http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Blessing
Zulu
07.06.2013
WASHINGTON — South African president Jacob Zuma is
pressing ahead with his
push for reforms ahead of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
summit which has been deferred indefinitely by
regional leaders.
Mr. Zuma is the SADC appointed mediator in Harare. The
summit which was
cancelled yesterday was supposed to begin Sunday in Maputo,
Mozambique.
SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao told VOA that there
was no quorum and
this forced them to postpone the summit.
South
Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Mmaite
Nkoana-Mashabane also told reporters in Pretoria on Friday that an
extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe’s forthcoming elections will definitely be
held soon but the exact date is still to be agreed.
"Will there be an
extraordinary summit? Yes. But there are still
consultations to find a
convenient date for the majority of leaders," said
Ms.
Nkoana-Mmashabane.
President Zuma is expected to table his report on
Zimbabwe and also on the
agenda is the Zimbabwe election roadmap and the
funding of the elections.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe is looking for about $130
million to fund elections.
Mr. Zuma’s International Relations advisor and
member of the facilitation
team, Lindiwe Zulu, said they might not impose an
election date on Zimbabwe
but reforms must be done.
Zanu-PF sources
speaking on condition of anonymity say they told Mr. Zuma’s
facilitation
team that they are not interested in further reforms and should
the two MDC
formations continue to push for reforms, they will also be
forced to call
for the lifting of sanctions and banning of radios stations
broadcasting
from abroad.
Zanu-PF lead negotiator, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
could not be
reached for comment as he did not answer his mobile
phone.
But Energy Minister Elton Mangoma of the MDC formation of Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai said they want regional leaders to give the green
light to
Zimbabwe to hold elections only if reforms have been instituted.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/
Staff Reporter 20 hours 52 minutes
ago
HARARE - President Mugabe's party Zanu PF says the postponement
of the
special summit on Zimbabwe which was set for Maputo, Mozambique will
not
stop the country from preparing for the harmonised
elections.
Regional mediators are consulting to set a date for the
summit, after one
scheduled for Sunday was abruptly called off on Thursday,
she told reporters
in Pretoria.
SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz
Salamao this Wednesday confirmed that the
special summit on Zimbabwe had
been postponed indefinitely.
A new date has not been set for a regional
summit to assess Zimbabwe's
readiness for general elections, South Africa's
International Relations
Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said on
Friday.
Zanu PF's Secretary for Information and Publicity, Rugare Gumbo
complained
that though SADC is yet to give reasons for the indefinite
postponement of
the special summit that had been pencilled for Maputo this
weekend, the
development has no bearing on Zimbabwe’s preparations for
elections in
compliance with the Constitutional Court
hearing.
Turning to other political leaders who have set conditions for
the holding
of elections, Gumbo said they must read between the lines that
SADC
understands that elections are overdue in Zimbabwe and will not
continue to
entertain cheap politicking meant to delay the
polls.
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said: "The date for such an extra-ordinary
summit
always gets decided upon by the availability and programmes of heads
of
state, creating space for this meeting. It’s not an ordinary, scheduled
meeting."
President Jacob Zuma - who has led SADC's efforts to
facilitate negotiations
between President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party and
the MDC formations was
expected to present his latest report to the
meeting.
Media reports on Friday suggested that Sunday’s meeting was
called off
because President Robert Mugabe informed SADC he would not be
available for
the summit.
The summit was expected to discuss a range
of issues, including the
cash-strapped n government's efforts to raise a
US$132m election budget.
Last Friday the Constitutional Court ruled that
Mugabe should organise
elections no later than July 31.
The polls aim to
end an uneasy SADC-brokered unity government between Mugabe
and his rival,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which was formed in 2009
after deadly
disputed elections.
http://mg.co.za/
08 JUN 2013 07:23 SAPA-AFP
The United States
has urged Zimbabwe to allow international monitors to
watch elections due to
be held by late July.
"The United States sincerely hopes that
Zimbabwe will hold peaceful,
credible presidential and parliamentarian
elections this year," State
Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told
reporters.
"We believe the credibility of these elections would be
enhanced if a broad
range of international monitors, led by the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC)... were credited to
observe."
Zimbabwe's constitutional court ruled last week that President
Robert Mugabe
must organise a vote no later than July 31.
Mugabe has
said he will abide by the ruling despite calls by Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai to allow time for key reforms before the vote.
Psaki said
allowing international observers "would help to verify that the
elections
are truly representative of the will of the Zimbabwean people."
The SADC
had been due to meet on Sunday to discuss Zimbabwe's readiness to
hold
elections, but the summit was abruptly called off on Thursday and
postponed
to an unknown date.
The polls aim to end an uneasy SADC-brokered unity
government formed between
Mugabe and Tsvangirai in 2009 after disputed
elections that turned deadly. –
Sapa-AFP
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
08/06/2013 00:00:00
by
AFP
THE trial of prominent rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was
postponed on
Saturday after the magistrate recused himself in the
case.
Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe stood down after Mtetwa argued that
he was
the presiding officer in another case linked to her own.
The
court would appoint another magistrate to hear the matter on
Monday.
Mahwe was hearing both Mtetwa's case and one that lead to her
arrest.
She faces charges of obstructing hjustice and was arrested after she
went to
represent four of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's aides during a
police
raid at the premier's staff offices who are facing a string of
charges.
Mahwe was hearing an additional charge against one of the aides,
Thabani
Mpofu, for failing to renew a firearm licence.
Mtetwa argued
that Mpofu's case has witnesses related to her own.
Her arrest and detention
sparked international condemnation, and the Law
Society of Zimbabwe said it
was an effort to "intimidate lawyers" in the
southern African
nation.
Mtetwa was alleged to have told the police to stop the raid at
Tsvangirai's
staffer's offices because it was "unconstitutional, illegal and
undemocratic".
She allegedly labelled the police "confused
cockroaches."
http://www.mdc.co.zw/
Friday, 07 June 2013
17:44
The MDC categorically states that the well-orchestrated violence
against its
members by Zanu PF will not stop the people of Zimbabwe from
pushing for a
free, democratic Zimbabwe where every citizen enjoys basic
freedoms.
It is sad to note that Zanu PF has begun to resort to the
language they
understand most, the language of violence. The MDC maintains
that violence
is evidence of lack of ideas on the part of Zanu PF and this
will not work
any longer as the people of Zimbabwe are determined to see
change in a new
Zimbabwe under the MDC government.
In Midlands North,
Gokwe Gumunyu district, Naison Taruvinga, 47, the
district deputy Organising
Secretary, was attacked by a group of Zanu PF
hooligans after he resisted
their overtures in their door-to-door campaign.
He said trouble started
on the 2nd of June when some Zanu PF thugs came to
his homestead doing their
door-to-door campaign. After he failed to agree
with their demands for him
to vote for their party in the coming elections
they threatened him with
unspecified action, citing the June 2008 orgy.
“On the 3rd of June the
thugs returned to my house at night but they were
chased away by my dogs. On
the 4th another group came again at night, this
time with their own dogs.
When I heard noise outside I wanted to investigate
but was shocked to see
more than 10 people, They threw stones at me and I
retreated into my house
and they continued to stone the house destroying the
windows, roof and
door,” said Taruvinga.
The thugs have since been identified as Moses
Chiveza of Chabveka village,
Christopher Chindume of Manjengwa village,
Tavengwa Chindure of Matutu
village, Tellmore chikarakara of Gumbo
village,Martin Mawanyire of
Mapwanyire village and William Chiveza of
Chikwawa village. These were
leading a team of over 18 thugs.
The
case was reported to Msadzi police station, in Gokwe. The RRB number is
561720. No arrest has been made so far.
Meanwhile, in Manicaland,
Zanu PF launched “Operation Chimumumu” in the area
after Hon Elton Mangoma,
the MDC Deputy Treasurer General and Minister of
Energy and Power
Development addressed a developmental meeting in the area
on 13 May 2013 at
Sabhuku Munyiki’s homestead.
Elliot Matseka Magaya, a Zanu PF district
chairperson and self proclaimed
war veteran and Garikai Gomba, a Zanu PF
district youth secretary
consequently addressed a Zanu PF meeting several
days later where people
were forced to attend and made a calling that
everyone who had attended Hon
Mangoma’s developmental meeting must vacate
the ward, failure of which
“operation Chimumumu” and other unspecified
actions were to be applied
against them. Several MDC officials who attended
the meeting have already
been targeted and are being told to vacate the
area. “Operation Chimumunu”
requires all people to be silent.
The
names of the earmarked MDC members have since been submitted to the
SADC
facilitator for their protection and to avoid the repeat of the 2008
Zanu PF
violence and displacements.
The case has been reported to the police and
the Joint Operation,
Monitoring and Implementation Committee, JOMIC in
Manicaland.
The behaviour of these Zanu PF thugs is a violation of the
Global Political
Agreement (GPA) and the newly adopted constitution, which
recognises the
basic freedoms of people such as association, assembly,
speech and movement.
The latest violence and thuggery once again exposes
Zanu PF's sincerity
deficit in this political deal.
The people of
Zimbabwe know what they want. They want freedom, prosperity
and development.
No amount of violence will stand between the people and
their vision. The
MDC calls upon the police to take conduct their duties
professionally and
bring to book all perpetrators of violence.The party
remains resolute in its
push for a free and democratic Zimbabwe where every
citizen enjoys basic
freedoms.
http://www.cathybuckle.com/
June 8, 2013, 9:16 am
Dear Family and
Friends,
For thirteen years Zimbabwe has been struggling for a free, fair
and
transparent election. Since February 2000 everything about elections has
been about fear; about running, hiding, beating and brutality. Repeated
electoral outcomes have been seriously questioned and now it’s almost that
time again. As we approach another election most of us have a lump of cement
in the pit of our stomachs and it grows heavier by the day.
An absurd
situation overtook us in the last week which left the Supreme
Court ruling
that elections must be held by the 31st July. The only people
happy with the
ruling are Zanu PF. No one else is ready. Electoral reforms
have not been
undertaken and new legislation needed has not been presented
to parliament.
The new Constitution has only just been signed into law and
by adhering to
the Supreme Court ruling to hold election by July 31st,
sections of the new
constitution will have to be breached – before the ink
on the new charter is
even dry.
Dramatic newspaper headlines in recent days announced that a
‘grand
coalition’ had been formed to oppose the holding of elections by the
31st of
July. While the leadership and lawyers battle it out and again the
region
gets dragged into another round of Zimbabwe’s arguments, everything
in the
country is shuddering to a standstill.
In recent days the
shocking facts about the national winter wheat crop were
revealed in the
press. The last date for planting winter wheat is around
the 10th of May
with the deadline being the 25th May. By the end of the
first week of June
2013 only two thousand hectares of land had been planted
to winter wheat
this season. This is half the hectarage that was planted
last year.
Allowing a yield of three tonnes a hectare, Zimbabwe has only
planted enough
wheat to produce six thousand tonnes of grain this year. In a
country that
consumes 450,000 tonnes of wheat a year, we are set to produce
enough wheat
to last the country just one week.
So while the national leadership
argues about elections, fights over dates
and trips backwards and forwards
to SADC and the AU, we again look out the
window and ask just one question:
where’s the food going to come from? Any
number of land reform apologists
can produce any number of books on the
apparent success of Zanu PF’s land
seizure policy but the fact of the matter
is clear for all to see. Look out
of any window, travel down any road, go
into any supermarket: it’s not
Zimbabwean food that we are eating because we
just aren’t growing our own
food anymore. Until next time and to so many
people who have been reading
this letter for so long, thank you. Love cathy
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/
By Elsie Eyakuze
Posted Friday, June 7 2013 at
19:54
Dali Thambo recently interviewed Robert Mugabe at his home, giving
the
latter an opportunity to share his views on a wide range of
topics.
I read some excerpts that were offered, and it was at the point
when
Mugabe — who is one whisker away from being a nonagenarian — stated
that age
would not force him out of office because “Zimbabweans still need
me,” that
it became impossible to ignore the glaring faults of
Bigmanism.
The years since Independence have seen this continent suffer
amazing
disasters in leadership. The word “colourful” does not even begin to
describe some of the worst offenders in the despot club.
Building
cathedrals and airports in the middle of nowhere, travelling with
an
eye-popping cohort of female bodyguards, crowning oneself Emperor… what
about the African lives and livelihoods that provided the fodder for all
this excess? We laugh and shake our heads at the eccentricities as though
they are just the adorable quirks of otherwise sane men. Really?
The
saying is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Leaders of every stripe come with the usual human frailties and if they
spend enough time in the artificial social bubble where overly successful
people get imprisoned, some of them frankly lose it.
History is
littered with examples of this phenomenon. Mad kings abound
everywhere from
Nero to Kim Il Sung and his frightening progeny. The pattern
seems
remarkably consistent across societies: When one person has all the
power
and everyone treats them like a demi-god, bad things happen.
That is on
the extreme end of things, and though we have seen more than our
fair share
of extreme behaviour on the continent, it hasn’t been as
widespread as the
common variety of impunity that leaders and governments
indulge in on a
daily basis.
Acts of grand corruption that entrench a culture of petty
corruption, a
complete rejection of the notion of direct accountability, and
— most
frustratingly — subverting the relationship between themselves and
the
people.
Too many leaders and officials behave as though the
people are there to
serve their interests and not vice versa. To compound
the issue, we have
come to accept hereditary rule and dynastic succession
with nary a squeak of
protest.
So we have enjoyed several decades of
self-rule, but maybe we’re not quite
independent yet — because what can that
word mean when the majority is still
subject to the whims of a minority who
infantilise and exploit them?
Which makes me conclude that our approach
to “leadership” is unsuited for
present-day governance on the continent.
During the family reunion party
that the African Union threw itself in Addis
Ababa recently, there was a fog
of optimistic rhetoric, in keeping with the
“Africa rising” phenomenon.
Of course, this didn’t mask the concern with
social issues — namely poverty
and its effects. I couldn’t help but notice
that this is where statistics
rule, what with describing human misery in
numerical terms and setting goals
to deal with it, all without prodding too
hard at the sticky business of our
own relations of power.
Tanzanian
news has been littered with alarming incidents of late. Frequent,
sometimes
shockingly violent confrontations between the government and
citizens have
been escalating for years now.
A strong indicator that we’re all worried
is the frequency with which we
assure each other that “Tanzania is a
peaceful country where citizens love
each other.” A clear sign that in fact,
those very statements should be
called into question. We’ve had to come to
the grim realisation that we can
in fact fall apart, and it will be our
fault and nobody else’s.
In times like these, there is the temptation to
take refuge in the safe
embrace of a strong leader — a patriarch. Exactly
what we cannot afford to
do unless we are willing to subject our children to
the potential horror, 50
years from now, of listening to some creaking
president-for-life assure us
that he’s not ready to retire because “Tanzania
still needs me.” We have to
find a way to abdicate from Bigmanism. It is a
matter of survival.
The good news is that we seem to know this. Power is
like manure — you can’t
just let it sit there in a heap, you have to spread
it around for it to do
its work well, and a solid constitution is just the
shovel to help us get
the job done.
In the process of drafting the
new constitution so far, we seem to have
avoided its capture by the usual
entrenched interests. There are encouraging
signs that it has been
participatory in spirit and in practice. And so far,
yes, it does look like
it is designed to prevent the executive from usurping
all the
power.
Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The
Mikocheni
Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com.
E-mail: elsieeyakuze@gmail.com
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/
By Harold Acemah
Posted Friday, June
7 2013 at 18:17
IN SUMMARY
The AU summit even had the audacity to
accuse the ICC of racism and
targeting African leaders for trial when the
Prosecutor of the Court, Ms
Fatou Bensouda, is a distinguished lawyer from
the Gambia! It is a very
dishonest act by desperate and shameless
men.
Unlike May 25, 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was
established, African leaders who assembled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the
recent African Union (AU) summit were predominantly despots, tribalists and
oppressors of the wananchi.
They include Yahya Jammeh of Gambia,
Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial
Guinea and Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe.
Two African presidents; Gen Omar Bashir of Sudan and Uhuru
Kenyatta of Kenya
have been indicted by the International Criminal Court
(ICC) for crimes
against humanity.
The AU summit even had the
audacity to accuse the ICC of racism and
targeting African leaders for trial
when the Prosecutor of the Court, Ms
Fatou Bensouda, is a distinguished
lawyer from the Gambia! It is a very
dishonest act by desperate and
shameless men.
President Kenyatta, who has consistently claimed that he
is innocent of
crimes against humanity, must be left to carry his cross
without fear or
bitterness. Why is he all of a sudden scared of facing
justice others?
Today, decent and respected African leaders are an
endangered species and
the quality of leadership in Africa is at its lowest
since the 1960s.
Unlike pan-Africanists and intellectuals like Dr Kwame
Nkrumah, Mwalimu
Julius Nyerere, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ahmed Ben Bella,
Leopold Senghor and
Milton Obote who were pioneers in the struggle for
African unity, the new
breed who gathered in Addis Ababa have specialised in
plundering Africa’s
resources for personal gain in collusion with so- called
“foreign investors”
whom they treat better their own African
citizens.
It is a tragedy which would make Nkrumah and the OAU’s first
Secretary
General, the illustrious Diallo Telli, faint with shock! These
shameless
robbers of the wananchi have rendered Africa’s heroic and gallant
struggle
for independence and unity meaningless.
They have betrayed
the African revolution and become willing agents of neo-
colonialism which
Dr Nkrumah warned Africans about in 1963.
Most African leaders are
stumbling blocks to the African struggle for unity.
A divided Africa serves
their mercenary interests best. Against this
tragedy, there is absolutely
nothing to celebrate on the 50th anniversary of
the OAU - AU.
One of
the primary goals of the OAU was to liberate Africa from colonialism
and
ensure that peace and security prevail in the continent because these
are
essential preconditions for economic and social development. Has the
goal of
a pax Africana been realised?
The term pax Africana is derived from pax
Romana which means Roman peace; a
term used to describe the 200-year period
from 27 BC when Caesar Augustus
became emperor of the Roman Empire. Pax
Romana was ushered and maintained by
force and the Romans preserved peace by
constantly preparing for war, like
some contemporary African
warlords.
Let nobody deceive us that they have ushered peace in Uganda or
Africa
because peace is not simply the absence of war.
Real peace
means, inter alia, freedom from oppression, freedom from fear,
freedom from
arbitrary arrests and detention, freedom from hunger, freedom
of
association, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience, freedom of
speech
and freedom of the press. Which country in Africa has achieved real
peace?
None and by the above standards.
The few rich and powerful Ugandans are
not enjoying “the peace ushered by
the NRM” in 1986! They live in constant
fear.
If there was peace, they would not need thousands of heavily armed
body
guards; there would be no need to build high walls with barbed wires
around
their luxury houses and there would be no need for the myriad of
private
security organisations to guard them.
There would be no need
for a huge army, which squanders at least 30 per cent
of our national
budget, to protect and defend a corrupt and increasingly
unpopular regime;
an army which Uganda can ill afford. In many respects the
vast majority of
Africans are now hostages in their own countries!
Like the apostle Paul,
who wrote many of his letters while languishing in
Roman jails, as God’s
beloved children, Africans are free people even if
temporarily held hostage
by tyrants. The truth will, however, never be in
chains and it must be
proclaimed everywhere without fear or favour!
Most Africans are today
afraid of their leaders who treat citizens as
enemies of the state! Africans
are longer at peace, especially African
leaders who, for a variety of self-
inflicted reasons, are restless.
Some are constantly on the move,
threatening wananchi and talking endlessly
about nothing useful, as if
keeping quiet is a sign of weakness when silence
is golden!
As Paul
warned, these types will keep on going from bad to worse, deceiving
others
and being deceived themselves.
A man who is not at peace with himself
cannot be a peacemaker or a leader of
a peaceful country. When you read or
hear the foreign media propagate the
big lie, “Africa is rising”, I bet they
are either joking or trying to take
wananchi for a ride! If truth be told;
Africa is sinking!
May the peace of God which passes all understanding
dwell in our hearts and
minds and empower us to realize Nkrumah’s dream of
“one continent, one
people and one nation”.
Mr Acemah is a political
scientist, consultant and a retired career
diplomat. acemah@gmail.com
