Zim Online
by Tinotenda Kandi Saturday 21 June
2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe police on Thursday prevented a Pan
African Parliament
(PAP) election observer team from witnessing junior
officers forced to vote
for President Robert Mugabe at police general
headquarters in Harare,
sources told ZimOnline.
Police across the
country began voting by postal ballot on Tuesday this week
ahead of the June
27 presidential run-off election because they will be on
duty on the actual
day of voting.
But several police officers have complained that they were
forced to vote
for Mugabe by their commanders who physically watched over as
their
subordinates marked their ballots to make sure they voted for the
veteran
leader who is fighting for his political life after losing the first
round
poll in March to opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Communications chief for the PAP mission Khalid Al Dahab
confirmed that a
team of observers went to police headquarters wishing to
witness police
casting their postal ballots but were unable to do so. The
junior policemen
who met the PAP team could not assist and instead referred
the observers to
senior officers who were nowhere to be found.
Al
Dahab said: "We went there and could not find anybody to talk to. There
were
just ordinary junior officers who couldn't help. All the senior
officers who
could help us were nowhere to be found.
"After waiting and waiting for a
significant time without success out team
left. But there was no sign of
voting when we were there. It seemed ordinary
business."
However,
ZimOnline can reveal that as the PAP observers were being told that
there
were no senior officers to help them, Deputy Police Commissioner
General
Barbara Mandizha was present at general headquarters in room 50,
keeping an
eye on junior officers as they marked their ballots for
Mugabe.
"Obviously allowing observers to room 50 would have spoiled the
whole plan,"
said a source at general headquarters who declined to be named
for fear of
reprisals.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka confirmed
that police cast their postal
ballots this week but denied knowledge of
officers being forced to vote for
Mugabe.
"I have no knowledge of
that. A far as I am aware the process is above board
and everything is
running smoothly I am not aware of the (PAP) observers
issue either," he
said.
But sources said police officers voted under the watchful eyes of
their
commanders at general headquarters, Harare Central police station and
at
other stations across the country.
The voting, which was not
witnessed by observers, took place in the absence
of both Mugabe and
Tsvangirai's election agents, while a local newspaper
reported on Friday
that Southern African Development Community observers who
visited Harare
Central police station on Wednesday to witness the voting
process were
turned away.
Selby Hwacha, a lawyer for Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party said the opposition party was preparing a
court application to
challenge the validity of postal ballots.
Hwacha
said: "I am working on a challenge. Those votes should not count
because the
whole process was clandestine and we know that police officers
were forced
to vote for Mugabe."
It was not possible to get immediate comment on the
matter from the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission that is in charge of elections
in the country. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Tendai Maronga Saturday 21 June
2008
HARARE - Police have charged a street vendor for
listening to a special news
programme on Zimbabwe broadcast by the Voice of
America, as President Robert
Mugabe's government tries hard to limit
alternative information available to
voters ahead of a run-off presidential
election next week.
The vendor, Noel Tichawana, who was arrested about
three weeks ago will
appear in court on July 15 to answer to charges of
committing criminal
nuisance after he was caught listening to the programme,
Studio 7, that
broadcasts political, economic and general news on
Zimbabwe.
Tichawana, who is probably the first person to be charged for
listening to
the Studio 7 programme that is considered hostile by Mugabe's
government,
faces up to six months in jail if found guilty.
According
to court papers a Zimbabwe army soldier arrested Tichawana after
having
observed on several occasions the vendor listening to Studio 7 from
his
radio set that he kept at his vending site.
"On several occasions,
accused person would play his radio set at high
volume attracting a crowed
as he would switch it to America's Studio . . .
informant then arrested the
accused and brought him to St Mary's police
station," reads the charge sheet
submitted to court.
There are no independent broadcasters in
Zimbabwe.
The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) runs
the country's
only television and radio stations, all tightly controlled by
Mugabe's
government, which has the final say on senior editorial and
managerial
appointments.
The government often uses the ZBC as a
propaganda mouthpiece while the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party says the state
broadcaster has imposed a blackout on its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of
the run-off presidential election - a charge the
broadcaster denies.
Zimbabwe holds a second presidential election on June
27 after electoral
authorities said Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in March but
failed to garner
more than 50 percent of the vote required to takeover the
presidency.
In addition to Studio 7, there are two radio stations run by
exiled
Zimbabwean journalists and broadcasting into Zimbabwe from outside
the
country. However, these do not have the same reach as the ZBC while
Mugabe's
government has frequently jammed the foreign-based
stations.
On top of controlling the airwaves, Mugabe's government also
runs the
country's largest newspaper empire after closing down four
independent
papers, including the Daily News that was Zimbabwe's largest
circulating
paper when it was shut down in 2003. - ZimOnline
Amnesty International (AI)
Date: 20 Jun 2008
Open letter to
his excellency President Levy Mwanawasa, president of Zambia,
in his
capacity as the chair of SADC
Dear President Mwanawasa,
I am
writing to you in your capacity as the Chairperson of the Southern
African
Development Community (SADC). I am appealing to you to convene an
emergency
summit of the SADC heads of state and government to discuss the
deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe.
Since March 2007,
Amnesty International has been closely monitoring efforts
by SADC states to
ensure that the conditions in Zimbabwe enable the country
to hold free and
fair elections. We welcomed the emergency summit held on 12
April 2008 in
Lusaka to try to break the political impasse in Zimbabwe after
the 29 March
elections. However, the current state-sponsored violence,
harassment and
intimidation of people perceived to have a political
affiliation with the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is undermining
SADC efforts to end the
crisis. People are being killed, tortured and
subjected to other
ill-treatment while the perpetrators are enjoying
complete
impunity.
Amnesty International expressed shock yesterday at the
discovery of 12
people whose bodies were found dumped in various parts of
the country after
their abduction. In some cases, the victims were beaten to
death. This
pattern of human rights violations appears to be intensifying as
the country
gets closer to the second round of the presidential election,
set for 27
June 2008. African election observers who are currently in
Zimbabwe have
also witnessed some of the violence.
Most of the
violence appears to be instigated by soldiers who were deployed
first in the
rural areas, and later in the urban centres to coordinate
President Mugabe's
re-election campaign. The soldiers are working closely
with 'war veterans'
and ZANU-PF supporters in intimidating and harassing
people accused of
having voted "wrongly" during the first round of the
election. Reliable
sources in Zimbabwe have also reported retaliatory
attacks by the
MDC.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Zimbabwe Republic Police are
failing in
their constitutional duty to protect the rights of all, including
the right
to life and freedom from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
They have
chosen to operate in a partisan manner allowing impunity for human
rights
violations and abuses to thrive.
Amnesty International is
therefore calling on SADC to:
- convene an emergency summit of SADC heads
of state and government to
discuss the deteriorating human rights situation
in Zimbabwe;
- support the deployment of AU or UN human rights monitors
to investigate
alleged human rights violations and support the full
implementation of their
recommendations;
- urge the government of
Zimbabwe to take immediate steps to guarantee the
right to life, freedom
from torture and other ill-treatment and freedom of
expression and assembly
for all. The government should publicly denounce all
acts of violence by
ZANU-PF supporters, 'war veterans' and soldiers, as well
as by any other
parties, and work with the MDC and civil society to end
political violence
immediately. It should also immediately withdraw
soldiers, who have been
deployed in rural and urban areas, who appear to be
instigating attacks
against people perceived to have voted for the MDC;
- use the Organ on
Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation within SADC
to immediately set
up an independent and impartial body to investigate all
acts of political
violence. The investigation's findings and recommendations
should be made
public.
Yours sincerely
Irene Khan
Secretary General
ABCnews
Opposition Leader Reportedly Considering Pulling Out of Next Weeks'
Runoff
Vote
By KIRIT RADIA
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20,
2008
First, there were reports that groups of war veterans loyal to
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe were attacking, and sometimes killing,
political
opponents. And the military and police were complicit in the
violence by
either ignoring attacks or taking part in them.
Now,
according to a new warning by the U.S. Embassy in Harare, youth gangs
are
roaming the suburbs of the capital forcing Zimbabweans to support the
president and his ruling Zanu-PF Party in next week's runoff
election.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is even
considering pulling
out of the June 27 election, according to reports from
the BBC and Reuters.
"This political harassment includes verbal and
physical assaults, abductions
and forced attendance at Zanu-PF political
rallies," the embassy warned in a
text message sent to Americans in the
tense country.
The embassy blamed the latest wave of intimidation ahead
of next Friday's
vote, on the Zanu-PF Party.
The embassy sent out the
alert to make sure Americans avoided political
arguments or large
crowds.
"The harassment is random and anyone could become a target," the
message
said. "Zimbabwe Republic police have been slow to become involved
and may
not offer protection from these assaults."
Mugabe, who has ruled
Zimbabwe since 1980, came in second in a national
election last March but
won enough votes to force a runoff against
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change Party.
As next Friday's vote nears, U.S. Ambassador
James McGee has vocally
complained about Mugabe's blunt campaign to
intimidate the country into
voting for him.
A chorus of diplomatic
and human rights groups charge Zimbabwean police have
arrested opposition
leaders on charges including treason, prevented the
country's media from
covering his opponent, and unleashed the veterans of
his old revolutionary
army on his critics. MDC says more than 70 activists
have been killed, and
thousands of others have been harassed or beaten.
Critics charge Mugabe has
also banned foreign aid groups from distributing
food and fuel to the
impoverished population, forcing them to seek aid from
the government's
meager handouts.
But only those who have Zanu-PF identification cards are
given food. Others
must surrender their national ID cards to receive food.
Without a national
ID card, they won't be able to vote.
Tsvangirai,
who has been repeatedly arrested or delayed at roadblocks as
he's tried to
campaign, told his supporters Thursday it will take courage to
vote for him
next Friday.
"The wave of brutality being inflicted upon our people is
reminiscent of the
worst days of" white rule, Tsvangirai said in an e-mail,
one of the few ways
he has of reaching voters.
Mugabe's tough tactics
have alarmed Western countries.
The United States has called for
international monitors to be allowed into
the country to oversee the
election, but the Zimbabwean government has
balked so far. While some
monitors will be allowed in just before the
election, U.S. officials say
they will be too few, too late.
Depending on the outcome of the election,
sources told ABC News the United
States may impose further sanctions on
Zimbabwe's leadership.
European Union nations already have in place an arms
embargo against
Zimbabwe in addition to a suspension of development aid and
an assets freeze
and travel ban against Mugabe and 125 other top government
officials.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
South Africans now see that the support lavished on
Mugabe contributed to
Zimbabwe's collapse
Zakes Mda
The
Guardian,
Saturday June 21, 2008
In Johannesburg, Robert Mugabe was
given a rousing welcome by Africans from
across the continent. As he
addressed the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development, we ululated and
sang his praises, and after his brief speech we
gave him a standing ovation.
He spoke of the wonderful work he had achieved
in Zimbabwe with his
"agrarian reforms" in a country where 70% of prime land
had been owned by
just 4,000 white farmers.
Here was an African leader who was prepared to
redress the injustices of the
past by giving land back to its rightful
indigenous owners. Here was a
government doing what our own was afraid to:
dealing with the problems of
inequitable distribution through one short,
swift surgical action. Here was
a black man giving the former colonial
masters the finger. We went into
frenzied applause when he thundered: "So,
Blair, keep your England and let
me keep my Zimbabwe!"
It did not
matter to us that the process was not done in a way that
respected the rule
of law, or that the so-called agrarian reforms were an
election ploy to win
votes from a peasantry that had been marginalised since
1980. We condemned
our South African newspapers as lackeys of the west when
they reported in
the previous two years that the "war veterans" (most of
whom had never
fought any war) murdered black workers as well as white
farmers when they
occupied white-owned farms in the Mugabe-sponsored
violence and mayhem. We
dismissed as mere western propaganda reports that
began to filter into the
country that the farms - confiscated not only from
whites but from those
black farmers who were deemed to be supporters of the
opposition - were in
fact redistributed to leaders of the ruling Zanu-PF
party.
In any
case, most of us did not read newspapers, which had exposed Mugabe
from the
beginning, but got our news from the South African Broadcasting
Corporation,
which did not dare be critical of Zimbabwe and even banned
independent
commentators who were deemed to be anti-Zanu-PF - including the
South
African president's brother, Moeletsi Mbeki.
Our unwavering support for
Mugabe continued over the years, despite
outrageous acts of violence against
his own people, such as Operation
Murambatsvina (Sweep Away the Filth) when
he destroyed more than 700,000
homes in urban areas deemed to be opposition
strongholds. We were encouraged
by the line our government was taking. Our
president, Thabo Mbeki, was the
official mediator between Zanu-PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, and he was engaged in what was
euphemistically called "quiet
diplomacy".
We understood that Mbeki
could not be neutral because Zanu-PF was a
fraternal organisation. It had
been our ally during the struggle, and as
South Africans we were well known
for being loyal to those who took our
side - hence our continued close
friendship with Fidel Castro and Muammar
Gadafy, despite protestations from
America. We were proud of our independent
foreign policy. Despite the
"mediator" title, we never expected Mbeki to be
an honest broker. We were
not about to desert Mugabe in his time of need;
"quiet diplomacy" was
another name for "complicity".
But last December a new leadership took
over the ANC. The new party leader,
Jacob Zuma, attained his position
through the support of the trade union
movement and the South African
Communist Party, both of which had been vocal
in condemning Mugabe's actions
as soon as the "war veterans" began their
farm invasions. And for the first
time we heard the ANC publicly condemning
Mugabe for trying to hijack the
electoral process, even as a lame-duck Mbeki
continued to defend Mugabe in
international forums and to declare that there
was no crisis.
Two
weeks ago I was in Johannesburg talking to reporters who have been
covering
the xenophobic anti-Zimbabwean attacks of the past few months. It
became
clear to me that the support that Mugabe used to enjoy among black
South
Africans is beginning to wane. For the first time our people are
beginning
to talk openly about the South African government's complicity in
the total
collapse of Zimbabwe. They are beginning to say South Africa
should bear
some of the blame for the millions of Zimbabweans who have had
to flee state
violence only to compete for scarce resources in the poor
townships of South
Africa.
Yes, the jokes about "those millionaire Zimbos" - an allusion to
the fact
that a million in Zimbabwe adds up to less than one US dollar -
still
abound. But there is growing recognition that the chickens are coming
home
to roost, as thousands more continue to cross the border in search of a
better life and are welcomed with hate attacks.
· Zakes Mda, a South
African writer, is the author of Cion zmda@mweb.co.zay
Washington Post
By Mark Bellamy and J. Stephen
Morrison
From the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Saturday,
June 21, 2008; 12:00 AM
The crisis in Zimbabwe is now at a critical
stage. Government-instigated
brutality is out of control. Regional and
worldwide alarm over the brazen
and increasingly unpredictable rule of
Robert Mugabe is at an all-time high.
By any reckoning, free and fair
presidential elections in Zimbabwe next week
are impossible. Mugabe and his
security chiefs have warned they will accept
no outcome other than his
"re-election." Adding a few more election
observers or achieving a pause in
pre-election violence will change little.
Faced with Mugabe's ruthlessness,
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai may
well decide in coming days to pull
out of the race altogether.
The stakes are high. One of Africa's best
economies is in ruins. Three
million Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring
states. According to U.N.
estimates, more than 5 million Zimbabweans will
need food aid by next
January. As he tramples democracy and shreds the rule
of law, Mugabe exports
instability in a region where the U.S. has invested
heavily to promote good
government and economic development. The chaos in
Zimbabwe poses an urgent
test of Western and African
resolve.
Thus far, neither the West nor Africa has risen to the
challenge. The U.S.
and few other governments have enacted targeted
sanctions on the Mugabe
regime, provided substantial humanitarian relief and
assisted civil
organizations. Yet these ad hoc measures have not been enough
to affect real
change. Until recently most African leaders have either been
indifferent or,
in the case of South African President Thabo Mbeki, quietly
complicit in
enabling Mugabe's misrule.
It is now possible to
transcend this indifference. Mugabe's unpopularity,
his crumbling reputation
as a liberation hero, the increasing savagery of
his security chiefs, and
the regional economic and social costs of
Zimbabwe's meltdown -- all favor
an external diplomatic push.
Change requires that the United States mount
an intensive diplomatic
campaign, one where the United States is a catalyst
of international action.
The purpose will be to rally international support
for moving Zimbabwe
rapidly into the post-Mugabe era. To be successful, this
initiative must
move forward quickly at a high level, targeting a few key
audiences and
goals.
A top priority has to be ending South Africa's
patronage of Mugabe through
diplomatic pressure that exploits growing
regional dissatisfaction with
Thabo Mbeki's leadership. Botswana's new
President Ian Khama, Zambian
President Levy Mwanawasa, Tanzanian President
and African Union head Jakaya
Kikwete Kikwete, as well as Mbeki's
presumptive successor Jacob Zuma, all
understand the urgent need to act on
Zimbabwe. Other strong African voices,
such as Kenyan Prime Minister Raila
Odinga, are also now questioning South
Africa's role in Zimbabwe and calling
for change. Once the South African
linchpin is removed, the other external
props that sustain Mugabe -- Angola,
Namibia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, and
China -- will cease to matter.
The Bush administration should quickly
designate an envoy, a distinguished
former official or public figure, to
lead its efforts. It should help the
envoy assemble a small team of
prominent international figures from Africa,
Europe, and the Commonwealth to
travel to southern Africa for intensive
consultations on ending the crisis
in Zimbabwe. That team will need to be in
the region for an extended period.
Lacking internal consensus, neither the
United Nations nor the African Union
can mount such a mission. From its
position in the U.N. Security Council,
the U.S. should work in New York and
in African capitals to demand more
African involvement in solving the crisis
in Zimbabwe.
The U.S.
effort should be organized around four pillars.
First, it should create a
shared consensus that Mugabe must leave office.
This is the sine qua non to
any solution. Restoring democracy, respecting
human rights and rebuilding a
shattered society and economy should be the
highest priorities. These steps
cannot begin until Mugabe has left the
scene.
Second, it should
create a shared determination to contain Mugabe's chief
lieutenants. As
Mugabe exits, some senior security officials may be tempted
to replace him.
Beginning with southern African states, support must be
summoned for
possible deployment of a modest African Union or
U.N.-authorized monitoring
force. Meanwhile, the Bush administration should
disclose publicly details
of the extensive corruption surrounding Mugabe's
inner circle.
Third,
it should press for resumed negotiations on constitutional reform,
cut short
by Mugabe last year, and for an early date for new presidential
elections.
Zimbabweans themselves will be quick to address these imperatives
once
Mugabe is gone. Freed of current threats, they are capable of
establishing a
workable framework for a democratic transition.
Last, if should
accelerate international planning and support to rebuild
Zimbabwe's
shattered economic and social infrastructure. The United States
and other
donors should deploy credible, coordinated pledges of economic
assistance to
reinforce the diplomatic push to ease Mugabe out.
The Zimbabwean tragedy
may continue beyond the Bush administration, but that
is not a foregone
conclusion. The United States has nothing to lose by
investing in a bold
diplomatic initiative to fix one of the world's worst
man-made humanitarian
disasters. What better legacy could George Bush leave
in Africa than to
close out this terrible chapter of tyranny and restore to
a nation its lost
freedoms?
Mark Bellamy is a former U.S. ambassador to Kenya and a senior
fellow in
residence for the Africa Program and the International Security
Program at
CSIS. J. Stephen Morrison is executive director of the HIV/AIDS
Task Force
and director of the Africa Program at CSIS.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
20th
Jun 2008 23:50 GMT
By a Correspondent
Alarmed by the worsening political
crisis in their country, Zimbabwean
journalists scattered around the globe
have put together the statement below
to condemn the wanton destruction of
people's lives through unwarranted
political violence. The journalists the
Zimbabwe government should redeem
itself by moving fast to stop the on-going
political repression that has
seen more than 65 people dying for supporting
a political party of their
choice.
Alarmed Zimbabwean Journalists
Condemn Political Violence, Brutality Acts,
Murder
WE, the members of
the Association of Zimbabwe Journalists (AZJ), strongly
condemn the on-going
human rights abuses being perpetrated on innocent
Zimbabweans. AZJ is
appalled at the wanton killings, maiming, torture and
detentions ahead of
next week's presidential election run-off.
Zanu PF candidate, President
Robert Mugabe has declared that if his Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai wins the run-off on
June 27, not only will he
refuse to give up State House, but the "war
veterans" will wage war against
imperial "lackeys".
Evidently, the war has already begun in the form of
horrendous beatings and
murder of both known and perceived opposition
supporters in the entire
country. Daily news reports emanating from Zimbabwe
point to the fact that
Zimbabwe is a country at war.
Findings by both
local and foreign observers as well as family and community
accounts
overwhelmingly point at Zanu PF as the sponsor of the terror that
has
paralyzed Zimbabwe.
We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and
we join other
organizations in expressing doubts of a free and fair election
next Friday.
We as journalists are also appalled by the continuing threats,
arrests and
unlawful detentions of journalists trying to do their
job.
AZJ demands the following:
1.) We demand that the government
immediately ceases to sponsor the terror
group who include the police and
army.
2.) We demand that journalists and observers carry out their work
anywhere
in Zimbabwe freely without threats to their lives or
families
3.) We demand that all acts of violence be fully investigated
and
perpetrators of violence be brought before the courts
4.) We
demand that the government stops the continued arbitrary arrests and
detentions of all those perceived to be state
enemies
Signed
Forward Maisokwadzo
Innocent Madawo
Urginia
Mauluka
Simbarashe Chabarika
Pedzisayi Ruhanya
Mduduzi
Mathuthu
Elton Dzikiti
Praxedes Jeremia
Patience Rusere
Makusha
Mugabe
Henry Makiwa
Lance Guma
Violet Gonda
Tichaona
Sibanda
Conrad Nyamutata
Innocent Chofamba_Sithole
Obert
Matahwa
Sandra Nyaira
Pedzisayi Chirume
Farai Gonzo
McDonald
Chimbizi
Mathew Nyashanu
Selbon Kabote
Rhoda Mashavave
Maxwell
Sibanda
Sharon Njobo
Benedicta Madawo
Charles Mtetwa
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Grace Tandiwe &
Trymore Magomana
Harare Tribune Correspondents
Friday, June
20, 2008 17:31
news@hararetribune.com
Zimbabwe, Harare – It is exactly 7 days before the run-off election on
June
27, but reports from across the country, by eyewitnesses and Harare
Tribune
reporters, indicate the campaign of intimidation, harassment,
torture of
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislatures, members and
supporters
has substantially increased.
There is now clear evidence that
the ZANU-PF government is
systematically broadening its campaign of terror
against innocent
Zimbabweans as ZANU PF youth militia is now being deployed,
in military
style, into the high density areas in urban areas.
All indications are that most people displaced by violence will not be
able
to cast their vote in a presidential run-off whose voting is
ward-based.
Tens of thousands of opposition and civic activists have been
declared
persona non grata in the wards and political constituencies in
which they
are registered to vote.
The escalation of politically motivated
genocide, planned,
coordinated, fanned, and provisioned by the ZANU-PF
government, comes in the
wake of a countrywide independent survey by a
respected University of
Zimbabwe academic that showed Morgan Tsvangirai
beating Robert Mugabe with a
landslide victory of 63 %.
The
finding dovetails with assessments of the true support for the MDC
during
the controversial March 29 election. The poll, carried last week with
a
sample of 2758 registered voters, had a standard margin of error of
+/-4.
Most MDC activists and their famlies in Murewa, Musana,
Wedza, Mutoko,
Bindura, Kadoma, Mhondoro, Chinhoyi, Masvingo, Redcliff,
Zaka, Mwenezi,
Buhera, Chipinge and Mutare have been given a weekend
ultimatum to leave
their villagers and go to Harare "to their master" MDC
president Morgan
Tsvangirai.
As night fell Friday in Chinhoyi,
ZANU-PF militia, who had wreaked
chaos in the town all day after attend a
rally addressed by Webster Shamu,
who is also the Minister of State for
Policy Implementation, terrorized
residents in Gadzema and other high
density townships in the town.
Those who attended Shamu’s meeting
with ZANU-PF ward leaders told the
Harare Tribune that they have been given
the green light to “root out the
MDC evil in our midst.”
The ZANU-PF militia, traveling in twin cabs supplied by the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) and carrying Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) issued
guns,
singled out homes of MDC members and leaders in the city, which they
proceeded demolish in the quest to reach their prey. Several homes in
Gadzema suffered extensive damage
Earlier, 11 MDC
activists, aged between 22 and 43, had arrested for
allegedly removing and
defacing Mugabe's campaign posters in the town.
The unabashed wave
of violence by ZANU-PF is happening with SADC & AU
monitors watching.
Tuesday, two MDC activists were shot dead, separately, in
front of SADC
observer teams.
The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network
(ZESN) indicated
Friday that out of 8,800 local monitors accredited to cover
the March 29
poll; only 500 have been approved to monitor the June 27
presidential
run-off.
The deliberate cutback in numbers has
heightened fears that Mugabe's
regime is planning to rig the upcoming
election. ZESN submitted the names of
23 000 monitors to the Ministry of
Justice but were told the presence of
observers, 'disrupts the smooth flow
of voting.
In an interview, Noel Kututwa, ZESN board chairperson
said, “the idea
is to make it impossible to do what we did (in the first
round). It will be
very difficult but not impossible.”
Now,
according to a new warning by the U.S. Embassy in Harare, youth
gangs are
roaming the suburbs of the capital forcing Zimbabweans to support
the
president and his ruling Zanu-PF Party in next week's runoff
election.
Morgan Tsvangirai is even considering pulling out of the
June 27
election, pointing out that violence across the country was making
it
difficult for his party to campaign.
"This political
harassment includes verbal and physical assaults,
abductions and forced
attendance at Zanu-PF political rallies," the embassy
warned in a text
message sent to Americans in the tense country.
The embassy blamed
the latest wave of intimidation ahead of next
Friday's vote, on the Zanu-PF
Party. The embassy sent out the alert to make
sure Americans avoided
political arguments or large crowds.
"The harassment is random and
anyone could become a target," the
message said. "Zimbabwe Republic police
have been slow to become involved
and may not offer protection from these
assaults."
By night Friday, the MDC said it will decide on Monday
whether to
withdraw from the June 27 presidential run-off
election.
"Yes, we will be meeting on Monday to assess the
situation. The
national council will meet and decide on the way forward,"
the MDC's Nelson
Chamisa said.
Earlier in the day, Mugabe said
that "only God" could remove him from
office.
"The MDC will never
be allowed to rule this country -- never ever,"
Mugabe told local business
people in Bulawayo.
"Only God who appointed me will remove me --
not the MDC, not the
British."
Later, at a rally in Bulawayo,
Mugabe said: "We will never allow an
event like an election reverse our
independence, our sovereignty, our sweat
and all that we fought for ... all
that our comrades died fighting.”
Western powers and human rights
groups say the election has been
tainted by violence and intimidation, while
Tsvangirai alleges that Zimbabwe
now is run by what is essentially a
"military junta".
"The people have been subjected to violence and
intimidation which are
so blatant and they are disappointed that we are not
having access to the
electorate," Innocent Gonese, the MDC's secretary for
legal affairs said.
"People are saying despite all that we should
not withdraw and we also
believe withdrawing will not solve
anything."
Even if the election is held, its outcome will not change
the
precarious situation in Zimbabwe. Both ZANU-PF and MDC through their
candidates Tsvangirai & Mugabe, have already gone on record saying that
they
will not accept defeat.
In view of this understanding,
African leaders had pressured Thabo
Mbeki to force Mugabe & Tsvangirai
to form a government of national unity,
which Mugabe rejected out of hand
Wednesday this. Tsvangirai, on his part,
has said he will never accept an
agreement that leave Mugabe in power.
It appears that the political
stalemate in Zimbabwe will continue for
the foreseeable future. ★ -- Harare
Tribune News
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
------------------------
1.
P MANGWENDE
Dear Jag
Response to letter Ben & Jenny Norton,
FORUM No. 540 - Dated 16 June 2008
For the life of me, I cannot
understand why there are people out there who
think that Morgan should stand
aside and let Makoni run Zimbabwe. Do
elections results mean
nothing?
We all know why Makoni got such a high figure at the last
election, so why
not ask Mutambara to take over, so Morgan can aside? After
all, it was
Mutambara's people who provided the significant proportion of
Makoni's
overwhelmingly massive 8% of the total vote.
Getting back to
ground level, the people of Zimbabwe voted for Morgan
Tsvangirai. He got the
numbers and it boggles the mind when I see the
ongoing frenzy to get
Tsvangirai to stand aside and replace him with someone
who is clearly
unacceptable to the voter. The reason why the people want
Tsvangirai is
pretty obvious. They want change. They want freedom and
democracy. They are
sick of sunup and Makoni spent the greater part of
Zimbabwe's destruction as
a very senior ZANUPF zanupf politician at highest
levels.
Even today,
Makoni won't apologise or come clean to the people for his
contribution to
sustaining ZANUPF hegemony and Zimbabwe's destruction. He
remains silent on
crucial issues and has played a carefully choreographed
game of avoidance. It
seems there are a few who have fallen for it.
Fortunately the people of
Zimbabwe have seen through this and voted
accordingly. They no longer want
peace at all costs and they are sick to
death of appeasement. They want
change. They certainly do not want any
mechanism which provides an enabler
for ZANUPF to come back through the back
door. The days of Makabusi
visionaries are over, it's now time to face
reality. Wishy-washy solutions
are not going to help Zimbabwe or the next
generation. It has to be democracy
or nothing. There is no in-between. It's
do or die time.
As regards
the reconstruction of Zimbabwe with an MDC government, planning
and funding
is already in place for redevelopment of our country. Zimbabwe
does not need
a Makoni for this to happen. All it needs is for the people's
wishes to be
respected in a free and fair democratic election. Therefore,
all energies
should be directed into making this
happen.
Regards
Pat
------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Politcsweb
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
20 June
2008
Statement issued by Department of Foreign Affairs June 20
2008
It is Critical for Zimbabweans to have Free and Fair Elections,
says
Minister Dlamini Zuma
New York- South African Minister of
Foreign Affairs Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini
Zuma, says it is critical for
Zimbabweans to have free and fair elections in
which the people of Zimbabwe
can freely express their will.
Minister Dlamini Zuma was answering
questions to reporters during her visit
to New York where she led the South
African delegation to the UN Security
Council debate on Women in Peace and
Security chaired by US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice. USA is the
current President of the UN Security
Council. In this regard, the USA
convened a round-table discussion on the
current situation in Zimbabwe [see
here].
Answering to a question whether the Round Table discussion on
Zimbabwe made
good progress in voicing the concerns of the global community
for free and
fair elections in Zimbabwe and whether the UN is doing enough
to ensure free
and fair elections, Minister Dlamini Zuma said "Well, I think
that it is in
all our interests, and that of Zimbabwe and its people, to
have free and
fair elections. It is important for the Zimbabwean people to
be able to
express their choices and be able to express their will so that
the results
do indeed reflect the true will of the Zimbabwean people. So I
think we are
all at one when it comes to this. This is very
important".
"Secondly, the UN has sent its Special Envoy - I am not sure
whether he has
left Zimbabwe already but he has not returned to the UN yet -
so he may
still be in Zimbabwe or en-route to the UN so he will be able to
advise the
UN, having been on the ground and having discussed with the
authorities and
the opposition in Zimbabwe to be able to brief the UN on
what is going on
and what he thinks needs to be done" continued Minister
Dlamini Zuma.
"And off course, it is also important to have international
observers. As
you know, SADC decided to send many more observers this time
and some are
already on the ground and others are en-route because SADC
decided it was
important to have many observers and that they should not
arrive just for
the elections but to be part of trying to create an
environment that would
allow for free and fair elections and we have also
encouraged other
regions - ECOWAS and so on - and whoever else has been
invited to observe
the elections to send as many people as possible so that
we can be off
assistance in creating an enabling environment to allow the
Zimbabweans to
express themselves freely and fairly" concluded Minister
Dlamini Zuma.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube and Charles Rukuni Staff
Reporters
SA leader alarmed by scale of violence
SOUTH African President
Thabo Mbeki yesterday held private talks separately
with President Robert
Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai during
which he is said to
have appealed to both leaders to immediately bring
political violence to an
end in the run-up to next Friday's presidential
run-off.
The meetings
were held amid revelations that Mbeki, who was mandated by the
Southern
African Development Community (SADC) in March last year to mediate
in the
Zimbabwean crisis, has decided to put his push for a government of
national
unity (GNU) on ice until after the June 27 run-off.
Sources privy to Mbeki's
meetings, first in Harare with Tsvangirai in the
afternoon and late last
night with President Mugabe in Bulawayo, said the
South African leader
expressed grave concern over the scale and gravity of
the violence.
They
said Mbeki is alarmed that the run-off campaign has been marked by a
wave of
murders, abductions, assaults, torture and arson countrywide, which
erupted
almost immediately after the March 29 election results were
announced, with
both sides being culpable.
He is also said to have expressed concern that the
electoral playing field
remained uneven after disclosures by the MDC leader
yesterday that he has
not been allowed to campaign freely since his return
to Zimbabwe after a
month away during which he undertook a diplomatic
shuttle to regional
countries and abroad to drum up support while President
Mugabe has been
campaigning without restraint.
Mbeki arrived in Bulawayo
shortly after 5pm yesterday and waited for
President Mugabe's arrival from
his campaign in Gwanda at the Bulawayo
Rainbow Hotel. He then met the
Zimbabwean leader for more than three hours
at State House.
President
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told The Financial Gazette
yesterday that
Mbeki's visit was part of the SADC mediation effort.
Charamba poured cold
water on speculation that Mbeki had sought to bring
Tsvangirai and President
Mugabe to agree on a GNU , which could have
resulted in the cancellation of
the presidential run-off.
In a speech before the South African parliament
last week Mbeki said his
priority was to help Zimbabwe find answers through
dialogue and negotiation
rather than imposing a solution from
abroad.
"They (elections) are a logical development of the harmonised
elections of
March 29. You don't abort an election when you don't have an
alternative,"
said Charamba. "Those talking about the GNU are from the
opposition because
they are afraid of the June 27 elections," he
added.
Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga confirmed Tsvangirai had met
Mbeki
but could not divulge details of the meeting.
He said: "We can't
walk around with our mouths wide open if this process is
to succeed."
On
Tuesday, the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) observer mission said that
violence was at the top of the agenda of the electoral process.
PAP
observer Marwick Khumalo said his team had received 'many horrendous
stories,' while churches, doctors and human rights agencies dealing with
victims of the violence say members of President Mugabe's ZANU-PF party have
been overwhelmingly named as the main perpetrators.
Mbeki, widely
criticised for his handling of the escalating situation in
Zimbabwe, after
declaring in May that there was "no crisis," was said to be
eager to appeal
to both candidates to exercise restraint in the next nine
days as he had now
recognised it would be impossible to forgo the run-off
election and forge a
government of national unity.
Tsvangirai recently wrote to Mbeki slamming his
conduct as chairman of the
SADC-initiated talks between ZANU-PF and the MDC
and accusing him of being
openly biased in favour of the 84-year-old
incumbent.
It was not immediately clear if yesterday's talks touched on the
controversial letter but the sources said the MDC leader maintained that his
supporters were at the receiving end of the violence, with 70 listed as
having been killed since March 29 for allegedly voting for the
MDC.
ZANU-PF has claimed that three people, one male war veteran and two
female
supporters in Mutoko have died as a result of political
violence.
Against a background of international outrage over the political
violence,
pressure has been mounting on Mbeki in recent weeks to take more
decisive
action leading to tangible results.
On Monday, three South
African opposition parties refused to pass a budget
for the Foreign Affairs
ministry, citing Mbeki's failure to deal effectively
with the Zimbabwean
issue.
Mbeki was appointed by SADC in July last year as mediator in the
Zimbabwean
crisis, whose contagion has affected the entire region.
He
arrived in Harare at about noon yesterday and was driven straight to the
residence of the South African ambassador before holding talks with
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, confirmed that the
MDC leader met
with Mbeki, a few hours after holding another high-profile
meeting with the
United Nations special envoy to Zimbabwe to assess the
electoral environment
before next weeks presidential run-off.
"I can
confirm that Tsvangirai met Mbeki but I am not privy to the
deliberations as
I was not in the meeting," said Sibotshiwe.
President Mugabe and the South
African leader were due to hold a press
conference after their meeting last
night in Bulawayo.
Sources said Mbeki has acknowledged that while he was a
proponent of a
negotiated settlement, he was cognisant of the fact that it
was too late to
forge a government of national unity before the June 27
presidential run-off
due to the violence and sharp differences between the
camps.
He, however, according to the sources, believes that the winner of the
run-off should embrace the idea so as to end Zimbabwe's nagging crisis once
and for all and that both President Mugabe and Tsvangirai should accept the
outcome of the run-off.
He is also understood to have been disturbed by
reports allegedly emanating
from ZANU-PF that President Mugabe would never
concede defeat even if he
lost to Tsvangirai, who outpolled him in the first
round. Mbeki is said to
be aware that 95 percent of the violence has been
attributed to ZANU-PF.
The South African leader was shocked when he was
briefed on the extent and
magnitude of violence, especially in former
ZANU-PF strongholds in
Mashonaland, Masvingo and Midlands, by a team of
retired generals he
dispatched to Zimbabwe after the disputed March 29
elections as well as by
people on the ground, including the MDC.
The MDC
is said to have kept Mbeki posted on the level of violence against
its
supporters. Mbeki had dossiers sent to him by Tsvangirai on the
identities
of some of the perpetrators of violence, such as state security
agents, war
veterans and other culprits.
"President Mbeki knows President Mugabe is the
one who has the means to stop
the violence in the country, especially in the
rural areas where armed
soldiers have been spotted," said a
source.
"Pretoria also says it is not wise and healthy to have violence as it
divides the people and it will eventually scupper the idea of a negotiated
settlement after the run-off," added the source.
Tsvangirai yesterday
told both Mbeki and the UN envoy, Haile Menkerios, that
he was confident of
winning although conditions on the ground were far from
conducive for any
election, let alone a presidential one.
According to sources, he chronicled
what he said were flagrant violations of
the SADC principles and guidelines
on staging elections in a democracy, such
as denying a candidate the right
to campaign freely.
MDC officials, such as Tendai Biti, the party's secretary
general and
lawmaker Eric Matinenga, had been arrested ahead of the run-off,
and the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had been militarised.
Tsvangirai
told Mbeki that soldiers were being forced to vote for President
Mugabe
under the watchful eye of their superiors amid threats of war against
civilians.
Meanwhile, the leader of the African National Congress (ANC),
Jacob Zuma,
yesterday said he supported the sending of 1 000 election
monitors from his
party to observe the presidential election.
Zuma is in
line to succeed Mbeki as South African President following his
election to
lead the ANC in Polokwane last year.
Yesterday, Zuma said he does not think
Zimbabwe's runoff will be free.
"I don't think so," he said when asked
whether the runoff will be fair. "I
think we will be lucky if we have a free
election," added Zuma.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Senior
Political Reporter
LOCAL Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has been
sucked into a corruption
case that exposes the wanton looting of Harare City
Council resources, after
defence lawyers suggested he should be the one to
be prosecuted.
Former Harare town clerk Nomutsa Chideya appeared in court
this week on
corruption charges stemming from allegations that as a public
officer in
2006 he displayed favouritism towards then Harare Commission
chairperson
Sekesai Makwa-varara by selling a council house in Highlands at
an
undervalued price of $780 million instead of $5,5 billion.
However,
exhibits submitted in court show that Chideya had vehemently
opposed the
sale of the house to the former Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) Mabvuku
councillor who defected to ZANU-PF following the sacking by
Chombo of MDC
mayor Elias Mudzuri on charges of defying ministerial orders.
A valuation
report prepared by Harare's acting director of housing, James
Chiyangwa on
the sale of the Highlands property indicates Chombo directed
that the house
be sold to Makwavarara. The report was submitted to court as
an
exhibit.
"The instruction to dispose the property to the sitting tenant came
from the
Minister of Local Government and Urban Development," reads part of
Chiyangwa's
report.
Although council regulations stipulate that the house
should be sold to a
sitting tenant, on Tuesday former Harare chamber
secretary Otilia Dangwa
said she had occupied the house since 2003 and thus
Makwavarara had never
been a sitting tenant.
During the same hearing
defence lawyer Godfrey Mamvura suggested that Chombo
and Makwavarara should
be the ones to be charged for corruption, not his
client.
In his defence
outline, Chideya said Chombo had directed that Makwavarara be
given a house
despite that fact that she was living in a guesthouse at the
mayoral mansion
compound.
He said the Minister directed in June 2005 and February 2006 that
Makwavarara was entitled to the house. "The accused believes that
Makwavarara actually paid $5,5 billion for the house despite the resolution
by the full commission to sell the house to her for $13, 750 billion,"
Chideya said in his defence outline.
"Council advertised the proposed
sale of the house to Sekesayi Makwavarara
and there were more than 400
objections and over a thousand signed petitions
by Harare residents. The
objections were totally ignored by council."
Chideya said he was blameless
for the disposal of the house to the former
Harare Commission chairperson as
the sale of the house was finalised after
he had been fired, allegedly at
Makwavarara's instigation.
Minutes of a meeting between Chideya, Makwavarara,
Dangwa and the then local
government deputy minister Morris Sakabuya written
by the ministry's
permanent secretary Partson Mbirimi, which have been
placed before the
court, also accuse the former commission chairperson of
corrupt practices.
Makwavara was said to have been opposed to going to tender
and in some
circumstances that council floated tenders; the majority of
companies that
were short-listed belonged to her relatives.
"The acting
chamber secretary agreed that all was not well at Town House in
that there
were too many unprocedural incidents, which were happening,"
Mbiriri wrote
in the minutes.
"Groceries for the mayor's house had become an issue because
these were no
longer confined to teas, biscuits and sugar but had assumed
larger
proportions."
The permanent secretary also wrote that Makwavarara
had been accused of
refusing to pay hotel bills, letting her spouse,
identified only as Shito,
use a council house and using council resources at
her Raffingora farm.
On Tuesday Dangwa told the court that during her tenure,
Makwavarara would
incur expenses without approval and then demand that the
council should pay.
She cited an example of how the former Harare Commission
chairperson had
installed a satellite dish and equipment at her house and
then brought the
matter up so that council could pay.
FinGaz
Ray Matikinye
News Editor
DOCTORS who have been witnessing first hand the injuries
inflicted on
victims of politically motivated violence since the March 29
harmonised
elections attended to more than 1 000 cases in May alone. Of the
patients
attended to last month, 119 sustained fractures confirmed by
X-rays. The
remainder had broken bones protruding through wounds, according
to the
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR).
The
rising numbers and the severity of cases of systematic violent assault
and
torture last month, ZADHR says, was of a scale that threatened to
overwhelm
specialist surgeons and anaesthetists' ability to cope,
particularly in
managing the burden of serious physical trauma.
Zimbabwe's health system is
facing a debilitating drug and manpower shortage
that has been constraining
efficient service delivery to patients.
Since violence erupted in the
countryside after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
outpolled President Robert
Mugabe, hundreds of peasants in rural Zimbabwe
have been victims of
politically induced violence perpetrated by both major
parties.
The scale
of violence has alarmed regional and international leaders who
have called
for steps to be taken to curb inter-party hostilities.
The violence, with a
potential to surge out of control, has crept into towns
and cities in the
past few weeks, as increased incidents of coercion,
threats and assaults
have been reported in the capital.
ZADHR says its members attended to more
than 300 displaced patients with
medical conditions such as pneumonia or
asthma, or psychiatric diagnoses, in
particular anxiety and
depression.
Many of the victims, whose medication had been lost or destroyed
when they
were violently forced to flee their homes, by arson or threats of
injury or
death, had chronic conditions such as diabetes.
"It is certain
that a far greater number of patients will have been attended
to by other
members of the health professions, especially nurses, but will
never have
been near a doctor," the human rights doctors' grouping says.
Of the victims
of assault, 36 patients had fractures of the ulna the inner
or medial bone
of the forearm, 27 of the radius (the outer or lateral bone
of the
forearm).
"Most of these fractures will have been sustained in attempts to
defend the
face and upper body from violent blows with a weapon such as a
heavy stick
or iron bar," the statement says.
It says of these 13 had
fractures of both radius and ulna, four had
fractures of the ulna bones of
both arms, and one patient had both radius
bones broken. Seventeen further
cases of fractured wrist, forearm, or elbow
were recorded.
ZADR says at
least two pregnant women, one 24 and the other 32 weeks
gestation, were
systematically beaten on the back and buttocks, resulting in
extensive
lacerations, bruising. They were among the 312 cases classified as
having
severe soft tissue injury.
Although there have been reports of over 53
violent deaths up to the end of
May 2008, few postmortems are being
undertaken and therefore doctors only
rarely confirm cases.
But ZADR
confirmed seven deaths, which occurred in hospital following
admission for
injuries sustained during violent assault or torture.
One confirmed a broken
neck as the cause of death. A second died as a result
of bleeding inside the
head with extensive facial injury indicative of
having been beaten on the
head.
In the second case the body was found several days after abduction, and
although it was partially decomposed, the detailed post-mortem, which was
carried out did not reveal evidence of beating or torture.
The postmortem
revealed that the head was forcibly extended; the face
covered and, with the
victim prone, several attackers put their weight on
his back, consistent
with death due to asphyxia.
FinGaz
Own
Correspondent
ZAKA - Politicians in Masvingo are scrambling to podiums to
echo threats
against the electorate of an outbreak of war if President
Robert Mugabe
loses the presidential run-off election scheduled for next
Friday.
Masvingo, which for years has formed the bulwark of ZANU-PF
support, earned
the accolade of being a "one-party" province since
independence despite
subsequent decades of intra-party factional fighting
over control of the
vast province of more than 1, 5 million
people.
Recently, politicians, high-ranking civil servants along with
military
officers, have raised the spectre of civil war in the event of the
incumbent
losing again to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader,
Morgan
Tsvangirai on June 27.
Addressing mourners at the funeral wake of
late national hero, Retired
Lieutenant General Amoth Chimombe in Zaka East
last Friday Major General
Engelbert Rugeje said ZANU-PF came into power
after a protracted war and
therefore it would not let go of the country
unless defeated by the MDC in a
war.
Chimombe, who died last week after a
short illness, was buried at the
National Heroes Acre last
Saturday.
Rugeje said an MDC victory meant the country would go back to its
former
British colonisers as MDC planned to give the land back to them, thus
fuelling unrest.
"This country came through the bullet, not the pencil.
Therefore, it will
not go by your X (voting mark) of the pencil. We cannot
let the efforts of
such people as the late Chimombe to liberate this country
just go to waste,"
Rugeje said in Shona.
He said soldiers had a duty to
protect the country from "going back to the
enemy."
Rugeje promised the
villagers a helicopter-full of bullets when he returns
to nearby Jerera
growth point, where he is due to address a ZANU-PF rally.
"Today, I came here
by helicopter with the late Chimombe's body. The next
time I will come next
week to Jerera, the helicopter will be full of
bullets. You know what you
did," Rugeje threatened.
Other party stalwarts in the drought-wracked
province have echoed similar
sentiments, saying ZANU-PF would take up arms
if defeated by the MDC in the
second round of elections.
Addressing
school heads at Chivi Rural District Council offices last week,
Finance
Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said an MDC victory meant war.
Mumbengegwi, who
lost a senate seat to former long-serving Masvingo
governor, Josiah Hungwe,
has no known liberation war credentials.
"This is up to you, if you want
peace, you should vote for us. If you vote
for the MDC, we will go to war,"
Mumbengegwi said.
Speaking at the same function, Masvingo Resident Minister,
Willard Chiwewe
said Zimbabweans had no choice but to vote for
ZANU-PF.
"This is a choice with no choice. It's either you vote for war
(voting for
the MDC) or peace," Chiwewe, who is former defence secretary,
said.
Masvingo province recently formed a campaign committee to mobilise
independence war participants to fan out in urban areas and mines such as
Mashava and the vast sugar plantations in the Lowveld to "re-educate" the
electorate.
The committee, chaired by Dzikamayi Mavhaire and provincial
chairman Retired
Major Alex Mudavanhu, includes Kudakwashe Dzoro and the
chairman of the
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, Admore Hwarari.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Senior Political Reporter
...as
SADC leaders ditch quiet diplomacy
SOME members of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) are now abandoning the “quiet diplomacy” approach
championed by South African leader Thabo Mbeki in what analysts said signified
the growing apprehension over Harare’s policies and President Robert Mugabe in
particular.
The Zimbabwean leader, who has been held in high esteem by
his regional peers because of his elder statesman status, is blamed for reducing
a once prosperous economy into a basket case. President Mugabe denies any form
of mismanagement on the part of his administration and instead accuses Britain
and its allies of crippling the economy by way of sanctions.
But of late
critics have spoken out loud against what they see as deliberate attempts by
ZANU-PF to deny the electorate its right to determine who should govern
them.
Last week Botswana summoned Zimbabwe’s ambassador to that country,
Thomas Mandigora, to protest the detention of Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the opposition party’s secretary general,
Tendai Biti.
“The repeated arrests and detentions are unacceptable and
deserve condemnation as they violate the principles and objectives of the SADC
Treaty,” the Botswana government said in a statement.
The SADC Treaty, which
Zimbabwe acceded to, provides among other things guidelines with regard to the
rule of law, democracy, good governance and human rights
practices.
Botswana’s protest followed the announcement by Zambia that it had
sent a diplomatic note to the Zimbabwean government taking issue with the verbal
attacks the country’s President, Levi Mwanawasa, had been subjected to in the
local state media.
Lusaka described as “malicious” statements to the effect
that Mwanawasa had been hired by western nations to plot President Mugabe’s
ouster.
The state media also accused the neighboring country’s head of state,
as chair of SADC of “unprocedurally” convening a meeting in Zambia and another
on the sidelines of an international summit in Japan.
“We have lodged a
note-verbal, (diplomatic communication) to the Zimbabwean government to protest
over the sustained malicious campaign against Zambia,” Kabinga Pande, Zambia’s
foreign minister said at a press conference.
A fortnight ago Zambian
Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, Mike Mulongoti berated the
chairman of ZANU-PF’s information committee, Patrick Chinamasa for statements
directed at Mwanawasa in his capacity as SADC chairman.
Mulongoti was
reacting to statements by Chinamasa that Mwanawasa was colluding with Zimbabwe’s
detractors by not calling for the lifting of sanction imposed by the
West.
And early this month, Zambia announced that it had granted political
asylum to 12 MDC members fleeing political violence in Zimbabwe. They will be
looked after by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
In April
Mwanawasa urged African countries not to allow a Chinese ship carrying armaments
destined for Zimbabwe to dock in their ports in a controversy that resulted in
the freighter failing to off load its cargo in South Africa, Mozambique and
Angola.
In addition to governments, more and more eminent Africans are
speaking out against some of the Zimbabwean government’s policies and
decisions.
In a marked departure from his trademark approach, Mbeki last week
described the situation in Zimbabwe as a “crisis”, adding in apparent reference
to the detention of MDC leader and a number of opposition Members of Parliament:
“Disruption of electoral activities of some of the parties is a cause for
serious concern.”
Fourteen former African heads of state, two ex-heads of the
United Nations and some civic and business leaders have also called on the
Zimbabwean government to ensure that the June 27 election is free and
fair.
The group, including former UN chiefs Koffi Annan and Boutros
Boutros-Ghali and former presidents Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Abdusalami Abubakar
of Nigeria, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Ketumile
Masire and Festus Mogae of Botswana said the government should allow non
governmental organisations to continue their humanitarian work.
“We call for
an end to the violence and intimidation, and restoration of full access for
humanitarian and aid agencies,” the eminent Africans said.
Annan was more
blunt when he said: “Blame for inaction in the face of serious human rights
violations can be shared among those who value abstract notions of sovereignty
more than the lives of real families; those whose reflex of solidarity puts them
on the side of governments and not of peoples; and those who fear that action to
stop the violations would jeopardize their commercial interests.”
President
Mugabe has said he does not regret suspending the operations of non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) because they were campaigning for the MDC, a charge they
deny.
He accused some NGOs of collecting villagers’ ID cards, after promising
to bring them food but disenfranchising them by never returning the documents.
FinGaz
Ray Matikinye News
Editor
HUNDREDS of employees, working for humanitarian organisations and
other
private voluntary organisations risk becoming redundant owing to a
government decree issued last week suspending the operations of these
organisations.
A political impasse that unfolded soon after the March
29 elections has
mutated to entrap civic organisations in a political
whirlpool as government
ratchets pressure on non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) in a fresh
crackdown after accusing them of political involvement in
support of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Last week, Public
Service, Labour and Social Services Minister Nicholas
Goche suspended the
operations of NGOs and private voluntary organisation in
a fresh clampdown.
He decreed that they register afresh
According to the National Association of
Non Governmental Organisations
(NANGO) current register there are more than
1 000 non-governmental
organisations engaged in various activities ranging
from poverty
alleviation, health, food provision and security to those that
deal with
governance issues.
NGOs employ support staff, mostly
Zimbabweans, at various levels, and it is
these jobs which are at risk at a
time when Zimbabwe is experiencing high
levels of unemployment and critical
shortages of skilled personnel.
Each of these organisations has a sizeable
complement of staff in some
instances running into hundreds.
Concerns
have been raised about the financial impact of the suspension, in
terms of
the foreign currency inflows that NGOs generate.
Fambai Ngirande, advocacy
and public policy manager for NANGO estimates that
Zimbabwe could lose more
than US$50 million that international donors used
to remit through the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for use by
non-governmental organisation in
their humanitarian operations.
"At the last meeting we had with the RBZ
following delays by the central
bank in releasing these remittances, our
members estimated that US$50
million was outstanding but this figure
represents only a fraction of the
global foreign currency that the country
could lose because of the
decision," Ngirande said.
The cumulative
losses include skills transfers facilitated by NGO experts
who have been
seconded to Zimbabwe alongside the expertise they impart to
communities they
have been working in.
It is also difficult for NGOs to re-establish offices
in this country once
they have relocated elsewhere in the region.
"The
sheer economic impact can be translated into a loss of business for
service
providers and manufacturers alike," Ngirande says.
"Manufacturers provided
the food that humanitarian organisations distributed
to the needy, while
others transacted business worth billions of dollars
with the various NGOs.
All these will feel the impact of the suspension."
Maria Saldanha, the
reports officer for the World Food Programme said
although her organisation
was not affected by the decree because it provided
food aid to NGOs for them
to distribute, the suspension was a major setback
for beneficiaries.
"It
is a setback because about 314 000 people are dependant on NGOs for
food.
There are also the disabled, orphaned, elderly and people living with
HIV/Aids who will be adversely affected," Saldanha said.
"Without food,
treatment is impossible for people that need to take
medication and drugs,"
she added
She said despite this not being the peak hunger season, estimates
were that
at least 300 000 people needed assistance in one form of the
other.
According to reports, Zimbabwe has started importing food from South
Africa
by rail.
The South African Grain Information Service, a company
providing market
information says a 300,000 metric tonne (mt) order of
'unbagged' maize for
Zimbabwe had been placed.
President Robert Mugabe,
who squares off against MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in the June 27 runoff
has told supporters during his campaign
rallies that Zimbabwe had imported
600 000 mt of maize to feed starving
villagers in rural areas and reduce the
impact of a mealie-meal shortage in
urban areas.
At current prices of
about R1, 800 (US$231) per metric ton for white maize,
a 300,000mt white
maize consignment would cost Zimbabwe about US$70 million,
before transport
costs are factored in.
President Mugabe insists he has nothing to apologise
for after suspending
the operations of NGOs he accuses of using food
handouts as a weapon to
"effect illegal regime change".
International
donor agencies provided food aid to 4.1 million people, more
than a third of
the population, between October last year and March this
year.
Critics
say government has descended so heavily on private voluntary
organisations
so as to wobble their efforts to expose human right abuses.
Police have
raided the offices of several organisations and detained a
number of the
organisations' executives for interrogation on allegations of
involvement
and meddling in politics and abetting the West's regime change
agenda.
In
a statement on Monday, American Democratic party presidential candidate,
Barrack Obama said the Zimbabwean government was once again denying
Zimbabwe's
citizens food donated by the international community, including
the United
States, to punish the people for voting peacefully for
change.
"This egregious abuse is part of a broader campaign of intimidation
and
repression designed to manipulate the results of the June 27
presidential
run-off elections," Obama, who could become the United States'
first black
president, said.
Sources told The Financial Gazette that the
NGOs were engaged in delicate
talks with the government to try to persuade
it to reverse its decision.
"We are still compiling information and for now
we have made a collective
decision not to speak to the media. But it's a
challenge that is getting
darker and thicker," an official who declined to
be named said.
FinGaz
Charles
Rukuni Bureau Chief
New political status sticking point
BULAWAYO - A storm
is brewing among former ZIPRA fighters over the ownership
of properties that
belong to their company Nitram Holdings following the
cross-over by the
chairman of the Board of Trustees Dumiso Dabengwa from
ZANU-PF to
Kusile/Mavambo.
Some of the former fighters say Dabengwa should have
handed the properties
back to them before making move because it was now not
clear whether the
properties belong to them or to Dabengwa and the Mavambo
Movement.
Dabengwa brushed off the complaints saying nothing had changed. The
properties still belong to Nitram, which is a private company and, as such,
is apolitical.
The properties, which include Castle Arms Motel in
Bulawayo, Woodglen Farm
in Mguza, Ascot and Nest Egg farms near Khami,
Hampton Farm in Gweru and
Black Cat Removals in Bulawayo, were seized by the
government in 1982 during
a crackdown on ZAPU after the alleged discovery of
arms on these properties.
The government seized 13 properties all together
but some of them were
liquidated leaving only six, which were handed back to
senior ZIPRA command.
It is not clear when the properties were handed back,
but it could have been
just before the presidential elections of 2002 as
reports about the
properties only surfaced in 2003. The properties have,
however, not yet been
officially transferred back to the owners.
Nitram
bought the properties with funds contributed by former ZIPRA fighters
who
each chipped in with $50 (then more than US$50) while they were still at
assembly points.
Members of the Board of Trustees have been reluctant to
talk about the
properties and what they are doing to resuscitate them or to
get title deeds
for the properties back.
Some of the former combatants
complained that they were afraid that they
could lose the properties because
of Dabengwa's political decision,
especially if there was a change of
government. They said things would still
be complicated even if ZANU-PF
remained in power because Dabengwa now
belonged to the opposition yet the
owners of the properties were members of
ZANU-PF.
Dabengwa, however, said
he did not belong to any political party. Mavambo
was not a political party
but a movement. Besides, the properties belonged
to Nitram, which is a
private company, and not a political party.
One of the former combatants who
preferred anonymity, however, said Dabengwa
could not divorce the properties
from ZAPU and ZIPRA because they were
seized solely because they belonged to
ZAPU though Nitram owned them.
"These are politically sensitive properties,"
the ex-fighter said. "Dabengwa
cannot therefore claim that they are
apolitical. He should have done the
sensible thing and should have stood
down from the board of Trustees and let
us takeover our
properties."
"There is also a general feeling that members of the Board of
Trustees have
outlived their term of office because they should have held
elections two or
three years ago but they have hung on, and, we suspect,
they have been
blocking the transfer of the properties for their own selfish
reasons."
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Senior
Political Reporter
THE government has fired the head of another state
controlled media entity,
Transmedia, who ruffled the feathers of legislators
last year when he told a
special parliamentary committee hearing that there
was nothing wrong with
villagers listening to Studio 7, the Voice of America
programme beamed into
Zimbabwe from Washington.
The government deems
Studio7 a "pirate station", and has listed it as one of
a number of
"hostile" stations it says are part of a Western "regime change
agenda".
Primrose Kurasha, the acting board chairperson of Transmedia,
announced
yesterday that Alfred Mandere was no longer the parastatal's chief
executive
officer.
"The board of directors of Transmedia Corporation
(Pvt) Ltd kindly advises
that Mr Alfred Mandere, the former chief executive
officer, is no longer an
employee of the corporation," Kurasha announced in
a terse advertisement.
She refused to elaborate on the reasons behind
Mandere's departure.
Mandere could not be reached for comment.
The
dismissal of the Transmedia boss comes weeks after the government sacked
Henry Muradzikwa, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings chief executive, on
allegations of failing to prop up ZANU-PF by undertaking through the public
broadcaster, a more robust campaign in the run-up to the March 29 elections,
resulting in the ruling party and its presidential candidate, President
Robert Mugabe, losing the poll to the Movement for Democratic
Change.
Eight senior ZBC journalists, including general manager Robson Mhandu
and
news editor Patrice Makova, have also been suspended on full
benefits.
But media analysts say the suspension is a first step towards their
imminent
departure from Pocket's Hill.
During a hearing by the
parliamentary committee on Transport and
Communi-cations last year, Mandere
stunned ZANU-PF legislators by suggesting
that ZBC should encourage the use
of shortwave in areas not covered by its
FM broadcasts.
"But they would
end up listening to Studio7," said then ZANU-PF Chitungwiza
Senator Forbes
Magadu, to which Mandere replied: "There is nothing wrong
with
Studio7."
Mandere subsequently placed advertisements in the state media
denying saying
it was alright for villagers to listen to Studio 7.
But
Harare lawyer Chris Mhike, who is the chairperson of the Zimbabwe
Association of Community Radio Stations, wrote an opinion article in The
Financial Gazette in which he insisted Mandere had indeed said what he
sought to deny subsequently.
Mhike had attended the committee hearing
where Muradzikwa and Information
and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu
were present.
"Although Mandere now denies. the truth of the matter is that
he did make
statements relating to Studio 7.
"He could now be in trouble
about it, hence the publication of the
'self-cleansing' advert," Mhike
wrote.
"Ndlovu and Muradzikwa were not amused by Mandere's frank speech. Some
members of the audience, in hushed voices, observed that Mandere could lose
his job after the hearing."
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori
Senior Business Reporter
Move set to worsen shortages
THE National Incomes
and Pricing Commission (NIPC) has discontinued the
approval of price
increments to millers and producers of other basic
commodities as government
commenced its battle to win the hearts of an
agitated electorate ahead of
June 27 presidential elections.
But the move is expected to further
worsen commodity shortages in the
country.
President Robert Mugabe
squares up against opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan Tsvangirai on June 27 in a poll in
which the economy could play a
major part in deciding who is likely to be
elected to lead the country for
the next five years.
"The NIPC will not grant further price increases on any
basic commodity
until the end of June 2008," a source told The Financial
Gazette.
"However, operational costs remain on the rise and a crackdown on
millers by
the NIPC is underway. Some persons of no particular origin
masquerading as
NIPC officials and of violent disposition are raiding
millers demanding
products and beating up personnel," added the
source.
The Financial Gazette understands that while millers were bleeding
from
rapid increases in overheads, they had, however, agreed to comply with
the
government directive to stop price increases unless requisite approvals
were
granted by the NIPC.
"We have agreed that all millers must comply
with NIPC prices and we will
not submit new price increases unless invited
to do so," our source said.
Milling companies, that have battled to break
even due to acute shortages of
mealie-meal and price controls, say they are
producing at a loss.
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in
history, characterised
by acute food shortages and escalating commodity
prices.
President Mugabe's critics have blamed the crisis on mismanagement,
but the
government blames the crisis on drought and targeted economic
sanctions from
the West.
Meanwhile, the executive committee of the Grain
Millers Association of
Zimbabwe (GMAZ), a grouping of mainly small millers,
has given an emphatic
nod to proposals that they merge with the Millers
Association of Zimbabwe
(MAZ).
The merger, which was proposed last month,
is expected to cement networks
between milling companies and perhaps improve
strained relations with the
government.
Blue Ribbon Industries financial
director Jose Manzira and National Foods
Limited managing director Chipo
Nheta, key members of the MAZ, have been
co-opted into the National
Executive Committee of GMAZ.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
NAMIBIA this week increased power imports from Zimbabwe under a
US$40
million loan agreement signed with Zimbabwe last year for the
refurbishment
of the Hwange power plant.
Reports from Namibia
indicated that NamPower, Namibia's power utility,
increased power imports
from Zimbabwe on Sunday to 80 MW as it battled to
secure its own
supplies.
NamPower had started receiving 40MW of electricity supplies from
Zimbabwe
under the deal, for which an additional US$10 million was extended
to the
country at the end of 2007.
The deal, described by NamPower as
"one of the best power supply deals ever
secured by the company in the
interest of the country", involved a firm
power supply agreement in terms of
which NamPower would receive electricity
from Hwange, which should start
flowing as early as this month.
Firm electricity exports to Namibia would be
increased on a pro-rata basis
once Hwange rehabilitates all its
units.
NamPower will then start receiving firm supplies amounting to 150 MW
with
effect from July 2008 for a minimum of five years.
The power would
come cheap for the Namibians.
From the four rehabilitated units, NamPower
would draw the 150 MW and pay
for the drawn power at US0.21 per KWh. Forty
percent of the payment would go
towards serving the US$40 million
loan.
The Financial Gazette reported in August last year that Zimbabwe's
power
supply situation remained precarious, despite the US$40 million deal
signed
with NamPower for the refurbishment of the Hwange Thermal Power
Plant.
In fact, investigations by The Financial Gazette had revealed that
Zimbabwe's
power utility, ZESA, was unable to start producing increased
electricity
from Hwange in January as scheduled, and had been forced to
start exporting
electricity to Namibia from the scant local supplies under
the deal.
FinGaz
Synodia Bhasera Staff
Reporter
Elections should restore the dignity of women, say groups
WITH
eight days to go before the presidential run-off elections, Zimbabwean
women
are looking for nothing short of a government, which will implement
measures
to make it possible for their lives to return to normal, gender
lobbyists
say. Since the March 29 elections whose inconclusive outcome
sparked
widespread violence, women have borne the brunt of the upheavals and
become
victims of political intimidation.
About 6 800 girls are raped annually
in Zimbabwe, but with the on-going
displacements, the number is expected to
treble, according to the Women's
Coalition of Zimbabwe.
Most female
teachers have been displaced, resulting in many fleeing to other
countries
and hundreds seeking refuge in cities and towns in Zimbabwe.
What is poignant
about the violence, which first flared up in the
countryside, but has been
spreading into towns and cities is that women are
being beaten not because
they voted or campaigned for the opposition, but
because their husbands and
male relatives are alleged to have voted for the
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
"We are looking for restoration where the humanitarian issues
are solved,
where everybody's security is guaranteed, where there is the
rule of law and
the economy is working again," said Netsai Mushonga,
coordinator for Women's
Coalition of Zimbabwe.
"As Zimbabwean women, we
want to be proud to be Zimbabweans," Mushonga said.
In the run-up to the
March 29 elections, the Women's Trust lobbied political
parties vigorously
through radio and television for the inclusion of women
candidates for
election as councillors, senators and Members of Parliament.
"The election
should be violence free. Any form of violence will affect us
more as women,"
said Fiona Chimombe, communication officer with Women's
Trust, a lobby group
campaigning for the inclusion of more women in
influential
positions.
"Women from all corners of the country should go and vote. It is
our right
as women to participate in the electoral processes of our country
and
determine our destiny."
Lobbyists complain that for most of the 28
years of independence, very
little was done about women's empowerment and
emancipation until the advent
of the Gender and Domestic Violence Act and
when organisations began raising
issues affecting women.
Up to then,
government had not been overly concerned about women's issues or
about women
as a group. Politicians were only interested in exploiting women
as campaign
agents during elections when they cheered and sang at rallies.
The
government has dealt with women's issues only when it was convenient to
exploit them so as to spruce up its image. But lately, political parties
have made strides in incorporating women into positions of authority through
quotas.
Says Fanny Chirisa, senior programme officer for Women in
Parliament Support
Unit: "We are still on the pledge we made on March 8,
that as women we
should vote in peace for peace." But she admits that her
organisation has
not spoken out about the widespread violence in the
country, in which women
have been caught in the crossfire.
"We have not
done much to assist women who have been victims of political
violence. The
parliamentarians have not contacted us, so we cannot go into
their
constituencies without their permission."
Mushonga says women want the
government to implement international
conventions, which it has acceded
to.
"We want international conventions like CEDAW (Convention on the
Elimination
of All forms of Discrimination Against Women) to be implemented
at the local
level so that they protect women's interests in a holistic
manner. The
constitution we currently have allows discrimination based on
culture,"
Mushonga said.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to CEDAW, which requires
governments to root out
discrimination against women in political and public
life. But years after
signing the convention, the government is yet to
incorporate CEDAW into
national laws. Every month, thousands of women cross
the border into
neighbouring countries like Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia,
Zambia, South
Africa and some go as far abroad as Dubai and China to sell
and buy goods to
support their families.
"We no longer want to be
beggars. We no longer want to be the laughing stock
in the region. This
election should restore our dignity as women," Mushonga
declared.
With
the country's inflation racing towards the two million percent mark,
women
have become victims of the nine-year economic recession.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Political
Editor
As ZANU-PF gears up to reverse the March 29 electoral
defeat
Government has intensified its crackdown on civil society
organisations and
human rights lawyers as it gears up to reverse the March
29 electoral defeat
in the June 27 presidential run-off against opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, who MDC insiders claim is under pressure to forge
a government
of national unity with the incumbent, outpolled President
Robert Mugabe by
almost 200 000 votes in the March 29 elections, but has not
been allowed to
roll-out his presidential campaign while the incumbent
campaigns countrywide
without restraint.
Reports released by
non-governmental organisations and human rights
defenders since the
beginning of June, indicate that these organisations are
under siege, with
scores of them having been raided and their officials
either assaulted or
arrested.
Information at hand shows that, to date, armed state security
agents have
stormed the offices of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, the
Christian
Alliance, Zimbabwe Human Rights, Zimcet, the Progressive Teachers'
Union of
Zimbabwe and the National Constitutional Assembly, among
others.
On Thursday last week police closed the offices of the Gweru Agenda
and
Gwanda Agenda on the grounds that they were operating
illegally.
Fambai Ngirande, the advocacy and public policy manager for the
National
Association of Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO), said the
pressure
group was concerned about the onslaught against the generality of
its
members. He denied these organisations were meddling in politics as
government claims.
"NANGO reiterates that the NGO sector has meticulously
endeavoured to remain
non-partisan and to adhere to international
humanitarian standards and
principles," Ngirande said.
"Further, NANGO
does not regard the said investigations into NGO operations
to be sufficient
grounds to jeopardise the humanitarian needs of millions of
Zimbabweans who
are being supported by NGO field operations or as a basis
for the continued
victimisation of civil society activists, human rights
defenders, aid
workers, election monitors or other personnel linked to the
NGO
sector."
Ngirande said an appeal challenging the closure of an organisation
in Gweru
on the basis of the government's suspension circular has been
lodged with
the Bulawayo High Court.
Two prominent human rights lawyers,
Andrew Makoni and Harrison Nkomo, who
have represented human rights
defenders, MDC officials and activists,
including the slain Tonderai Ndira,
have been forced to flee to South
Africa, because of threats to their lives,
according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR).
"These are the
most recent examples of a deeply disturbing clampdown on the
legal
profession, but are not the only cases to have been reported recently
to
ZLHR," the organisation's national director, Irene Petras, said.
"ZLHR wishes
to warn of the dire consequences ahead for human rights
defenders, civic
organisations and legitimate political party leaders and
members as a result
of the clampdown on lawyers. Such targeting of lawyers -
even the mere
allegation that there exists a 'list' of lawyers for
elimination - has a
chilling effect on all members of the legal profession
and, by implication,
on the affected individuals whose rights they seek to
protect," she
said.
Petras added that ZLHR was "bitter" over the manner in which the
Attorney
General's Office, allegedly working in cahoots with state security
agents,
has handled the case of MDC Buhera West House of Assembly
member-elect, Eric
Matinenga.
Officials at other non-governmental
organisations told The Financial Gazette
that state security agents had for
the past week been visiting their offices
demanding registration
certificates, names and individual addresses of board
members of their
respective organisations.
Last week, a number of civic society organisations
in Harare were, according
to officials, temporarily forced to close and send
employees home for fear
of being arrested. Sources said state security
agents were on the prowl
countrywide to identify pressure groups suspected
to be sympathetic to or
drumming up support for the MDC.
In some cases,
it was reported; the state security agents seized documents,
computers,
laptops and hard-drives, before arresting some officials.
In the remote town
of Binga in Matabeleland North, a rural stronghold of the
opposition MDC
since the historic 2000 elections, state security agents on
June 8 arrested
14 members of public groups organised by the Media
Monitoring Project of
Zimbabwe (MMPZ).
They were released without charge after spending three days
in police
holding cells in Binga.
The NCA said two of its regional
offices were closed and members were
assaulted in the crackdown the
organisation described as state-sponsored
violence.
Tsvangirai said last
week, 66 MDC members had been killed since March 29, a
statement, which has
not been publicly disputed by the police.
On Sunday, while addressing
presidential campaign rallies in the Midlands,
President Mugabe said his
government had no qualms about suspending the
operations of non-governmental
organisations because they were using food
handouts as a means to effect
illegal regime change.
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Staff
Reporter
. . . but inflation set to keep galloping
ZIMBABWEANS have
welcomed new withdrawal thresholds and the introduction of
higher
denomination bearer cheques by the central bank last week, saying it
was now
easier to transact.
But they decried the escalation of prices on the
domestic market, saying the
erosion of value on the local currency would
soon require the introduction
of even higher denomination notes unless the
central bank lopped off zeros
from the country's currency.
They said this
week cash was now readily available from financial
institutions because of
the higher denomination bearer cheques, mitigating a
six month cash crunch
that triggered long queues in banks, as depositors
battled to make
withdrawal.
However, the queues have again started forming in the banking
halls,
signalling the unprecedented decline in value of the local currency
and the
increasing demand for cash in the economy.
In May, Zimbabwe
introduced special high-value agro-cheques, which the
central bank said were
meant to ease transaction problems for farmers during
the current
agricultural marketing season.
The agro cheques, which are in $5 billion, $25
billion and $50 billion
denominations, are now widely circulating in the
economy and joined other
bearer cheques, with the highest in the
denomination of $500 million.
"In terms of handling large piles of money, the
agro cheques have alleviated
our plight," said Never Kazembe, a commodity
broker.
"But the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) could soon be forced to
introduce
more denominations in a short space of time. The real solution is
the
solving of the underlying causes of the hyperinflation, not printing
money,"
he said.
Stella Machipisa, an accountant with a local insurance
company, said the
problems had been temporarily solved but she was worried
long queues were
already returning to the banks.
"Go to the banks and see
how long the queues have become despite the
introduction of the higher
notes," she said.
"When they were introduced people's salaries were increased
and inflation
has not stopped, so people are always flooding banks.
"The
agro bills' positive impact is slowly being overtaken by the sad events
in
the economy," she said.
Reports have suggested that official inflation is
estimated to be around 1,7
million percent, based on what they described as
leaks from the Central
Statistical Office, but analysts said the inflation
figure could be well
beyond 2,5 million percent. The Zimbabwe dollar had
significantly weakened
on the official exchange market ever since the
currency was floated in April
to stop parallel market trade.
The parallel
market rate of the Zimbabwe dollar has also weakened in line
with the
depreciation of the currency on the official market.
The effect of this has
been to push prices up almost on a daily basis.
A visit to banking halls
around the central business district area indicated
that queues were getting
longer each day.
The country's main industry body, the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries
(CZI) recently said traders were beginning to reject
Zimbabwe's fast
depreciating currency because of the severe economic
crisis.
"We need to act as a matter of extreme urgency to reduce money supply
growth," CZI president Callisto Jokonya said, blaming the currency's erosion
of value on money supply growth.
"If we continue with the policy of
injecting massive amounts of liquidity
into the economy we will continue to
see continous depreciation of the
currency," Jokonya said.
"Already, we
are seeing in both urban and rural areas a phenomenon where
small traders,
landlords and individuals are refusing payment in local
currency and
insisting on either barter deals, for example payment in
cooking oil or
foreign currency. Our number one enemy is the excess of the
Zimbabwe dollar
on the market," said Jokonya.
But RBZ governor, Gedion Gono, dismissed the
CZI's assertions as "overly
simplistic", saying the current situation made
it imperative to continue
injecting more money into the economy.
"Merely
shrinking the money supply belt will not do. Any suggestions to the
contrary
will be patently simplistic and naive," said Gono.
Zimbabwe is currently
battling its worst economic crisis in history,
characterised by acute food,
fuel and electricity shortages triggered
largely by biting foreign currency
shortages triggered by the suspension of
balance of payment support from
international financiers.
While the country is endowed with vast mineral
resources, these have not
been aggressively tapped to earn the country
enough foreign currency and
salvage it from the crisis, now in its 10th
year.
The crisis has resulted in a break down of infrastructure, which was
once
the envy of many African nations.
FinGaz
Abbie Mphisa
I REFER
to Marumenjeya's article "The media, academics turn into political
activists" in The Financial Gazette of May 29-June 4.
Marumenjeya
sanctimoniously asks: "How many have bothered to find out why
Zimbabwe has
loomed so large in Western international campaign for
democracy?
"Isn't
it suspicious that the United States and the United Kingdom want to
champion
democracy in Zimbabwe when during the armed struggle they
considered ZANU-PF
and PF-ZAPU as terrorists?"
He/she goes on to highlight that Nelson Mandela
was only recently removed
from the list of terrorists.
This may come as a
disappointment to Marumenjeya, but this is as old a
thesis as it can ever
be.
Many academics and journalists have highlighted the hypocrisy of the
West.
Last year the New African Magazine, for example, dedicated a whole
issue to
(President) Mugabe's cause, emphasising the double standards of the
West.
Our own academics, (e.g. Mararike, Chivaura, Kurebwa and Mupepereki),
highlight the hypocrisy of the West on our television on a daily basis. Yes,
even we ordinary Zimbabweans are very much aware that the West's foreign
policy has always been guided by national interests and the strong belief in
the superiority of the white race.
There is therefore nothing suspicious
about the US or the UK supporting the
cause of white Zimbabweans. Should we
not, in fact, be learning from them.
This is where I find Marumenjeya's
analysis rather shallow. If we, as
Africans were even half as proud in
ourselves and valued African lives to
the extent that the whites value white
lives, Africa would long have ceased
to be the continent of wars, hunger,
poverty and disease.
Whining about colonial ills and playing the victim has
become a favourite
pastime for us, the African people. We are chronic
underperformers
consistently on the lookout for scapegoats and conspiracy
theories.
I honestly did not know whether to laugh or cry when Marumenjeya
rhetorically posed the questions: "Who brought democracy to Africa? Who
brought dignity to Africans? Who empowered Africans? Who brought mass
education to the masses?"
He actually believes that there is democracy on
the continent, that Africans
are an empowered and dignified group of people.
The reality is that the
number of democratically elected governments on the
African continent does
not even exceed 10 and 50 percent of Africans cannot
afford one decent meal
per day.
Ninety percent of Zimbabwe's population
lives below the poverty datum line.
Even in the face of xenophobic attacks,
Zimbabweans have vowed to stay in
South Africa because they still feel safer
and more economical secure in
South Africa than would be the case back home.
Where is the dignity in that?
The fact that indigenous Africans wrested
political power from colonialists,
has brought neither dignity nor
empowerment to ordinary Africans. The
liberators have been more disdainful
to their own people to an extent that
would make former colonialists green
with envy.
How dare Marumenjeya talks about dignity to Zimbabweans when a
quarter of
the population has fled hunger, unemployment and political
persecution?
Zimbabwean professionals clean floors and do other menial jobs
in South
Africa, Botswana and western capitals so as to look after
themselves and
families back home.
I am sure Marumenjeya has seen the
horrific images of torture victims
emanating from his home country. Many
have died. President Robert Mugabe,
the liberator, has now turned on his
people, once again as he did in
Matabeleland for daring to exercise their
democratic rights - something
which, ironically, he claims to have ushered
in.
From Page 27
How does that bring dignity to Africans? The mass
education that happened in
the first decade of independence whose foundation
lay in donor funds is now
a thing of the past. Half the rural schools have
closed as teachers flee
both political violence and a collapsed
economy.
There is a real danger that we will have a generation of children
who will
seek the assistance of their parents to read and write
letters.
Marumenjeya disparagingly claims that the US and the UK want to
maintain
control "through an MDC vassal state". That is very insulting to
the
intelligence of the long suffering Zimbabweans, who have been
dehumanised
and pauperised by ZANU-PF's policies.
President Mugabe
himself was a darling of the West for two decades. This
partly explains why
20 000 people were callously murdered in Matabeleland
and the Midlands with
impunity between 1982 and 1987. To try and blame the
West for ZANU-PF's
defeat at the polls is to imply that Zimba-bweans need
the West to tell them
that they are suffering. If that were the case why did
Zimbabweans vote for
President Mugabe and not the pro-West Muzorewa in 1980?
Indeed, the West
turned a blind eye to the Rwanda genocide. "Contrast it"
says Marumenjeya,
"with the West's keen interest in Zimbabwe where ONLY (my
emphasis) 10
whites died in 2000 during the fast track land reform.
Incidentally, what
kind of land reform displaces more people than it
benefits? But I digress.
For me the more pertinent question is why Africa
did nothing to save African
lives.
For goodness sake it was Africans killing fellow Africans! Why did we
expect
our erstwhile colonizers whose disdain for the black race has never
really
been a secret to come to the rescue of the Rwandese when we had no
such
expectations from the Organisation of African Unity? While racism and
hypocrisy should never be condoned, evidence points to us Africans being our
worst enemies.
With a great deal of annoyance, Marumenjeya goes further
to say, "within a
few weeks Zimbabwe came to dominate the headlines of major
international
media organisations such as BBC,CNN and even Hello magazine
following the
death of white farmer David Stevens". Interestingly he/she
forgot to mention
that over 200 black lives were lost.
Should we not as
Africans hang our heads in shame? The white world mourned
and highlighted
the death of 10 of their kith and kin while the death of 20
times more
blacks (at the hands of their own African government) was a
non-event to us
Africans. Where is our pride and dignity as a people? Why do
we disrespect
ourselves so much?
Marumenjeya also argues that Western attempts to remove
ZANU-PF from power
are motivated by President Mugabe's "intention to lessen
his country's
dependence on the West by strengthening economic and military
ties with
Asian countries".
This is laughable. Firstly, if the US had
genuinely wanted President Mugabe
out, they would have removed him a long
time ago as they have done with many
regimes, which stood in the way of US
interests around the globe. Zimbabwe
is not of sufficient economic and
strategic interest to the US, which is why
the verbal condemnations are not
accompanied by action.
Secondly, President Mugabe is in no position to forge
economic and military
ties with Asian countries.
Zimbabwe is bankrupt.
Our industries are operating at 5 percent of capacity
and even tobacco
production has fallen to a mere 83 million kilogrammes from
over 200 million
kilogrammes before the land invasions. We have nothing to
offer other
countries. None of our Asian friends have come to invest in
Zimbabwe.
Our
Chinese friends have demonstrated their disinterest by bypassing us on
their
numerous trips to Africa. The bottom line is that it is not just the
West,
which needs a stable environment, where the rule of law prevails and
property rights are protected by law.
As a matter of fact, why was
ZANU-PF still seeking to lessen its dependence
on the West more than two
decades after it took power? Icharumurika riini?
(When will it be weaned?)
When is he going to find it shameful to beg? Even
as President Mugabe
lambasts the West on a daily basis, Zimba-bweans are
being fed by America
and Britain. We should be ashamed.
It is also quite tragic for Marumenjeya to
seek to blame the West for
Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Surely, he knows
about the government's
relentless onslaught on the economy starting with the
unsustainable free
education and health services, which were not matched
with increased
productivity.
Our unproductive cabinet is one of the
biggest on the planet and its perks
are unprecedented - an unrelenting drain
on the fiscus. We also know about
corruption (the plunder of the war victims
compensation fund among other
things), the Democratic Republic of Congo
adventure, which cost us in excess
of a million US dollars a day, never mind
the severe depletion of our
military hardware.
Then there was the 1997
massive payout of $5 billion to the so-called war
vets. Only President
Mugabe can explain why he did it.
It is amazing that although there were no
more than 27 000 ex-combatants in
1980, payouts were made to 50
000.
These continue to receive monthly pensions that exceed salaries of a
large
percentage of civil servants.
Some of the best entrepreneurial
brains have been hounded out of the country
where their skills benefit other
countries. Strive Masiyiwa had to take his
own government to court in order
to be allowed to create employment for his
fellow country men!
The
closure of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, among other
papers,
resulted in the loss of over a thousand jobs. We now read South
African
newspapers. How twisted is that? What did the madness that
Marumenjeya calls
the fast track land reform programme do to our economy?
Wherein lies the
hand of the West in all this recklessness?
Marumenjeya talks about droughts
and regionwide energy shortages having
contributed to Zimbabwe's misery but
fails to explain why in the last eight
years our economy shrank by 50
percent, while all SADC economies achieved
annual growths of over 5 percent
on average. What happened to Zimbabwe's
legendary irrigation infrastructure,
which used to keep us well fed even
during drought years?
Perhaps the
most puzzling part of Marumenjeya's article is where he seeks to
discredit
NGOs for pushing for voter registration, the improvement of the
quality of
the voters' roll and a representative electoral commission.
What is wrong
with pushing for these basic essentials for a fair election?
The writer does
not want foreigners to fund our elections but in the same
breath bemoans
their unwillingness to fund other economic activities.
A question of beggars
being choosers, huh? The question to ask is, how come
our government is not
interested in an accurate voters' roll? When will
African governments take
full responsibilities over the gaps that end up
being filled by NGOs,
including feeding their own people?
Marumenjeya concludes by appealing to the
"media and academia not to
sacrifice the integrity of our hard won freedom
for pieces of silver".
Please! Obviously his/her definition of freedom
differs from that of other
Zimbabweans.
Zimbabweans get incarcerated for
seeking to practice basic freedoms such as
the rights to free expression,
freedom of assembly and association and
holding peaceful demonstration. Has
he/she not heard of such infamously
retrogressive pieces of legislation as
the Public Order and Security Act,
Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act and the Broadcasting
Services Act? Wherein lies the freedom in a
country where there are no
independent radio and TV stations and daily
papers?
On a daily basis we are forcibly fed the propaganda, drivel and
hogwash
churned out by the state media and have to turn to the foreign media
for
news of events happening in our own country. Currently, rural
inhabitants
need passes authored by ZANU-PF officials to travel from one
village to
another.
Sadly, until such a time as we are ready to take full
responsibility for our
situation and stop our very well renowned victim
hood, there will not be
significant improvements in our lives. While the war
of liberation claimed
an estimated 30 000 lives, an estimated 20 000 were
lost after independence
within a space of five years in Matabeleland and the
Midlands at the hands
of our own government.
Add to this number those who
have died and continue to die through
government instigated political
violence, malnutrition, lack of medical
services and HIV/AIDS, then you can
only wonder what kind of people we are.
Where is our humanity?
I am sorry
Marumenjeya, I do not see the hand of the West in all this. I see
a corrupt,
incompetent, cruel, populist, greedy ruling elite, which has long
ceased to
care for the welfare of its people but is only concerned about its
own
survival.
The Asian tiger countries were colonised just like us but have
since moved
on. Now we want to take our begging bowls to them too!
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE financial
services sector is grappling with the resurgence of zeros on
the country's
beleaguered currency, barely two years after the central bank
lopped off
three zeros from the currency.
Bankers said there were so many zeros in
local currency transactions that
computer systems were failing to cope,
overwhelming bank employees who have
had to compile some of the transactions
manually.
Bank executives said some Information Technology (IT) systems had
crashed
and IT experts were battling to come up with ways of avoiding a
major
catastrophe in the sector.
Major supermarkets have already
improvised. A number of them have slashed
six zeros from their transactions
to deal with the most basic food commodity
prices now starting at $1
billion.
A bank executive said this week: "We have created sub accounts
called 19
Accounts for customers who handle larger amounts of money. Our
systems
failed to cope two months ago
"With this type of account, once an
account reaches $400 billion, the system
automatically transfers the money
to the (next of the) 19 accounts, which
limit the number of zeros on an
account to five, which our systems can
accommodate. With inflation going up,
more accounts will need these sub
accounts," he said.
With many companies
and even individuals now handling more that $1 trillion
from their daily
business, bankers are in a quandary as systems are
rejecting transactions.
Some account holders have been asked to open
multiple accounts where their
deposits are exceeding $900 billion.
Last week, the Bankers Association of
Zimbabwe (BAZ) expressed concern at
the developments in the country's
monetary system, warning the financial
services sector was sitting on
another time bomb.
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Senior
Reporter
CHICKENS from Argentina have flooded the local market following
a sharp
decline in supplies of poultry meat from local companies.
In
the past few weeks, chicken cutlets, gizzards, chicken heads and chicken
offals have flooded the Zimbabwean market and are selling like hot cakes
than local meat products because they are cheaper, even after the importers
incurred shipping and storage costs.
The local poultry industry has been
haemorrhaging from an economic crisis
that has hamstrung operations, with
shortages of feedstock and escalating
prices wreaking havoc on the
sector.
One of the country's major chicken producers CFI Holdings said in its
results for the half year ending March 31 that a strategic decision had been
taken to breed more Hubbard chickens, a new breed imported from France, at
the expense of the popular broiler chickens due to shortages of
feedstock.
CFI said this had negatively affected throughput at its broiler
farms and
the abattoir while the price control regime in Zimbabwe had made
it
extremely difficult to do business.
And with the hyperinflation
affecting consumers' pockets, many had turned to
chicken and pork that are
cheaper than beef.
Industry and International Trade Minister, Obert Mpofu
told The Financial
Gazette that the increased presence of foreign meats in
Zimbabwe was not the
result of reduced output by local producers.
He said
local companies had resorted to imports following the floatation of
the
Zimbabwe dollar by the central bank in April, leading to the increase of
meat and other products from South America.
He however, did not explain
why supermarkets could find it easier and
cheaper to import chicken when
local producers were providing enough.
"With the liberalisation of the
currency many companies have been able to
import what they want," Mpofu said
on Monday.
"Just because there are more foreign products on the market does
not mean
there is a shortage. It is just a business strategy by the
supermarkets. It
is not just chicken but there are many other products that
we are importing
from that region, including from Brazil and Venezuela. We
have been to that
area to explore areas of cooperation and we are very
encouraged by the
response, especially from Brazil. We are trading with
whoever wants to do
business with us," Mpofu added.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
BULAWAYO -
Workers in the pharmaceutical industry have threatened to embark
on a
full-scale industrial strike that could severely affect the dispensing
of
drugs in the country's hospitals and drug stores countrywide.
The warning
of an impending strike comes after demands for a 1 000 percent
increment by
the workers were rejected by employers who are said to have
refused to sit
down with workers for negotiations.
The industry faces a critical shortage of
foreign currency to import drugs
and has been devastated by a mass exodus of
staff among other problems.
Speaking to The Financial Gazette this week,
Pharmaceutical Retailers and
Medical Allied Workers' Union (PRMAWU)
secretary-general Misheck Tsholuwa
said workers were already bracing for
strike action, indicating that
employers were unwilling to start
negotiations with workers.
PRMAWU wants a minimum wage of $150 billion for
this month as well as a
review of transport allowances.
"If our employers
continue to refuse negotiations for a new salary and
allowances all our
members in the pharmaceutical industry are going on
strike with effect from
Monday next week since the recent increments, which
we were awarded are too
low," said Tsholuwa.
Tsholuwa said the recent increments setting the minimum
wage for the
commercial sector workers, including those in the
pharmaceutical industry at
$12 billion, from $3 billion, and transport
housing allowances at $6 billion
and $1 billion respectively was
unrealistic.
"Our members at the moment spend more than $40 billion on
transport alone
and it does not make sense to award an employee transport
allowance of $6
billion," he said. The PRMAWU secretary general also took a
swipe at
employers in the pharmaceutical industry for refusing to form an
employers
association to facilitate the setting up of a national employment
council to
undertake collective bargaining with workers'
representatives.
"Since the PRMAWU was registered in February this year,
employers have been
refusing to form an employers organisation preferring
instead to hold wage
negotiations under the auspices of Commercial Workers'
Union of Zimbabwe
(CWUZ) which we are no longer part of after the formation
our union." Said
Tsholuwa.
He said the reason for breaking away from CWUZ
was that workers in the
pharmaceutical industry did not have a voice in
National Employment Council
for the commercial sectors.
A national
employment council comprises representatives of employers and
workers.
FinGaz
Ken
Mufuka
I NEVER thought I would be working
for the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). My e-mail has been flooded
with
messages from patriots and CIO operatives, who want me to state their
case.
They are ready for a compromise, but they would prefer "kedu Buhera"
to be
prime minister in a Kenyan-type of
compromise.
I sense some deep desperation
on their part as
the water in the Zambezi runs out under the
bridge.
Decorated veteran Tongesai Rugara says
a
government of national unity can spare Zimbabwe some
bloodshed.
"If the MDC wins (which they won't)
Jongwe
will never hand over power to them. So it is a waste of time this
run-off.
Buhera should understand that being power hungry will put him in
trouble.
The country needs unity now."
I
believe that Tongesai represents a widely
held view in Zimbabwe, but that
view has already been overtaken by time.
Imperialists are already
celebrating Mukuru's demise. With inflation at 1,7
million, grocery stores
empty, electricity unavailable, roads pot-holed and
hunger affecting four
million people, they have Mukuru by the throat.
His Pan African base, starting with South
African President Thabo Mbeki is
eroding fast. Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and
Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa are no
longer on the Pan Africanist train. He is now
being sustained by
violence.
Even if Morgan Tsvangirai accepted
such an
arrangement, the Anglo-Americans cannot certify it. In their book
the
departure of Mukuru is non-negotiable. Tsvangirai would be a fool to
accept
such an arrangement because Mukuru has entered into similar
arrangements
with PF-ZAPU to their
detriment.
However, a compromise in which the
old ZANU
has a place is still acceptable. The British and American
ambassadors in
Zimbabwe will play a crucial role. Even though the United
States Ambassador
James McGee has been in Zimbabwe for a short time. I was
surprised to be
informed that he is a "good man with a good
heart".
His work with Howard Hospital and the
victims
of violence in Bindura has earned him a reputation as
straightforward. You
will need his goodwill in any settlement. At the
moment, US President George
Bush has done miracles in
Africa.
Tanzania has received more than US$700
million
in development grants for malaria, HIV-AIDS and other projects.
Uganda has
similarly benefited form Bush initiative. There is a huge
hospital project
in the Democratic Republic of Congo aimed at HIV-AIDS,
which may become a
model for the rest of
Africa.
McGee's thrust in relation to victims
of
political violence, disease and ignorance, is very much in line with the
Bush initiative. South Africa needs US capital for their antiquated
electrical generation. Any association with Mukuru makes their development
plans more difficult.
If Senator Barrack
Obama becomes US president,
US policy towards African dictators will become
even more uncompromising and
aggressive. This all works in Tsvangirai's
favour. He can wait a few more
months, and the apple will fall into his
mouth.
Another war veteran, Comrade Fungisai,
says
"Kedu Buhera" is unacceptable because he has sold out the country to
foreign
interests.
That argument is also
too late in the game.
Tsvangirai was being flown from one part of the
country to another in a
twin-engine jet. Recently, an American-style bus has
been delivered to him
for campaign
purposes.
Tsvangirai lived for a month in
Botswana as a
guest of the government. His expenses were paid for by (a) the
British (b)
the Americans (c) by the Botswana government (d) by Zimdollars
from MDC
supporters.
Give yourself an A if
you find the correct
answer.
The complaint
of foreign sponsorship is a
non-starter. Developing countries like Zimbabwe
use public institutions and
tax payer's money to support the ruling
political party. Opposition parties
can level the playing field by going
extra-territorial.
The issue in this election,
which everybody is
circumventing, is the fear of retribution upon those who
have committed
extra-judicial activities.
The demise of Mukuru is now inexorable.
Secondly, the land issue was the
basis on which the Second Chimurenga was
fought. How much of that will be
returned to white farmers and how much will
be retained by the natives is
the issue.
This land issue will also need the
approval of
the Anglo-Americans because it was the loss of white farm land
that brought
Anglo-Americans into the Zimbabwe struggle in
2000.
There is worse news for your brothers.
Judge
Anthony Gubbay may very well be recalled to finish his term. The
brother
judges have proved all too political and self compromised by
presiding over
farm cases after they themselves had acquired some choice
properties.
Another veteran raises the issue of
sovereignty and interference by foreign powers in Zimbabwe's business. There
is no absolute sovereignty. As we speak, Mukuru has twice accepted
interference from the United Nations, first on
Murambatsvina.
As we speak, a UN envoy is in
the country to
investigate pre-election violence. In any event, because of
the humanitarian
conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe, the big powers can
interfere under the
umbrella that they are saving lives from starvation or
from government
sponsored terrorism.
Here
are simple solutions. The army can pledge
not to interfere in politics if a
new government leaves the army hierarchy
in place for one year. The land
issue will be audited. Veterans who have
committed extra-legal activities
can appear before Judge Gubbay for review.
I'm
afraid a few of you brothers may face the
hangman's
noose.
Mukuru has said that he will never
surrender
power to Tsvangirai.
Zaire's
General Mobutu, Federal Prime Minister
Sir Roy Welensky and Rhodesian Ian
Smith said the same words. Nobody gives
up power. Power is taken away by
force of events.
Ken Mufuka is a
professor at Lander
University (USA). He can be reached at: kenmufuka@yahoo.com
FinGaz
Vote
Muza
THE business of writing a weekly column where one is expected to
meet the
editor's deadline and at the same time pen articles that can
maintain
readers' appetite is indeed a job and a half. The task is even made
bigger
if one is writing about specialist subjects, similar to the one
discussed
here that requires prior research, because any slight slip up may
expose one
to serious ridicule, especially by others of my kind who follow
my writings.
A columnist's agony, is the great desire to remain relevant
by avoiding
monotony, since such a blunder can have the effect of alienating
one from
readers. Literary vigilance is thus the order of the game, for any
lack of
attention may render one's work as boring as a flat beer to the
obvious
displeasure of both the editor and readers.
However, in these
extremely hard times, having to keep the mind well
conditioned for weekly
installments is a huge challenge. The general
atmosphere, that is dominated
by violence, murder, arson, plunder,
propaganda, abductions, shortage of
foodstuffs, a valueless currency and
uncertainty about the future is deeply
distressing and thus a major hurdle
to any author's quest to dish out mind
scintillating contributions. It is
even worse when professional colleagues
like Tendai Biti and Advocate Eric
Matinenga are guests of a marauding
police force that is accused of bias,
abuse of power and political activism
that has seen some of its members
declare their allegiance to some political
candidates instead of an
allegiance to the country and its laws.
At
times, the shear force of the hopelessness and disgust at the failure by
some politicians to open up democratic space, and allow our nation to thrive
leaves one at the point of resignation. What then awakens me to the need to
continue adding my voice to the Zimbabwean debate, and to informing and
educating readers about law, is my deep sense of justice, the love for my
country, and the motivational feedback that I receive weekly from readers
around the globe. It is this last factor - my love to remain in conversation
with my countrymen that has been my last source of inspiration. I am not
alone in noticing the unmitigated lawlessness that appears to be escalating
as we draw nearer to June 27 2008; a date that has so much significance to
the way our country's political landscape may likely shape itself. What has
become of concern to all and sundry is why some politicians cannot open up
their eyes and see the tragedy that has become of our country. Thus one
reader wrote to me last week and shared his feeling by saying the
following;-
"I have just read your article in last week's Financial
Gazette with regard
to the above issue.What you said is the plain truth. I
don't know who can
knock hard some sense into this crowd".
"Sometimes you
mistake them for kindergarten kids fighting over a torn
plastic ball. I just
don't know what goes on in their minds. It's a real
tragedy.
"In my young
days, when someone became educated to "A" level, people would
gather around
him or her to listen for advise and information which in
almost every
instance was right. Such young people where highly respected in
those days.
Not the present breed of the so called educated elite. You have
got among
them holders of PHD's, MBA, Masters in this and that, Doctorates
in this
this and that. They have just brought misery onto the population.
"Brother,
can you imagine it's this very crowd that has plunged us into this
horrible
mess. Liars all the time. They are not even shy. They don't even
see the
level of suffering the population is experiencing. It's a really
pathetic
lot. The judges were at the polling stations during voting. All
they are
doing is preparing to fabricate lies hoping the judges will believe
their
lies.
"If I was God, I was going to obliterate the whole lot because they are
not
of any use of mankind".
The voice of this reader is not alone in
calling for a halt to the on-going
anarchy. Millions more of Zimbabweans
whose voices cry out for political
sanity are wishing that the present
bickering and murderous crusade come to
an end.
Such strong sentiments
are also shared by some across our borders who have
had to carry the heavy
responsibility of nursing and caring for victims of
our economic and
political plight on their shoulders. I do not know what it
will take for our
politicians , especially some of those in Zanu-PF to
realise that Zimbabwe
is overdue for political and economic healing.
This country now needs a new
constitutional order that can only come about
through a negotiated
settlement. It is now more than apparent that elections
alone are not going
to bring about a political outcome acceptable to all
competing political
players and thus only dialogue holds the key to unlock
the present political
logjam.
I wonder at times, if Zanu PF towards the end of 1979 could agree to
sit
down and negotiate with its bitter enemy, the colonial government, why
it
cannot today talk to one of its on kind in an independent Zimbabwe. Worse
still, the same Zanu-PF of yesteryear had to go into bed for a ten year
period in the same government, with whites who they had been at war with.
What I then notice is that the Zanu-PF of yesteryear had the national
interest at heart while that of today is composed of individuals driven by
an obsession for protection of their personal interests.
The perpetration
of anarchy and violence in which, violation of citizen's
rights has become
the order of the day is exposing our country to huge shame
and ridicule.
Zimbabwe is on a knife urge. It is going through a mild
conflagration and it
will only take a little more political irresponsibility
by some for it to
experience a full fledged civil war. There is need for
restraint by
political actors, because history has taught that after every
conflict of
whatever nature, parties will still have to sit and talk. So why
not talk
now rather letter when more damage has been done.
n muzalaw@yahoo.co.uk
FinGaz
Comment
ZANU-PF has stuck
to its tradition of waving the clenched fist ahead of the
June 27
presidential run-off pitting its candidate President Robert Mugabe
against
former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
The fist is not a "fist of fury", but rather
one for the emancipation of
Zimbabwe's restive population, so the ruling
party says in advertisements
admonishing voters to cast their ballots for
its leader, who is seeking to
extend his rule beyond 28 years.
ZANU-PF
has pitched its campaign around the issue of black economic
empowerment with
the theme "100 percent Empowerment, Total Independence".
In a desperate bid
to win the contest, ZANU-PF has gone to the extent of
disregarding SADC
guidelines on the conduct of elections by closing every
little space
available for the MDC leader to campaign be it on radio,
television and
government-run print media.
Violence is being unleashed countrywide with
reckless abandon to intimidate,
eliminate and inflict pain on those who
voted for the opposition on March
29, displacing thousands of MDC supporters
in the process.
We fear ZANU-PF might overshoot the tarmac. Companies
perceived to be
working against the government and foreign-owned ones might
become targets
for take-over in the event of a ZANU-PF victory.
Not that
we are against black economic empowerment, No.
The economic empowerment of
previously marginalised blacks is indeed a very
noble initiative, but one
which needs to be conducted in a thoughtful and
systematic manner, taking
into consideration the law of unintended
consequences.
After an emotive
agrarian reform that displaced hundreds of white farmers
and replaced them
with blacks, ZANU-PF is now campaigning for re-election
based on a pledge to
empower Zimbabweans by taking over white or
foreign-owned companies,
particularly those in the mining sector, on behalf
of indigenous black
people.
This will be done through the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act,
rushed
through parliament last year despite spirited resistance from
captains of
industry and lawmakers concerned about its impact on the wobbly
economy.
Foreign-owned companies will be compelled to give up at least 51
percent
shareholding to local people under the new law, signed by President
Mugabe
in early March.
At various campaign rallies around the country,
the government has made the
argument that Zimbabweans should not own just
land, but even the "resources
in its bowels".
This, inevitably, has
signalled that the mining sector will be the key
target of the empowerment
drive. The banking sector is not being spared
either.
The sixth
parliament, dissolved to make way for the March 29 elections,
passed
amendments to the Mines and Minerals Act to allow government to take
over a
25 percent stakes in foreign-owned mining companies for free in part
fulfilment of the 51 percent indigenisation quota.
According to a
document prepared by the Chamber of Mines in 2006, Zimbabwe's
mining
industry is valued at more than US$20 billion. This puts the value of
the 51
percent indigenisation threshold across the sector at more than US$10
billion.
The 25 percent stake to be taken over forcibly by government
would amount to
US$5 billion.
Government argues that the new law creates
an environment for greater
participation in the country's economy.
Under
the law, a fund will be created to finance the acquisition of shares,
working capital and other forms of finance for indigenous people.
The
National Investment Trust, which has failed to raise cash for the
purchase
of a 15 percent stake reserved for locals in platinum miner
Zimplats, will
be constituted as a special account for the planned
empowerment
fund.
Market analysts said the Bill would effectively seal Zimbabwe's fate as
a
pariah to international capital.
But our worry is that the latest
empowerment drive could be as disastrous as
the land reform programme, which
benefited largely ruling party bigwigs and
their cronies.
For example,
the Minister of Indigenisation and Empowerment will be
empowered to review
and approve all indigenisation arrangements, and can
order the licensing
authority of any business to cancel the licence if
he/she is not happy with
the empowerment transaction, or the beneficiaries
of the
transaction.
Most ruling party politicians and their families picked up
choice farms
under the A2 model, while the peasant farmers, those supposed
to have been
the major beneficiaries of the exercise, as well as politically
unconnected
landless Zimbabweans, received nothing or were given smaller
pieces of land
under the so-called A1 or subsistence model.
Several
government audits established that most members of the ruling party
elite
became multiple farm owners.
Consequently, because the reforms were hurried
and unplanned, the country
was plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis
after Zimbabwe slid from
being the regional breadbasket into a basket
case.
We believe ZANU-PF should opt for a non-disruptive indigenisation
programme,
one that takes cognisance of the fact that there is need to
promote
investment inflows into the country.
As Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono noted when this new law was
initiated, and eventually
passed through parliament, ownership transfer
should be done in a manner
that recognises private property rights and
investment protection.
"In
the light of the new laws, requiring that 51 percent of the shares be
owned
by indigenous Zimbabweans, it is our considered view as monetary
authorities
that such transfer of ownership to indigenous citizens should be
done on a
gradual basis to ensure a smooth and non-disruptive transition of
ownership
to locals," Gono said.
He said the process should be strictly on a
willing-buyer willing-seller
basis.
"As a country, we must promote and
defend investment inflows through
preservation of the sanctity of private
property rights and investment
protection," Gono said.