http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16491
May 12, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The three principals to the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) met
Monday in yet another inconclusive crisis meeting meant
to thrash out
outstanding issues still holding back the full implementation
of their unity
agreement.
The Minister of State in the Prime
Minister's Office, Gorden Moyo told The
Zimbabwe Times Monday the three
principals met on Monday morning but later
adjourned the meeting to Tuesday
after agreeing to attend to other pressing
government
business..
According to Moyo, the leaders shall attend a cabinet meeting
on Tuesday
morning before they meet in the afternoon.
He declined to
discuss what had been discussed Monday saying he would not
give "half baked
information".
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) party said it shall wait for the outcome of the
latest round of talks
before it could decide on its next course of
action.
Party secretary general Tendai Biti, who is also Finance minister
in the new
all inclusive government, issued an ultimatum to President Robert
Mugabe's
Zanu-PF last week saying if the outstanding issues were not
resolved by
Monday, the party would refer the issue to the party's supreme
making
decision body, the National Council.
The MDC National Council
is set to convene on May 17.
"We received a briefing from our principal
today (Monday) that they
adjourned their meeting to tomorrow," party
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa
said, "We will wait for the outcome of the
meeting."
Zimbabwe's unity agreement still hangs precariously following
Mugabe's
apparent refusal to abide by the dictates of the GPA brokered by
SADC last
year.
Issues which remain unresolved are the appointment of
provincial governors,
permanent secretaries, ambassadors, the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe Governor
Gideon Gono and the Attorney-General, Johannes
Tomana.
Gono and Tomana are known Mugabe loyalists.
Mugabe's
reluctance to swear in agriculture minister-designate Roy Bennett
is among
the issues that have heightened tensions in the new government.
Some of
the contentious issues involve the unilateral stripping by Mugabe of
key
ministerial functions from Chamisa's Ministry of Information,
Communication
and Technology.
Mugabe transferred the communications function from
Chamisa to Zanu-PF
loyalist, Nicholas Goche, who now runs the Ministry of
Transport and
Communications.
The resolve by the Attorney General to
go ahead with the trial of the
political prisoners is also among the issues
still to be resolved.
The prisoners involve Zimbabwe Peace Projects
director, Jestina Mukoko,
Ghandi Mudzingwa, former personal aide to
Tsvangirai and 14 other MDC and
civil society activists.
But for all
the apparent violations of the GPA, Tsvangirai has tried to
allay fears his
party could be led down the garden path by Mugabe's Zanu-PF.
Tsvangirai,
who says he enjoys good relations with Mugabe, once a bitter
rival, told the
media last week that 95 per cent of the disputed issues had
been
resolved.
He accuses hard-line elements within Zanu-PF as the stumbling
block to
resolving the outstanding issues.
But while he tries to calm
nerves among his supporters and ordinary
Zimbabweans, more apparent
violations of the GPA continue to occur.
Chipinge East legislator Matewu
Mathias Mlambo was on Monday slapped with a
10 month prison term by a
Chipinge court on charges of public violence.
Yet another legislator,
Meki Makuyana, MP for Chipinge South, who also faces
charges of inciting
violence during the run-up to the June 27, 2008
presidential run-off
elections, had his ruling set for 27 May by the same
magistrate.
He
was arrested together with 15 MDC activists at his business premises in
Chiredzi last year and was only released on bail in January this
year.
"The MDC views today's (Monday) rulings as an attempt to scuttle
the work of
the inclusive government," Chamisa said in a
statement.
"It is also part of a well-calculated plot to reduce the MDC
majority in
parliament after the party heavily defeated Zanu PF on 29 March
2008."
http://www.voanews.com
By Sithandekile Mhlanga and Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
11 May 2009
Sources close to the Zimbabwean
government said President Robert Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara
were close to agreement on most
of the outstanding issues facing their unity
government.
Minister of
State Gorden Moyo, attached to Mr. Tsvangirai's office, declined
to provide
details but said the last issues would be ironed out Tuesday with
a news
conference to follow.
The prime minister expressed optimism last week and
over the weekend with
VOA and other outlets, saying he had developed a
working relationship with
President Mugabe.
Mr. Tsvangirai told the
Financial Times Sunday in South Africa that no
deadline loomed over the
discussions despite the ultimatum laid down last
week by Movement for
Democratic Change Secretary General Tendai Biti, who is
also Mr.
Tsvangirai's finance minister.
Mr. Tsvangirai said his party had merely
been expressing frustration at
delays and setbacks in wrapping up a number
of issues left unresolved when
the unity government was formed in February
by his MDC and Mr. Mugabe's
long-ruling ZANU-PF party.
More issues
have emerged since then, in particular the latest wave of
takeovers of
white-owned commercial farms, seen likely to alienate potential
international donors.
London-based political analyst Bekithemba
Mhlanga told reporter Sithandekile
Mhlanga of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that Mr. Tsvangirai's expressions of
optimism on the weekend indicated that
progress was being made in
discussions behind the scenes.
Elsewhere,
the senior European Union official in Harare was quoted as saying
that the
EU is ready to engage with Harare providing it respects human
rights and the
rule of law.
The African Press Agency quoted Xavier Marchal, European
Commission head of
delegation in Harare, as saying it is "critically
important for the EU and
Zimbabwe" to build on the Global Political
Agreement underpinning
power-sharing to "move towards
re-engagement."
This would be accomplished in the context of the Cotonou
Treaty, he was
quoted as saying.
The careful language did not appear
to shift the European policy of
demanding significant reform from the unity
government before funding
economic recovery. Marchal's reported comments
were made in the context of
the May 9 Europe Day.
In remarks to
government officials, diplomats and others reported by the
Zimbabwean
newspaper, Marchal simply urged the parties to power-sharing to
work
together.
VOA could not reach Marchal for further comment on EU-Zimbabwe
relations as
EU offices were closed on Monday in observation of Europe
Day.
London-based Political analyst Dhewa Mavhinga of Human Rights Watch
told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the
Harare
government won't find it easy to meet EU benchmarks because its
record does
not yet confirm fundamental reform.
http://news.yahoo.com
by Fanuel Jongwe -
Mon May 11, 11:05 pm ET
HARARE (AFP) - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
addresses Zimbabwe's
parliament on Tuesday as the unity government nears 100
days in power, with
analysts saying little has changed in the daily lives of
citizens.
Tsvangirai took office alongside long-ruling President Robert
Mugabe on
February 11 in a power-sharing pact tasked with steering Zimbabwe
back to
stability after disputed elections last year plunged the country
into
crisis.
Under the fledgling government's watch, multi-million
dollar credit lines
have been secured to rebuild the shattered economy and
the International
Monetary Fund has said it will resume technical assistance
to Harare.
Having ditched the hyperinflation-battered Zimbabwe dollar,
the country has
this year seen basic necessities return to stores and prices
-- now tagged
in US dollars -- slowly improving.
But, analysts say,
there has not been significant change since the political
rivals signed a
power-sharing pact three months ago.
"The only new thing is that unlike
in the past we don't see the rivalry
openly. There is slow movement in every
other area," said Lovemore Madhuku,
a law lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe.
The political parties in the unity pact have yet to resolve
provincial
governor posts amid continuing reports of farm invasions and last
week's
renewed detention of rights activists who were later released on
bail.
Harare-based political analyst Takura Zhangazha said the new
government
should be lauded for bringing together former rivals but still
has much to
do to prove its worth.
"They have not achieved as much as
they should," Zhangazha said.
"Restrictions to freedom of expression are
still in place and that is a
worrying thing."
On Monday, two editors
of an independent newspaper were arrested while the
Commercial Farmers'
Union (CFU) says more than 100 farmers have experienced
disturbances on
their farms or were facing prosecution.
"Three months since the
government was formed we are still experiencing
disruptions taking place on
the farms," Hendrick Olivier, chief executive of
the predominantly white
union told AFP.
"We are calling on a moratorium on all farm disruptions
and prosecutions. We
are not saying we want to reverse the land reforms. All
we want is to be
able to farm and provide food for the nation."
The
unity government, which Tsvangirai has declared broke and will mark 100
days
in power on May 22, is only able to pay workers a 100-dollar allowance
regardless of rank.
Schools and public hospitals have re-opened but
the latter still do not have
sufficient drugs. Teacher unions have also
threatened to strike again over
demands for salaries that would enable them
to pay school fees for their own
children.
Businessman Tafadzwa
Goliati said proof of the new government's work was yet
to be
seen.
"The majority of the people are still suffering," Goliati said.
"There is an
abundance of stocks in the shops but most people don't have
money to buy the
goods. A visit to the industrial areas will show you there
is little
activity.
"We cannot give the new government credit when
three quarters of what we
consume is coming from outside."
http://www.iol.co.za
May 12 2009 at
05:35AM
The editor and news editor of one of Zimbabwe's
main independent
newspapers were arrested on Monday and jailed overnight
after publishing the
names of secret agents involved in the abduction of
opposition and civic
activists, lawyers and colleagues said.
Vincent Kahiya, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, and news editor
Constantine Chimakure were interrogated much of the day before being taken
to police cells at Harare central police station, said a senior colleague
who asked not to be named.
"I spoke to them late this
afternoon, and they said they were going to
spend the night inside," the
colleague said. "Then their cellphones were
switched
off."
The arrest is expected to stoke local and
international criticism of
the continuing repressive actions by police under
President Robert Mugabe,
in spite of the establishment three months ago of a
coalition government of
Mugabe's former ruling party and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The agreement between the two political antagonists obliges security
authorities - still under the 85-year-old Mugabe's control - to initiate
major human-rights reforms.
Monday's arrests are seen by
observers as confirming fears that the
old regime is determined not to cede
any influence, and to reinforce the
refusal of Western nations to provide
desperately needed finance for the
bankrupt Harare government while Mugabe
still calls the shots.
It came on the day that the MDC had set as a
deadline for a series of
its long outstanding demands for reforms to be met,
which include media
freedom and the release of political prisoners, as well
as the revocation of
numerous unilateral appointments by Mugabe loyalists of
his party to top
positions in the new power-sharing
administration.
The MDC is due to discuss the violations at a
meeting on Sunday of its
top decision-making body.
Officer's
from Mugabe's notorious law and order police section raided
the newspaper on
Saturday when the two newsmen were off duty for the
weekend, but the pair
reported with their lawyer to Harare central police
station at 9 am Monday,
their colleague said.
On Friday, the Zimbabwe Independent published
a report that named
police and national intelligence agency officers who
were involved in the
abduction of about 30 activists who, according to court
records, were
tortured to force them to admit to plotting to overthrow
Mugabe.
"They are being charged with publishing false statements
with the
intention of lowering public confidence in the law enforcement
agencies,"
said their lawyer, Innocent Chagonda.
Human-rights
lawyers say that Zimbabwe's police have been responsible
for widespread
torture and murder of government critics for the last 10
years and
constantly violate court orders, to maintain the power of Mugabe
and the
clique of generals loyal to him. Lawyers say the most dangerous
place for
any citizen to be in is a police station.
In recent weeks police
have arrested magistrates, a judge's clerk and
the registrar of Harare's
high court for carrying out orders that overturned
police violations of the
rule of law.
"It shows that the government of national unity
(formed in February)
means nothing to these guys," said Zimbabwe Independent
chief executive
Raphael Khumalo. "They are a law unto themselves. It is like
living in a
police state."
At the weekend, the government
hosted a conference for all media
companies and journalists to deliberate on
recommendations for media
freedom.
Zimbabwe is classified by
the New York-based International Committee
to Protect Journalists as among
the 10 governments that are most severe
offenders against freedom of
information. - Sapa-dpa
http://www.businessday.co.za
12
May 2009
BRIAN
LATHAM
Harare
ZIMBABWEAN Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said
yesterday that "hardliners"
in President Robert Mugabe's party were delaying
the resolution of
outstanding issues in a power-sharing agreement signed
last year.
Issues including the detention of political activists and
the appointment of
government officials remained unresolved, eight months
after Tsvangirai and
Mugabe's parties agreed to form a unity government,
Tsvangirai said in a
phone interview .
"The Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leadership will meet today
(yesterday) to discuss
the issue and decide whether lines need to be drawn
in the sand to resolve
these outstanding issues," Tsvangirai said from
Harare.
Mugabe's
Zanu (PF) and Tsvangirai's MDC agreed to form a joint
administration on
September 15 to help lift the country out of its worst
economic crisis.
Among the provisions of the accord were that all political
detainees would
be freed.
Last week, Zimbabwean authorities rearrested 18 political
activists,
originally detained in November and December, for plotting to
oust Mugabe.
The MDC said their detention threatened to derail the unity
government.
Fifteen of the 18 activists were released on
Wednesday.
The MDC also wanted central bank governor Gideon Gono and
attorney-general
Johannes Tomana replaced, Tsvangirai said.
Both men
were members of Mugabe's party, which was stalling on appointing
new people
to the posts, Tsvangirai said.
"The delaying tactics are disappointing,
but we have sufficient leverage to
deal with them," he said. "Mugabe cannot
govern without us, he can't act
unilaterally."
Zimbabwe's
economy has imploded, with at least 6, 9-million people, or more
than half
the population, needing food aid and 94% with no formal
employment,
according to the United Nations.
Last month, Finance Minister Tendai
Biti said the country needed between
$8bn and $10bn to rebuild its
infrastructure. About $1bn had been raised in
credit from African countries
and lenders, The Herald newspaper reported on
Saturday.
"I
believe Mugabe wants this agreement to work," Tsvangirai said. "Neither
he
nor his party can go it alone. There is no going back." Bloomberg
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Simplicious Chirinda Tuesday 12 May 2009
HARARE
- The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said at the weekend that a
planned
audit to establish land ownership and usage in Zimbabwe would fail
unless
the country's unity government first stopped ongoing violence on
farms and
new land seizures.
"Until we have a ceasefire or moratorium
stopping all persecutions and
all new invasions it is physically impossible
to have a credible and
comprehensive land audit," said Trevor Gifford,
president of the CFU that
represents the country's white commercial
farmers.
Violence intensified on white-owned farms across Zimbabwe
almost
immediately after the February 13 formation of a power-sharing
government
between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader and
now Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The largely white CFU
says more than 100 of the about 300 remaining
white-owned commercial farms
have been invaded while several farmers are
being prosecuted for allegedly
refusing to obey orders to vacate their
properties to make way for new black
owners many of them leading members of
Mugabe's ZANU PF party.
Tsvangirai's office said last week that Cabinet had agreed to move
with
speed to carry out an audit to establish who exactly owned which land
in the
country and how the contentious issue of land redistribution could be
resolved with finality.
Gordon Moyo, Minister of State in
Tsvangirai's office, said the move
to expedite the land audit followed a
report submitted to Cabinet by a
ministerial team led by Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara that toured
invaded farms in Mashonaland West
province last month.
"A report on land was received and was
discussed and decisions were
made. Cabinet made a decision to expedite the
process of the land audit,"
Moyo said.
Zimbabwe, also grappling
with its worst ever economic crisis, has
since 2000 when land reforms began,
relied on food imports and handouts from
international food agencies mainly
due to failure by resettled black
peasants to maintain production on former
white farms.
Poor performance in the mainstay agricultural sector
has also had far
reaching consequences as hundreds of thousands of people
have lost jobs
while the manufacturing sector, starved of inputs from the
sector, is
operating below 15 percent of capacity. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Andrew Moyo
Tuesday 12 May 2009
HARARE - The European Union
(EU) said on Monday it was ready to resume
diplomatic engagement with
Zimbabwe's new government but stressed that there
was still considerable
ground to be covered between the two sides before
full relations could be
restored.
President Robert Mugabe, his long term rival Morgan
Tsvangirai and
another opposition leader Arthur Mutambara in February formed
a
power-sharing government to end a political stalemate after inconclusive
elections last year.
The unity government has undertaken to end
the country's international
isolation and repair ties with Western countries
including the European
Union (EU), the Commonwealth grouping of former
British colonies,
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for
possible resumption
of financial support.
"In the context of
the new dispensation in place as a result of the
global political agreement,
there is much more that can be done together,
real work to be done and more
constructively," European Commission head of
delegation in Harare Xavier
Marchal told delegates at the Europe Day
commemorations.
"You
will understand that it is very possible to reach this point, but
also that
there is some work to do to that respect. I hope that we can move
fast
towards that goal. The EU and Zimbabwe can move towards the
re-establishment
of a full relationship," the EU chief said.
Marchal said it was
important for Zimbabwe to re-engage the EU because
it was a member of the
Cotonou Partnership Agreements and the Africa
Caribbean Pacific (ACP)
countries which were working with the 27-member
European bloc to eradicate
poverty.
"Zimbabwe can take advantage. The EU is the world's
largest aid donor
responsible for 55 percent of international aid, and the
biggest trading
partner for the poorest countries, and a key actor in
political dialogue.
"Due to the deterioration of EU-Zimbabwe
relations in 2002 and the
implementation of partial suspension of EU
cooperation in favour of
Zimbabwe, European Development Fund has been lost.
However the EU has
continued to support the population, particularly social
sectors," he said.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was the guest of
honour at the event in
Harare, although he did not speak at the
event.
The EU together with the United States imposed sanctions
against
Mugabe and his top officials seven years ago as punishment for
failure to
uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Western nations - that continue to give humanitarian aid - insist they
want
Zimbabwe's unity government to implement comprehensive political and
economic reforms as well as respect for human rights and the rule of law
before they can lift sanctions against Mugabe and top officials of his ZANU
PF party and provide direct financial support to Harare. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Nokuthula
Sibanda Tuesday 12 May 2009
HARARE - Democratic Republic of
Republic of Korea (DPRK) president of the
presidium Kim Yong Nam arrived in
Harare on Monday and held talks with
Zimbabwe's long time leader President
Robert Mugabe.
Kim is scheduled to meet other top government officials
but it was not
immediately clear whether he would also Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
In a brief statement by the DPRK said Kim had used his
meeting with Mugabe
to "convey friendly greetings extended to government and
the people of
Zimbabwe by the DPRK".
The statement did not give much
details of Kim's visit or say for how long
Kim would stay in
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and his ZANU PF party have always regarded the DPRK or
North Korea
among their closer allies dating from when the reclusive
communist state
assisted Mugabe's party during Zimbabwe's 1970s war of
liberation.
However most Zimbabweans will remember the DPRK as the
country that helped
train and arm the notorious 5th Brigade - a crack unit
deployed by Mugabe in
the early 80s in Zimbabwe's southern Matabeleland and
Midlands provinces
ostensibly to quell an armed insurrection against his
rule.
The 5th Brigade ended up killing more than 20 000 innocent
civilians
belonging to the Ndebele ethnic group that largely supported
Mugabe's
political rival, Joshua Nkomo. - ZimOnline
http://www.radiovop.com
The International Commission of
Jurists (ICJ) says it is concerned
about the attacks on lawyers and court
officials in Zimbabwe.
" ICJ strongly condemns threats
on human rights lawyer Alec
Muchadehama and harassment of High Court
officials made on 7 May 2009 over
discharge of three political detainees,"
said ICJ in a statement.
The ICJ statement comes just days
after the AG's office was reported
to be planning to lay charges against
Muchadehama and some court officials
for improperly releasing some political
prisoners.
The prisoners are being charged of banditry and
insurgency.
"Law officers are being forced to arrest defence
lawyers,
particularly MrMuchadehama, for allegedly facilitating "the
improper
release" of his clients."
Muchadehama,a human rights
lawyer of note, has been representing most
of the 30 plus MDC and human
rights activists who were abducted last year in
August by state security
agents.
A number of court officials from the Attorney General's
office who
signed or where involved in the signing of the Warrant of
Liberation for
photo journalist Anderson Manyere and MDC activists Ghandi
Mudzingwa and
Chris Dhlamini, are being subjected to harrassment by police
officers.
"ICJ denounces these wrongful and unlawful activities of
Zimbabwean
law enforcement officers, of arbitrarily arresting innocent
civilians, human
rights
defenders and lawyers, without
reasonable suspicion and undermining
the right and obligation of human
rights lawyers' to defend their clients,"
read the statement.
"ICJ urges the appropriate authorities to take immediate action to
ensure
protection of Mr Alec Muchadehama," read the statement.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
12 May
2009
Following his suspension from the Mutambara MDC for among other
things
denouncing the party leadership, former St Mary's MP Job Sikhala has
issued
the following press statement.
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT
LAST
RE: PERMANENT MIGRATION FROM FORCES OF RETROGRESSION
The
fight in my party is characterised by diverse and total contradiction of
the
interpretation of the values and principles in the party which I am a
founder member and inaugural secretary for Defence and Security.
The
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was formed in September 1999 as a
response to colossal and unmitigated dictatorship executed against the
people of Zimbabwe. The political, social and economic situation
deteriorated to the level of emergency crisis. It needed men and woman of
spine to salvage the nation out of the quagmire of poverty, desperation and
wailing.
Little courage was found from men and women whose fear of
Robert Gabriel
Mugabe dictatorship was immense. Four men of courage and
spine in the name
of Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda, Job Sikhala,
Learnmore Jongwe,
Tafadzwa Musekiwa, the late Nicholas Mudzengerere, Cephas
Makuyana, Gift
Chimanikire and Nelson Chamisa opted to make an oath to fight
for the people's
freedom.
The Labour Movement, Students Movement and
a thin and tiny civic society
then, opted to introduce the struggle for the
people's needs. The University
of Zimbabwe where I was a student leader
together with Learnmore Jongwe,
Tafadzwa Musekiwa and Daniel Molokela became
the epicentre of resistance
against the dictatorship. Our brothers and
sisters in the Labour movement
were also causing tremors from another
front.
The convergence of the common purpose to see the whipping of
dictatorship
from the fame of our beloved nation. This led to the convening
of the
"Working People's Convection" and the Woman's Bureau in Harare. The
idea to
claim our basic freedoms emerged to launch the peoples'
party.
Fundamental objectives and principles were to create a society
free from
fear and the respect of the basic human rights and the sovereignty
of the
people to be respected. The MDC came into fruition with pomp and
fanfare and
it became a universal vehicle to deliver change to every
suffering people.
In the year 2000, possessed with unusual brevity, we
stood shoulder for
shoulder, pound for pound against Mugabe's dictatorship
and historically
deliver a shocking 57 seats shy of 5 seats to total
majority and
independence of people. It was a painful; process because
hundreds and
thousands of committed cadres of change were killed and others
tortured.
The student movement delivered me, the late Learnmore Jongwe
and Tafadzwa
Musekiwa into parliament despite serious challenges we met. At
the present
moment I am the only remaining active member of this brave trio.
Our shared
vision was to deliver a Zimbabwe where everyone will celebrate to
leave in.
ZANU (PF) and Robert Mugabe responded by unleashing violence of
terror
during the 2002 Presidential elections which were held in the
atmosphere of
fear and despair. Being in the trenches at the time I
witnessed many of my
colleagues suffering from political trauma and I never
surrendered up to the
present day. Then a sudden shadow of hunger and
division came in my party in
2005. This led to split of the party in October
2005.
On the basis of my deep conviction to the founding principles and
values of
my party I thought the party was taking a wrong direction. Exactly
the
things I sacrificed my youth hood against, were glaring in my party. I
saw
the other side of Robert Mugabe in my party and I regretted having been
associated with the group which I thought was protecting our founding
ideals.
In a desperate bid, the group I joined head - hunted for a
leader
anticipated to be the custodian of the party values and principles.
It was
at the final straw that, it later settled for Arthur Mutambara.
Desperate
situations create desperate outcomes. Nobody cared whether such
individual
understands the values and principles of the party, let alone a
card
carrying member.
Having thought that I have joined the principle
doctrine group, my
expectations were initially shattered when utterances of
the hand - picked
leader sounded to have been extracted from ZANU (PF) and
R. G. Mugabe's book
of political thoughts.
The brand of the party
slowly and surely became the mimic of ZANU (PF)
garbage. Some of us became
irritated and ashamed both privately and publicly
because of the ZUNU (PF)
direction the party was taking. We tried to tell
each other that some of us
do not want to be Mugabe's extension in our
several meetings. More worrying
was that my party leadership became Mugabe's
darlings. It worried many of us
in our party we were about to be auctioned
on the pedestal of the party
leadership's ego.
Having failed to heed our concerns for a long time, I
told my colleagues
that it's high time I disassociate myself from this. It
was a long decision
I took no matter the consequences because I know such
sentiments are shared
by the majority of my party members. And I want to
publicly apologize to the
people of Zimbabwe for my association with this
group of the most
retrogressive forces of darkness who are worse off than
Abel Muzorewa.I am a
soldier of total change and freedom. I will never have
a proper sleep as
long as the dictator is dancing and smiling all the way to
his grave on
people's blood and flesh.
My former associates confirm
exactly that. For a long time I have been in
adulated with many people who
have been questioning my political wisdom of
being associated with this
group. It is my humble views that, I have to go
to the people in a lightning
speed throughout Zimbabwe to disassociate
myself from the political
alignment of this group. I have humbly listened to
the view of the
people.
I have received information that the group through the
instigation of Robert
Mugabe after his Wednesday the 16th of May 2009's ZANU
(PF) Politburo
meeting and the night of the day's long telephone
conversation between
Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara that stern action
has to be taken against
me. I would like to advice the two to stop wasting
their time writing
suspension letters using bond paper bought by the public
funds when civil
servants are struggling to make ends meet because I have
long cleared my
mind to quit Mugabe's allies.
I am celebrating that I
am FREE AT LAST. In terms of my political career at
the moment I will leave
it in the hands of the people of Zimbabwe. After my
national sensitisation
tour, I shall announce in due course the political
direction to take, but I
will die the member of the party I founded.
I thank you.
JOB
SIKHALA
MDC Founder Member
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16497
May 12, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Former Home Affairs minister and now interim
leader of the
opposition ZAPU party, Dumiso Dabengwa says true national
healing in
Zimbabwe can only be possible when President Robert Mugabe
apologises for
the 1980s Matebeleland atrocities perpetrated by his
government.
An estimated 20 000 civilians are believed to have died in
Zimbabwe's
western Matebeleland and Midlands provinces during the period now
known as
the Gukurahundi era.
"When we signed the unity accord in
1987," Dabengwa said, "people in
Matebeleland thought there was going to be
an express apology from Mugabe."
"Instead, Mugabe came out with a blanket
amnesty for the perpetrators of the
atrocities and has said nothing about
this except to say it was an act of
madness.
"Unfortunately this left
a lot of anger and frustration among the people in
Matebeleland."
Dabengwa was responding to questions by The Zimbabwe
Times last week which
had sought his opinion on the new unity government's
national healing
initiative.
The new government has set up a
three-member ministerial team comprising
members of Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the
two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
parties to manage the
process.
But Dabengwa feels the process would be futile if Mugabe did not
swallow his
pride and apologise for the bloodbath.
"People in
Matebeleland are asking, what is there to heal when the leader of
this whole
thing (atrocities) is not willing to apologise.
"Some survivors want
Mugabe to apologise and assist the orphans and those
whose houses were burnt
down during the atrocities.
"They want to see development programmes in
their areas such as the sinking
of boreholes and irrigation equipment as
this may somehow lessen the pain of
their losses.
"Some old women
still have visible scars of beatings by Mugabe's soldiers."
During the
period, Mugabe, then Prime Minister had unleashed his North
Korean trained
Five Brigade army to hunt down armed insurgents who were
viewed sympathetic
to the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo's opposition PF
Zapu
party.
Nkomo was being accused by Mugabe of sponsoring the insurgents to
destabilise his government.
The atrocities ended when Zanu and PF
Zapu signed a unity agreement that
left Mugabe as leader of the country
while Nkomo became one of the two Vice
Presidents.
Dabengwa, one of
the PF Zapu leaders who spent five years in prison on
alleged treason
charges by Mugabe's government, had opposed the unity
accord.
He
severed ties with Zanu-PF in March last year to support the candidacy of
Simba Makoni who had bravely broken away from Zanu-PF to contest the
presidential election as an independent.
Since the Gukurahundi
period, Mugabe's government has resisted calls to
pacify the surviving
victims of the carnage.
The only mention of the atrocities by Mugabe was
during Nkomo's burial in
1999 where he said the atrocities were "an act of
madness".
Dabengwa accused Mugabe of stopping him from identifying the
remains of some
of the Gukurahundi atrocities buried in mass graves for a
dissent burial.
Dabengwa, who was Home Affairs minister between 1992 and
2000, said he had
tried to bring in a team of Brazilian forensic experts to
help government to
identify the bones of the victims. This he hoped would
pacify the victims
and relatives of the dead.
He said it was not too
late for Mugabe to make an explicit apology for the
bloodshed.
"It's
never too late to do the correct thing," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
David
Smith meets award-winning Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga, whose
work
grows sharper as government harassment of him increases
David
Smith
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 May 2009 07.00 BST
Zimbabwean
playwright Cont Mhlanga's international reputation is now his
best defence
against intimidation at home. Photograph: Philimon
Bulawayo/Reuters
Leaning forward with my Dictaphone in the front room
of a bed and breakfast,
I asked Cont Mhlanga, gap-toothed playwright and
dissident, what constraints
there were on free expression in his native
Zimbabwe.
"You have no idea," he said, looking at me fixedly. "You have
no idea."
Mhlanga has been a constant thorn in the side of president
Robert Mugabe.
After the curtain call at one of his earliest plays,
officials from the
state took to the stage to denounce him and his work. How
dare he criticise
the black heroes of the liberation?
Asked to
explain himself there and then, Mhlanga, himself black, said his
writing had
spoken for him. The actors were asked, but said they could not
speak for the
playwright. Then members of the audience spoke up to praise
the work for
giving them a voice.
I asked Mhlanga how far he had dared go with his
most recent play, The Good
President, which was as bitterly sarcastic and
thinly disguised as the title
suggests.
Remarkably, it played in
Harare under the president's nose. After each
performance, Mhlanga would sit
down and discuss it with his audience. Each
night, he noticed a series of
secret policemen taking a seat, each more
senior than the one before, all
equally stony-faced.
But when he took the play to Matabeleland something
snapped. The actors were
in their dressing rooms, the audience were in their
seats, when police
arrived and ordered Mhlanga to cancel. He refused. They
went away but came
back in the cars and garb of traffic cops, making it
appear that he would be
arrested for speeding.
"Go on stage now and
tell them there is no play tonight," they told him. He
replied: "I will not
tell them. You must tell them." So the show did not go
on. But the following
night, Mhlanga decided to try again.
The first scene played without
incident. Then, uproar. Armed police stormed
the auditorium, descending from
the balcony and shouting at people to leave
or face the consequences. The
audience fled in panic. At that point, Mhlanga
called the production off,
realising that someone could get hurt. This is a
man who will sacrifice
himself, but not others, for his art.
It is apparently Robert Mugabe's
intention to render political theatre
invisible in today's Zimbabwe. So
Mhlanga turned the idea against him with
what he calls "invisible theatre".
He took unknown actors into shopping
malls to act out scenes and interact
with the public. Sometimes, after the
actors had moved on, the public were
still debating. But eventually, even
these guerrilla performances came under
the scrutiny of spies in the crowd.
I asked Mhlanga how old he is. It was
the only question he refused to
answer, stroking his white beard and telling
my Dictaphone that he is "an
old man". It struck me that he was enduring a
warped existence that might
come from the darkest recesses of Franz Kafka's
imagination.
Posters for his plays are torn down. Stories appear in
newspapers painting
him as an enemy of the people. Secret policemen let it
be known that they
are looking for him. How? They visit his home in the
knowledge he is not
there so the word will get out. They question
neighbours, market traders and
actors about him, so he will soon learn they
are on his trail. "Then I have
a choice," he says. "Do I stay and maybe die,
or do I run for the border?"
He could go into exile, and yet he decides
to stay and fight with the only
weapon he has: the pen. One time, detained
at the central police station, he
decided that if he was going to jail he
would start an outreach programme to
bring theatre into prisons. He was
released, but started the outreach
programme all the same.
Mhlanga's
international reputation is now his best defence. Whenever he is
brought in
for questioning, the news spreads like wildfire and the outcry
soon brings
about his release. There is now effectively a ban on his work
except in a
village where he got himself elected councillor.
Just as the Market
Theatre in South Africa held up a mirror to apartheid, so
Mhlanga believes
in the power of theatre to change Zimbabwe. He says: "Art
is most important
of all. With the news you only get one version of events.
Art is the best
way of telling the rest of the world what is happening."
And inevitably,
every play currently performed in Zimbabwe crackles with
political
significance. "You can't get more political than Shakespeare, who
wrote
about kings," Mhlanga says. "But even when you tell a joke in the
street,
that is political. When there is so much going on, everything is
political."
I wished I had a camera when he got up and showed me his
impression of
Mugabe descending the stairs from a plane, dancing nimbly and
preening his
jacket. The urban myth has it that the president flies to China
before his
birthday every year to be drained of all his blood, then
replenished with
the blood of the young.
We were talking in Pretoria
on the eve of Jacob Zuma's inauguration as South
African president. We
agreed that, for all their country's problems, South
African journalists and
writers enjoy freedoms that Mhlanga can only dream
about.
Finally,
after an hour and a half, I stopped recording and wished him well.
Mhlanga
was about to head to London, where last year he won the inaugural
Orient
Global Freedom to Create prize, which honours the role of the arts in
promoting human rights.
I thought about South Africa's own recent
struggle as I climbed past statues
and war memorials in the grounds of the
Union Buildings. The crowds roared
and whistled as Zuma was sworn in. Then I
looked down and felt in my pocket.
My Dictaphone had gone, liberated by a
light-fingered thief. My conversation
with Mhlanga had gone with it. It was
not, I hoped, an augury at the
inauguration.