors due to skills flight than in any other
sector, the
state-controlled Herald reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper's survey showed that since the beginning of the
year, the
engineering field has accounted for 47% of job advertisements in
the press,
while safety, health and environment has accounted for 20%,
education for
12%, the medical field for 3%, finance and marketing for 11%
and secretarial
and administration for 7%.
Mining firms accounted for the
highest number of ads for the
engineering sector "because of the development
taking place in the sector
and generally the replacement of lost
skills".
Peter Kipps of Kipps Employment Agency told the
Herald that
companies across all sectors were losing people all the time,
but artisans
were emigrating to South Africa where there are big
construction
opportunities because of the 2010 Soccer World
Cup.
"Obviously the main reason would be that some of these
countries
are offering better conditions, but the major drawback is that
local
companies cannot afford to increase salaries in light of the rising
production cost base."
Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission
and Distribution Company
managing director Ernest Muchayi said that
Zimbabwe's state-run power
company, Zesa Holdings, as a whole had been hit
by a flight of engineers to
neighbouring and overseas
countries.
The new global economy is being built around
talented people
with special knowledge and skills and measures taken to
offset existing
incentives for skilled or highly educated people to emigrate
have
unfortunately had an almost zero success rate because of the weak
currency,
the Herald said.
Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries president Callisto Jokonya
said that there was "too much brain
drain to the extent that policymakers
cannot ignore such a
phenomenon".
"We are losing even the science teachers who
train technicians,"
he said. -- Sapa
MISA-Zimbabwe
MISA-Zimbabwe notes the confusion that has arisen on the
legality of the
recent announcement by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) pertaining to
the accreditation of journalists and observers ahead of
the general
elections slated for 29 March 2008.
In its public notice,
ZEC is demanding that it will only process the
accreditation of journalists
that are accredited with the state-controlled
Media and Information
Commission. Therein lies the source of the confusion
that has left several
journalists lost on how best to proceed against that
conundrum as the MIC
has since been stripped of such powers. In fact, the
MIC ceased to exist on
11 January 2008 when President Robert Mugabe signed
the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act No. 20 of
2007.
The MIC is a creation of the repressive Access to Information
and Protection
of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which was promulgated in 2002. However
the recent
amendments to AIPPA did away with the MIC. In its place will be
the Zimbabwe
Media Commission (ZMC) which will be composed of nine members
who shall all
be appointed by the President from a list of not fewer than 12
nominees
submitted by the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and
Orders.
The ZMC which is empowered with the accreditation of journalists
is still to
be constituted.
It is therefore MISA-Zimbabwe's
considered view that ZEC's position
concerning the accreditation of
journalists is of no legal force as it is
improper, unprocedural and
unnecessary in the circumstances for the
following reasons:
.
According to the extra-ordinary gazette of 11 January 2008, President
Robert
Mugabe signed into law the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy
Amendment Act No. 20 of 2007. It is that amendment which did away
with the
MIC. Therefore anything purportedly done by the MIC after 11
January 2008
should be declared null and void.
. The effect of the coming into
operation of the AIPPA Amendment is to bring
in the Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC). However the ZMC has not yet been
constituted because
parliament has taken a recess awaiting dissolution on 28
March 2008. There
is no accrediting authority in place to issue the
accreditation cards being
demanded by ZEC to facilitate the coverage of the
elections by
journalists.
. MISA-Zimbabwe further notes that journalists who were
accredited before 11
January 2008 are privileged under AIPPA to cover
national events. An
election, in our view, is one such national event which
does not need
further accreditation by ZEC or any other body. ZEC's demands
for the
production of MIC accreditation cards can only be viewed as attempts
to
curtail scrutiny of the election process by restricting media freedom to
cover the 29 March 2008 general elections.
MISA-Zimbabwe reiterates
its position that the amendments made to AIPPA by
the ruling ZANU PF and the
two factions of the opposition MDC did not in
anyway democratise the
offending law in question. The amendments were not
only cosmetic but
retained the same repressive clauses that give the state
the power to
determine who can and cannot work as a journalist in Zimbabwe.
A number
of journalists, both local and foreign, will fail to cover the
elections.
This is compounded by ZEC's failure to decentralise the
accreditation of
journalists which is only restricted to Harare and
Bulawayo. The failure of
the media to operate freely will in turn mean that
the coming elections will
not be free and fair as access to receive and
impart information is an
integral element in the conduct of free and fair
elections. MISA-Zimbabwe
reiterates that elections are not an event but a
process that begins with
the preparations and the electoral campaigns that
should be covered by the
media.
It is therefore not the act of casting the ballot alone that
determines the
outcome of an election but whether citizens were afforded an
opportunity to
receive different messages pertaining to the elections. These
illegal
actions by both the MIC and ZEC are a clear indication that the
March 2008
elections will not be free and fair.
The continued
existence of the Tafataona Mahoso led Media and Information
Commission is
not only illegal but an affront to media and freedom of
expression
rights.
For any questions, enquiries and comments on this please contact
MISA-Zimbabwe phone 00 263 4 77 61 65, 746 838, misa@misazim.co.zw ,
www.misazim.co.zw
By Tichaona
Sibanda
26 February 2008
An MDC government led by Morgan Tsvangirai
would add the word 'Service' to
the name of the police, to restore public
confidence and a sense of security
from a restructured Zimbabwe Republic
Police Service.
In its election manifesto launched on Saturday in Mutare,
the MDC said once
elected into power, they would immediately provide a
comprehensive national
police service to ensure safety and security of
person and property.
The architect of this policy document, Sam Sipepa
Nkomo the MDC secretary
for Home Affairs, told Newsreel they would get rid
of the word 'force' from
the police in a new Zimbabwe. He said a new
government would entrust them to
provide 'service' and not 'force' to the
peace loving people in Zimbabwe.
'The Zimbabwe Republic Police has a
proud record of service and achievement
and has in the past been recognised
as one of the best police services in
Africa. Today an insidious process of
politicization, low pay and poor
working conditions, as well as a decline in
both training and the provision
of essential support services, are spoiling
this record,' Nkomo said. He
said their party manifesto noted that as a
consequence, community support -
so crucial to an effective policing system
- had broken down and crime was
not being tackled effectively.
On
leadership and senior staff appointments, the manifesto says it is
critical
for the restoration of the police service that it is apolitical and
that all
promotions should be on merit only. It has lost two thirds of its
experienced and properly trained officers in the past five years and a
massive recruitment and training programme is required to bring it to full
strength.
'Such a programme would be achieved by seeking a special
relationship with
police services in countries with similar historical and
legal background.
It may also be necessary to recall retired police officers
to active duty
and to request the assignment of senior staff from other
police services
elsewhere in the world,' added Nkomo.
Nkomo is the
MDC parliamentary candidate for Lobengula in
Bulawayo.
.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
15:14
Ten years ago, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki attracted the
world's attention when he announced the arrival of the African Renaissance,
writes Moeletsi Mbeki in the Sunday Standard, Botswana.
But
when the much-heralded renaissance actually arrived in Zimbabwe
two years
later, in February 2000, and threatened the power of Zanu-PF,
South Africa's
leaders took fright and became paralysed as President Robert
Mugabe set out
to extinguish by force the nascent Renaissance.
This paralysis
eventually acquired a name: it became known as South
Africa's "quiet
diplomacy". Meanwhile, Mugabe went about systematically
terrorising the
supporters of the opposition, the agents of the African
Renaissance and
wrecked his country's economy, with predictable results. A
quarter of
Zimbabwe's people fled to neighbouring countries, that is,
Zambia, Malawi,
Mozambique, Botswana, but especially to its bigger and
richer neighbour,
South Africa.
The South African government estimates that between
two and
three-million Zimbabweans now live in SA, mainly as illegal
immigrants. Let
us imagine that as a result of certain actions by a Chinese
government,
100-million Chinese took flight to India, another 100-million
poured into
Russia and a further 100-million into Japan. If this were to
happen between
China and its three neighbours, the outcome would be
predictable. Japan,
India and Russia would form a military alliance and in
no time their armies
would force out the offending regime in
Beijing.
Proportionally, the 300-million Chinese referred to
equates to the
size of the population that has fled Zimbabwe's economic and
political
crises and taken refuge in the neighbouring countries. Far from
the
governments of Zimbabwe's neighbouring states calling the Zanu-PF
government
to order, they take every available occasion to wine and dine
Zimbabwe's
president, Robert Mugabe. They even go so far as to demand that
the rest of
the world must also wine and dine him. Southern African
governments recently
demanded that Mugabe be invited by Portugal to the
Europe-Africa Summit in
Lisbon last year (December 8-9) despite the travel
ban to Europe by the
European Union on Mugabe and his cronies. Why are
Zimbabwe's neighbours
mollycoddling the very man who is destabilising the
Southern African region?
The simple answer is shortsighted leadership in
Southern Africa, coupled
with fear of emerging more democratic political
forces in Zimbabwe. As
Zimbabwean society became increasingly more
sophisticated, its citizens
became better educated and more prosperous; they
also demanded a greater say
in how their country was run.
The
emergence of these new, well-organised, cosmopolitan and vocal
constituencies that were no longer interested in the politics of race, but
in the accountability of governance, has struck fear in the hearts of
established rulers, not only in Zimbabwe, but in the whole of Southern
Africa.
It is this fear of fundamental social and political
change that
explains Southern African governments' solidarity with Zanu-PF
and Mugabe.
Southern Africa is unique in Africa in that most of its
countries are
still ruled by nationalist parties that fought against
colonialism. These
ruling parties: Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe; MPLA in Angola; CCM
in Tanzania;
Frelimo in Mozambique; BDP in Botswana; ANC in SA; or Swapo in
Namibia,
consider themselves to be entitled to rule their countries forever
by virtue
of having struggled against colonialism. Their attitude to the
mass of the
people is paternalistic and they do not accept that they should
be
accountable to them. The new ANC president, Jacob Zuma, recently
prophesied
the ANC would rule South Africa at least until the Second Coming
of Jesus
Christ. All this is, of course, shortsighted and largely futile.
Nationalist
parties and their governments in Southern Africa can no more
stop the march
of progress and history any more than the colonialists before
them could.
During 1998-99, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU), with the
support of many non-profit civil society organisations,
established the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a new political party.
MDC's key
objectives were to fight for a more democratic constitution, to
combat
corruption and to re-organise the grossly mismanaged national
economy. The
new party received support from many prominent Zimbabweans in
the
professions, trade, industry, media and agriculture. ZCTU seconded two
of
its leaders to the party - its general secretary, Morgan Tsvangirai,
became
MDC president and Gibson Sibanda, its president, became MDC's deputy
president. The rise of the MDC illustrated, more than anything to date, the
arrival of the African Renaissance.
Twenty eight years ago,
when Zimbabwe became independent, its social
structure was simple: its
social classes were defined by race. At the apex
of the social pyramid were
the whites, who controlled the economy, the
professions, and the mass media
in an alliance between public and private
sectors. Below that were an
intermediate stratum, barely differentiated,
made up of wage earners, many
of them peasant migrant workers, with a
sprinkle of semi-professions and
professionals who acted as teachers,
nurses, a few doctors and lawyers,
shopkeepers, salespeople etc. At the
bottom of the pyramid was a vast mass
of undifferentiated peasants who eked
a living off the land. Twenty years
after independence in 1980, Zimbabwe had
become a transformed society with a
rich and complex social structure. New
black players were prominent in
business, the mass media, and other
professions, organised labour and civil
society in general.
In this fast changing and dynamic environment
it was the ruling party,
Zanu-PF, that remained unchanged. In fact, the
opposite had happened, it had
fossilised. It was estimated that no
Zimbabwean below 35 supports Zanu-PF.
Within one year of its
establishment, MDC,with the support of its
civil society allies, in February
2000 defeated Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF in a
referendum to adopt a new, more
democratic constitution. The new
constitution would have drastically reduced
presidential powers and would
have abolished the 30 unelected members of
parliament appointed by the
president. This was what caused panic among the
rulers of Southern Africa. A
new type of party had emerged in the region
that had been created by the
people and was therefore not controlled by the
African elites.
Nationalism in Africa has always paraded itself as
a movement of
people fighting for their liberation. Reality was rather
different. African
nationalism was a movement of a small, Westernised black
elite that emerged
under colonialism. Its fight was always for its inclusion
into the colonial
system so it, too, could benefit from the spoils of
colonialism.
This was why independence did not bring about economic
transformation
in Africa as it did in Asia; if anything, independence
entrenched the
economic inequalities inherited from colonialism. The new
black elites
merely replaced the former white colonial elites, but the
exploitation of
the black masses continued as before as did the exploitation
of Africa's
natural resources, which were exported to the rest of the world.
It is this
that explains the fear of new age parties such as the MDC by
nationalist-ruled Southern African governments.
They fear that
new age, people-created parties, will destroy the
neo-colonial system that
the nationalist elites live off. This also explains
the support for the
Mugabe regime by SADC states despite the havoc Mugabe's
actions cause in
neighbouring countries.
Moeletsi Mbeki is deputy chairperson of the
South African Institute of
International Affairs, an independent think tank
based at Witwatersrand
University in Johannesburg
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Some say opposition has lost valuable campaigning time by vainly
trying to
get the election date changed.
By Meshack Ndodana in
Harare (AR No. 158, 26-Feb-08)
In the wake of failed talks between the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, MDC, and the ruling ZANU-PF, the
former has been criticised for
expending so much energy on attempts to delay
national elections until
political reforms are in place.
At a
February 21 press conference in Johannesburg, both factions of the MDC
made
it clear the mediation process, led by South African president Thabo
Mbeki
on behalf of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, had
died a
death because of the Zimbabwean government's preemptive move to call
elections before measures to ensure they were free and fair could be put in
place.
Although the timing of the election was the subject of the
SADC-led
negotiations, President Robert Mugabe on January 25 unilaterally
proclaimed
March 29 as the date for presidential, parliamentary and local
ballot.
The negotiations were initiated by the SADC in March last year to
ease
political tensions between ZANU-PF and the MDC and to try to reverse
Zimbabwe's eight-year economic decline.
The secretary-generals of the
two MDC factions, Welshman Ncube and Tendai
Biti, who led their respective
delegations in the negotiations, said in a
joint statement that the election
date "lay at the heart of the deadlock" in
the talks with
ZANU-PF.
The MDC said ZANU-PF had "reneged" on a number of transitional
mechanisms
that had been agreed at the talks, while Mugabe's announcement of
a firm
date was a sign the party had "repudiated the principles and the
spirit of
the dialogue".
"At the core of the deadlock were issues of
the date of the election, the
time-frame for the implementation of the
agreed reforms, and the process and
manner of the making and enactment of a
new constitution," said the
statement.
During the talks, the two
sides had reached agreement on amendments to
electoral, security and media
laws, a draft constitution, and issues to do
with violence, sanctions, land,
and food aid. The MDC had called for the
elections to be put off to a later
date to allow these arrangements to take
root and gain public
acceptance.
This view stands in stark contrast to Mbeki's claim that the
date was a
peripheral procedural matter. In the opposition's view, the
timing of the
election and the reforms that should precede it were "not
matters of
procedure but of substance", as holding the vote too early would
prevent
other agreements being implemented, and consequently "the dialogue
would
therefore not have resulted in the resolution of the Zimbabwe
crisis".
The request for a delay was brushed aside by Mugabe, who said
the MDC had
known as early as last year that the elections were scheduled
for March. He
said the opposition was preoccupied with internal rivalries,
and was seeking
to shift the blame for its lack of preparedness onto the
government.
The MDC said Mbeki met Mugabe in Zimbabwe as late as January
15 to try to
break the deadlock over the election date, including a proposal
to push back
the elections to as late as 2010. Mugabe is said to have
rejected this,
insisting the election date was "non-negotiable". He also
rejected the idea
of a new constitution, which the MDC had said should be in
place before the
elections to level the playing field.
The statement
made clear that the MDC would participate in the elections,
but only under
protest, and concluded by warning, "Tragically, the results
of the.
elections will be contested."
The MDC's scathing comments came as the
Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, ZCA, a
network of church and civic bodies,
announced that it had lost hope in the
talks.
The ZCA blamed the
failure of the talks on what it called "a lack of clear
objectives and
accountability on the part of those involved. The SADC talks
failed to
produce tangible results in terms of creating a conducive
atmosphere for
free and fair elections".
Political analysts who spoke to IWPR criticised
the MDC for expending so
much energy on matters that were already impossible
to change, such as the
election date.
One commentator based at the
University of Zimbabwe said the opposition
needed to get into gear and
prepare for the elections.
"The best they can do for themselves is to
mount a vigorous campaign for
their supporters to vote," said the analyst,
who did not want to be named.
He said it would be "suicidal" for the MDC to
contemplate a boycott this
late in the day, pointed out that "there are
already other smaller parties
and individuals ready to take the MDC's
place".
Another political analyst said the MDC should be focusing on the
electoral
process and specifically the "command centre" in charge of running
the
ballot.
"This is where the results will be decided," he said.
"The MDC is wasting
time focusing on dates and talks which have already
failed. The voting will
be done in Zimbabwe and that is where rigging will
take place if the
opposition loses its focus."
The two MDC factions
had, he said, "weakened their position and squandered
public sympathy by
failing to unite to fight a single common enemy".
Meshack Ndodana is the
pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in Harare.
New Zimbabwe
By Taffy
Nyawanza
Last updated: 02/27/2008 05:51:53
THE euphoria and hype
surrounding Simba Makoni's entry into the Zimbabwean
presidential race is
understandable. Makoni is a former government minister
and until February 5,
he was a member of the Zanu PF politburo.
He broke ranks and defied the
ageing Mugabe by formally announcing his bid
for high office. He is widely
considered to present the most credible and
viable alternative to the
current rot and decay. He is also a candidate who
might legitimately be able
to claim that he would be ready to govern from
day one.
Will he win
though? Too many obstacles seem to stand in his way. He does not
have the
luxury of time, the requisite grassroots alliances and many doubt
whether he
is made of the sterner stuff necessary to conduct business in the
political
cauldron and rough and tumble that is Zimbabwe. But the enduring
seduction
of the political theatre is its unpredictability, the possibility
of the
impossible.
I am not about to turn this column into another discourse on
the politics in
Zimbabwe. Plenty others do a fine job already. My brief is
to discuss the
implications of Makoni's win for the thousands of Zimbabwean
refugees
resident in the UK.
If Makoni wins the election, and the
current regime is finally pushed out of
office, that would arguably amount
to a significant change of circumstances
which may trigger a review of
refugee status. 'Significant change' is a
technical concept in UK refugee
law which became prominent with the key
changes that occurred in
2005.
With effect from August 30, 2005, refugee leave (whether granted at
initial
decision or following an allowed appeal), is now granted for 5
years. Before
that, of course, refugees obtained Indefinite Leave to Remain
(ILR)
immediately. Similarly, Humanitarian Protection is now granted for 5
years.
Humanitarian Protection is the status granted to those who are not
refugees;
but are recognised to be at risk of torture or inhuman or
degrading
treatment in their home country.
When these changes were
introduced, the justification was that the new
policy would ensure that
permanent settlement is granted only to those
refugees who, after five
years, are still eligible to remain in the UK. It
was argued that this was
is in line with the Refugee Convention which
provides that the protection of
the Convention will cease to apply in
specified circumstances where there is
no longer a need for it.
These changes came about as a result of the new
five-year plan on asylum and
immigration entitled 'Controlling our borders:
Making migration work for
Britain' which the UK government announced in
February 2005. It was part of
the UK government's so-called 'New Asylum
Model' (NAM) which provides that
most categories of immigrants, including
refugees, should be subject to a
minimum five year residency requirement
before becoming eligible for
permanent settlement.
At the end of the
5 years, a person with refugee status or HP may apply for
ILR. Both refugee
and HP status are dealt with, or reviewed in the same way
(so please read
refugee status to include HP for review purposes).
At application for
ILR, there should ordinarily not be a full review of the
individual's
continued entitlement to refugee status. The Home Office says
that there are
circumstances, however, in which a person's entitlement to
refugee status
may be reviewed. These may be:
(i) where the actions of the individual
indicate that he is no longer
entitled to refugee status, such as returning
to visit, or live in the
country he came from;
(ii) where a significant
and non-temporary change in the country of his
origin causes ministers to
order a review of the grants of refugee leave to
persons from that country;
and
(iii) where a person fails to apply for ILR before his refugee leave
expired, there will be a review of whether the individual still requires
protection.
(iv) Where it is discovered that the individual deceived the
authorities in
order to be recognised as a refugee;
(v) Where it is
discovered that the individual committed certain serious
crimes before
applying for asylum; or
(vi) Where there is reason to believe that the
individual is a danger to the
security of the United Kingdom or has been
convicted of a particularly
serious crime.
Apart from this, and
perhaps more importantly in view of what could happen
on March 29, 2008, in
Zimbabwe, the Home Office position is that a review
need not wait until the
5 years are up; a review of refugee status may be
triggered where, among
other reasons, there has been a significant and
non-temporary change in the
conditions in a particular country.
It does appear, however, that the
decision to review refugee leave is not
one that will be taken lightly,
judging by the apparent in-built safeguards.
Firstly, it would have to be
shown that a country has improved sufficiently
to justify the review of the
status of those refugees potentially affected
by that change. The change
must be non-temporary. A regime change without
more might not
suffice.
Secondly, the decision is an executive decision (taken by
ministers) but
will be communicated to Parliament, ostensibly to be
scrutinised in open
debate.
Thirdly, the decision will be taken only
after consultation with the United
Nations' specialist organ for refugees,
the UNHCR.
Fourthly, even with all of the above, the Home Office will
still be obliged
to conduct reviews of refugee status within the scope of
the ministerial
statement on a case by case basis.
In addition, when
the decision to actively review a case is made, the
individual will be
written to and given the reasons for the decision. He
will be entitled to
explain reasons why he believes that he should be
allowed to stay in the
United Kingdom. A right of appeal should also be
available to allow an
independent assessment by the judiciary.
Conceivably, and I could be
wrong, if Makoni wins the plebiscite, a whole
lot of Zimbabweans would at
least consider returning home to build up what
Mugabe has destroyed. But
there will be many others who have thrown in their
lot with the British and
now consider this their home.
What would be their options if their
refugee status was revoked?
Many will have acquired an education, or
still be in college, or got
married. It should be possible to make an
application to remain in the UK in
those other immigration capacities. The
Home Office specifically accept that
where, following review, a person no
longer requires, or is no longer
entitled to, protection in the UK, the
refugee status will be withdrawn and
leave curtailed under the Immigration
Rules, unless he qualifies for leave
on another basis, in which case leave
may be varied. Note the use of 'may'
though.
Family life and /or a
private life may also be viable routes. The argument
would be that in the
period that the individual has been in the UK, he has
so established and
socialised himself and his family in UK life that to
return him to his
country of origin would be unreasonable.
Finally, with respect to the
looming election, it is important to remember
that case-law accepts as a
fact that there is what is called an 'election
cycle' with respect to
Zimbabwe asylum cases. The Tribunal in SM (Zimbabwe)
accepted that there is
a heightened risk during election periods and their
immediate aftermath and
confirms that this is a pattern which has been
followed since 2000. It
states that before an election there is intimidation
of real or perceived
opposition supporters particularly teachers and civil
servants. It also
confirms that following an election the phenomenon of
post-election
retribution is well documented. This is a key argument that
can be deployed
in ongoing Zimbabwean asylum claims.
Whichever way one looks at it, the
forthcoming elections will be interesting
for a variety of
reasons.
Taffy Nyawanza works for Bake & Co Solicitors of Birmingham.
He can be
contacted on info@bakesolicitors.co.uk, ph. 0121
616 5025 or visit Bake & Co
Solicitors' website at www.bakesolicitors.co.uk.
Disclaimer:
This article only provides general information and guidance on
immigration
law. It is not intended to replace the advice or services of a
solicitor.
The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome
different
than would be anticipated by you. The writer will not accept any
liability
for any claims or inconvenience as a result of the use of this
information.
New Zimbabwe
By Mary
Revesai
Last updated: 02/27/2008 05:19:09
THE formal apology issued by the
Australian government last month to that
country's 450 000 aborigines for
past wrongs and injustices focuses
attention on other atrocities throughout
the world for which atonement has
yet to be made.
When, for example,
will former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and
American President George
Bush express regret for their blunders in Iraq?
While their intentions may
have been noble at the beginning, there is no
denying that the situation has
spiraled out of control, resulting in the
unnecessary and continuing loss of
human life.
As a Zimbabwean, the news of the Australian government's
gesture reminded me
of crimes against humanity perpetrated in my own country
for which regret is
yet to be expressed.
Specifically,I recall with
horror, the butchering of 20 000 Zimbabweans
during the Gukurahundi
massacres in Matabeleland and the Midlands about 20
years ago and wonder
whether President Mugabe, who turned 84 this month,
will ever apologise for
those atrocities.
South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has
pointed out that it takes
"bigness" to say sorry and the problem for Mugabe,
who is known for his
intransigence over less grave issues, could be his
usual disdain towards the
people who have suffered anguish and injustice at
his hands.
Tutu has been quoted as saying: "How wonderful if politicians
could bring
themselves to admit they are only fallible human creatures and
not God and
thus by definition can make mistakes. Unfortunately they seem to
think that
such an admission is a sign of weakness. Weak and insecure people
hardly
ever say 'I am sorry'."
A number of leaders have earned, not
lost, respect throughout the world for
expressing regret for various wrongs
and injustices. During his reign, Pope
John Paul II asked for forgiveness
for Roman Catholic sins against the
Orthodox faith. In 1998, the Pontiff
apologised for injustices, including
sexual abuse, committed by Roman
Catholic clergy in the Pacific nations.
Likewise, during his presidency,
Bill Clinton apologised for slavery and
Tony Blair followed suit during a
state visit to Britain last year by
Ghanaian President John
Kufuor.
In 2001, the European Union apologised for slavery and
colonialism in the
final declaration of the World Conference Against Racism
held in Durban,
South Africa.
While expressions of regret for
historic injustices are mostly symbolic, it
has been shown, however, how
potent an apology can be in changing the
dynamics of a situation.
The
announcement by Australia's Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin of
a
formal apology to Aborigines on February 13, must have taken the wind out
of
the sails of Zimbabwe's propaganda machine .Over the past few years,
government apologists never missed an opportunity to accuse former
Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, of hypocrisy when he took an
uncompromising stance against President Mugabe's repressive governance,
persecution of political opponents and human rights abuses.
They
regularly denounced Australia, which towards the end of last year
expelled
the offspring of Zimbabwean officials who were studying in
universities
there, saying it had no moral authority to lecture anyone on
human rights
abuses because it discriminated against the Aborigines.
The spin doctors
went as far as insisting that the people of Australia were
criminals because
their ancestors, who began settling there in 1788, were
mostly British
convicts and soldiers. But now that new Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd, whose
Labour Party was swept into power in November, has successfully
campaigned
for a formal apology, Zimbabwean government spin doctors and
sycophants have
been deprived of a favourite hobby horse.
A debate had been underway in
Australia for almost a decade on how best to
acknowledge the atrocities
perpetrated against Aborigines who suffered
injustices, particularly in the
last century.
It is estimated that between 1910 and the 1970s, about 100
000 Aboriginal
children of mixed blood were forcibly separated from their
parents on the
premise of saving them from certain doom.
The apology
made on behalf of the Australian government did not attribute
guilt to the
current generation of Australians but signaled the beginning of
a new
relationship, the authorities have said.
The Australian development
should prick the consciences of those in the
Zimbabwean government, which is
also guilty of large-scale displacement of
people and the creation of a
'lost generation' through the massacres
perpetrated by the Fifth Brigade in
Matabeleland. A few years ago, Mugabe
acknowledged the injustices and
atrocities perpetrated against the people of
the region during the so-called
dissident era when he described the episode
as "a moment of
madness."
However, since that admission, he has steadfastly ignored calls
for the
matter to be officially addressed either by compensating the victims
or
setting up a truth commission to bring culprits to justice and facilitate
healing and reconciliation. Most importantly, the aim of such a process
should have been to get to the bottom of what happened so as to ensure that
such horrors would never be allowed to happen again.
South Africa did
this under its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and
President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf has announced the setting up of a similar
body in
Liberia.
Mugabe should have been big enough to realise that the genocide
his
government perpetrated in Matabeleland was not something that could be
swept
under the carpet and forgotten. But in the absence of any commitment
on his
part to deal with that dark period in the country's history, many
people
will, therefore, have welcomed the announcement by the Morgan
Tsvangirai
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change that it will set up
a Truth
and Justice Commission to bring perpetrators of those atrocities to
justice
if it wins next month's elections.
Things could have been
handled differently if Mugabe had signed the 1987
Unity -- Accord that
officially ended the atrocities --- in good faith but
events on the ground
continue to show this was not the case. Matabeleland
has continued to be
marginalised in terms of development and allocation of
resources. This
proves that over and above the genocide, the people of the
region continue
to pay a high price for their ethnicity.
Mary Revesai is a New
Zimbabwe.com columnist and writes from Harare
zimbabwejournalists.com
26th Feb 2008 10:10 GMT
By Mutumwa Mawere
The land
question has provided an eloquent and visible injury to a
beleagured regime
that has regrettably transformed a dyanmic and forward
looking population
into a fearful, cynical and angry people. Even on the
eve of a historic and
defining election the majority of the population
remains suffocated by a
veil of impossibility particularly in so far as
changing of the guard at the
Presidential level is concerned.
The problem in Zimbabwe is now beyond
the leadership issue but has grown
like a terminal cancer and now the
governed appear to be more confused than
the governors. It is evident also
that the problem confronting Zimbabwe is
that people want change and yet it
appears that they would like to do the
same things with the same players for
more time. Any change while desirable
is not trusted to an extent that
people would rather sit back and allow fate
to shape their
future.
Even in this day and age, partisanship carries a lot of weight in
Zimbabwean
politics. The doors of government remain closed to the
Zimbabwean people.
The majority have accepted that ZANU-PF is invincible
forgeting that if they
can't fight the state machinery directly given its
brutal nature, the
reality is that citizens can vote to remove the cause of
their suffering.
It is true that fundamental change is never easy and yet
the country cannot
afford one extra day without making the hard and painful
decisions about its
future.
The President who is the father of the
nation in many respects has made it a
habit to use the same tired arguments
that he used at independence and as a
result over the last 28 years time has
passed by leaving the majority
hopelessly stuck in the colonial past.
People have lost hope and feel
powerless against a party that they
purportedly helped put into office.
The real point is that even President
Mugabe is acutely conscious that
Zimbabwe needs change, hope,
reconciliation, substance and above all a new
value system to begin to
restore its standard in Africa and connect with the
governments that have
turned away from the country as a consequence of
controversial and suicidal
economic policies.
The country needs a new outlook and attitude. The
need for the country to
get back to a point where people can listen and
respect each other cannot be
overstated. In the unique circumstance that
Zimbabwe finds itself it is
important for people to think about what kind of
leadership they require.
It is my humble submission that a flexible,
creative, intelligent and a
person willing to compromise is the kind of
leadership required. Among the
four that are on the menu, citizens will
have to apply their minds
critically against what the country
requires.
In view of the state of the economy, the cause of President
Mugabe and his
competitors ought to be the same. This is a moment in
Zimbabwe's history
where citizens should not settle for less and should roll
up their sleeves
and get to work. The election should not be about the four
personalities
but about the future of the country and what they country
needs.
It should not be about Tsvangirai, Mugabe or Makoni. For a change
to take
place in the tone of Zimbabwean politics, a new direction is
required. Real
progress on issues that mean something to Zimbabweans and
their quality of
life can only be possible if citizens take ownership of the
process and the
remaining days to the decision day.
Many of us are
still talking at each other instead of talking to each other.
People who are
concerned about the future of the country ought to do
something before it is
too late. They need to get out and talk to friends,
family and even
political enemies, get to writing letters and emails, get to
senting sms,
and get to use the phone to reach out and communicate the
urgency of doing
something now and more specifically on the 29th.
If you are so sick and
tired of partisanship, then the choice ought to be
easy. We must agree that
there is nothing uniquely ZANU-PF or MDC about a
respect for civil
liberties. Zimbabweans need a government that can respect
their civil and
economic rights.
If Zimbabweans need hope to sustain and define their
lives then what are
they to make of the Chinese factor in the election?
President Mugabe has
been vocal about the interference of foreign powers in
Zimbabwean affairs
and yet he has easily embraced the Chinese. Are the
Chinese not foreign?
At this defining hour in Zimbabwe's history, what is
the agenda of the
Chinese in Zimbabwe? Are they neutral players or partisan
investors? If
President Mugabe were to lose the elections, where would the
Chinese stand?
As part of President Mugabe's 84th birthday, the Chinese
through an opaque
deal involving a Zimbabwean company, Farmers World,
provided a US$42m for
the farm mechanisation program. The linkage between
the Chinese loan and
the elections is too obvious as is the fact that the
state is now conducting
its business through front companies.
The
Chinese loan was signed by central bank Governor Gideon Gono and Chinese
deputy Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng during a visit in Harare last week.
The timing of the loan and the role of Gono in furthering the political
exploits of his principal does not require any explanation but what is
significant is that President Mugabe would not take kindly to any foreign
government promising aid to Zimbabwe after the elections on a partisan basis
as is now typical for the Chinese.
The RBZ has now been converted
into a political bank and facilities are now
being directed to targeted
beneficiaries with a political bias. I have
written before about the
political implications of Gono's quasi-fiscal
activities in destorting the
politics of the country. President Mugabe
witnessed the signing ceremony
and he no doubt got the political mileage
that is vital in confusing the
masses.
Subsequent to the Chinese photo opportunity, Minister Made was in
the media
confirming that the Chinese are not alone in helping ZANU-PF win
the
elections. The Zimbabwean public was told that even the French, South
Koreans and the Middle East are not only friends of Zimbabwe but friends of
President Mugabe. It is significant that no mention was made of the fact
that France is part of the European Union and yet it is prepared to identify
with President Mugabe's government prior to the decision day.
What is
clear is that friends of Mugabe (FOG) are never enemies of Zimbabwe
notwithstanding the fact that they may be responsible for undermining
national interest. It is also obvious that in the post colonial Mugabe era
anyone associated with Mugabe's political competitors is easily labelled a
puppet, prostitute and even a frog.
The tone of Zimbabwean politics has
not changed and it would be an
understatement that Zimbabwe needs a
President who can unify the nation and
who can elevate the politics of the
country above labels and who is capable
of ending the politics of sniping.
If the Chinese have discounted the
outcome of the forthcoming elections like
many investors who would rather
side with the incumbent then they know
something that many Zimbabweans do
not know i.e. that ZANU-PF will
win.
Even if President Mugabe were to win, it is not clear whether the
country's
future will be secure. The country needs a President that can
bring
citizens into the political process than turning them off. The
Chinese are
investing in distorting the politics of Zimbabwe for profit. I
am not
convinced that the Chinese care about the quality of life for
Zimbabweans.
It is a shared observation that Zimbabwe has come to a
political standstill
over the last 8 years and the two principal political
actors must take some
responsibility for this.
SW Radio Africa (London)
25 February
2008
Posted to the web 26 February 2008
Tererai
Karimakwenda
Zimbabwe's biggest state-run hospital has stopped
performing surgical
operations.
The situation at Parirenyatwa
Hospital in Harare was confirmed by the Deputy
Health Minister Edwin Muguti,
in a report in the state's Sunday Mail
newspaper. The chairman of the
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human
Rights (ZADHR) Dr. Douglas
Gwatidzo, said there was a lack of anaesthetics,
general equipment
breakdowns and a shortage of strong analgesia, used to
ease pain after
surgery.
All patients requiring surgery are currently being referred
to Harare
Central Hospital which Gwatidzo said is already suffering the same
shortages. He added: "If I remember well there are about 12 theatres at
Parirenyatwa so this means many patients will suffer. Imagine two big
hospitals having to use the few theatres that are there at Harare
Hospital."
According to the Sunday Mail, Deputy Health Minister Edwin
Muguti blamed the
shortages on what he described as the "western-imposed
targeted sanctions".
He is quoted as saying: "These are results of
western-imposed sanctions that
we are always talking about. We can't promise
when the situation will return
to normal but we want to assure the nation
that we are treating this as an
urgent matter."
Dr Gwatidzo had a
different take on the matter saying: "It all boils down to
what we've been
saying. If the economy is poorly managed it cannot sustain
other services
that depend on it. The medical sector is a consumer of money
made
elsewhere."
It is no secret that all government run institutions have
been riddled with
corruption and mismanagement. The country's annual
inflation rate is
currently the highest in the world, officially over
100,000 percent. Experts
and analysts say the deterioration will continue
until the broader political
crisis is resolved.
In the meantime many
more people will die of treatable medical problems.
africa.oneworld.net
Kelvin Chibomba
26 February 2008
In the absence of
a reliable supply of other energy sources, the
Zimbawean Government has
launched a programme to promote the use of solar
energy as an alternative
source of energy for computers in schools around
the country, in conjunction
with Mukonitronics Private Limited. The
programme to be spread to all the
country's provinces is also being
implemented with the Zimbabwe Academic
Research Network.
Officially launching the programme at
Dzivaresekwa 2 High School
yesterday, the provincial education director for
Harare, Tomax Doba said the
launch was in line with the ministry's efforts
to make sure that all
graduates from the education system were computer
literate.
"We are moving in to promote the use of solar power as an
alternative
to hydro electricity supply that has been erratic in the
country. The
ministry feels there should be no excuse for schools not to
take lessons in
computers because of power outages when we can harness solar
energy". Doba
said his ministry had started a programme to train more
computer teachers so
as to curb the current shortages that has hit the
country.
"Government has also made it a policy that all graduates
leaving
teachers' colleges are computer literate. Now that the teachers are
coming I
want to appeal to school development authorities, parents and
school heads
to secure more computers so that all pupils have a chance to
interact with
the machines," he said.
(Source: The Herald)
Time Magazine
Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 By ALEX
PERRY
As he celebrated his 84th birthday last week, Zimbabwe's
president Robert
Mugabe may have joined millions of his countrymen
reflecting on the single
question that has come to dominate his 27-year
rule: How long can 'Uncle
Bob' go on? Democracy will not unseat him; the
joint presidential and
parliamentary election scheduled for March 29 will be
neither free nor fair.
The Zimbabwean army has orders to oversee the poll,
while opposition
politicians remain at the mercy of the police, and
journalists are still
subject to arrest. In fact, most Zimbabweans are too
worried about finding
their next meal in a country where the official
inflation rate has passed
100,000% to concern themselves with challenging
one of Africa's most
enduring strongmen. Still, recent weeks have witnessed
a series of events
that suggest Mugabe is facing a concerted challenge from
what, to outsiders,
will seem an unexpected quarter: within his own Zanu PF
party.
Earlier this month, former finance minister and Zanu PF stalwart
Simba
Makoni announced he would stand against Mugabe in the poll. Makoni is
an
unknown quantity: in office he had a reputation as a technocrat who
tended
toward moderation and pragmatism, but one who was also a fully
paid-up
member of the Mugabe machine. But the significance of Makoni lies
less in
what he is than in what he represents - a split in the ruling party.
"There
is a sense that this is a real opportunity," says Elizabeth
Sidiropoulos,
national director of the South African Institute of
International Affairs,
in Johannesburg, South Africa. "Mugabe's position is
really being
threatened." Lack of transparency and of a free press inside
Zimbabwe has
made it hard to pinpoint the direction of Zanu PF and, just as
significantly, which party power brokers might be backing Makoni, she says,
but "it appears as though a split is happening before our eyes."
Nor is
Makoni's the only challenge to Mugabe. Sidiropoulos and Chris
Maroleng of
the Institute for Security Studies, also in Johannesburg,
confirm reports
from inside Zimbabwe that scores of Zanu PF members are
standing as
independents against their party's official candidates. "With a
weak
opposition, the best chance for change is a reconstituted Zanu PF,"
says
Maroleng. "This election shows that there is significant indiscipline
and
disarray with the party, and efforts being made to achieve precisely
that."
Maroleng says he has been told that leading Zanu PF figures
such as former
defense chief General Solomon Mujuru, former home minister
Dumiso Dabengwa,
and General Vitalis Zvinavashe, who succeeded Mujuru, are
backing Makoni and
the renegade Zanu PF candidates. (There has been no
official announcement.)
Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction of the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (M.D.C.) has also endorsed
Makoni's bid, while Mutambara's
M.D.C. rival Morgan Tsvangirai, who
initially dismissed the former finance
minister as "old wine in a new
bottle," will meet Makoni to discuss a
possible alliance, according to a
report in the Harare-based Zimbabwe
Independent on Friday.
The reason
for rising discontent inside Zanu PF is not hard to guess. Not
even their
exalted status in Mugabe's machine can protect the Zanu PF
leaders from the
ravages of an economy that is collapsing as fast as any in
history. Last
week the government announced inflation had breached 100,000%,
up from
66,000% in December. Industry, agriculture and the service sector
have all
but ceased to exist. Shops stock no food, and power cuts last for
days.
Between a quarter and a third of Zimbabwe's original population of 13
million are believed to have fled the country, the majority for neighboring
South Africa. The only functioning part of the country is the security
apparatus, but, aside from Mugabe's bodyguards, even that is now
questionable, with consistent reports of no pay, sporadic mutinies and the
apparent allying of some heavyweight military figures against Mugabe. "These
guys have a bottom line," says Marengo, "and Mugabe is increasingly seen as
an economic liability."
Few, however, discount Mugabe's shrewdness or
his capacity for survival
after 27 years in power. "With the implosion on
his party," says Marengo,
"Mugabe will continue to rely on the security
establishment to ensure all
decisions are done in his interest. He will
resort to extra-legal measures.
And given his history, you have to say that
it is highly unlikely that
Makoni will win." Nevertheless, the result will
be keenly watched.
"People will make their moves based on the result,"
says Marengo. One key
factor could be the degree to which the security
services rig the vote, as
normal, or the countervailing influence of Makoni,
Mujuru and others can
persuade them to stand aside. The London-based
Zimbabwean newspaper even
published a front-page story on Thursday detailing
what it said was Mugabe's
contingency plan to flee the country should his
position become untenable
after the poll. But most analysts agree such
reports are more wishful
thinking than fact. South African government and
Zimbabwean opposition
sources claim it is true, however, that the question
of Mugabe's
retirement - and a deal giving him immunity from prosecution for
war crimes
and genocide over the Matabeleland massacres of the 1980s - has
long been
high on the agenda of mediation talks, led by South African
President Thabo
Mbeki, between Mugabe's regime and Zimbabwe's opposition.
"It's been a long,
long beginning to the end," says Sidiropoulos, "and the
lesson is: never
underestimate the power of fear in totalitarian regimes.
But the point
remains: if you are able to remove Mugabe, however it happens,
then that
creates an opening for a return to normality."
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Extravagant birthday celebrations seen as emblematic of lack of care
for the
nation.
By Mike Nyoni in Harare (AR No. 158,
26-Feb-08)
The greatest irony of President Robert Mugabe's birthday bash
last week was
that few of the thousands of youths he regaled will reach his
ripe old age
of 84.
Under Mugabe's rule, life expectancy in Zimbabwe
has declined from about 65
years at independence from Britain in 1980 to the
current 36 years for men
and 34 years for women. The AIDS scourge has only
added to the humanitarian
crisis in the country, which began eight years ago
with Mugabe's decision to
expropriate white-owned commercial farms,
ostensibly to give to landless
veterans of the independence
war.
Observers say most of the productive farms went to Mugabe's cronies
and
members of the military and police who have no idea about
farming.
The economic collapse meant that a majority of the youths
cheering Mugabe at
his birthday extravaganza had no job and would be
returning to rural or
urban poverty as soon as the festivities were
over.
Few of them have any illusions that they might reach half Mugabe's
age. "We
have heard it said that life begins at 40 but that statement rings
empty to
me," said a youth from the ruling ZANU-PF party who said he was
going to the
birthday celebration in Beitbridge, on the South African
border, for the
food.
"Poverty, AIDS and stress are taking their
toll. Most of us have no future
to look forward to. We have no jobs, we have
no education to talk about and
that is very stressful."
Ironically,
when Zimbabwe won its independence in 1980, it was regarded as
the "jewel of
Africa". It was also considered the breadbasket of the region,
exporting the
staple maize to neighbouring countries in years of deficit.
It has become
a net importer since the destruction of agriculture,
considered the backbone
of the economy. "To me the real irony is that Mugabe
wants to teach our
children that he is a role model leader, when he has
deprived them of a
secure future through his criminal policies," said Anna
Gonzo, a housewife
in Harare.
"He is a very bad example of what a father should be like, let
alone a
national leader. He doesn't have the authority to stand before our
children
telling them about principles and morality when he has literally
ruined
their lives."
She said while Mugabe was happy to boast about
the seven degrees he acquired
under the repressive colonial regime of Ian
Smith, few young people can
afford a university education now because of
astronomical costs and a lack
of facilities.
Zimbabwe has been in the
grip of a political and economic crisis for the
past eight years, estimated
by economists to have cut gross domestic product
to 1953 levels.
The
unemployment rate has spiraled to 85 per cent while half the population
is
estimated to subsist below the poverty line.
"Shameless as he is, Mugabe
is happy to tell the youth that all their
problems are the result of western
sanctions, not his own economic and
political failures," said Gonzo.
"Fortunately few people still buy into this
propaganda
anymore."
Mugabe is almost the oldest active politician in the country,
second only to
his vice-president, Joseph Msika, who is older by three
months.
The similarities end there, however. Msika has on several
occasions opposed
Mugabe's haphazard seizure of white-owned commercial farms
and has been
critical of Mugabe's endorsement as the ruling party's
presidential
candidate for next month's election.
The two nationalist
leaders have been together since the 1987 Unity Accord
between ZANU-PF and
the defunct ZAPU-PF, which was led by the late Joshua
Nkomo.
Mugabe's
birthday celebrations were characterised by extravagant feasting at
a time
when nearly four million people are facing starvation or survive on
donor
assistance.
Analysts say it is emblematic of Mugabe's lack of care for
the nation that
he should entertain his cronies and ministers in the midst
of grinding
poverty. "Can you imagine how many people could have been fed
from the
[funds] ZANU-PF raised for this personal junket?" said one analyst
in the
capital Harare.
"But it would be expecting too much to think
that ZANU-PF would scrimp on
food just because a few people were starving
next door."
Mike Nyoni is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in
Zimbabwe.
The Sowetan
Book: Mugabe - Power, Plunder
and the Struggle for Zimbabwe
Author: Martim
Meredith
Publisher: Jonathan Ball
Reviewer: Don
Makatile
Mad Old Bob across the Limpopo hasn't been strictly bad
news, after all.
The megalomaniacal Robert Mugabe has been a boon for the
literary world,
especially for those writers with an interest in Zimbabwe,
such as Andrew
Meldrum and Martin Meredith .
The antics of the
84-year-old Mugabe have been as much fodder for these
writers and their ilk
as the indiscretions of Jacob Zuma have been material
for cartoonists
here.
All Meredith has had to do was to sit and watch - and Mad Bob
hasn't
disappointed.
Meredith wrote the first edition in 2002, then
updated it the following
year. Thanks to Mugabe's senility and belligerence,
this copy, the latest,
has had three chapters added - A Stolen Election
(Chapter 14), Murambatsvina
(Chapter 15) and How Long The Night (Chapter
16).
You can bet your bottom dollar (preferably not the Zim currency)
that if Bob
stays on much longer - he's already joked that he'll be in
control until he's
a century old - Meredith, writing out of Oxford in
England, will fatten his
Mugabe - Power, Plunder and the Struggle for
Zimbabwe a lot further!
This is basically the story of a bookworm who,
having qualified as a
teacher, left home for a vacancy in Ghana, where he'd
meet his future wife,
Sally, the only living person who'd ever be able to
tame his behavioural
excesses.
What he sees in Kwame Nkrumah's land
is paradise; it tells him the status
quo at home must not persist. He comes
back to the then Rhodesia to take up
arms with the objective of setting up a
Zimbabwe free from colonialism.
After 11 solid years in Ian Smith's jail,
he emerges - unlike the
conciliatory Nelson Mandela down south, bitter, more
determined to ensure
that those "with their pink noses do not meddle in our
affairs".
Hailed as a hero, he inherits what the late Mwalimu Julius
Nyerere would
describe as a jewel.
Some years down the line, the man
who gallantly fought white rule alongside
Joshua Nkomo, of Zapu, would morph
into a lunatic, turning a once-thriving
economy into a sorry basket case
with, at a mad 100000 percent, the world's
highest inflation
rate.
The land issue, the central theme of the volatile situation in
Zimbabwe, is
handled satisfactorily here. The beauty of Meredith's writing
is that he
tries - yes, he tries - to present both sides of the (land)
story.
During the scramble for Africa, Britons came to Rhodesia to force
the likes
of Chief Tangwena off their land, and now, in the 21st century,
they want
the world to know that an injustice is being visited upon them -
Mugabe
wants to take their land!
Meredith tries to camouflage the
seriousness of the matter by choosing to
quote a comical Sabina Mugabe, the
president's sister, saying indigenous
Zimbabweans will not pay a cent for
white farms because the whites stole the
land in the first
place.
Mugabe's viciousness on opponents is scary and spine-chilling. The
people of
Matabeleland, victims of the notorious Five Brigade, know Mugabe's
wrath
better.
So does the MDC.
This is the same Mugabe, the
educated freedom fighter who, with several
university degrees to his name,
has been such a truculent sort that he
bragged in 2000 that he had a degree
in violence!
This is all information in the public domain, but Meredith's
titbits of
research make the book all the more worthy of attention.
The Age, Australia
Peter
Roebuck
February 27, 2008
A report being prepared by KPMG must lift
the lid on the ZCU's corruption.
A LETTER arrived from a rising young
cricketer in Zimbabwe, a well-educated
black player committed to the game
and eager to serve his country. It is
also a letter from the betrayed, from
a cricketer let down by greedy,
arrogant, hate-filled elders.
It was
not the only correspondence to arrive from the ailing cricketers of
that
country. Of course, it is idle to suppose that the opportunists running
Zimbabwean cricket might care about anything except themselves. But their
paymasters, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, ought to rethink a
close relationship that brings shame on their house. Perhaps, too, obedient
television commentators with international voices will remember that they
are part of the media and therefore responsible for confronting
tyranny.
After apologising for a long silence caused by a lack of funds,
the emerging
player went on to describe the state of the game in his
country. He could
not attend any of the recent practice sessions because he
had no transport
money, which was "a bit of a letdown".
Warming to
his theme, he said he was "saddened by the way cricket is being
run". "The
state of the fields is pathetic, the pitches are not getting
rolled, fields
are not getting cut and ZCU cannot even provide umpires. A
lot of talent is
been lost because the people running the game don't care
about the players.
I hope I am not sounding like a complaining softie. I
just needed to get it
out of my chest."
As much can be confirmed from a glance at the Cricinfo
website, which has
become the most valuable voice in the game. In a recent
series of articles
on the state of the game in Zimbabwe, Cricinfo published
several pictures of
major club grounds. In most cases, outfield, nets and
pitches were wildly
overgrown, with hip-high grass and no sign of rollers or
mowers. Apart from
various school grounds maintained by well-organised
institutions, and some
of the international grounds, cricket fields are in
an abject state. The
Zimbabwe Cricket Union was given millions of dollars
after the 2007 World
Cup.
Nor is that all. Statisticians complain
that scorers are not provided at
first-class matches, which makes it
impossible to accurately record the
figures. Inevitably, declining standards
off the field are reflected on it.
The national side has been humiliated in
South Africa's domestic
competition. Zimbabwe's under-19 side was beaten by
Malaysia at the recent
youth World Cup.
Far from welcoming the light
shed on Zimbabwean cricket by the website, ZCU
authorities, fearing exposure
and scared of the truth, have refused to
co-operate with it. Worse, they
have spread rumours about its leading
figures. Now the game awaits the
results of the recent and long-delayed
forensic audit carried out on ZCU by
a reputable company. KPMG is due to
submit its conclusions to the next
International Cricket Council meeting in
March. It will not want to risk its
reputation by signing off on anything
slipshod. Presumably, senior officials
have been co-operating. Rumours that
Ozias Bvute has been especially elusive
must be mischievous, for he must be
eager to clear his name. Doubtless, the
circumstances behind the buying of
houses in Harare and Cape Town have been
investigated and satisfactory
explanations provided. Beyond argument, no
official has made the mistake of
using ZCU funds or sponsors for private
purposes.
Of course, KPMG was not called upon to consider the state of
cricket
grounds, or nepotism at ZCU offices, or the inability to provide
scorers or
what proportion of the World Cup money was given to players, and
under what
circumstances. Nor was it empowered to look into threats to
players, or the
way Bvute and Peter Chingoka stop players negotiating
collectively. But KPMG
will follow the money trail and many stakeholders are
relying on it to open
the can of worms. Make no mistake, Chingoka and Bvute
are poisonous.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe and his cronies fill
their coffers and
the Bvute and Chingoka families live in luxury in New York
and London. If
the KPMG report is damning or even curtailed, it will be up
to the BCCI to
rid the game of these forces of destruction. Otherwise it,
too, will shortly
have blood on its hands.