Zim Online
Thursday 08 February 2007
HARARE -
There is nothing to suggest that a new-look Cabinet announced by
President
Robert Mugabe on Tuesday will offer any new ideas to extricate
Zimbabwe from
a seven-year old economic mire as Mugabe had merely recycled
dead wood,
analysts have warned.
Mugabe wielded the axe on Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa and handed over
the key finance position to veteran educationist,
Samuel Mumbengegwi.
The reshuffle also saw Rugare Gumbo - former Minister
of Economic
Development - moving to the agriculture portfolio and taking
over from
Joseph Made, who becomes Minister of Agricultural Engineering and
Mechanisation.
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, who was Deputy Minister of Higher
and Tertiary Education,
took over the hot seat at the Ministry of
Information and Publicity while
Sylvester Nguni was appointed Minister of
Economic Development.
Until his promotion, Nguni was Deputy Minister of
Agriculture.
Wellington Chibhebhe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe
Congress of
Trade Unions said the labour union was "dismayed" by the Cabinet
reshuffle
as Mugabe had merely recycled dead wood.
"What new ideas
can 'tried and failed' people like Sikhanyiso Ndlovu bring
to the
Information Ministry?
"He has been rejected time and again by the people
of Bulawayo and the
President rewards him by appointing him to an even
higher office," said
Chibebe.
"Is the President serious when he
appoints Samuel Mumbengegwi to the
position of Minister of Finance?" added
Chibebe.
The ZCTU secretary general said the "new-look" Cabinet did not
have any
fresh ideas to offer to the people of Zimbabwe.
Analysts say
sharp differences between Murerwa and central bank chief Gideon
Gono on how
to run Zimbabwe's embattled economy might have influenced
Mugabe's decision
to accept Murerwa's resignation from the government.
Murerwa is
understood to have tendered his resignation letter in January in
what the
analysts said was a victory for Gono.
The analysts said Mugabe had no
choice but to accept the resignation and
bring in new faces in the finance
ministry to complement the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s "transitional"
economic recovery package.
"It was a strategic move for him (Mugabe) to
bring in someone not trained as
an economist to run such a key portfolio as
the Ministry of Finance because
he was trying to build a strong team to
steer the movement towards a social
contract as indicated by Gono," said an
investment analyst with a
Harare-based financial institution who could not
be named for professional
reasons.
Gono's transitional economic
recovery programme, announced on January 31,
pins hope on the creation of a
binding pact between government, business,
labour and civil
society.
The RBZ chief had clashed with Murerwa over the direction of the
country's
economic revival programme, and has since his appointment in
December 2003
tended to overshadow his former boss.
When announcing
his monetary policy statement last month, Gono betrayed a
veiled frustration
with the lack of support from his superiors and said he
was not going to
prescribe any new measures until there is mutual consent on
how to turn
around the economy.
It is this frustration that could have forced Mugabe
- who is known for
recycling the same faces in his Cabinet - to accept
Murerwa's resignation
and assign such a crucial ministry to an
educationist.
The analysts said Mumbengegwi's elevation - and that of
Walter Mzembi -
could have been Mugabe's reward for the resurgence of
support for the ruling
ZANU PF party in the key Masvingo province.
An
agriculturist, Mzembi came in as Deputy Minister for Water Resources and
Infrastructure Development.
Faction-ridden Masvingo has been stable
in the past few years since
Mumbengegwi took over as provincial chairman of
the party.
"I am persuaded that political considerations loomed larger
than management
issues which require selecting those that are best at
delivering on
assignments," said University of Zimbabwe political science
lecturer Eldred
Masunungure.
Masunungure noted that Mugabe, who turns
83 this month, appeared to reward
those provinces that supported his quest
to move presidential elections to
2010 and punished those that refused to
support the plan.
At least eight out of 10 ZANU PF provinces endorsed a
plan to extend
Mugabe's term by a further two years, with only Mashonaland
Central and
Mashonaland East objecting to the plan.
A spokesperson in
the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) faction,
Nelson Chamisa, was forthright in his criticism of Mugabe's
Cabinet
reshuffle.
"Expecting tired and recycled ideas to change the nation's
economic fortunes
is like giving cafenol to a patient in the intensive care
unit.
"Mugabe has retained the same corrupt sharks in his government and
no amount
of shuffling of chairs will change the nature and character of
ZANU PF's
corrupt persona," he said.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a
biting economic crisis, which has been marked
by runaway inflation of more
than 1 280 percent, shortages of foreign
currency and raw materials, and the
inability of the beleaguered country to
meet its foreign obligations. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 08 February 2007
By Wayne Mafaro
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's consumer rights watchdog says an average of family of
five in the
country now needs a staggering Z$460 000 a month to survive, up
from $250
000 recorded last December as a seven-year old economic crisis
showed no
signs of easing up.
The majority of Zimbabwe's workers earn average
salaries of below Z$150 000
a month.
In a statement released on
Tuesday, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ)
said it was concerned with
the huge increase in the prices of basic
commodities.
"Prices of most
basic commodities have increased by worrying margins, a
situation which has
brought untold suffering to most consumers whose
salaries have lagged behind
whilst prices skyrocketed," said the CCZ.
The CCZ said the rise in the
family basket reflected an 86.8 percentage rise
in the cost of
living.
"Notable increases were recorded in education which rose by 261.9
percent,
white sugar by 255.6 percent, roller meal by 235.6 percent,
transport by
190.9 percent, bread by 179.7 percent, clothing and footwear by
119.4
percent, vegetables by 131.3 percent and cooking oil 91.3 percent,"
said the
CCZ.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe seven-year old
economic crisis that has
manifested itself in the world's highest inflation
rate of over 1 200
percent and shortages of almost all basic survival
commodities.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party and major
Western governments blame the crisis on mismanagement by
President Robert
Mugabe in power since the country's independence from
Britain 27 years
ago. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 08 February 2007
By Brian
Ncube
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwean government has begun giving junior
members of the
uniformed forces food rations to supplement their meagre
salaries amid
widespread fears of revolt by disgruntled junior security
officers,
ZimOnline has learnt.
In a move highlighting that all was
not well within the security forces, the
government is said to have begun
giving out the food rations last Friday to
contain rising discontent within
the army and police over poor salaries.
The lowest paid junior officer in
the army and police earns about Z$75 000
per month, an amount that is way
below the Z$460 000 that the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe says a family of
five needs per month to survive.
Army commander Constantine Chiwenga and
Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri last year told President Robert Mugabe
to hike salaries for security
forces ten-fold to boost morale among security
forces and stop poorly paid
junior officers from deserting to look for jobs
elsewhere.
A soldier based at Imbizo Barracks in Bulawayo confirmed to
ZimOnline
yesterday that the government was giving them food rations to
complement
their meager salaries.
"Each junior officer received a
10kg bag of maize, a two litre gallon of
cooking oil, a 1kg packet of fish
and a 1kg bag of sugar beans. The soldiers
have already received their
ratios for the month," he said.
Junior police officers will also receive
their food rations by mid-February
following delays in compiling names of
beneficiaries.
"They (junior police officers) were supposed to get their
rations at the end
of January but due to a delay in compiling their names,
we had to push the
arrangement to mid-month.
"They will start
receiving their rations probably starting on the 15th of
this month," said a
senior police inspector based in Harare.
The move to hand out food
rations to junior police officers follows a memo
written by Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri early last month, a copy of
which was seen by
ZimOnline, advising police commanders to compile names of
junior police
officers before January 17.
The police signal, reference number MM123/07,
titled, "Nominal Rolls for
Food Rations," and was dated January 9 2007 read
in part: "Nominal rolls
should include the member's full name and EC
(Employment Code) number, date
attested and date to station. This should be
done before January 17."
A junior police officer who refused to be named,
described the move to give
them food rations as an insult given the hard
work they were doing to
protect "an unpopular regime."
The police
officers said Mugabe should give them enough money instead of
food
rations.
"We came here to work for money and not food. I think the old
man is not
serious at all," said the officer.
Contacted for comment
yesterday, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi
confirmed that the government
was handing out food rations to soldiers.
He said: "This is just one of
the many efforts we are putting in to make
sure that members of the security
forces are well catered for.
"The issue of their salaries is also being
looked into and will be addressed
as soon as funds are made available," he
said.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the move to hand out the
rations was
meant to alleviate some of the suffering among junior police
officers.
"The junior officers will receive the rations as a way of
alleviating their
financial problems. The government realises that the money
they are getting
is not enough.
"I cannot say if police officers are
happy or not with the move but it will
benefit them," said
Bvudzijena.
Zimbabwe is in its seventh straight year of economic
recession which has
seen the government struggle to pay its
workers.
Mugabe, has increasingly relied on the security forces to crush
dissension
against his 27-year rule amid a deteriorating economic meltdown,
hunger and
poverty. - ZimOnline
By Lance Guma
07
February 2007
A cabinet reshuffle Tuesday deepened confusion over whether
finance minister
Herbert Murerwa had resigned or was fired by Mugabe. Online
publication Zim
Daily reported that Murerwa was last seen in his office last
year and had
already resigned his post because the Reserve Bank was usurping
his powers
as finance minister. Central Bank governor Gideon Gono is said to
have had a
public row with Murerwa in December last year. This infuriated
Murerwa who
considered Gono his junior both in terms of political stature
and position
in government. Former Minister of State for Indigenisation,
Samuel
Mumbengegwi takes over the job.
The reshuffle itself offered
nothing new. The same old ministers were
retained but moved around to
different ministries. Former deputy minister of
education Sikhanyiso Ndlovu
becomes the new minister of information, while
Paul Mangwana who previously
held that position becomes Minister of State
for Indigenisation and
Empowerment. Sidney Sekeramayi remains Defence
Minister, Didymus Mutasa-
Security Minister and Ignatius Chombo- Local
Government Minister.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made has been shifted to
the new Agriculture
Engineering and Mechanisation ministry while his former
deputy Sylvester
Nguni has been put in charge of the Economic Development
ministry.
The opposition meanwhile described the reshuffle as an
attempt at
'rearranging the deck of a sinking titanic.' Nelson Chamisa the
spokesman
for the Tsvangirai MDC says the new cabinet has merely assembled
the same
'corrupt barons, racketeers and deadwood.' He said the fact that
the last
three finance ministers from Nkosana Moyo, Simba Makoni and now
Herbert
Murerwa had all resigned showed a clear frustration with Mugabe's
policies.
'Merely transferring faces from one ministry to the other will not
resolve
the country's political and economic crisis,' Chamisa said. The MDC
says
what is needed is to address fundamental issues to do with institutions
and
structures running the country and this included crafting a political
solution.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Violet
Gonda
7 February 2007
The pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise
reports that 11 members were
arrested in Nketa Bulawayo on Tuesday. WOZA
coordinator Jenni Williams said
eight women, three men and two babies were
arrested by police who had
disrupted their meeting just as it started. She
said the mothers and babies
were released into the custody of their lawyer
for the night but nine
remained in custody. They were all released Wednesday
morning when the two
mothers went to report to the police.
The group
says since Monday there has been an incredible amount of
surveillance by
police details at their meetings. Commenting on Tuesday's
arrests, Williams
said: "We were due to have a meeting to discuss the issue
of school fees for
our members when plain clothes police officers came. We
decided to dispense
with the meeting and these people were actually arrested
some blocks away
from the venue after riot police came from the Tshabalala
station."
Meanwhile most of the students who were arrested in
Bulawayo on Tuesday have
been released. A statement by the Zimbabwe National
Students Union said 76
students were released on Wednesday after paying
fines but 2 student leaders
are still in police custody.
ZINASU
reports that some of the students sustained serious injuries after
the
police beat them.
The group said the police were still holding Blessing
Vava, the Bulawayo
Poly SRC President and Lawrence Mashungu, the National
Chairperson of
Zimbabwe Student Christian Movement, who is also the ZINASU
regional
Chairperson. Reasons for their continued detention were not
given.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Yahoo News
2 hours, 45 minutes
ago
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe has warned it will jail retailers who have
made
massive price hikes for essential goods after the cost of living for a
family of six in urban areas shot up by 87 percent last month.
"The
government is concerned about the recent spate of speculative increases
by
business and will not stand by and watch the already overburdened
consumers
being subjected to further unjustified price hikes," the ministry
of
industry and international trade said in a statement.
The ministry said
retailers who effected price hikes after the Reserve Bank
announced a new
monetary policy last week could be fined or imprisoned.
"Charging more
than the price set by the price stabilisation committee for
controlled and
monitored goods will attract a fine or a prison sentence,"
the ministry
said.
A price survey conducted by the central bank showed that the cost
of some
foodstuffs, alcohol, clothes, rent and furniture shot up by 400
percent in
one week before the monetary policy was unveiled.
The
ministry said unjustified price hikes could force the government to
review
the list of controlled goods.
Parliament will debate a national incomes
and pricing commission bill, which
seeks to provide for stiffer penalties
for price control violations.
The country's consumer watchdog has
meanwhile said the cost of living for an
urban family of six galloped by 87
percent from 345,661 Zimbabwe dollars
(1,383 US dollars) in December to
458,986 dollars.
"Prices of basic commodities have increased by worrying
margins, a situation
which has brought untold suffering to most consumers
whose salaries have
lagged behind whilst prices skyrocketed," the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe
said.
The price of a loaf of bread, the most
common meal for the average
Zimbabwean, went up from 300 dollars early
December to 850 by the month's
end while the price of cooking oil also went
up nearly two-fold.
The average monthly salary for an urban worker is
65,000 dollars and most
families often resort to skipping some meals while
workers walk or cycle up
to 30 kilometres to work in order to stretch their
income to the next pay
day.
Some workers supplement their salaries by
selling goods like clothes at
workplaces while others double as cross-border
traders and street vendors
during weekends and holidays.
For most
families ingredients like milk for tea and margarine or jam have
become
luxuries they have struck off their list of groceries, while a square
meal
is rare.
Reuters
Wed Feb 7, 2007 5:17 PM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe suggested on Wednesday
his government would not tolerate
protests against plans to extend his rule,
saying such actions were being
spearheaded by "deranged" people.
Mugabe spoke to journalists soon after
swearing in new ministers following
an overnight mini reshuffle in which he
dropped Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa.
When asked to comment on
opposition threats to mount peaceful
anti-government protests Mugabe said:
"The deranged ones? ... they are in
the wilderness. We will not allow
that."
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since independence from Britain in
1980 and
who turns 83 on Feb 21, has previously said the army would "pull
the
trigger" against opponents planning to protest against his controversial
policies.
His ruling ZANU-PF last December "noted and adopted" a
resolution to defer
presidential elections due next year to 2010,
effectively extending Mugabe's
term in office.
A splinter group of
the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said
on Tuesday it would
roll out a countrywide mass protest program against the
plan and to push for
a new constitution.
Political analysts say increasing hardships, and not
a fragmented
opposition, now pose a serious threat to Mugabe's long
rule.
Zimbabwe is gripped by its worst economic crisis dramatised by
inflation of
over 1,200 percent, shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel and
unemployment above 80 percent.
Mugabe denies mismanaging the
economy and accuses the West of sabotage as
punishment for his policy of
seizing white farms to resettle landless
blacks.
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations]
HARARE , 7 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - A wave of
strikes in Zimbabwe is making the threat of a "crippling" general strike by the
country's largest union federation largely academic, as current industrial
action or threats of more to come are already bringing the scenario to pass.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which has often been in
the vanguard of protest against President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government, is
taking a back seat, while a whole swathe of society, including doctors, nurses,
teachers, university lecturers and tobacco industry workers have embarked on
strike action, and miners, government employees and students are on the brink of
doing so.
Although previous calls for general strikes by the ZCTU have
largely gone unheeded, the federation's president, Lovemore Matombo, has set a
23 February deadline for government to improve working and living conditions, or
face industrial action. University students said they would boycott lectures
next week, but many are already not attending classes because lecturers are on
strike.
Wage negotiations between miners and the Zimbabwe Chamber of
Mines (ZCM) deadlocked in late January, and Tinago Ruzive, chairman of the
Associated Mine Workers Union, said the union was now considering the way
forward. The mining industry is the country's second biggest employer after the
agricultural sector.
Ad hoc strikes, such as a recent one-day walkout by
employees of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) for better pay,
are an illustration of the high levels of dissatisfaction among the national
workforce as a consequence of the world's highest inflation level, now at 1,281
percent.
Record inflation
While inflation soars, wages remain
static. According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's most recent report on
the monthly budget of the average low-income urban earner, the cost of living
has increased two-fold in a month. In January the council put the required
budget for a family of six at US$92, up from the previous month's requirement of
US$49.
In recent years, the formal economy has shrunk by 65 percent,
agricultural production has declined by 50 percent, unemployment has been
running at nearly 80 percent and shortages of food, fuel, electricity, medicines
and foreign currency have become commonplace.
"The strike by ZESA,
tobacco workers, medical practitioners and teachers is for a worthy cause,"
Matombo said. "With the average minimum wage currently pegged at Z$90,000 (US$18
at the parallel market rate*) and an average family needing Z$459,000 (US$92) to
meet basic monthly requirements, and inflation at more than 1,200 percent per
month, the nation must brace itself for more serious strikes as workers fail to
make ends meet."
Although the ZCTU, an ally of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party, has been a fervent critic of Mugabe,
disillusionment with the ZANU-PF government's handling of the economy is
spreading among government employees.
Edmore Tichareva, executive
secretary of the Public Service Association (PSA), commented that "The PSA,
having noted with great concern that the salaries that were awarded civil
servants in January 2007 had been eroded by inflation long before they were
earned, has resolved to engage the government with a view to have this matter
addressed."
The association has not ruled out the possibility of strike
action. "In the meantime, the provincial structures of the PSA have been
requested to hold meetings with members to plan for the way forward in the event
that we do not get the relief we are seeking," Tichareva said.
Tendai
Chikowore, president of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association, (ZIMTA) said the
association's members were becoming worn down by the government's failure to put
inflation in check and were "being short-changed, and thus heavily paying for
their understanding, patience and resilience." ZIMTA is widely regarded as a
pro-government body.
Go Figure |
On the Programme ‘Hot Seat’ Journalist Violet Gonda speaks to
politician Margaret Dongo
Broadcast 06 February 2007
Violet Gonda: Our guest on the programme Hot Seat today is Margaret Dongo a former freedom fighter, politician, and social commentator. She went to fight in the war of liberation when she was 15 years old. After independence she worked in government for a number of years before leaving the ruling party and running as an independent candidate in 1995. Margaret Dongo is the first person to successfully challenge an election result in court, becoming the first independent MP in Zimbabwe. Mrs Dongo served in parliament until 2000 as President of the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats.
I started by asking her what she was doing now and whether she is still an active politician?
Margaret Dongo: Yes I am but it depends on how
people determine one’s participation in politics, because what happens here
normally in Zimbabwe is that one has to make noise in order to be heard so that
that’s how they can gauge a person who is in active politics. But, let me say,
you know, politics, it’s a question of how you define politics. Politics as far
as I’m concerned is that ability to bring about a change into the well being of
the entire society. You can do it in a different way. Politics is not all about
holding an office, but there are a lot of contributions that one can do outside
office, which is still politics. So, I’m doing a lot of things, which are in
line with the politics as well, and I’m still in politics, as I said, today.
Violet: What was it like being in ZANU PF and why did you break away from the party?
Margaret Dongo: Have a look, when we talk about my experience in ZANU PF I think it’s important to share with other people. I’ve no regrets for being in ZANU PF anyway, I started in ZANU PF when I was fifteen years of age. But have a look, we should agree to disagree when things are going wrong, and I think that’s the starting point. And, what I think went wrong, as one of the former freedom fighters, I felt betrayed because I felt that the ideals of the liberation struggle were beginning to be betrayed as early as 1990 when I was actually making a lot of controversy and people could not agree with me and at times people ended up abusing me and thinking that how can a woman challenge these issues.
So, I felt betrayed in the sense that you know, we were not fighting to be as poor as what we are today, we were not fighting to live in abject poverty. We were not fighting for us to live like destitutes. We were not fighting to actually get in the shoes of the former as well. So what we were fighting for we thought we were going to bring an independent Zimbabwe. But, if you look round you find a situation where today you can even ask yourself when you go to certain parts of the country, especially in the rural areas, you ask yourself whether these people have had independence, whether they are in an independent Zimbabwe.
So, for me, I felt betrayed because we were not able to deliver the goods and because a lot of things were beginning to crop up like corruption, nepotism and everything, which helped to destroy the economy and the politics of this country. And this is why I left ZANU PF and those things have not yet been corrected and I’ve no dream of going back because it doesn’t make any sense, I’m a principled person. For as long as the system is still as evil as before then why, because we were not fighting Smith as in colour, but we were fighting the discriminatory tendencies, all the law, the problems that we experienced during the colonial regime. And, those problems are even surfacing in a greater volume in a different situation, which is even worse. So, that’s why I’m saying the reason is that’s not what we were fighting for and that’s why I left.
Violet: And you served in Parliament until 2000, now why was it difficult to break through as an Independent?
Margaret Dongo: Let me tell you, you know you can’t fight a lone battle. There’s no way you can fight a lone battle and win a strong system like ZANU PF. ZANU PF is deep rooted. It’s a party that started as early as 1960’s and it came through the liberation struggle and the majority of the people, especially the rural, they still have that experience of the liberation struggle and they still have that in their mind. And, it’s not easy to change people over night, so it’s a process. So, it wouldn’t be easy.
In fact, for me, I made a greater achievement as I have said, I am one of the proud persons that we can talk about because out of my strength, out of my position to be independent, it actually bore very good fruits which are sweet today because it has developed a lot of opposition from there. Because, if people could say ‘if Margaret can challenge as an Independent, why not men like us do the same way?’ And, this is how, if you look at the history of our opposition political parties, they started from the 1990’s, even though we had other political parties operating before, but, I’m telling you, the most effective one actually mushroomed from the 1998 to date, before there wasn’t. But, it’s because of a mere challenge. If someone can challenge and other people can say ‘OK, if Margaret can challenge and nothing happened to her, why don’t we come in?’
But, the problems that we have which I want to mention, as Zimbabweans, is that we have no unity. Our approach at times bears this tendency of undermining each other. You know we have bred brilliant leaders in this country but my worry is that they can’t come together. They can’t come together and share their ideas so as to win the system. As it is right now, for instance, if you look at the opposition movement, people are dismantled because they don’t know exactly kuti what agenda does our opposition have, including even myself who is in opposition. That’s why people are asking where is Margaret? Why? Because our people have been dismantled economically, politically and socially. They are busy running around trying to find bread and butter and they are busy running around trying to see how they can earn a living, and, right now, people don’t know exactly, they have lost confidence, they don’t know which way to take and this is why you find kuti …
Violet: I’ll come back to get your thoughts on the opposition movement in the country. But, I just wanted to go back to another issue, that the MDC became the biggest challenge to ZANU PF in 2000, now that was round the time that you left active politics. Was there no wisdom in you joining the MDC while you were an Independent?
Margaret Dongo: Have a look, there was but have a look, they never approached me, I want to be honest with you and I’m a bit disappointed because a lot of politics was played by using my name in any case. I only discover at times when I’m outside abroad or outside in the countries when I’m making a presentation or I’m at Conferences and so forth and get people to ask me. You know, I’ve never had a situation where we sat at a table and have people say ‘OK, Margaret, can we have your experience, can we share your ideas?
You know, this is a problem that we have in this country. People … and worse off, I’m a woman. I remember the one article I only read which I bought in South Africa, I was on my way back home, in which Morgan Tsvangirai was interviewed by one white lady from South Africa, and she said, and I quote, ‘oh, by the way, Margaret has been fighting a lone battle for a long time, why don’t you tap her experience?’ And, I think he said he has enough experience and enough people and he doesn’t need anyone, and he never lifts up his phone and phone me. You know, when I looked at it, I looked at it from a gender perspective and I said ‘that’s typical of African men’. But anyway, it’s not an issue as far as I’m concerned.
The issue is I also believe in multi party democracy and I also believe in unity of purpose. It’s not just a question of just saying ‘let’s come together’, because if you mix rotten peas they will mess up others. You know, when you are in politics you have to work like a family; it has to be a family, it has to be a team, it has to be a marriage because it’s a sacrifice. You want to take a sacrifice, this is a different challenge that you are taking, it’s not like running a private company or whatever. You are talking about the welfare of the people, the well being of the people, you are going to carry a lot of lives on board. So you need to work as a team and you need to understand each other.
Fine, we come from different environments, we cannot click 100%, but politically, one way or the other you have to agree in terms of ideology and so forth. And, the other thing that one has to do is there has to be tolerance. People have to agree to agree, agree to disagree and agree to compromise. What we don’t have in this country is that a leader always feels that his ideas are the best and for as long as we have that attitude, we are not going to get anywhere.
So, the issue is not about Margaret wanting to go it alone. I’ve seen it, I’ve had the experience. The Nationalists were so united in the ‘60’s and this is what is also attracted us to join them. And, even today, some of them, they are not happy with the current affairs, the current situation, but look at it, they are there lying idle and they’ve got a lot of ideas and a lot of experience that can be tapped and build a very strong opposition movement. But, it’s the mentality of those that are in the forefront. The mentality that if X comes in will steal the show, if X comes in he or she is a former ZANU PF and may be a sell out. We haven’t come together and say we want to solve the problem once and for all. There’s no one individual that can conquer ZANU PF. We would need even people that are within ZANU PF. We would need even people that are in ZANU PF today.
I will give you a very good example Violet, which probably you might think that I’m diverting from your question. Look at the harmonisation debate, which is going on. I’m telling you, the best persons to stop that harmonisation are the ZANU PF people. Because, we have already made a mistake as an opposition. One, we don’t have the majority in the Senate, we don’t have the majority in the House of Assembly which I want to say and I want you to get to the public. We don’t have the majority in those two Houses, and, any Government, which has the majority, would take an advantage of such opportunity and they can play around with the Constitution.
Even in South Africa when they had the two-thirds majority they were able to change their Constitution. If Blair would have the same situation, he would use the same you know. So, what we need to do is now to say ‘OK, fine, this is the problem that we have, what is the way forward and how can we go about it?’ And, I would advise; the opposition should stop behaving like individuals and I think what they need to do is they should have respect. You know, I hate people who undermine people who have played a role in the liberation struggle. Fine, you can call them names, but it was a stepping-stone, you are coming from somewhere, the history is coming. You know whatever history comes up, it will still remain and what we forget is that history repeats itself. I’m telling you today we have a problem of the factions that have arisen from MDC factions Part One Tsvangirai and the Mutambara. It’s not new as far as we are concerned as former combatants. This has happened on several times in the Liberation Struggle but the question is ‘how did ZANU PF manage to contain it?’…
Violet: Amai Dongo, I tell you what, I will ask you that question later on, before I forget let me just go back to what you said earlier on. You said you were not invited to join the MDC. Now, what about reports that said the MDC approached you just before the 2000 Parliamentary Election to stand on an MDC ticket for the Sunningdale Parliamentary seat but you allegedly refused because you wanted to stand as the President of the Opposition Party? Can you comment on that?
Margaret Dongo: I’m actually happy to comment on that because I want to give an end to that distortion. You know, people try to make mileage out of other people. I’ve never had a chance to talk to them even when I was…, in fact they said to me that they’ve had enough support in terms of resources and ideas. Have a look, the people that I groomed in my party are some of the people who ended up in MDC; the (Fidelis) Mhashu’s the Priscilla’s (Misihairabwi), the majority, even the youth, you know it very well, are the ones that were groomed from the time I became an Independent. How then can I refuse? I’m a democrat; I’m a true democrat and I’ve told you, I’m prepared, even right now, I’m actually disappointed with the current situation and I don’t know how I can make a contribution. Right now, I feel bad because honestly I say to myself ‘I should be making a contribution towards this’, but how to, because the point of intervention, if you look at the politics, which is being played in this country, it’s still very immature as far as I’m concerned.
Violet: And you mentioned earlier that as a war veteran you noticed how the Nationalists managed to contain rebellion or how people have said that ZANU PF may be hit by serious in fighting but that the ZANU PF house will remain in tact. What keeps them together? As a war veteran and as a person who was in ZANU PF can you shed some light into this?
Margaret Dongo: Have a look, there’s a lot of sacrifice that has been made by those Nationalists. When it comes to hardships they stick together and they’ve got a bond and whenever they had an agenda they will make sure kuti they will get, they will sail through. You know, it’s different from the current opposition, when we want to have a demonstration or when we want to show our presence we will go to the youth and we will ask the youth to do it and to be the frontiers, we will go to the women and ask the women to be the frontiers. You look at the national leaders and ask yourself - where are they? Some of them have flown out to South Africa because they don’t want to be affected by the labour unrest or the strikes, some of them are in Nyanga,
As for the Nationalists that I am talking about, they could stay in the camps, they could stay with the people in the rural areas, they could live in abject poverty for as long as they know what they are fighting for. Our people today, our opposition today, you cannot tell them to go and stay in the rural and to start conscientising the people, being part of the rural folk, there is nothing Violet. I am now living a rural life, I’m running projects in Manicaland, in Chimanimani and in Mhondoro, I spend most of my time in the rurals. And I’m telling you unless and until the opposition changes its strategy they will never win the rural areas. They will never win the rural areas because they are behaving like ZANU PF after independence. They go for election campaigns, when they win the seat they go to bed only to come to the surface during the national days when they come in as political tourists and display themselves; 21 st February Movement, this and that, that’s what brings them back to the people. Then, six months before the elections the Ruling Party is up. The Opposition is up, new parties are being formed and so forth, and what has been happening for the past five years? You dump the youth, you dump the women, you dump the rural people, you never took an advantage of that to say ‘OK, now we have lost, we learn our mistakes through this, let’s go back, you do a post-mortem. By now the opposition should be able to identify their weaknesses in the rural areas.
And the other problem, which I need to mention is this, in politics I have learnt, I have made my own mistakes and I accept you should also learn to listen. That is the greatest challenge in politics. If you don’t listen and you think I’m a leader, what I say goes, then you will never even taste the power. Because, at the end of the day, rural people; people undermine them a lot but I have discovered that they are very intelligent. You know I was in Mhondoro and I said ‘but why you people are like what you are?’ You know, I got a question, they said ‘OK fine, if we remove Mugabe who are we going to put in his place, we’ve never seen anyone here?’
Some of the people who’ve been tortured during the elections who supported the opposition, they’ve actually gone in without support. Some of them have died and no one has visited them, no one has come back to find out to say what has happened to you. At the same time at the same token, I am in a constituency where I come from in Chipinge, this constituency was owned, was run by Ndabaningi Sithole for twenty five years and ZANU PF couldn’t get hold of it until Ndabaningi was dead and then the MDC got the constituency. And guess what, and now that same constituency has gone back to ZANU PF and if you look back you will find out all the majority of the rural constituents which had been taken over, which the MDC had managed to break through are now going back to ZANU PF and you ask yourself to say have a look where have we gone wrong as the opposition, where have we gone wrong?
OK, accept to go back on the drawing board and say OK where have we gone wrong, what experience do we want to take from others, how can we go about it. How, Violet, can you take an urban person, turn an urban person to go and mobilise people in the rural? Why do you undermine their intelligence, why don’t you go there and train the rural people and let the rural people, who speak the same language, develop each other. Why do you want to have the mentality that you come from Harare you go and campaign them and tell them that bread is very expensive in Harare. It’s the urban people who are worried about bread. The rural people are not worried about bread, they want to know if they will have sadza, they will have their maize, if there is drought they want to know how they are going to get their handouts.
Violet: But is it not also the case that there is no work by the opposition in the rural areas because there are limitations. The rural areas have been sealed off by the ruling party and any work done there has to be done by ZANU PF who have Chiefs and Headmen who are Pro-ZANU PF?
Margaret Dongo: No not at all, not in the areas that I have been to including Mataga, Zvishavane. No, these people, let’s not mix things; politics and development. Some people know exactly what development is all about. Let’s not mix politics and development. I think that’s where we have our problem because I don’t think, if you look at the poverty which is in the rurals today, and anyone would actually chose to say I will get these handouts because they are from ZANU or I will get these handouts because they are from MDC or I will get these handouts because they are from party X. There is nothing like that. People want to develop themselves, people want to be empowered. Because they are not well empowered they are manipulated by the ruling party, this is what people should know. They are manipulated heavily by the ruling party. But if there are people who are attached to them who will orientate them, who will explain to them, who teach them, who talk to them everyday, who mix with them and study their behaviour, honestly the opposition would be able to sail through because people in the rural areas have also had enough. They have had enough of it but, have a look, there is no one else who comes in. It’s either ZANU PF, they come in, like now of course, we are going to have drought in a number of areas, the rains are not consistent. They know very well that those are the people who are coming back. We can still educate them that they’ve got a right to that food.
You know what’s important with rural people is if you show your presence they’ve respect for you. It doesn’t have to be Morgan (Tsvangirai) to go to a rural, but if he has structures, the structures like for ZANU PF, those structures can operate with or without him. Mugabe doesn’t have to be everywhere. You know, the way ZANU PF has built its structures this is why it has become difficult for people to uproot those structures and I think this is what the opposition is required to do. You know, after every election, if you lose you need to go back, consolidate your structure, start again and find out where you went wrong and that’s what we need to do.
Violet: No, that’s what I wanted to ask you that you know the Tsvangirai MDC says it will soon launch a campaign for the 2008 elections, now I was going to ask that do you see the MDC being able to break through the rural population in time for next year’s election - if the elections are held in 2008?
Margaret Dongo: They will soon launch an election for the rural campaign, where were they since 2000? I want you to answer me, where were they since 2000? Where were they since 2002 when the last Presidential election ended? You should learn from even the region. Look at Zambia, when we had the elections when the contestant was beaten by was it Mwanawasa, you have to find the correct record. You know, the President who was trailing behind the current President, you know what he did? A week after the elections there was already an issue that he had launched his Presidential campaign for the next election. Isn’t it too bad, how do you feel about that? That person knows that it takes time to win the people’s minds isn’t it? Already after the vote count, a week after the vote count he had already launched his Presidential elections, he didn’t even know when the elections are! Because he wanted to keep together, to keep the momentum with the people, that’s what he wanted to do.
And he (Tsvangirai MDC) was saying, OK, we are going to launch our campaign for the rural areas 2007 because we want elections 2008. What’s the difference between you and ZANU PF? By today, by right now, we should be working flat out, all opposition, even if we have differences, we should be working flat out in the rural areas saying OK identify, by now we should have had a team doing research seeing what are the needs, what are the requirements, where have we gone wrong. So that now Parties have to come up with policies and we give them direction, we direct them to say this is how, these are the requirements of the rural folk.
Violet Gonda: Join us next Tuesday for the final segment with Margaret Dongo where we ask what sort of strategy t he pro democracy elements can come up with to attract and motivate people in the rural areas? Many groups in Zimbabwe have gone on strike demanding better working conditions while attempts by the opposition to organise peaceful demonstrations against the Mugabe regime have failed. Is it now up to angry workers to trigger street protests?
Audio interview can be heard on SW Radio Africa ’s Hot Seat programme (Tues 6 February 2007). Comments and feedback can be emailed to violet@swradioafrica.com
The Herald
By Joseph Madzimure
THE
cost of living for a family of six for the month of January has surged
to
$458 986,17 from $245 661,79 in December 2006 reflecting an 86,8 percent
increase.
In its monthly report, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
said significant
increases were recorded in the cost of education which rose
261,9 percent,
white sugar 255,6 percent, roller meal 235,6 percent,
transport 190,9
percent, bread 179 percent, clothing and footwear 119
percent, vegetables
131 percent and cooking oil by 91 percent.
Recent
increases in both primary and secondary school fees throughout the
country
made education the major mover.
CCZ observed, however, that all fee
increases were within parameters set by
the Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture.
The consumer watchdog expressed dismay at the increase in the
prices of
basic commodities in
the period between December 2006 and
January this year.
"Prices of most basic commodities have increased by
worrying margins, a
situation which has brought untold suffering to most
consumers whose
salaries have lagged behind while prices skyrocketed," said
the consumer
watchdog.
According to the CCZ, most of the price
increases had been effected soon
after Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr
Gideon Gono unveiled his 2006
end-of-year monetary policy review statement
last week.
The consumer watchdog blamed the recent prices on speculative
behaviour in
anticipation of devaluation, explaining that some of the
increases were
motivated by greed or profiteering.
"CCZ does not
condemn all price increases but calls on business people to
properly and
justifiably effect price increases and not to rip off consumers
in the hope
of making super profits. Increases should be based on factors of
production," it said.
CCZ said the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission was the only hope for
addressing the current mismatch between
prices and incomes.
The consumer watchdog also welcomed calls made by Dr
Gono for a social
contract embracing labour, business and Government as a
step in the right
direction.
"The resumption of the Tripartite
Negotiating Forum will pave way for the
social dialogue. Therefore, it will
be a welcome move," added CCZ.
CCZ noted with concern the continued
unavailability of basic commodities
such as cooking oil, sugar, maize meal
and flour on the formal market.
Although these products have been
disappearing from the formal market since
last December, they are readily
available at above the gazetted prices on
the illegal informal
market.
CCZ said although bread supplies had improved significantly
following a
price increase granted by Government on December 21 last year,
the consumer
watchdog was concerned with the quality of bread on
offer.
Recent surveys conducted by the CCZ in conjunction with the Trade
Measures
Department, revealed shocking cases of underweight bread, weighing
430g
instead of the recommended 700g.
While the modalities of the
social contract were being worked out, consumers
were urged to be vigilant
to avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous business
people bent on
profiteering.
The social contract is expected to come into effect on
March 1.
The Herald
Business Reporters
THE Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory
Commission is holding stakeholder
meetings to seek approval for a tariff
increase that will enable them to
offer affordable and reliable
services.
The meetings are meant to appraise the players in industry,
domestic and
commercial consumers on the need to charge economic rates that
would permit
Zesa Holdings to operate competitively.
In an interview,
ZERC Commissioner-General Dr Mavis Chidzonga said the power
utility needed
to charge viable tariffs if it was to attract investors and
continue to
provide power to consumers.
"We are currently holding meetings with
different stakeholders to find a way
through which we can charge economic
rates without burdening our consumers.
"While we feel it is imperative
that power remains affordable to consumers,
as a power commission we
recognise the importance of charging sustainable
tariffs.
"We are
charging sub-economic tariffs. The electricity bills customers are
paying
are sub-economic, compared to other sources of fuel such as firewood,
candles and diesel. The tariffs are too low to sustain effective
operations," she noted.
She added that it did not make economic sense
for Zesa to charge $5 for a
kilowatt when it costs the utility $90 to
produce it.
"This has been compounded by the fact that we are importing
almost half the
country's power needs at a cost of US$0,02 per kilowatt and
selling it at
far less.
"This means Zimbabwe as a country is not the
only one providing the cheapest
electricity in the region but is actually
subsidising consumers," she said.
Dr Chidzonga said after gathering
stakeholders' views ZERC would then lobby
the Government to approve the
proposed increases.
Last month, acting Zesa chairman Professor
Christopher Chetsanga told
journalists the power utility was in the red and
required US$2,5 billion to
implement projects such as the Batoka hydro
plant, Gokwe North power thermal
plant and the Lupane gas project.
In
2006, the parastatal spent $66 billion against revenue of $26 billion,
incurring a deficit of $34 billion, which has since ballooned to $105
billion due to interest charges.
People's Daily
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) this year plans to fortify its
defense of
the Zimbabwean dollar in view of continued losses against major
trading
currencies, with economists throwing their weight behind the
no-devaluation
position adopted in the latest monetary policy statement, The
Herald
reported on Tuesday.
According to the apex bank, exchange rate
stability is one of the key
factors in containing high inflation
expectations, as the economy seeks to
return to normalcy.
The
newspaper quoted the RBZ as saying that current price disequilibrium
between
supply and demand had had a destabilizing effect on the exchange
rate on the
official market.
The parallel market was driven by speculation, the apex
bank noted, brushing
aside calls for devaluation by the business community,
the newspaper said.
The exchange rate is currently pegged at 250
Zimbabwean dollars against the
greenback compared with over 4,500 Zimbabwean
dollars on the parallel
market.
Meanwhile, some economic commentators
have welcomed the RBZ's stance, saying
the country could not afford to
adjust its currency further against the U.S.
dollar, at least for now,
particularly in the absence of substantial foreign
currency
inflows.
Source: Xinhua
The Zimbabwean
BY EDDIE CROSS
KADOMA - Pius
Wakatama, a good friend for many years and one of Zimbabwe's
foremost
thinkers and intellectuals as well as a writer, is one of the
Christian
leaders arrested. He was separated from the majority and taken to
the
central police station where he found himself locked up with 30 others
in a
cell designed for four. Standing room only.
My wife was locked up under
similar circumstances last year - she was with
23 others in a cell and said
they could not all lie down at night at one
time.
Pius led the entire
cell population in prayers and in singing well-known
hymns and after 24
hours in the cell, he asked to be moved to another cell.
"Why?" The police
asked, "All those in my present cell have become
Christians and now support
the Alliance. I need a new congregation to work
with!" Pius
responded.
This time the Mugabe regime better sit up and take note, they are
now
dealing with a new type of dissident!
WorldNetDaily
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted:
February 7, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
If you're looking for a map
of world poverty, check out the "2007 Index of
Economic Freedom" jointly
published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall
Street Journal. You might
think that's a strangely titled source for a
poverty map.
The 13th
edition of the "Index of Economic Freedom" examines 10 economic
characteristics of 157 countries. Among those characteristics are property
rights, monetary stability, and freedom from government, trade restrictions,
business regulations and government corruption. Using these measures of
economic freedom, countries are ranked.
Hong Kong and Singapore, as
they have for 13 years, rank as the world's two
economically freest
countries, with freedom scores of 89 and 86 percent
free. Rounding out the
top 10 freest economies are Australia (83), United
States (82), New Zealand
(82), United Kingdom (82), Ireland (81), Luxembourg
(79), Switzerland (79)
and Canada (79).
At the other end of the list are the least free
countries. Ranking 157th,
North Korea, with a freedom score of 3 percent, is
the world's least free
country. Ranking 156th is Cuba, 30 percent free, and
in ascending order are:
Libya (34) Zimbabwe (36), Burma (40), Turkmenistan
(42), Congo (43), Iran
(43), Angola (43), and Guinea-Bassau (45).
The
"2007 Index of Economic Freedom" displays a color-coded map showing
countries that are free, mostly free, moderately free, mostly unfree and
repressed. Guess where one finds the world's most miserably poor people? If
you guessed the mostly unfree and repressed countries, you guessed
correctly.
Some people claim that some countries are rich because of
abundant natural
resources. That's nonsense! Africa and South America are
probably the
richest continents in natural resources, but are home to some
of the world's
poorest people. By contrast, countries like England, Japan
and Hong Kong are
poor in natural resources, but their people are among the
world's
wealthiest. Hong Kong even has to import its food and water. Some
people use
the history of colonialism as an excuse for poverty. That's also
nonsense.
The United States was a colony. So were Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and
Hong Kong, but they're rich countries.
The reason some
countries are rich while others are poor is best explained
by the amount of
economic freedom its peoples enjoy and the extent of
government control over
economic matters. Don't make the mistake of equating
economic freedom with
democracy. After all, India, politically, is a
democracy, but economically
it is mostly unfree and poor, ranking 104th in
economic freedom. There are
countries on the economic freedom index that do
not have much of a history
of democracy, such as Chile, ranking 11th, and
Taiwan, 26th, and yet these
countries are far wealthier than some of their
more democratic counterparts.
Why? It's because their economic systems are
free or mostly free, which is
not guaranteed by a democratic political
system.
The economic
development lesson is clear: Have a system of economic freedom
and grow
rich. Extensive government control, weak property rights and
government
corruption almost guarantee poverty. A country's institutional
infrastructure is critical to its economic growth and the well-being of its
citizens. The most critical are protection of private property, enforcement
of contracts and rule of law.
To help our fellow man around the
world, we must convince him to create the
institutional infrastructure for
wealth creation. Foreign aid, International
Monetary Fund bailouts and other
handouts are not substitutes. They just
make political survival possible for
the elite whose self-serving policies
keep a nation poor. Except for
immediate disaster relief, foreign aid is
probably the worst thing the West
can do for poor countries. After all, how
much foreign aid is necessary for
a country to create the foundations for
growth: rule of law, enforcement of
contracts and private property rights
protection?
Reconnecting the New Zimbabwe Processes for Change with Africa at the
African Union (AU) Summit - Addis Ababa – Ethiopia.
Late Thursday evening
on 25 January we landed at Addis Ababa Airport with
other SADC AU Summit
guests. Our tall white-haired host held up the ‘AU’
placard for disembarking
passengers and called out at us, now standing on
the tarmac in front of him,
‘Graca Machel’ looking at Grace Kwinjeh there.
Together passengers laughed
humorously. He joined us as we pointed out the
group on the tarmac where the
gracious Ms Graca Machel stood with her
delegation, awaiting hosts to
facilitate their visit. We were in Africa’s
home base chosen by OAU
Founders! Our welcome began in a happy, jovial,
serious, dignified
environment, where respect for others, remains one of the
key shared values
among Africa’s diverse peoples.
Our host led us to the VIP lounge where
arriving guests gathered in
comfortable seats. We took ours and awaited
instructions. Our passports were
taken from us, returned stamped a few
minutes later. As we relaxed one
Foreign Affairs official called out,
‘Harare’ giving us a surprise. A group
at the end of the VIP lounge got on
its feet. That call was for Foreign
Minister Simbarashe Mbengegwi’s
government delegation in the room. Their
luggage and transport were ready.
Well-coordinated and efficient officials
took guests without confirmed
accommodation, and negotiated rooms for them
in hotels, booked out in the
whole city.
Registration
We missed our pre AU Summit Gender event, which
ended the day we arrived. We
went to AU offices in time to register for the
13th Ordinary Session of the
PRC, the 10th Ordinary Session of the Executive
Council, 22 – 26 January,
the Foreign Ministers’ meeting. We mingled as we
saw fit. It was so for the
rest of Summit!
With our invitations we
registered as ‘Observers’ for the ‘8th Ordinary
Session of the Assembly
29-30 January 2007’ read our badges for the Heads of
State Summit. Rushing
to the venue, we bumped into old colleagues who were
surprised we
came.
The Science and Technology Exhibition
To get into the ECA building,
where Heads of State met, one walked through
the Science and Technology
Exhibition first, held in line with the 2007 AU
theme. Zimbabwe was well
represented, with Dr Sam Muchena’s stand of the
‘African Fertilizer
Development Center’ in Harare with his ‘Dwarf’ Seed
Maize discovery for dry
regions of the world, at the beginning of the
stands. We viewed his work and
others’. As we moved to the Nigerian stand,
one in full traditional regalia
asked to be photographed with my African
hairstyle! Luck it was. Welcomes
came from all we met. We collected the
leaflets on ‘Football’, ‘Climate
Change’. It was inspirational!
Purpose of Participation
A number of
well-considered objectives led to the Party’s decision to
participate in the
AU Summit. The International Affairs Department was key.
In line with the
ongoing Party Policy updating process, Dr Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro, Secretary
for International Affairs and his Committee, like
all departments, produced
their Policy blueprint. Based on that they mapped
out this year’s exciting
program. The AU Summit was an opportunity to
publicize our 2007 ‘Zimbabwe
Broad Alliance’ activities in the ‘Save
Zimbabwe Campaign’ now rolling on
the ground at home, hence our registering
as NGOs, instead of fighting new
frontiers as opposition party.
Another objective for attending arose from the
Policy and Research
department tasked by the President to among other tasks
develop ways to
reverse the brain drain in Zimbabwe as well as attract back
Zimbabwean
expertise abroad. The department has slowly organized some
methodologies to
finally implement the project. The AU and ECA environments
were seen as
ideal starting points to further brainstorm with Zimbabwean
experts, how
such a project might get off the ground here in Africa.
It
was inappropriate given our objectives that we speak to media while in
the
middle of difficult attempts to understand how best to participate in
the AU
process, to maximize our gains on all fronts. We carried messages
from our
President Morgan Tsvangirai to delegates, to his colleagues and
from Dr
Mukonoweshuro to his counterparts. He could not attend. He was
marking
Doctoral theses at his old University in the UK. There are
encouraging
responses to both.
The People of Ethiopia
I have visited Ethiopia before
but with other NGO activists around MDC’s
launch. I had not been exposed to
its historical uniqueness in Africa before
this visit. I was sad that the
Meles government had locked up Opposition and
civil society leaders. We
went ahead with our mission to face whatever
fate we met with there!
What
hit me was the impressive welcome team at Addis Ababa airport. The
hotel,
our transport coordinator and officials were excellent. There was
poverty.
Positive was that government policy led to intensive modern
reconstruction
everywhere. In our Zimbabwe, by government policy, law
officers who must
protect citizens are used to mass destroy, even solid
utilizable structures,
people’s homes and businesses. Shanties in Addis
Ababa center are being
removed, as new complexes on its outskirts are
completed. There is visible
planned destruction, as new housing, businesses
premises and services become
available. People moved! Diaspora money is
pouring into the city to build up
modern skyscrapers. Ethiopia is on the
move!
President Meles, we read,
lost EU support over his government’s treatment of
the opposition and NGOs.
With diaspora contributions, he is decentralizing
and investing solid money
into communities in Ethiopia’s hinterland,
neglected for long by his
predecessors. We watched tv as he and his team met
these on ‘Pastoralists’
Day’ where serious discussions on their development
plans, with central
government funding were held. The new policy and process
is in all parts of
the country we read.
Zimbabweans in Addis Ababa
There is still a living
spirit of Zimbabwe. We all carry it wherever we go.
We carried this with us
to Ethiopia. Each time we met Zimbabweans, I felt it
in all of us as our
expatriate country people came to quiz us mercilessly
about what progress we
as the Opposition and civil society were making to
bring change and
transformation for everyone to return home. We were just
happy that we met.
I told them that we want Zimbabweans whatever their
political stance to
organize themselves now to participate in the country’s
massive urgent
reconstruction! We went onto to detail all the current
developments on the
ground and left them in better spirits each time.
There is a small population
of Zimbabweans in Addis that includes the world’s
top class experts in a
variety of specialized fields, some of who for years
have held permanent
senior posts in international organizations. As
consultants in many areas
they were doing remarkable work in Environment,
Human Rights, Policy,
Population, Labor, Gender, Communications, Posts and
Telecommunications, HIV
AIDS and many other specialized fields, we were told
by some of their
colleagues. It was encouraging for us that there was a fair
proportion of
our best women professionals doing outstanding work, in the
areas mentioned
above, we heard. I was proud that even with our tragedy at
home, our talent
was serving Africa, and the world! My task as Secretary
for Policy was how
to get them home to reconstruct.
NGOs – The Backdrop
The World Social
Forum just ended in Nairobi when we arrived in Addis. Some
activists went
from that to the AU Summit. There were signs of intensive NGO
activity
printed all over Addis Ababa wherever we went. We nearly caught up
with some
NGO activity at one of the hotels where there was an NGO Press
Conference,
which would have been one of their closing events, just before
the Foreign
Ministers began their deliberations. I was inspired by that they
had just
put Peoples demands for an inclusive AU. We, I am sure, benefited
from that
NGO campaign.
The AU Process Today
Complex ongoing AU processes unfolded
as Zimbabwe was overshadowed by
events in Somalia and Darfur. Many hoped
that Zimbabweans would unite to
allow for dialogue to solve the crisis. SADC
could only support a consensus
solution by Zimbabweans. People were fully
informed and sad about Zimbabwe
and had visited that country to meet solid,
welcoming, hard working and
serious people!
Zimbabwe Government
Delegation
After we bumped into the government delegation on arrival at Addis
airport
VIP lounge we met some at each of the events held. Not once did we
exchange
greetings, an appalling situation, no doubt noticed by those who
know our
story. We were faced each time we moved around by vicious Zimbabwe
government propaganda about us. The country’s civil society and Opposition
is mud in Africa. For the first time we from Zimbabwe were present to put
our side of the story. We did so politely and focused our responses on
providing factual and historical data, which properly related to Africa, is
enough ammunition to win our war with our people. It worked.
Many,
including Zimbabweans, succumbed to our ruling Party propaganda, and
in each
conversation, many made the following key points below:
· Zimbabweans
aligned to the ruling Party and civil society and
Opposition speak like day
and night about home. The country is heavily
polarized.
· Concern
in Africa is that civil society and Opposition MDC seem not
to
understand/respect Liberation Movement legacies.
· The failure to
crack the Mugabe regime in-spite of his excesses may
stem from the
Opposition and civil society’s underestimating him through
their lack of
appreciation of themselves today, as the inheritors building
on and
continuing the legacy of Liberation and its achievements, now so
distorted
by Mugabe.
· MDC did not offer a credible alternative for several
reasons stated
below:
· MDC must learn that solutions come from
honest in-depth discussions
between parties, away from media for lasting
solutions. MDC does business in
the press to destroy prospects for resolving
conflict.
· Civil society and Opposition have failed to manage white
members in
ranks of both parties. A 2007 Summit example was
given.
· October 12, 2005 split confirmed doubts about MDC
leadership’s lack
of grasp of their role as liberators in a failed state.
The split was a huge
backward step.
· MDC messages on what we
stand for remain unclear.
· Continued exclusion of qualified, able
women from leadership in
both MDCs demonstrates that both groups have failed
to comply with AU policy
of equal gender representation at all levels in
organizations.
Response
We responded in detail to all observations above
arrived at without our
input. In the first place we pointed out the current
programs rolling out on
the ground by different civil society groups and the
actions for change
ongoing activities by MDC throughout the country. This
new atmosphere is
broadening the shrinking democratic space. We demonstrated
the seriousness
and MDC principles, which mark the real differences between
the politics of
the ruling Party and MDC today.
MDC President is
President in All Zimbabwe
We showed how our President Morgan Tsvangirai is
the world’s best messenger
of Peace. He has refused to allow anyone in our
Party to even bring up the
suggestion of violence/armed struggle, as the
tool for change in Zimbabwe.
He has held to Peaceful Change as our winning
strategy both short and long
term. This ‘value’ in our President is
overlooked. We explained that in all
parts of the country, it is President
Morgan Tsvangirai who is the symbol of
Unity, Peace and Stability in the
present chaos experienced by all at home.
President Tsvangirai is the
unifying force. This is reality. The largest
hurdle to liberation has been
overcome by Zimbabweans. We have an elected
leader most agree upon, to take
us into our transition to build the
transformation foundations for the New
Zimbabwe! Tsvangirai we said is our
person.
The AU Summit
The AU
Commission has 10 distinguished people from Africa, a 5 women and 5
men
team, complying with gender and regional equity AU requirements. At the
helm
now is distinguished scholar and politician, Malian Professor Alpha
Oumar
Konare and his Deputy, Rwandese liberation stalwart and distinguished
diplomat Patrick Mazimhaka. They defined the mood of the Summit in their
final year. This July a new team is elected to take over for 4 years. This
was empowering. Lucia Matibenga and I were the delegation in Maputo when
this team took over some four years ago.
The Mood
The Summit was
formal. But in Africa even such events are laced with humor,
to capture rare
precious moments when we are together, to build. The tempo
is electric. The
desire is to drive forward through dialogue, include every
side in disputes,
with mediators behind closed doors, to conflict resolve
together. The dress,
mannerisms, expressions and coolness amidst such
volatile situations in
their diversity, had an air of determination and
clarity of purpose. The
decision to deny Sudan’s President this year’s AU
Presidency is an example
of this iron determination and clarity of purpose.
Rwanda’s ‘Gachacha’
Program for Healing the Whole Society
One example of the African approach is
embodied in Rwanda’s President Paul
Kagame’s unique ‘Gachacha’ Traditional
Legal System, for Conflict
Resolution, an integral part of Rwanda’s post
genocide policy for internal
healing of that society. Africa wants to
recreate its own methods to get the
continent back on its feet such as
‘Gachacha’ practiced in Rwanda for a
decade now. It is to quicken and smooth
‘justice processes’ at grassroots
too. AU provides an opportunity to
Africa’s women and men from all parts, to
contribute to our reconstruction,
in stipulated time frames and relevant
people driven programs.
The
Diaspora – Present Too!
Africans in the diaspora came too, some for the first
time to witness,
participate, others to be energized by being home! The mix
was spectacular
and for me, healing!
The New United Nations (UN)
Secretary General’s Press Conference
I attended the New UN Secretary
General’s Press Conference without
expectations and came away strengthened
by his outline. He arrived with his
impressive team of women and men of all
races and ages. Confidently he took
his place at the front of the room and
addressed the room packed with press.
The center of his delivery was that
poverty in Africa is slow to eradicate.
Its MDGs are the slowest among all
countries to yield concrete sustainable
results. This had to change. His
plan was through women and youth programs
to hope change this situation to
bring Africa onto a par with the rest of
the world. Questions followed. He
responded. The session ended and he left.
What more could one ask
for?
The International Community – Present
There was full diplomatic
presence of the Embassies based in Ethiopia. As
well as them were for most
countries senior politicians and policymakers
from around the world who came
to attend. We spoke to those we could.
Lobbying in the Corridors During
Breaks
Much work was done in informal settings outside meetings. The
Presidents’
closed sessions were lengthy but produced concrete executable
resolutions
for problems outlined. The AU remains in solidarity with OAU
founding
principles to Unite Africa, underlying their decision to locate
their
headquarters in Ethiopia. Whatever pushed them to act rubbed on me as
it did
on many others at this Summit. Africa I concluded is slowly but
surely on
the Move!
Delegation Achievements
Achievements made include
that we got to Ethiopia, successfully registered,
attended the Summit as
Observers, mingled with everyone we could, but most
important is that this
time around, South Africa did not organize to get our
delegation removed
from the Summit, as has consistently happened in the past
in international
gatherings. The best of all was to see that who-ever we
spoke with, many
were just happy to witness that MDC and civil society were
still up and
running around, when they heard what we had to say to their
hard
questioning!
I was sad, it was time to say goodbye to relatives, to old and
new friends,
to Addis Ababa. I am grateful to our International Affairs
Department, NGOs
and Partners who worked hard to get us there to experience
this, for the
rare opportunity to attend the AU Summit again. We arrived
home safely to
anxious families, happy to have us back in good health. It
was time to
confidently report to colleagues at home, and to join everyone
on the ground
in our many activities for change in 2007!
Sekai
Holland,
Harare.
February 6, 2007.
Reuters
Wed Feb 7, 2007 4:41 PM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe have been forced
to cancel a planned friendly
against Lesotho on Wednesday because they could
not raise the money for the
trip, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on
Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe Football Association were unable to find a
sponsor for the
$33,480 needed for the trip to Maseru.
Zimbabwe had
hoped to field a full-strength side, including their Portsmouth
striker
Benjani Mwaruwari, in a warm-up game before an African Nations Cup
qualifier
against Morocco in Harare next month.
"This means we will only have
basically three days of full training before
we play Morocco and this leaves
us with a mountain to climb if we are to be
really prepared," coach Charles
Mhlauri told the newspaper.
Robert
Mugabe's much-vaunted Cabinet reshuffle confirms that the Zanu PF
regime has
finally crash-landed as evidenced by the assemblage of yet
another coterie
of corruption barons, racketeers and dead-wood.
Impeccable sources in
Mugabe's inner circle say Finance Minister Hebert
Murerwa had already
resigned two weeks ago following frustration over Mugabe's
backing of
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono's quasi-fiscal activities,
which have
increased money supply and resulted in a world-record inflation
rate of over
1 000 percent. Murerwa may be gone, but one log less from a
pile of
dead-wood will not substantively change the nature and composition
of
Mugabe's wooden Cabinet.
In any case, Mugabe's finance ministers,
starting from Nkosana Moyo, Simba
Makoni and now Murerwa, have all resigned
after the Zanu PF sharks at the
feeding trough refused to listen to economic
logic.
As usual, the so-called reshuffle was simply a rearrangement of
the deck of
a sinking Titanic. No amount of window-dressing will mitigate
the fate of
the Zanu PF ship that is definitely destined for the iceberg.
Merely
transferring faces from one ministry to the other will not resolve
the
country's political and economic crisis. What is simply needed is a
change
of government. Only a new and legitimate government, with the full
mandate
and support of the people of Zimbabwe, will put the country back on
the
rails.
Expecting tired and recycled ideas to change the nation's
economic fortunes
is like giving cafenol to a patient in the intensive care
unit. Mugabe has
retained the same corrupt sharks in his government and no
amount of
shuffling of chairs will change the nature and character of Zanu
PF's
corrupt persona. Mugabe and his regime. should simply bite the bullet
and
set free the people of Zimbabwe.
The MDC believes that the
solution to the Zimbabwean question lies in
addressing the fundamental
institutional and structural issues to resolve
the crisis of governance.
Confidence-building measures to reconstruct this
economy can only begin when
all stakeholders in the country agree to address
the national question
through the crafting of an inclusive political
solution. We believe the
nation needs a people-driven Constitution, free and
fair elections under
international supervision, a period of national healing
and a comprehensive
stabilisation and reconstruction programme in a
post-transitional era.
Setting new ground rules and values for ourselves,
and not reshuffling old
ideas, is the only road to a new Zimbabwe. We owe a
better Zimbabwe to
ourselves and our children.We need to save our country. A
new Zimbabwe is
our mandate.
.
Nelson Chamisa, MP
Secretary for Information and
Publicity
New Zimbabwe
By Chido
Makunike
Last updated: 02/08/2007 01:55:32
I HAD a good trip home to
Harare in December. I had been away for only 15
months but I was homesick
and looked forward to being back home.
Dakar has a small airport but it
was fairly busy in mid-December. Nairobi's
much bigger airport was bustling
with tourists and business travellers. The
first reminder of Zimbabwe's
reality of being isolated from so much of the
world was the deserted look of
the Harare airport. The neat modernistic look
of the fairly new airport
seemed to be mocked by how much of a white
elephant it seems with so few
travellers using it.
Having a store at an international airport is a
prized concession in almost
any country. It seems to be generally accepted
that these stores are allowed
to charge outrageous prices for goods that can
be had for much less a few
kilometres away. Not so at Harare airport. Most
of the stores had been
closed, with one or two car rental companies
continuing to hold on.
Being based in dry, Sahelian Senegal and getting
to Zimbabwe during the rain
season, I was overpowered by the sense of
physical beauty of my homeland. It
could be argued that any place looks its
best when things are lush and
green, but for me there was an emotional
quality to the thought that such a
naturally well-endowed country should be
so troubled.
I have been privileged to see a good swathe of Africa across
various
regions. A thought that came to mind is that with all its tensions,
its
oppression and the awful economic hardships in Zimbabwe, it is still a
country that remains orderly and functional in a way that many other
countries have never even experienced. Our decline is still most accurately
measured by how much lower we are than we were five or ten years ago. It is
an indictment of the overall state of Africa to realise that despite our
having to adjust to ever declining social and economic standards, there are
still many ways in which Zimbabwe remains miles ahead.
This is no
consolation to the Zimbabwean just trying to make ends meet. S/he
has little
interest in how s/he is doing compared to somebody somewhere
else. All they
are concerned about is that despite their best efforts, the
economic
environment no longer makes it possible for them to easily feed
their
families and enjoy the quality of life many of us had begun to take
for
granted.
Harare city centre had a neat but sterile look. I had been
reading a lot
about issues with uncollected baggage but I saw no signs of
this in the city
centre. But for an African city, the "neatness" caused by
the forced
banishment of street traders and the destruction of their whole
livelihoods
seemed odd. When I compare the western-style political
"neatness" of Harare
city centre with the cacophonous, chaotic
street-trading scenes of just
about any west African city, I find myself no
longer able to say Harare is
"better" in that regard. Easier on the eye
certainly, but that is
counter-acted by the dispirited mood of the people in
this neat city. The
street trading in many parts of Africa goes to the
opposite extreme, but the
boisterousness and the joy of the people must
surely count for something.
Our African cities are not and cannot be neat
and tidy like those of wealthy
European cities. Survival imperatives are
what force people to engage in the
messy habit of trading on the streets,
with the associated ill-effects on
sanitation, public health, the
environment and so forth. So when people
increasingly resort to trying to
make a living on the streets because the
range of their options is
decreasing by the day, that is a socio-economic
imperative at play. It is
pedantic in the worst colonialist tradition to pay
more attention to
municipal neatness than to the economic causes of its
absence. With its
cruel murambatsvina campaign, the regime of Mugabe merely
flexed its
military muscles to attempt to hide the symptoms of all the
economic decline
we have suffered.
These are the thoughts that went through my head as I
walked the neat
streets of my hometown. I am afraid that having extensively
walked the
not-so-neat, but more vibrant and happier streets of other
African cities, I
found myself unable to really find any joy at the
neatness, knowing the high
cost at which it had been implemented.
I
was only home for three weeks, much too short, and neither had the time
nor
the inclination to spend too much time discussing politics. But one does
not
have to prompt political discussion : it is all in the air. Widespread
disillusionment with the Mugabe regime needs no mentioning. But I was struck
at how little faith there remains in the opposition parties as well. My
sense was that people are no longer just disillusioned with the ruling
authority, but with the whole political process.
I found this
interesting because this lack of faith in politicians in
general is common
in most of the African countries I have visited. Whereas
these older
countries have had different flavours of governments and found
them to be
little different from each other, in Zimbabwe we have reached
this level of
cynicism without any opposition party having had a chance at
the feeding
trough of power!
In both Dakar and Nairobi I had the pleasure of having a
choice of many
daily newspapers, and many more weeklies and monthlies.
Hungry for news of
all types at home, I was staggered by the realization of
how limited our
reading choices have become. I was saddened by how further
reduced in
stature as journals of news The Herald and The Sunday Mail have
become. I
could always read them with the background knowledge of where they
are
coming from. But they have so deteriorated in quality that one gets
angry
that they do not even serve their propaganda function very well! One
has the
sense of publications just stringing words together. One does not
even have
any sense that the authors particularly believe what they write.
Not only is
the attempted propaganda so crude as to be counter-productive,
but there is
no signoff any passion or conviction in it.
Apart from
issues of ideology in the state media, I was struck by the
low-brow nature
of even the non-political stories. In any of the state
papers, stories of
domestic violence, child rape, incest and all the worst
aspects of human
behaviour are given pride of place. There seems to almost
be a pleasure at
shocking readers with the depraved behaviour of a segment
of the society. As
one reads these stories one can't help wondering if these
are realities of
our lives to the extent that the Zimpapers titles
sickeningly, almost
lovingly portray. I wondered if this was a subconscious,
unhealthy protest
amongst the newspapers' staffers against turning out such
puerile,
unenlightening drivel on the great issues facing Zimbabwe and
bastardizing
the tenets of journalism.
It was an intensive, personally enjoyable
visit. But on many levels I left
very uneasy and troubled about where we are
headed as a society. The signs,
both the apparent and the not so obvious,
are not encouraging.
Chido Makunike is a Zimbabwean writer. He writes
from Dakar, Senegal.
Canada.com
By Jonathan
Manthorpe, Book on Africa offers writer some solace
Published: Wednesday,
February 07, 2007
VANCOUVER - Many people who have lived in Africa come
away seething with
rage. It's the deep, heart-rending anger of being forced
to watch impotently
while a loved one is defiled.
Robert Calderisi has
that anger, but he holds it under admirable control as
he recounts
infuriating tales from more than 30 years' experience of Africa
working for
the Canadian International Development Agency, the World Bank
and the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Yet his book, The
Trouble With Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working
(Palgrave Macmillan/H.B.
Fenn, 256 pages, $33.95), is clearly a cathartic
journey for him. The horror
stories precede his 10-point prescription for
what non-African donor
countries can do to try to reverse past failures of
their well-meaning but
ill-judged generosity.
In recent years, prime ministers and pop stars have
used all kinds of
performance art to try to draw the world's attention to
Africa's plight, for
the standard of living in most of African countries is
now much worse than
it was when the wind of decolonization began blowing
over the continent in
1965.
Africa has 10 per cent of the world's
population, but commands only one per
cent of international trade. The
economy of the entire continent is about
the size of Argentina's, and most
African countries bring in no more income
than any suburb of a major
American city. The World Bank's headquarters in
Washington uses more
electricity each year than does the whole of Chad.
Every 12 hours, 3,000
people die from HIV/AIDs in Africa. That plague is
devastating even the most
successful countries, such as Botswana, where 25
per cent of adults have the
infection.
But Calderisi turns sharply away from the doctrines of African
victimhood
that have characterized public discourse for half a century and
more. "This
book will argue that Africa is now responsible for most of its
own problems
and that outsiders can help only if they are more direct and
demanding in
their relations with the continent," he writes.
He sharply
dismisses the legacies of the slave trade, colonialism, resource
exploitation, debt burdens and the downsides of globalization as false
diagnoses that mask the true nature of what ails Africa. And he quarrels
with the conviction that Africa needs more development aid; no it doesn't,
he says.
Africa would benefit from less aid, and it should be directed to
the
countries where it can do the most good. Basket-case countries (he
doesn't
name Zimbabwe, but he might have) where the ruling despot refuses to
embrace
any aspect of civilized governance should be cut off, since the
bounty would
only end up in his foreign bank account anyway.
After
recounting some of his own experiences in Africa, Calderisi dives into
the
perplexing question of why Africa has failed so conclusively while other
parts of the world that were in worse shape half a century ago, such as much
of Asia, have managed to pull themselves up.
The simple answer, he says,
is that the continent has never experienced good
government. Men like Robert
Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire,
Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea,
Daniel arap Moi in Kenya and Jose Eduardo dos
Santos of Angola saw and see
leadership as an opportunity to enrich
themselves, their families and loyal
cronies.
Why is this so? And why do African people put up with the miserable
lives
foisted on them by their corrupt and barbarous leaders?
In an age
of tender sensibilities, it's always dangerous to try to explore
outcomes
that stem from cultural characteristics. But, to his credit,
Calderisi
doesn't shrink from addressing the aspects of African family,
social,
philosophical and spiritual culture he thinks have made its leaders
susceptible to the corruption of power and its people woefully patient with
their lot when powerless.
It is sympathetically done and his respectful
affection shines through, but
it's a fast gallop over heavy ground that
could stand a more thorough
exploration.
Calderisi's prescription for
Africa concentrates on the policies and
attitudes he thinks donor countries
should adopt. At the top of his list is
relieving dictators of their
ill-gotten gains and preventing future leaders
from pillaging their
countries. This, he says, should be tackled with the
same vigour with which
terrorist money-laundering networks are being
attacked.
He thinks African
leaders should be required to lay open their personal
finances, and that any
country refusing to accept this constraint should not
be given
aid.
Countries that warrant donations should be allowed to plan and manage
their
own development schemes.
All countries receiving aid should be
required to meet minimum standards of
open political debate and fair,
internationally supervised elections.
Countries that abuse the rule of law
or freedom of speech should forfeit the
right to aid.
Calderisi further
says that providing access to primary school for children
across Africa
should be a priority. And he points out that a major reason
why Africa has
slumped ever deeper into poverty in the last half-century is
governments'
disregard for agriculture and trade. There is also a
debilitating disregard
for the construction of roads, railways, ports and
other
infrastructure.
He ends with a recommendation that looks odd in context but
is obviously
deeply felt and born of painful experience. He believes the
three main
agents of international development aid - the World Bank, the
International
Monetary Fund and the United Nations Development Program -
should be merged
into one body. He argues that this is the only way their
jealousies,
rivalries and frequent conflicting objectives can be erased.
Zim Online
Thursday 08 February
2007
By Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
HARARE - A
Zimbabwean woman is suing Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri
for Z$10
million after she was brutally assaulted by the police last year
resulting
in her suffering a miscarriage.
Ethel Kupinda, 25, who is based in Mvuri,
about 100 kilometres north of
Harare, was last December arrested for
allegedly selling food without a
medical certificate.
Kupinda is also
suing Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and an Assistant
Inspector Maxwell
Pfumo over the assault.
In papers filed at the High Court in Harare
yesterday, case number 532/07,
Shepherd Mushonga, a lawyer representing
Kupinda, wants the three to pay his
client Z$10 million in damages and also
foot the legal bill.
"Kupinda was arrested on 29 November 2006 and
detained before paying a fine.
During her detention, Pfumo entered the
female holding cells and severely
assaulted her using clenched fists and
booted feet," said Mushonga.
"As a direct result of the assault, Kupinda
suffered the following injuries:
lost one tooth and another one was left
shaking. Kupinda who was two months
pregnant at the time of the assault,
lost the foetus as she suffered a
miscarriage.
"As a direct result of
the assault, she also suffered humiliation and
degradation in front of other
detainees she was assaulted with," said
Mushonga.
Several human
rights groups and the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party
have often accused the police of using excessive force against
civilians.
Last year, several Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union
leaders were also
brutally assaulted by the police after they attempted to
demonstrate in
Harare over worsening economic hardships.
The labour
leaders are suing the police for US$9 million. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
07
February 2007
A spokesman for the Save Zimbabwe Campaign says
the loose coalition of
opposition groups is determined to continue its
"sounds of freedom" protests
in which citizens are asked to make noise with
horns, whistles or other
means each Wednesday midday.
But organizers
acknowledge that the protest has not drawn mass
participation.
This
Wednesday, observers in Harare, Mutare, Chinhoyi and Gweru reported no
unusual noises, though a Bulawayo Save Zimbabwe Campaign coordinator said he
had heard whistling, banging and hooting of horns in the city
center.
The noise protest was launched in late 2006, but since the turn
of the year
opposition parties and groups have stepped up street marches and
demonstrations.
Save Zimbabwe spokesman Jonah Gokovah told reporter
Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe earlier this week that his
organization is still
honing the strategy and considers it viable despite
the emergence of more
confrontational tactics.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
07
February 2007
Two student leaders arrested on Tuesday and
held overnight said they were
urged by police officials to set aside their
plans for nationwide protests
over sharply increased tuition fees that have
forced many students to
abandon higher education.
Bulawayo
Polytechnic Student Council President Blessing Vava and Christian
Student
Movement Chairman Lawrence Mashungu were detained overnight for
taking part
in demonstrations in Bulawayo following a campus meeting Tuesday
morning.
Mashungu is also the regional chairman of the Zimbabwe
National Students
Union.
A crowd of students was marching to the
offices of Bulawayo Provincial
Governor Cain Mathema to demand a meeting
when riot police broke up the
march and arrested 78 students. Seventy-six of
them were released Tuesday
evening on their promise to return and pay a fine
of Z$250, sources among
student activists said.
Vava and Mashungu
were taken to Luveve police station where, they later
charged, police denied
them food and withheld treatment for injuries.
Vava told reporter
Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
further protests are
expected across the country.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
07
February 2007
At least 10 doctors on strike at Harare
Central Hospital received dismissal
letters from the institution's chief
executive officer, sources at the
hospital said Wednesday.
The
sources said CEO Julius Nderere personally handed the doctors the
letters of
dismissal saying the residents had breached the country's health
services
regulations stating that doctors cannot be absent from their duties
for more
than 30 days.
But the state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Health
Minister David
Parirenyatwa as saying the physicians had not been fired.
Efforts to reach
Dr. Parirenyatwa or another senior Health Ministry official
for
clarification were unsuccessful.
A strike by residents at the
four main public hospitals in Harare and
Bulawayo is in its seventh week.
The doctors are demanding an increase in
their salaries to Z$5 million,
improved housing and concessions related to
transportation.
Amon
Siveregi, who has been representing striking junior residents, told
reporter
Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the dismissal
letters
should be welcome because they free the doctors to find work in
other
countries.