AFP
01/03/2008 17h00
BULAWAYO (AFP) - Two political heavyweights
endorsed former minister Simba
Makoni as he launched his bid for the
Zimbabwean presidency Saturday,
including a serving official with President
Robert Mugabe's party.
Dumiso Dabengwa, a former home affairs minister
and a member of the ruling
ZANU-PF party's key decision-making body, became
the first party heavyweight
to come out in support of Makoni.
Makoni,
himself a former key member of ZANU-PF, was also backed by Cyril
Ndebele, a
former speaker of parliament.
Both men joined Makoni to declare their
support at a press conference in
Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, where
he launched his campaign to
challenge Mugabe in the March 29
elections.
"It's not about Makoni's capability or strength," Dabengwa
said. "It's about
the people of Zimbabwe being enabled to chart the manner
in which they want
the challenges facing the country to be
solved.
Speaking to a crowd of thousands at a stadium in Bulawayo on
Saturday,
Makoni blamed 84-year-old veteran leader Mugabe for Zimbabwe's
economic
crisis which has seen inflation rise above 100,000
percent.
"Right now we are begging for food and waiting to be given (it)
by those who
sympathise with us," he said.
"Factories that used to
work day and night are no longer functioning. Those
in leadership are now
seeking medical attention outside and the rest of the
people in the country
are not being attended to.
"Our condition today is primarily from the
failure of national leadership."
Makoni said his campaign was "a movement
for renewal, revival and
rededication to service", telling the cheering
crowds: "We are saying, let's
get Zimbabwe working again. Let's get Zimbabwe
back on track."
The former minister, who was castigated by Mugabe as "a
political
prostitute", urged his supporters to campaign
peacefully.
"Even if we are insulted, let's not insult back," he
said.
"Let's not fight others even we are provoked. No one is worth dying
for.
President Robert Mugabe is not worth dying or killing for. (Opposition
leader) Morgan Tsvangirai is not worth killing or dying for. Simba Makoni is
not worth killing or dying for."
Makoni announced early February he
was challenging Mugabe for the
presidency, saying he had decided to do so
"following very extensive and
intensive consultations with party members and
activists countrywide and
also with others outside the party."
He had
previously said he had the backing of many disillusioned party cadres
and
compatriots suffering through the current economic crisis.
He could not
be drawn on who else inside ZANU-PF would back him, but there
has been
widespread speculation that at least one other senior figure within
the
ruling party supports him.
Vice-president Joseph Msika dismissed Makoni,
a former executive secretary
of the regional economic bloc SADC, as
"politically bankrupt", in comments
reported in Saturday's edition of The
Herald newspaper.
"Me, supporting Makoni politically?" he told the
newspaper on the sidelines
of the launch of Mugabe's election
campaign.
"Makoni is politically bankrupt, I would never want anything
from him. In
fact, he is the one who would come to me to support me on
whatever I would
be doing."
Mugabe, who has ruled the former British
colony since independence in 1980,
is hoping to secure a sixth term in
power.
Earth Times
Posted : Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:21:00 GMT
Author : DPA
Harare
- Zimbabwe's blood bank has just one third of the supplies it
required the
latest statistic that reveals a deepening crisis in the
national health
sector, reports said Saturday. The National Blood
Transfusion Service (NBTS)
has just 1,000 units of blood nstead of the
requisite 3,000 units, spokesman
Emmanuel Masvikeni told the
state-controlled Herald newspaper.
"In case of any crisis, the blood is not adequate," said Masvikeni. He
said
the situation would worsen when school pupils, who contribute 75 per
cent of
blood to the blood bank, go on holiday ahead of elections on March
29.
Zimbabwe has high rates of HIV/AIDS and children are
considered a
safer source of blood, although all blood is screened before
being sold to
hospitals.
The NBTS was encouraging adults to
support a "noble cause" by donating
blood to boost supplies, state radio
said Saturday.
This is the latest crisis to hit Zimbabwe's health
sector, battered by
economic challenges that include inflation of more than
100,000 per cent,
frequent power outages and chronic shortages of hard
currency to import
medical drugs.
Last week, Deputy Health
Minister Edwin Muguti confirmed that the
country's biggest hospital Harare's
Parirenyatwa Hospital had stopped
carrying out surgical operations due to
shortages of anaesthetic drugs and
sterilising agents.
In
January, it emerged that 50 per cent of medical drugs were out of
stock in
pharmacies in Harare. The head of the Pharmaceutical Society of
Zimbabwe
said then that most pharmacies could not afford to import drugs.
Yahoo News
JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa - Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Saturday
that South
African-mediated talks to ease a political and economic crisis
have ended in
failure.
The Movement for Democratic Change said that President
Robert Mugabe
violated the spirit of the dialogue by pressing ahead with the
March 29 date
for presidential and parliamentary elections - and ignoring
opposition
demands for a delay.
Southern African leaders last year
appointed South African President Thabo
Mbeki as mediator, despite
opposition concerns about his policy of quiet
diplomacy rather than public
criticism toward Mugabe.
News24
01/03/2008 12:13 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's justice minister has accused the main
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of threatening violence
ahead of the
March national polls, the state-controlled Herald newspaper
reported on
Friday.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa says he is in
talks with the police for
additional measures to be taken "to thwart acts of
political violence being
planned against the electoral process," the Herald
reports.
Chinamasa says he has launched a complaint with the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission (ZEC) over comments allegedly made by MDC spokesperson
Nelson
Chamisa at a rally in Harare's Dzivaresekwa township in
February.
The spokesperson has denied ever threatening violence and has
asked the news
agency that first carried the reports to retract its
story.
Chamisa says he merely congratulated Zimbabweans for resisting the
temptation to throw the country into anarchy.
But the justice
minister said the government was taking the reports of
threats
"seriously".
More than five million voters will go to the polls on March
29 to choose a
president, MPs, senators and local councillors from a
dizzying array of
candidates.
Already, tensions are rising. Mugabe,
84, is fighting for his political
survival. The Zimbabwean leader has been
in power since 1980.
For the first time, he faces two strong challengers:
main MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and the former finance minister Simba
Makoni.
Chinamasa vowed Tsvangirai and his party would lose the
polls.
He said: "Everybody in Zimbabwe is aware they will lose the
elections
because they are a puppet party and that they also called for
economic
sanctions and sold out on the land issue and time has come for them
to pay
the heavy price.
"We thank Chamisa for forewarning us of their
intentions and what they are
planning with their sponsors and taking every
step to forearm ourselves
against any eventuality they are planning against
the people of Zimbabwe.
The state will not take kindly to such
threats."
Police warned this week they were empowered to use firearms
against "unruly"
protesters.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 14:06
MUTARE
The MDC Makoni South parliamentary candidate was
on Wednesday viciously
brutalised by supporters of President Robert
Mugabe.
The candidate, who is also MDC Manicaland provincial spokesman,
Pishai
Muchauraya, and his two colleagues Michael Murapwa and Tendai
Chimonya were
brutalized by war veterans and youth militia.
A Zanu (PF)
goon squad, ferried by a tractor given to war veteran leaders
Choga and
Masukume under the farm mechanization scheme, accosted the three
outside
Lamour supermarket, a stone's throw from Africa University in Old
Mutare.
The Zimbabwean heard that the driver of the tractor blocked the
way for
Muchauraya's truck, a Mazda B2500, and then the terror squad jumped
on the
three and beat them, leaving them gravely injured, with their MDC
t-Shirts
ripped to shreds.
"It was a vicious and callous attack and I'm
lucky I didn't sustain serious
injuries," Muchauraya said. "But we suspect
my driver Michael Murapa could
have sustained a fractured hand, while my
aide Tendai Chimonya was also
injured in the attack."
Scores of
opposition party officials and supporters have been harassed in
the Mutare
area in the wake of a crackdown that followed the launch of the
MDC's
election manifesto in the city last Saturday.
The war veterans frisked
Muchauraya's vehicle and got away with a cellphone,
over 1000 party cards,
Z$1,4 billion in cash, party regalia including
t-shirts and Muchauraya's
information pack, which contained the manifesto
that was launched on
Saturday.
Muchauraya alleged the gang was hired and alleged it could have
been
commandeered from a nearby farm owned by a senator. He is locking
horns in
the legislative polls with Zanu (PF)'s Shadreck Chipanga, a former
top CIO
boss.
Manicaland police were unavailable for comment.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 15:10
HARARE
The
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is stepping up surveillance of
Harare-based Western embassies and aid agencies it suspects of coordinating
funding for the opposition, top security officials told The
Zimbabwean.
They said the notorious spy agency was also stalking
leaders of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The umbrella National
Association for Non-Governmental Organisations
(NANGO) - a coalition of more
than 350 organisations operating in Zimbabwe -
has issued an alert warning
its members of the surveillance operation and
urging them to remain
vigilant.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya-Moyo on Tuesday
told the
Institute of Security Studies, a Pretoria-based independent
think-tank, that
Prime Minister Gordon Brown was stoking political tension
by working with
the opposition to bring President Mugabe down.
He said
government had in its possession a letter from Brown to the Law
Society of
Zimbabwe confirming that the British Premier had channelled
funding to
Zimbabwean groups working for "democratic change".
The Zimbabwean can reveal
that the CIO is working on a dossier accusing the
NGOs of embezzling funds
amounting to US$88,7 million in aid money mobilised
by the UNDP for
Zimbabwe's consolidated aid appeal in 2003
The letter Khaya-Moyo mentioned at
the ISS briefing is believed to be part
of the body of evidence gathered so
far by the CIO, and reveals a £3,3
million donation to the LSZ from Brown
via the British Law Society, whose
spokesman Steve Rudaini confirmed this
week the bona fides of the letter. He
said the letter was "leaked."
Fixed
telephone lines at virtually all the suspected aid agencies and
embassies
have been bugged, the sources disclosed. They said the CIO was
even
establishing and recording the identities and frequencies of movements
of
people who visit these aid agencies and embassies, in addition to opening
mail directed to these organisations, including e-mails.
According to an
official document shown to The Zimbabwean this week, top on
the list of the
aid agencies being targeted by the CIO are Germany's
humanitarian
foundations Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Friedrich
Naumann
Foundation.
Also on the list is ZLHR, ZDHR, LSA, NCA, Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition,
ZINASU, Hivos, CIDA, SIDA, DANIDA, MSO and Norad. Also under the
CIO
microscope is USAID, WFP and DfID.
All Western embassies in Zimbabwe
but particularly the United States, the
British, Swedish and the German
embassies had also been put under strict
surveillance, the sources said. The
movement of diplomats was also being
monitored as part of efforts to prove
who they associated with.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 16:39
BULAWAYO
More than 50 senior
police officers and their families in Bulawayo are
living in darkness at
their apartment block because a transformer that blew
up nine months ago has
not been fixed.
Officers told The Zimbabwean that they had been
living a rural life in
the heart of the city, using firewood for cooking and
candles for light.They
said they were now fearful that, with elections
approaching, they could be
attacked by opposition supporters at night, as
the police had been always
accused of being aligned to the ruling party,
Zanu (PF).Police Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri warned that the police would
not hesitate to use force,
including firearms, against mischief-makers
during the election period.
Political analysts said the statement referred
to the opposition parties."It's
no longer safe for us," said another police
officer. "We can be attacked any
time."Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi
said he had not been told about the
issue, but would look into
it.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 15:59
HARARE
Chaos could be on the cards as
arrangements for the one day of voting on
March 29 cause
confusion.
There is mounting concern that there will be delays and
serious errors
unless urgent corrective measures are not taken with regard
to ballot boxes,
polling officers, polling agents, polling stations, voter
education and the
voters' roll.The law says that each polling station should
have at least
three voting compartments, each containing at least one ballot
box,
allocated for the use of voters whose surnames begin with the letters A
to
L, M, and N to Z.But, with just 27 days to go, it is still unclear if
there
will, in fact, be three booths for each set of the four-tier election,
the
council, parliamentary, senate and presidential -a total of 12 polling
booths. This means each candidate would need to have four election agents,
three inside and one outside. Government says two agents per candidate would
suffice. "How can one person deal with 12 copies of the voters' roll, 12
polling booths, four queues of voters and counting of ballots from 12 booths
at the same time?" asked political commentator Ronald Shumba. "There should
have been adequate arrangements for this new electoral dispensation."
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) spokesperson Shupikai Machereni this
week claimed: "The country is readily prepared for the elections." She could
not, however, give the exact number of polling stations, saying they had not
yet conclusively established this, although reports indicate there would be
at least 11,000 stations countrywide.MDC Glen Norah candidate Priscillah
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who is also Deputy Secretary-General of the
Mutambara-led MDC, said: "The ZEC has no capacity and what is happening is
that the same old bodies are running the election. The old national
logistics committee, which has failed us in the past, is still in
charge."Most
candidates this week complained they had still not received the
final copy
of the voters' roll from their constituency registrars. There was
also no
supplementary voters' roll, allegedly used in the past for
vote-rigging.
Voting is transparent after all?
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 15:17
HARARE
Things are rapidly falling apart under
the world of the Zanu (PF) regime as
by Friday operations in government
departments were either on a go-slow or
in some cases a virtual halt as
civil servants took first steps towards
joining teachers in a full-blown
strike.
In Harare it was compounded by a strike by council workers
who downed tools
on Wednesday. Nurses and doctors joined the strike set to
paralyse
operations across the whole country.
The Public Service
Association (PSA), which represents all civil servants,
said its members
were disgruntled and forced to resort to industrial action
after having
given the Mugabe regime until end of February to review their
salaries.
Government sparked a furore after repeating its habit of
awarding members of
the defence forces and police huge salary hikes and soft
loans as a way of
buying their loyalty ahead of the elections. Some
government departments,
including the CIO, did not receive the hikes,
prompting further
disgruntlement.
PSA president Cecilia Alexander-Khowa
said, "Our members are failing to make
ends meet and yet their counterparts
in the army are earning billions.
Soldiers are not an essential service
during peacetime so we wonder why they
are getting special treatment. We
cannot rule out industrial action because
government employees are very
bitter about the discriminatory treatment they
are getting from their
employer."
The strike by teachers has paralysed operations in schools across
the whole
country and the pro-government Zimbabwe Teachers Union (ZIMTA) has
joined
the protest organized by the Progressive Teachers Union
(PTUZ).
ZIMTA executive member, Anderson Moyo said, "Our members are failing
to
commute to work so there is no option but to express our unhappiness
through
industrial action. We want a salary review at the same proportion as
given
to members of the army by government recently."
PTUZ secretary
general Raymond Majongwe said there was no going back on the
strike unless
government capitulated on the union's demand of a minimum of
Z$1,7 billion
salary for teachers, currently earning around Z$400 million.
Harare council
workers downed tools on Wednesday in demand of a 300% salary
increment and
this paper visited the Town House to establish that
negotiations with
management were failing to break the impasse and the
workers were set to
continue on strike in the coming week.
Washington Post
Saturday, March 1,
2008; Page A13
Regarding the Feb. 20 article "African AIDS Crisis
Outlives $15 Billion Bush
Initiative":
According to the article,
"economic collapse has coincided with fundamental
social change" to decrease
the rate of HIV infection in Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, it is rising
mortality -- resulting from hardship and
poverty -- that has been
instrumental in effecting change. As mortality
rates increase, the pool of
infected people and the risk of new infections
shrink, and -- statistically
speaking -- this decreases HIV rates.
Death, then, acts as a powerful
incentive for behavioral change, but it can
hardly be prescribed as the
ideal antidote to AIDS. While the health
benefits of embracing monogamy are
obvious, the cause of this shift
(poverty) should also be a cause for
widespread concern.
Skyrocketing unemployment and social disruption have
also played a part, at
once reducing mobility and increasing migration.
While the former lessens
the risk of infection, the latter inflates other
countries' HIV rates while
letting Zimbabwe benefit.
When a country
with 150,000 percent inflation and a despotic ruler flaunts
achievements
that no one else can claim, perhaps a little more caution is in
order.
-- Ilaria Regondi
Washington
By Tichaona
Sibanda
29 February 2008
The police chief for KweKwe district in the
Midlands, Chief Superintendent
Charles Chagonda, has said he doesn't
recognise changes made to POSA and
AIPPA.
At a meeting with all
candidates for the parliamentary, senatorial and
council elections in the
Midlands town recently, the police chief reportedly
told them he had the
power to dictate what laws should be used in KweKwe.
MDC legislator for
the town, Blessing Chebundo, said Chagonda made it clear
he was not going to
follow the amended new laws, which were signed into law
by Robert Mugabe in
January.
'It's a mockery of parliament that a police officer, whose job
is to make
sure people follow the rules, breaks them wantonly,' Chebundo
said.
He added; 'He has unilaterally banned all gatherings in the town and
how do
you meet your supporters?'
The police chief went further and
warned the candidates that whoever broke
his strict code would rot in
prison. And true to his word, on Tuesday seven
MDC official were arrested in
the town after holding peaceful door-to-door
campaigns. Five were released
on Wednesday. The remaining two were only
released
Thursday.
According to changes made to POSA and signed into law, those
who intend to
organise public meetings, political rallies or demonstrations
have to appeal
to a magistrates' court if the regulating authority (police)
prohibit them
from holding the planned meetings or demonstrations. Before,
they were
required to appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs.
Police
would be required to enter into dialogue with the organisers of the
gathering before prohibiting the meeting from taking place. Prior to this
organisers were required to give seven days' written notice ahead of planned
gatherings, to a senior police officer designated as the regulatory
authority for the area concerned.
'It is clear that instead of
following the rules, he's bending them to suit
his masters. But we are not
surprised because these are the same people who
were ordered by their boss
(Commissioner Chihuri) to make sure the
opposition is desrupted from
carrying out its campaign activities across the
country,' Chebundo
said.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Nyasa Times, Malawi
aNyakuchenya Ganda on 01 March, 2008 05:07:00
Dr. Bingu
Mutharika must be congratulated for being man enough by holding a
Cabinet
meeting on the looming Maize crisis in the country. This is a very
wise
move that must in all honesty be applauded by all Malawians. We hope
this
is the beginning of the change in public policy.
Be that may, Mutharika
will be remembered for his bizarre ability to starve
Malawians by donating
and selling our maize to Zimbabwe and other countries.
If he had listened to
the national pleas for caution and patience, Mutharika
and his government
would not be panicking now.
It is not surprising that the accusatory
fingers are now being pointed at
Muthatika's cousin Dr. Charles Matabwa.
That is very interesting for
Mutharika has all along known Matabwa as a very
inefficient PhD holder who
is good at talking nonsense, a man who can't just
give women a cursory
glance, and one who promotes nepotism than performing
his professional
tasks.
The people that have worked with Matabwa in
the Civil Service will attest to
the fact that Matabwa is good at
manipulating data and misinforming even the
people who work with him. He is
a double-faced liar who will even lie to
the president as long as he knows
that will save his back from being
scorched for his
inefficiencies.
Matabwa is not supposed to be running anybody's
organization. This man is
fit to be shackled in a soil science lab looking
in the microscope or
washing petri dishes and test tubes. This man needs to
get out of bed!
Equally to blame are the Officials at the Agricultural
Ministry who seem to
be working in isolation from their ADMARC
counterparts. One wonders why
they cannot refresh their maize estimates
data by using the national daily
sales and stock level reports from
ADMARC.
With the computerized system that ADMARC has it should be
possible to pull
together and refresh all the market and stocks data by the
close of the day.
But as always these people are so obsessed with data from
outdated monthly
reports and pretend to be surprised when they are hit by
acute maize
shortages. These are just saboteurs!
It is not the duty
of the President to ask for data from ADMARC and his
ministry officials.
They should always have the statistics and distribution
matrices ready for
any eventuality. We don't want Patricia Kaliati
delivering maize at places
like T.A. Kasakula as a face saving tool when it
is the whole nation facing
acute shortages of the product.
Some people have spoken and written about
Malawians using other alternative
foods. Fair. But what some of these
people forget is that maize is our
staple food as a result we need it to
provide us with the food security we
always talk about.
Most
Malawians normally consume a half-pound even more of maize and its
products
every day. Any misappropriation of this item and interruption in
its supply,
either at the farm level or to the markets, has critical
penalties for the
most susceptible.
Erratic rainfall, chronic famine, and loss of soil
richness have all made
the maize harvests in Malawi tentative. To compound
these problems with man
made negligent creations like selling the maize to
Zimbabwe is almost
inhuman.
I am yet to be schooled by the "food
diversity experts" how I can keep my
sweet potatoes and other perishables
for twelve months using traditional
methods.
Equally important are
the by products of this crop that can be stored for a
long time and be used
as animal feed and building materials. There are so
many tradable artifacts
that can be made using these by-materials. On top of
that it has been proven
to be a viable cash crop.
Moreover, the mere fact that we can substitute
our staple food with other
perishables, does not give license to government
to wantonly donate and sell
our maize to other countries before the national
requirements are met. Talk
about inconsistency!
Like what the
President said, that receiving food donation deprives families
of their
dignity and restraints progress; in future our government must make
thorough
consultations with all stake holders so that we avoid the situation
we are
trying to fend off now.
The last time I was doing a survey in rural
Zimbabwe I was almost
tire-lynched when the Morgan Tshvangirai diehards
learned that I was a
Malawian. These people feel so betrayed by our selling
maize to their
country, which is being used as a weapon of political
manipulation of the
opposition by the Mugabe associates.
These
Zimbabweans find our "Mugabe Pampering Policy" as our contribution
towards
the consolidation and continued dictatorship of Mugabe on their
country. Who
can blame them?
Once again, Mutharika must be commended for convening
maize crisis cabinet
meeting.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 15:21
When the MDC was formed through the aegis of civil society, the
people were
ready. ZANU (PF), which had gallantly fought the war of
liberation had
proved to be a failure at governing the fledging independent
state.
From being the breadbasket of the region under white rule it fast
becoming a
poor pariah state under its new black rulers who did not care a
hoot about
the ordinary people. Their only goal was to plunder and to
enrich
themselves.
The people flocked to the MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai,
the former Secretary
General of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions. They had had
enough of ZANU (PF)'s arrogance, cruelty and
self-aggrandizing policies,
which were arbitrarily imposed without involving
all the stakeholders in the
social and political arena.
By the year
2000 the MDC had become a monolith party ready to wrest power
from the
ruling ZANU (PF). It was the party of the downtrodden and the
poor. It
demonstrated its people power when it campaigned successfully for
a "NO"
vote in the referendum for a ZANU (PF) constitution which was indeed
defective.
In the general elections under the old constitution, the
MDC won, hands
down, but the election was stolen through heavy and obvious
rigging. The
Movement for Democratic Change, however, did not despair. It
soldiered on
under its brave leader. Arrests, beatings and torture did not
deter them.
Emancipation from ZANU (PF) tyranny was their avowed
goal.
As was inevitable, under the profligate and flamboyant life style
of ZANU
(PF) leaders, the once robust Zimbabwean economy finally crashed.
Commerce
and industry has been systematically destroyed. The agricultural
infrastructure which was a showpiece to the world was dismantled and the
rate of inflation is now the highest in the world.
The people were
fed up. The scenario was all set for change. Even from
within ZANU (PF),
rumblings of discontent could be heard. Stories of party
dissenters
disappearing or dying in suspicious accidents oiled the rumour
mill. The
free press was gagged and a crude propaganda machine set up to
churn out
lies that all our problems were caused by Western imperialist
powers.
Nobody believes this drivel, not even the most gullible of the ZANU
(PF)
supporters, of course.
The people are saying enough is enough. On the
other hand, any kind of
reform has been thwarted by the Machiavellian
leader, President Robert
Gabriel Mugabe, who wants the very status quo to
remain with him in power
until he dies. As the Shona say, "Chisingapere
chinoshura." Change is
coming. Today there is open dissent within that
impenetrable party.
Insiders say 90% of the politburo are behind Simba
Makoni, the upstart
economist who has dared to openly challenge Robert
Mugabe. ZANU (PF) is
indeed in disarray and open to defeat. Some say their
rigging machinery is
now in shambles.
Instead of gearing up to
deliver the coup-de-grace at the next elections,
unfree and unfair as they
are, what is the MDC doing? It is indeed painful
for us political observers
to watch while that giant of a party scores one
own goal after
another.
The first goal was when some leaders broke away over
participation in
senatorial elections. The second goal was when they
entered into
negotiations with ZANU (PF) without their civil society
partners and were
tricked into signing the 18th Constitutional Amendment by
the will Thabo
Mbeki, President of South Africa who regards Robert Mugabe as
his godfather.
The latest own goal is when party leaders they imposed
candidates upon the
people to fight the elections next month.
Just
after nominations closed, I visited some of my MDC friends in
Dzivarasekwa.
They were sad. They told me that they had expected their own
man, Peter
Karimakwenda, to stand as their parliamentary candidate. He was
a founder
member of the MDC and understood their needs. He is the
vice-chairperson of
the district. Last year his house, a bus and his
grinding mill was burnt
down by ZANU (PF) operatives to stop him from
working for the party. At one
time he was abducted, tortured and thrown
into the bush to die. He
recovered after several weeks in hospital. After
the people of Dzivarasekwa
asked him to stand, he submitted his CV to the
party headquarters. This was
a formality since he had been the councilor
for the area before councillors
were dismissed by ZANU (PF).
When he was ready, with other aspirants to
go for primary elections the
people were told by the party hierarchy that
there would be no primaries. A
Mrs Masaiti, whom they hardly knew, was
going to be their candidate.
When the people of Dzivarasekwa protested,
they were told that his was in
line with the party's new gender equality
policy. One resident told me,
"Wakatama, the way the people at the top use
us and then ignore our views is
frustrating. Since I wont be able to vote
for Peter Karimakwenda, I will
vote for Simba Makoni. I don't know this
Evelyn Masaiti we are being asked
for support. I only know that she was the
wife of a now deceased MDC
chairman."
Peter Karimakwenda said, "I am
sad. I so much wanted to represent my home
in parliament. However, I can't
destroy the party after all I have gone
through. I will campaign for
Masaiti so that the MDC can win. We have
suffered enough. We cannot afford
to loose."
Please Morgan Tsvangirai, listen to the Peter Karimakwendas in
the party.
They are the true heroes of the struggle. Gender equality is
important,
yes, but it's not the priority at this stage.
He who has
ears to hear, let him hear.
www.cathybuckle.com
Saturday 1st March 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
"Double
double, toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble."
These
two lines from Macbeth are particularly appropriate for Zimbabwe this
week
as elections draw nearer and the ruling party condemn their opponents,
point
accusing fingers and talk of witches, political prostitutes and
charlatans.
Two minutes before President Mugabe stepped up to the
podium to launch his
party's election manifesto, the electricity came back
on in my home town. It
had been off for the past ten hours in a week where
it's been off more than
on.
Wearing a black and red baseball cap and a
green shirt covered with pictures
of himself on it, Mr Mugabe leant on the
podium and looked out at the
audience.
Many of them were also wearing
clothes decorated with Mr Mugabe's face and
they waved little paper flags as
their leader raised his clenched fist.
"Pasi na Morgan!" (Down with
Morgan Tsvangirai) He called out and waited for
the traditional echoed,
damning response.
"Pasi na Makoni!" (Down with Simba Makoni) he shouted next
and again the
response was immediate. This then was the start of yet another
angry,
divisive, Zanu PF campaign - nothing new for our beleaguered country
and
people here.
The posters in the stands expose the prevailing Zanu
PF thinking nine years
into our country's deep crisis: "No to Sanctions!"
said one; "See the
revolution through Cde R.G. Mugabe!" said another. "They
only give sanctions
not freedom!"
proclaimed a third but none offered
solutions to a hundred thousand percent
inflation, no food in the shops,
scarce electricity and water or a quarter
of the population living in exile
around the world. The Zanu PF theme for
the coming elections is: "Defending
our land and sovereignty."
Mr Mugabe spoke for an hour and a half - about
the past, the Independence
struggle, religion, the old days and at one point
went into a lengthy aside
about the fact that he couldn't speak French and
neither could anyone in his
offices. The audience were largely quiet during
the ninety minutes and there
were few interruptions for cheers or clapping -
that is until the insults
began.
The crowd came to life when Mr Mugabe
started condemning his opponents.
Portly women and big bellied men roared
with laughter, ululated and
applauded when the President called on them to:
"Reject the bootlicking
British stooges, the political witches and political
prostitutes."
Ten minutes after the end of the live Zanu PF election
campaign launch, the
electricity went off and everything shuddered to a stop
again. One thing
stayed in my mind from Mr Mugabe's speech and that was his
statement that
"every child must go back to school." The words are a far,
far cry from the
reality of this weekend in education in Zimbabwe. Across
the country our
children have come home for half term with additional
accounts for "Top-Up"
school fees. Most schools face imminent collapse this
term as they cannot
cope with over a hundred thousand percent inflation. The
Top Ups range from
thirty million for children at rural government schools
to hundreds of
millions for urban schools and billions for some private
schools. Children
whose parents are unable to pay the extra fees before
Tuesday will not be
allowed back into school. At the same time government
school teachers are
about to go on strike. Their salaries are not even
enough to buy basic food.
One heartbreaking report this week tells of
teachers at a rural primary
school signing up for emergency food aid. They
say it is embarrassing to
have to do so and they are being laughed at but it
is better than fainting
in class.
This is a tragic state of affairs
for a country whose education was always a
shining beacon in the whole of
Southern Africa. We can only hope and pray
that come March 29th we can begin
repairing the damage and restore our
teachers to their rightful places of
dignity and respect in our society.
Until next week, thanks for reading, love
cathy.
www.cathybuckle.com
1 st March 2008
Dear
Friends.
Browsing through the acres of print from the chattering class in
Zimbabwe on
the subject of the elections and Simba Makoni's participation in
particular
I found a description of him as a 'stalking horse'. Unsure
exactly what it
meant, I checked and discovered that it's a hunting term. It
means to hide
behind something while stalking one's prey, it conveys the
idea of
concealment, of hiding one's true intentions. So, in politics the
term
refers to a candidate put forward specifically to divide the opposition
or
to mask the identity of the real candidate in whose favour the stalking
horse would then withdraw.
The problem for the Zimbabwean electorate
is to decide whether this is
an accurate description of Simba Makoni. He
claims that he stands for no
party, his partnership is with the suffering
masses, he says. And that may
be true. Simba Makoni may indeed be his own
man but that does not exclude
the possibility that someone else is using him
as a cover to draw out
Mugabe's enemies. As yet none of the thousands Makoni
says are behind him
have shown their faces. Makoni has given no facts or
figures to prove his
claim that he has the backing of other Zanu PF
insiders.
At his birthday celebration, Mugabe described Makoni as no
better than a
prostitute; she at least has clients, Mugabe told his
supporters bussed in
for the party. We have become used to such tasteless
language from the old
man. On the same occasion the 84 year-old dismissed
Tsvangirai as 'just in
it for the money'. Coming from Robert Mugabe, that's
pretty hard to swallow
after the brutality that Tsvangirai and his party
have suffered at Mugabe's
hands. The truth is that Mugabe just cannot bear
to acknowledge that anyone
other than himself can possibly have Zimbabwe's
best interests at heart.
Which brings us back to Simba Makoni. Is he
genuine or is he the stalking
horse to draw out the president's enemies so
that Mugabe can afterwards see
that they are dealt with in his usual
ruthless manner. Remember how he
invited all those with an interest in being
president to declare themselves
openly and honestly? And when they did they
were picked off like so many
rabbits caught in the glare of the presidential
Merc's headlights.
Mugabe's cops and Youth Militia are already dealing with
the official
opposition as we have seen just this week again with MDC
supporters beaten
up and arrested all over the country and Augustine Chihuri
declaring that
his police force have the right to use live ammunition where
'other methods
are ineffective or inappropriate'. Mugabe's greatest fear now
is not the
opposition but the enemy within his own ranks; quite literally he
does not
know who they are, he isn't even sure if he can trust them to rig
the
election for him. What better way to force them to expose themselves
than
with a 'stalking horse'?
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean economy
collapses still further and to quote the
Scotsman (UK) ' a desperate Robert
Mugabe has asked China for a £25 billion
loan to help repair Zimbabwe's
shattered economy' The Chinese - and the
Israelis - have already assisted
him with weapons, water canons and purple
dye to repress any future unrest
that may follow a rigged election.
Yet, in spite of all the evidence to the
contrary, there are still people
who hail Mugabe as the saviour of Africa,
they have swallowed his rhetoric
that he was the man who single handed
brought an end to colonial rule.
Mugabe's influence has spread far wider
than Zimbabwe or even Africa.
Pan-Africanists everywhere have taken up
Mugabe's anti-colonial stance and
used it as a cover for all that is wrong
in Africa. The Kenyan Minister of
Justice used the tactic just this last
week when he responded to criticism
by reminding the British 'We are not a
colony and they should.not interfere
with sovereign states.'
'Trying to
pull a Mugabe' was how one European diplomat described the Kenyan
Minister's
remarks and it is surely a sad reflection of the state of affairs
in
Zimbabwe when the President's name is associated with cheap tricks
instead
of the good governance that the country so desperately needs.
Despite all
the rigging and violence already in place all we can hope is
that
Zimbabweans find the courage to turn out in their thousands on March
29th to
vote for honest men and women who genuinely have the country's best
interests at heart.
Yours in the struggle PH.
IOL
March 01 2008 at 12:16PM
By Justine Gerardy
The absurd
surrealism of Zimbabwe's functional collapse lies in a
dimly lit hall just
across the Limpopo River. Fuelled by bleating electronic
jingles, rows of
men throw coins into slot machines that glow in the bad
light. There is
little glamour at the Beitbridge Casino, but it's
operational. A notice on
the wall states that the casino tables will open in
the
evening.
A few kilometres away, a 29-year-old Zimbabwean man had
travelled
south from Masvingo to shop in South Africa's border town of
Musina.
"There's nothing to buy there," he said while perusing tins of
instant
coffee. He travels to Musina every three months to shop for basic
goods.
"Others come to buy to sell, but I
come to buy groceries for my
family," he said.
The two buffer
towns between the world's highest inflation rate and
Africa's strongest
economy are studies in incongruity and mutual dependence.
The
economic meltdown in Zimbabwe has spawned disparate knock-on
effects, such
as a business boom in Musina, the maguma guma industry of
smuggling (and
robbing) people into SA, and constant repairing of the fence
along the
border.
The official 24-hour Beit Bridge border takes Zimbabweans
to Musina's
supermarkets where fully stocked shelves have not been crippled
by the 100
000 percent inflation rate. Some cross just for a few hours to
buy goods.
Yellow Zimbabwean vehicle registration plates rival
official Limpopo
plates in the town's streets and parking lots.
For those using public transport, there is a 24-hour bus and taxi rank
at
the South African border gate market to travel the few kilometres into
Musina. And those on foot can pick up goods right at the gate, turn around
and go home.
In Beitbridge, a SuperSpar had mountains of fluffy
cream doughnuts on
sale in its under-lit aisles, but its dairy fridges were
empty. A petrol
station had shut off access to some of its filling bays. A
curio market had
no shoppers.
A faded upbeat slogan on the wall
of a still-surviving eatery on the
edge of town evoked a Hillbrow-esque
nostalgia of former heyday trade to
hungry and parched border
traffic.
Heady red kitchen tiles and a map of Zimbabwe with
demarcated tourist
sites painted on a wall - where men sat at empty tables -
added to the retro
atmosphere.
Two cups of black tea,
decorously brought in individual pots on a
tray, cost R5 when using the
parallel black-market rate. The tab should have
been R1 000 according to the
official exchange rate.
The hand-written menu tacked above the
counter mostly had variants of
sadza or pap-based dishes. A pork breakfast
was Z$35-million (R22) and beef
stew with sadza and veg was Z$15-million. A
sausage cost Z$10-million. A
queen cake, Z$1,5-million.
In
Musina, a fried-chicken outlet was booming and tables at the local
steakhouse were packed at night.
With his bakkie at the border
at 11pm last Saturday was Thohoyandou
farmer Lieba Alpheus, who was waiting
for Zimbabwean workers, who he had
earlier hired, to cross the border. "Why?
To be honest, they're
hard-working. Even if you're not there and you show
them the job, it's well
done," he said.
In Musina, a
29-year-old Zimbabwean said he gave up his job as a
pharmacy assistant to
sell carved stone curios.
"Tourists aren't coming to Zim anymore
because of the politics, so we
followed them here," he said, adding that he
makes about R10 000 a month.
Musina SuperSpar manager Pieter
Koekemoer said the supermarket had
seen an average of 40% growth in the past
year.
Indeed, the store has now revamped itself to sell bulk packs
of
groceries and added another storeroom.
It is believed a new
mall is to built, anchored by Shoprite Checkers
as Spar's first major
opposition, something that Koekemoer welcomes: "The
load is getting too big,
it needs to be shared. We're getting to a point
that we are overtraded with
the size of floorspace and parking area we've
got."
"Business
this side is very good," said the Bangladeshi owner of Mr
Cheap, Wasif Khan
(36), who moved to Musina three years ago due its booming
trade.
With old-style trading store atmospheres, the Musina
supermarkets
stock basic necessities such as rice, sugar, dairy creamer and
clothes.
The acerbic smell of giant rectangular slabs of green soap
fills the
air.
At the border, a bus driver who was making his
way to Joburg from
Harare was slicing a mango into bite-sized strips.
"There's a great
difference," he said. "On that Zim side, there's nothing.
Here you can buy
food and eat."
Just below the pedestrian
bridge, however, the reality of border
crossings that has spawned a
smuggling industry was playing out in a
blocked-off section in the lower
tier of the bridge.
Three men were moving about in the prohibited
area where they charge
Zimbabweans to get across the border. The men lower a
rope to the South
African soil below for people to clamber down and head to
cross the fence.
For R100, one offered to show how it was done.
"The problem is that if we catch and deport them today, tomorrow
they're
back here. It just carries on," said an armed South African
soldier.
The fences along the border bear the brunt of fence
jumpers. One
battered section has a clearly worn track from behind the fence
to the bush
on the opposite road where a little girl's pink boot lay
discarded. The mesh
fence of another section was propped up by rocks, while
another had a
200-metre gap in the outer fence.
Two policemen
who jog daily along the border fence at 6.30am said they
often came across
fence-jumpers, as did officers at a nearby army outpost.
A lifelong
Musina resident, Jacob Matakanye, of the Musina Legal
Advice Office, said
between 100 and 200 were crossing illegally every day. A
person could be
arrested and deported up to three times a month, he added.
"The
situation is out of hand - they're always maintaining the fence.
Things are
getting worse in Zimbabwe every day. Yesterday I was told that a
professional teacher was getting R1 100 per month. Everything is worse than
before."
Musina has no refugee reception office and few people
were aware of a
14-day permit which could be applied for once in SA. The
permit gives 14
days for people to apply for asylum - in this case, at the
only Gauteng
office processing new asylum applications, hours away in
Pretoria.
Ironically, nearly all Zimbabweans want to return to
home.
"The Zimbabweans coming here don't want to stay here forever.
They
want to go back," said Matakanye. "We're busy lobbying the government
to
relax the law with Zimbabwe so that people can apply for asylum because
of
economic reasons."
People in Musina appeared sympathetic to
the Zimbabweans, with much
shared blood between the borders. Many spoke of
their pain. If there were
xenophobic feelings, they were dormant, unlike
recent violent anti-foreigner
sentiments seen elsewhere in SA.
For some, being exposed to the realities of life in Zimbabwe brought
home
what could happen if the tables had to turn. "If there was war here
too,
maybe we would have fled. They have to come here," said Morris
Netshitade
(20). "Most people here know and see what kind of difficulties
they face
there. Life there is very difficult, you can see the situation."
Scores of unaccompanied children - like a barefoot, 8-year-old boy
with a
bloodied nose and clothes crusted with dirt - cross the border to
beg.
"I feel pity for them. They're black like us," said a taxi
driver Edmo
Chari (26), who ferries people to Musina from the
border.
But a worker at a nearby Big Five game park opened his
phone to reveal
a video clip filmed in September of an old man being beaten
to force him
into an overloaded van near the police station.
"They treat them like donkeys. They don't care. I don't like seeing
people
treated like that."
He believed SA was wasting its time and money
by arresting and
deporting Zimbabweans. "It's not the right solution. We
don't know what will
happen in South Africa in the future. If we received
the same treatment, if
we were treated as nonexistent, as they're doing
here, then it won't be
fine."
An hour later, a truck with
dozens of hands clamped onto the mesh
windows was heading for the
border.
At sunset the next day, the pedestrian bridge remained full
of
Zimbabweans crossing into SA. Others were returning home. Chatting,
laughing, walking calmly, and carrying heavy bags.
On the South
African side, the flawless, rich black tarmac of the N1
stretches off into
the distance, beautifully marked with painted road signs
and thoroughly
policed.
On the Zim side, the road to the north is pallid,
potholed, grey and
lifeless, the vista broken only by the occasional
donkey.
This article was originally published on page 13 of The
Star on March
01, 2008
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 14:44
HARARE - MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is more popular and would win a
majority out of the presidential election involving three other candidates,
according to an online poll conducted on the website of The
Zimbabwean
-www.thezimbabwean.co.uk.
The poll was conducted as a dip-stick survey to
give some idea of the
feeling of Zimbabweans, but by its nature has been
limited to those with
internet access. It is therefore not fully
representative.
Some 1 200 votes had been cast by Friday in response to the
question, "Who
would you vote for to be the next president of Zimbabwe?" A
total of 629
voters chose Tsvangirai as their choice, representing a 51,5%,
followed by
independent candidate Simba Makoni, who had 482 votes, which is
39,5% of the
total number of cast votes.
Aged Zanu (PF) leader Robert
Mugabe, the incumbent head of state who has
been in power for 28 years but
now widely condemned for ruining a once
prosperous country had only received
56 votes, which is a 4,6% share from
the total. Leader of the other MDC
formation Arthur Mutambara, who pulled
out of the presidential race but was
included on the online poll had
received 11 votes by Friday, representing
0,9%, even less than the 43 voters
who said none of the four candidates
would be their choice.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 14:50
HARARE
Ousted Harare Anglican Diocese bishop, Nolbert Kunonga
has lost ground in
his battle against Bishop Sebastian Bakare, and has also
lost all moral
authority among parishioners, senior clergyman in the
embattled church said
this week.
Kunonga - who as Bishop of Harare tried
to use the pulpit to defend
President Mugabe's insane policies - was
dismissed by the Anglican synod of
Central Africa after he attempted to
withdraw the Diocese of Harare from the
synod.
The synod, the Church's
supreme authority in the region, appointed retired
Bishop Bakare as
caretaker head of the Harare diocese, a move Kunonga is
fiercely
resisting.
"The majority of priests are backing Dr. Bakare, and were present
at his
installation and enthronement," said the chancellor of the Diocese of
Harare, Robert Stumbles.
"Almost all those priests who were unlawfully
and autocratically dismissed
by Dr Kunonga, and who remained in Zimbabwe,
have once again joined the
growing band who show loyalty to Bishop Bakare
and are delighted at the turn
of events. They regarded Dr. Kunonga as a
persecutor," Stumbles said.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 13:28
Editorial
Senior officers in the uniformed
services are falling over each other in a
competition to ingratiate
themselves at this time, by being seen to instruct
their subordinates to
vote for Mugabe at the forthcoming elections.
This is a clear abuse
of office. They have no right to do this, and such
silly instructions should
be ignored. Members of the uniformed services, as
any other Zimbabwean,
should be free to choose whomsoever he or she wishes
to vote for.
Every
citizen should vote for a candidate of his or her choice. That is what
free
and fair elections are all about - the freedom to choose.
If the winning
candidate is to be chosen only by these pompous, be-medalled,
praise-singers
what is the point in having elections at all.
We are pleased to see that the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) has
been quick to condemn the
reckless statements made by the Defence Forces
Chief and Retired
Major-General Paradzayi Zimondi and others.
As the NCA correctly points out,
Zimondi, who is paid from our taxes, is not
allowed to make political
statements.
The Herald of 29 February quotes Zimondi as saying: "I am giving
you an
order to vote for President Mugabe and do not be
distracted."
Zimondi parroted his master's voice when he said supporting
Simba Makoni or
Morgan Tsvangirai was tantamount to supporting former
colonial master
Britain.
Most Zimbabweans are, as indeed they should be,
appalled at such idiotic
pronouncements by people in such positions of power
and authority. Let us
not forget that the reason they make such self-serving
statements is because
they have amassed huge wealth at the expense of
ordinary Zimbabweans, whose
average life expectancy is now the lowest in the
world.
We notice The Herald was quick to fan the false fears that Makoni and
Tsvangirai would give the farms back to the white commercial farmers. Both
these other candidates have clear policies for handling the land reform
issue - with the corruption, violence and chaos that has marred Mugabe's
handling of it.
The heart of the matter is that these men are terrified
of losing their
ill-gotten gains. They believe, erroneously, that the
re-election of Mugabe
as president will protect them and their riches. How
wrong they are!
Already the moths of inflation have eaten more than half
their wealth.
We agree with the NCA that statements like these, reported
widely in the
official media, should cause those who had already prepared to
legitimize
the coming elections as free and fair to think again. With such
threats from
leaders of the armed forces, how can voters cast their ballots
without fear.
Ominously, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, remains silent
through it all.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 17:46
In February 2000, the war veterans led by the late
Chenjerai Hunzvi charged
into the white owned farms, looting, killing and
torturing people as they
grabbed white owned farms. Here is an eyewitness
account of what happened in
Goromonzi and Shamva.
GOROMONZI
Upon
entering Glebe farm now owned by a Zanu (PF) official, one is welcomed
by
the sorry sight of a field of wilting tobacco heavily outgrown by
weeds.
Further into the farm, there are dilapidated tobacco barns that have
turned
into a play ground for goats and chicken.
But eight years ago,
before it was reallocated under the fast track land
reform programme, Glebe
farm was a hive of activity, producing tons of
foreign currency-generating
tobacco and other crops.
"Since the farm was taken there has not been much
production and he (the new
owner) always has excuses like the rains have not
been good, inputs have not
been there and so on," commented Theresa Masoke,
a worker at the farm.
This is the situation across the country.
A survey
by The Zimbabwean revealed that many of the newly resettled farmers
have
struggled to produce enough to feed the nation, with many of them
failing to
utilise fully the farms they were allocated.
Last year the government
allocated farm implements to farmers under their
mechanisation programme.
The aim was to boost the capacity of the mew
farmers but just like in the
initial process of land reform there were so
many loopholes and those who
benefited ended up abusing the implements.
A new farmer in Shamva admitted
that he had sold the scotch cart he was
given.
"I sold the cart to a
friend who lives nearby and in case the government
officials come to inspect
it, I will just get it from my friend and return
to him when the inspectors
are gone," said the farmer.
Asked if he did not need it for his operations at
his A1 farm, the new
farmer said he had sold the cart to supplement the fees
for his school-going
children.
Economic analysts have pointed out that
the process was flawed as land was
given to Zanu (PF) supporters, not on a
merit basis.
"If the government genuinely wanted to give the land they should
have handed
it to those who could produce enough but it was based on how
much you
supported the party and eight years later look at what has happened
to the
farms, there is destruction. How can they expect an economic
turnaround when
there is no production in the farms,' commented a top
economic analyst who
preferred anonymity.
The situation is worse in
Shamva where many resettled war veterans have
turned the once highly
productive farms into bushy grasslands.
Chabweno farm is now a pale shadow of
the tobacco giants that it used to be.
The barns are now in a state of
disrepair, as they have been lying idle from
the day the former owner was
chased.
Further down is Umritsur Farm where the new owners are cultivating
vegetables only on a small portion. The rest of the farmland is now an empty
grassland. Production of citrus fruits at Ceres farm, acquired by Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche, has since
stopped and the tree plantations have dried up due to neglect.
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 01 March 2008 17:49
BY MAXWELL PERKINS
KANEMANYANGA
The crisis we are experiencing in our country has taught us
that we must
re-examine all our values. Our commonly accepted standards have
proved to be
inadequate.
We desperately need a new quality of life.
Some superior quality of life
that is above resentment, jealousy and greedy.
The best way to do this is to
have leaders who confess their own
shortcomings instead of spotlighting that
of others.
The leaders we have
today are failing to do that. President Mugabe is always
shouting at Bush,
Blair and now Gordon. There is no problem in highlighting
the mistakes of
fellow leaders such as the invasion of Iraq. However, this
does not mean you
should fail to recognize the log in your own eye. Mugabe
blames everything
on sanctions, but he does not want to admit that his
colleagues are thieves
and are also corrupt. This has also contributed to
the free fall of the
economy.
We have totally failed to win the war against corruption. When Gono
began
fighting corruption he received threats from some people. Is there any
ordinary man who can threaten Gono? Many parastatals in this country were
paralyzed by corruption. Some of the examples are Noczim, Zesa, GMB, and PTC
only to mention a few.
The culprits were never brought to book because
they are powerful people.
Presidential aspirant Dr Simba Makoni said,
"National institutions have been
corrupted, privatized and politicized.
There is a scourge of patronage and
gross abuse of power and culture of
chiefdom. This is the Zimbabwe we have
today. We need to create a new dawn
in Zimbabwe that will put food on the
table."
In 2004 the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development was given Z$1, 5
trillion by the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe. This money was for the procurement
of tractors and combine
harvesters, upgrading irrigation facilities as well
as purchasing fertilizer
meant for new farmers. Government officials,
politicians and civil servants
allocated themselves the equipment that was
acquired by RBZ for the new
farmers.
Some of the new farmers who had grown wheat even failed to access
combine
harvesters allocated to ARDA resulting in the crop being damaged by
early
rains. We go around the world spreading the gospel of land yet we give
our
farm workers Z$40 million that is not even enough to buy 2 litres of
cooking
oil. The subsidized fuel allocated to new farmers is being diverted
on the
black market.
Towards the end of 2007 our country experienced
massive cash shortages.
According to RBZ Governor out of Z$67 trillion that
was printed only Z$2
trillion was in circulation. By that time majority of
Zimbabweans were
earning about 50 million. Even though they could not get
that 50 million
since the banks had no money. Where was the rest of the
money? It was with
the cash barons who are the chefs in influential
positions.
When Gono took some measures to recover the money, many people
expected that
high-ranking officials would be arrested but none of that
happened. During
that year's Zanu (PF) congress, Gono had this to say, "
Nyika ino iri
kurasikirwa nemari yakawanda chaizvo pamusana pedu isu
vamunoti machef ,
kana kuti vamakaisa pazvigaro zvinokosha , mungave
muhurumende , muparty ,
mumapraststal , mulocal government kana
mumabhizimisi kusanganisira
mumabanks."
The real truth is that the
so-called chefs are the people who have destroyed
the country. Mugabe has
just extended the terms of army generals and that of
Chihuri. He wants them
on his side. They protect each other for they have
been buddies of the
unholy alliance for a long time.
This affects the running of the whole nation
because from the executive,
judiciary and legislature there is gross abuse
of power and corruption. No
matter how many cases of corruption that arises
nothing will be done about
it. There is only one solution to all this and
that is the removal of Mugabe
and all these people. 29 March is the day for
every Zimbabwean to do that.
All chefs must go. What justice do you expect
from the people who have been
at the helm of power for the last 28 years? A
lot has happened no one has
the power to punish another because either way
one knows the other's
secrets. So the only way is for them is to stick
together.