Sir - While the eyes of the world are
focused upon the international community's efforts to rid Iraq of a tyrant,
another continues his repression apace.
Robert Mugabe does not possess weapons of mass destruction, but,
like Saddam Hussein, he is singled-handedly responsible for the destruction
of a once prosperous country - its people, its economy and its
infrastructure. While the eyes of the world are turned, Zimbabwe's people are
enduring a renewed onslaught of Mugabe-sponsored
violence.
Following last week's two-day
national strike I have received truly shocking reports from Harare. This
weekend has been one of reprisals and death for any who dare to oppose
Mugabe.
At one hospital alone, more than
250 injured people were treated in just three days following reprisals by
government forces. One woman had been sexually assaulted with the butt of a
rifle. Another 250 people remain in detention in Harare Central Police
station with no proper access to legal representation. Many others are still
missing.
Mugabe has warned that those who
oppose him will now face "greater vigilance and greater action". He has
threatened not to "treat them with soft gloves any more". This will strike
fear into the hearts of
every Zimbabwean.
The government
maintains that it continues to do everything possible to restore democracy
and the rule of law in Zimbabwe, but the facts tell a different story. All
that Jack Straw has ever secured are gestures of concern and weak sanctions
from the EU and Commonwealth. These have had little impact upon Mugabe and
his regime.
As I left Zimbabwe last summer
one black farm worker grasped my hand and said simply: "Don't let the world
forget us". I will not, and neither should the
Government.
From: Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign
Secretary, London SW1
The opening of the second
Gulf war has totally overshadowed a new phase of the struggle in Zimbabwe
between President Robert Mugabe and
the opposition.
On March 18 and 19, the
country was paralysed by a strike called by the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), the largest protest since Mr Mugabe was re-elected for a
six-year term in 2002. Unfortunately, the stoppage was marred by a few
instances of violence which gave the government the pretext, if it needed
any, to arrest more than 500 people, many of whom are being held without
charge and denied food and access to lawyers. Others were subjected to random
attacks by the army.
Zwakwana, the human
rights monitoring group, said that hospitals in Harare had treated at least
250 people for broken bones, bruising and sexual assault after they had been
beaten with wire whips, iron bars, electrical cords and rifle butts. The
harrowing experience of one victim, Patricia Mukonda, a secretary at MDC
headquarters, was described in yesterday's paper by Peta Thornycroft, our
Harare correspondent [report, 26 March].
The confrontation between ruler and the majority of the population seems set
to worsen. Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, has given Mr Mugabe till
Monday of next week to respond to 15 proposals for easing repression. Mr
Mugabe offers no sign of being willing to
compromise.
At the state funeral of one of
his cabinet ministers, he described himself as a latter-day Hitler, a
characterisation that shows he has become wholly oblivious to outside
opinion. Mr Tsvangirai, who is on trial for treason, has not specified what
further mass action will follow the president's failure to meet the deadline.
But the opposition, starving and battered, appears to be edging towards
violent insurrection, however pathetic that might be against the might of the
security forces. Amnesty International has described the arrests since the
strike as "a new and dange rous phase of
repression".
The main reason for Mr
Mugabe's indifference to the rest of the world stems from the extraordinary
indulgence of fellow African leaders. Thabo Mbeki, the South African
president, claims that things are getting better and was angry at the
Commonwealth's decision last week to extend Zimbabwe's suspension from its
councils.
After allowing France to invite
Mr Mugabe to attend a Franco-African summit in Paris, the European Union has
renewed sanctions against the president and his henchmen. The United States
has taken similar steps. But with the cushion of African condonation, if not
outright approval, the president can ignore Western
opinion.
Savage repression and economic
collapse in Zimbabwe have sullied the image of Africa, a continent for which
Mr Mbeki has promised a renaissance. Yet ties between men who have struggled
for liberation, whether from apartheid or colonial rule, evidently count for
more than the actual needs of their peoples. The tragedy of Zimbabwe has wide
repercussions.
ANALYSIS March 25, 2003 Posted to the web March
26, 2003
News Focus By Itai Dzamara Harare
TUESDAY's mass
action has brought wide ranging debate on whether staying away from work
yielded the required results or the people need to use other means such as
street demonstrations to force the Mugabe regime to honour their
demands.
For many, it might have been time to reflect on the historic
days of 1998 when the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) organised food
riots and mass stayaways that stunned President Robert Mugabe's government
and left it hanging onto power by a whisker.
Morgan Tsvangirai,
then secretary general of the ZCTU and now president of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), called for Tuesday and Wednesday's mass
action to demonstrate against the deterioration of both economic and
political situations in Zimbabwe.
However, as Zimbabwe remains at the
cross roads, with the nation searching for a solution to its many problems,
debate is raging regarding the effectiveness of the so-called mass action
which in their case, comprised stayaways.
Some observers pointed out
that stayaways are generally a failure and only serve to cripple the economy
further. They argue that a more effective and practical method of action has
to be found if things are to change in this country.
"Although we are
participating, we are fed up with mass stayaways which fail to bring results.
We are behind the MDC leadership, but we now need a more practical approach
send Mugabe packing," said Givemore Chimombe of Glen View.
In a survey
conducted in the suburbs of Harare and Bulawayo, it emerged that many
Zimbabweans are hoping the MDC will lead the nation in to move a which will
topple the Mugabe regime once and for all.
However, Nelson Chamisa, the
MDC national youth chairman-while acknowledging and appreciating the ardent
desire of the people to dislodge the Zanu PF government-believes that his
party needs to adopt a responsible attitude and avoid leading people into
dangerous decisions that would be forever regretted.
Said Chamisa:
"The party must not just jump into dangerous strategies which will later be
regretted. A violent and unplanned confrontation is what Mugabe is waiting
for in order to crush us. So we should not fall into his trap." Added
Chamisa: "The struggle is not an event. It is a process and we are moving
towards State House to reclaim our liberties. Last week's mass action was a
success. We have clearly seen that the people have confidence in the party.
We now have to move to the next stage which will still be legitimate and
peaceful." Farai Zizhou, the acting chief executive officer of the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), said the impact of the stayaway
had been felt by industry although they had not quantified the loss incurred
by the economy last week.
The mood within the ruling Zanu PF party
following the mass action was very tense. The party's spokesperson, Nathan
Shamuyarira, would only castigate the MDC and the 'opposition press' which he
blamed for the mass action.
The conduct of the masses during last week's
mass action left no doubt that the majority supported the MDC call as most
workers did not report for duty especially in Harare and Bulawayo, while a
negligible minority ignored the call. In the industrial areas of the two
cities almost all companies shut down, forcing the few workers who had turned
up to return home.
When The Standard moved around the two cities during
the stayaway, it observed that most shopping centres were closed. Glen View 2
shopping centre in Harare was virtually deserted, so was Budiriro 5 shopping
centre, and Bulawayo's Nkulumane shopping centre.
Heavily armed police
patrolled the streets in all the suburbs and in some cases, sang Zanu PF
songs in their trucks.
Compared to previous mass actions, people
demonstrated a higher degree of maturity as they took heed of the MDC's call
for peace and discipline during the two days.
There were, however,
someisolated incidents of vandalism and looting of shops in suburbs such as
Epworth, Mabvuku, Chitungwiza and Mbare.
Some criminal elements burnt
down buses meant for public transport and stoned people's cars in a move that
clearly was meant to tarnish the MDC image.
As the MDC and its
supporters revisit the drawing board with their tails high over what they
must consider a successful action, the question remains: is the call for
stayaways the best and most effective way of removing Mugabe from State
House?
Tories Call for Tougher Sanctions Against
Zimbabwe
By Tim Ross, PA News
The Tories tonight
called for tougher sanctions against Zimbabwe, accusing president Robert
Mugabe of using the war in Iraq as a "smokescreen" for more human rights
abuses.
Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram demanded ministers press
the Commonwealth and the European Union to step up the pressure on Zimbabwe
with tighter sanctions.
Mr Ancram said the Iraq war must not be
allowed to distract international attention away from President Mugabe's
"campaign of violence".
"Robert Mugabe's cynical use of the war as a
smokescreen to execute the most grotesque human rights violations is
despicable.
"Ethnic cleansing, genocide, horrific attacks on opponents
and a campaign of violence are all happening whilst the eyes of the world are
engaged elsewhere."
He called on the Government to "state the case
clearly for an immediate strengthening of sanctions against Mugabe's evil
regime by the Commonwealth and the EU".
Mr Ancram continued: "Mugabe's
ruthless use of violence and intimidation cannot go unreported. Britain must
not turn a blind eye to the people of Zimbabwe in their hour of
need."
Earlier this year the Commonwealth decided to extend the period of
Zimbabwe' s suspension from the institution until
December.
STATISTICS on the prevalence of HIV/Aids in the
country are in shambles as both the government and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) appear unsure about how many people are dying from the
disease, The Standard has established.
Health experts who took part in
a four-day workshop organised by the Futures Group International and the
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists in Nyanga last week, told journalists that the
precise figures of people dying from Aids-related ailments in the country are
not known, "but vary from about 2 000 to more than 3 500 deaths" per
week.
The workshop, du-bbed: 'Promoting Responsible Reporting on
HIV/Aids', sought to equip journalists with skills for reporting on the
disease.
It attracted four editors from both the state-controlled and
private media.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday Standard Editor,
Bornwell Chakaodza, underlined the important role the press plays in
educating the public about Aids.
"Everyone now knows that the condom
is the front-line weapon in the fight against Aids. Though a lot of progress
has been made in condom use as a result of education campaigns by both
government and NGOs, the context of cultural values still remains a major
barrier.
"Needless to say, the media has a crucial role to play in this
regard. They (the media) should be more pro-active rather than reactive;
journalists not only need to understand and appreciate the control of
HIV/Aids, but to also measure the broader socio-economic and cultural
dimensions that might hinder or facilitate the response to HIV/Aids," he
said.
By Luke
Tamborinyoka News Editor 3/27/03 11:10:36 AM
(GMT +2)
AN internal Harare City Council
probe has revealed that the city could have been fleeced of millions of
dollars by officials who altered and inflated figures on contracts in return
for kickbacks from contractors and other service providers, the Financial
Gazette learnt this week.
The audit
resulted in the suspension last week of the city's chief engineer for water
and chemical laboratories, Bernard Chatukuta.
According to the audit report, a copy of which is in the possession of this
newspaper, council officials allegedly also demanded and received favours
from companies wanting services such as water or sewer
system connections. Food giant Lever
Brothers allegedly donated a scholarship to Chatukuta 's son after the senior
official had allegedly fast-tracked the provision of water, sewer and other
connections to the company's residential stands at Lysaught in Harare,
according to the city's internal auditors.
There was no comment from Lever Brothers on the
allegation. Chatukuta, who was suspended last
week because of the allegations, joins city stores controller Never Murerwa,
chief accountant Tendai Kwenda and fund manager Munyaradzi Chinho, all
suspended earlier this month after they were implicated in a scam in which
chemical supplier Highdon Investments was overpaid for activated carbon
supplied to Harare. Highdon was allegedly paid
$280 a kilogramme instead of the contract price of $90 a kg for the carbon,
prejudicing the city council of
$118 million. Chatukuta yesterday confirmed
that he was on suspension but refused to comment on the allegations against
him, only saying: "Tell me who gave you those documents
first." Harare executive mayor Elias Mudzuri -
accused by the government of targeting only pro-ruling ZANU PF councilors for
suspension- told the Financial Gazette that the council had embarked on a
clean-up exercise. He said more senior
officials could be suspended to pave way for a thorough probe into corruption
at Harare's Town House. Mudzuri said: "These
suspensions will continue until we stamp out corruption. No one should
interfere with our suspensions and investigations because they are not meant
to victimise anybody." In yet another example
of rampant corruption at Town House, Chatukuta is tape-recorded attempting to
induce a worker in the audit section to join a syndicate of named senior
officials to inflate contracts through fictitious variation orders and cost
escalations. According to a transcript of the
tape, Chatukuta tells the worker that she could "get rich" if she joined a
ring of senior officials in various municipal departments and allowed
inflated escalation claims to go through the city's payment
system. Chatukuta, who names some of his
cohorts in the tape, allegedly paid the audit worker $15 000 to entice her to
help inflate a $120 million contract to upgrade Harare's Adyllin Reservoir to
$150 million. He also tells the auditor that
he, as the project resident engineer, would facilitate the change of
figures. The deal was only scuttled after the
auditor blew the whistle on Chatukuta and submitted a tape of the
conversation in which the engineer had attempted to enlist her
support. The city's audit manager wrote in a
report to council: "It has been established through tape recorded
conversation that the chief engineer had devised a well-orchestrated scheme
to defraud council of some money for the Adyllin Reservoir project and
miscellaneous revenue funded projects budgeted at $120 million and $150
million in the 2003 capital estimates
respectively. "Mr Chatukuta's duties as an
engineer are to safeguard council interests on matters pertaining to
contractors because council pays him for that. Instead, he is attempting to
join contractors in siphoning money from council and attempt to lure key
persons (auditors) in the internal control system to join him in looting
council." As part of the crackdown on
corruption, the city council's audit division is now investigating all
projects handled by Chatukuta.
MEMBERS of the Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP) this week said the ZRP's intelligence unit, the Police Internal
Security Intelligence (PISI), was believed to have initiated an exercise to
flush out security agents suspected of leaking information to the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during last week's
stayaway.
The ZRP sources said the
investigation was prompted by suspicions that the MDC had infiltrated the
police force and that several middle and senior-ranking officers had given
information to the opposition party about the strategies the ZRP had for
dealing with the mass action. "What raised
alarm bells were suspicions that someone leaked vital security information to
the MDC," said a police officer who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "The MDC seemed aware of the police
security plans well before the mass action. It has come to light that they
knew about this information as well as the areas where we were incapacitated
and this helped them plan ahead." He added:
"What has caused people (within the ZRP) to panic most is that the MDC is
planning another mass action, which we hear would involve a march to State
House. With the way the force has been infiltrated, the police won't be able
to strategise effectively." Police spokesman
Andrew Phiri said he was not aware of any investigation by the
PISI. "To be quite frank, I am completely in
the dark over the issue you are talking about. I am not aware such a thing is
taking place." But members of the ZRP said the
PISI investigation was supposed to identify MDC sympathisers and either
remove them from the force or transfer them to remote
stations. They said many officers were afraid
that the exercise could be used to settle personal
scores. "People are just back-biting each
other and the whole thing has been turned into a rumour mongering exercise
where the latest "MDC sympathisers" are named and targeted for reprisals," a
police officer said. "This is not an entirely
new exercise. They did it in 2000 when they victimised anyone they suspected
of sympathising with the MDC. It's only that this time it might be done on a
higher scale," he added. Several senior police
officers were forcibly transferred to remote stations while others were
forced to resign in 2000 as the police swooped on officers perceived to be
anti-the ruling ZANU PF. Other high-ranking
officers opted to resign after being deployed to the Commissioner's Pool, an
obscure desk created at the Police General Police
Headquarters. Most officers transferred to the
pool complained that they were being victimised for failing to support the
ruling party during the 2000 parliamentary elections and by-elections that
followed a year later. - Staff Reporter
By
Godfrey Marawanyika Senior Reporter 3/27/03
11:11:41 AM (GMT +2)
THE ruling ZANU PF
has failed to pay $275 million owed to several local companies, including one
of the country's largest advertising agencies, which handled the party's
ambitious media campaign in the run-up to last year's presidential election,
the Financial Gazette has established.
Most affected is Lintas advertising agency, a key player in the massive
radio, television and newspaper advertising campaign launched by the ruling
party ahead of the March 2002 presidential
poll. Company insiders said the firm was owed
$209 million and had been unable to recover the money despite several
attempts to secure payment. Other companies
that are also owed money for the 2003 presidential election campaign include
Textile Printers, which is owned by ZANU PF Chief Whip and Mberengwa West
Member of Parliament Joram Gumbo. It was not
possible to establish this week how much the company
was owed. Another firm, Corporate Marketing
Services, whose directors are former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation disk
jockeys Kudzi Marudza and Joe Hussein, is still owed $32
million. Millenium Advertising is owed $34
million. Officials of affected companies said
they had supplied ZANU PF with t-shirts inscribed with the Hondo Yeminda
slogan that touts the government's controversial land reform
programme. They said they had also provided
caps, handbags, badges, banners, flags and hats. Other firms were involved in
the massive advertising campaign that ran in the national Press before and
after the election. It was not possible to
secure comment from ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira or the Information
and Publicity Ministry. The ministry handled the media
campaign. A spokesman for Lintas yesterday
would neither deny nor confirm that it had yet to receive payment for
services rendered during the election campaign, citing client
confidentiality. He said: "I have no comment
on that. Even if they owe us money, I can not discuss business clients with
the Press. That is confidential." Gumbo
however confirmed that he owned Textile Printers and that the company was
owed money by the ruling party, but would not disclose the size of the
debt. "It is my company," he told the
Financial Gazette. "I do not know how much it is owed, besides that is a
private and confidential matter." Marudza
refused to comment on the issue, citing
confidentiality. "I can not comment on the
issue, it's purely private," he said. A senior
official with Millennium Advertising, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said the company had not received payment for its services since last
year. He said affected firms had considered
taking legal action to recover their money, but no progress had been
made. The official said: "We have not been
paid a cent since last year. We have tried all that we can do, but it seems
there is not any progress. "There has been a
rumuor that we might seek legal action, but there has not been any
development since February." Sources said
legal action was not favoured by all affected companies, some of which had
insisted that the firms should maintain dialogue with ZANU PF in an attempt
to recover their money. They said several
letters had been written to the government's Information and Publicity
Ministry, but no response had been received.
Representatives of affected companies said the non-payment of the ruling
party's debt had affected their operations at a time most local firms have
been hard hit by serious cash flow constraints because of the
country's economic crisis. "They (ZANU PF)
have literally put us in a tight position," one official said. "We are
literally grounded but there is nothing we can do until the money
comes." According to media reports at the end
of last year, ZANU PF has failed to service a debt of $410 million owed to
other suppliers of campaign materials.
MOZAMBIQUE'S Hydro Cahora Bassa (HCB),
which had threatened to suspend electricity supplies to Zimbabwe last week
over debt arrears, is believed to have allowed the country's power utility a
grace period of one month to settle its arrears, it was learnt this
week.
Senior officials at the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
had intervened last Friday and offered to help ZESA to clear the debt owed to
HCB. They said the central bank had also
assured the Mozambicans that the money would be paid within a
month. The officials told the Financial
Gazette that ZESA management had held a series of meetings last Friday with
Energy and Power Development Ministry officials and the RBZ, resulting in the
central bank agreeing to
provide assistance. The officials said ZESA
executive chairman Sydney Gata also met with ministry officials this Tuesday
as a follow-up to Friday's meeting. ZESA
officials said there was a general agreement between the two power companies
and the RBZ that the arrears could be repaid without HCB resorting to power
cuts as a way of forcing ZESA to pay up. HCB
had given ZESA up to Saturday last week to clear its US$6 million arrears or
face power cuts that could have affected ZESA's ability to meet domestic
demand for electricity. "We have been given
another month by HCB to pay the arrears and ZESA is now waiting for funds
from the RBZ to pay our Mozambican suppliers," a senior official at the ZESA
head office told the Financial Gazette. "There
was an agreement from all the parties that despite the long time it has taken
to pay off the arrears, it was not in Cahora Bassa's interest to cut us off.
Our hope is that we keep to our promise and make good use of this deadline
extension." ZESA management services officer
Daniel Maviva yesterday said he could not comment on the issue and referred
questions to Gata, who was said to be busy in meetings and would only be
available next week. Zimbabwe, which imports
about 34.6 percent of its electricity needs from regional suppliers, receives
most of its power imports from HCB, which supplies the country with 3 198.89
gigawatts of electricity an hour. The
Mozambican power supplier accounts for more than 26 percent of imported
electricity, with the rest coming from ESKOM of South Africa, SNEL of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and ZESCO of
Zambia. ZESA benefits from the 50 percent of
exporters' proceeds that is remitted to the central bank, but hard cash
inflows have been low since the introduction of tough new exchange control
measures last November. Industry officials
have urged the government to support ZESA in concluding a bilateral agreement
it is negotiating with SNEL, which would give the Zimbabwean power company
the right of first access to
DRC electricity. Electricity from the DRC
is the cheapest in southern Africa, while HCB 's
Stayaway success
points to MDC by-election victory:
analysts
By Farai Mutsaka Senior
Reporter 3/27/03 11:17:00 AM (GMT
+2)
THE stakes could not be higher for
Zimbabwe's main political parties in this weekend's Highfield and Kuwadzana
by-elections, which analysts say could bring the ruling ZANU PF closer to the
crucial two thirds majority it needs in Parliament to unilaterally amend the
constitution.
Seven candidates are
vying for the Highfield seat and three will square off for the Kuwadzana
constituency, but the main contest is expected to be between the ruling ZANU
PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC). The opposition party won the two urban
seats in the 2000 general polls but they became vacant after the expulsion
last year of Highfield legislator Munyaradzi Gwisai and the death of
Kuwadzana Member of Parliament
Learnmore Jongwe. Political commentators
said the MDC would this weekend be anxious to protect its turf in the urban
areas, while ZANU PF wanted to use the by-elections to shed its image as a
party most of whose support was in the conservative rural
areas. Zimbabwe's urban areas, hard hit by a
crippling economic crisis largely blamed on government policies,
overwhelmingly voted for the MDC in the 2000 parliamentary elections and last
year's presidential poll. "Normally a
by-election doesn't attract a voter turnout comparable to a national
parliamentary election, but the stakes are high for both parties in this
election, moreso for the MDC, which has to defend its numbers in Parliament,"
said political analyst Masipula Sithole. "ZANU
PF wants to increase its majority as well as boost its propaganda machinery
by saying it has recovered ground in urban areas, but the MDC is also
conscious of protecting its turf in urban areas," he
added. Analysts said victory for ZANU PF in
this weekend's polls would bring the ruling party a step closer to the
two-thirds majority in Parliament that could effectively render the MDC
powerless to prevent crucial changes to Zimbabwe's
constitution. The opposition party holds 50 of
the 120 contested seats in parliament while ZANU PF has 64 and ZANU Ndonga
one. Four other parliamentary seats that were
won by the MDC in 2000, that is Zengeza, Kuwadzana, Harare Central and
Highfield are vacant. The death last week of Higher Education and Technology
Minister Swithun Mombeshora has also left a seat in Makonde, a ZANU PF
stronghold, vacant. President Robert Mugabe
has the power to appoint 30 non-elected MPs, therefore ZANU PF's majority
presently stands at 94, six shy of the required 100 that would give the
ruling party a two-thirds majority.
Commentators said if ZANU PF was able to clinch Highfield,
Kuwadzana, Zengeza, Harare Central and any other MDC constituency that came
up for grabs in the future, it could make the opposition party virtually
irrelevant in Parliament. At present, the
MDC has the power to veto any proposed changes to the country's constitution,
which has been amended in the past to give ZANU PF sweeping
powers. Political scientist Takura Zhangazha
told the Financial Gazette: "If the MDC loses any of these seats, then it is
in serious trouble because ZANU PF would be closer to getting two-thirds
majority. "Once ZANU PF gets the two-thirds
majority, it can amend the constitution at will and we all know what that
means." Reginald Matchaba-Hove, the head of
the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, added: "The situation we had in 1987,
when, in the absence of real opposition, ZANU PF created the post of an
executive president who has almost absolute power, should not be allowed to
be repeated." But commentators said the
overwhelming support the MDC had received last week when it called for a
nationwide job stayaway could be reflected in the results of the Highfield
and Kuwadzana by-elections, despite allegations that ZANU PF supporters were
using violence to intimidate potential voters.
Most companies, factories and shops did not open for business last Tuesday
and Wednesday, with many workers staying at home after the MDC called for
mass action in its first serious challenge to the government after its
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, lost last year's presidential election to
Mugabe. Analysts said the success of the mass
action was a reflection of the opposition party's continuing hold over the
urban areas, which could be reflected in this weekend's
polls. "In all probability, these elections
should go to the MDC. Going by the results of the massive response to the
stayaway call, we would expect the MDC to win a free and fair election
anywhere in Harare," Sithole said. Tsvangirai,
who is on trial for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe, was this week
confident about his party's chances in Highfield
and Kuwadzana. He told journalists in
Harare that the ruling party, which the MDC accuses of rigging the 2000
general poll and last year's presidential election, would not be able to
successfully manipulate this weekend's polls.
The ruling party has denied allegations of election
rigging. Tsvangirai said: "It would be
foolhardy for ZANU PF to rig these elections, especially after the stayaway.
They can cheat, but they will not get away with it this
time. "The results of the Kuwadzana and
Highfield by-elections are a foregone
conclusion. "Any other result would be an open
violation of the wishes of the people and this could be counter-productive.
People would react if their wishes are
overridden." Zhangazha added: "If the MDC
loses this election, then it might need a rethink on future participation in
elections because there would be no reason to have confidence in that
process. "The party would have to go back to
people-based mobilisation and draw up a programme that would bring about
change through community mobilisation. People would have to voluntarily take
up action that would force change." But
Tsvangirai this week urged "principled dialogue" to avert a violent
transition in Zimbabwe. He told journalists:
"We are going to continue to say the only way to avoid chaos and anarchy in
this country is principled dialogue between the ruling party and the broad
democratic forces."
A TEAM of wildlife and agricultural
experts has been dispatched to Hurungwe Safari Area to assess whether the
Mashonaland West wildlife sanctuary will be affected by a government
irrigation project that is supposed to grow winter crops to alleviate food
shortages, it was learnt this week.
Environmentalists said the team comprised officials from the National Parks
and Wildlife Authority, the Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA)
and the Agricultural Rural Extension Services
(AREX). The environmental experts, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, told the Financial Gazette that the team had
established that the sanctuary, located in the lower Zambezi valley, was a
National Parks managed area. They said the
team would compile a report that would outline the potential impact on the
safari area of the Nuanetsi irrigation project, under which the government
has contracted a Chinese company to develop 100 000 hectares of
land. Environmentalists say the Hurungwe
Safari Area could be ploughed through under the irrigation project, which
would affect the wildlife within the
sanctuary. The safari area is a sanctuary for
cheetahs, leopards, elephants and black rhino, among other
wildlife. Sources said a report by the
ARDA-National Parks-AREX team could be submitted to the Environmental
Ministry in the next few days. "A team
comprising ARDA, National Parks officers and AREX was sent to the area and
their conclusion is that this ploughing should not happen," one source
said. "After the investigations, it has now
been established that this programme is going to affect the Hurungwe Safari
Area and a report will be submitted to the minister of environment sometime
this week." Environment and Tourism Minister
Francis Nhema this week confirmed that a team of investigators had been sent
to the Hurungwe Safari Area, but said no firm decision had been taken on the
matter. "A team of investigators was sent to
the area to see if indeed part of the National Parks was affected by the food
initiative," he told the Financial Gazette.
"They have prepared a report, but I have not seen it as yet. I will
be getting it any time and then we will make a firm
decision." However, Mashonaland West Governor
Peter Chanetsa said the findings of the investigators would have no impact on
the irrigation project. He said: "We will
continue to plough, what do you want us to do? The reason for this programme
is irrigation, and it would save us a lot money on the import bill because
money that was supposed to be used to import maize would be used for
something else, like the importation of cooking
oil." The government says the Nuanetsi
irrigation project will alleviate food insecurity in Zimbabwe, where close to
eight million people are in need of emergency food aid because of shortages
resulting from drought and a controversial land reform
programme. Low agricultural output has forced
the government to import food to avert starvation, a programme that has been
hampered by the country's severe foreign currency
shortages. Meanwhile, Chanetsa said sugar cane
producers had operated for several years close to the Hurungwe Safari Area
without affecting the sanctuary. "Other
companies who used to irrigate their sugar-cane, how were they surviving?" he
said. "There is a lot of water in that area
from the Zambezi, so we will continue with our plans," Chanetsa
added.
Tsvangirai trial
witness told to surrender
equipment
Staff
Reporter 3/27/03 11:23:27 AM (GMT
+2)
THE High Court yesterday issued an
order compelling a state witness in the treason trail of three opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders to surrender equipment used to
secretly videotape a meeting at which the MDC officials allegedly plotted to
assassinate President Robert Mugabe.
Justice Paddington Garwe ordered Bernard Schober to hand the equipment over
to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for
testing. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
secretary-general Welshman Ncube and shadow minister for agriculture Renson
Gasela are alleged to have met in Canada with representatives of Dickens and
Madson, a Canadian political consultancy they allegedly attempted to hire to
assassinate Mugabe. Schober was hired by the
consultancy to videotape the meeting. Justice
Garwe said Schober had to surrender his equipment to the Canadian police so
that experts could determine the authenticity of the video tape produced at
the meeting, which is the state's evidence in
chief. The judge said the video equipment had
to be submitted to the RCMP for safe keeping until an independent team of
experts could test the quality of its pictures and determine whether they
were similar to those in the video tape.
The independent panel will comprise experts chosen by the state and the
defence and will make video recordings at Dickens and Madson's
Montreal offices to enable the court to compare the quality of the tapes
produced and the state's evidence in chief.
The recordings, which will be done under the supervision of the RCMP, will be
undertaken first with the ventilation system on and then switched off, after
which the two resulting tapes will be forwarded to the High Court in
Harare Defence lawyers earlier this week
insisted that the equipment be shipped to Zimbabwe but yesterday agreed that
it could be tested in Canada. They however warned that they could still
demand that the equipment be brought to Harare if they were not satisfied
with the tests. The court yesterday afternoon
excused Schober, a Canadian private investigator and security consultant,
from the witness stand but said that he could be recalled for further
cross-examination after his video recording equipment had been
tested. The trial continues today with the
cross-examination of police chief superintendent Moses Magandi, who last year
travelled to Canada with the deputy director general of the Central
Intelligence Organisation, Happyton Bonyongwe, to undertake the initial
investigations into the treason charges.
THE government has hiked the maize
producer price by 364 percent and announced a new pre-planting price for
wheat that farmers' organisations yesterday said would ensure growers'
viability and encourage deliveries of the crop to the Grain Marketing Board
(GMB).
However, the government did not
increase the selling price of the crops, which analysts said would result in
the fiscus directly subsidising consumers at a time Treasury was battling to
raise money to finance other expenditure.
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made said for the
2003 marketing season, which begins on April 1, farmers would sell their
maize, sorghum and millet to the GMB at $130 000 a tonne, up from the $28 000
that was given to the growers last year. Made
said the new price would ensure that farmers realised a return of 60
percent. The minister said the government had
also increased by 114 percent to $150 000 a tonne the pre-planting price for
wheat in a bid to boost output of the crop, which has fallen in the past two
years because of drought and a controversial land reform
programme. The price will be reviewed in
September before farmers harvest
their crop. Made said the government would
also introduce a $7.5 billion winter crops inputs loan scheme to help more
farmers grow wheat. The money would be used
for the procurement of wheat seed, fertilisers and crop chemicals, as well as
for the payment of electricity and water tariffs, tillage services and
harvesting. Officials within organisations
representing the country's farmers said the new wheat measures would
encourage growers to produce more of the crop.
According to Made, a crop forecasting committee is in the process
of assessing the national wheat crop for this year, but the government
expects farmers to deliver between 200 000 and 300 000 tonnes of maize to the
GMB. He said growers were expected to retain
most of their output for consumption.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union president Silas Hungwe said the prices announced by
the government would encourage farmers to deliver their crop to the
GMB. But he said the GMB had to increase
collection depots in farming areas so that farmers were not forced to sell
their crops to private buyers. The GMB is the sole buyer and seller of maize
and wheat in the country, but many farmers sell their crop to private buyers
who offer more money. George Hutchison, a
senior official of the Commercial Farmers' Union said: "The price for maize
is very encouraging, farmers will be delivering to the
GMB." Agriculture Bank of Zimbabwe chief
executive Taka Mutunhu said the new prices would give farmers more disposable
income, enabling them to repay loans borrowed from
banks. But analysts said the government's
failure to raise the selling price of maize and wheat from $9 600 and $29 500
a tonne respectively would adversely affect the operations of the
cash-strapped GMB. Made said the selling
prices of the grains would remain static in a bid to protect consumers by
curbing increases in the cost of flour, mealie meal and
bread. "What this has highlighted once more is
that the government is willing to let the GMB play its role as a service
provider but there is a big price to it," an economist with a Harare merchant
bank said. "The difference between the buying
price and the selling price is too much to make economic sense and is
indicative of the structural rigidities that we find within parastatals," he
told the Financial Gazette. Consultant
economist John Robertson added: "This amounts to a direct subsidy when we all
know that the government does not have the resources for those kinds of
subsidies. "By solving one problem of ensuring
the viability of farmers, the government has created another one. I am not
sure of where they will get the money."
VICE President Simon Muzenda slipped
out of the country last week to seek medical treatment in China for an
undisclosed ailment for the second time in less than a year, senior
government officials said this week.
The officials told the Financial Gazette that the 80-year old Muzenda, who is
Mugabe's longest serving deputy, last week returned to China, which he last
visited last July also reportedly to receive medical
treatment. Muzenda was conspicuous by his
absence last Friday at the burial of former Tertiary and Higher Education
Minister Swithun Mombeshora. Ruling ZANU PF
sources said he was also absent at the ruling party's Politburo meeting held
in Harare yesterday. An official in Muzenda's
office yesterday confirmed that he was out of the country but would not
disclose his destination, nature or purpose of
his trip. "Vice President Muzenda is out of
the country that is all I can say," said the official, who refused to be
named. It was not possible to establish this
week when Muzenda would be returning to Zimbabwe. Sources said Muzenda had
indicated to Mugabe that he wanted to retire because of ill health and had
timed his departure to coincide with Zimbabwe's 23rd independence anniversary
next month. But they said Mugabe had prevailed
upon arguably his most loyal follower to postpone his retirement from active
politics. "Vice President Muzenda wanted to
retire by April this year but he was talked out of the plan by Mugabe. He was
told to wait until a smooth plan is put in place," said a senior ZANU PF
politician, who spoke on condition he was not
named. He added: "Most people in the party and
politburo know Muzenda wants to leave office, he has been talking about it
for the past year."
Electoral fraud
could spark violent backlash:
Tsvangirai
Staff
Reporter 3/27/03 11:26:03 AM (GMT
+2)
INDICATIONS of electoral manipulation
or fraud during this weekend's Highfield and Kuwadzana by-elections could
precipitate a violent backlash from opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) supporters, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai warned this
week.
Addressing journalists in
Harare, Tsvangirai urged his supporters to remain calm, but warned that his
party's followers might not be willing to wait for the MDC leadership to
decide on a course of action if they believed the polls were
rigged. He said: "Let (Registrar General
Tobaiwa) Mudede and ZANU PF be warned that subverting the will of the people
could be counter-productive. People will react swiftly if their wishes are
overridden. "They should understand that the
MDC is getting stronger by the day. Our supporters are determined to carry
out this struggle to its logical conclusion (and) ZANU PF should not tempt
our supporters by rigging the elections."
The MDC has accused the ruling ZANU PF of rigging the 2000 parliamentary
elections, last year's presidential poll and several other elections since
1999. Mudede and ZANU PF officials have denied
the allegations. The MDC has however
challenged the results of the 2000 and 2003 polls in the courts and last week
gave President Robert Mugabe an ultimatum to take steps that would result in
a "legitimate" government in Zimbabwe or face mass
action. The ultimatum, which gave the
government until the end of the month to respond to the opposition party's
demands, came at the end of a two-day job stayaway called by the MDC. The
mass action brought most of industry to a halt last Tuesday and
Wednesday. Meanwhile, Tsvangirai accused the
government of taking retaliatory action against MDC supporters and members of
the public for last week's job stayaway. He
said the police had detained more than 500 MDC supporters and officials since
the end of the mass action last Wednesday.
"Repression has never restrained people from acting," the MDC leader told
journalists. "If at all, it has put people in a more determined position to
confront this regime. No amount of beatings or thuggery is going to
discourage people from engaging in an agenda that will see this
regime out. "It is only six days to go and
we not retreating from these demands (issued last week). Neither are we
retreating from the ultimatum. We urge our supporters to remain calm because
the deadline is fast approaching. The party will define the content and form
of the next action." Meanwhile, the country's
labour watchdog, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trader Unions (ZCTU) this week also
slammed the security forces for violence against members of the
public. Members of the army and police are
reported to have assaulted several people in the past week in what
commentators say is retaliation for last week's
stayaway. ZCTU secretary general Wellington
Chibhebhe said his organisation had appealed to Defence Forces Commander
Vitalis Zvinavashe and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to rein in their
subordinates. Chibhebhe said: "ZCTU expresses
its concern on the conduct of the uniformed forces of indiscriminately
harassing and beating up innocent citizens of Zimbabwe. In a retribution
exercise aimed at people who are alleged to have taken part or organised the
recent job stayaway, the police are indiscriminately arresting, harassing and
torturing law abiding citizens in an effort to appease the government and the
ruling ZANU PF party. "It is only a matter of
time before the people of this country take the law into their own hands and
the leaders of the security forces will have to take the blame if the
security situation deteriorates." The police
and the army have denied that they are involved in a retaliatory
exercise.
ZIMBABWE'S wildlife industry has lost
at least 70 percent of its animals to poaching in the past two years and its
remaining wildlife could be wiped out unless comprehensive measures are
adopted to resolve the crisis, a local environmental group said this
week.
Officials with Wildlife and
Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ), formerly the Wildlife Association of Zimbabwe,
said statistics collected by one of the country's largest conservancies,
Bubiana, indicated that local game ranches were battling a serious
crisis. They said the figures showed that at
least 70 percent of wildlife had been lost to poaching since the end of
2001. Bubiana conservancy, an intensive
breeding area for the endangered black rhino, alone lost 362 animals in the
past 21 months because of poaching, which has intensified since the start of
the invasion of white-owned farms by war veterans in
2000. The land invasions resulted in some
villagers moving onto wildlife sanctuaries, worsening poaching, which has
been a problem for game ranches for several
years. Guy Hilton Barber, a member of WEZ,
said the loss of animals through poaching translated into "millions of
dollars". WEZ officials said to curb poaching,
the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources initiative,
game ranchers and conservancies should form anti-poaching units to curb the
loss of animals. "To be effective, the units
would need to become honorary officers of the National Parks Authority
(NPA)," said WEZ public relations officer Shirley
Silversides. "They can then be covered by the
legal instruments which give security officers power to confront poachers.
Once such units are formed, it is suggested they should apply to the NPA for
honorary membership," she added. WEZ officials
said failure to adequately deal with the problem could result in the
remaining 30 percent of the country's wildlife being
"wiped out". "Help is required to protect
wildlife not only in parks but the whole country," Silversides
said. Although WEZ could this week not provide
statistics of how much the loss of wildlife had cost Zimbabwe, some
environmental experts have estimated that the country has lost more than $6
billion worth of animals in the past two
years. The country's wildlife industry is a
major foreign currency earner through the sale of animal products as well as
hunting and photographic safaris.
Environmentalists say it will take several years for the industry to regain
resources lost through poaching and as a result of the land invasions, which
led to the clearing of vegetation and tree felling by villagers and war
veterans as they built their homesteads. Tree
felling and the clearing of vegetation has resulted in habitat loss and is
expected to cause soil erosion in some areas and other environmental problems
that will cost the country a large amount of money
to repair.
REPORTS that Zimbabwe's
neighbours have reached the end of their patience and are threatening to cut
off the country's power utility should be a major cause for concern to a
nation already in the throes of a crippling fuel
crisis.
It emerged last week that
Mozambique's Cahora Bassa and South Africa's Eskom had given their Zimbabwean
counterpart, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), a serious
ultimatum: pay up or face a
power blackout.
ZESA, which imports
power from the region to augment its supplies and meet domestic demand, is
said to owe the two regional electricity companies US$150
million.
They were last week demanding the
down payment of US$6.4 million by the weekend, "accompanied by a convincing
and credible future payment plan".
At the
time of writing this comment on Tuesday, it was not clear whether ZESA had
managed to secure enough foreign currency to meet Eskom and Cahora Bassa's
demands.
But it is clear that at a time of
searing economic hardships for companies and ordinary Zimbabweans, a serious
shortage of electricity is the last thing that the country can afford and the
responsible authorities must act quickly and decisively to deal with this
looming crisis.
It is not enough to merely
avert the suspension of supplies by meeting the present demands for debt
repayment, but the government and the management of ZESA must come up with
and implement measures that will comprehensively tackle the crisis that is
facing Zimbabwe's electricity utility.
It is no secret that the company faces major obstacles in its attempts to
come to grips with its problems: firstly the country is battling a serious
hard cash squeeze that is partly responsible for ZESA's failure to meet its
foreign commitments.
The foreign currency
allocated to the parastatal by the central bank is inadequate to meet import
demands and does not cover crucial capital developments that are necessary if
the company is to operate at
full capacity.
ZESA has proposed that
local exporters pay for electricity in hard cash, a short-term solution at
best that could increase overhead costs for already struggling export
firms.
In addition, the parastatal has
been hard hit by the suspension of financial assistance from international
organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
because of concerns with the erosion of the rule of law and property rights,
as well as the government's
fiscal policy.
This has left ZESA with
no option but to use its own limited resources for power station upgrades and
network maintenance, affecting the utility's capacity to generate enough
electricity.
Also, the company is unable
to unilaterally raise its tariffs to meet rising operating costs, ostensibly
because the government is keen to protect long-suffering consumers from
further price increases and the rising cost
of living.
A far-reaching programme
that will tackle these fundamental causes of the ZESA crisis, as unpalatable
as it might be to the ruling ZANU PF, is clearly urgently needed to avert a
power crisis that will make life that much harder for the parastatal's
industrial and household customers.
It has
been said before, but it bears repeating: ZESA must be allowed to operate as
a commercially viable entity with the power to make decisions that are
crucial for its own wellbeing and survival and that of
its customers.
This, together with
sustainable economic and political policies, is necessary if the company is
to attract the foreign investment and assistance it needs to serve the
nation's interests.
The consequences of
the failure to come to grips with the ZESA crisis will be devastating to the
country.
ZESA has indicated that it might
be forced to "resort to stringent survival measures" if its problems persist,
measures that could include "drastic
load-shedding".
This could be the last
straw for local firms and Zimbabweans already feeling the impact of shortages
of food, fuel, foreign currency, raw materials and other basic
commodities.
If Zimbabwe is to avert
further company closures and the serious social consequences that will
accompany them; there must be swift and bold action, no matter how painful
the consequences.
THREE schools
of thought are forming in the national discourse following last week's
successful two-day mass stayaway called by the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) to protest President Robert
Mugabe's misrule.
l"Massive
repression": the first school of thought suggests that the successful
stayaway will trigger or cause the regime to unleash even more violent
repression on the MDC, in particular, and on the population, generally. There
are suggestions this is already happening. On
the MDC because the successful stayaway demonstrated that the opposition
party was not only alive, but people would heed its command. This is contrary
to what the state media and the minister of information and publicity have
been saying all along that the MDC is history. Such self-deception was proven
wrong. Quite to the contrary, the MDC is
making history. On the population at large
not only for heeding the call for a mass stayaway, but, and more importantly,
because the regime doesn't have any answers to the problems facing the
country. The only answer it has is the "stick" because it no longer has
carrots. "When there are no carrots, use sticks" type of thinking in
problem-solving. But for how long can
authority based on coercion last? Ian Smith and his Rhodesia Front had many
sticks but they are now history. With all our degrees, yet we miss the
elementary. Force does not hold power forever. Power should be based on moral
authority. l"Perfect timing": the second
school of thought suggests that the successful stayaway re-established the
initiative the MDC had lost since the controversial presidential election
last year. In this second school, there are
those who argue, perhaps correctly, that the MDC should have called this
stayaway immediately after Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede announced the
disputed results. They argue that if this had happened, Mugabe's fake
re-election wouldn't have lasted a week. They cite the rumour that he even
had briefly left the country to support their
argument. Yet there are those in this second
school who argue, perhaps also correctly, that a successful stayaway at that
time would have resulted in a preemptive coup in the manner General Vitalis
Zvinavashe had announced in that unprecedented and uncharacteristic Press
conference by the armed forces commanders on the eve of the March 2002
presidential election poll - that the generals would not recognise a Morgan
Tsvangirai victory. Thus this second school
argues that last week (a year after it should have occurred) was "perfect
timing". A year has now passed since the swearing in of Mugabe as the new old
president and he has nothing but a miserable economic crisis and
international isolation to show us. Frankly,
Zimbabwe has never been this poor and isolated before, notwithstanding the
silly "yet-another-diplomatic-victory" rhetoric. Thabo Mbeki na Olusegun
Obasanjo vachatisiya manje-manje as did Gaddafi isu tichingoti "yet another
diplomatic victory"! More importantly, all
this is taking place at a time the ruling party itself is involved in
succession factionalism with renewed demands for intra-party democracy as
nature is about to put to sleep the old Bolsheviks of the party en
masse. Moreover, Zvinava-she will be retired
soon. His name has come up in the succession whispers, not that he wants to
be president himself, but that he is backing one contender who is not exactly
popular with the people both within as well as outside the
party. All this points to the fact that the
timing of the stayaway was perfect. Those who have argued that Tsvangirai is
an amateur in strategy and tactics should please shut
up. They conveniently forget that before he
came into politics in 1999, Tsvangirai had 12 years of trade unionism
leadership with unmatched success in organising stayaways before. The truth
is Morgan anogona kuronga. Ogokona kutonga
sei? Were Tsvangirai a reckless man he would
have plunged this country into civil war right after the March 2002
presidential election. Today (a year after) it is apparent to all of us and
to the whole world who is reckless. l"Ripe for
mediation": the third school of thought suggests that for the first time
since the controversial presidential election, a conducive environment now
exists for a meaningful "national dialogue" between the ruling party and the
opposition party. The situation is now "ripe" for mediation, to borrow a
concept from Johns Hopkins' William Zartman.
This school of thought argues in its optimism that the stayaway demonstrated
that there is now a condominium or dual presidency or authority in this
country - one wielding the power of coercion, while the other wields moral
and popular power. We suspected it all along, at least since the referendum
defeat at the beginning of 2000. This is time
to talk. This is time for a "national
dialogue". Writing on the "stayaway", the
Sunday Mirror's "Scrutator" had the following to say on the emerging
"national dialogue" worth quoting at length, though one detects an element of
frustration: "As I have already intimated, the
likely outcome now will not be a movement towards the kind of a 'national
dialogue' that some of us have been encouraging and anticipating over the
last few months. The stayaway has taken us back almost two years, to the kind
of violent confrontation that characterised the relationship between the
ruling and opposition parties in the run-up to the presidential
election. "This is a great pity, since, from
all accounts, there are plans afoot to resume the process towards a new
constitution, in preparation for the process that requires a serious
commitment to 'national dialogue' across the political spectrum. The
temptation to pander to the international gallery undermines such a
commitment; and the MDC appears not to realise that the world as a whole is
less concerned about Zimbabwe right now than events
in Iraq. "In the final analysis, it will
only be 'national dialogue' that will serve us all in Zimbabwe - not
senseless confrontation." The "Scrutator" is
right in encouraging national dialogue. But he is wrong to suggest that the
MDC is pandering to the "international gallery". For nearly a year now, the
MDC president and secretary-general have been quarantined within our borders
on some framed-up treason charges. Meanwhile,
Mugabe has been addressing international fora after fora, impressing the
international community with his remarkable oratory. Is this not pandering to
the international gallery? But this
notwithstanding, the President has not recovered any lost ground while those
he quarantined can call a stayaway and the
people respond. I believe that we are now
closer to a "national dialogue". The parties have been scaling each other for
three years in the running. It is clear that the MDC is a factor in the power
equation in Zimbabwe. It is part of the solution, if not the solution
Zimbabwe is seeking at this juncture. Mugabe
himself knows so well that all attempts to quarantine him (1964-1974) and to
sideline him, calling him "communist" and "terrorist number one" during the
"internal settlement" (1977-1979), came to naught. By then, Mugabe had become
part of, if not the solution - notwithstanding Smith 's personal attitudes
towards him. We have travelled full circle. We
are behaving exactly like Smith. We know, don't we, that Smith was literally
dragged to the Lancaster dialogue screaming: "Never in my lifetime, not in a
thousand years (will I speak to Morgan Tsvangirai, a neo-colonialist agent
without an academic degree?)" lProfessor
Masi-pula Sithole is a lecturer of political science at the University of
Zimbabwe and director of the Harare-based Mass Public
Opinion Institute.
It is great wonder that some members
of the clergy seem to be of the firm opinion that the solution to Zimbabwe's
woes lies in engaging the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change in constructive dialogue which, by natural consequence,
would then result in the formation of a unity
government.
Perhaps these sentiments, this
time coming from groups outside the country could well be excused in that
these people do not have the foggiest idea about the stuff the ruling Zanu PF
is made of. That press reports have said these latest efforts by members of
the Christian church from South Africa are by the invitation of the ruling
party would therefore imply a radical volte-face on the part of the governing
party.
That this is being touted all the
same despite pointers both in the distant and recent past from the ruling
party that it will not deal with the opposition MDC as equals with the same
concerns and interests for the future of this nation could, in another space
and time, pass for an experience on the same scale as events on the road to
Damascus as told to us by
Christian legend.
It would therefore
invite genuine plaudits from the ruling
party's critics.
Some would go on to
say however, that anybody willing to listen to this "policy shift" is
exhibiting nothing but naivety of the worst
kind.
While one would be expected to speak
kindly of men of the cloth, it will be recalled that some bogus Christian
coalition by the name Faith of the Nation tried to bring the two political
parties to the round table not merely to iron out their differences, but also
as a logical appendage to that, bring sanity to this
land.
The MDC rightly or wrongly, ignored
those overtures.
That a bishop from the
Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe among many other men working for God's
people has already fallen victim to this regime' s no-nonsense police force
should have told the Christian delegation from South Africa that this is not
a place where dialogue is included as part of any diplomatic
initiative.
They could have asked Desmond
Tutu before they made the trip. But a reconnaissance mission in South Africa
would have saved them all the trouble.
However, because we have been told the trip to State House was by invitation,
they could be excused on that one score.
After all, one would not define comments attributed to Tutu about Robert
Mugabe as charitable coming as they did from a man of the
cloth!
Reports here are that an old nun
who was part of the St Valentine's Day massacre - good thing our own version
had no casualties - and we previously thought all civilised nations frowned
upon the physical abuse of women. Welcome to Zimbabwe gentlemen. An 82 year
old Jesuit priest whose memory routinely fails him was recently given a good
hiding by police manning the first family's
residence.
As if this was not enough for
the poor man, he was thrown into prison for good measure. Another Jesuit
priest was clubbed senseless in Bulawayo while he allegedly video tapped the
St Valentine's march organised by women fed up with the violence that is
consuming this once upon a time
peaceful country.
These are just some
of the cases, not all obviously make it into
news pages.
Now how do you
constructively engage a regime that condones, sanctions, and bankrolls such
acts of brutality? Can that regime honestly understand the language of love,
for that is what Christianity is all about? If members of the Christian
church, be they from within our borders or from without still entertain the
notion that it is their efforts by mediation that will bring a radical return
to normalcy here then they better have another think
coming.
Zanu PF is simply not a
God-fearing organisation. The signs are there for all to see. And this could
be summarised in the words of Bishop Donal Lamont written in 1959 by still
very relevant today.
In the pastoral
letter, Purchased People, he wrote, "It is difficult to exaggerate the extent
and gravity of the dangers to society once it rejects religion (has not Zanu
PF done just that?).
Once religion goes
out of public life, society loses its vitality and social decay sets in; law
itself becomes a lawless thing; legal positivism takes the place of divine
ordinance; public men forget that they are responsible to God for their
official actions, and confusion
becomes inevitable."
Now, in dealing
with this regime, it would therefore be important to make an assessment and
see whether or not the words of one of Zimbabwe's most preeminent
pre-independence clergymen do not ring true about
events here.
Any effort borrowing its
cause from a Christian worldview, would only find it was consorting with the
devil as that time could have been invested in sourcing food aid for those
being starved by that regime which the Christian soldiers are busy trying to
convert!
What we could applaud no doubt
would be a church that is speaking out on the government's many evils not one
that is nursing some futile dream that it will knock gospel values into a
group of people whose ideals are inimical to all things
Christ-like.
The irony out of Zimbabwe's
crisis is that a good number of the men, and probably women, within those
ranks were avowed Catholics in their youth with some reportedly even giving
the priesthood a shot as if to prove
their piety.
While they dropped out and
joined the struggle for this country's political independence, they still
passed for kosher men of faith seeing they could well have cited St
Augustine's 'just war' principles as legitimating their taking up of
arms.
God knows what went wrong after
that. Perhaps even some of the women had a brush with convent life, but the
good Lord called them to be some latter-day Joan of
Arc.
Archbishop Njongo- nkulu Ndungane,
who is the latest high ranking member of the Christian movement to try and
knock sense into this brutal regime is quoted in the press as having said
Robert Mugabe "confirmed support for mediation." But is it not the same guy
who has said the most uncharitable words about the leader of the opposition?
What then would convince him to change that radical stance? Divine vengeance
perhaps?
In Purchased People, Bishop
Lamont continued, "In the Christian ethos, man has a further and more
individual obligation toward his fellows." Well, does Zanu
PF?
For if that were true for the ruling
party, would the country be in this terrible
mess?
It is tragic that men of faith would
fall for the age old ruling party ruse which seems to have been successfully
sold with other so-called pan-Africanist presidents here that as soon as you
enter the president's office, you are told what you want to hear, but as soon
as you turn your back, the cudgels are once again drawn from under the table
and the blood of opposition party supporters starts
flowing.
The equivocating of the ruling
party reminds one of those words from an anti-Christ called Celsus only two
centuries after Christ had walked this earth, "Through Moses, God said, 'Kill
your enemies, even their wives and little ones.' Through Christ, God said,
'Love your enemies.' Who lied, Moses or Jesus? Or did God change his mind."
Zanu PF is busy debating this heresy thus the disregard for all that would
seek to respect human rights, life and people's
sensibilities.
So for any Christian
initiative toward the solving of the Zimbo tragedy, one has to look at the
mindset of the ruling party and see if at all these men of God are not indeed
"pissing in the wind."
The virtue of
reconciliation is never in tandem with ideals that manifest a more diabolic
than Christian work ethic.
One would also
recall a conversation between two fictional characters that went, "'I went
into that church yesterday, and I asked God how I came out alive. 'What did
God say?' the other friend asked. 'He said, son you did better than me. I
have been trying for the past two hundred years to get in with no
success!'"
EVER since the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) threatened to topple ZANU PF in what was supposed to be a free
poll, the bad-boy image of the army has grown from strength to
strength.
Could it be that General Vitalis
Zvinavashe's statement on the army's position regarding the outcome of last
year's elections conferred upon soldiers mysterious supernatural powers that
have made the "defence" forces dilly-dally with the rule of law
willy-nilly?
But they did act in a
questionable manner before that, so probably it is in the nature of many in
the army to adhere to the law of the
jungle.
The army public relations
directorate has made shameless denials about the Dracula disease that has
spread alarmingly within an army that is now frighteningly baying for its own
citizen's blood.
Indeed soldiers are
running amok and their persecution is not anything new - but the major worry
is: will the harassment come to an end? And
how soon?
Those who read the newspapers
know pretty well that the army may huff and puff but never blow out of our
minds cases of its members' atrocities against humanity that are so shocking,
not considering the Matabeleland genocide of the
80s.
lLast March after the results
of the presidential election were announced, four soldiers, including a
lieutenant and a corporal based at 4.1 infantry battalion in Masvingo went on
a punitive expedition and beat up civilians at Nemamwa growth point. Three of
them were sentenced to a total of 32 months in
prison.
lIn October 2001, two
soldiers based at Alfida Barracks in Harare were charged with murder after
they beat to death a man they accused of being an MDC
supporter.
lLast year in January,
soldiers of the presidential guard severely whipped three postmen who had
stopped for one of them to pick up an article that had dropped from his
bicycle. Their apologetic gesture of raising a hand was erroneously
interpreted as the opposition party's symbol. They paid dearly for
that.
lIn the same month, another
postman was reportedly beaten up by soldiers in the same area after they
accused him of delivering anthrax-contaminated
mail.
lIn March 1997, three
soldiers allegedly gang-raped a 14 year old girl at a Harare
barrack.
lIn June 1998, an
HIV-positive army captain was sentenced to 10 years in jail after raping a
four year old girl and infecting her with a sexually transmitted
disease.
lIn February this year, a
soldier based at All-Arms Battle School in Nyanga ran amok following a
domestic dispute and shot dead five people with an AK-47 rifle before
escaping justice by committing
suicide.
lIn June last year,
another soldier shot and seriously injured five people at the Presidential
Guard Headquarters in Dzivarasekwa before he turned his service rifle on
himself.
lIn July 2000, soon after
the general elections, over 20 Harare residents lodged reports of assault by
soldiers whom they accused of beating them up during an operation which was
ostensibly aimed at quelling post-election
violence.
lLast month, soldiers
manning queues at a supermarket in Harare assaulted a Daily News photographer
for taking photographs of queues for basic
commodities.
lThis month, the
Daily News of March 24 had four shocking headlines with equally shocking
stories "Soldiers on the rampage in Harare", "Soldiers assault Zimpapers
vendor", "Soldiers ransack MDC official's house" and "Soldiers beat up
nightclub patrons".
This is only a cross
on a mass grave of many such cases that have gone unreported and/or
unpublished. What is worse, nobody from the ZNA public relations directorate
has been moral enough to mumble an
apology.
When law-abiding citizens expose
them for what they really are after they undeservedly victimise them, the
directorate blows hot and cold in defence of the
indefensible.
I used to wonder why
Zimbabweans would not resort to mass action to dissolve the tendons of
bondage that bind them, but now the fog has
cleared.
No one wants a confrontation with
the army because soldiers are trained to kill (albeit and be killed) so no
one wants to commit suicide by clashing with the
army.
Soldiers will act ruthlessly against
an enemy more so one they perceive to be an enemy of the
state.
However, the irony really is: who
is the enemy of the state?
Are civilians
in the opposition parties enemies of the state? Are patrons revelling in
nightclubs enemies of the state? Are postmen enemies of the state? How can a
14 or a four year old girl be an enemy of the state? Indeed, does a newspaper
vendor passing by State House become an enemy of the
state?
Peace-loving and tolerant
Zimbabweans can never be enemies of the state. In fact, many are victims of
state security forces that continue to defend a government that has surnamed
its citizens with misery of the
worst kind.
The real enemies of the
state are those that are making us suffer from inflation, food shortages, a
fuel crisis, bad governance, human rights abuses and so
on.
If the army continues to allow itself
to be manipulated into perpetrating the death of democracy, then it not only
loses respect but falls short of its major obligation, which is to protect,
serve and support the real wishes of its people and not the wishes of a
people who shamelessly hold on to
power.
The wishes of the people are good
governance and a stable economy, and these two noble ideals should be what
the army must be seen to facilitate now and
again.
If the army is to be credible, its
officers must learn to uphold the truth (such as the wishes of the masses)
and behave in a well-mannered way so as to avoid tarnishing the image of
defence forces as a whole.
We begin to
feel excessively insecure when the army boldly applauds some of its ill-bred
officers' inhuman misdemea- nours.
It
becomes a major cause for concern since the army exists because of civilians
whom they are supposed to - let me repeat - serve, protect
and support.
It is known for certain
that the army is not inherently immoral for indeed during the disaster of
cyclone Eline, it was none other than the army that came to the rescue of the
flood victims. It was also applaudable that during the cyclone Japhet
catastrophe, the defence forces once again came to the rescue of the people
it exists for.
In other acts of good
neighbourliness, in March 2000 it unearthed about 26 000 landmines opening
large tracts of land in Victoria Falls to tourism and other tracts in the
Zambezi valley for resettlement.
These
good deeds and many like them which basically require being civil must be a
part of every human soldier in the army for no one can protect us from our
army except our army itself.
RBZ still minting
coins despite loss of purchasing
power
3/27/03 10:49:34 AM
(GMT +2)
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) will continue to mint low denomination coins despite their loss of
purchasing power due to rampant inflation, according to a central bank
spokesman.
Zimbabwe has seven
denominations of coins in circulation, ranging from one cent to $5, whose
value has been eroded by inflation in the past
three years. Inflation reached a record
high of 220.9 percent in the year to February, up from 208.1 percent the
previous month. Most consumers no longer use
the coins when making their purchases because of high commodity prices, which
make it necessary to carry large amounts instead of low denomination
coins. The RBZ spokesman said the central bank
had stopped minting one-cent and five-cent coins, but would continue minting
the other denominations because it was still cost effective to produce
them. He however would not say how much it
cost to produce the coins,
citing confidentiality. "It is necessary
for the central bank to continue minting coins since there is demand for them
from the banks and other transacting public," he told the Financial
Gazette. " It is still cost effective to
produce coins since they have a very long circulation life. The bank has
however stopped minting the one cent and five-cent coins for cost
effectiveness." - Staff
Reporter
WITHOUT a United Nations (UN)
resolution, it will remain debatable whether George W. Bush and Tony Blair's
war against Saddam Hussein was the right option or
not.
Indeed, it could be argued that Bush
and Blair are probably guilty of attempting to subject the UN system to the
same dictatorial tendencies they accuse Saddam of practising in
Iraq.
But the one salutary point about
"Operation Free Iraq", the codename for the strike against Saddam, is that
dictators, even though the odds are staked against them, never understand
diplomacy, let alone quiet diplomacy.
Admittedly war is never the thinking man's solution to problems and like any
other citizen of this, our mother Earth, I do yearn for a world free of war,
hunger and pestilence, but we cannot run away from the harsh realities on the
ground.
The reality is that only resolute
action, fire and force if need be, is the only way to get any dictator to
change tack.
This is as it should be.
People should have the courage of their convictions and openly state where
they stand and not engage in endless sessions of diplomacy that yield nothing
except more suffering and repression of the oppressed
innocent.
I personally wish the kind of
forthrightness, frankness and above all decisiveness exhibited by Bush in his
handling of Saddam would catch up with our leaders here in Africa, especially
those spearheading the New Partnership for African
Development.
Bush and Blair's message to
Saddam, his government and his sons was clear from day one: ship out or face
the wrath of our combined forces.
In fact,
that is how these dictators need to be sent packing the
world over.
Such a determined stance
against tyranny would drive the many tin-pot dictators flourishing in many an
African country out of the continent.
Many
of Africa's oppressed citizens could then afford to hope for a better future,
confident in the knowledge that never mind how powerful the ruler is, the
rest of Africa would never let them down.
But given the tendency among many African leaders to protect each other, one
may be forgiven for wishing the campaign against Saddam was extended the
world over to give dictators who have made life unbearable for humankind in
most parts of the world an ignominious
exit.
The year 2003 should be dedicated to
flushing out dictators the world over - in Baghdad, Havana, Jakarta, southern
Africa - and send them running for dear
life.
Progressive forces must emulate the
example set by the Americans and the British and with all in their power
confront the dictators in their corner of the world for, as Anglo/American
handling of Saddam has shown, quiet diplomacy is a pipe
dream.
Of course many will argue against
war and violence and indeed that is a valid
argument.
But as history teaches us,
sometimes a violent removal is what the typical dictator understands. Most of
them - Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Slobodan Milosevic ofYugoslavia, Uganda's
Idi Amin, you name them - had to be kicked out of
power.
The bottom line is that one has to
take a fairly hardline stance when dealing with leaders who have entrenched
themselves through repression.
We, the
progressive forces of this world, however live in the knowledge and comfort
that dictators, wherever they are, are quacking in their boots as the
Americans get on with the job at hand in
Baghdad.
We await the next
assignment.
This is a noble assignment
that should be undertaken ruthlessly to flush undesired elements from the
face of this earth.