From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 25 March
Zimbabwe's opposition spreads the word
Next Sunday, Fabulous Sikaule starts a new job as a delivery boy in a remote part of eastern Zimbabwe. Proudly, the 21-year-old shows off the mountain bike and red rucksack with which he has been equipped. His family is less thrilled. They fear that, by the end of next week, Fabulous may be dead.
On the face of it, his new role might not sound the most dangerous of jobs. But Fabulous is, in fact, becoming one of the new secret weapons being deployed by Zimbabwe's opposition in its increasingly difficult battle to dislodge President Robert Mugabe. Presidential elections are due within a year. By then, many of Mr Mugabe's critics fear that he will have destroyed every institution in the country and beaten the population into submission. With this in mind, one group has set up an innovative bicycle-based press agency - News on Wheels - to get its message across.
In a large room over a cold-storage unit on Harare's near-dormant industrial park, a bearded man in shorts stands in front of a large map of Zimbabwe. He points out areas marked with coloured stars to Fabulous and others. A nearby table is laden with computers, satellite telephones and digital cameras. It looks like a secret intelligence operation but is, in fact, an attempt to combat the relentless propaganda of the government-controlled media by delivering daily independent newsletters throughout rural areas. Topper Whitehead, a mine owner who is directing the operation, said: "If you take a simple peasant person and bombard him 24 hours a day with Mugabe propaganda he will start believing it - particularly if you follow it up with some beating. We had to find a way to counteract that."
In today's "global village", such a task may sound easy, but in the Zimbabwe that Mr Mugabe seems determined to drag backwards it is no easy task. All television and radio frequencies are state-controlled and the only independent radio station - Capital Radio, which began broadcasting last October - was closed down after six days. The presses of a new independent newspaper, the Daily News, were damaged by a bomb in January which restricted its distribution capability. It rarely manages to get beyond Harare to the rural areas where the presidential election will be decided.
News on Wheels is designed to break the propaganda stranglehold. From next weekend, the newsletters will be e-mailed to computers set up in farms or houses in remote parts of the country. There it will be printed out, copied and delivered to poor villages by people on bicycles. The messengers will also carry digital cameras and notebooks to record any acts of violence they encounter and interview villagers beaten by ruffians from Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party. Their reports and pictures will then be sent back to Harare to help the newsletter editors to identify flashpoints.
Signing up as a newsletter distributor might sound like signing one's own death warrant, but one of them, 25-year-old Sanderson Makombe, said he was not scared. "I know they'll target me, but there's a job to be done," said the former student leader who narrowly escaped death when his vehicle was set alight last year. "Mugabe and his cronies are ruining our future. We're losing everything anyway."
The secrecy surrounding News on Wheels is indicative of the way the opposition has been forced underground. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition MDC said: "We have to use secret ways because every time our people are exposed they are harassed and beaten." Over the past month, the violence has been stepped up. Another white farmer was murdered three weeks ago. Seven have now been killed in violence linked to the invasion of white-owned farms led by self-styled veterans of the war of independence. Every day, reports come in of MDC workers, MPs and officials being beaten or abducted.
Dave Coltart, the shadow justice minister, said: "There is a concerted campaign of violence going on. There is no point us electing officials any more, because the moment we do they are eliminated." As a result, the feeling of euphoria after last June's parliamentary elections - when Zanu-PF's majority was severely reduced and when people rode through Harare showing football-style red cards to Mr Mugabe - has completely dissipated. "We underestimated him," admitted Mr Tsvangirai who had predicted last year that Mr Mugabe would be out by Christmas. "We didn't realise the extent to which he would ignore the message of the elections. We thought his own party members would see sense. Instead, they are all outdoing each other to inflict the worst damage on the country."
Plans for mass action to oust Mr Mugabe were shelved last December. Western donor nations had advised against it, and an assessment by the MDC concluded that Mr Mugabe would stop at nothing to stay in power. Mr Tsvangirai said: "We have no other option but to wait. We can't remove him illegally. We can't force him to retire. We can't confront him because he has all the instruments of state at his disposal and we know he'll use them. We're not cowards, but we don't see the benefit of a bloodbath."
The nation has been left in limbo, feeling abandoned by an outside world that many Zimbabweans think has allowed Mr Mugabe to show that terror works. The grind of living in a country that has been turned into a pariah, and where the economy is in dire straits - with soaring inflation, little fuel and a food supply under threat - is now affecting people's mental health. "There is a feeling of despondence and helplessness," said Vaz Ajello, a clinical psychologist who has found himself inundated with new clients. "People have been extraordinarily tolerant, but now they can no longer deal with daily difficulties."
Mr Mugabe seems to have cowed the nation into silence. Almost everyone interviewed for this article refused to give their names, and looked around them constantly. One white farmer said: "I'm smoking 60 a day and have been to both a psychologist and psychiatrist this week." Many of those with the means to leave have emigrated to Australia, New Zealand or Britain - even though the plummeting Zimbabwean dollar has made this more difficult. A new move by Mr Mugabe to abolish O and A level examinations because they are "based on foreign curricula and foreign values", and to close any private school offering them, is increasing many parents' desire to leave. Mr Ajello, who is himself leaving for New Zealand in three weeks, said: "We used to call it the chicken run when people left, meaning they were scared. Now we call it the owl run, meaning they've wised up."
Anyone wishing to contribute funds or equipment to News on Wheels can contact Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust on
ndizvo@mweb.co.zwFrom The Sunday Times (UK), 25 March
MP beaten by Mugabe terror squad
THE night that violence entered the home of Job Sikhala, an outspoken MP bitterly opposed to the repressive rule of President Robert Mugabe, is one that he and Ellen, his pregnant wife, will never forget. At 3.30am soldiers hammered down the door of their house and dragged Sikhala out of bed to the next room. Having forced him to sit in a chair in the semi-darkness, they subjected him to a brutal interrogation and physical punishment. For an hour or more they questioned him about the political strategy of the MDC ahead of a presidential election due in April next year.
Mugabe, 77, the guerrilla leader who came to power 21 years ago after waging war against white minority rule, but has now brought his country to its knees, is determined to stay in office despite mounting opposition. As Sikhala slumped in the chair, the soldiers questioned him about the personal movements of Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, and the alleged financial support he was receiving from governments and institutions abroad to defeat Mugabe at the polls.
Sikhala told them that Tsvangirai was an "open book" who had nothing to hide and suggested they talk to him themselves. They took his answer as an insult and beat him with rifle butts, chains and clubs, warning him they would kill him if he did not co-operate. Ellen Sikhala, 26, who is four months pregnant, heard her husband's cries of pain and ran into the room to help. The soldiers knocked her to the ground and beat her on the abdomen and chest. She fainted. Her sister and maid were beaten, too. Only their three-year-old son, Job Jr, was spared.
In the commotion, and although groggy with pain and covered in blood and bruises, Sikhala seized his moment and bolted. He scrambled over fences and hid in a neighbour's lavatory until the soldiers left with the first streaks of dawn. Another raid followed in which a man standing guard outside the Sikhala house had a plastic bag put over his head and was shot. The bullet passed through a coat sleeve and he survived only by lying motionless and pretending to be dead.
Since the attack, the Sikhala family has seldom slept at home. Ellen still shudders from the ordeal. "I am proud my husband is an MP," she said. "But I am worried, too. Job is a strong man. Zanu-PF [the ruling party] fears him, even in parliament where he speaks his mind. They will do anything to shut him up. This is a struggle of life and death now." Sikhala, 29, is in the phalanx of a new generation of Zimbabweans who entered politics last year on the opposition side in the elections. Courageous and articulate, he chose to stand for parliament as MP for St Mary's, Chitungwiza, the country's poorest constituency. He won with a thumping majority, lives in a modest house there, and is secretary for intelligence and security in the MDC. "I am not easily intimidated and will defend with my life what I genuinely believe to be right," he said.
The attack on Sikhala is part of a drive to crush the opposition in Chitungwiza, just south of Harare, the capital. The sprawling town, depressed by massive unemployment and falling deeper into misery as the economy collapses by the day, is Zimbabwe's third largest and an MDC stronghold. Every wing of Mugabe's security forces is active there - the army, the police and the ubiquitous CIO. While soldiers have taken to beating up ordinary people to emphasise the price of dissent, police and CIO squads have targeted members of the MDC youth wing, accusing them of secretly undergoing military training.
Those arrested include a 13-year-old boy. Eleven who remain unaccounted for are thought to be held incommunicado in prison. Tension has been rising in Chitungwiza in advance of trouble expected today when Tsvangirai opens a market in the town. When he tried earlier in the month, riot police with dogs prevented him from addressing the crowd. They then beat bystanders for three hours. Sikhala is one of several opposition figures who have been threatened or beaten. Another is David Coltart, the MDC's secretary for legal affairs, and one of five whites elected to parliament last year when the MDC won 57 contested seats in parliament, including all three from Chitungwiza, against Zanu- PF's 62.
The MDC believes it would have won the elections but for intimidation. At least 35 people, mostly opposition members, have been murdered in political violence since the beginning of last year. In a typical incident last week, a white farmer who was badly beaten last year was forced by war veterans to flee from his land. They demanded a letter from him renouncing involvement with the MDC, and a donation of £1,000 to ZanuPF. They also wanted him to get on his knees and beg forgiveness before the regional governor at a rally on his farm.
From The Observer (UK), 24 March
Rugby hero tackles foes of Mugabe
He was a star of Rhodesia's national rugby team during the heyday of white rule. Canny and ruthless, he emerged as a key figure behind Ian Smith, helping to supply arms to the beleaguered white minority regime in its battle with the guerrilla forces of Robert Mugabe. But last week he emerged as a central backer of President Mugabe's attempt to split the white farmers and end their fierce opposition to 'fast-track' land seizures in Zimbabwe.
Although the farmers rejected his proposal, John Bredenkamp, the country's wealthiest businessman, will continue his efforts, as an influential Mugabe ally, to divide the farmers by persuading them to open negotiations with the regime. Bredenkamp, an international arms merchant, mining entrepreneur, oil dealer and hotelier, maintains that Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis will ease once a resolution of the land issue is reached.
Normally Bredenkamp shuns the limelight, but there is no doubt that he is a key player. Mugabe strives to make it appear that his chief enemies are Zimbabwe's whites. But his regime's dealings with Bredenkamp make it clear that when it comes to money Mugabe doesn't care where it comes from. Bredenkamp's elegant Harare offices boast a museum-quality collection of African masks and other artefacts. Ministers breeze in unannounced for quick visits, showing an unusual familiarity and friendliness. His demeanour is affable and charming but those who have done business with him say this masks a steely determination and ruthlessness.
Aged 55, he is a self-made man who has devoted supporters and vociferous detractors. He first rose to prominence as a star of the Rhodesian national rugby team and he began amassing his fortune in the tobacco business. His firm, Casalee, had success in breaking international sanctions and selling Rhodesian tobacco overseas, and it became a major international shipping and forwarding company. Having learnt to evade sanctions, Bredenkamp then moved into arms trading and reportedly sold weapons to Smith's government. After Smith's regime fell and majority-ruled Zimbabwe was born in 1980, Bredenkamp stayed in the arms-broking trade with offices in Europe.
Bredenkamp's empire is now global and his fortune is estimated at between £300 million and £500 million. In the past year he moved his headquarters to Zimbabwe, where he now spends most of his time. His splendid residence, Thetford House, enjoys a commanding view over the Mazowe Valley, about 35 kilometres north of Harare. The capital's residents know when Bredenkamp is in town because they hear his private helicopter transporting him from his home to the city.
Bredenkamp defends his dealings with Mugabe, saying his business has required close relations at the very top with both the Smith and Mugabe governments. He maintains he is working to find a middle ground in Zimbabwe at a point when the country is bitterly polarised, and that he is attempting to help it out of its economic crisis. One of his companies, Petraf, is the only firm bringing fuel into Zimbabwe. His critics claim he is simply making money as the supporter of a corrupt regime.
Bredenkamp's companies are major suppliers of arms to the Congo war, according to the Africa Confidential news letter, and he has taken over management of Zimbabwe's mining concessions in the Congo, including uranium, cobalt and other strategic minerals, following the failure of another Zimbabwean businessman, Billy Rautenbach, to make profits from the mines. Those concessions were granted as payment for Zimbabwe's support to the Kabila regime. Although businessmen say Bredenkamp is critical of Mugabe, he rejects the opposition MDC. Instead, he is said to favour Mugabe associate Emmerson Mnangagwa.
It was Bredenkamp's role in the campaign to reform the white farmers' union that revealed him as one of Mugabe's strategic allies. He bankrolled the drive by Nick Swanepoel to persuade the farmers' union to accept the loss of nearly half its members' land. Swanepoel, a former chairman of the CFU, tried to convince white farmers to drop all legal cases objecting to Mugabe's 'fast track' land seizures. He also called for the union's leaders to step down and to be replaced by allies of Mugabe.
From The Sunday Times (UK), 25 March
Bombed press fund hits £50,000
A find set up by The Sunday Times to help Zimbabwe's leading independent newspaper replace bombed-out presses reached £50,000 last week. The milestone was passed with a gift of £5,000, the appeal's largest donation yet, from an anonymous benefactor. More than 500 readers across the world have contributed to the fund, which was launched after the presses of The Daily News were destroyed eight weeks ago. One reader from Oxford said she hoped the appeal would "keep alive the flame of democracy in a very beautiful country". An 85-year-old woman from Leicestershire, who sent £200, wrote that she wanted to honour the courage and integrity of the Daily News journalists.
President Robert Mugabe is intensifying his campaign for control of the press before presidential elections next year. Last week his government sacked the editors of the country's two largest state-controlled newspapers, the Herald and Sunday Mail. This followed the dismissal two weeks ago of Tommy Sithole, the chairman of Zimbabwe Newspapers, which publishes both titles. Geoff Nyarota, the editor of The Daily News, has vowed to continue reporting Mugabe's campaign of terror. "I can't worry about what happens if we report the news directly," he said. "I'd be much more worried if we didn't."
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 25 March
Bob Mugabe's Wailers silenced
President Mugabe's outriders, who guide his motorcade and who are known for continuously sounding their sirens as a warning to motorists to move off the road, have been silenced in as yet unclear circumstances. For the past three weeks, only the front outriders have been sounding their sirens to warn motorists to clear the road.
Contacted for comment on this development, officials in the president's office said the matter was part of the president's security arrangements and was not for public consumption. The officials, who requested anonymity, said it would not be proper for the president's security arrangements to be made public as it would compromise his security. They said it was up to the president's close security personnel to ensure his safety by whatever means they saw fit. President Mugabe's long motorcade is usually guided by police outriders travelling on 750 to 1 000cc motorbikes. They are followed by police cars and these by the president's official cars, with trucks of army personnel forming the tail. Outriders travelling way ahead of the motorcade clear the way for the rest of the entourage using the wailing sirens.
From The Daily News, 23 March
Our liberators have privatised the revolution
Pius Wakatama On Saturday
Independence Day, 18 April 1980, was a proud day for Zimbabwe. Many openly wept as the Union Jack was lowered and the new Republic of Zimbabwe flag hoisted in its place. We were free at last. Our joy knew no bounds as we looked to a future of freedom, equality and prosperity for ourselves and our children. "Pamberi ne Zanu! (Forward with Zanu!)" was the cry on almost everyone's lips.
At that time I was an active supporter of the Zimbabwe Democratic Party (ZDP) led by the veteran nationalist, James Chikerema and the late Enoch Dumbutshena. When Zanu PF overwhelmingly won the 1980 election, the party decided to disband in the interest of unity. Freedom had been achieved and that is what mattered to most of us. Chikerema encouraged us to join Zanu PF. He was not going to join or continue in politics. We were so excited about being free that we did not bother to ask him why he would not actively support Zanu PF and participate in the new government. After the results had been announced, he had, however, gone to congratulate Prime Minister-elect Robert Mugabe.
Today there is a rising vocal crescendo of "Pasi ne Zanu PF, Chinja! (Down with Zanu PF, Change!)" What went wrong? Everything has gone wrong, it seems. Our much-loved government has turned against its own people and has become our oppressor. Recently the Conference of Religious Superiors of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe came out with the truth about our situation. They said: "This is no longer a free country. People live in abject fear of violence, crime and threats. The rule of law is no longer respected, terror and intimidation go unpunished."
Zimbabwe's dreams have been shattered. Her people have again become "the wretched of the earth". The former liberators, who were themselves oppressed by the old order and directly or indirectly participated in its overthrow, now see the struggle as their own private revolution. They have replaced the previous oppressive regime to the extent of keeping and using the nefarious Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, which they had vowed to abolish. Even the architect of previous undemocratic laws, Eddison Zvobgo, recently lashed at his own colleagues, pointing out that their new laws violated the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Because of their lust for power and wealth, they have corrupted their God-given responsibility to protect the weak, to empower the poor and to maintain justice for all.
In describing what was happening in the city of Jerusalem, the prophet Ezekiel might as well be speaking about Zimbabwe today. He says: "The people of the city have taken to extortion and banditry, they have oppressed the poor and needy and ill-treated the settler for no reason. I have been looking for someone to man the breach in front of Me, to defend the city and prevent Me from destroying it, but I have not found anyone."(Ezekiel 22:30).
Today Zimbabwe stands as a defiant but lonely pariah among nations. Even countries like Australia which supported us in our struggle for independence are now calling upon the Commonwealth to take action against us because of our terrible human rights record. Ezekiel describes our pariah status thus: "You have become an object of scorn to the nations and a laughing stock to every country. Near and far, they will scoff at you, the turbulent city with a tarnished name." (Ezekiel 2:4-5)
Speaking through Ezekiel, the Lord said He was looking for someone to stand up for righteousness, so that He would not destroy Jerusalem, but could not find anyone. He would not have much luck in Zimbabwe either. Our religious leaders glibly say Zimbabwe is a Christian nation as they wine and dine at the sumptuous tables of the oppressors. They willingly serve on countless committees which are drafting more strategies to further oppress the people. They will certainly have to answer for their actions before the Almighty God.
As I thought about the sorry state of our country, I decided to visit Chikerema. I asked him what he thought about Zimbabwe's political and economic situation. He said: "If I had known that this is how it would turn out, I would not have given a greater part of my life to the struggle. This is definitely not what Joshua Nkomo, George Nyandoro and I suffered for. Nkomo died a sad man. Nyandoro died a sad man. Dumbutshena died a sad man. I will probably also die a sad man if a miracle does not happen to rid us of this corrupt government."
I asked him why he did not join Zanu PF at independence in the interest of national unity. Chikerema said: "I could not bring myself to join Zanu PF because I knew the personalities and character of its leadership. In the first place, there was no need for them to break away from Zapu. Whatever difference we had could have been settled through dialogue. The only reason they broke away was because they were greedy for power. "Vaitandanisa tsuro ne munyu muhomwe (They were chasing the hare with the seasoning in their pockets). They were vying for positions in a non-existent future government. Because of their lust for power, they created disunity and set our independence back by at least 15 years. I could not join them because I knew of their propensity for violence and intolerance of dissent. In fact, they proudly proclaim: "Zanu ndeye ropa (Zanu PF is bloody)." This is no idle boast. If the true history of Zanu PF could be written, as it will be one day, people will be horrified at how Zanu leaders killed each other in power struggles here, in Zambia and Mozambique."
Where is our salvation going to come from? Is it going to come from the British, the Americans, the European Union, the Commonwealth or the all but defunct Organisation of African Unity? Surely not! In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Frere has the answer. He says: "Who are better prepared than the oppressed to understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society? Who suffers the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation? It will not be defined by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it, through recognising the necessity to fight for it."
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 March
Orphanage is target of Zimbabwe mob terror
A drunken mob has stormed an orphanage amid a growing wave of political intimidation in Zimbabwe. The gang said that the director was a supporter of the opposition MDC. The shock troops of President Mugabe's regime, who claim to be veterans of the war against white rule, are waging a terror campaign against the MDC. White-owned farms were the first targets and almost 1,700 have been invaded by mobs loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party in an outbreak of anarchy that has claimed eight lives. The gangs have now widened their net. Harare Children's Home, which cares for orphans in the quiet suburb of Eastlea, became their latest target on Thursday. Ten men, most of them drunk, burst through the gates at 2pm and assaulted the security guard.
Maria Sithole, director of the orphanage, said: "They said they wanted to see me, but I happened to be out. The children were just returning from school and many of them saw what happened. These are children who are already traumatised and I'm sure it brought back some of their memories." When the gang failed to find Mrs Sithole they left the home, still issuing threats. Teachers, civil servants and anyone with an education are viewed with deep suspicion.
During the past month, Zanu-PF gangs have stormed five schools and forced their temporary closure. Six local council offices have been invaded and employees suspected of backing the MDC have been hounded out of their jobs. The mobs have "banned" independent newspapers, burning them whenever possible and beating up those who sell them. Any business without a black owner is viewed as a legitimate target. Joseph Chinotimba, who styles himself "commander in chief of white farm invasions" and is on bail for attempted murder, stormed a management meeting of Trinidad Industries in Harare on Monday. Accompanied by two henchmen, he demanded the reinstatement of 30 black workers made redundant.
Critics blame Mr Mugabe for placing self-styled war veterans above the law. Mark Chavunduka, editor of The Standard, an independent weekly whose reporters are frequently assaulted by the mobs, said: "They are totally out of control and are doing exactly what they want. Here is a section of Zimbabwean society that cannot be touched by the law because they are the political allies of the government."
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 23 March
Army Intervenes to Rein-in Errant War Veterans
Harare - The army has moved to exercise greater control over war veterans in the wake of international concerns about growing lawlessness in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Independent has established. At a meeting two weeks ago in Harare ahead of a Zanu PF provincial election to be held this weekend in which war veterans are poised to take key positions in the running of the party in the capital, Zimbabwe Defence Forces supremo General Vitalis Zvinavashe read the riot act to the ex-combatants who have been implicated in the killing of farmers, theft, and closure of local government offices.
There are concerns in government circles that an undisciplined war veterans association leading the Zanu PF province in Harare would be a liability ahead of the presidential poll next year. Zvinavashe warned the war veterans against indiscipline at a hastily organised meeting at the army's Staff College at KGVI barracks on March 8. The ZDF this week confirmed that the meeting took place. It came after allegations that army officers, claiming to be war veterans, were engaging in unlawful practices including the beating of civilians in Harare's high-density suburbs. That was deemed undesirable in the countdown to the crucial presidential poll.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces Service Commission, acting on the orders of the commander-in-chief, President Mugabe, transferred the war veterans' department from the Office of the President to the Ministry of Defence late last year. Zvinavashe was particularly irked, it is said, with the war veterans' closure of public institutions such as local government offices and seizure of property belonging to people accused of being MDC supporters including farmers. Sources within the army said Zvinavashe, a strict disciplinarian, wanted to spruce up the waning image of the defence forces and at the same time instil discipline in the war veterans.
The veterans' national vice-chairman Patrick Nyaruwata told the Independent he was not prepared to comment on the deliberations of their meeting with the ZDF commander. "Details of that meeting will not be released to the press until further notice," he said. Defence forces spokesperson Lt. Colonel Mbonisi Gatsheni confirmed that the meeting took place but would not give details about the deliberations. "The meeting was convened to inform the war veterans on the modalities for the smooth assimilation of the war veterans into the Zimbabwe Defence Forces as reserves, the administration of the War Veterans Act and the required support for the welfare of the war veterans and their dependants," Gatsheni said.
The Independent understands the meeting agreed that the administration of the affairs of the war veterans' projects would now be monitored and audited by the army with the association's chairman Chenjerai Hunzvi reporting on the administrative affairs of the veterans' companies to the army. The move is understood to have annoyed Hunzvi who wanted to keep the administration of the war veterans under his ambit. This stemmed, army officers said, from persistent reports presented to Mugabe that war veterans could have been prejudiced of over $50 million from Zexcom projects and that there was no proper accountability or administration of its financial affairs.
Mugabe, sources said, instructed Zvinavashe to bring the situation under control. "It is all about instilling political and financial discipline into the war veterans where it would appear there was no accountability of their projects owing to the continued infighting," a government source said. It was agreed during the deliberations, the source said, that the background of each war veteran, the battles he or she fought during the liberation struggle, be compiled and recorded for posterity, a development that war veterans said would disadvantage Hunzvi who they claim was never at the front.
The meeting between the veterans and the defence forces commander was attended by army commander Lt. General Constantine Chiwenga, airforce commander Perence Shiri and other senior officers. The war veterans said that provincial chairpersons and the national executive attended the meeting. The meeting followed the closure by war veterans of Motor Action's Callies sports club in Eastlea and the seizure of commuter taxis owned by Pakistani investors. Council offices in the Matabeleland provinces were closed between January and March this year by the war veterans who accused the staff of being MDC supporters. Vice-President Joseph Msika and Minister of Home Affairs John Nkomo told war veterans to desist from taking such action and to channel their grievances through the normal party channels.
Zanu PF secretary for the commissariat Border Gezi yesterday told the Independent that elections to select a new executive in Harare would be held on Sunday at the party's headquarters. Sources said war veterans were jostling to position themselves for powerful posts in the Zanu PF provincial executive. Among them are Chris Pasipamire and Endy Mhlanga who are eyeing the positions of chairman and deputy chairman respectively. Businessman Chris Mutsvangwa is likely to take the position of secretary- general while the infamous Joseph Chinotimba Brown, who won the contentious Harare war veterans chairmanship last weekend, is positioning himself for the influential post of political commissar.
Hunzvi's rival Douglas Mahiya is also vying for the same post. Other war veterans poised to take executive posts are Stalin Mau Mau (vice chair) and Mike Moyo (security). Non-veterans Oliver Chidawu and Amos Midzi are also keen to land the chairman's post. Chairman of the interim executive appointed at the dissolution of the Tony Gara executive last year, Forbes Magadu, is not contesting the top job.
From The Star (SA), 23 March
Court throws out MDC's electoral petition
Harare - Zimbabwe's High Court on Friday threw out the first of 37 petitions by the main opposition which alleges that the ruling Zanu-PF party used violence to win seats in last June's parliamentary elections. The court ruled that the opposition MDC's Farayi Maruzani had failed to prove his Zanu-PF opponent Pearson Mbalekwa was behind assaults on the opposition in Zvishavane constituency in the run-up to the polls.
"The assaults proved to have been perpetrated by war veterans and Zanu-PF supporters were not proved to have been committed with the knowledge, approval or consent of the respondent or his election agent," High Court Judge Vernanda Ziyambi said. The opposition had also failed to prove that there were polling irregularities, including Zanu-PF supporters preventing voters from casting their ballots, she added. MDC lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told reporters afterwards the party would challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.
Judgement has been reserved in three other petitions heard by the High Court in the past month. The MDC, which was formed 18 months ago, says it narrowly lost last year's parliamentary elections due to "grossly irregular conduct, unfair practices and violent behaviour" by President Robert Mugabe's party. Zanu-PF, however, says it won fairly and denies that a five-month violent pre-election campaign by its militant supporters, which left at least 31 people dead, affected the final election result. The ruling party won 62 of the 120 contested seats, while the MDC took 57, making it Mugabe's biggest political challenge since he came to power in 1980 when the former Rhodesia attained independence from Britain.
Zanu-PF later boosted its majority in the 150-member parliament through 30 seats reserved for traditional chiefs and presidential appointees and won back one more seat earlier this year in a by-election to replace an MDC legislator who died in November. In January the Supreme court overturned as unconstitutional a decree Mugabe passed in December barring the opposition from challenging the election results.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 23 March
Zim to import maize to avert starvation
The Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the country's grain reservoir, is set to import one million metric tonnes of maize and other small grains from neighbouring South Africa and Zambia this year as severe famine looms in parts of the country hard hit by floods and erratic rainfall, the Zimbabwe Independent has established. Sources said the GMB is in the process of importing maize to avert shortages and starvation as a result of the scarcity induced by flooding.
"Currently as things stand the GMB's grain stocks have declined to a mere 437 000 tonnes and that is likely to be further reduced as a result of increased monthly consumption," said an agricultural sector source. The source said GMB was looking at importing maize from the Northern Province of South Africa and from Zambia. The grain shortages, according to the source, are a result of increased monthly demands, which stemmed from the destruction of grain reserves in areas hit by floods.
At the beginning of the year GMB chairman Canaan Dube and Lands and Agriculture minister Joseph Made denied that the country would need to import maize this year. The government and the GMB said that the country had excess maize in its strategic reserves. Efforts to contact Dube proved fruitless as he was said to be out of the country on Wednesday, while senior officials referred all questions to him. The GMB currently sells over 70 000 tonnes a month, a sharp increase from the 61 000 tonnes sold monthly last year.
The board's grain stocks which stood at 600 000 tonnes in January appear critical in the face of a drought that is already pounding Matabeleland South. "Thousands of people have already applied for drought relief in Matabeleland South and that has been worsened by the unfolding catastrophe in Tsholotsho where flooding is going to reduce yields substantially and that will leave the country with no option but to import maize," said the source. The source said it would be cheaper to import maize from the Northern Province (in South Africa) to crisis areas like Beitbridge than to transport it from distant places like Banket and Raffingora.
However, the source said that despite the intentions of GMB, the board was likely to be hindered by the critical foreign currency shortage plaguing the country. Agricultural experts told the Independent that the country would need to import more than 1 million metric tonnes of maize this year in order to meet consumer and market demand. "Yields are going to fall by 80% this year and with the imminent shortage of maize the people in the rural areas are going to step up demand for grain and maize especially," said an expert who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 23 March
Candid Comment - Old MacDonald
In the last 13 months our country has been dragged to the gates of hell.
One can look back on bloodier periods in our history. In the bush war approximately 30 000 people were killed while hundreds of thousands more became displaced within Zimbabwe or refugees outside. Gukurahundi saw the death of at least 7 000. One can look back on a period of greater economic stagnation, the depression of the 1920s, "when life seemed rusted through", in the words of a book of the time. One can look back on a time, during Ian Smith's UDI rule, when even more obviously than today, the hallmark of the state was its contempt for the rule of law and the very constitution which called it into being. It is fitting in some ways that a Rhodesian MP like Godfrey Chidyausiku should become the Chief Justice in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
But never have we experienced a time when violence and economic disintegration and disregard for legality coincided in such measure. We are living through historic times indeed, a crunch time for the people of Zimbabwe. If there is one glimmer of sunshine in the grey clouds gathering, it is that we have finally begun to see the emergence of a multiracial civil society in our historically divided country. This has been demonstrated in the unprecedented solidarity between races and language groups in opposition to the reactionary ultranationalism of the ruling party.
Just over a year ago international headlines resulted from the spectacle of white demonstrators being beaten, arm-in-arm with black demonstrators, in the streets of Harare. Since then, in the untidy coalition called the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), we have seen a sea change in national politics with Zanu PF on the defensive for the first time in its history; though of course, when Zanu PF is on the defensive, it goes on the offensive! Four white MPs including the Chimanimani farmer Roy Bennet were elected in overwhelmingly black constituencies to give the lie to the view that black Zimbabweans wish to see the backs of white Zimbabweans.
Thanks, ironically, to the growing extremism of our president and his attempts to polarise the country on racial grounds, a middle ground has been created where people have come together. Despite all appearances to the contrary, we are leaving behind the socio-political deformities and inhibitions created in the course of a hundred years of history. And white farmers have done their bit to redeem the history of commercial farmers in Zimbabwe through their pivotal role in the mobilisation of the MDC. It is true that we were acting in defence of our own interests, but the fact is that we played an essential part in the organisation and financing of the opposition. At last we started putting our money where our mouths were.
For those of us who recall the dark days when farmers such as Boss Lilford put their money and influence behind Ian Smith and the Rhodesian Front, or more recently when farmers climbed into bed with Zanu PF for the sake of special advantage, the willingness of farmers today to fall in with a democratic mass movement was something devoutly to be welcomed. The deaths of farmers, the killing of the mother of a farmer and the rapes of the children of a farmer signal that whatever our deepest motivations, we were prepared to accept the consequences of this stand.
It bears repeating that for the first time ever in our history people of all races put themselves on the line and died for the sake of their membership of a common political party. This has never happened before; we should remember our dead as martyrs with a vision of a Zimbabwe where black and white would truly be united. The new unity augurs well for the long-term future in Zimbabwe, whatever the extremely ominous probabilities in the short term. We all know that Robert Mugabe will hold on to power for as long as he can. We all know that the tactics which averted a Zanu PF meltdown in the parliamentary election last year will be repeated in the presidential election, if anything with an even greater level of ferocity.
Perhaps Mugabe will win the presidential election; but the unity being created on the ground is a guarantee that sooner or later his day and his way of holding power by demonising the minority will be gone and firmer ground will be reached. Black and white Zimbabweans are united and whites have acquitted themselves honourably under the onslaughts of the last 13 months.
And now the farmers are facing crunch time again. This week the members of the CFU have been asked to approve a deal floated by the Rhodesian sanctions buster, and Mugabe intimate, John Bredenkamp and his ally Nick Swanepoel. The deal is controversial because those behind it suggest it carries the authority of the US government. It does not. They suggest that the United Kingdom will finance it. It will not. Britain has called the deal "sinister"; the US has called it "far-fetched". If ratified it will in effect represent the capitulation of the CFU to illegality. The judgements so hard-won in our embattled courts will be abandoned; the CFU leadership which had the temerity to sue for those judgements will be dismissed in ignominy and the organisation will assume its traditional role under a new guise as the political ally of Robert Mugabe. The deal will vindicate the illegality and the bloodletting of the last 13 months. It will bolster Mugabe immeasurably and it will confirm the prevailing mindset of Zanu PF that what it wants it can take by force.
One of those "close" to the dealmakers was quoted as saying in last week's London Sunday Times that "Mugabe is the chief until he dies - he can rape, murder, do what he likes, but he's still the chief". Even to us robust farmers these are hardly sentiments to encourage confidence in our supposed saviour and deliverer! This makes it clear that even proponents of appeasement understand that we will enjoy a respite from state-sponsored terror only until the next time Mugabe finds it expedient to put the "squeeze" on us with another cynical pogrom.
And I am afraid that it will sound a deathknell to the hopes of those working for a Zimbabwe where whites were ready to commit themselves to a common agenda with black Zimbabweans for the sake of the national interest. It will be a betrayal of the democratic aspirations of millions of people in our country and send a signal that whites will ultimately always place self-interest before the good of the country.
I shudder to think of the long-term consequences. A day will come when Mugabe is no longer our president, when Zanu PF is no longer in power. Nothing lasts forever. It would be a tragedy if farmers were now to lose their nerve and sacrifice their opportunity to be seen henceforth as men of honour and Zimbabwean patriots. The deal must be rejected.
Old MacDonald is a nom de plume of a besieged local farmer.
Clamour over Zimbabwe reveals continuing racial prejudice in SA
For some time now, there has been a fairly high level of agitation among some South Africans about the issue of Zimbabwe. Indeed some politicians took the decision some time ago to use this question to make their careers and advance the fortunes of their parties.
After a short study of our politics, a visitor from Mars might assume that Zimbabwe is a province of South Africa. With this understanding, the visitor would come to know that some South Africans are concerned that their country is wrongly handling such matters as land reform, the economy, the rule of law and the independence of the press and the judiciary in its province of Zimbabwe.
She would also come to realise that in large measure, the agitation about these questions is driven by a seemingly deep-seated concern that the misfortunes that had befallen the province of Zimbabwe were likely to spill over into or occur in the other provinces of South Africa. Naturally, given the volume of voices about these matters in the other provinces, the Martian visitor would conclude that the South African government might have to change the policies it was pursuing in the specific province of Zimbabwe. In particular, the visitor would have noted that what was demanded of the South African government was that it should denounce and take all necessary steps to crush the provincial government of Zimbabwe.
Imagine the situation, later, when the Martian visitor comes to realise that Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa but an independent state, with its own government, democratically elected by the people of Zimbabwe. The visitor would then begin to wonder about why some South Africans seemed so convinced that Zimbabwe was affected by some infectious disease that was bound to cross the Limpopo River border and infect South Africa.
Being familiar with the situation in Europe, the visitor would wonder why the same was not said about the Republic of Ireland relative to Northern Ireland, or Greece, relative to Macedonia. For example, the Republic of Ireland progressed towards the outstanding economic success it enjoys today, while Northern Ireland was immersed in an apparently unstoppable violent conflict that claimed many lives and obliged the British government to deploy large numbers of security forces to bring about peace. What has happened to the economy of the Republic of Ireland would suggest that those who invested in the Republic at the height of the 'troubles' in the North, were not concerned about 'contagion' or the 'Northern Ireland factor'.
Looking around South Africa, the Martian visitor would see no evidence of any worrying trends about land, the economy, the rule of law and the independence of the press and the judiciary. Taking this together with her European experiences, the visitor would be most puzzled as to why some South Africans seem so convinced that the future of their country depends on what happens in Zimbabwe and what their government does about Zimbabwe, rather than what the people of Zimbabwe do about their own country.
The point that our visitor would have missed, never having been exposed to racism, is that both Zimbabwe and South Africa have black African governments. It is this that provokes fears among white South Africans about 'contagion' and the 'Zimbabwe factor'. Consistent with their reading of the situation in Zimbabwe, they fear that, 'as is the wont of black African governments', the South African government will also act 'as to the manner born' with regard to such issues as property rights and the rule of law.
Last year, the leader of the New National Party, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, was honest enough to say in the National Assembly that this was the reason his party demanded of the President of South Africa that he should denounce President Mugabe and the rest of the government of Zimbabwe. He said that the white minority in South Africa feared that what was happening in Zimbabwe would happen in South Africa. This minority, which for centuries had seen itself as a European outpost surrounded by threatening and savage African hordes, wanted to be reassured that it was safe.
What was happening in South Africa, guaranteeing that safety, was not sufficient. The President had to denounce the government of Zimbabwe in the strongest terms, preach a message that South Africa was different from Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa and impose sanctions against Zimbabwe. Of course, in addition to the fact of black African governments, the other critical link between Zimbabwe and South Africa is that they both have relatively sizeable national white minorities. Thus it is not difficult for white South Africa to borrow the slogan from the trade unions, relative to the link between itself and white Zimbabwe - an injury to one is an injury to all!
Add to this the fact that the white minority in South Africa had worked itself into a frenzy of fear about and hatred of Mugabe of Zimbabwe, before that country's independence, in much the same way that it had educated itself to fear and loathe an ANC composed of 'terrorists and communists'. The response to the events in Zimbabwe has confirmed what many of us suspected, that the negative stereotype of black people in many white minds is firmly implanted in these minds.
Accordingly, we had thought that many of our white compatriots will entertain doubts for a long time as to whether 'the South African miracle', centred on the notion of a 'rainbow nation', will be sustained. The price they demand we pay to ensure that they continue to believe in 'the miracle', is that we prove, relative to Zimbabwe, that we do not conform to their stereotype of black Africans.
Accordingly, we must act to guarantee the property rights of the white Zimbabweans. We must also act to ensure that the law is upheld both to protect both the property and the freedoms of the Zimbabwe property owners. Thus will we convince them that we are committed to the guarantee of the property rights of white South Africans. And thus we will demonstrate that we are determined to protect the property and the freedoms of the white, South African property owners. Only in this way would the South African white minority be assured that in ours, they have an atypical black African government that would not behave as such governments have behaved, in the view and according to the norms of that white minority.
As the Martian visitor would have learnt more about our country by now, she would be struck by the ironies that arise from this situation. One of these, among many, is that the ANC represents the section of our population that has been by far the worst victim of the denial of and contempt for property rights. Another, among many, is that the ANC represents the section of our population that has been by far the worst victim of disregard and contempt for the rule of law.
Yet another, among many, is the fact that today South Africa has a constitution and laws that protect property rights, because members and supporters of the ANC engaged in struggle and paid the supreme price in a struggle to realise and entrench these rights for all South Africans. Another irony, among others, is the fact that today South Africa has a constitution and laws that protect the rule of law, because members and supporters of the ANC engaged in struggle and paid the supreme price in a struggle to bring into being a law-governed society, in the interest of all South Africans.
Many of our people died, suffered torture, imprisonment, banishment and exile in the course of a difficult struggle for the rule of law, the independence of the press and the judiciary, property rights, a prosperous economy that would benefit all our people, democracy and human rights. The cruel irony, among others, is that the same people against whom we waged this struggle, the people who killed, tortured, imprisoned, banished and exiled those who fought for property rights and the rule of law for all, are the most strident in demanding that we prove our democratic credentials. Those who oppressed and opposed us must, of course, be seen and accepted as the vigilant defenders of democracy, property rights and the rule of law.
Having come to understand our situation better, the visitor from Mars would begin to realise how much the negative white stereotype of black people informs the South African discourse about Zimbabwe. She would begin to see how everyday we have to tolerate the insult that because we are black and African, we have to demonstrate that we are not about to seize white property, deny whites their democratic rights or violate the law, to threaten white interests.
She would see how necessary it is that we must respond to the insult in a measured way, so that we do not feed the stereotype that a vigorous response to insult, described as criticism, demonstrates a typical black African intolerance of critical views. She would come to understand that the response to the events in Zimbabwe expected of us is one that should address white South African fears rather than the interests of the people of Zimbabwe, both black and white.
She would see that what is required of us is that we must accept that some within white South African society are convinced that we are savages and that we must therefore do everything in our power to prove that we are not savages, to the satisfaction of white South Africa. The visitor would also see the utility to some, of generating fear about events in Zimbabwe to convince white South Africans of 'the black danger/die swart gevaar' that confronts them in South Africa, represented by the ANC.
On 5 May 2000, I spoke at the opening of the Zimbabwe Trade Fair in Bulawayo, in the presence of President Mugabe and many of his government colleagues. On that occasion I said:
"It would be best that (the land question) is dealt with in a co-operative and non-confrontational manner among all the people of this sister country, both black and white, reflecting the achievement of national consensus on this issue, encompassing all Zimbabweans.
"Accordingly, we trust that ways and means will be found to end the conflict that has erupted in some areas of Zimbabwe, occasioned by the still unresolved land question in this country. Peace, stability, democracy and social progress in Zimbabwe are as important for yourselves as they are for the rest of the region."
Less than a week ago, a few of our Ministers met their Zimbabwe counterparts to promote this perspective. President Mugabe and I will also meet to consider the proposals of the Ministers as we pursue the objectives of peace, stability, democracy and social progress for Zimbabwe, South Africa and the rest of our region.
We will do this not because we have to prove our credentials to anybody, but because the peoples of our countries and region fought a hard and protracted struggle so that they can enjoy peace, stability, democracy and social progress. I trust that by the time our visitor from Mars takes leave of us, she would have come to understand that, in terms of political boundaries, Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa.
She would also have come to understand that a white stereotype of black Africans has turned Zimbabwe and South Africa into one country. Accordingly the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the world markets will, on occasion, respond as though Zimbabwe was a province of South Africa.
Hopefully, because she would be unencumbered by prejudice, the visitor from Mars would also know that, in our country, the guarantors and principal beneficiaries of the rule of law, the right to property and democratic rights, are those who laid down their lives to bring about the rule of law, respect for property rights and democracy. These democrats fought against the dictatorship of white minority domination and privilege, and ensured that we are bound by a constitutional and law-governed obligation to bring about equality, non-racism, non-sexism and a united rainbow nation.
At the same time as we continue our own struggle to realise these objectives in our own country, we will do everything we can to assist the people of Zimbabwe to achieve this same outcome, regardless of contrary demands, whether they emanate from South Africa, Zimbabwe or Mars.
