http://af.reuters.com
Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:33pm
GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is sliding
into a police state and regional
leaders should intervene to save the unity
government, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said on Friday as police banned
a weekend rally he was due to
address.
"It appears to me that the
civilian authority is being undermined and we are
fast deteriorating into a
police state," Tsvangirai said.
Tensions are rising in the southern
African country over policy differences
between Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and President
Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
These
include ZANU-PF's drive to nationalise the country's mines, a move the
MDC
has urged caution on as the long-battered economy shows some signs of
recovery.
Tsvangirai and Mugabe were forced into a coalition two
years ago after a
disputed poll in 2008, which led to mass violence, a flood
of refugees into
South Africa and a deeper economic crisis in the
resource-rich and fertile
country.
The slow pace of pledged
democratic reforms is another a source of friction
as the security forces
remain staunch Mugabe loyalists, and this has led to
violent clashes between
supporters of the two parties.
Tsvangirai told journalists on arrival
from a regional trip that he had
warned leaders of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) bloc
that the political violence that gripped
the country in the past could flare
again.
He accused security
authorities of arbitrary arrests and said Zimbabwe was
again in a "siege
mood".
"I impressed on the SADC leaders that it is their responsibility
to
intervene to rescue this project (unity government) as they are the
guarantors," he said.
POLICE BAN RALLY
Tsvangirai said only
fresh elections would resolve the impasse. But his
party would only take
part if there was a SADC-backed "road map"
guaranteeing free and fair
elections.
Relations between the coalition rivals worsened last week when
police
arrested a cabinet minister from Tsvangirai's party on suspected
fraud
charges and the Supreme Court nullified the election of another
Tsvangirai
ally as Speaker of Parliament.
Police have also arrested
dozens of activists accused of plotting protests
against Mugabe similar to
those that toppled long-serving leaders in Egypt
and
Tunisia.
Tsvangirai said the police had banned a rally he planned to
address on
Saturday, saying they feared clashes with ZANU-PF supporters
planning to
hold a meeting nearby on the same day.
Police have in the
last month stopped dozens of meetings organised by MDC
supporters as the
party restructures ahead of a five-year congress in May,
Tsvangirai
said.
"So many excuses have been given to try to prevent this meeting
from taking
place. We will do everything to make sure that this meeting
continues,"
Tsvangirai said.
Police have previously deployed in large
numbers and set up road blocks to
stop MDC rallies it would have banned.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
18 March 2011
A
Harare court has upheld a decision taken by the police to bar the MDC from
holding a rally in the capital this week, claiming the venue is too close to
a ZANU PF gathering.
Chief Superintendent Garikai Gwangwava
from Harare Central on Thursday
advised MDC-T Secretary-General Tendai Biti
that the MDC Peace Rally, set to
take place at Glamis Arena on Saturday,
could not be sanctioned because it
coincided with a ZANU PF rally scheduled
to take place near by.
“My office regrets to advise you that your
intended place of rally’s
proximity and timings coincide with that of ZANU
PF which is also holding a
rally on the same date at the open space between
the Rainbow Towers and
Interpol Offices, which is less than 500 metres from
your intended venue.
Please also take note that the roads that lead to your
intended venue are
the same that lead to ZANU PF’s venue and there is a
likelihood of clashes
between supporters which might lead to violence,”
Gwangwava wrote to Biti.
Harare Magistrate Mercy Chimbodza then
upheld this decision on Friday,
dismissing the MDC’s attempt to have the
police’s decision overturned.
A previous application by the MDC
to hold the rally at the Zimbabwe Grounds
in Highfield was also turned down
by the police. The Harare South district
police claimed the venue has been
booked by ZANU PF for the rest of the
year.
Political analyst
Professor John Makumbe told SW Radio Africa on Friday that
this is an
“organised blockage” of MDC activities, with the police carrying
out a ban
they put in place on MDC rallies earlier this month. This ban was
subsequently overturned by Robert Mugabe, in what observers have said was a
deliberate ploy to appear to be playing by the rules. Mugabe apparently took
this decision after a meeting with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who
raised concerns that the MDC was being prevented from holding public
rallies.
But Makumbe argued on Friday that it now appears
that “this ban is coming
back through flimsy excuses like double booking of
venues.”
“It is a pity that the courts fail to see these
machinations by ZANU PF.
This is where you see the true partisan nature of
the judiciary,” Makumbe
said.
A High Court judge meanwhile
this week granted an interim relief to the
MDC-T Matabeleland North
executive, allowing it to hold rallies in
preparation for the party’s
congress at the end of next month. The MDC-T
filed an urgent chamber
application last week, asking the court to force the
police to allow them to
hold its 12 provincial restructuring meetings. This
was after police in
Hwange, where the party’s provincial headquarters are
based, said the party
was not allowed to hold meetings in Hwange East, West,
Central and Binga
districts.
http://www.radiovop.com
18/03/2011 14:23:00
Harare,
March 18, 2011 - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and leader of the
main
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) said his banned
star
rally will proceed as planned on Saturday because it was not
illegal.
Tsvangirai, who also said he was ready to be arrested, said such
a move will
end the shaky inclusive government.
“If people who want
to arrest me I am here. I do not think I have to run
away,” Tsvangirai said
to journalists at his Harare house on arrival from a
tour to Southern
African Development Community countries to brief them on
the Zimbabwe
crisis.
He said he had heard that the police wanted to arrest him. "We
will see how
they proceed but this would be the last nail in this whole
delicate and
fragile government. I would be of course waiting on what the
charges would
be should they decide to proceed on that.”
Tsvangirai
last week described as biased the Supreme Court judges who passed
a ruling
revoking the election of party national chairman Lovemore Moyo as
Speaker of
parliament.
“There is nothing illegal about that rally. Only last week
there was
supposed to be a ban of meetings which affected 73 of our district
elections. It was illegal and no one had been given that authority.
An
instruction was sent out that no meeting had been banned. I do not know
where all this is coming from. We will do everything to make sure that the
meeting proceeds as planned. I hope we do not have to make a storm in a tea
cup with these kinds of dramatic actions that are outside the
law.”
On his four day regional tour, Tsvangirai said he met Zambian
President
Rupiah Banda, who chairs the SADC Troika on Defence and Security,
Mozambican
President Armando Guebuza, Swazi king’s Mswathi and Botswana
leader Khama to
brief them on the “dire situation in Zimbabwe which
rendering the global
political agreement under threat”.
He is set to
meet South African President Jacob Zuma, the facilitator of
Zimbabwe’s unity
talks this weekend.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za
Eyewitness News | 3 Hours
Ago
Clashes are looming in Zimbabwe after police banned the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) from holding a major rally on Saturday, saying it
was too close to ZANU-PF headquarters.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
has issued a plea to the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
region to save the country from “implosion”.
Police say the venue for the
MDC rally is only 500 metres away from where
ZANU-PF will be holding another
rally for its anti-sanctions campaign.
MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti
was furious and vowed the rally would go
ahead.
The former opposition
party said police banned three MDC rallies in March
alone, while ZANU-PF has
been holding rallies unhindered across the country.
There is no doubting
though that the situation could be extremely volatile
in Harare if both
parties go ahead with their plans.
As tensions mount, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai has issued a plea to the
SADC region to intervene to save
the country from “implosion”.
Tsvangirai said on Friday that civilians
are no longer in charge of the
country and that dark and shadowy forces are
engaged in a hostile takeover.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by James Mombe Friday 18 March
2011
HARARE -- A group of rogue soldiers raped two women,
assaulted and robbed
guests at a Harare lodge two weeks ago, in a disturbing
show of riotous
behaviour by Zimbabwe’s soldiers once famed for their
discipline.
State prosecutors told the court on Thursday that 22
uniformed soldiers from
Inkomo Barracks, just outside Harare on March 6
stormed the lodge ransacking
rooms, assaulting guests, stealing cash and
cellphones and raped the women.
Two of the soldiers Fungai Kashitigu (31)
and Kennedy Chitsaka (30 appeared
in court yesterday while 20 of their
colleagues are still on the run.
Kashitigu and Chitsaka, who were not
formally charged yesterday, are accused
of raping the women, while their
colleagues watched. The two, who appeared
before different magistrates, were
remanded in custody and ordered to return
to court for trial on May 4 and 5
respectively.
According to prosecutors a 20-year-old woman was sleeping
with her boyfriend
when Chitsaka and three other soldiers – all in army
uniform -- stormed
their room, dragged the women out of bed and robbed her
of her cellphone and
US$95.
Chitsaka proceeded to rape the helpless
woman, whose boyfriend had managed
to flee the scene, while his colleagues
looked on.
At another room, a 21-year old woman heard a knock on the door
and upon
opening she was overpowered by Kashitigu and three other
soldiers.
The soldiers ransacked her room, beat her up and left, only for
Kashitigu to
return moments later and raped the woman.
According to
prosecutors after raping Kashitigu left, but returned and this
time
accompanied by another soldier he claimed was his boss.
The ‘boss’ asked
the woman to explain what had happened but as she began
narrating her ordeal
he slapped her and tried to rape her. The woman managed
to free herself from
the man and ran away.
The regular police, military police and the Central
Intelligence
Organisation are said to have launched a manhunt from the 20
soldiers who
remain at large, while it was not clear whether the bandit
soldiers, or some
of them, were armed or not.
Zimbabwe’s soldiers are
well known for committing political violence and
human rights abuses against
President Robert Mugabe’s political opponents.
But the last few years have
witnessed a disturbing and growing trend of
common banditry among troops,
suggesting declining levels of discipline or
rising discontent especially in
the lower ranks.
A group of rowdy soldiers in January 2009 went on the
rampage at Makoni
shopping centre in Chitungwiza city assaulting informal
traders and stealing
their wares.
The previous year, soldiers rioted
in central Harare, attacking street
moneychangers, vandalising and looting
shops.
Police called in to quell the riot had to fire shots in the air
and use
teargas to disperse the soldiers. At least 12 of the rioting
soldiers were
arrested for the looting.
Army commanders blame
increasing indiscipline among soldiers on poor pay.
But analysts say a
military coup against Mugabe remains highly unlikely –
despite poor pay and
working conditions in the army – because all top and
most middle ranking
commanders are still relatively comfortable. --
ZimOnline
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Mar 18, 2011 11:20 AM | By Sapa
A
popular daily banned by Zimbabwean authorities nearly eight years ago
returned to the streets on Friday after getting a new licence to
operate.
"We unapologetically declare that we will take a critical stand
against bad
governance and expose it for the entire nation to see," the
privately-owned
Daily News said in its editorial.
"We won't stand by
while rampant corruption and crass materialism disable
both government and
private sector. We will shout at the top of our voices
when we detect abuse
of power and political intolerance."
Its headline story titled "Is this
Zim's future?" raised concerns about
veteran President Robert Mugabe's
health and whether "President Mugabe, aged
and plagued by health problems,
can viably continue to contest for power --
has become a burning issue
among Zimbabweans."
The paper renowned for its anti-government stance was
banned in September
2003 for refusing to register with a
government-appointed media commission.
It had previously survived
bombings of its premises and arrests of its
journalists.
The paper
was given a licence in May last year by the new Zimbabwe Media
Commission.
The commission has to date licensed 15 publications
including several
newspapers and news agencies, but none have started
operations.
The appointment of the new commission was part of the
power-sharing pact
between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
Mugabe.
Tsvangirai has vowed to abolish the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act which has been invoked to ban foreign journalists
from working
permanently in the country.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Reagan Mashavave
Friday, 18 March 2011
18:49
HARARE-With general elections looming in Zimbabwe, the question
of who will
lead the country for the next five years – and whether President
Robert
Mugabe, aged and plagued by health problems, can viably continue to
contest
for power – has become a burning issue among Zimbabweans.
The
field of aspirant leaders in that ballot is indeed wide and varied: from
the
long-ruling Mugabe, to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai, to the likes of Welshman Ncube, Dumiso Dabengwa, Job
Sikhala, et
al.
Speaking to the Daily News this week, in the wake of Zanu PF’s
nomination of
Mugabe as the party’s choice of national leader for the
elections, medical
experts said at his advanced age of 87, and with health
concerns around him
mounting, it was advisable that Mugabe stepped down
now.
Political analysts also raised the same sentiment, expressing fears
that
Mugabe was now being manipulated by hardliners in Zanu PF, who were now
perceived to be effectively running the country.
Speculation around
Mugabe’s state of health has intensified recently after
Mugabe criss-crossed
the Indian Ocean, to Singapore, three times in the past
month, for what his
spokesperson George Charamba said was for “a minor
cataract
operation”.
However, diplomats, doctors and Zanu PF insiders said that it
appeared
certain that Mugabe had more serious health problems – which was
normal for
people of Mugabe’s age.
Mugabe himself admitted at his
televised birthday bash two weeks ago that
his body was now spent, although
his mind remained sharp.
The medical experts who spoke to the Daily News
said cataract operations
were simple procedures which did not require one to
travel all the way to
Singapore for reviews, adding that if Mugabe was
indeed suffering from a
more serious health condition then it was advisable
for him to take it easy
and retire.
One of Zimbabwe’s leading eye
surgeons, Dr Solomon Guramatunhu, recently
told the international media that
after a cataract operation, it took a few
hours before one could be able to
use the affected eye again.
A local doctor, who understandably preferred
anonymity, said that anyone
aged 87 would be prone to different kinds of
afflictions such as prostate
cancer. He added that common diseases which
were normally easy to treat in
people who were younger became difficult to
treat in 87-year-olds.
“Dementia and amnesia are also very common at this
age,” the doctor said.
University of Zimbabwe lecturer and political
analyst, John Makumbe, it was
common cause that the country was now being
run by the military under the
Joint Operations Command (JOC). Mugabe was
now merely there to rubber-stamp
and implement their decisions.
“He
(Mugabe) is now a liability to the nation. He is no longer in charge. He
is
now like a wall flower. JOC is the one which is in charge. Mugabe is no
longer capable of running the country. He is not in good health, so it is
left with others to run the country” Makumbe said.
“Zanu PF can
endorse Mugabe to be a candidate all they like, but he will
lose as he did
in 2008 (March elections). He will still lose any coming
election. Zanu PF
is free to endorse him again but they must know that he
will lose to Morgan
Tsvangirai and it will be left again to the securocrats
to decide whether to
hand over power or retain it like they did in 2008.”
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman Lovemore Madhuku said Mugabe
should
have retired two decades ago, adding that the normal retirement age
was 65
years.
“There is no doubt that at 87 years he should retire. It is clear.
There is
no question about that. The person at that age must rest. It is not
about me
saying that. It is the nature of people when they are created by
God, they
get old and should rest,” Madhuku said.
“In Zimbabwe 65
years is the normal retirement age and for the judges it is
70 years. Even
if the judge is sharp or bright, at 70 the law says they
should retire. You
cannot have 17 years above the maximum retirement age and
still run the
country.”
However, Zanu spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said the decision by
the party to
endorse Mugabe for another term, despite his advanced age, was
reached by
Zanu PF and no-one could change that.
“First of all the
decision that he (Mugabe) runs for another term is decided
by the party. The
party saw it fit that he runs as a presidential candidate.
The issue of who
determines who runs is done by the party and not by
outsiders, full stop,”
Gumbo said.
“The succession issue is also for the party to decide. It
does not have to
be decided by outsiders.”
In the meantime, it has
been suggested repeatedly that Mugabe’s ill health
and advanced age have
intensified the battle for succession in Zanu PF –
with camps linked to
Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and that of retired
army general Solomon
Mujuru – fighting to take control of the party.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Chris Goko,Oscar Nkala and Regan
Mashavave
Friday, 18 March 2011 18:52
HARARE-President Robert
Mugabe is under pressure to order the exhumation of
thousands of innocent
civilians murdered and buried in abandoned mines
during the Gukurahundi
massacres in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions.
This follows this
week’s gross politicisation by Mugabe’s Zanu PF of the
exhumation and
reburial of the remains of Zimbabwe’s liberation war
victims – which has
invoked bitter memories of the 1970s conflict, as well
as the Gukurahundi
massacres.
Analysts told the Daily News this week that Mugabe’s party had
made a huge
play on the pre-1980 massacres to garner sympathy from the
people ahead of
expected presidential and general elections later this
year.
At least 20 000 people are believed to have been murdered by
members of the
North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade, with Mugabe’s government
claiming at the
time that they wanted to crush a rebellion by supposed
dissidents in the
early 1980s.
Human rights organisations and
victims of the Gukurahundi massacres have
been demanding for the past three
decades the exhumation of bodies believed
to have been buried in mass graves
around the Matabeleland regions and the
Midlands Province.
On his
part, Mugabe has steadfastly refused to both compensate and apologise
for
what has since been described as a genocide – arguing that he was doing
this
in the interest of national unity and the country.
While there is
virtually no single family in Zimbabwe that was unaffected by
the bitter war
against Ian Smith’s regime pre-1980, Zanu PF has sought to
project itself as
the sole structure concerned about the decent reburial of
the country’s
fallen heroes.
But Edgar Tekere, a former freedom fighter and Zanu PF
secretary general,
has attacked the beleaguered party’s moves to buy
political mileage out of
the Mashonaland Central reburial programme – at the
same time neglecting the
more recent killings such as the Gukurahundi
massacres.
"That issue (Gukurahundi) was swept under the carpet. But it
must be an open
issue that our nation must know about. The Catholics did a
very
comprehensive report about this and the nation should receive that
report.
Others don't want the report to be out because they know they will
be
exposed," Tekere told the Daily News this week, referring to the Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace report on the mid 1980s
disturbances.
He added: "Mass graves must be exhumed when they are
discovered. This
(exhumation of mass graves) must not be done for political
reasons."
Many other observers, while welcoming the exhumation exercise,
took
exception with the fact that Zanu PF leaders knew about the existence
of
several mass and shallow graves since independence and yet chose to do
nothing about it until now.
With the former ruling party in full
election mode, a predictable
electioneering and propaganda pattern has
emerged – in the hope that such
tactics will earn the party
votes.
Mthwakazi Liberation Front leader Maxwell Mnkandla said his party
was
concerned about Zanu PF plans to exhume and re-bury victims of colonial
war
crimes, while ignoring those killed and maimed by
Gukurahundi.
"Gukurahundi is the vehicle ZANU PF used to subjugate this
region and the
feelings of its people do not matter. I am not surprised that
they do not
even acknowledge that Matabeleland has more people who were
thrown alive
into mines by the Fifth Brigade, Central Intelligence
Organisation, Support
Unit and the ZANU youth brigade… than those killed by
Smith,” Mnkandla said,
adding that all they were asking for were dignified
burials for the dead.
Methuseli Moyo, spokesman for the revived Zimbabwe
African People's Union
(ZAPU), said plans to rebury the dead “were
commendable”, but ZAPU was
worried about Mugabe’s failure to acknowledge
that there were far more
victims of his own “anti–terror campaigns” lying in
unmarked graves all over
the Midlands and Matabeleland.
"Smith's war
was bad but Gukurahundi was worse because it was black on black
genocide.
While Smith never denied that his troops committed atrocities… we
have a
leader and commander-in-chief of an army that killed defenceless
civilians
in an act of sheer genocide (and he) does not want to acknowledge
that
fact,” he said.
While most of those killed were the late vice president
Joshua Nkomo’s
supporters – opposed to Zanu PF's expedient socialism and
one-party state
quest – Moyo challenged Mugabe and his government to help
national healing
by ensuring that “high-ranking perpetrators of the
massacres” were brought
to book.
Human rights organisations say the
largest concentration of victims lie in
Matobo District’s Bhalagwe
area.
Moses Mzila–Ndlovu, a top Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-N)
official
and Organ on National Healing co–minister, said while he had only
heard
about the reburial programme on national television, government was
also
missing an opportunity to foster unity by embarking on partisan and
selective commemorations of chosen war victims.
"The national healing
process cannot happen because it is being undermined
in many ways by the
same parties that are supposed to be contributing to it.
I will not be
surprised if the victims of Gukurahundi, who have been denied
everything,
from a simple acknowledgement of the genocide to justice, take
this as the
worst pinch of salt ever added onto their emotional injuries.
“I hope by
doing this the government is signaling that it will not interfere
if we do
the same with the victims of Gukurahundi," Mzila-Ndlovu said.
Zanu PF
spokesperson Rugare Gumbo refused to comment on the issue.
"It is their
opinion," Gumbo said.
Friday,18 March 2011
For the past four days, I have
been meeting fellow SADC leaders to appraise
them on the dire situation in
Zimbabwe, which has posed a serious threat to
the GPA and the inclusive
government.
In the past week, I have held discussions with President
Rupiah Banda of
Zambia, President Armando Guebbuza of Mozambique, King
Mswati 111 of
Swaziland and Botswana President Ian Khama about the need for
urgent action
on Zimbabwe to ensure the security of persons and a peaceful
environment in
the country. I will soon be meeting the facilitator,
President Jacob Zuma,
over the situation in the country.
I have told
these fellow leaders that the time for SADC to act and deliver
is now. And
we are all agreed that Zimbabwe should not be allowed to
decelerate into an
implosion. I have told the SADC leaders of the renewed
siege mood in
Zimbabwe, the arbitrary arrests, the crackdown on democratic
forces in the
country and the culture of impunity that is seriously
threatening the health
and the life of the inclusive government.
I have told my fellow
colleagues in the region that this country risks
sliding back to the chaos
of 2008; the chaos which the same regional leaders
mitigated by nudging all
the political players to form an inclusive
government in the national
interest. But today, the violence machinery has
once again been unrolled in
the countryside, the culture of impunity has
worsened and the past eight
weeks have seen an intensification of the
crackdown on the democratic forces
in the country.
While I was away in the last four days, it appears the
civilian authority is
no longer in charge and dark and sinister forces have
engaged in a hostile
take-over of running the affairs of the country, with
or without the
blessing of some leaders of the civilian authority. Together
with civic
society and other democratic forces, we had planned to hold a
major peace
rally in Harare tomorrow to pray for peace in the
country.
We had duly notified the police as required by law. I was told
yesterday
that the police have refused to allow that peaceful rally to
proceed,
against the provisions of the law and the letter and spirit of the
GPA.
There has been an instruction from the Police Commissioner-General to
effectively ban meetings when there is a Cabinet decision that no meetings
should be banned.
The MDC notes that unless the region nips this
tension in the bud, we could
easily slide back to the dark days of 2008, a
development that is not
welcome to any Zimbabwean across the political
divide.
SADC, as the guarantors of this agreement, has to play a critical
role in
ensuring that we all respect the signatures that we appended to the
GPA. We
have to implement all the agreed issues and usher in political,
economic and
media reforms as stipulated in the GPA in order to enable the
country to
transit peacefully to a credible and legitimate government whilst
SADC
should monitor every step of this process.
We are all agreed
that the tenure of this inclusive government will have to
lapse at some
point and an election is inevitable. But it has to be a free
and fair
election devoid of the violence that has characterized electoral
processes
in the country for the past 31 years.
The SADC troika summit due to take
place soon has to seriously address the
issue of the roadmap so that all
political players are bound by time-bound
milestones and rules ahead of the
next election. It is my sincere and
fervent hope that the SADC region will
not stand back and allow this
impunity to graduate into full-fledged
chaos.
The people want a guarantee that they will be allowed to vote for
parties
and leaders of their choice in a free environment.
They hope
that the guarantors of this agreement will ensure that their vote
counts and
that their vote will be protected.
Finally, I appeal to all peace-loving
people and leaders of SADC, the
African Union and the broader international
community to HELP ZIMBABWE BY
STOPPING THE VIOLENCE.
I thank
you
--
MDC Information & Publicity Department
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex
Bell
18 March 2011
ZANU PF’s Agriculture Minister, Joseph
Made, has denied barring
international aid agencies and other NGOs from
participating in food
assessment surveys in Zimbabwe, claming he was
“misquoted.”
The IRIN humanitarian news service quoted Made this
week as telling them
that United Nations (UN) groups in particular, “are not
welcome” in
Zimbabwe. He called the food and crop assessments “a national
security
matter that should be treated with the utmost caution and
exclusivity.”
“Hence our decision as government to exclude
outsiders from the surveys. UN
agencies in particular are not welcome
because they send out negative
information about the country. We don’t want
to have politics in food
issues,” Made is quoted as
saying.
The news has prompted allegations that ZANU PF is
deliberately hiding the
truth of Zimbabwe’s food situation, in order to once
again use food as a
political weapon during the forthcoming elections. The
Commercial Farmers
Union (CFU) told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that they
believe the decision
to exclude the UN and other groups is all related to
ZANU PF’s political
strategy and election campaign. The party has
traditionally used food to
either garner support or punish the opposition,
by controlling food
distribution.
Economic analyst John
Robertson meanwhile is also quoted by IRIN as saying
that the exclusion of
the international groups was to hide the truth that
Robert Mugabe’s land
reform scheme has been a disaster for the country. ZANU
PF insists that
Western targeted sanctions are to blame for all of the
country’s problems,
including the devastation of the once prosperous
agricultural
sector.
Robertson told IRIN that excluding the UN groups from
food assessments is an
attempt “to cast Mugabe’s fast-track land-reform
programme in a positive
light.”
“President Mugabe’s side of
the government, to which agriculture minister
Made belongs, wants to make
the statement that land reform in Zimbabwe is
succeeding. In this case, they
are likely to inflate figures of yields and
also seek to blame only the
weather for poor yields,” Robertson said.
It is no surprise that
Made has now backtracked on what he told the IRIN,
saying the group
‘misquoted’ him. He told Voice of America news that he
“would work with UN
agencies and non-governmental organizations as long as
they stay out of
Zimbabwean politics.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
18 March, 2011
The drama over the role of the removed
parliamentary speaker, Lovemore Moyo,
continued this week after Attorney
General Johannes Tomana said the former
speaker can retain his position as a
member of parliament.
Tomana made the comments after the Clerk of
Parliament, Austin Zvoma, asked
for his opinion when the Supreme Court
shockingly ruled to remove Moyo as
speaker.
The case to remove the
MDC-T legislator as speaker had been brought by ZANU
PF’s Jonathan Moyo, on
the grounds that there were ‘irregularities’ leading
to his election in
August 2008.
The Attorney General’s decision to retain Moyo as an MP
means he would be
allowed to vote for a new speaker, and a battle for
majority votes is
already in full swing.
But some observers have said
ZANU PF is playing games as always. They
believe Tomana’s decision is a ploy
to “legitimize” their illegal removal of
the parliamentary speaker, who was
voted in according to Zimbabwean law.
The Supreme Court decision came
while parliament was adjourned. The legal
and parliamentary affairs monitor
Veritas said a vote for a new speaker
should be held on March 22nd, when
parliament resumes, as no business can
take place without a speaker.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
18 March
2011
Former MDC MP Munyaradzi Gwisai, plus 5 other activists facing
dubious
treason charges, walked free from remand prison on Thursday, a day
after
High Court Judge Samuel Kudya had granted them bail.
The six
were granted US$2,000 bail each but lawyers were unable to secure
the funds
before the Clerk of Court closed his office Wednesday. A total of
US$12 000
had to be raised, even though the judge said he saw “no iota of
evidence
that any Zimbabwean ever contemplated any Tunisian or Egyptian
revolution.”
The group was arrested for watching video footage of
protests in Egypt and
Tunisia and later having an academic debate. Police
raided the venue of the
meeting and arrested over 54 people. Treason charges
were later filed, with
prosecutors claiming the activists were plotting to
overthrow Mugabe’s
regime.
Meanwhile on Thursday the same judge who
freed Gwisai and the 5 activists
also freed on bail MDC-T Zhombe MP Rodger
Tazviona, and the six other men
charged with threatening to harm Chief
Samambwa. They were each granted
US$100 bail.
Tazviona was arrested
on the 14th February along with Lazarus Kaswera,
Crispen Tazvivinga, Idea
Makota, Simbarashe Mtengo, Taurai Chinembiri and
Albert Mudzingwa, for
allegedly making violent threats to Chief Samambwa.
Justice Kudya ruled that
the Kwekwe magistrate who denied the six bail had
erred.
With
elections for a new Speaker of Parliament pending it’s speculated that
ZANU
PF is trying to use the arrest of the MP’s to trim the MDC-T voting
numbers.
A total of seven MP’s have been arrested so far and of that number,
6 have
been released, but not before long spells in police custody.
The seven
MDC-T MPs who now have pending court cases include Costin Muguti
(Gokwe-Kabuyuni), Roger Tazviona (Zhombe), Jani Varandeni (Bikita South),
Settlement Chikwinya (Mbizo), Shepherd Mushonga (Mazowe Central), and Energy
Minister Elton Mangoma who is the MP for Makoni North.
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai said all of them are “innocent victims of a
barbaric and
senseless dictatorship.” Several other MP’s are receiving
summons to either
appear in court or police stations and more arrests are
predicted.
On
Thursday the MDC-T reported how Sanyati District Women’s Assembly vice
Chairperson Blessing Rukovo, and vice Organising Secretary Tendai Gambe, are
being treated for injuries sustained after being assaulted by the local ZANU
PF MP Fungai Chaderopa, her son Kennedy and over 10 ZANU PF thugs who were
trying to evict them from their shops. Some money and goods were
looted.
Rukovo and Gambe are said to be receiving treatment for head
injuries at
Sanyati Baptist Hospital, before being transferred for further
treatment in
Kadoma.
Meanwhile we understand war vets in Sakubva,
Mutare visited Sakubva High 1
and Sakubva High 2 and forced all students in
Form 4 to 6 and the teachers
to attend a lecture on ZANU PF
policies.
“They ordered them not to support the MDC. After waiting for
more than four
hours in the heat, singing ZANU PF songs, they were later
forced to sign the
ZANU PF anti-sanctions petition and to give their names,
addresses and ID
numbers,” an MDC statement said.
http://www.voanews.com
Diplomatic sources say Southern African regional leaders
agree and want an
election to be held, possibly next year, but with a clear
road-map setting
out milestones and benchmarks
Blessing Zulu &
Thomas Chiripasi | Washington 17 March 2011
The Southern African
Development Community is expected to hold a
long-delayed mini-summit on
Zimbabwe at the end of this month, one result of
an ongoing regional
diplomatic initiative by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, sources said
Thursday.
President Rupiah Banda of Zambia, chairman of the troika, will
host the
meeting.
Mr. Tsvangirai was in Botswana on Thursday for a
discussion with President
Simon Khama, following meetings with leaders in
Zambia, Mozambique and
Swaziland.
His next stop was to be South
Africa for a meeting with President Jacob
Zuma, mediator in Zimbabwe on
behalf of SADC. Mr. Tsvangirai is voicing his
concern at the mounting
crackdown on his Movement for Democratic Change
formation and civic
organizations, allegedly by elements loyal to President
Robert Mugabe and
his ZANU-PF party.
Mr. Tsvangirai told reporters late Wednesday in
Maputo, Mozambique, that
problems are developing in terms of cohesion in
Harare's government of
national unity.
"We are hoping the troika,
which President [Armando] Guebuza is leading,
should be fully briefed," Mr.
Tsvangirai said. He said the regional body
should be closely involved in
laying out a road-map leading to the next
elections in
Zimbabwe.
Diplomatic sources say regional leaders agree and want an
election to be
held, possibly next year, but with a clear road-map setting
out milestones
and benchmarks.
Lindiwe Zulu, a foreign policy adviser
to Mr. Zuma, told VOA reporter
Blessing Zulu that Pretoria has been informed
by SADC about the troika
meeting.
“We do not organize such meetings
as it is the prerogative of the SADC
secretariat,” Zulu noted. “But we have
received communication from SADC that
there is a meeting at the end of the
month."
A troika mini-summit was called off at the last minute last
November after
President Banda and Mr. Guebuza failed to arrive in Gaborone,
Botswana.
Political analyst Trevor Maisiri said the escalation of
tensions in Zimbabwe
might make it difficult for regional leaders to unravel
the political knot
in Harare.
Meanwhile, the Movement for Democratic
Change formation led by Mr.
Tsvangirai has asked the High Court for an order
clearing the way for it to
hold a major rally over the coming weekend at the
Glamis Arena in Harare.
VOA Studio 7 correspondent Thomas Chiripasi
reported from Harare that,
pending relief in court, MDC officials defiantly
said the rally would go
ahead as planned.
http://www.voanews.com/
Sources
said President Mugabe’s nephew, Leo Mugabe, has asked his uncle to
issue a
new Telecel license to his group, the Zimbabwe Wealth Creation and
Empowerment Council
Gibbs Dube | Washington 17 March
2011
A Zimbabwean black empowerment group which seeks a controlling
stake in
Telecel, the nation’s second-ranked mobile provider, has asked
President
Robert Mugabe to tip the balance in a corporate battle between
Egyptian
investors and local players.
Sources said President Mugabe’s
nephew, Leo Mugabe, has approached the
president and asked him to issue a
new Telecel license to his group, the
Zimbabwe Wealth Creation and
Empowerment Council. That’s an umbrella for the
Affirmative Action Group,
the Indigenous Business Women’s Organization, the
National Miners
Association, the Zimbabwe War Veterans Association and
several other
organizations.
Sources informed on the situation said Leo Mugabe claims
that this group has
a right to purchase a majority stake in Telecel Zimbabwe
as agreed when the
company was set up. At present, Telecel Globe of Egypt
holds a 60 percent
stake.
Ousted Telecel Chairwoman Jane Mutasa told
Parliament today that Telecel is
operating without a license and many top
Telecel officials, including James
Makamba, another former chairman, are
based outside Zimbabwe at present.
Telecel Chief Commercial Officer Anwar
Soussa said the provider is doing
business as usual despite the wrangle. “I
cannot say anything about Telecel
shares but in terms of conducting
business, we are operating and exploring
more opportunities,” he
said.
Economic commentator Walter Mbongolwane said Leo Mugabe is trying
to seize
Telecel from its rightful owners through manipulation of Zimbabwe's
indigenization laws.
“We are waiting to see what will happen to this
company which is being
targeted by indigenous groups that are fully aware of
the huge benefits of a
telecommunications entity in the mobile phone
sector,” Mbongolwane told
reporter Gibbs Dube.
http://www.radiovop.com
18/03/2011
14:19:00
Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font
HARARE, March 18, 2011
- THERE was drama here when the Ambassador of Japan
to Zimbabwe, Koichi
Morita, openly wept before invited guests gathered to
witness the signing
ceremony of a US$5,6 million grant his country was
giving Zimbabwe for
various infectious diseases protection for children.
Morita, in tears,
told invited guests that because of the recent devastating
earthquake his
country had suffered he could, therefore, not sign the US$5
653 000 grant
that they had pledged to Zimbabwe because he had not
"communicated" with his
"boss, the Minister of Foreign Affairs" back in
Japan.
Invited guests
included the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr
Douglas
Mombeshora, the United Nations Educational and Scientific
Organisation
(UNESCO) Country Representative, Dr Peter Salama, the Resident
Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Tsunehiro
Kawakita, as well as local and international journalists based in
Harare.
"I am sorry but we will have to cancel this signing ceremony
today," Morita
said in tears.
"We thank all of you for coming here and we
will have to reschedule this
important event. I am very touched by the
Government of Zimbabwe and all of
you who continue to pray and offer us
help."
He said there had been a breakdown of communication between Harare
and Tokyo
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to whom he reports had not
given the nod
for the project to take off and seeing that there had been an
earthquake and
"things might be different tomorrow".
A high ranking
official from the Japanese Embassy then told Radio VOP in an
exclusive
interview that there was now a new Minister of Foreign Affairs who
had not
yet sanctioned the grant project between Japan and Zimbabwe to help
Zimbabwe's children.
"In Japan officials must be told what to do and
what not to do or they risk
many things including being killed by their
bosses," he said.
"The Ambassador does not want to take any risks and
because he has not been
given the nod to go ahead with this function he
simply cannot go ahead and
has decided to cancel it instead."
Japan
is known to have a strong working culture and officials sometimes
commit
suicide if and when they go against their working ethics.
Leaders such as
managers and even Prime Ministers have been found hanged due
to failure to
follow instructions from above.
The official said, however, there would
not be any "change of heart" between
Japan and Zimbabwe and his country
would continue to help the vulnerable
children in the country.
The
"unsigned" US$5 653 000 grant provided for the procurement of vaccines
for
preventable and often fatal infectious disease among Zimbabwean
children.
The drugs would directly support Zimbabwe's Expanded
Programme on
Immunisation (ZEPI), as well as UNICEF's Child Health Days,
which include
the provision of Vitamin A supplements.
A spokesman for
the project said the its main objective was to strengthen
routine
immunisation services, with particular focus on reaching vulnerable
populations and thus prevent and reduce morbidity and mortality attributed
to vaccine preventable diseases among children under five.
He said
more specifically the project seeks to ensure that immunised
children are
reached and increase immunisation coverage of drugs to at least
95 percent
at national level by December 2011.
"It will target more than 372 000
under ones and nearly 509 000 pregnant
women," he said in an interview.
http://www.radiovop.com/
18/03/2011 18:50:00
Pretoria,
March 18, 2011 - President Jacob Zuma is to send envoys to
represent him in
Zimbabwe and Libya missions to find solutions to political
conflicts and
stalemates in these two countries.
According to South African government
news service, Zuma, who is mediator in
Zimbabwe's power-sharing dispute,
will next week send an envoy, led by
political adviser Charles Nqakula, on a
mission to that country amid rising
tensions in the unity
government.
"President Zuma will next week send his Zimbabwe facilitation
team to Harare
to meet with parties to the Global Political Agreement, ahead
of the meeting
of the SADC Troika which will take place in Zambia on the
31st of March,"
the Presidency said.
South Africa, it said, will
continue to participate actively in efforts of
bringing about peace and
stability on the continent.
Recent weeks have seen a surge in violence
and arrests targeting loyalist of
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
President Robert Mugabe has also
threatened to hold an election soon,
discarding undertakings to follow a
road map of democratic
reforms.
Zuma is also sending an envoy to Libya at the weekend to take
part in an
African Union fact-finding mission aimed at starting talks
between the
regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and rebels who are
trying to end his
42-year rule.
He will be represented by the
Minister of State Security, Siyabonga Cwele,
Deputy Minister of
International Relations Ebrahim Ebrahim and security
adviser Welile
Nhlapo.
They will join other members of the High Level Panel appointed by
the AU,
such as Uganda, Mauritania, South Africa, Mali and the Republic of
Congo,
tasked with finding a lasting situation in the political crisis in
Libya.
Zuma said in the National Assembly on Thursday said South Africa
would
coordinate its position on Libya with other members of the
AU.
"South Africa supports the position of the African Union with regards
to the
Libyan question and will work within the ambit of the AU," Zuma's
office
said on Friday.
Zuma last week instructed Treasury to begin
freezing Gaddafi's assets in
South Africa in accordance with an earlier UN
Security Council resolution.
In February, the UN enforced sanctions
resolution on Libyan forces a travel
ban and assets froze Gaddafi, his inner
circle and members of the Libyan
leader's family.
On Thursday, the
UNSC tightened the rope by imposing a no-fly zone over the
country to stop
Gaddafi's attacks on rebels.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
By Associated Press, Friday, March 18, 12:32
PM
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Mass demonstrations forced out rulers in Egypt and
Tunisia after decades in office, but in Zimbabwe — whose leader has been in
power for 32 years — even watching video footage of those uprisings can lead
to treason charges punishable by death.
With intimidation and
arrests, longtime African rulers like Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe are
trying to prevent people’s revolts like the ones
that have roiled North
Africa from igniting in their own countries.
So far, they have kept the
revolts at bay with tear gas, intimidation,
arrests, censorship and
handouts.
State-controlled TV stations in Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea,
Uganda and
Zimbabwe are not allowed to show video footage from North Africa
favorable
to the protesters.
In Cameroon, where 77-year-old President
Paul Biya has ruled since 1982, the
government ordered cell phone companies
to suspend mobile services for
Twitter. This came after people used the
social networking site to report
the mass deployment of troops to prevent a
“Drive Out Biya” march.
Sub-Saharan Africa shares many of the root causes
that have prompted the
uprisings in the north: rising food prices, youth
unemployment and
repressive regimes that subvert democracy by rigging
elections. Before the
Tunisian uprising, 18 African rulers or their families
had held power for
more than 20 years.
Analysts point to the cohesion
of people in Egypt and Tunisia, and contrast
it to sub-Saharan Africa’s
tribally based politics that leaders use to win
allegiance, divide and rule.
It’s a tribalism that helps sustain Libya’s
Moammar Gadhafi and Zimbabwe’s
Mugabe.
Still, Na’eem Jeenah, director of the Afro-Middle East Center,
said the
revolts in Arab nations have sparked Africans’ belief and hope in
the power
of mass action.
People in Swaziland, a tiny mountain
kingdom in South Africa’s northeast,
staged a mass protest Friday over
freezing civil service wages while King
Mswati III, who has 14 wives,
awarded himself a 24 percent increase in his
budget
allocation.
“There is no doubt that the Swazi people ... have been
inspired by the
democracy campaigns in Egypt and elsewhere, and have
understood the
importance of mass democratic action to change things for the
better,” said
the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
Jeenah,
whose center is in Johannesburg, said even if the revolts in North
Africa
have not yet caught fire south of the Sahara, governments are
concerned.
Those concerns have often translated into crackdowns aimed
at snuffing out
opposition protests before they flicker into
life.
Angola’s ruler of more than 30 years, President Eduardo dos Santos,
has used
mass troop deployments and arrests to quash a planned pro-democracy
protest.
Opposition politicians and human rights lawyers in Angola, a
virtual
one-party state, have been receiving anonymous death threats and the
cars of
two lawyers were set ablaze.
In Djibouti, riot police moved
against an estimated 6,000 people at an
opposition political rally on Feb.
18, and opposition politicians said five
people were killed and dozens
wounded. A second rally planned for March 4
didn’t happen after security
forces filled the streets. Opposition leaders
have been
jailed.
“There is no way anybody can win against him,” opposition leader
Abdourahman
Boreh said from exile in London, referring to President Ismail
Omar Guelleh
. “He uses all the power, all the police, all the government
instruments and
resources, and he uses brutality.”
Uganda’s
Conservative Party leader John Ken Lukyamuzi said “it is very
possible” the
protests will spread to sub-Saharan Africa. In his own
country, police fired
tear gas against people protesting alleged rigging in
last month’s
presidential vote that saw incumbent Yoweri Museveni, 66, who
has been in
power since 1986, win again. He threatened his opponents.
“I will deal
with them decisively and they will never rise again,” Museveni
said,
promising at one point to “bang them into jails and that would be the
end of
the story.”
Some have used the carrot to quell unrest.
Ethiopia’s
22-year government announced a cap on basic food prices within
days of
President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali’s flight from Tunisia.
In Zimbabwe,
Jeenah said, people are held back from taking to the streets by
fears of the
beatings and torture meted out to dissenters, while Mugabe is
sustained by
the lack of criticism and even support demonstrated by other
African
leaders.
Ivory Coast threatens to slide back toward civil war since
Laurent Gbagbo
refused to accept that he lost November elections. As
Gbagbo’s intransigence
turns the commercial capital, Abidjan, into a war
zone, African leaders have
been hesitant to intervene militarily. Some who
side with Gbagbo are
themselves anti-democratic.
If Gbagbo prevails,
he would be the third African leader to refuse to accept
election results,
following the lead of Mugabe and Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki.
It’s a dangerous
precedent. More than a dozen presidential elections are
scheduled across
Africa this year. If winners of free and fair elections are
prevented from
taking office, the people’s discontent can only build.
Chegutu, Zimbabwe,
March 17, 2011: United States Ambassador Charles A. Ray
says the United
States continues to contribute towards the rebuilding of
Zimbabwe’s
education system despite claims by individuals facing travel and
economic
sanctions that its targeted sanctions are impacting on the country’s
development.
“The U.S. government has provided one million dollars to
a joint donor
effort headed by UNICEF to provide textbooks to students in
Zimbabwe. We are
proud that as a result of these efforts there will now be a
one-to-one ratio
of books to primary school students, which has not occurred
in Zimbabwe in a
long time. All of our efforts reflect the fact that the
United States
government and its allies are committed to providing a culture
of reading
and learning,” said Ambassador Ray as he handed over a set of
reference
books worth US$1,000 to Mupfure Self Help College in Chegutu,
Mashonaland
West Province Thursday. Former Education Minister Dr. Fay Chung
facilitated
the book donation.
Accepting the “heartfelt” donation,
acting principal of the college, Edward
Mpandaguta said, “Our training
focuses on job creators rather than job
seekers. These entrepreneurial
skills are key in our efforts to accord our
students an opportunity to
realize the Zimbabwean equivalent of what in your
country is referred to as
the American dream.” He said most students at the
school are the children of
ex-combatants, ex- refugees and detainees, and
has gone further to recruit
youth from foster homes, orphanages and
disadvantaged children’s
homes.
The book set, including a full Encyclopedia Americana 29 volume
set, as well
as a dictionary, thesaurus and atlas, is one of 72 sets being
donated to
select high schools around the country.
“The book sets
being donated throughout the country are a first step in this
cooperation
and assistance,” said Ambassador Ray.
A handful of placard-waving
individuals calling for the lifting of targeted
sanctions were present at
the handover ceremony, which was also attended by
students, school
authorities, representatives of government from various
ministries, and
senior U.S. embassy officials.
Responding to a question by one of the
demonstrators, Ambassador Ray said
the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Recovery Act (ZDERA) of 2001 has had no
effect on Zimbabwe's economy and is
not related to targeted sanctions. The
demonstrator thanked the Ambassador
for his response.
Ambassador Ray said the book donation is a result of a
2009 meeting between
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, which included
a discussion on how best the United States could
assist in rebuilding
Zimbabwe.
Mupfure Self Help College, with a
student enrolment of 326 students, was
developed by the Zimbabwe Foundation
for Education for Production (ZIMFEP)
to deliver a comprehensive vocational
and technical training program aimed
at the disadvantaged. The college is
also developing other programs,
including HIV and AIDS prevention, the
establishment of a secondary school
for students in surrounding communities,
and a clinic for the school and
community.
Ray hailed founding
members, ZIMFEP and staff at the college for improving
the lives of war
veterans and making a positive impact on all Zimbabweans.
“I am
particularly aware of the difficulties that veterans and their
families
often face. I know that many of you and your relatives have faced
and
overcome many hardships during the years before and after independence
in
1980,” said the U.S. Ambassador.
“Having institutions like ZIMFEP and the
Mupfure Self Help College to
provide solid education and training programs
is essential to your future
and to the future of Zimbabwe. These programs
honor the legacy of those who
fought for Zimbabwe’s independence,” said
Ray.
The book sets are funded through United States Agency for
International
Development, (USAID) to provide supplementary study materials
that are
otherwise nonexistent. ZimPAS© 2011
# # #
ZimPAS is a
product of the United States Embassy Public Affairs Section.
Queries and
comments should be directed to Sharon Hudson Dean, Public
Affairs Officer,
hararepas@state.gov, Url: http://harare.usembassy.gov
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Benjamin Semwayo
18 March, 2011
A
lie that has for a long time been peddled in Zimbabwe is that freedom has
eluded the country because rural folk are ardent supporters of ZanuPF.
Nothing can be further from the truth. This misconception has its roots in
the days of the armed struggle against the Rhodesian Front, when the freedom
fighters had easy access to the rural areas, but not to the urban areas. Ian
Smith’s forces had been defeated in the rural areas, which had become a
no-go area for them and had become the playground of the freedom fighters.
They had absolute control of these areas and had all the time they could
wish for to spread their propaganda among the people. The result was that
people in the rural areas were effectively ‘re-educated’ by the comrades,
while those in the cities were not influenced to the same degree.
When
the elections were held in 1980, voters in the cities had greater
freedom to
exercise their votes, but voters in the rural areas did not enjoy
such
freedom as the war veterans swarmed the polling stations, claiming to
be
able to see who people were voting for. With intimidation rife in these
areas, it was difficult not to vote for ZanuPF, so the party won many seats
in these areas, and the rural areas subsequently became labelled as ZanuPF’s
strongholds, a label they carry to this day.
What people failed to notice
was that gradually, over time, even the rural
folks realized that ZanuPF did
not have the interests of the people at
heart, but those in power were only
interested in self-enrichment. The power
balance shifted, but the media
continued to refer to rural areas as ZanuPF’s
stronghold. Surprisingly, even
the independent media continued to make these
assertions, which were passed
on to the Zimbabweans, so that even in their
private discussions they spoke
of the rural areas as being ZanuPF’s
strongholds. The entire nation
therefore believed that ZanuPF had
successfully effected a stranglehold on
the rural areas.
Unfortunately by consolidating this erroneous view, the
media and everyone
else were playing right into the hands of ZanuPF. When
next elections were
held people’s publicly declared views on the strength of
ZanuPF in the rural
areas were easily turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy
by rigging the
elections in favour of ZanuPF. Everyone had been told that
ZanuPF was strong
in the rural areas, and everyone had asserted the same, so
when the
elections were rigged and ZanuPF won many rural seats no-one
questioned it
because that is what they expected.
The point above
explains why Matobo Senator Sithembile Mlotshwa was right in
saying that the
only election that ZanuPF ever won was the one held in 1980.
If people’s
view of rural voters is not corrected more elections will be
stolen.
Events in many rural areas have clearly demonstrated that it is
not true
that ZanuPF enjoys a monopoly of support in the rural areas. A look
at
events almost all the rural areas in Matabeleland and Manicaland exposes
the
fallacy of this view. In many other rural areas there is open and fierce
opposition to ZanuPF.
Newspapers should desist from labelling rural areas
ZanuPF strongholds. That
is not only insulting to the rural folk, but also
gives ZanuPF victory on a
platter by encouraging it to steal votes. Most
important of all, it is
simply not true.
Opinion polls are not ZanuPF’s
cup of tea, for which reason anyone seen
either conducting them or giving
information to them is harassed by party
officials and their acolytes. The
few opinion polls that are conducted
invariably report that people in the
rural areas mostly decline to
participate for fear of reprisal. If it were
not for this fact, they would
no doubt show how unpopular ZanuPF is in the
rural areas.
One rural resident, reacting to the claim that rural folk are
guilty of
propping up Mugabe’s regime, is on record for saying,
‘Musatinakurira nyoka
mhenyu iyi vedu we-e. Musatinakurira Dhiyabhorosi
nyoka.’ (Do not scoop this
live snake with a stick and toss it in our
direction please. Do not toss
Diabolus the serpent in our direction.) Please
let us understand the cry of
the rural folk and not accuse them of this
grave offence.
ZanuPF’s Paranoia Increases
ZanuPF’s behaviour is
becoming increasingly baffling. It is behaving like a
madman who runs away
when nobody is chasing him. Explaining its preposterous
behaviour
demonstrated lately is as challenging as cutting the Gordian knot.
Take for
example the case of Vikas Mavhudzi, who was thrown into prison for
simply
posting an innocent message on the Prime Minister’s Facebook page.
How that
simple exercise of one of the most basic of human rights can
constitute an
offence warranting the attention of self-respecting members of
the police
force is a mystery that is beyond the comprehension of even the
most
respected of the sages. The problem is that ZanuPF believes it can
explain
away anything, no matter how laughable the explanation is. Job
Sikhala is
reportedly facing a similarly groundless accusation.
ZanuPF has a strange way
of dealing with offences. The normal way is to
consider the crime and crime
scene after a crime has been committed, and
then looking for evidence
leading to the criminal. ZanuPF does the opposite.
It begins by deciding
that someone is a criminal and even decide the
sentence before fabricating
ridiculous evidence to nail the individual, who
was long identified as
ZanuPF’s foe. Sadly, because they control the
judiciary, once they set their
sights on you they almost certainly succeed
in convicting you of either a
crime you did not commit, or of a false crime
that does not really
constitute a crime.
Lovemore Madhuku has been facing trial for a crime
allegedly committed five
years ago in 2006. It is the timing of the
litigation that raises serious
concerns. The decision to suddenly charge him
for the alleged crime after
such a great time lapse not only causes a great
mystery, but also confirms
what everyone now knows, that ZanuPF has become
so confused as not to know
how to handle crimes. Its view of things has
become so warped that it is
difficult to rationalise its kind of logic. It
has become so drunk with
illusions of its invincibleness that it believes it
can pursue its every
whim and caprice, trashing people’s rights at will,
believing that it will
never be held accountable for its abuse of power. The
accusation has been so
groundless that the magistrate had no option but to
dismiss the case with
the contempt it deserves.
Arrogance has always been
known to be one of Mugabe’s most recognisable
qualities, a quality that he
has passed down the entire structure of his
party, so that it has become a
strong streak that runs through the party,
and by which it is characterised.
That is what emboldens the rank and file
members to commit the most heinous
atrocities with impunity, thinking
nothing of it. They only take after their
leader.
As for the current blitz on anyone who is perceived to be
contemplating any
form of uprising, that is only sabre rattling by a party
attempting to nip
such trouble in the bud in view of the parlous political
state to the north
which, it is feared, may spread to Zimbabwe as well. It
is a brutal scheme
for bullying people into subjection. These are warning
shots fired by a
nervous party that is fully aware that things could well go
out of hand and
turn nasty, and yet the impression of being fully in control
must be given,
to send an unambiguously ominous message. It knows that its
provocation
naturally engenders a defensive reaction by the public, yet at
the same time
it wants to deny them that logical reaction.
The purpose of
these actions is to drive fear into people’s hearts and
derail any plans
that the party believes to be afoot to change the unpopular
regime. ZanuPF
knows very well that that it is a hated party and that people
have tried
everything they can to retire the oppressive regime, but it is
determined
that they will not succeed. It has successfully kept trouble at
bay by using
intimidation, and that is what it will continue to do, and
perfect that art
for that matter. To that end the party, according to recent
media reports,
is constructing a secret electronic eavesdropping complex
just outside
Harare to further limit people’s freedom of expression by
listening to their
telephone conversations, accessing their e-mails, and
generally monitoring
their online activities.
All these are perfectly legitimate activities which
a genuinely elected
government need not fear, but ZanuPF, knowing the
skeletons that it has in
its wardrobe, is fully aware of the repercussions
of its actions that it
deserves, and is attempting to prevent them by
threatening tough action
against anyone who dares challenge it.
The
people of Zimbabwe should refuse to cede their rights to a party that
has
long lost its legitimacy to rule and should stand by those who are being
targeted because no-one knows who the next target will be. The political
climate in the country is characterised by tension on a knife’s edge as
ZanuPF’s vote stealing rampage goes into overdrive. A slew of charges
against the opposition have been unleashed and more are still on the drawing
board, including one against the man of the people himself, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai. Zimbabweans must beware.
ZanuPF decided ages ago that
they must eliminate Tsvangirai. To do that they
have accused him of plotting
to assassinate Mugabe. Their arguments did not
cut much ice and in the end
they were compelled to abandon that harebrained
plan. Not content with the
way matter ended, they have decided to renew
their efforts to eliminate the
man. Again they have decided that Tsvangirai
must be found guilty. The crime
will be treason, arising from the Wiki leaks
accusations, and the sentence
will be the death penalty. A team of five
cherry-picked practising lawyers,
all of whom are obviously ZanuPF loyalists
with instructions to conclude
that Tsvangirai’s alleged behaviour is
tantamount to treason, have been
appointed to do the groundwork that will
inevitably lead to the Prime
Minister’s conviction.
A torrent of charges against innocent Zimbabweans is
being unleashed by a
party that has clearly run out of ideas but is bent on
clinging to power at
all costs. The people of Zimbabwe must stand together
and face the challenge
in unity.
By email:
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London 18/03/11
Tension
is definitely mounting in Zimbabwe over the reported banning of the
MDC-T’s
star rally at Glamis Stadium due on Saturday. The opposing sides
seem to be
growing further apart by the day.
Some internet forums have already
started to say that the Zimbabwe moment
may have finally arrived. It remains
to be seen. But could it be a trap by
the regime to find an opportunity to
arrest the MDC leadership and lock them
away then bulldoze a snap election
with people being frog-marched to polling
booths under military
guard?
What is suspicious is the communication of the ban by police too
close to
the date of the event probably as a deliberate way to forestall an
Egypt or
Tunisia at Mugabe’s doorstep.
“Please note that the roads
that lead to your intended venue are the same as
that lead to the Zanu’pf
rally venue and there is likelihood of clashes
between supporters which
would then lead to violence” said Chief
Superintendent G Gandana of ZRP in a
letter to MDC-T organisers of Saturday’s
President’s Star
rally.
Surely, ZRP must have known very well that it would be too late
for the
MDC-T to mobilize the whole country for solidarity rallies in
protest
against the ban or attempt to transform the whole thing into a
Jasmine
Revolution! This leaves the MDC-T vulnerable to
provocation.
There are very few options. One is getting angry and losing
it and in the
process risking the full force of ZRP. Another option would be
calling off
the rally and risk upsetting supporters and losing
face.
While yet another option would be finding an alternative safer
venue away
from Glamis Stadium that is said to be 500 metres from a
‘planned’ Zanu-pf
rally on the same day.
Such an option places MDC-T
in awkward or Catch 22 situation whereby they
will need prior police
permission as provided for under the notorious POSA
law which was crafted by
Jonathan Moyo but there would be little or no time.
The stakes are very
high for a possible confrontation between Mugabe’s
supporters backed by the
Joint Operations Command i.e. police, the army,
CIO, militia, war veterans
and some Zanu-pf MPs and Senators on one side and
the MDC-T supporters and
the whole country on the other side!!
And the MDC’s response was swift
and non-compromising:
“With or without police clearance our position is
that we are going to go on
as planned and our secretary general, Tendai Biti
had even said so. Zanu-pf
can have it’s own rally and this can be possible
and our rally is a peace
campaign,” said MDC Organising Secretary, Elias
Mudzuri.
The situation would be quite different if all the other
political parties
including MKD, Zapu, the other three MDC’s and so on were
to join in the
star rally in solidarity. Will the other three MDC’s join in
the
demonstrations or they will chicken out.
In the light of Jonathan
Moyo’s recent threats against the MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangiari and Secretary
General Tendai Biti, over his comments and the
latter’s calls for a diamonds
audit, there is a big possibility that the
party’s top leadership could have
been targeted for a systematic removal
from public life into
incarceration.
The world will be watching developments in the Southern
African country with
trepidation this weekend.
Clifford Chitupa
Mashiri, Political Analyst, London, zimanalysis2009@gmail
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri 18/03/11
The unprecedented move by the African
Group in supporting the United Nations
Resolution 1973 to impose a no-fly
zone and other sanctions on Libya from
Friday 18th March is very significant
in view of the recent prevarications
by the African Union.
Military
action
According to the BBC, ‘the UN resolution is so broad it allows
military
action against all threats to civilians – so could even involve
bombing Col
Gaddafi’s forces on the ground if deemed necessary’ (Carolyn
White, Libya:UK
forces prepare after UN no-fly zone vote, BBC,
18/03/11).
The resolution which defied expectations had the support of
the US, Britain,
France, Bosnia and Hezegovina, Colombia, Gabon, Lebanon,
Nigeria, Portugal
and South Africa and rules out a foreign occupation force
in any part of
Libya. However, five nations – Russia, China, Germany, Italy
and India –
abstained (The Sun.co.uk, 18/03/11).
It could be argued
that the prospect of air-strikes may have deterred Col
Gaddafi from carrying
out his chilling threats of ‘no-mercy’ in Benghazi,
than the watered-down
communiqué of the 265th meeting of the African Union’s
Peace and Security
Council held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 10 March 2011,
which was attended
by his ally Zanu-pf leader Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
AU’s usual
remedy
The AU meeting typically rejected ‘any foreign military
intervention,
whatever its form’, and prescribed the usual remedy of an
inflated ‘AU
ad-hoc High-Level Committee on Libya comprising five Heads of
State and
Government …to be supported by a team comprising the Ministers of
Foreign
Affairs/External Relations and/or other relevant Ministers of the
countries
concerned, as well as the AU Commissioner for Peace and
Security.’
Held at a time of media speculation of alleged Zimbabwean
mercenaries
backing Gaddafi’s troops, the AU meeting recalled ‘the
provisions of the OAU
Convention on the Elimination of Mercenarism in
Africa; and requested the
Commission to ‘gather information on the reported
presence of mercenaries in
Libya and their actions, to enable it, should
these reports be confirmed, to
take the required measures in line with the
Convention’ (PSC/PR/COMM.2
(CCLXV).
A praise singer at Zimbabwe’s
state owned newspaper The Herald, glorified
the AU’s communiqué and
pre-maturely attacked Nato for having ‘the cheek to
discuss the possibility
of military intervention or imposing a no-fly zone
over Libyan airspace as
if the AU didn’t exist let alone its powerful,
15-member Peace and Security
Council…’ (The Herald, 14 March 2011, ‘The day
the African Union came of
age’).
Mercenaries
When Zanu-pf Defence Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa was asked in Parliament by
MDC-T MP and Chief Whip, Innocent
Gonese, ‘whether there is any truth in the
recent press reports that many
mercenaries assisting Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi are personnel from the
ZNA,’ he avoided giving a straightforward
‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer
saying:
“That there are mercenaries who are African and are in Libya –I
have no
mandate in my duty as Minister of Defence to investigate activities
happening in another African country” (swradioafrica.com 25/02/11). Instead
he advised the legislator to direct his question to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Meanwhile, the world is waiting for an unequivocal
answer.
Interestingly, days after a former Libyan diplomat speaking on
CNN,
specifically mentioned Zimbabwe as having sent military regulars to
Libya
neighbouring Botswana threatened to cut all diplomatic ties with Libya
due
to ‘continued heavy repression’(Afroline.com, 24/02/11).
Paradigm
shift
Notwithstanding the weaknesses of the African Union, the African
Group at
the UN may have redeemed itself, at least for now, from its alleged
reputation of ‘standing in the way of the more radical action proposed
against human rights violators’ (Korir Sing’Oei, The African Group: Friend
or Foe of Africa’s Aspirations? Pambazuka.org, 02/07/09).
It is hoped
that the African Group has finally made a paradigm shift on
Africa’s
governance and human rights problems especially after South Africa
vetoed a
draft UN resolution to impose sanctions on Robert Mugabe and his
allies in
July 2008 despite chilling reports that:
‘Since March (2008), the
opposition says 113 of its supporters have been
killed, some 5,000 are
missing and more than 200,000 have been forced from
their homes (BBC,
Zimbabwe sanctions vetoed at UN, 12/07/08).
Qualified public
support
While the UN resolution for a no-fly zone and provision for
air-strikes on
Libya has qualified public support, its delicate enforcement
would require
avoidance at all costs of embarrassing incidents like the
bombing of
civilian targets and loss of lives in the name of collateral
damage and
friendly fire, otherwise public support will be withdrawn
swiftly.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Pauline Henson
Friday, 18 March 2011
17:06
Yesterday I watched the You Tube video of the Valentine’s Day demo
by Woza
in Bulawayo and I could hardly believe my eyes. There was an
enormous crowd
of women and men, all singing and shouting their opposition
to the various
injustices heaped on their heads by an uncaring government.
Any government
official seeing this huge manifestation of dissatisfaction
would surely have
been just a little worried but perhaps they are all so
arrogant they just
can’t believe that such demonstrations are any real
threat to them?
The women had assembled outside Tredgold Buildings in
Bulawayo to voice
their anger at, well, just about everything, as their
placards illustrated.
Strangely, there were no police present that I could
see though they were
clearly present just about everywhere else doing
Augustine Chihuri’s
bidding. The release of various detained activists on
bail, including
Minister Elton Mangoma who appeared in court in prison garb
and handcuffs,
was simultaneously accompanied by threats and outright
attacks on NGOs
clearly directed by the Commissioner of Police who is
reported to have
political ambitions. The shocking sight of a highly
respected MP and
Minister in the Unity Government in handcuffs and wearing
prison garb should
be warning enough that Mugabe will stop at nothing to
silence his perceived
enemies, however trumped up the charges. Joseph Made’s
decision to bar UN
agencies and NGOs from conducting national food surveys
is yet another
indication of Zanu PF’s indifference to the welfare of its
own people.
The decision by a British judge to return Zimbabwean asylum
seekers to their
country of origin on the grounds that Zimbabwe is now
deemed ‘safe’ seems
incomprehensible in the light of what is happening
inside the country. The
creation of a so-called Unity Government has it
seems created the impression
that all is now well. The truth is very
different; the absolute lack of
human decency or compassion shown by the
Zanu PF thugs and assorted war
veterans and militia who are harassing and
intimidating the population is
one of the saddest aspects of what has
happened in Zimbabwe after thirty
years of Mugabe’s dictatorship. Morgan
Tsvangirai’s trip to seek regional
support and alert African leaders to the
true state of affairs in Zimbabwe
is unlikely to yield any more positive
results than it has in the past. With
the whole world’s attention focussed
on the tragic developments in Japan and
the ongoing crisis in Libya as
Gadaffi hangs onto power, African leaders are
rather more concerned with
their own futures, than the fate of ordinary
Zimbabwean people.
The UN’s
decision to approve a No Fly Zone over Libya is perhaps a sign that
the
world is becoming less tolerant of dictators oppressing their own
people.
‘Defending the indefensible’ best describes Robert Mugabe’s defence
of his
friend Gadaffi. As usual, Mugabe blamed the west for the whole
debacle which
is interesting when you consider that Gadaffi himself blamed
the rebellion
on Al Qaida’s influence! There is nothing Mugabe can say which
will convince
the world of his own democratic credentials despite his party’s
desperate
attempts to garner signatures for their ‘anti-sanctions’ petition.
Schools,
soldiers and policemen are all being forced to sign but, like the
Woza
women, the general population are only too aware of the real cause of
their
suffering.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka Pauline Henson author
of the Dube
books. The latest in the Dube series, Sami’s Story, is available
on lulu.com