Magistrate Samuel Zuze's offer letter
Please see our Action Alert
January 30th, 2010
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Andrew Moyo Saturday 30 January
2010
HARARE - A group of British law makers is expected in Zimbabwe
next week, in
the clearest sign yet of thawing relations between London and
its former
colony.
The group, from the UK Parliament's International
Development Committee
(IDC), will spend four days in Zimbabwe during which
they will tour various
humanitarian projects funded by British taxpayers
through the Department for
International Development (DFID).
DFID
head in Zimbabwe Dave Fish said the visit by the parliamentarians will
help
ensure continued support for the humanitarian projects in Zimbabwe.
"The
UK government is committed to helping the poorest and most vulnerable
people
in Zimbabwe," said Fish.
"Progress on halting the spread of HIV/AIDS,
caring for orphans, widows and
disabled as well as access to safe water
supply and agriculture inputs are
vital for Zimbabwe's recovery. The
parliamentary visit will ensure that our
support continues to deliver
life-changing results for those most in need of
help."
It was not
immediately clear whether the UK parliamentarians plan to hold
talks with
President Robert Mugabe or any other leaders or officials of
Zimbabwe's
unity government that came into office last February and has
promised to
restore relations with Western nations.
While the visit is officially
being touted as a parliamentary mission to
inspect UK-funded aid projects,
it is likely to be viewed in political
circles as indication that London
could be toying with the idea of renewing
contact with Mugabe, who still
controls Zimbabwe despite agreeing to cede
some of his powers under the
power-sharing agreement with Tsvangirai.
Relations between Britain and
Zimbabwe soured after London and its Western
allies imposed visa and
financial sanctions on Mugabe and his top
lieutenants as punishment for
violating human rights, stealing elections and
failure to uphold the rule of
law.
Mugabe denies the charges and instead accuses Britain of reneging on
promises to fund land reform in Zimbabwe and charges that London and its
Western allies have funded his opponents in a bid to oust him from power as
punishment for seizing white land for redistribution to blacks. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Saturday 30 January
2010
HARARE - South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to
present a report
on Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement between President
Robert Mugabe and
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to the African Union (AU)
Heads of States
meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, officials said
on Friday.
Zimbabwean strongman Mugabe is expected to attend the meeting
which starts
on Sunday ending on Tuesday .
Saul Molobi, spokesman for
South Africa's International Relations Department
said Zuma, who is Southern
African Development Community (SADC) mediator in
the talks between Mugabe's
ZANU PF and Tsvangirai's MDC parties, will also
brief the AU leadership of
the meeting which was held in Maputo earlier this
month to discuss the
Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal.
"As the mediator in Zimbabwe President
Jacob Zuma is expected give a report
on the latest political developments in
Zimbabwe and the outcomes of the
SADC Summit held in Maputo on January 7
2010," Molobi said.
The Maputo meeting urged the parties to the country's
power sharing deal to
solve the outstanding issues and also discussed the
problems rocking the
Indian Ocean island of Madagascar and the problems in
Lesotho.
The talks to resolve outstanding issues between ZANU PF and the
MDC have
dragged on since the former foes agreed to join hands last February
in a
coalition government that has been credited with stabilising the
country's
economy to improve the lives of Zimbabweans.
The coalition
partners last week called off negotiations, with the
negotiators hinting
that there was little prospect of the parties resolving
anytime soon the
outstanding issues holding back the unity government and
threatening to
render it ineffective.
Mugabe's party insists it has played its part to
uphold the 2008
power-sharing deal that gave birth to the coalition
government. ZANU PF
instead accuses its main rival MDC-T of reneging on
promises to campaign for
lifting of Western sanctions on Mugabe and his top
allies.
On Wednesday ZANU PF ruled out making further concessions in the
power-sharing talks until Western nations lift the sanctions, following
disclosure by British foreign secretary David Miliband last week that London
would lift the travel and financial sanctions on guidance from the
MDC.
On its part the MDC-T - which has rejected suggestions by Zuma that
it
shelves some of its demands - accuses Mugabe of flouting the
power-sharing
pact after the veteran leader refused to rescind his
unilateral appointment
of two of his allies to the key posts of central bank
governor and attorney
general.
The former opposition is also unhappy
that Mugabe is refusing to swear into
government its treasurer Roy Bennett,
while the veteran President has also
refused to appoint MDC members as
provincial governors.
The AU Summit convenes under the theme "Information
and Communication
Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for the
Future". -
ZimOnline
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=12616
By Gerald
Chateta
Published: January 29, 2010
Midlands,Zimbabwe -
Police in the Midlands province have been instructed
to monitor and arrest
members of the Movement for Democratic Change, Civic
Organizations, and Non
Governmental Organizations holding public meetings.
According to a Radio
signal sent to all police stations in the Midlands
province last week,
police commanders were being directed to closely monitor
all meetings to be
held by the 'opposition', NGOs and the civic society.
"If the commander
of such an area under which a meeting by the opposition,
civic society or
NGO is being held hesitates to give authority, or handle
the situation, he
or she should consult Police General Headquarters(PGHQ).
In case of any
meeting being held by the above stated, the commander must
monitor, record
the whole proceedings and submit the details to PGHQ.
"If any member of
the opposition, NGOs and Civic society is arrested, the
commander should
immediately advise PGHQ the circumstances and details, and
if such
information has not been forwarded to PGHQ in time, an improvement
is being
called for", reads the directive.
A senior MDC official who requested
anonymity complained about the directive
saying it is
discriminatory.
"We are worried by the continued discriminatory
application of the law in
this country. Why is it that the directive is
aimed at disrupting meetings
held by the civic society and not ZANU-PF
members? Why are only the MDC
members being affected by these repressive
laws? We thought that the
Inclusive Government was going to treat everyone
equally, but this has not
been happening one year since it was
formed.
"This directive is meant to discourage us from carrying out
constitutional
meetings with the people in the communities," said the
official.
The former ZANU-PF led government used the Public Order and
Security Act to
arrest members of the MDC when they held
meetings.
POSA empowers the police to arrest any gathering made up of two
or more
people without its clearance. The law had been used discriminately
by ZANU
Pf to disrupt any meetings made by members of the opposition
party.
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Saturday,
January 30, 2010
Herald
Reporters
A new diamond rush has hit Chipinge, Chimanimani and unsecured
parts of
Chiadzwa with illegal panners and foreign dealers once again
descending on
Manicaland Province.
Most of the diamonds are also
believed to be finding their way to Mozambique's
Manica Province where a
ready market is reportedly available.
Buyers from Harare have invaded the
area though Lebanese citizens are said
to be the biggest wheelers and
dealers in the area.
Manicaland provincial police spokesperson Inspector
Brian Makomeke yesterday
said they had received a report of illegal diamond
mining and investigations
were underway.
Police officers, who are
among those deployed to Chipinge, Chimanamani and
the unsecured parts of the
Chiadzwa diamond fields said hundreds of panners
had besieged the areas in
question.
They said there was an area about 2km from the Chiadzwa diamond
fields where
the panners were carrying out illegal mining.
The
panners have built temporary settlements and police sources said a
full-scale blitz on them would soon be launched.
Two companies have
been given the green light to exploit part of the
Chiadzwa reserves and they
have secured their claims with the latest hi-tech
surveillance and security
equipment.
In Chipinge, panners have been digging for diamonds in the
Chasiyamwa
region.
Most of the diamonds there are reported to be of
industrial quality, meaning
they are not as lucrative as those used in
jewellery.
The Herald understands that panning in this area has been
going on for weeks
now.
There are about 60 diamond claims in Chikwizi
Mountain, Muusha communal
lands under Chief Willie Muusha in Chimanimani,
where diamond panners have
established bases.
In an interview on
Tuesday, Chief Muusha said the claims in the mountain had
been exploited by
illegal panners after a South African-based company that
had been issued
with the mining rights did not return to begin operations.
He said police
had been carrying out periodic raids at the sites following
reports of
violence among the panners.
"The area has become a battlefield and there
are reports everyday of miners
fighting each other over control of mining
claims.
"We hear that some people have even killed each other there,"
said Chief
Muusha.
He said some of the illegal miners were equipped
with modern mining
equipment.
"It is surprising that some of these
panners have this equipment and we now
suspect that they are being sponsored
by powerful people.
"More people are getting to know about these diamonds
as some even come from
distant places, causing a rise in the clashes at the
site and more deaths,"
he said.
Chief Muusha expressed concern over
the increase in crime in his area,
saying armed criminals were on the prowl,
and there was need for the
authorities to move in quickly.
"They use
the guns against each other at the diamond fields or on dealers
and
panners."
Recently, a suspected panner, Kudakwashe Jiri, was shot in the
backside and
had his hand broken during a fight over a claim.
The
matter was reported to the police.
Secretary for Mines and Mining
Development Mr Thankful Musukutwa had not
responded to questions sent to his
office at the time of writing.
A diamond rush in Chiadzwa in 2006 led to
a spike in criminal activities in
the Eastern Highlands district of Marange
as well as widespread
environmental degradation.
State security
agents subsequently moved in to secure the area leading to
legitimate mining
operations being established last year.
At the peak of looting in
Chiadzwa, Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono
said Zimbabwe was losing
millions of dollars monthly to mineral leakages.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Chenai Maramba Saturday 30 January
2010
KAROI - Baton-wielding police officers this week drove out 60
children from
a nursery school at Karoi Anglican church because their
parents do not
support excommunicated bishop Nolbert Kunonga's bid to seize
control of the
church.
In a bizarre twist to the ongoing battle for
control of the Harare Anglican
church diocese on Wednesday parents who had
accompanied their children to
the church where they attend their lessons
until mid-day were surprised when
eight police officers armed with batons
arrived and drove out the
unsuspecting children, locking them out of the
church.
''It was dramatic for us as we watched baton-wielding police
officers
driving out shell-shocked children under five years of age from the
church
premises. The junior officers got the order from their seniors,''
said one
parent who is also a church member.
The Anglican Church's
Harare diocese is divided into two factions - led by
Kunonga and Archbishop
Chad Gandiya - who are involved in a tense and
sometimes violent struggle to
control the church. Karoi farming town, about
203km north-west of the
capital, falls under the diocese of Harare.
Last Sunday, the priest in
charge of Karoi parish, Peter Balicholo who is
suspected of being a Kunonga
sympathiser locked out worshippers, forcing
them to hold their service under
the trees in the open space outside the
church.
Balicholo who was
transferred to Karoi from Harare last October, confirmed
that the children
were locked out of the church because their parents
support the Gandiya -
the legitimate leader of the Anglican church in Harare
after he was
appointed by the Church of the Province of Central Africa
(CPCA) to head the
diocese.
"The church council committee and other followers are against
bishop Kunonga
and they are acting against him that's why I had these
children driven out
of the church premises," Balicholo told
ZimOnline.
Parishioners said they were dismayed at the ongoing turf war
between Kunonga
and Gandiya saying it was unbecoming for
Christians.
"We are surprised that the divisions are affecting children
who were
enrolled here. We never thought that these battles could affect
children as
young as four years. The community has to assist to end this
madness," said
one worshipper speaking on condition that his name was not
published.
''It's unfortunate that the dirty politics is affecting our
children'' said
another parishioner Dainos Mutara of Chiedza suburb in
Karoi.
Police chief superintendent David Mandizha in charge of police in
Hurungwe
district that covers Karoi, refused to comment on the issue
although he was
seen at the church premises with Balicholo last Wednesday
afternoon.
Kunonga - who as Bishop of Harare tried to use the pulpit to
defended
President Robert Mugabe's controversial policies - was dismissed by
the CPCA
after he attempted to withdraw the diocese of Harare from the
synod. The
CPCA is the supreme authority of Anglican Church in the
region.
But Kunonga has defied its orders to surrender church property,
while
Gandiya and his followers say the police have sided with the renegade
bishop
and assisted him to seize control of church prayer halls and
buildings in
violation of several court orders.
Meanwhile Gandiya's
followers are tomorrow expected to hold prayers at
Africa Unity Square in
central Harare to press the police to allow the
church access to its halls
and buildings across the capital.
Mugabe - who is Catholic - will not
attend despite being invited by the
church.
Anglican Church registrar
Michael Chingore confirmed that the prayer meeting
will go ahead as
planned.
"We do have a police clearance, we are going ahead with the
gathering as
planned," Chingore said, adding; "The President hasn't
confirmed, I don't
believe he will be coming as we did not receive any
confirmation if he would
be coming. We want to drive a point and I hope
nothing happens." --
ZimOnline.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=27078
January 30, 2010
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO - Three war veterans including former Masvingo
provincial war
veterans association chairman Isaiah Muzenda yesterday took
Masvingo
governor Titus Maluleke hostage for hours demanding money from him
to bury
bodies of former freedom fighters who did not get decent burial in
the
province.
Muzenda , Ishmael Chatikobo who was former Masvingo
remand prison officer in
charge and a war veteran only identified as Western
were arrested and
charged with disorderly conduct likely to disturb public
peace.
Muzenda and Western paid admissions of guilt fines and were
released from
police cells yesterday while Chatikobo remained in custody
since he had a
warrant of arrest.
According to the police Muzenda and
his colleagues went to the governor's
offices and camped there for almost
five hours.
The three denied the governor his liberty for the six
hours as they
locked his office from outside claiming that they would not
leave the
premise unless they were given money by the governor to carry out
decent
burials for former freedom fighters who did not get decent burial in
Masvingo.
Maluleke was forced to remain in his office for the entire
six hours,
fearing for his life.
The governor later phoned the
police and the three were arrested.
"We went and arrested the three and
charged them with disorderly conduct
likely to disturb public peace", said a
police spokesman who refused to be
named.
"They told us that they
wanted to get money from the governor in order for
them to rebury their
colleagues who did not get decent burial since
independence", said the
spokesman.
Maluleke yesterday confirmed the incident adding that he did
not know why
the three behaved like that.
"I made a report to the
police after the three came and held me hostage for
six hours and they were
later arrested ", said Maluleke.
"It sounds strange to me for people to
behave like what they did", was all
Maluleke could say.
This is not
the first time that war veterans in Masvingo have clashed with
the governor
who is also the resident minister of the province.
Last year war veterans
led by Muzenda attacked the governor accusing him of
milking the Cold
Storage Company dry by grabbing the little herd that the
company has been
left with .
They also accused him of being a sell-out and of lacking the
requisite
credentials to be resident minister of the
province.
Maluleke has however denied the allegations accusing the war
veterans of
being used by Zanu-PF politicians.
http://news.yahoo.com
AP
By SANDY MacINTYRE, Associated
Press Writer Sandy Macintyre, Associated
Press Writer - 1 hr 23 mins
ago
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai looks on during a
panel
discussion AP - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai looks on
during
a panel discussion on 'Meeting the Millennium .
By SANDY
MacINTYRE, Associated Press Writer Sandy Macintyre, Associated
Press Writer
- 1 hr 23 mins ago
DAVOS, Switzerland - Zimbabwean officials have sharply
criticized Britain's
foreign minister for what one called his "very
patronizing" remarks on
sanctions, saying those comments could hurt the
African nation's
power-sharing negotiations.
British Foreign
Secretary David Miliband incurred the wrath of Arthur
Mutambara, Zimbabwe's
deputy prime minister, when he told the British
Parliament earlier this
month that sanctions should continue against
Zimbabwe until Morgan
Tsvangirai, the country's prime minister, personally
advocated for them to
be lifted.
"With friends like those, who needs enemies?" Mutambara asked
on the
sidelines of the World Economic Forum late Friday. "What he has done
is
completely unstrategic, is very ignorant and very patronizing. Why?
Because
he is completely undermining Mr. Tsvangirai's power in the
negotiations
right now."
Tsvangirai told AP Television News on
Saturday that he found Miliband's
remarks unhelpful, particularly as
Zimbabwe's coalition government tries to
agree on the specifics of a
power-sharing pact with his rival, President
Robert
Mugabe.
Tsvangirai's moderate MDC party is holding negotiations next
month with
Mugabe's hard-line ZANU-PF party.
Tsvangirai met Miliband
in Davos and said while he didn't support
Mutambara's strong language, he
told the British envoy his comments could
complicate the political battle
over how Zimbabwe should be governed.
"I did draw to his attention that
his comment was unfortunate, it was
uncalled for, because what it literally
meant was that the MDC has to accept
liability for any restrictions that
have been placed on the country, rather
than that it is the misgovernance
and the failed policies that caused the
European Union and the rest of the
world to take those punitive measures,"
Tsvangirai told
APTN.
Tsvangirai told APTN that a general political agreement must be
reached at
the power-sharing talks before he could call for western nations
to lift
their sanctions, which include travel bans on top officials and some
curbs
on Zimbabwean companies.
"What we want is to re-engage the
European Union and normalize our
relations," Tsvangirai said. "That is the
objective."
Mugabe's government has been widely blamed for violence
against his
political opponents and their supporters, including Tsvangirai.
Western
nations accuse Mugabe of being responsible for an economic collapse
that
turned Zimbabwe from prosperity to poverty and left tens of thousands
of its
citizens struggling to survive.
Britain's Foreign Office
issued a statement Saturday saying that it, and not
Zimbabwean officials,
will decide when to lift the sanctions.
"The most important factor
influencing the U.K.'s views on lifting EU
restrictive measures will be
evidence of actual change and reform on the
ground in Zimbabwe," it said.
"We will make our own judgments as to when
they should be reinforced or
eased."
http://news.radiovop.com
30/01/2010
12:32:00
HARARE, Friday, January 29, 2010 - ZIMBABWE has very poor
investment
protection policies says a report published by the
Washington-DC-based World
Bank.
The report, which compared 181
economies worldwide, said out of the total
number surveyed Zimbabwe stood at
a poor 119 in the pack.
In the Southern African region the country came way
behind such nations as
South Africa, Botswana, Angola, and Namibia.
It,
however, beat regional neighbours Lesotho and Swaziland.
South Africa stood
at number 10, Botswana at number 41, Angola (57) and
Namibia at number
73.
Lesotho, on the other hand, stood at number 147 in the survey while
Swaziland stood at180.
The survey studies investor protection policies
compared to best practice in
selected economies who make information
available to the World Bank.
The higher the score, the greater the investor
protection, according to the
survey for 2010.
"Zimbabwe is ranked 119
overall for protecting investors," the World Bank
said in the report.
It
describes three dimensions of investor protection such as transparency of
transactions, liability for self dealing as well as shareholders' ability to
due sue officers and directors for misconduct, the World Bank said.
The
Indexes vary between o and 10, with higher values indicting greater
disclosure, greater liability of directors, greater powers of shareholders
to challenge the transaction, and better investor protection.
Last year
Zimbabwe stood at number 114 in the survey.
It, therefore, has moved five
places down the ladder as far as investor
protection is concerned.
http://www.apanews.net/
2010-01-30
16:03:00
APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Executive
Council of the African Union (AU)
Commission on Saturday elected15 new
member states to the AU Peace and
Security Council for two and three years
periods.
The Council elected five countries for three years and the other
10 member
states for a three-year period, as members at the Peace and
Security Council
(PSC) of the commission, which was established five years
ago to deal with
peace and security affairs in the continent.
Ben
Kioko, the director of the Legal Council at the African Union (AU)
Commission told journalists that Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Zimbabwe,
and Nigeria have been elected for a three-year term in the
council.
The executive council also elected ten member states from the
five regional
zones of Africa for a two-year period.
Burundi, Chad,
Djibouti, Rwanda, Mauritania, Namibia,, South Africa,
Benin,Cote d'Ivoire
and Mali have been elected for two years.
It is to be recalled that five
member states were elected in 2007 for a
three-year term and ten countries
were elected in 2008 for a three-year
period.
The member states are
elected in the council on a regional basis ; three
representatives from
Central Africa, three from East Africa, two from North
Africa, three from
Southern Africa and four from West Africa.
Council members meet and
discuss and pass various resolutions regarding
peace and security affairs,
including imposing sanctions against member
states where there is an
unconstitutional change of government.
The 14th Ordinary Session of the
AU Summit is being held under the theme :
"Information and Communication
Technologies in Africa : Challenges and
Prospects for Development", which
will officially be opened at the head of
state level on Sunday in the
presence of African leaders and invited guests,
including the UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon.
DT/daj/APA
2010-01-30
http://www.times.co.sz
By LUNGA MASUKU on January
30,2010
MBABANE - Swazi motorists driving to South Africa are warned
of a syndicate
of bogus police officers who stop Swazi drivers around the
Johannesburg
International Airport road.
Deputy Police PRO Wendy
Hleta said they learnt from their South African
counterparts that the
syndicate operates as police officers and their main
target are vehicles
with registration plates from Swaziland, Zimbabwe and
the Republic of
Botswana.
"Yes it true that there is a syndicate that operates as police
officers
around the Johannesburg airport and they stop people and demand to
see the
currencies they are carrying. As police we would like to warn the
public to
be on the look-out for such people. The public is urged to make
sure that
they do not stop for unknown people. We have been told of an
incident where
some were robbed of their money and car. The bogus police
fled in their car
and South African police could not help them recover their
car and money,"
said Hleta.
Just recently a diplomat from one of
foreign missions accredited to the
kingdom was stopped by the bogus police.
The incident happened on January
15, 2010 as they were driving to Swaziland
from a hotel next to the
Johannesburg International Airport where they slept
the night before.
"Hardly after driving a few minutes from the hotel as we
were about to get
to the road leading to Nelspruit a sedan came with South
African
registration plates. It came from behind us and flicked to us to
stop and my
driver just pulled off as instructed.
While still
shocked, one gentleman dressed in a black suit looking like an
Asian
national came out from the passenger seat and demanded to know where
we were
coming from and going to. He asked if we were from Zimbabwe and we
told him
that we were going to Swaziland and we were a holiday from
abroad," said
the diplomat.
She said what struck her the most was the way the man was
talking because he
then demanded to see the currency they were using. He
wanted to know if they
were not carrying any drugs in their car.
"Efforts
of asking them to show us their IDs were futile because the guy did
not
entertain any questions from us and he kept on bombarding us with his. I
had
a few notes of US dollars and he asked to have a look at them and I gave
him
and fortunately he returned them to me and I still wonder what the
purpose
of stopping us was," added the source.
Dear Family and Friends,
There are some
things in Zimbabwe that are so shameful that it's
almost easier to turn away
than to witness the reality of some
people's lives.
Recently I went to
pay my telephone account on the same day as
pension cheques were supposed to
have arrived at the local Post
Office Savings Bank. The two services operate
side by side, in the
same building, on the ground floor and on opposite sides
of a common
entrance door. The view in front of me was of mayhem.
Literally
hundreds of people were crowded around the entrance to the
building
and were clearly trying to get into the savings bank.
A
security guard was leaning out of the window of the telephone
accounts hall
watching the growing crowd. I held up my telephone bill
to indicate what I
wanted and he shouted to me: 'Just push in!'
Reluctantly I stepped into
the mass of people, apologising, excusing,
requesting passage and all the
time showing the crumpled phone bill so
they knew I wasn't trying to get to
the Savings Bank.
It took some time to squeeze, push and squash my way
through the
crowd and then I realised that there seemed to be a lot of
people
with crutches, walking sticks and even two people in
wheelchairs.
When I finally got into the telephone accounts hall, very
crushed,
battered and dishevelled I asked the security guard what was
going
on. He told me that government pension cheques had not been
deposited
into peoples accounts and that all these people were refusing to
go
away until they got their money. They weren't waiting for a fortune
but
for miniscule amounts that they can barely live on for one week,
let alone a
month.
The doors of the savings bank were locked, the employees sat
inside
chatting while hundreds of near destitute pensioners waited
outside.
Word got around that there was no pension money and they should
come
back after the weekend. Men and women in their seventies
and
eighties, some as old as Zimbabwe's President, roared and
surged
forward; glass doors looked in danger of collapsing, a
disaster
seemed very close.
With such shame I looked at the men and
women who gave a lifetime to
building our country and who were being rewarded
like this. There was
nowhere for them to sit, no cups of tea or glasses of
water, no polite
explanation, no apology, no respect for age, not even any
empathy -
just a locked door. Grey haired, hunched over and so very thin,
our
elders waited in vain. Many carried home made walking
sticks,
knobbled, knotted and hand carved. Others wore glasses with one
lens
missing or frames stuck together with putty; faces were hollow
and
mouths shrunken, most with only a few teeth left, none with the
luxury
of dentures.One man sat bent over in a wheelchair whose wheels
had been
patched up with strips of bicycle tyre, sewn on with big
brown stitches.
Almost all of them wore clothes that were long past
their best: suits with
frayed cuffs and hems, threadbare dresses with
collars falling
apart.
The state that pensioners find themselves in here, through no
fault
of their own, is absolutely tragic. Life savings have been wiped
out
with hyper inflation and repeated devaluation; assets have been
sold
for miniscule amounts in exchange for food and medicines
and
children, who could help, are either struggling somewhere in
the
diaspora or unemployed and barely surviving themselves. A woman
told
me her pension is 62 US dollars a month but her rent is 74
dollars.
Another told me her NSSA pension (social security) is 38 US dollars
a
month but her medical aid is 48 US dollars a month, increased from 8
US
dollars in December.
Perhaps hardest of all is the knowledge that if you
have a fall,
break a bone or get sick, you're done for. Its a very common
sight to
see elderly people being pushed in wheelbarrows or lying on the
ground
in the dirt outside hospitals waiting for assistance. At our
local
government hospital which is a provincial centre, there is now
only
one government doctor serving the whole establishment.
As Zanu PF
leaders continue to bleat about targeted sanctions that
only affect 203
individuals and 44 companies and say "no more
concessions" until "sanctions'
are lifted, the madness goes on. Farms
continue to be grabbed, ever more
people lose their homes, jobs and
life's work and more people are made
destitute because of the greed
of a handful.
Zimbabwe's pensioners,
like so many others in our population are in a
diabolical state which has
nothing whatever to do with sanctions and
everything to do with a decade of
mis-governance.
I end this week with a request for memories and anecdotes
of Imire
Game Park in Wedza between the years 1950 and 2000. So much
history
from the countryside has got lost in this dark decade and so
many
people who were eye witnesses and could remember have gone.
Please
contact me at the email address below if you have any stories
you
would be prepared to share of this very special place. Until
next
time, thanks for reading, love cathy. � Copyright cathy buckle
30
January 2010.
www.cathybuckle.com
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=27067
January 29, 2010
By Geoffrey
Nyarota
THE ominous air of pervasive silence in which Zimbabwe has been
shrouded
over the past many weeks was broken last week by the equally
ominous, if
somewhat misplaced, declarations of one of the members of the
recently
announced Zimbabwe Media Commission.
Chris Mutsvangwa,
self-proclaimed academic, successful businessman, diplomat
and much else,
made dramatic pronouncements at a time when Zimbabweans were
dying for some
declaration, any proclamation from the country's political
establishment on
the now inordinately prolonged process of negotiation by
the country's
ruling parties on the future wellbeing of a nation in anguish.
Addressing
journalists in their own lair, the Quill Club, the national press
club and a
location which has lost much of its former eminence while
degenerating into
a venue for political iniquity and the expression of all
manner of
profanity, Mutsvangwa poured scorn on his long-suffering alleged
colleagues.
"You are so shortsighted that you think history only
starts when a white
journalist starts commenting about your own country on
behalf of Britain,"
Mutsvangwa mocked. "You are like a Pavlonian dog which
is told that you must
do this because a certain signal has been given.
Zimbabwean journalists are
failing to realise Africa's potential and failing
to celebrate their
achievements just like what the Americans do."
It
is certainly not my intention to defend my colleagues in the journalistic
profession. Indeed, the performance of some of them cannot be easily
defended. But Mutsvangwa's scornful remarks must be placed in the proper
context of current journalism in Zimbabwe.
To start with, there is
absolutely no truth in the preposterous claim by
Mutsvangwa that every
Zimbabwean journalist is a beneficiary of Zanu-PF's
early "Free education
for all by the Year 2000" policy. It is also pertinent
to point out that the
standard of journalism has deteriorated since
independence as a result of
the deliberate policies of the very Zanu-PF that
he so vehemently
defends.
The decline in the quality of training at the Harare
Polytechnic, the
enhanced control of the country's major newspapers and
electronic media
outlets by government have effectively conspired to kill
journalism in
Zimbabwe.
Mutsvangwa is a former chief executive of the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation.
There was no discernible
improvement in the performance of the corporation's
journalist's during his
tenure, which can be cited, even remotely, as
indisputable evidence of his
claimed excellent qualities as a journalist.
If anything the steady decline
in the standard of journalism at the ZBC
continued relentlessly during the
Mutsvangwa era.
This decline was in keeping with the general strategy of
President Mugabe
and Zanu-PF to facilitate political control through
engendering journalistic
mediocrity. Mutsvangwa now adds insult to injury by
denigrating the victims,
while seeking to continuously ingratiate himself
with the perpetrators of
gross injustice.
Zimbabwe's media sector has
not escaped the ravages of the professional
brain drain over the past
decade. A large number of practitioners occupying
senior positions in the
South African media today, for instance, are of
Zimbabwean origin.
Meanwhile, if Mutsvangwa has evidence that American
journalists celebrate
in the absence of tangible proof of achievement, then
that is their
prerogative,
Mutsvangwa vaingloriously attacks journalists at the very
time when they
genuinely expect him to play a leading role as one of the few
members of the
Zimbabwe Media Commission with some background, however
tenuous, in the
media sector. He should be spearheading a very necessary
process of media
reform for the benefit of both his colleagues, assuming he
takes his
journalism seriously, and of his long-suffering
compatriots.
The slow pace at which the process to formally appoint and
establish the
Zimbabwe Media Commission is moving has become a matter of
serious national
concern.
But then, notwithstanding the aspersions
cast on the performance at the
Quill Club last Friday, the practice of
journalism in Zimbabwe is currently
not the major cause of concern among the
ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe,
although, if the truth be told, the
performance of the government-controlled
media outlets has generally left
much to be desired.
For instance, the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has constantly
complained about the sustained belligerence that
characterizes the coverage
of its affairs by The Herald and the national
broadcaster, the ZBC. Of more
serious concern has been the general media
environment which has rendered
the practice of journalism a hazardous
pursuit, while genuine press freedom
and the attendant free flow of
information remain a mere pipe dream.
Contrary to Mutsvangwa's
assertions, a matter that has been of more serious
public concern is the
deadly silence emanating from the government of
national unity over the very
issues considered by the general public to be
matters of priority and great
public interest.
Such issues include the revived commercial farm
invasions, the ongoing
breakdown in law and order, continuing persecution of
Zanu-PF's major
political rival, the MDC, the urgent need for constitutional
and media
reform - the list prescribed by the Global Political agreement in
September
2008 and reinforced by the formation of the government of national
unity in
February 2009, a year ago, is long.
Even more alarming is
the apparent involvement of the very party in which
the majority of the
citizens of Zimbabwe had bestowed their faith, the MDC,
in what now appears
to be a veritable conspiracy of silence. The firebrands
of yesterday appear
to have been effectively and shamelessly silenced by
their proximity to the
centre of Zanu-PF's over-riding power.
The lethargy that is now clearly
visible, for instance, in the process of
making the ZMC fully functional
should, therefore, be viewed against a
background of a demonstrably
diminishing commitment on the part of the
parties to the government of
national unity to fully implementing the GPA.
In that regard the MDC,
especially the party led by Prime Minister
Tsvangirai is more culpable than
President Mugabe's Zanu-PF in abandoning
its once lofty political ideals for
personal expedience and interest.