SOUTHAMPTON, England (AP) - From a cramped dining room in southern
England, Wilf Mbanga has become a crusader for Zimbabwe's free press - the
latest endeavor in a life that has tracked the shifts in Zimbabwe's history
over the last 40 years.
With the help of his wife and dozens of
writers working for free, Mbanga is publishing The Zimbabwean - an exiles'
view of a country where journalists can be jailed for reporting without
permission and the news media is now firmly controlled by the
government.
For Mbanga, a black man who grew up when Zimbabwe was
white-ruled Rhodesia and who later became a confidant of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe, it has been a long journey from outsider to insider
and back out again.
``All we want to do is put out a newspaper that tells
the story of what's going on in Zimbabwe,'' says Mbanga, who fled the
country in 2003 after his Daily News ran afoul of Zimbabwe's harsh media
laws.
Mbanga edits his weekly in his dining room in leafy southern
England - ``far from (Zimbabwe's) prisons'' says the professorial
57-year-old.
The Zimbabwean's third issue came out Friday in Britain and
South Africa, where Mbanga says about a quarter of Zimbabwe's 12 million
people now live in exile or as refugees. Only the first edition, released
Feb. 11, was allowed into Zimbabwe.
In many ways, the 24-page tabloid
is a classic African newspaper. It earnestly approaches politics, writing
about corruption and oppression with passion.
``Mugabe launches
smokes and mirrors campaign,'' was the headline over last week's lead story.
``Free and fair election impossible,'' topped page two.
In a nod to its
exile nature, there are stories of lonely lives lived abroad, such as the
Feb. 18 story ``Oh how I miss the good old bowling alley.''
There are
arts and music features, though, like the news stories, nearly all touch on
Zimbabwe's politics.
The back page is reserved for sports, namely cricket
and soccer.
Born in Harare, then known as Salisbury, Mbanga grew up under
white rule and like many blacks was educated by missionaries. ``The
government,'' he says, ``had no interest in our education.''
After
college, he found editors also had little interest in black reporters. ``Our
stories were invariably about dog shows or flower shows.''
But in 1974,
with the country's civil war dragging on, the Rhodesian authorities released
many independence leaders from prison for settlement talks, and his editors
``realized that black reporters actually got good stories from these
nationalists,'' Mbanga says.
It was at those talks that he first met
Mugabe.
``He stood out ... he has a very sharp intellect,'' Mbanga says.
``A lot of (the nationalists) were bitter, they'd been in jail for years
without trial, they wanted revenge, but Robert Mugabe was talking of how he
didn't hate the white man.''
Mugabe's message of reconciliation
impressed Mbanga, whose wife's grandparents were white settlers.
They
also shared a love of the same music - ``Elvis Presley, Pat Boone,'' Mbanga
says, chuckling.
It would be seven more years before Rhodesia became
Zimbabwe, and when it did, Mugabe asked his friend to help start the
country's news service, Ziana.
``I traveled the world with'' Mugabe,
Mbanga says, displaying a picture of the two sharing a laugh with late
Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.
He left the news service in 1987 and
in 1998 founded The Daily News.
The paper got its legs just as political
violence and economic turmoil began to grip Zimbabwe as the government
seized thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to
blacks.
Mugabe narrowly won a 2002 vote that observers said was swayed by
violence and rigging by Mugabe's party. Since then, the government's
crackdown on the independent press has continued, picking up pace ahead of
March 31 parliamentary elections.
The Committee to Protect
Journalists, an international press freedom watchdog, calls Zimbabwe one of
the 10 worst countries for a journalist to work in.
By 2003, Mbanga's
Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily, had become far too critical
for Mugabe's tastes.
After a brief run-in with the police, Mbanga fled to
The Netherlands, and The Daily News was later shut down - one of four
independent newspapers forced out of circulation in less than two
years.
Mbanga spent a year in The Netherlands before settling in
Southampton, near his wife's parents.
Unsatisfied with the life of an
idle exile, he launched The Zimbabwean.
It is funded by the Mbanga's
savings and two Dutch non-governmental organizations, which Mbanga said he
can't name because both still work in Zimbabwe.
What is most
important, he says, ``is press freedom - people have a right to know what's
going on.''
``I don't think we're going to change a country straight
away,'' Mbanga says. ``And Mugabe will not under any circumstance hand over
power ... the power has gone to his head.
``But I will go back to
Zimbabwe as a journalist.''
THE government, often accused of populist
policies at the expense of pragmatism, will dole out a whopping $156 billion
annually to former political prisoners in what is widely seen as an
expensive election gimmick.
Last week, the government, accused of
ignoring the country's financial realities, authorised monthly pensions of
$1.3 million to each former political prisoner, detainee or restrictee with
effect from last month, through a statutory instrument gazetted on
Friday. A surviving spouse is entitled to a pension equal to 55 percent
of the pension to which a deceased ex-political, detainee or restrictee was
or would have been entitled. If a deceased ex-political prisoner,
detainee or restrictee is survived by a spouse and dependent children, they
will be entitled to pensions but in different percentages. In this
case the government will pay 25 percent of the monthly pension payable to a
surviving spouse, two children (40 percent), three children (50 percent),
four children (60 percent) and five children or more (66 percent).
"Where, at the time of his death, a registered ex-political prisoner,
detainee or restrictee was in receipt of a pension in terms of this section
or would, but for his death, have been entitled to a pension in terms of
this section, a pension shall be payable to a surviving spouse and any
dependent child of the deceased ex-political prisoner, detainee or
restrictee." "If a deceased ex-political prisoner, detainee or
restrictee is survived by a spouse there shall be paid to that surviving
spouse for 12 months after the death of the ex-political prisoner, detainee
or restrictee an amount equal to the difference between monthly rate of the
pension of the deceased ex-political prisoner, detainee or restrictee
immediately before his death." The move, which comes just before a
crucial Parliamentary election slated for the end of this month will
obviously pressure public finances. The fiscus, already making
contingent measures for the importation of food relief to avert famine in
drought-prone areas in the wake of poor rains, would need to cough out $13
billion every month to meet the unbudgeted payments. A massive $156
billion would have been doled out from the government purse at the end of 12
months, a figure almost equal to the vote allocated for operations and
salaries to the two Agriculture Ministries in the 2004 budget to the
estimated 10 000 ex-political detainees and restrictees. Economic
commentators said the payments would be an expensive strategy that would
slow down the modest economic turnaround realised so far. They said the move
indicated that it was difficult to instil fiscal discipline in a government
facing a tough election. The commentators said that what was
disappointing was that this came at a time when the government was expected
to adopt austere anti-inflation measures in line with the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's efforts to rid the country of hyper-inflation.
Government profligacy, against a background of a chorus of angry voices for
fiscal rectitude, has for years been stoking inflationary fires. They
said the timing of the decision to pay former political prisoners would make
it appear as if the ruling ZANU PF, which faces the Movement for Democratic
Change in yet another tricky election on March 31, is trying to buy votes
from the disgruntled former political prisoners. "When payments are
done so many years after independence, suspicion arises from certain
quarters that the intention would not be to help, but gain some political
mileage, especially coming on the eve of an election," said political
analyst Heneri Dzinotyiwei. This is not the first time the government
has done something like this. In 1997 the late Chenjerai Hunzvi-led vocal
war veterans forced President Mugabe to award hefty gratuities and pensions
to the former independence war fighters. The war veterans had staged a
series of protests against what they said was the government's neglect of
their welfare. Each of the 50 000-strong veterans was subsequently paid a
one-off gratuity of $50 000 in a move commentators claim triggered
Zimbabwe's present economic crisis, now in its fifth year. Said
Bulawayo-based chartered accountant Eric Bloch: "Any unbudgeted expenditure
has an impact. It will increase the state's deficit and the government will
be forced to borrow and in the long run the payouts would have some adverse
inflationary impact. It is a negative development for the economy trying to
come out of the doldrums. However, it seems the government is buying votes
with these payouts."
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ), which has upped the stakes in taming inflation, as a key
ingredient to stabilising the economy, this week warned producers and
retailers against ad hoc price increases.
Addressing labour union
leaders yesterday, RBZ governor Gideon Gono, who believes that price
stability is key to economic prosperity, warned of the "acidic era of
yesteryear" when massive price hikes were effected on an "hourly
basis". Concern over sharp price hikes across the board come as the
treasury is considering establishing a price and income commission
comprising the public and private sectors as well as labour. The commission
would consider and approve price adjustments of basic commodities, based on
agreed costing rules. "Despite the marked decline in inflation
registered over the past 12 months, we continue to have ad hoc boardroom
decisions hiking prices, fees, rents and service charges at levels way out
of line with economic conditions on the ground," Gono said.
Inflation has dropped from a peak of 623 percent in January 2004 to 133.9
percent in January 2005. But despite this slowdown, fear of inflationary
pressures has not receded. "Such practices are threatening to unwind
the anti-inflation progress the country has made to date," said Gono, who
cuts the image of an old school anti-inflation hawk of the traditional
economy. The concerns from the monetary authorities also come in the
face of the collapse of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, a loose coalition
of labour, the government and business whose mandate was to achieve a social
contract among the three institutions. Against a background where
it is widely believed that business planning would be much easier if
companies and consumers did not have to factor inflation into their models,
Gono appealed to labour leaders and industry executives to exercise
restraint in wage and salary adjustments. "Today's increases in either
rentals, interest rates, wages or profits that are out of line with current
productivity levels are a recipe for stagflation and economic hardships and
toil on tomorrow's distribution table," Gono said. The central
bank, which has previously cautioned against sharp salary and wage hikes,
said it had amicably agreed a 95 percent cost of living adjustment with its
staff this year. "We therefore call upon labour, as well as the
business community, to engage constructively so as to come up with positions
that coincide with the realities prevailing on the ground, as well as
envisaged trends in the future, as opposed to clinging to benchmarks long
passed in history," Gono said. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe said the governor's statement
was an "advisory statement and not a hard and fast rule". Chibhebhe
added that the ZCTU would continue to pressure industry leaders to award
their workers wages and salaries which were in line with the poverty datum
line. "The poverty datum line is now pegged at $2 million, so it is
pointless to talk of percentages. Gono did not say no one should go beyond
95 percent," Chibhebhe said, adding that the ZCTU had ironed out differences
with the RBZ over the issue of salary increases.
BULAWAYO - Former Zipra intelligence
supremo Dumiso Dabengwa, who was almost kicked out of national politics by
ZANU PF Young Turks in Bulawayo, has bounced back as one of the most
powerful persons in Bulawayo.
Insiders say Dabengwa, who was
rescued by the party presidency which weeded out all the Young Turks because
of their alleged involvement in the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration that
was allegedly against the nomination of Joyce Mujuru as Vice-President, has
been given a blank cheque to reorganise the party from cell level.
"He has been given a blank cheque just like Jonathan Moyo was given during
his heydays. The only difference with Moyo is that Dabengwa does not have
free access to the media," a source said. Former Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo was expelled from both the ruling party and the government
last month when he decided to stand as an independent candidate in
Tsholotsho. Moyo had become one of the most powerful men in the
country, doling out millions of dollars to lure people to the ruling
party. Dabengwa, who indicated last October that he was calling it a
day and would not be participating in any elections, almost got kicked out
of politics when the young Bulawayo provincial executive excluded him from
the line-up for the party's central committee. But he was rescued
at the party's congress when he was appointed both to the central committee
and the politburo, ZANU PF's powerful inner cabinet. He was also
tasked with restructuring the party's Bulawayo province and the war veterans
association. The Bulawayo provincial executive was dominated by war
veterans, most of whom were said to be loyal to Jabulani Sibanda, a former
leader of the ex-combatants who publicly stated that the old guard was a
spent force. The executive was dissolved on January 17 because of
"incompetence". In a move that seemed to be aimed at completely wiping
out the influence of the Young Turks, Vice-President Joseph Msika dissolved
all ZANU PF party structures two weeks later, right down to the grassroots,
a move which observers say has given Dabengwa a free rein.
"JONATHAN Moyo is dead
and buried ... and we should be drafting the epitaph which should read
something like, here lies ... please traveller stop and spit or p***
(unprintable word)", said one senior journalist on hearing the news that the
mercurial government propagandist had been fired.
This
underlined the extent to which the former minister was reviled by
journalists. True, Zimbabwe and indeed the world of politics is rid
of Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo but the trail of the deadly green slime of his
touch still remains. As the small but vibrant private media
gleefully celebrated the demise of Moyo, the hated former minister of
information and publicity, the government has used a draconian piece of
legislation crafted by the former propaganda chief to shut a Bulawayo-based
weekly in what analysts view as the continuance of his crude legacy in
dealing with the Press. The latest move by Zimbabwe's increasingly
ostracised government comes at a time when questions of access to
information and the right to free expression have become cornerstones to
building democracy the world over. Under the repressive Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Moyo set up the Media and
Information Commission (MIC) headed by former journalism lecturer Tafataona
Mahoso to licence media organisations and journalists. Publicly
Moyo, widely seen as a bundle of contradictions, claimed that AIPPA was a
collective government responsibility. But surprisingly, in his CV Moyo says
that he spearheaded the draconian law which he claims to be a "landmark
piece of legislation ... sought after by jurisdictions in Africa
..." Hardly a week after Moyo's inglorious exit from President
Robert Mugabe's so-called "war cabinet" after the combative former
government spin-doctor decided to defy President Mugabe and his ruling ZANU
PF by registering himself as an independent candidate for Tsholotsho, the
MIC plucked AIPPA out of the closet to shut The Weekly Times.
Citing alleged misrepresentations or non-disclosure of material facts by the
owners; Mohoso cancelled the paper's licence, bringing to four the number of
papers closed since 2001. The MIC closed the Daily News and its sister
weekly newspaper The Daily News on Sunday on September 11 2003 for refusing
to register under AIPPA. The Moyo-appointed MIC also moved with speed
in less than a year after the closure of the two papers to shut The Tribune,
a weekly owned by ZANU PF legislator Kindness Paradza who had dared to
criticise some aspects of AIPPA during his maiden speech in
Parliament. According to Mahoso, The Weekly Times contravened Section
71 (1) (a) of AIPPA by dabbling in political reporting instead of
developmental journalism as indicated by Mthwakazi Publishing, the
publishers of the weekly, in their application. Mahoso said in his
statement the publishers' promise to stick to developmental journalism and
other social issues was "a hoax". He added: "It (MIC) therefore announces
unfortunately, the cancellation for one year of the publishing licence for
Mthwakazi Publishing House, publishers of The Weekly Times. Media services
are required to stick to the types of publication for which they registered
because it is illegal for them to pick up someone else's unregistered
objects and projects for whatever reward." Analysts who spoke to The
Financial Gazette this week, while roundly condemning the closure of The
Weekly Times five weeks before the March 2005 watershed elections, were
unanimous Moyo's legacy was not likely to be dismantled by a government with
paranoid tendencies. They said although Moyo, loathed by the media as
the perceived architect of AIPPA and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA)
which maintains the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings' monopoly of the
airwaves, had been fired from the government, the beleaguered ZANU PF needed
the two pieces of legislation to keep the main opposition at bay as
President Mugabe eyes a two-thirds majority in the Sixth
Parliament. The ruling party wants a two-thirds majority, which
analysts say is very unlikely with the discord in ZANU PF, to tinker with
the constitution to establish a proposed bicameral house, among other
changes. President Mugabe disclosed at the weekend his government's
plans to re-establish a senate "in the next four to six years". It was first
revealed in The Financial Gazette in the last quarter of last year that
government intended re-establishing the senate this year. "It is a
fact that Moyo is gone but hardly two weeks after his departure, the
government uses the evil AIPPA which he played a major part in drafting to
close yet another newspaper," said Foster Dongozi, the secretary-general of
the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists. "His departure is presently no
reason to celebrate because he is not gone with his evil laws. Our position
remains the same - AIPPA must be repealed to restore sanity to the media,"
said Dongozi. David Coltart, the legal spokesman for the MDC, said
AIPPA and other repressive media laws would remain intact even with the
departure of Moyo because ZANU PF was determined to defeat the opposition by
whatever means. Coltart said Moyo, like other people working for the
government and ZANU PF, were being used as tools to perpetuate President
Mugabe's rule. "All along Moyo has just been a tool. There is no way
the regime can repeal AIPPA. ZANU PF legislators overwhelmingly and
enthusiastically voted for AIPPA in parliament. So maybe Moyo is probably
right by claiming that you cannot blame AIPPA on him," said
Coltart. "The Weekly Times has been closed because it was targeting the
heart of ZANU PF, the rural voters and the working class. It had to go,
according to ZANU PF, which felt threatened by the new paper.", he
said. The MIC has also in recent weeks written a "warning" letter to
publishers of The Zimbabwe Independent about its journalists who freelance
for the Mail & Guardian, a sister paper of The Zimbabwe Independent.
THE ruling ZANU PF,
suspicious of local political groups it sees as Western fronts to effect
regime change, has launched a probe into the funding of a loose coalition of
independent candidates participating in this month's parliamentary
elections.
This comes amid revelations that the emergent third
political force has established a fully-fledged secretariat and acquired
vehicles to be used during the watershed polls. According to
Zimbabwe's laws, it is illegal for any party or individual to source foreign
funding to aid political activities. Under the Political Parties Finance
Act, independent candidates are also not entitled to state funds.
The government, an object of bitter attacks for alleged human rights
violations from the West, suspects that the independents are being
bankrolled by its western critics who are hoping that the next parliamentary
election would complete the critical encirclement around President Robert
Mugabe's government. Impeccable government and ruling party sources
told The Financial Gazette that the authorities, jittery in the face of an
increasingly disillusioned electorate, had deployed resources to probe the
source of the funding of the Independent Candidates Solidarity
Network. The political grouping, which government sources suspect might
form a political party after the parliamentary polls, is coordinating
campaigns and meetings for most of the candidates standing as independents
in the March 31 elections. The group is scheduled to stage a solidarity
rally of about 16 independent candidates in Bulawayo on Sunday.
"The manner they have coordinated their things, starting with the payments
of nomination fees to setting up offices and a secretariat shows there is
money coming from somewhere," said a source. "The government wants to
know where the money is coming from. If the funding is local, there is no
problem but if it is from outside there is a problem," he said. "So they are
looking to establish the source of the funds." Didymus Mutasa, the
ZANU PF secretary for administration, the government and ruling party
confirmed there was interests to know the identity of the funders of
independents as well as the objectives of such a move. "We are not
aware who is funding them. We really want to know their identities. You can
assist us to find out because we real want to know," said Mutasa.
Sikhumbuzo Ndiweni, a former ZANU PF Bulawayo Provincial Information and
Publicity Secretary, who is co-ordinating the project said the network was
not worried by a government probe as they had nothing to hide, adding his
organisations was assisting all the 16 independent candidates registered for
polls save for Ottilia Maluleke in Chiredzi North. Ndiweni claimed
Maluleke, who lost ZANU PF primaries to Celine Pote, pulled out due to
immense pressure from ZANU PF colleagues. Maluleke was not immediately
available for comment to verify Ndiweni's claims. "We are now working
with sixteen candidates as we believe they have a role to play in the
politics of Zimbabwe," said Ndiweni adding that they did no have any foreign
funding. The remaining sixteen independents whose activities are
co-ordinated by the network include former Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo (Tsholotsho), Margaret Dongo (Harare Central), Dunmore Makuwaza
(Mbare), Tendekai Mswata (St Mary's), Fanuel Chiremba (Tafara-Mabvuku) Peter
Nyoni (Hwange East), Charles Mpofu (Bulawayo South), Leonard Nkala
(Phelandaba/Mpopoma) and Stars Mathe (Pumula/Luveve). Others include Lloyd
Siyoka (Beitbridge), and Godwin Shiri (Mberengwa East). "Initially
we were working with seventeen candidates but one pulled out after pressure
and intimidation from ZANU PF. The MDC has also tried to intimidate some of
its former members but these have stood their grounds. "We strongly
believe there's a huge political vacuum which needs to be filled. The
supposed two political giants ZANU PF and MDC are far apart leaving this
vacuum. The need for a third political force is to keep check and balances
on ZANU PF and the MDC." Margaret Dongo, who stood and won as an
independent candidate against Vivian Mwashita of ZANU PF in 1995 in
Sunningdale and is now standing in Harare Central, disclosed to The
Financial Gazette yesterday she had been approached to work with the
grouping. "They have called me requesting me to attend a solidarity
rally on March 6 in Bulawayo. The concept is not wrong," said
Dongo. "The independents are launching a joint campaign. What they need
is solidarity support. The invitations I have received is to come and share
my experiences as a long serving independent candidate," she added.
EXPATRIATES
employed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been put on standby
for immediate evacuation in case the government cracks the whip on the
foreign-funded institutions once the much-feared NGO Bill is signed into
law.
Apart from mulling the immediate airlift of their expatriate
workers, most NGOs have advised their staff to adopt a low profile,
particularly in view of the March 31 elections to avoid being branded
enemies of the state. An increasingly combative President Robert Mugabe
(81) believes NGOs are conduits of foreign funding used to prop up
opposition parties and exerting pressure on his government, which has been
in power since the country's independence from Britain in 1980. The
veteran politician - whose claim to a popular mandate to rule Zimbabwe was
disputed by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in 2002 - has
crafted the stringent NGO Bill to regulate the sector. The Bill is yet to be
signed into law. Documents in possession of The Financial Gazette
indicate that NGOs are jittery over the restrictive law, which among other
things, prohibits them from receiving outside funding and carrying out
activities relating to governance - a general term referring to human rights
issues and civic education. Faced with the onslaught, some NGOs
have started winding down their operations, which were key in financing some
of Zimbabwe's social programmes including the war against the HIV/AIDS
pandemic. "Development workers are advised to adopt a low profile and
low visibility whether in urban or rural placements, but more so in the
latter, stay prepared to evacuate at short notice," read a document
circulated by one of the NGOs to its key staff. "The reality is
that whether one likes the Bill or not, it will soon be enacted into a law
governing the operations of all NGOs and given its viciousness, it is going
to have a traumatic and cataclysmic impact on the NGO community and their
operations," the documens say. The National Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) confirmed to The Financial Gazette
that most NGOs had put in place contingent measures to deal with the
impeding law that could see 10 000 workers being thrown onto the
streets. "NGOs are responding differently to the Bill but the majority
of those likely to be affected most are those working on human rights and
governance issues," said the NANGO official. Lovemore Madhuku,
chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, which is pressing for a
new constitution, accused the government of utilising the uncertainties over
the Bill to create problems for the sector. "We are aware that some
NGOs are taking pre-emptive steps. But as soon as Mugabe signs the Bill into
law, we are going to challenge it legally," Madhuku said.
BULAWAYO - It only
commands 21 seats, an insignificant number to influence the 150-member
House, but Matabeleland is presently calling the shots in national
politics.
Though it seems to have been brought to the fore by the
so-called Tsholotsho Declaration, which saw six provincial chairmen - three
of whom were not from Matabeleland - being suspended from the party,
Matabeleland has always played a key role in Zimbabwean politics.
Soon after independence, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which
dominated politics in the region, played the crucial role of toning down
ZANU PF. Though ZAPU was part of the government of national unity, it was
still regarded officially as the main opposition. Though it controlled
only 20 seats, Matabeleland was so critical that President Robert Mugabe,
then Prime Minister, was forced to the negotiating table despite his
military might. ZANU PF failed to stamp its authority in the region
which regarded ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo as the father of the nation, forcing
President Mugabe to negotiate with Nkomo culminating in the Unity Accord of
1987. While this appeared to be a major victory for the ruling party,
with some diehards in ZAPU claiming that their party had been swallowed,
Matabeleland continues to call the shots. But commentators disagree on the
reasons why the region is so critical. Reggie Moyo of the National
Constitutional Assembly, a non-governmental organisation fighting for a new
people-driven constitution, said Matabeleland played a crucial role because
of the unity factor. He said any organisation involved in national
politics had to encompass unity and anyone who was viewed as being against
the spirit of unity was immediately isolated. "The present leaders
are doing everything to guard against division and because they cherish the
foundations that were laid down during the liberation struggle, they tend to
favour those who participated in the liberation struggle. If there are any
dissidents or dissenting voices, they get rid of them," Moyo said.
A political observer argued, however, that Matabeleland's power base lay in
the fact that though it only had 21 seats, it represented three
provinces. "As long as national politics is run the ZANU PF way
where people vote by province, Matabeleland will always be a key player
because it has three provinces out of 10. Because of the political
differences in the other seven provinces, Matabeleland will be a key player
as anyone who wants to command a majority has to win their support," the
observer said. The plot by those who mooted the Tsholotsho Declaration
allegedly to vote against Joyce Mujuru was scuttled after one of the
Matabeleland provinces changed its mind. The observer said
Matabeleland would only lose its influence if voting by the provinces is
weighted, taking the population into account and awarding provinces with
higher populations more votes. He brushed aside the argument that
Matabeleland was critical to national politics because of the unity factor,
arguing that though the Unity Accord was forged by ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo
and ZANU PF leader Robert Mugabe, it was essentially a unity of the
people. "When Nkomo signed the Unity Accord, people were solidly behind
him," the observer said. "Now we should look at who has replaced Nkomo. Does
he have the support of the people?" Though it was once ZAPU
territory, Matabeleland is now controlled by the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change. The party won all but two seats in the region in the 2000
elections but lost a further two in subsequent by-elections. "If
you want to be realistic about this unity, look at where the people are.
Follow the people and not the leaders," said the observer. Moyo agreed
that people were critical for the Unity Accord but argued that the people of
Zimbabwe had always been united. It was the leadership that was divided. He
added, however, that divisions were now trickling down to the individual
level because of the hardships people were facing. "Because of the
suffering, people are increasingly becoming individualistic," Moyo said.
"They now say I have to look after my family, my tribe, and so on."
A ZANU PF "Young Turk" who was kicked out of the party following the
Tsholotsho meeting said that Matabeleland was critical because it ensured
that Zimbabwe, which has been facing regional and international isolation
for over five years, enjoyed the support of South Africa, the region's
powerhouse. South Africa has been accused of taking a soft stance
on Zimbabwe but President Thabo Mbeki has defended his policy of quiet
diplomacy, saying it is the best solution as Zimbabweans must find a lasting
solution to their own problems. Mbeki even castigated the United
States for describing Zimbabwe as "one of the six-outposts of tyranny",
arguing that this was an exaggeration of the situation in the
country. The Young Turk argued that Mbeki was sympathetic to Zimbabwe
not because he liked President Mugabe, but because President Mugabe was
taking care of his former allies from ZAPU. "What the people and
the West forget is that the African National Congress (of South Africa) and
SWAPO were ZAPU allies while the Pan African Congress was an ally of ZANU.
So Mbeki, and even (Namibian President Sam) Nunjoma, will support Mugabe as
long as he is assured that Mugabe is taking care of his former allies from
ZAPU," the Young Turk said. He argued that this was one of the reasons
why President Mugabe had ditched the Young Turks from the region who had
worked hard since 2000 to regain seats that had been lost to the MDC and
brought back the ZAPU old guard that had been sidelined. Moyo
brushed aside this argument, saying President Mugabe had support from Mbeki
and other regional leaders because of his patronage of the Southern African
Development Community.
ZIMBABWE'S main
opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has
dropped its 2000 electoral petitions where it was challenging the ruling
ZANU PF's victory in 37 of the 120 contested seats.
MDC
secretary for legal affairs David Coltart told The Financial Gazette that
the petitions had become academic because Parliament will be dissolved on
March 30, ahead of the 2005 general election the next day. He said the
opposition party would profit nothing from pursuing the 2000 parliamentary
election petitions. Coltart, however, said the MDC would press ahead
with the 2002 presidential election court challenge. "We have not
dropped the electoral challenges as such but under the law they have become
academic because Parliament will be dissolved and fresh elections are going
to be conducted soon," Coltart said. The ruling ZANU PF, caught
unawares by the MDC, which rode on a wave of popular discontent over
deteriorating economic conditions, scrapped 63 seats in the hotly contested
2000 poll. The MDC, formed on September 11 1999, won 57. The
opposition party disputed results of 37 of the seats won by ZANU PF,
alleging vote rigging and buying, intimidation and violence against its
supporters. The two parties are expected to be the major
contestants in the March 31 2005 parliamentary poll. Coltart said
the 2002 presidential election petition would continue. "We have not
dropped the presidential challenge . . . that we will continue to fight for
reversal through the courts," Coltart said. President Robert Mugabe, 81
and Zimbabwe's sole ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, denies he
stole the 2002 ballot. The veteran politician says the MDC is being
manipulated by Western countries to try and effect regime change in Zimbabwe
as punishment for his government's expropriation of land from whites for
redistribution to blacks. The MDC denies the charge.
Throw some dirt into a bit of water and what happens?
The scum always rises to the top. But does this make the scum better than
the water? We all know the answer to that question.
This is how
I feel about the MDC's completely dangerous manifesto promise to give out
title deeds to the beneficiaries of the land reform exercise. This
is the height of irresponsibility by our major opposition party. Zimbabwean
society is not ready for this move. Our people are neither mature enough nor
disciplined enough to be trusted so. The moment title deeds are given
out, land will become yet another vehicle for speculative activities.
Speculators will move in and hoard land, buying out farm after farm. They
will have no intention of farming at all. Instead, we will see artificial
shortages of farming land created. We may even see famine. Not because, as
some say, the black people of this country have no farming skills. But
because the new owners of these farms will simply be sitting on them until
the prices improve. And the government of the day, having foolishly issued
legally binding title to these people, will have no leg to stand
on. They will not be able to take the land back to give to others who
are more industrious. Should that government attempt to do so, it will cause
yet another crisis of governance and the rule of law. With this
scenario playing out, this important national programme will become nothing
more than crony capitalism in a velvet glove. A cesspit of corrupt deeds
where the bottom feeders of society thrive. For all these reasons and
more, this policy promoted by the MDC is nothing short of rubbish. Such
blatant appeal to mercenary instincts by a major, supposedly responsible
political force in this country is abominable. Yet this nonsensical
promise has just risen to the top of the MDC's election promise list. It
sits among promises for less than a million houses for the party's entire
term of office, among the fretting about the rule of law and other current
imperatives. Transport barely gets a nod beyond promises that are neither
costed nor factored against the country's earnings. The current government
is quite correct. This idea is discredited and should only be recycled when
Zimbabwe is truly developed, both in terms of its people's standards of
living and their moral sensitivity. But its does not end there. The
MDC's manifesto also trots out the party's familiar promise of using
guaranteed foreign aid to restore the country's fortunes. Foreign donors, we
are earnestly assured yet again, are simply waiting for an MDC government to
drown us in a sea of US dollars. Magically and without any effort from
the local tourism industry (which has so far proved useless), foreigners
will abound, throwing deustchmarks from the windows of tour buses. And
Zimbabwe will be all right again. Only an idiot will swallow this line.
Kenya tells us one or two things about believing that a change of
personality is enough to rescue a country, regardless of the quality of the
replacement. That country has just wasted another five years of its life.
More importantly, there is no such thing as a free lunch, somebody once
said. Which raises the question: what will the MDC's knights in shining
armour want in return? Is this aid unconditional? Not according to
Tony Blair. The British premier recently told delegates to Davos in
Switzerland that the developed world should target aid only at "poor
countries ready to help themselves". In Zimbabwe's context, the meaning is
very clear. Government must be trimmed. At the moment, this country seems to
have more chiefs than Indians. Ministries of Political this and Anti-that
proliferate. The feeding trough must be taken away and jobs for the
boys must be abolished as a government policy. With real policies from both
ZANU PF and the MDC, the people laid off from the civil service will be able
to find employment in a vibrant and expanding private sector. A smaller
government means less tax. A government committed to interfering in
citizens' lives as little as possible also means less tax. Instead of
promising to hand out money for free to the destitute (as if!) the MDC
should be focusing the nation's attention on the immense, absolutely
staggering potential of this gem called Zimbabwe. In fact both ZANU
PF and MDC's manifestos are big on abstract promises but neither is
convincing. ZANU PF's failure to push this country to at least South
Africa's level in the last 25 years makes their promises this time around
completely unbelievable. As regards ZANU PF, I urge the President to
kill off the idea of coming up with a Senate, as he recently promised. This
country does not need a Senate and it appears to me that the Senate idea is
being bandied about simply to clip the wings of the MDC, should it garner
substantial parliamentary seats. This idea, Mr President, is
neither wise nor in the interests of the nation. All it will do is add to
the civil service salary bill. The country is already living beyond its
means and the last thing we need is yet another layer of red tape, which
will guarantee that nothing will be done for the people of this country as
the lower and upper houses flex their muscles, playing power politics as the
country burns
THERE is a sharp decline in agricultural
production against a backcloth of an economy struggling to break out of the
doldrums. It is not difficult to see why. The Zimbabwean economy not only
sneezes but lapses into convulsions when agriculture catches a
cold.
And this means that the government has to move fast to
fix on the strategic mistakes made under the land reform programme to
restore the sector, which had the biggest sectoral contribution to the
country's gross domestic product (GDP), to its pre-crisis levels.
This is why we could not agree more with President Robert Mugabe when last
week he said government should repossess all underutilised land allocated
under the land reform programme. Mindful of the fact procrastination is the
thief of time, we have to categorically state that the window of opportunity
to deal with this issue is now and time is of the essence. There should be
no sacred cows and the authorities should avoid the temptation to spare
certain individals. The exercise to repossess the land should therefore be
done without fear or favour and without regard to the stature and status of
the individuals involved. The question however is: when will government
move beyond rhetoric and contemplate action? Has it mustered the political
will to deal with the issue? We ask these questions because unless the
government starts doing something about it, there will always be ill feeling
over its sincerity. This is especially moreso given that multiple farm
owners are reportedly digging in their heels, with impunity at that if we
might add, over a government directive that they hand back the farms which
they illegally acquired. And what's more, Zimbabwe has not been told who
these faceless culprits are despite a chorus of complaints over this amid
calls for government to name and shame these uncouth looters of the finite
national resource. When government decided to break the logjam
holding up arguably the most radical change in land ownership, it probably
hoped to round off the scandal-tainted agrarian reforms with very little, if
any, banana skins. If anything, despite understandable differences over the
approach, style and form of the emotive process, there were high hopes for
an agricultural revolution. It was hoped that this would unlock the sector's
immense growth potential, which would move through the economy like an
electric jolt - a solid agricultural base would provide a tonic to the
enfeebled economy. Alas, this was not to be. The euphoria touched off
by the radical land reforms masked more sobering realities. First, most of
the erstwhile peasant farmers did not have capacity. This explains why the
gears did not immediately engage soon after these people were allocated the
land. As observed earlier on in one of our editorials, giving these farmers
the land under the current circumstances was no different from giving them
cheques they could not cash. Not only that, but there is also the
issue of those voracious land grabbers in the form of influential
politicians and their cronies who tapped into Zimbabwe's deeply-rooted
political patronage system. Their sickening greed saw these selfish and
self-centred individuals violate government's one-man one-farm policy, hence
the deplorable multiple ownership. Given the cancer of corruption that has
been eating at the very fabric of this great nation, that the politicians
and their cronies would stoop to such depths was as mysterious to us as a
blocked toilet would be to a plumber. But what has been the upshot of
it all? Only 44 percent of the land allocated under the agrarian reforms is
under productive use. Government has admitted as much, even the land under
productive use could be well below the official figures. If this is not
luminous evidence of a sector in crisis then we do not know what is. And
Zimbabweans look with a mixture of disgust and despair at vast tracts of
land lying idle at a time when, in terms of the food security situation
Zimbabwe, the erstwhile regional bread basket is now grouped together with
Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi as deficit countries. This is a sad
reflection on the savage slump in production and the resultant shrunken
state of the once-vibrant sector upon which the economy depended. And the
situation could only get worse. What with the erratic rains this year
coupled with a shortage of inputs, which will inevitably impair the quality
of the crops and affect the harvest? This will spark off nightmares of food
shortages and a fresh wave of sensitive basic commodity price increases.
There are also lingering concerns over the strain the resultant food import
bill will add to the fiscus at a time when government is finding it
difficult to balance the books. From bread basket to basket case - what
a shame! Indeed what a damning indictment on those holding land they are not
using, particularly the unashamed politicians with bloated self-interest who
have reduced a nationally significant process meant to correct historical
injustices into a senseless land grab orgy? Little wonder therefore that
there has been very little in the way of good news to cling to for the
dwindling band of those optimistic about Zimbabwe's agricultural prospects
under the current circumstances
POLITICIANS are self-serving. They
will do and say whatever is prudent at whatever time to get themselves
support and get elected. That is the nature of the political animal. Anyone
who doesn't know this, has no place in the voting booth.
I for
one have never been a supporter of universal suffrage. Some people are
simply not qualified to vote. Allowing everyone to vote is to me like
allowing anybody to play for the national football team simply because they
have two feet. However, that is another matter altogether. Politicians
will and do blame anything from the weather to non-existent enemies for
their failures. This is a fact. It is also a fact that they do this because
we allow them to do so. It has been said countless times that a nation gets
the government it deserves. Why I have decided to put pen to paper is
to urge each and every one of the voters in this country to claim his or her
right, or power, in the voting process. I am not likely to win any
friends from the political parties taking part in the coming elections, nor
am I looking for friends from that sector. I am appealing to you as fellow
Zimbabweans to stop being partisan and think about how to use your vote
effectively. I feel that we have been used and abused for other
people's needs enough times for us to rise up and reclaim our power over
politicians. This election has to be used for that purpose. Let
politicians and parties dub this election what they will. I suggest that
this be the year for the people to rise and claim what is theirs through the
ballot. Let this be Gore Remasimba Evanhu. Having the kind of
system that we have means that the candidate that you vote for is the most
important thing, otherwise we would simply vote for the party that will
eventually choose its representative after the elections. Therefore let us
consider the candidates very carefully. What I am trying to say is that
the existing political parties have generally urged us to vote, as one
senior politician once said, even for a baboon as long as it stood for a
particular political party. Honestly! As the people who reside in the
constituencies, we are the ones who know the people we live with. This means
that we are the people who associate with the candidates, if they do at all
reside in our constituency. Bar the party he is representing at that
particular time, does he have any history of giving to charity, standing up
for people's rights either in the constituency or at his workplace? Does he
or she shop where we shop, attend the same church or have his children
attend the same schools as ours? I believe such questions are important
as to the character of the candidate and the likelihood of his understanding
the issues that affect his constituency. We should be suspicious of anybody
who suddenly becomes a champion of people's rights or anybody who believes
we should vote for them simply because they belong to a certain
party. Let us consider the candidate's history and qualities and not
vote for any barnyard or wild animals. It is time we showed politicians that
we know what we want and that we shall get it. I really don't
believe elections are for half measures to say that in this election we vote
for this particular candidate to spite this party or other and then next
time we look for some other reason. While you are spiting this or that
party, an unsuitable candidate becomes your representative in
parliament. Whenever there are meetings held or wherever you get the
opportunity to see and talk to any of the candidates, take the opportunity
to pick their brains. I'm one of those people who believe that a candidate
should make an effort to be known to me, but we are the people who are most
affected by the outcome of an election so we should take time to know the
candidates lest we vote for the wrong one. Think about it.
CHIEFS in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North, have disowned
sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo and accused the government of
having imposed him on them in the first place, President Robert Mugabe said
in Harare yesterday.
Speaking at the burial of Harare Metropolitan
Governor and Resident Minister Witness Mangwende at the National Heroes'
Acre, President Mugabe disclosed that the traditional leaders had informed
him that Moyo was a stranger to the people of Tsholotsho before his cabinet
appointment in 2000. "Tsholotsho is not for this man. Chiefs there said they
do not know him. They said we didn't know him before you brought him here,"
the President said. Moyo was fired two weeks ago after electing to stand as
an independent in the March 31 parliamentary elections. The Tsholotsho
constituency is among numerous seats the ruling party reserved for its women
candidates in line with its quota system. The associate professor fell
from grace after his alleged role in convening a covert meeting interpreted
as having been designed to scuttle Joyce Mujuru's ascendancy to the
presidium. The President attacked the disgraced erstwhile government
spin-doctor for covertly seeking power. He said contrary to assertions in
certain corners, Moyo did not command the support of chiefs or people of
Tsholotsho - the former minister's supposed "stronghold". President
Mugabe then drew a parallel between the late Mangwende's friendship to
Mashonaland East Governor David Karimanzira and the great bond that existed
between the biblical David and Jonathan. The President renounced Moyo and
said the political scientist's megalomania had been his waterloo. "His
friendship with Karimanzira was close. They were like David and Jonathan,"
President Mugabe said drawing murmurs from mourners. "I mean Jonathan from
the Bible. He is the only one I know. The others I don't know." Earlier
on President Mugabe commended the late Mangwende for being satisfied with
positions he was given in government and the ruling Zanu PF and took a swipe
at mongers wanting power at all costs. "Anga asingati ndionei, ndizivei
kumeso kwangu kwakanyorwa PhD. (He did not show off with his education.) I
did not hear of a single day that he (Mangwende) said he should be promoted
or even heard from anyone that he had said he should be promoted," the
President said. He added that only people had the power to elect leaders into
various positions of authority without behind-the-scenes
canvassing. "Leadership is bestowed upon you by the people, you don't buy it.
Kwete kuuitira zvekuteya nemariva sembeva kana zvekuteya nemadhibhura,
anozobata mwene wao. (You don't make underhand dealings to get influential
positions, because if you do so you will end up the loser," President Mugabe
said in apparent reference to the Tsholotsho debacle that claimed the scalps
of five Zanu PF provincial chairpersons through suspension for five years,
while former secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa was demoted to
the less influential post of secretary for legal affairs. Patrick
Chinamasa, the justice minister, who also allegedly participated at the
Tsholotsho meeting, was dropped from the politburo where he was legal
secretary. The President said when Mujuru was appointed vice president,
she had never campaigned for it but was nominated by the women's
league. Turning back to Mangwende's character, he said the late minister
belonged to an important group of nationalist student activists. "But one
category, which was so important to the overall struggle but often
reticently acknowledged, belongs to the nationalist student activist. Dr
Witness Mangwende hails from this critical stratum of our struggle," he
said. He explained that Mangwende always had contempt for the settler
regime from his days as a pupil up to the time he was a student at
university, and was expelled on numerous occasions because of that. "Dr
Manwende has a few, if any equals, by way of the numberless expulsions that
visited him on account of involvement in nationalist politics," he said,
adding that he became to be known as "Evil Witness" during his days at the
Dutch Reformed Church institutions he attended during his school
days. Mangwende was born on October 15 1946 in Chikomba, the second youngest
child in a family of 23 boys and 21girls, and attended Marume and Makumbe
primary schools before proceeding to Chibi and Zimuto secondary
schools. He then went to Goromonzi for his Advanced Levels in 1966 and then
enrolled at the then University College of Rhodesia in 1970 where he was
later expelled for leading students in demonstrations against the Smith
regime in 1973. Mangwende completed his studies in the United Kingdom at
Southampton University and then obtained his doctorate at the London School
of Economics while he was based in Mozambique. After independence he held
a number of cabinet posts and was the governor for Harare at the time of his
death. Mangwende died on Saturday at the Avenues Clinic after a battle with
diabetes and is survived by his wife Eben and a son.
Court orders arrest of Miss Tourism World
president
Joseph Katete issue date :2005-Mar-03
THE High Court
last night issued an order for the arrest of Miss Tourism World Organisation
president John Singh on charges of breaching a contract between himself and
Original Black Entertainment Television (OBE TV)-a company shooting
documentaries on Zimbabwean Tourism. Justice Judge Antoinette Gwavava
delivered the judgement after OBE TV, through Harare lawyer, Aston Musunga,
filed an urgent application for Singh's arrest on allegations of refusing to
pay US$ 200 000 and a further 6 890 British pounds to the complainant amid
fears that he was on his way out of the country. However, Singh was still
in Harare last night when The Daily Mirror contacted him for
comment. Musunga said: "The High Court has issued for John Singh's arrest.
This will be done through the Deputy Sheriff to whom Singh cam pay the money
to." Speaking to this newspaper after the judgment, Michael Orji, OBE TV's
director of Strategic Business Group, said: "He (Singh) was refusing to pay
OBE TV and some of the contestants the money he owes them."
MARGARET Dongo, the independent
candidate for Harare Central, has cleared the air about her campaign
strategy ahead of the March 31 parliamentary plebiscite. Responding to
articles published in the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror early this
week, entitled Dongo rally flops and Dongo fumes over rally respectively,
she said as a matter of fact her campaign team had not organised a rally at
Montague shopping centre. "To start with, I never held any rally at the
stated venue.I intended to meet a crowd of not more than 30 people at a
time, as it was an exchange forum" she said in a response which was sent to
our offices. The response was accompanied by an application for permission
to carry out a "meet the people tour" from the Officer Commanding Harare
Central Police Station. "I am an independent candidate vying for Harare
Central constituency. I will be talking to the people and the expected
number I intend to meet is 30." Asked why she had adopted this strategy, and
not the traditional rallies, she said communicating with the electorate
individually and in small groups was more effective than holding
rallies. At such meetings, literature is issued and the contents discussed.
This strategy, according to Dongo, allows freer and more effective
interaction while minimising the chances of violence erupting. Dongo, who
won the mandate to represent Sunningdale as an independent in 1995, is
confident that history will repeat itself. She believes people are going to
vote for the best candidates whose effectiveness transcends partisan
loyalty, which often compromises objectivity and focus on real issues that
affect the people.
THE
USA's state department has released a damning report on Zimbabwe, alleging
that the Zanu PF government last year violated human rights through use of
violence and intimidation to maintain its grip on power. However, the ruling
party's national chairman, John Nkomo dismissed the report saying his party
never expect anything good from the Americans. "As far as we are concerned,
we never expect anything good from them. They have an agenda and we know
they will continue to say all sought of things. Let them continue to say
what they want to say, " Nkomo told The Daily Mirror yesterday. In the
annual worldwide human rights review report for 2004 released on Monday, the
US department alleged that: "President (Robert) Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party
used intimidation and violence to maintain political power." It also
added that the government promoted resentment against whites. "A systematic,
government sanctioned campaign of violence targeting supporters and
perceived supporters of the opposition continued during the year.and ruling
party supporters tortured, raped, and otherwise abused persons perceived to
be associated with the opposition; some persons died from their injuries,"
the report claimed. MDC spokesperson, Paul Themba Nyathi said the report was
stating "the obvious" and contained nothing new. "Some of us are
exhausted. We are not interested in reading reports that cast Zimbabwe in
bad light. It is up to Zimbabwe to deal with issues that are important to
the people of Zimbabwe," said Nyathi. He added that the issues the country
must resolve include the creation of jobs, the provision of basic
necessities such as jobs and to be allowed to move anywhere in the country
without hindrance. Apart from Zimbabwe, the report mentioned Sudan and Ivory
Coast as other African countries that violated human rights with
impunity.
Zanu PF Masvingo Province Zanu PF held six campaign meetings
in Bikita East constituency on 26 February at the following
places: Chagumisirwa (Ward 16), Boora (Ward 17), Chikuku (Ward 18), Musiza
(Ward 8), Gangare (Ward 21), and Mupaonde (Ward 22). The meetings were
attended by an average of two hundred (200) people and were addressed by
Masvingo Governor Josiah Hungwe, provincial political commissar Edmore
Hwarare, and candidate for Bikita East constituency, Kenneth Matimba and
Celine Pote, the ruling party's candidate for Chiredzi North
constituency. Their address centred on the intention of government to provide
food relief for the people of Bikita and the alleged MDC stance against the
Land Reform Programme and its desire to protect and entrench white
interests. Gutu North The Zanu PF candidate for Gutu North constituency,
Josiah Tungamirai held a campaign meeting on the 26 February at Whiru
Primary School attended by about 200 people. Tungamirai chronicled the
achievements of the Zanu PF government in areas such as health and
education. He applauded his party for its commitment to the advancement of
women as exemplified by the appointment of Vice President Joyce Mujuru to
the presidium of the party as well as the quota system in the allocation of
parliamentary election candidates. He labelled the MDC as a front of the
British and urged his party supporters to campaign peacefully and shun
violence. Mashonaland Central Sabina Zinyemba and Chen Chimutengwende,
the Zanu PF candidates for Mazowe West and East constituencies respectively,
addressed six (6) meetings on the 26 of February at Ruwongore, Forester A,
Gweshe, Maodzwa, Musarara and Nanji Primary Schools with average attendances
of up to 200 each. In their addresses, the two advised Zanu PF members to
guard against infiltration by MDC activists, shun violence and desist from
forcing people to attend Zanu PF meetings. They also promised to resettle
those who needed land at Forester Estates in Mazowe West constituency, after
the expiry of the Bilateral Investment Agreement with the Germans, who own
the farms. MDC Harare MDC Hatfield constituency candidate, Tapiwa
Mashakada held a campaign meeting at on 27 February at Zinyengere Open
Ground in Epworth attended by about 500 people. In his address, Mashakada
registered his pleasure at the attendance saying it showed his popularity.
He urged the people to take heed of President Mugabe's call for a violent
free election. Mashakada accused the police of arresting MDC members
willy-nilly and called for the removal of a Zanu PF base at Solani Shopping
Centre in Epworth. He promised to assist in easing transport and health
problems in Epworth. Mashakada warned MDC youths that they should be
prepared to be arrested during his campaign period. Manicaland On 26
February 2005, MDC candidate for Mutare South constituency, Sydney
Mukwecheni, held two campaign meetings at Dumbo and Mabiya Business Centres
with about eighty-five (85) and ninety-five (95) people in attendance
respectively. Mukwecheni called upon people to arrive at the polling
stations early saying his victory will guarantee the return of investment to
the area. He said the MDC will provide free primary school education if voted
into power. Bulawayo MDC held a rally on 27 February at Beit Hall in
Luveve attended by about 200 people. The meeting was addressed by the
party's candidate for Pumula/Luveve constituency, Esaph Mdlongwa who urged
his party supporters to be disciplined. He said Zanu PF will be buried in
his constituency because they are a confused lot. Mdlongwa told the
gathering that freedom awaits them on the 31 March if they vote for the
MDC. Campaign material in the form of pamphlets and T-shirts were
distributed at the rally. Masvingo The MDC candidate for Gutu South,
Elphas Mukonoweshuro, addressed a campaign rally at Uvumba Business Centre.
On the 26 February attended by about 120 people. At the same rally an MDC
official, a Mr Shonhe argued that there was no point in Zanu PF soliciting
for contributions for the Asian tsunami disaster when Zimbabweans were
starving. Masvingo MDC councillor, Phemius Chakabuda said as a war veteran,
he decided to defect to the MDC after disagreeing with Zanu PF policies that
allow people to starve on political grounds. Mukonoweshuro attributed the
poor state of roads, clinics and hospitals in the constituency to Zanu PF's
MP, Shuvai Mahofa's inefficiency. He said that senior government officials
were sending their children and relatives to foreign hospitals and schools
hence their uncaring attitude over the deteriorating health and education
standards. Zanu Chiredzi Onias Mukuni, the Zanu candidate for
Chiredzi North held a campaign rally at Rufaro Hall in Triangle on the 26
February attended by about 200 people. The meeting was chaired by the party's
secretary for women's affairs and the vice chairman for Chiredzi North Aleck
Bote. Addressing the gathering, Zanu president Wilson Kumbula said his party
was the only revolutionary party in the country and not Zanu PF, which, he
said was formed in 1980. He said that Zanu initiated the land reform
programme, which was later hijacked by the Zanu PF government. Kumbula said
Zanu PF was misusing taxpayers' money in its campaign, rather than
developing the country. He also accused the ruling party of distributing
maize grain to its supporters only. The Zanu leader said President Mugabe's
computerisation programme for rural schools was a political gimmick since
the donated computers were of inferior quality. He also promised that a Zanu
government would improve the health delivery system.